Best or Worst Fog Story

What is your best or worst Fog Story.

Mine was several years ago I went fishing one morning in Big Lake (Calcasieu) south of Lake Charles, La. I had launched at Hebert’s Landing and made a 4 mile run to the washout. Around 9 am a south breeze kicked up off of the gulf and a heavy sea fog rolled in and I didn’t have a compass. This was the days before GPS. There was one other boat near me so I idled over to talk to them. I asked them where they had launched and they said Hebert’s. I asked them if they had a compass. The two men looked at one another and said, “Me shay, don’t need one. Follow us”

The driver got behind the homemade steering wheel while the other one picket up one of his rods, cut the bait off and started letting line out behind the boat. The driver sort of lined up where we were with which way he wanted to go and hit the gas. The other guy had let out about 75 yds. line and was holding the rod straight up over the driver’s head. We ran 4 miles across the lake, thru a pea soup fog and came out exactly at Hebert’s landing. When I asked how the H*^# did they do that; they said:
“Aim the boat where you want to go; let the line out behind the boat and hold it over the center, if you start to turn one way or the other the line will drift to that side of the boat. Simply keep the line trailing directly behind the boat.”

Best advice I have ever gotten on the water.

I was fishing on Lake Barkley one morning and ran (slowly) 4-5 miles in really thick stuff. I got stopped just north of the 68/80 bridge and fished for maybe 10 minutes and heard the unmistakable hull slap of an Allison hauling A**. When he got right where I could just make out the boat he hit a floating log running 90+. I motored over to him to find him still holding the steering wheel shaking. As the motor flipped up and forward the mount bolts pulled through the hull. The motor was hanging half on and half off the back of the boat. I ask him what he was thinking to be running that fast in the fog. He said he had a good GPS. I then asked if he GPS told him that the lake was full of floating logs after a hard rain!!!!

Still makes me want to have new boat owners take an IQ test before they can drive off in their new boat.

First time on Bob Sandlin and it was a the last day of a 2 day roadrunner tourney and only half a day.launched at the state Park and couldn't see 5 ft in front of you.managed to find a few coves near the bridge and ended up with a nice limit.i would make a cast and troll alittle for the first 3 hrs making sure I wasnt going hit anything.
I love fishing in the Fogg

Been out on Monticello MANY times when the early morning fog formed and you couldn't see past the front of the boat. The scary thing was not being lost, it was hearing boats on plane somewhere in the fog. Like sound underwater sound really travels in that thick air! Scary being on the water with idiots playing Russian Roulette....with me!

Lake welsh I had a triton plow into the trees about twenty yards from the front of my boat needless to say needed a new set of undies .

Next day pour guy in a ranger hit the old telephone pole out by the rock island.

Squaw creek I was fishing a point ( community hole) and I could here guys talking so I new I was fishing close to another boat . Didn't realize how close until a large Zara spook landed on the front deck with me!

Got caught in a fog bank on the north end of Palestine once. Got on the trolling motor real quick and got behind some timber to protect myself from other boats who thought they knew where they were. Yep, they're out there alright.

Fayetteville county on a cold winter day, that fog gets pretty thick, left the ramp at about half throttle trying to be careful, slowed down when we got close to a spot and almost go run down by a buddy in another boat from behind. They couldn't see us stopped, idling until the last second, good thing he cut right then left hard which allowed the boat turn at a sharper angle somehow, we got swamped from the wave but that's it...lucky day for us and him.

fished a tournament on the Ohio River in the Fall many years ago...i was no-boat, and my partner was running in the fog about 45 mph when I smacked him on the arm and said i don't like this lets pull over and fish along the bank till this lifts, he pulled over and dropped the trolling motor to head to the bank and out of the quiet we heard water pushing - a big river barge was coming at us in the fog and if we didn't shut down and head to the bank we'd of gone under that barge !!!... I don't run in the fog anymore !!!

Best story,
cruising slowly through heavy fog across a lake when I got that instinct feeling (you know the one) I should try this one spot, a rock jetty, that I hadn't hit in years. I make my turn and venture slowly through the fog toward my spot. As I approach the spot I am idling directly toward what looks like Daisy Duke on the jetty, with a spinning rod in her hand, it must have been a good 500 yard walk for here to be at that spot. Thought I might have past through some type of black hole and ended up in heaven. Follow your instincts, just sayin!

haha thats a funny one!!

Left the ramp at idle one morning in a tournament and about 20-30 min later saw the boat ramp in front of me. Somehow went out thinking I was going straight and made a big circle.

Fished a tournament on Ray Hubbard a few years back in January, we had a warm front come through and it was in the mid 70's before day break. The water was in the mid 40's to low 50's, this along with high humidity caused a rather thick fog.

We had planned to make around a 8 mile run or so where I had been on a some decent fish. We made it like 500 yards and heard other boats running on pad so we decided to double back near the launch area and we ended up winning the tournament right there.

Funniest part is it started pouring rain around 11 am and we already had our fish we planned on weighing, so we pulled in an empty boat slip at one of the marinas and sat there for 3 hours watching others fish in a very hard rain.

Fished two tournaments in my life that it was still almost as fogy at weight-in as the beginning. Both were the same weather conditions with thunder and occasional light rain turning to sleet. One was on Lake Spence in March and the other on Possum Kingdom in Oct.. Won both on the Orange Halloween Spinner Bait.

Fished the same tourney on Hubbard as Doug. We idled in circles a while since the GPS was not registering and after 30-40 minutes we ended up at the rocks on 30 when we were trying to get to the jetty by Captains Cove. Turned out pretty well in the first ten minutes when I catch a 3 lber. As my partner is getting it out of the net and putting it in the livewell I catch an 8. Only 2 fish of the day to cash a check.

Flying a mission off the USS Constellation in the Gulf of Alaska in 1986, my F-14 was first down the chute. The weather was reported right at minimums - 200' ceiling and half mile visibility. As we let down I asked if the Landing Signal Officer (LSO) wanted our landing light on as it makes it easier to see the plane through the fog. The LSO said no. As we approached 3/4 mile (12-18 seconds from touchdown) from the ship where we should be able see it visually we still could not see it. I told my pilot to fly the needles (instruments) and I would continue to look over his left shoulder for the visual landing aid (meatball). We continued our approach and I finally called the ball indicating we had visually acquired the ship. The time that lapsed from me calling the ball to our plane touching down was six seconds. As we came to a stop the LSO called for all the other planes approaching the ship to turn their landing lights on. As it turns out, none of the other aircraft made it aboard due to the fog. They all diverted to Elmendorf AFB and spent the entire day and evening drinking beer and having fun.

The moral of the story - when it's foggy it's safer and more fun to stay home and drink beer or coffee.

I was fishing Lake Arrowhead in Wichita Falls, TX on May 27th 2007. Showed up at the lake at zero dark thirty...first one at the ramp. I had planned to run to one of my favorite spots on the lake, but the fog was so thick that you could barely see your hand in front of your face. So I played it safe and just ran down a bank line by the launch. About 200 yards from the launch, I heard bass busting on top. A couple of times it sounded like someone threw a boulder in the water. I picked up a Spook, and a toad immediately destroyed it. It was on a long cast, so it was by far the best fish fight that I've ever had. The fish ended up weighing 10.30. When the sun came up, the day stayed heavily cloudy and I ended up catching what would have been a 25lb stringer, but unfortunately it wasn't a tourney. Best fishing day of my life!

In the days before GPS and without a compass..My partner and I were fishing the backside of Pringle Lake on Matagorda Island. We had our limit of nice trout and were wading to catch our limit of reds when the fog came in off the gulf.. Ouch!! Finding the boat was bad enough but the trip back to POC was a real trip. We were running a 16 ft Shoalwater tunnel hull with the motor mounted as high as it would go.We left the the back of Pringle Lake twice only to wind up back where we started near an old duck blind 5 minutes later. You got it..The motor was mounted so high we would run in a circle. We finally decided we could run the "great circle" all the way around Matagorda Bay. We ran as shallow as we could keeping the shoreline in sight when ever possible. We only got lost 3 times and made the normal 30 minute trip back in 3 1/2 hours. Yes, we both a compass on Monday. Call that young and dumb.. when we were in our 20's we all are super man... LOL
1Fisher77316

This scares me to this day - My brother and I were fishing 10 miles off of Key West in my 17' boat. We were drifting with our lines out, in absolute pea soup fog. In the distance we heard a fog horn, and thought perhaps it was the Coast Guard warning boaters to be careful since fog is not that common there. The horn sound got closer and closer. We thought if we see a boat, we'll just move. Then, about 100 yards out we saw a white object, about 10' tall coming towards us. It looked like a charter fishing boat. Then suddenly, a huge black shadow appeared in front of us. A gigantic Chinese freighter was bearing right down on us. The white object was the wake the ship was pushing up in front. I dove for the controls, turned the key, nothing. Don't panic my brother said. On the second try the motor started and I gunned it. The freighter was so close by then that it ran over our lines. We looked straight up and saw several members of the crew shaking their fists at us. That fog horn was their warning to us as they were too big to turn quickly enough. My brother and I still talk about it.

1980's Fork Bell branch, runs east to west 9am fog.
Had to wait till sunset to find my way out.

Other people scare me in the fog, I refuse to fish main lake stuff when the fog is thick. Cause I know people are running based on their GPS.

Me too.

First time to Monticello. One cold night in December and we get to the ramp about midnight. Of course you can't even see the end of the ramp. As we're launching Jerry Dean (Honey Hole) and another guy pull up and launch. They were headed to where we wanted to go so we asked if we could follow them. Jerry said "sure, come on!" He took off like he was shot out of a cannon. We didn't make it 100 yards before we had to shut down cuz we couldn't see his anchor light any more. That was a long idle to the promised land

We also idled in the fog that day and went in circles a couple times.. Man it was THICK! There were a couple boats that were flying in the fog however. I won't mention any names Vince! Same thing on Cypress at our Championship one year. We are idling and a boat flies by us on plane... Scary!

T-bend late 70's. Fishing a tournament out of Flying bridge in the spring. We got to our fishing spot on 1215 when a total white out fog came up. I could barely see my partner standing in the back of the boat. About an hr. later we heard a motor idling toward us from the main lake. It got close enough we could here the men talking and it was obvious they were totally lost. Over the next 3 hrs. they would come close only to drift away (circling). Finally around 11 am the fog started to lift slightly and the boat came close again. Only they saw us this time. We heard one guy say look a boat, and the other said "yeah, well they are lost as we are because they are fishing in 35ft of water". I hollered back, we were sitting on EW14 boat lane and fishing in 10 ft. of water.
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They idled over an said we have been idling across the lake for the last 4 hrs. I told him "No, You have been circling for the last 4 hrs.". The driver swore he was not circling. One man asked me which direction was the bank. I pointed in the direction and said "Over there about 300 yds." They left, idling off in the fog.

About 20 min. later they came idling back toward us from another direction(Circling again). This time the driver had to admit he was completely turned around. I told him to use the Rod and Line trick (see original post). The did and set off. About 15 min. later we heard them screaming they had found land. My buddy and I laughed at this incident for years.

Nothing life threatening because like a lot of you, I refuse to run in fog after I had this incident. But I did have a morning at Rayburn in late 90's that reminded me how stupid one can look without a compass or GPS. I took off of work one Friday and launched at the Caney boat ramp (Back when Caney was nice and the Govt. actually still took care of the place!) I had caught some nice fish on the flats between Boggy and The Forest the previous weekend and was determined to get back there. On any other day its a nice 10 minute run at 45-50 mph, but this particular morning saw fog as thick as I have ever seen anywhere. I was able to make it out to the little Caney point on the main lake with no problem. Once I rounded the point and head north/nw, I was sure I had the boat pointed in the right direction. Looking back, I know I should have just hugged the bank all the way to preachers, but being stupid, I put the boat on plane at about 30-35 mph. After about 5 minutes, I shut down in an area I just knew had to be the edge of the forest. The lake was about 5-6 foot low so I knew I would start seeing some stickups soon. WRONG! I never saw one stickup. I just kept idling. No sun, no wind, nothing. Appx an hour and half later, I FINALLY saw pine trees again and began fishing an area that I had no clue about. It was not until around 9:30 or 10 am that the fog finally lifted and I realized where I was, or at least I thought I was. I was convinced I was still on the main lake, wrong again. I was in the back of Veach Basin. Convinced I was still on the main lake, you can imagine me trying to put this puzzle together. Because in the fog, Veach is big enough to look like the main lake!! It wasnt until around 11 that morning that I actually saw the island and the stickups in the mouth of Veach that I knew where I was actually at. Quite a humbling experience.

When Fork still had all the standing timber in it I new if I could get back up in those forest that I would find fish that had never seen a artificial bait, so I put in at the bridge with my 12" john boat and trolling motor. After about an hour in there the fog and mist rolled in so thick you couldn't tell any direction. and it stayed. After about 3-4 hours I started trying to find my way out. Took me another 3 hours to find my way out of the trees. Nothing like being lost in the forest with a dying trolling motor battery.
Didn't get a bite the whole time either.

years ago before GPS and cellphones I lived in Greenville,Ms...one afternoon ,my son age 12 or so,an older guy and I were duck hunting across the Miss river from Greenville...we had launched in Greenville and were hunting across the river and 2-3 miles upstream...
late afternoon fog rolled in and within minutes it was too dense to see anything...the older fellow with me was a retired towboat pilot and we decided to get lined up on rock dike and try to run straight back across river...by this time darkness was setting in...we made two tries to hold the boat in a straight line and make it across but both times we ended up back on same bank....we could hear towboat engines running intermittently but couldn't tell if they were tied up or running in the fog....sometimes they did run in fog with their radar and biggest danger on Miss river is getting run over by a towboat......
we decided to tie the boat off and walk out...several miles through the woods with a rinky dink flashlight but finally made up to the levee...
there was a shotgun tenant house down at foot of levee and I thought they probably didn't have a telephone but maybe we could talk them into taking us to a phone down near the Greenville bridge...
to my surprise they not only had a princess phone but a color TV...and an truck that ran good enough to take us down to the Greenville bridge where one of our family came to pick us up.....needless to say,our families were much relieved that we were ok....got a buddy of mine to run me across the river the next morning and retrieve my boat....

Few years back fishing a tourney on Cedar Creek we were on plane to our first spot. It was in our "Big Bass tourney" phase so of course it was just breaking safelight. All of a sudden a wall of fog set in.... I get a really uneasy and ominous feeling. I decided to throttle down and just as we came off plane and just as I was about to tell partner to start looking for boats a boat came WOT about 20ft across our bow. They never saw us. Spooked us so bad it took us an hour just to get our wits back. That was the last big bass tourney we have ever fished...

Back before GPS we were trying to get from the ramp on Monticello directly across the lake as there was grass over there at the time. My friend headed that way and about 20 or so minutes later we ended right back at the ramp. He said "you want to try?" So I did and we ended up on the other side of the lake but to the right of the power plant...... A little better I guess....

Makes my story sound like a game of checkers.

Only managed to fish in the fog once. On Fairfield. It's was creepy quiet. Nothing scary. Just weird.

No alien spaceships...or lost ghost ships. Only danger was it was freezing cold and it was freezing to my carpet.

Many times in the old days drove in circles with the Super Skeeter at Monticello trying to idle back in from up in Blundell between the trees and bridge after midnight. You could here the power lines buzzing and when you got under them I swear they seemed to be dangling about 4 foot off the water.

Fishing Choke early one morning, wife and I launched at south shore. As soon as we got out in the lake, a super thick fog rolled in. We could hear boats running on pad so we idled closer to the bank and dropped the tm, and fished our way along the bank about 50 yards or so out. About that time, I heard some ducks flying past us followed by some very loud blasts of shotguns. We had no idea there were duck hunters there, and they had no idea we were there. We quickly made our presence known, and got the hell out of range in a hurry. Had to wait until about 10:00 for the fog to lift and the ducks to stop flying. Scary as hell.

Fished club tournament on Martin Creek one year.
Worst fog I'd ever seen on the lake.
My partner and I knew where we wanted to fish, but I couldn't see the bow light. Boats were milling around the ramp and taking off was out of the question.
THEN THE REASONING KICKED IN.
I figured I could keep the bank to my left, keep the dam to my left, go across to the opposite bank and turn right. Right?
As we were idling out of the ramp area, we could see the alternative(overflow ramp) on the left. Orange buoys on the left(good sign).
We idled on a little further and saw some more orange buoys.
I'm thinking they've added something else.
Then I saw the boat ramp. We'd come full circle and were back at the ramp.

Talk about feeling stupid.....
We wound up going right from the ramp and bumped through all the stumps.
The moral of the story, buy a fishfinder with GPS mapping....

+1 same thing here. Real scary.

we were doing Eagle watch at Lake Fork on the second Saturday in January about three years ago. Because it was so foggy we rode with another group in their pontoon. Our area of the lake was the west side across from Little Caney up until the 515 west bridge.

So we left Oak Ridge headed for Chaney Branch. We went pretty far and it was pretty thick and I said to the fellow driving I don't recognize that island. Here it was the island near Oak Ridge. We had circled back and didn't know it.

So we started out again and down near the dam we nearly ran into the dam. Continuing on our way I told him we have turned around again and he said I was crazy. But we had just crossed out own wake. The fog never lifted and we never saw an eagle.

We did find Oak Ridge after a while.

Falcon March 2014. Fog was so thick we couldn't see 20 yards. Eased out from the ramp and idled about 1 mile and pulled up to some brush just out from the shore line. 3rd cast, 1st fish- 11.3. before we left we had 6 or 7 fish over 6#'s with a couple of 9s.

I've crossed my own wake more times than I want to admit in my younger years. I can't drive straight in the fog for the life of me. Best to stay close to shore until it lifts.

I'm in the ICW years ago with this ol' boy who couldn't hear very well in his old bomber-style stick steer narrow 15 footer. There was a little fog before dawn, but after sunup it went slap nuts to near zero visibility. We had been tearing 'em up in the boat cut to East Bay across from Stingaree, and somehow we drifted into the middle of the ICW without realizing it.

I got a real funny feeling and thought I heard and felt something funny. Suddenly a barge exploded out of the fog bearing down on us dead center. I'm yelling at the guy to lay some droppings or get off the pot, and he's just pretty much standing there going "huh?".

I reached up and started the boat, threw it in gear and hit the throttle hard. He had the good sense to grab the stick and barely steer us out of harms way. At one point it seemed we were under the front of the barge as we scooted out around the corner. I could have struck a match on the hull. After almost being swamped by the wake, we regained our composure and I realized I had a keeper trout on the whole time.

After that, plus one more terrifying misadventure on Toledo Bend, I quit riding in other people's boats.