The horror, the horror

Back in 2008 I was living in Port Aransas. I decided to go flounder gigging alone one night. The weather forcast was a strong front from the north around midnight. I told my wife that I was going to go and would come back in about 10 PM, before the front came in. I launched the flounder boat and headed to the light house area. I worked the Lydia Ann shoreline by the Light House all the way to where the Lydia Ann dog legs to the direction of Rockport. At that point I decided that I would have just enough time to cover most of the Saint Jo Island shoreline back toward Port A. I crossed the Lydia Ann and started working back, I had covered about 100 yards and I felt a cool breeze hit me in the back, it was 9:00 PM. I looked back and the front was coming straight at me. I kicked the fan motor wide open to get back to deep enough water to start the outboard. By the time I got the outboard started the front had caught me and the waves in Lydia Ann were the biggest I had ever seen and here I was in a 16 ft Weldcraft Jon boat. The waves were big and building larger as I was trying to make my way to the Port A Harbor, scared to death I might add. In my panic I was taking the shortest bearing to the harbor without thinking about what I was about to encounter at the intersection of Lydia Ann, Aransas Shrimp Boat Channel and the Corpus Christi Channel. At this intersection there is no one direction of the waves, it was just a chopped up mess of water that there was no way to pick a route through, and there I was right in the middle of it. I remember thinking " THIS IS IT!! MAY THE LORD BE WITH ME. I made it through the chop and across the channel and into the harbor, I looked down and I was standing in water well over ankle deep with the bilge pump running, I did not even remember turning it on. I got back to the house and my wife said " did you do any good?" I said yes Baby it was a wonderful experience. To this day I have not told her the whole story.

After dark that must have been scary as hell.

Yes It was! It was cold and if I had gone into the water, there was no one out there to come to my aid and I dont even want to think about where the tide flow would have taken me. It would have been Katy Bar The Door.

Not really a "brush with death" but probably my most harrowing experience was while fishing with my Dad and Brother in a rented skiff off Catalina Island in Southern California. The weather was beautiful when we headed out and we were having a great time catching all sorts of fish. We were quite a distance from the boat rental place when the wind picked up suddenly from 0 to 30-40 knots.

The chop was too much for the small boat and I was afraid we were going to capsize if we just sat there so I pointed the boat into the waves and gunned the ~20hp engine. We would go up the face of a wave and slam down hard on the water behind it. This would not be such a big deal except my Dad, who was in his late 60's at the time had a bad back and every time we crashed down on the water he would almost pass out from pain. He was literally begging me to stop but I knew we couldn't or things would get worse in a hurry. We probably went 2 miles like this until we were finally in the lee of the island and the water calmed down.

Other than that, I've been pretty lucky. I've seen some folks fall into some cold water. One of my buddies kayaks basically sunk about a mile offshore because he forgot to put in his drain plug . . but nothing really major in 10 years of kayak fishing oceans, rivers and lakes.

That water between Catalina and Santa Monica, all the way down to Long Beach, can change in an instant.
I once made a run from LB to Catalina on a perfect bluebird and calm morning, had lunch in Catalina, left under the same perfect conditions when about 1/4 of the way back to Long Beach hit a pea soup fog bank and 8' rollers all the rest of the way.

Not in any imminent danger of dying -- but about the spookiest nerve wracking thing that's every happened to me on the water.

I2D

Twak in about 85 or 86 .trolling at west end of the dam when me and pard saw a tornado comming from the
southeast. we hauled but to the ramp but there were 4 to 6 boats ahead of us. around the point ther was covered boatslips with a few empty . we tied up in the middle ten miniuts wind and rain hit. In another ten it stated ripping sheets of the roof. stopped about two stalls from us . back at the ramp a new Ranger had been destroyed
on the rocks and a large tri hull had been lifted up andset down 3 feet high and ten feet from the water. about 20 of us helped put in the water. Ibelive 2 or 3 people died that day.

A reel brush with death! True story. Talk about hair raising. 2 years ago on Lake Fort Phantom Hill a friend of mine and me were trolling for hybrids. I got what I thought was hung up but suddenly and slowly whatever I hooked released so I started reeling and whatever I had hooked started coming in. Suddenly it let go and on the end of my hook was a long black hair extension. When I pulled up the the ramp there were Game Wardens, Sheriffs Officers and the Lake Patrol at the ramp. When I enquired why they were their they said they were going to drag the lake for a drowning victim on the north shore by the park. I asked about the victim and they described her and I asked about her hair and they said she was african american. I told them and what I had hooked on the other side of the lake and the body was quickly recovered. Still creeps me out today a little and the game wardens to this day refer to me as the guy who caught the hair and located that drown victim.

Should have been on Lake Granbury 2 years ago when the tornado rolled in...
We were lucky to make it to the boat ramp before the baseball size hail hit.
Other's weren't that lucky and were caught on the lake and had to take shelter under
boat docks... It was wild...

I've had way too many close calls. I had a 17' King Fisher with a hot little 150 when I was in high school. One time out by myself running wide open motor trimmed all the way up across Nocona and came around the big point in the middle of the lake and for whatever reason it didn't register that I'd been on the protected side of it and it was nasty nasty nasty on the other side. About 2 seconds into 3 or 4 foot rollers we went airborn, like James Bond out of a canal. Thankfully it didn't blow over backwards or come down nose first and once I realized what'd happened and everyting was still intact, I turned it around and headed back home.

Another one while maybe in the 8th grade or a freshman on a weekday after school, while still in "street clothes." We'd just unloaded the jetski and dad told me just to take it to the house, no farting around. No big deal, just a little cruse across the lake. Well at the same point as the story above, running wide open I hadn't noticed the only boat out on the lake the day was the lone houseboat out there and had just gone behind the point. Well about the time I saw it, I came up on it's wake and didn't know what to think. That dumb jetski flew up in the air and when it came down I smashed my face into the handlebars and over the front I went. Tennis shoes, jeans and all, no life jacket. Luckily it didn't knock me out and after I kicked my shoes off I swam back and made it home. I never told the folks what happened but I made dang sure if I ever got on that thing I had a life jacket on.

Early in my marriage the wife and I were taking a Sunday afternoon nap after church. I woke up, she did not. I hooked up the boat and went fishing. I had not mentioned I was going fishing. She had no idea where I was until I pulled back into the driveway.

It was a near death experience. How the hell should I know it was her birthday?

I was on fork 3 years ago. Way back up in a creek by the dam. Lots of wood and something you can't just fire up the big motor and run out of. all of sudden my BIL and I hear what sounds like a freight train coming. we look behind us and the trees are bending sideways. straight line winds coming in at 60+ mph. we threw out poles in the bottom of boat and I nailed it coming out of that slew. Prayers went up that we didn't hit a stump or timber and we puckered up and went. by the time we got to oak ridge we were in the middle of a heavy downpour and the wind was blowing fierce. loading was a beotch but we got it done.

Not as young now, not as foolish, either.

In 2002 on lake Whitney me and my son were striper fishing , I had a skeeter CC and the wind picked up and it was getting pretty ugly . We hung in there for awhile still catching fish. We had the lake to ourselves as everyone else was smarter except for one other person that day who Iam sure was glad that we were to stupid to leave like everyone else. My son said lets get going. As I was putting everything away my son yelled hey someone lost there jet ski. I got my binoculars out and told him to keep looking as I headed the boat into the wind from where the jet ski drifted from. Sure enough in the middle of the lake was a 75 yr old man treading water. When I got to him he was so tired he couldnt talk and my son jumped in to push him up over my gunnel into the boat. He was fine after he caught his breath and we took him to his sons who just realized he was missing and in a total panic. I have had my share of bad weather close calls but was glad I stayed out that day.

Kenner Bay boat with the motor partially tilted up from being parked in shallow water. Captain lost his grip on the wheel as we were nearing top speed. motor jack-knifed boat spun very abruptly throwing the captain out and me across the console. Kill switch was not attached to the captain but by the grace of God as I fell across the console grabbing for anything I somehow hit the kill switch.. If that motor had not been killed the boat would have circled back right over the overboard captain. He almost got run over as it was from the momentum. Standing up in a fast moving boat is kind of crazy IMHO..