Pucker Factor

[ollie]

What's yours? Watch this video of a fisherman in Texas and tell me he wasn't skeert for life! Be careful out on the water.

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/excursions/post/harrowing-moment-for-bass-anglers-as-lightning-nearly-strikes-boat/

[Feathers and Fins]

Ya that would be a pucker factor of 10.

[ollie]

That video got me to wondering though. Many times I have been on the stream and a storm approaches with lightning. Where do you go? I mean if your in a canoe or yak you get off the water, but then where? On the gravel bar doesn't make any sense because your in the open. Under a tree is about the only other option and they say that is one of the worst places to be. So where are you suppose to go if there isn't any other shelter around you? BTW my pucker factor was over 10!

[bfishn]

I can tell you where not to hide... under a bridge.

The bridge did fine at keeping me dry. As the storm crept away, I pulled anchor and fished the bridge columns, staying close in case it returned. Suddenly the hair on my arms and neck stood up, and I dropped my rod and covered my head instinctivly. Under my right arm I saw an arc as big as my arm snake down the nearest bridge column, a mere 30' away. Then the boom that gave me permanent hearing damage. I was sore all over for a couple days, and have had constant ringing in both ears ever since. I figure it just wasn't my time yet.

And the bridge was concrete.

[KCRIVERRAT]

Metal railing or an old iron bridge? Or maybe lights on the bridge? Or... if it was an old bridge how about exposed rebar? Glad you survived that scare bud!

I can tell you where not to hide... under a bridge.

The bridge did fine at keeping me dry. As the storm crept away, I pulled anchor and fished the bridge columns, staying close in case it returned. Suddenly the hair on my arms and neck stood up, and I dropped my rod and covered my head instinctivly. Under my right arm I saw an arc as big as my arm snake down the nearest bridge column, a mere 30' away. Then the boom that gave me permanent hearing damage. I was sore all over for a couple days, and have had constant ringing in both ears ever since. I figure it just wasn't my time yet.

And the bridge was concrete.

[Feathers and Fins]

On a Lake I find the nearest dock and get in it till the storm passes, really no reason with all the tech today to not have good warning time to hide on a lake. River or creek I find a Bluff and get out of the boat and on the bank under the bluff-line to stay the lowest point. But truth be told If bad weather is forecast I wouldn't be on a river or creek period its asking for trouble if flash flooding happens.

[wc1063]

Scary!!

[Geoff]

I can tell you where not to hide... under a bridge.

The bridge did fine at keeping me dry. As the storm crept away, I pulled anchor and fished the bridge columns, staying close in case it returned. Suddenly the hair on my arms and neck stood up, and I dropped my rod and covered my head instinctivly. Under my right arm I saw an arc as big as my arm snake down the nearest bridge column, a mere 30' away. Then the boom that gave me permanent hearing damage. I was sore all over for a couple days, and have had constant ringing in both ears ever since. I figure it just wasn't my time yet.

And the bridge was concrete.

I can sympathize with you on this one. I was standing in my kitchen window at my parents house, same thing...hair starts to stand up on edge then just white light, no sounds for a second or two then just crippling loudness and complete overall confusion. Lighting hit the laundry pole in our backyard about 25'-30' from where I was standing. Definitly not something worth experiencing.

[podum]

There is no easy answer as to where to go. I'm with F&F on not getting surprised. First line of defense is my Iphone with a real time radar app. Get out beforehand. If that doesn't work, a swale, low area, undercut, cedar trees that are much lower than nearby oaks or sycamores...

As for pucker factor ... I fish alone often and in places that are remote. Every time I misstep, slip on a rock, etc.. I think about a broken leg/ankle. I've been fortunate, but continue to get a higher "pucker" factor as I get older. I now carry a survivor kit in my backpack (it's packed in a metal water bottle and is based on post on this forum). I also send a "general vicinity" email to at least two people when I get where i'm going.

[LarrySTL]

A concrete bridge still has an awful lot of metal in it; the rebar if nothing else.

I've been caught out a few times, once on Truman a million years ago, and once on the Ohio River just above Smithland Lock. On Truman there was no real good place to go, so I picked the nearest gentle sloped cove, got way in the back of it, threw out an anchor, turned on both bilge pumps and hopped out of the boat and hunkered down on shore maybe 25 feet from some small trees, and not close to any tall ones. Right or wrong, my theory was that I wanted to give the lightning something other than me to hit. Beyond that, nothing dramatic happened.

On the Ohio, I was maybe a mile back in a swampy looking shallow creek with lots of tall dead trees. The wind kicked up a little, I looked around, and saw that there were two sets of dark low clouds, moving fast and about to come together at a 90 degree angle. I got, fast, to the mouth of the creek by which time it was raining way hard, I was in a rip rap chute maybe 50 feet wide in about 10 feet of water, watching two tall trees, the first 100 yards or so from me getting hit by lightning. The second tree was closer, 2 or 3 feet thick and it just dissappeared into toothpicks when it got hit. I was near the main river, but at a spot where it is a mile or more wide, the channel in the middle of the river, and real big stump fields outside the channel for a mile or so above the lock. 18 miles from the ramp, rough wind, big lightning, tall dead trees. Too much wind for an anchor to hold the boat, nothing on the back to tie it to, no trees except those tall dead isolated ones. I ended up laying down in the bottom of the boat, both bilge pumps going, watching the water swirl into the floor drains, reaching up every minute or so and touching the button on the trolling motor as briefly as I could to keep the boat off the rocks. Bout 20 or 30 minutes of that fun til it blew through. I bought a decent weather radio as soon as I got back to StL and dont think I have been in a bass boat without it since then.

Skeery stuff.