What Is Your Worst Ever Fishing Trip?

[Burnsy]

I was replying to another article and it got me thinking there must be some bloody funny stories out there.

One of my worst was a trip to Glenbawn Dam a few years back.

We get back to the ramp after a successul day at about 3pm on Sunday and find the trailer has a flat. No Spare so we bludged a compressor and pump the tyre up, all good we head for home back in Newcastle. About half hour outside Maitland bang the trye goes dead flat. 5pm Sunday, middle of frigin no were...no spare not good. So I get to sit in the boat now disconnected on the side of the road why my mates go to find a spare. 1 hour of having the piss taken out of me by every smart bastard driving past, eventually I lose the plot and start casting lures around to stir up some more entertainment from the passing cars. My mates return at about 6.30pm with a can of finey leak crap. We load the tyre up with goey foam crap and off we go... 10 mins on the tyre explodes into bits... We get the trailer to a servo, and a mate and I spend another 3 hours waiting for Big Dave (Boat Owner) to drive home and get a spare off his box trailer. Big Dave finally turns up about 11.30pm on Sunday night with a spare. It has four bolt holes instead of five and doesn't fit... after a tirade of abuse and frustration we do the only thing good mates can do in the situation... roll around the servo pissing ourselves with laughter for the next 10 minutes. In desperation we raid our bank accounts and make him call the NRMA tow truck before he starts modifing the boat trailer to take the box trailer wheel. I got back to Sydney at 3am the next day...

OK, lets see who can top that.

Burnsy

[stevefish]

Ok try this

Fly to darwin with the trip of a lifetime planned.

meet an alleged mate (longer story) and travel west for a few hours, turn right head to drysdale station, refuel, they say "do you have enough water?"

"yeah, well be right"

turn left and head to one of the most isolated places in oz, arriving about 8 hours later.

Camped in a beautiful place for a few days watching the fires get closer and the water get lower, catching the odd golden snapper ang gt and a macktuna i could have caught in sydney, not much else.

min temps were about 36 to tops of 44 or so, late november and the campsite was in the sun and out of the wind.

Soon we start running out of water so go searching for it all one night to no avail, eventually scored some from a guided fishing camp on an island about 20 k away.

watching the bushfires getting closer.

getting eaten by flies, mozzies and especially sandflies constantly.

go fishing again for not much but at least in the boat its only about 39 degrees and humid as hell.

i braved the crocs and slept in the boat rather than on the hot ground which was starting to affect my health, while watching the fires get closer to camp.

the next morning we decided it was time to bite the bullet and move the camp down to the low tide line and torch the bush around us rather than wait for it to hit us when we didnt want it.

Travelling out a couple of days later and near get flooded in by the breaking wet season.

the trip continued unsuccessfully for another week and a half to derby/broome area with similar fortune before the long drive back to darwin.

Bloody great.

[Burnsy]

Here's another one.

Many moons ago a mate and I decided we would get a topographic map and walk 5km into a remote river at Barrigton Tops. No tracks, straight through the scrub.

We bail from Nelson Bay at about 3am drive 2 hours up there, stash the car in the bush and set off.

The plan was to follow a series of ridge lines that looked to be reasonalbe grade down to the river. We head off, easy going for the first 1km. Then we need to cross a gully and get to another ridge. The fun starts, an hour later I am throwing my back pack through bastard blackberry bushes, crawling behind it in the pissing down rain. I end up totally caught up having to get my mate to free me, good short cut that one.

Down the next ridge we go, about 2 hours into it my mate says, "My fly rod case feels light, opens it up and finds he has left his only fly rod at home"... excellent.

We get to the river about 4 hours later, soaked, bloody and stuffed, go to get out our wet clothes and discover about 50 leeches have taken up residence.

We set up camp, start a fire, get rid of the leeches, put our clothes and boots near the fire and wander down to a couple of good pools 75 yards down stream to have a fish... sharing one fly rod between us. The fish are there and big for the area. Caught a couple of rainbow trout and head back to camp... me mate says "Geez the fire is burning well" Yep my boots are burning really well, completely stuffed, no shoes. I take to them with a file to and restore them.

Next day, after much piss taking about my boots, the same thing happens to my mates boots. So, 5km's from nowear in rugged country with a bastard walk out and boots that really are not fit for much more than conversion to thongs... excellent.

One funny part, a few km's down river the next day we come across a thumper rainbow in a small pool. It wil not eat a fly so we device a cunning plan to build a dam out of rocks around it and catch it by hand. Dam is built mate walks into the pool about 10ft round with a tiny scoop net walks up to the 1kg rainbow trout and it shoots straight into the net. 1 in a million shot.

The walk out the following day was evil... took us almost all day, about 100 leeches later and we were back at the car.

Memorable expedition.

[kingpig]

Just thought I would add to the list!

Some time ago my brother and I decided we were going to Lake Keepit to try and catch yellow belly.

Two days beforw we left we started to catch the baits we thought we need. We caught crickets, worms, small gudgens and fresh water shrimp. Packed his VW beale and headed off.

We got about 3Kl from the lake fairly late and decided to camp and travel the rest of the way early the next morning. After pitching a tent tried to go sleep when a fox started yapping close by. This and other stuff meant no sleep so after about 5 hrs we got back up. When we got out of the tent there was a very thick fog so we started driving towards the lake slowly but went off the road on a bend, through a fence, into a paddock flatenning two tyres in the process.

Change one try with the spare and filled the other with fineleak ( spray in foam stuff) and heading to Gunnadah to get the tyres fixed.

On the way back a fuel line came off the cabi of the beatle and a fire started. We stoppd the car and whithout thinking to long through the contents of one of our bait buckets onto it to put it out. Of course there was damage to the electrical system and the car would not go. Got the beatle towed back the Gunnadah to an auto electrician. We went to the pub.

When we came back in about an hour here was the auto electrician sitting at the back of the beatle picking all these red cooked shrimp from the engine and putting them in a small pile next to him. When he looked up he said I hope you brought me a beer because these prawn look alright.

Weekend ended without even getting to see Lake Keepit.

A few month latter we tried again. Fished hard for a day without a touch. The next morning we started again with the same result. A guy came and fished about 50 yards from us and within 5 min had a nice fish and continued to catch fish regularly. I asked him what he was using and he told me cooked prawns. I thought bull.....! But he showed me and he was actually using cooked prawns.

He explained that there were large fresh water shrimp in the lake and the yellow belly eat them after they die and turned red.

Goes to show we almost got it right the first time by shear ar..!

Cheers All

[Guest danielinbyron]

geenius topic... by far not my worst but i looked pretty funny walking down tallows beach 6.30am last week having climbed around from the cape with a rooster popper lodged in my kneck......just a little to close to the jugular to remove alone without a mirror...as it turned out it was just under the skin but i didn't know that hurt like hell..all apologies to the rescue party i woke up to collect my gear and get me to a doc etc... we ripped it out on the beach went back and shared my rod...... and yeah we caught fish..

[harold]

This did not happen to me, but to my lifelong mate Craig (to save him embarrassment i wont put his sir name here). Craig had moved up to Runaway Island (out of Surfers) and he had bought himself a 28 foot Bertram to go fishing in. He went out and was catching nothing so after an hour he decided to drop into the pub at sanctuary cove and have a counter lunch whilst waiting for the low tide to turn. He tied the boat up against the side of the wharf and in he went. He told me he had a couple of beers and a steak and was about to go when he ran into a couple of mates, they then had a few more beers and 3 hours went past, when he came out, and as he walked out onto the wharf he said he could see all these people looking down into the water and as he got closer he started to wonder where the Berty was. Seems Craig had tied the boat up on very short lines and the tide had risen a huge amount. When he looked down he said he could see his beloved Bertie sitting peacefully under the water. He said it was a very bad days fishing.

Edited February 19, 2006 by harold

[Guest madsmc]

My worst fishing trip was to Treachery Camp at Seals. A mate and I headed up for a week of and off the beach. All was looking good for the week, except for the dreaded red weed! It was everywhere we went! Luckily we had brought plenty of beer and JD so a good time was still had kicking back at the camp.

Worst single fishing session was off the rocks at One Mile beach up at Port Stephens one night when a big set came through and washed our feed of tailor into the drink and nearly claimed a few of us as well. Haven't been off the rocks at night since.

Worst accident was probably a stack I had on a dirt bike while racing my cousin around the block at his parents place. No helmet, and only light clothes make for a bit of a bloody mess.

Shane

[Guest fishrunner]

Mine would probably be the time I went fishing of seals ,

On 1 occasion Iwas out at big seal with 2 mates in a brooker v14(great lil boat), We had fished for bout 5 hrs and decided to head home and the throttle linkages broke just after starting the motor and had to take turns with out finger on the side of the motor just under a spinning flywheel in a n uncomfotabe position. that was not fun at all.

The immediate weekend after back at seals had been out all day and upon returning to no.2 beach to retrieve the boat my mate bought the car down forward torwards the bow and myself without really thinking tied it to the bullbar(instead of gettin him to turn round and go over the hitch as I normally would). Mate reverses and pulls of bullbar,- shit, .

We finally pull the boat away from the wash and proceed to put onto the trailer , Then the winck mount cracks and starts to come away from the drawbar,- can't winch boat onto trailer so we had to hollar for a few guy's standin round to come over and whilst they lifted the bow we slowly winched the trailer under the boat with the handwinch from the back of the car(4wd recovery gear). finallly success ,

Got it all back on the car and put the bullbar in the boat and back to the camping ground for a few cold beers , rest of the weekend was shore based.

cheers

[RestoreMaz]

I go to port hacking every saturday, and also take days off during the week, my worst time was geting this hook in my finger, and had to go to hospital to get it removed!!

[Guest Jewel]

NASTY!!!!!!

I do know how to get them out in the field........ but damn it scares the $#!^ out of most people!!!

Removeing a hook from various parts of the anatomy is a skill we should all know!

For that matter too many first aid courses is not nearly enough for what we do.... there are quite a range of nasty injuries that we may see in our chosen sport and should know how to handle.

Edited February 21, 2006 by Jewel

[stevefish]

This may be someone elses worst fishing trip.

i was fishing lbg at big beecroft head a few years back, while i was re-rigging/baiting a fella just along says quietly

"can you help me get this hook out of my lip"

"who me ya wot"

"i got a hook in my lip"

he had tied a knot and wet it in his mouth and pulled it tight at the same time, you can guess the rest.

i had a look,introduced myself, because there are thing strangers shouldnt do and started tooling around with this guys lips for a couple of minutes with no positive results.

his lip started getting pretty fat, i gave up, and he wandered back to currarong with a fat lip and a long shank no6 still attached.

i wish i knew what happened after that

[Burnsy]

It has been a while since my last post. But I had to share this one with you.

A few months back I was down at Cooma and decided to head up to Lake Eucumbene for a early session at Rushy Plains Bay. I drove in at 5.00am in the dark, got to where the water use to be... (dam level was at 34%). I got out of the 4wd, the ground was rock hard and there were tyre tracks. Was a bit icy, but never fear, follow the tyre tracks until I can get close to the water, that will save walking.

I follow the trye tracks for about 70 metres and the tryes start to spin a bit. Stuff that, whack it in low range and keep going... Forty meters later the surface gives and the 4wd starts spinning big time... bad! I get out it is about 1 degrees, still pretty dark. The 4wd has cracked through the surface layer and is sitting in slush. I spend the next two hours digging out ice from the wheels with my hands stuffing rocks, wood and what ever I can scrounge up underneath. I move the 4wd three times only to crack through the surface again and again. Its starting to look bad as the sun comes up I survey the situation and realise I have driven about 100 meters past the low waterline and cracked through the surface. Its now 8.30am. The misus and daughter are staying in a dodgy hotel in Cooma and I am suppose to pick them up at 9.30am. I am starting to think about getting some help now. No mobile reception, 10km to the main road. I remember a farmer I knew up at Frying Pan and decide to walk up to see if he is home. Upon seeing me he shakes his head, gives me a serve and after a bit of persuading agrees to come and help me in an hour. So I walk back to the car, about half way back I am rubbing my left hand and realise I have lost my wedding ring... Things are not looking to good. 10.00am the farmer comes down in his 4WD and promptly gets bogged trying to help me. We try to winch his 4wd out and it just digs in. His young bloke turns up on his motor bike and sets off home to get the tractor. About midday, he turns up in the tractor, gets his dads 4wd out but we still cannot reach mine. We end up getting hold of a long range 4wd recovery service from Adaminaby who gets lost trying to find us. At 1.30pm with three winch cables and a couple of snatch straps hooked up we winch the 4wd 100meters out to hard terra firma. I turn up at the hotel in Cooma to a rather cranky to put it midly... and my daughter (2year old) goes completely spastic when she sees the car covered in mud. So 6 hours late, $350 out of pocket for the recovery and without a wedding ring... I am pretty much in the shite... and I never even got my fishing rod out of the car.

On a better note I returned the following week with a metal detector, walked up to the bog site turned it on and found my wedding ring in 5 minutes flat... some dignity restored. Every day for the last 3 months my two year old now says. "Daddy get stuck in the mud" to every friggin person she speaks to...

Burnsy

[Guest danielinbyron]

great read.... GLAD YOU GOT THE RING BACK!!! that must of earnt a few ponits....

its funny when your under the pump , and things are going from bad to worse its easy to go into the mind set " THIS KIND OF THING COULD ONLY HAPPEN TO ME"... but when you look at these stories all stretched out on a page you see .. they happen to us all. The next step is to try and remember that while its happening ....

[Guest DV8]

It has been a while since my last post. But I had to share this one with you.

A few months back I was down at Cooma and decided to head up to Lake Eucumbene for a early session at Rushy Plains Bay. I drove in at 5.00am in the dark, got to where the water use to be... (dam level was at 34%). I got out of the 4wd, the ground was rock hard and there were tyre tracks. Was a bit icy, but never fear, follow the tyre tracks until I can get close to the water, that will save walking.

I follow the trye tracks for about 70 metres and the tryes start to spin a bit. Stuff that, whack it in low range and keep going... Forty meters later the surface gives and the 4wd starts spinning big time... bad! I get out it is about 1 degrees, still pretty dark. The 4wd has cracked through the surface layer and is sitting in slush. I spend the next two hours digging out ice from the wheels with my hands stuffing rocks, wood and what ever I can scrounge up underneath. I move the 4wd three times only to crack through the surface again and again. Its starting to look bad as the sun comes up I survey the situation and realise I have driven about 100 meters past the low waterline and cracked through the surface. Its now 8.30am. The misus and daughter are staying in a dodgy hotel in Cooma and I am suppose to pick them up at 9.30am. I am starting to think about getting some help now. No mobile reception, 10km to the main road. I remember a farmer I knew up at Frying Pan and decide to walk up to see if he is home. Upon seeing me he shakes his head, gives me a serve and after a bit of persuading agrees to come and help me in an hour. So I walk back to the car, about half way back I am rubbing my left hand and realise I have lost my wedding ring... Things are not looking to good. 10.00am the farmer comes down in his 4WD and promptly gets bogged trying to help me. We try to winch his 4wd out and it just digs in. His young bloke turns up on his motor bike and sets off home to get the tractor. About midday, he turns up in the tractor, gets his dads 4wd out but we still cannot reach mine. We end up getting hold of a long range 4wd recovery service from Adaminaby who gets lost trying to find us. At 1.30pm with three winch cables and a couple of snatch straps hooked up we winch the 4wd 100meters out to hard terra firma. I turn up at the hotel in Cooma to a rather cranky to put it midly... and my daughter (2year old) goes completely spastic when she sees the car covered in mud. So 6 hours late, $350 out of pocket for the recovery and without a wedding ring... I am pretty much in the shite... and I never even got my fishing rod out of the car.

On a better note I returned the following week with a metal detector, walked up to the bog site turned it on and found my wedding ring in 5 minutes flat... some dignity restored. Every day for the last 3 months my two year old now says. "Daddy get stuck in the mud" to every friggin person she speaks to...

Burnsy

Eucumbene can be misery or madness. Never in between!!

Davo

[zen801]

My worst fishing trip started out great. Hit the water early in Middle Harbour and had bagged a jewie, flattie and Dory by 11am. We were about to leave and just sitting under anchor with a couple of lines out when i heard this noise coming from behind. Looked to see a massive cruiser coming straight at us. Stood up and started screaming for this guy to stop. Had a couple of seconds to decide whether i would take option 1 of diving for my life and probably getting keeled then burlied or grab hold of his bow rail as he hit. I am about 5 foot eleven and standing in the tinnie with my harms reaching up i just managed to grab hold as he hit at a couple of knots. As thgis happenned i looked down to see my mate at the back of the tinnie get crushed against the bow wedged between tinnie and cruiser. By now the idiot had realised what he did and was backing off. The story goes on but you can imagine the rest. Only good thing was i didnt lose the fish but the tinnie was dinged with motor fully submerged and 4 rods and gear lost. It was pretty scary probably the most scary of any accident i have been in and i have been in a couple. Was a passanger in a car when we were kids street racing in a RX#. Lost control at 140k and rolled upside down 6 feet in the air into a pole. Car was cut in half and by a miracle we both survived. In India in 1983 crashed a motorbike and broke my collarbone. It took 2 days to get to a hospital. That hurt but the boat was still the scariest.

[domza]

my worst trip isnt too bad but ill mention it anyway

started off at 4am at cooks river ramp(botany) after succesfully starting the old two stroke i reversed the boat off the trailer like usual..once i was idleing around it for abit, it started to sound rough..the eventually cut off and wouldn't start back up, after mintues of cranking, pumping fuel and choking the motor....so it was a long paddle back to the beach(in 15knot winds and cooks river currents )

After beaching her we got it back running only to be greated by big chop in the bay..

the whole day had motor troubles..to the point where we actualy got caught at brighton beach when we couldn't get the motor started..after some quick repairs it was straight back to the ramp.

this was also 2 weeks from the botany social(kingfish), should have gone home after the first problems at the start of the trip..

-

-

- my second worst trip in the cowan river, chasing the hairtail in freezing temps..

Around 3am we called it quits and headed out, it was so foggy that we couldn't see 2 metres in front. After 30mins of idling back in the direction we thought the ramp was, we got worried and anchored. Fog didn't clear until 8am. Didn't have many blankets either, so the sleep in the cabin was FREEZING.

Edited December 12, 2006 by domza

[Davemmm]

Only just discovered this thread and its an absolute beauty full of great stories that i'm glad didn't happen to me.

Mines not nearly as good as the rest of them and its not really a fishen trip but here goes.

Years ago as a young teenager we were mucking around in a mates back yard with his old mans beach rod and a metal lure.

After various unsuccesful attempts to catch each other one bloke accidentally snagged the dog in the kegs.

The labrador took off up the side passage at a hundred miles an hour, my mate stood there dumbfounded with the drag screaming and half of us took off to save the dog.

The dog got to the front of the house and the lure dropped out. We were ten foot behind him when the loss of searing pain in his balls allowed the dog to turn around and work out what the f had happened. He soon decided it was our fault and took to us like nothing on earth. This led to young blokes climbing trees and jumping fences before a bloody big cream labrador could seek revenge by latching on to our arses with his canines.

I'm glad my teenage boys didn't turn out as stupid as me.

[arpie]

Funnily enough, the 2 worst fishing trips I ever had was with the same person, trout fishing in NZ!

!st trip - we were sharing a rented house on Lake Tarawera & I had been given the best information from the local 'gun' fisher. Take the boat to a specific spot before dawn, line it up between two focal points near the stream & fish the drop off - you will surely get a big fish. So, we get up at 4.30am in the pitch dark & head towards 'the spot'.

My 'buddy' was in charge of the motor & getting us there. We'd been going 5 mins & the motor stopped. In the middle of one of the deepest lakes in NZ, he said to drop the anchor. I said it was too deep - the only place to drop the anchor was closer to the edge. He threw it over anyway - of course, it was too deep. He started pulling the cord to restart the motor. I suggested he check that the fuel was turned on. "Of course, the fuel is on", continuing to pull the cord with no result. We were about half way to our destination, so decided to continue there instead of heading home. We shifted spots so he could row towards the spot. After 15 mins of rowing (and whinging about the dodgey motor) I checked the motor & found the fuel had not been turned on.

Now, anyone fishing large expanses of water knows that sound/voices travels really well - a whisper can virtually be heard from the shore. God knows what any other folk out there were thinking!

Finally we got to the spot, missing dawn (prime bite time) by about 1/2hr! It had taken us over an hour to go 500m! We settled in to fishing & my buddy started whingeing that lake fishing didn't compare to river fishing & claimed we would never catch a fish where we had stopped. Lots of casting, no fish, more whingeing. I was stewing, trying not to explode & tell this bloke to Shut Up! Suddenly, my reel starts to go "zzzzzzzzzzz" then faster "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz". I said "No fish, eh?? Not big enough for you, eh?" and started to reel in what turned out to be a huge trout, a whisker under 10lb! My best ever! However, the bad news was, that it was foul hooked (hence the even bigger fight to get it in) & in NZ it is illegal to keep a foul hooked trout! I was just about to put it back, when this bloke went ballistic - "it's the fish of a lifetime, you can't put it back. It must be a 10lber" It was on the floor of the boat & he grabbed his 'priest' and whacked it on the head. Well that settled the 'put back' decision, but boy, I felt so guilty! Then he wanted to cut it up & have it for breakfast, whilst I wanted to take it back to Auckland & get it smoked. I won! My photos with it are of a very cynical looking Roberta! All up, not a pleasant weekend! On the Monday, I went to work & told my boss about the weekend (not the bit about it being foul hooked tho, as he iwas the gun fisher!) and he said some mates had already told him about this boat load of clowns that had argued their way across the lake with everyone else listening in!

Next (and last trip out with this bloke) we fished Tongariro River staying at The Creel. We had to wade the river to get to the other side. He is like 6ft 10 & I am 5ft 3. He grabbed my arm & 'assisted' me across - I nearly fell over 6 times as I tend to take 'dolly' steps, not giant ones, & the rocks & river flow makes it a tricky river to cross. I was biting my tongue not to scream at him, as he wouldn't slow down & had a limpet grip on my arm.

We found our fishing spot & did the 'trout shuffle' as we worked the pool. There were about 6 of us fishing the one spot, including his brother. It was winter & the water was freezing. You literally had to dip the tip of your rod into the water after every drift, as icicles developed on the top guides, stopping the fly line from shooting. I got into a nice fish & decided to go back to the edge to deal with it. My 'buddy' decided to assist me once again! This time, he did pull me over, face first, into the freezing water! Water got into my waders, drenched my polar fleece top & saturated my hair & face. I came up screaming - the air was blue! This bloke had never heard so many expletives in one sentence ever before, all directed at him! His brother was laughing his head off, and he said later, no-one had ever spoken to his brother like that in his life! I got 2 more fish, he got none!! Yay!

That was the last trip I ever did with him! My husband had to still work with him, tho - he was the school psychologist!

[costello]

My worst trip was about 8 years ago.

The old man had just purchased a new half cabin. We took it down the Lane Cove River for a run when suddenly the outboard shatt itself. Pulled up on the sandbar under the Figtree Bridge to check it out. Standing in waste high water with the cover off the outboard having a look in when i feel something brush past me and a bit of a stir in the water. I look back it's a shark! Turned on me again! Not sure what type just saw the fin and tail but i estimated it to be anywhere between 3-4m. Jumped back in the boat like an Olympic Gymnist. Still scares the living you know what out of me to think it could have had my leg if it wanted. Got the outboard going again but in this time the tide had dropped and we were stranded on the bar. Had to wait 4 hours for the tide to come back in. Only good thing was in that time we caught about 4 keeper flathead off the bar

Cheers,

Mark

Edited December 14, 2006 by costa