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Here recently I have been reading quite alot about fish jumping in the boat. I know of a guys that had a Spanish jump in the boat and break their windshield. Personally I have had flying fish jump in the boat but nothing wilder than that.
Here is the place! Tell us all your story!
Yes. I know someone is going to post a video of that Marlin jumping in that boat and going crazy but I want to here what yall have had happen to you!
__________________
"Im only comfortable with a three man brain trust." -The Janitor
USCG 100 Ton Master Captain w/ Towing Endorsement
FCC Marine Radio Operators Permit (FCC MROP License/Endorsement)
Overnight fishing in the NE canyons a month ago we had 2 of these SNAKE MACKEREL jump in the boat while chasing prey.1 hit a friend right between the shoulder blades and the second whacked a guy in the elbow.Thank God they're only 2 feet long and weigh about a pound.Check out the teeth!
Not a big fish but lots of them. When I was about 10 years old (1958) my Dad and I were anchored up just inside Riches Inlet on the south side in the fall throwing Mirrolures for speckled trout. We had been there about half and hour when all of a sudden every wave coming across the bar was full of mullet. Dad put on a Hopkins and started snagging them to use for bait. They were all about 1 1/2 pounds. It wasn't long and they were so thick it looked as if you could walked across the inlet on thier backs. They started banging into the old Simmons we were in and then jumping into the boat. By this time Dad and I had put down our rods and were collecting the fish. It got to the point we were dodging them and Dad cranked up the old evinrude and we headed for the hill. I think we must of had about 50 mullet in the boat. That was 50 years ago and to this day it has been one of the most amazing thing I've seen on the water.
Flyers...they're the devil. Had 3 hit me in the face or neck in my fishing career. Most recent was 2 Thursday's ago. The first time it happened, we were running in the dark and I was standing in the cockpit holding onto the tower leg admiring the beautiful stars and one hit me in the neck. I had no idea what just happened and grabbed my neck with my hand and felt all the slime and thought I was bleeding. I am hollering at the crew, we bring the boat to idle and get the lights on and I am hollering that I think I am bleeding as I am holding my neck. Quickly we realize it was just slime and not blood and I had been hit by one of these sinister creatures. Got hit twice in 1 year and haven't been hit in about 5 years until recently. I think they have it out for me.
This past summer we had a 3 foot gar jump into our 12 foot skiff while fishing the flats for redfish. Although it wasn't a huge fish, that thing made quite a bit of ruckus for our little skiff.
This past summer we had a 3 foot gar jump into our 12 foot skiff while fishing the flats for redfish. Although it wasn't a huge fish, that thing made quite a bit of ruckus for our little skiff.
Haha that skiff barely floats, Ben. That gar didn't have to jump all that high to get over your gunnel. Good times though buddy, good times
My story is a sad one I guess. At least it is for my "boys"! I was driving offshore one day and I had to take a leak. I told my buddy to hold the wheel and we kept on cruising. Well as soon as I got to the back of the boat a hard headed flying fish broke free of the wake and line-drived me in the NADS (Read=Testicles")! Well needless to say I went fettle. 15 minutes later that damn flying fish was bait!
Sort of an embarrassing story but funny!
__________________
"Im only comfortable with a three man brain trust." -The Janitor
USCG 100 Ton Master Captain w/ Towing Endorsement
FCC Marine Radio Operators Permit (FCC MROP License/Endorsement)
Overnight fishing in the NE canyons a month ago we had 2 of these SNAKE MACKEREL jump in the boat while chasing prey.1 hit a friend right between the shoulder blades and the second whacked a guy in the elbow.Thank God they're only 2 feet long and weigh about a pound.Check out the teeth!
Looks like a ribbon fish. Are they related. Has the same snaggle tooth mouth?
__________________
"Im only comfortable with a three man brain trust." -The Janitor
USCG 100 Ton Master Captain w/ Towing Endorsement
FCC Marine Radio Operators Permit (FCC MROP License/Endorsement)
When I was in college, I worked on a 65' headboat in the summers. We were headed out through the mouth of the jetties one rough morning. 4-5' rollers were stacked up tight at the end of the rocks with an east wind blowing in and a tide flowing out. I was up on the bow rigging up some rods - it was like a roller coaster ride. We dipped down in a trough, and I heard a thud on the deck as the bow started to rise back up and then the captain hollering at me from the loudspeaker. Turns out a 30 lb plus king had skyrocketed right as we went by and landed on the deck. Another mate and I tackled the fish and threw it in the box. I didn't get to see it happen, but it was pretty crazy.
A few years ago, I was trolling in my 24' Hydrasports for dolphin and wahoo. The boat was an express with a bimini and full curtains. Flyers and weeds were everywhere, and the wind had kicked up to about 15 kts. All of a sudden, I heard a thud on top of the bimini and looked back in the cockpit to see a flyer flopping around. Apparently, it had gotten carried by the wind after it launched and ricocheted off the top of the bimini and into the cockpit. I let it die, rigged it up with a chin weight and copper rigging wire holding the wings spread, and tossed it back in the middle of the spread, skipping on the surface like a Yummee flying fish. Not 5 minutes later, a 25 lb bull inhaled it - the biggest one of the day.
Location: Solomons, Maryland / Now just visiting Marathon
Posts: 4,683
In the Chessie Bay in a Jon boat, about 4' of water between some little islands....
Bluefish start a feeding frenzy all around us, so thick you couldn't see the bottom.
About a dozen 5 pounders came in the little 10' boat.
Two of us in shorts and no shoes and 12 flopping fish with razors for teeth.
Yeah, that was only sort'a fun....
How's this one? In the rivers of Costa Rica, considered by some to be the Mecca of tarpon fishermen, we often fished by dropping our lures to the bottom and just wiggling them a little bit. This was a very successful method, with one small drawback. The first thing a tarpon does upon feeling the sting of a hook is to jump, and since our lures were directly below the boat, we often got soaked by the splash the fish made upon hitting the water. At other times, the fish would hit the boat and also on occasion, land in the boat.
These occasions would call for drastic action on the part of my two fishing partners and myself. Luckily, we were fishing out of fairly large dugout canoes (about twenty five feet in length by four feet in width) and if the fish didn't land directly on one of us we could generally run to the other end of the boat and hide. The fish would either stay in the boat and beat himself to death, or keep thrashing around until he got back in the water.
This was all taking place in the early seventies, and we were fishing on the cheap. We lived in a shack on the edge of the Rio Colorado in Barra Colorado Norte, and fished with one of the locals. Each morning we would awake to dozens of pairs of small eyes peering at us through the cracks in the walls, and each afternoon upon returning from the days fishing, we'd send one of the pairs of legs that went with those eyes on a mission of great importance - a bottle of Flor de Cana (Nicauragua's finest run), Coca-Cola and limes.
The only other anglers fishing the river then were staying in Casa Mar, the only fishing lodge in Costa Rica at that time, and although we were friendly with the operators of the resort, they didn't like us coming around when the guests were on the grounds. They were probably afraid that their clients would find out how much it cost us to fish, as compared to what they were paying.
We'd have a lot of giggles among ourselves about the tourists with their fancy tackle and fishing outfits, especially when it came to one pair of anglers that we came to call the patchmen. These two guys each had matching outfits, and were adorned with what were probably patches from every place they ever fished, every rodmaker, reel manufacturer and lure company that existed, plus a couple that had nothing to do with fishing, but what the hell, there was a leftover space. They looked something like a human version of one of those stock cars that you see racing around Daytona.
The fishing that week was about as good as it could get. In two days, I wound up in the water twice, due to hyperactive fish. It was shortly after one of these unscheduled baths, when I was just sitting down drying out, that the patchmen got the surprise of their lives.
One of them was fighting a fish and it appeared that it was directly under the boat. The two patchmen and the guide were all on the same side of the boat, a small Boston Whaler type, waiting expectantly for the fish to be brought in, when the fish exploded out of the water on the opposite side, paused in mid air directly above the unsuspecting occupants, and landed on top of them. When the blood and scales stopped flying, there was nothing in the boat that wasn't broken. The styrofoam cooler was in pieces floating around the boat. Those eight ounce bottles of coke that were built as solidly as bowling pins were even broken. There were no fishing rods left in the boat, having all been flipped in the water by the fish. And the patchmen were desperately in need of a drink.
Our patch laden friends didn't fish the rest of that day, and I'm sure they had a lot more than one drink when they got back to the lodge, but they were back out the next morning. They had, however, developed a new fishing method, one that would insure that they would get no more surprises. Normally the guide would paddle the boat after the fish to make it easier to land. Their new system was to have the guide paddle away from the fish. I guess the idea was that eventually the fish would get away or die of old age. Either way they would be safe.
What their system didn't account for was other people's fish. During one afternoon of truly spectacular fishing, there were a dozen boats, including the patchmen in one small area, most of them fighting fish. We could see from the way they kept looking around that they were getting nervous until finally an opening developed between two boats, and they had their guide start paddling in that direction. What they were unaware of was that one of my partners had a fish on that also wanted to aim for that opening. My buddy started giggling and took the pressure off his fish, allowing it to run free. When it seemed to be in just the right spot he put the brakes on the fish, which caused it to erupt out of the water, about ten feet away from the patchmen. That was enough excitement for them. They immediately broke off their fish and went back to the lodge, undoubtably in need of a sedative, or at least a rum and coke. They never did fish again that week.
Never had a fish jump in, had two slammers jump out. We boated a +60 lb cobia and a solid 50 lb phin only to lose them when transferring them to the fishbox on my old Robalo. The Robalo had a shallow but long fishbox in the stern...it actually created the bulkhead for the splashwell (see attached picture). When putting the fish tail first in the box the fish jumped off the gaff and out the back. Now those were two very bad days.....
Grew up totally Farm boy on a state line town called Tabor City. NC (razor city) Tobacco/Cotton country and thats all there is for work in that area and grandfather had 480 acres in St Pauls we worked .
About 12 miles from Tabor is a wide spot in the road called Pireway. Lots of swamp land around there and back country road bridges. Where they all met is called 7 creeks. Some of the biggest warmouth pearch you can catch are in those creeks. Low hanging branches , snakes everywhere and yes they drop in the boat, at times but to fish it you take one or man and a half wooden boat and one hand paddle anywhere you want to go. We took a coleman twin burner pump up and strapped it on the fish box. Fresh water jacks jump at light at night. Use to have the best time watching the newbie in the front when one would hit the inside of the boat or the light. Have had a few leave the boat when a snake decided to visit too.
Moved to Lake Waccamaw and never looked back but Black River and Cape Fear we use to be able to shock catfish.. If anyone knows if you still can I'd just like to know if they still let you do it down there. Kinda lost touch with the folks after I left and the few I know have moved.
You have to have two not so big boats, one to crank and one to net, and the best spots were right behind Oakland Plantation on Rt 87 by Carvers NC. Just before the dam.
Rick the owner lived at the lake and we rolled some huge cats in the cape fear and wanted to come. Picked him up at his turf farm about 5 pm and started cranking. With a 4 bar or 5 you can usually limp them out but a 3 bar some times they jump back when you hit them with the net. Depends on how hard you hit (shock) them. Ricks first time he wanted to net so he was in the boat behind me following me. I was backing and cranking. These are 12 to 14 foot john boats. Rolled about a 45 pounder and Rick was excited and instead of getting a good foot hold on in the boat he reached over the side and slipped the net under the cat. Cat woke up. Had not hit him that hard and instead of going down cat lunged up and caught Rick off guard with the net and when he tried to move back of course the boat went the other way and over the other side he want. Cat stayed in the boat and the other boy that had the motor grabbed the cat. That was his highlite in Rolling catfish. Never ask to go anymore.
Its not legal in NE NC but we enjoy where we live and there a whole lot of cat in the area.
__________________ Fountain 31TE...... Hydra Sports 21 Bay...... Dodge 3500 Camping unit "Gone Fishing"..... Tinker Toy..... Sunset Point Nixonton NC
Looks like a ribbon fish. Are they related. Has the same snaggle tooth mouth?
Not a ribbon fish,Snake Mackerel (Gempylus Serpens )How ya like them fancy names Actually I bring new ,unidentified species home to id.Always something new/wierd in the canyons at night!
Great story Liveaboard you were raised not far from Fair Bluff NC. Back in the 50's I thought that was the prettiest little city in the country. I still think the Little Pee Dee has got to be the prettiest river in the country.
Great story Liveaboard you were raised not far from Fair Bluff NC. Back in the 50's I thought that was the prettiest little city in the country. I still think the Little Pee Dee has got to be the prettiest river in the country.
Put in at the car dealership just before the 904 bridge that crossed the river in Fair Bluff Meny times. Small world... Marvin...
__________________ Fountain 31TE...... Hydra Sports 21 Bay...... Dodge 3500 Camping unit "Gone Fishing"..... Tinker Toy..... Sunset Point Nixonton NC
Tell your story of fish jumping in boat! 
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Actually I bring new ,unidentified species home to id.Always something new/wierd in the canyons at night! 
