Deadliest Catch....Fisherie style

I've got a good one.  Don't try to impress your supervisor while putting co-workers in harm's way. 

I was a prep-man on a painting crew for a summer during college, and found out the crew liked to fish, and one guy had a boat.  I mentioned I had access to my Dad's little boat, and how I take it out for smallies and 'eyes off Hammermill.  They didn't have to work hard to convince me to bring it out for a day of fishing the next weekend.  When I say small, I mean a 14' deep V speed boat which we ripped the stearing system out of and set it up for fishing close to shore.  It had a 9.9hp Johnson, and my Dad even mounted oar-locks for fishing Lake Pleasant, though it was awful heavy to row, which I did a few times.  We never had problems out on Erie, we never pushed it's limits, and it handled 1-3's well.  I had informed them of all this, and they still insisted I bring it along.

I show up at the East Ave. launch, and the guys chosen to ride with me laughed.  Then they remembered they were going out with me on it, and those laughs turned to fearful whines.  I said I was going to go, and they could stay behind or come, their choice.  They climbed in and off we went.  I didn't realize that the boss wanted to go a few miles out off the Pennisula, and said we'd need to stay south of the top-edge of the point.  They goated me in to follow, and foolishly, I went.  The other boat quickly disappeared around the point, and I was left with 2 very scared passengers, even though I assured them we could handle the small waves we were in.  I said it will take us some time to get there, but we'll be fine.  About 35 minutes later, we caught up to the other boat on glass-smooth water, which I'd been able to really open up the throttle on.  They'd been scanning with their sonar and were not happy with what they'd seen, and wanted to move west.  They could fly with their big motor (50hp ?).  Us, not quite so. 

Just at that moment, my passengers both started chumming.  They called out to the boss and said they want on that boat.  Not going to happen, as they were full.  The only other option was for us to head back in and drop them off to head home.  I said I'd be happy fishing near shore, which is where I originally had planned.  We got about a half-mile towards the point, and the water changed dramatically.  We ran into some rough water, probably 5-6' swells.  My guys were green, and I was starting to sweat.  My Dad had taught me well about how to run that little boat, but my 2 passengers feared for their lives.  After what seamed like several hours (more like 40 minutes), we reached the launch.  The guys jumped out of the boat, white as ghosts.  Since the water had gotten so rough, the other boat decided to head into the bay, while I pulled out and went home. 

At work the next Monday, I got ribbed pretty good about the size of the boat.  I reminded them of how well it had handled the rough water, and that I got them home safely, though we shouldn't have gone past the Penninsula with it.  I never made that mistake again, and I'm sure those guys never got on another boat they weren't sure of.

I fished that day too storm...I relayed the message from the found beached boat to the Coast Gaurd.  I held off goin in the AM and launched around 1030...waves were 4ft by that point and it was fishable...I watched that guy go out in the morning and myself and those with me all thought...man hes nuts...I heard last year that he was pretty far gone with cancer so i dont know if his downfall that day was his own choice, or due to the weather....
 
Worst day i fished was a few years ago when we were gettin fish in the mid 30s...We were fishing during the week off the clay banks in a strong south west (1-3) wind when it decided to come out of the west.  Lake went to near 7ft with 35mph sustained winds.  Worst part was when my motor ingested water and quit running.  Waves were capping occasionally on the back deck of my boat.  Friend of mine who was also fishing close by towed us in and we were hit broadside by a 7ft wave just outside walnut creek....I thought we all were going for a swim....lol...The girl at walnut told me she thought we were going over as well...lol
 
ILL NEVER PUT ON A LIFE JACKET AGAIN....lol
 

Well, I've done so many dumb things, I wouldn't know where to begin.
 
But as far as the worst weather I have ever experienced, it would be the time I found myself in 10 footers. Waves were 2 to 3 just before the storm hit. The storm hit so fast, we only had time to get the lines and boards in. By the time we had everything in, it was already 3 to 5s, if not 4 to 6s. We had gone a couple miles, and the waves had build to 8 to 10 footers. There were 3 of us in my 1994 22 ft Proline cuddy. It was not a walkaround style boat, it was a full cuddy (model designation: 220 Cuddy Fish).
 
We had to go against the waves to get in. I was actually having to throttle up the face of waves (just like in Perfect Storm), and ease off the throttle (but not too much) going down the face of the waves. One time, I stuffed the bow so bad that green water came up over the windshield and over the storm enclosure. Needless to say, we had our life jackets on. On channel 16, I could hear the Coast Guard calling for anyone to be on the lookout for a boat called "Sea Foam", last reported taking on water. The CG had lost radio contact with them. There wasn't a boat in sight.
 
Made it back, but it was a real eye opener.  
 
Erie can be treacherous.

OK-I'll bite


How many lightning rods were there?

OK 42

20+ years ago I chartered a 24ft. Thompson out of Conny. and the eyes were 20 miles out. The 6cyl. was too small for the size of the boat and took forever to get to the fish. The waves were running 2-3 when we left at 530 am, after trolling for 4hrs. they increased to 3-5 with a ne wind. As we headed back in they turned into these huge rollers. We would go down into these troughs and be stairing at a wall of water, then roll to the top to see a few boats doing the same thing. Had to run with the waves to keep from being tumble over like a toy. As brad said, you had to work the throttle to manage these waves. Ended up in Astabula and caught a ride back to get the trailer. Very scary stuff.

YOU WIN!

Stream pike if there's any degree of truth to that story you should publish that!  Wow what a good story.  I couldn't even imagine that lol.

Guess when you saw the sun rise you had a pretty good compass..