# Lightning



## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Don’t get caught. Run away. Run away fast!

Or

Run up in or next to the mangroves, and ride it out.

Don’t get under the taller trees.


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## Hardluk81 (Jan 3, 2016)

I’ll try to outrun it or go find a bridge if I can. It’s a sure pucker factor when the rods start humming.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

I've been struck while on the poling platform before. Very few things will chase me off the water, but I'm a little bitch when it comes to lightning. Never want to experience that again. I run like hell...


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## Capt. Eli Whidden (Jun 7, 2012)

Been in some nasty stuff over the years. Like Mike said, head for cover. Not necessarily safer, just peace of mind I guess. 

Always a bad feeling when push poles and rods are buzzing.


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## jimsmicro (Oct 29, 2013)

When lightning or big storms are nearby I never stray far from the ramp. It's a good reason to learn to fish the water closest to the ramp/dock/shelter!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Got my first job on a boat in 1973 -and from that day forward have had to learn much more about this topic than I ever wanted to... all while only having near misses -mostly in small skiffs... I did witness a strike on a channel marker one day - much too close to where we were tied up under a stilt house for shelter.... also have been wading for bonefish back when we used a lot of 6 lb line on spinners for them... funny feeling when you make a long cast - then watch your line, instead of settling down to water - rise and hang in the air (the static field we were on foot in was that bad...). It was definitely time to leave the water...

Like most I listened to what others had to say and took the common precautions - but only really began to look into the topic seriously after I got my captain's license in 1996... My standard practice was to tuck my skirts up and run like a girl from lightning activity - but it does help to remember that most strikes are in front of an approaching thunderhead - so running at right angles to danger out in the open does have some merit.

Here's what I do when I know we're going to get caught in the backcountry and can't outrun the electric stuff. Not wanting to ever get caught out in the open I simply run to the nearest mangrove shoreline where I can get my bow up under some bushes -then tie up and do my best to become just a part of that shoreline... Now for the important part - after laying any upright rods down and making sure that all my anglers are actually sitting on the floor (you want that poling platform to be higher than the passengers) I make sure that none of them are touching each other and I ask them to keep hands and feet in close to them (trying to make sure that if we do take a strike none of them is an easy route to ground for that terrible jolt..). Yes, we've also sheltered up under chickees (in the backcountry of Everglades National Park - they're simple docks with an open roof used as campsites) and are probably no shelter at all from a lightning strike... but you will be out of the rain... Me, I'd rather be getting wet and not raising the chances of taking a strike...

Our best protection is simply avoidance... During the heat of summer you can usually expect thunderstorms every afternoon... If you get on the water well before sunup and leave the water by no later than 2pm - you'll miss a lot of lightning (of course it took me thirty years to learn that simply tactic... I'm a slow learner...).

For those of you who've never gotten up close and personal with lightning strikes it might help to know that I was in Vietnam in 1971 where I took fire a few times even though I wasn't a combat type at all... None of that scared me as badly as lightning has when it's really close...


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## EasternGlow (Nov 6, 2015)

crboggs said:


> I've been struck while on the poling platform before. Very few things will chase me off the water, but I'm a little bitch when it comes to lightning. Never want to experience that again. I run like hell...


This. I cut it a little close yesterday afternoon with the storms except down in Flamingo. To me there's nothing scarier then lightening in the glades. Obviously the best practice is to read weather and try to avoid it, but we can't always do that. I think just stay low and bring all rods down, then curl up in fetal position and cry.


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## Surffshr (Dec 28, 2017)

If I see a bolt or hear thunder, rods are put away and the day is done. Hopefully I’m close to the dock. There is actually a “survival” position where you kinda curl up while standing and grab your ankles or feet. The idea is that if you are struck, the current will go around your heart...it also makes it easy to stick your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye which is handy in the situation too.


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## DBStoots (Jul 9, 2011)

lemaymiami said:


> Got my first job on a boat in 1973 -and from that day forward have had to learn much more about this topic than I ever wanted to... all while only having near misses -mostly in small skiffs... I did witness a strike on a channel marker one day - much too close to where we were tied up under a stilt house for shelter.... also have been wading for bonefish back when we used a lot of 6 lb line on spinners for them... funny feeling when you make a long cast - then watch your line, instead of settling down to water - rise and hang in the air (the static field we were on foot in was that bad...). It was definitely time to leave the water...
> 
> Like most I listened to what others had to say and took the common precautions - but only really began to look into the topic seriously after I got my captain's license in 1996... My standard practice was to tuck my skirts up and run like a girl from lightning activity - but it does help to remember that most strikes are in front of an approaching thunderhead - so running at right angles to danger out in the open does have some merit.
> 
> ...


Thanks, Bob. I have pretty much done exactly what you have suggested as well. So I guess there's not much more to do!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

All of us probably know at least one prayer (and who you send it to is your business...) but things get really elemental when you consider that not all of the deaths from lightning down here are out on golf courses....


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Years ago i fished bass tournaments. During one tournament a storm came up and we all ran back to the dock all except my friend. I asked if anyone had seen them, my friend and his partner, after a while he came in without his partner. It seems as they where getting ready to come in and lighting struck his boat and killed his partner
When ever I'm on the water and I hear thunder I come in. That 140 on the back can get me back fast if I want


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## State fish rob (Jan 25, 2017)

I have a boat lift w roof. Not much protection ,but better than nothing. general hang out during storms for folks on my side of neuse river. Feels like the Daytona 500 sometimes with boats trying to get to it . I tuck my skirt too.......


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

If I'm close enough to a ramp, I'll tie off and wait it out in the car. Otherwise I'll try to avoid or run up in the mangroves. I had a bad experience with lightning on lake Guntersville in AL when I was a kid and now I don't play with that stuff.


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## Brett (Jul 16, 2008)

When you're night fishing in West Featherbed Bank,
and thunderstorms build up on all sides of you,
lightning strikes are hitting the steel channel markers and shoal warning markers,
there's nowhere to run. So you get low, drop everything flat and wait it out.
It's when the lightning starts pounding the markers at both ends of the pass
that you are in the middle of and you hear the voice from a fishing buddy
huddled under a tarp in the bow:

"Brett, I'm not scared of the one with my name on it.
It's all these others addressed to whom it may concern, that has me worried."


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## Cam (Apr 5, 2017)

Recently we got caught unexpectedly. We hid under a bridge til the worst of it passed then planed through the slow zone. No idea what the best method is but that seemed reasonable even if we broke a law.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

I got cornered yesterday while poling a big back lake solo. It built up so fast I was watching the radar on my phone while poling out to deeper water and had to jump on plane and haul ass through the edge of it to get to the ramp. Lightning was popping all around me and the hair on my neck was standing up. Forrest Gump fat rain stings at 33mph.


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## hipshot (Sep 29, 2018)

Had a nasty experience with lightning many years ago; afterward I read that if you're close enough to hear the thunder you're close enough to get hit. When we got hit we could barely hear the thunder and only saw reflections off the clouds from lightning over the horizon.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

Once when I was 15, I ran my 14ft aluminum jon boat thru one of the worst lightning storms I've ever been in. With huge lightning bolts blasting the water all around be and electricity physically dancing out from the impact spots on the water, it was literally scaring the bahjesus outta me. But somehow I felt I shouldn't stop and just push on thru, with rain pounding me down, the size of bullets. Scary experience for a kid knowing how conductive aluminum was.


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## Capnredfish (Feb 1, 2012)

All I can say is I’ve ran my skiff up on nearest shore to ramp and ran to car. Screw waiting for turn at ramp. Done same not near ramp. Got out of boat and did the morning squat routine and waited for it to pass.


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## Flats Broke (Feb 7, 2017)

permitchaser said:


> Years ago i fished bass tournaments. During one tournament a storm came up and we all ran back to the dock all except my friend. I asked if anyone had seen them, my friend and his partner, after a while he came in without his partner. It seems as they where getting ready to come in and lighting struck his boat and killed his partner
> When ever I'm on the water and I hear thunder I come in. That 140 on the back can get me back fast if I want


Like you I used to fish bass tournaments many decades ago. While practicing for an upcoming tournament on Lake Kissimmee one Friday a friend of mine was killed by lightning the day before the start of the tournament. His partner was found alive but stunned and in shock still in the boat which was going around in circles. The fellow who was killed was blasted out of the boat and into the water. The change in his pocket was melted as was his belt buckle. RIP Bobby Johns. 

I've had some pretty unpleasant experiences on saltwater, one of the worst being on Pine Island Sound several years ago. My wife and I fished the morning in our boat along with another couple in another skiff. We decided to eat lunch at Millers Marina on Boca Grande Pass. When we were done eating we could see storm clouds brewing to the south. We were staying in a rental house on North Captiva Island. We decided to try to make a run for the house and figured that, if things got too hairy, we could pull into Cabbage Key half way home and take refuge there. Well we underestimated the speed with which the storm was moving north and got caught before we were even half way to Cabbage Key in open water in waves we couldn't see out of, rain blowing sideways, and bolts flying everywhere. We made it to a mangrove island north of Cabbage Key, pulled the nose of the boat up into the mangroves and waited for the storm to subside. Bolts continued to flash and strike all around us for quite a while, and the rain pelted us for a long time. However, we were fortunate and never took a direct lightning strike. We lost track of our friends until the storm broke and found them holed up along the same mangrove island. I was afraid to use either my cell phone or vhf while the bolts were flying nearby. That was a very frightening experience. Even though I have a very fast boat, I never try to cross large bodies of water with storms anywhere nearby now days. I either run away from storms or at right angles to them.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Flats Broke said:


> Like you I used to fish bass tournaments many decades ago. While practicing for an upcoming tournament on Lake Kissimmee one Friday a friend of mine was killed by lightning the day before the start of the tournament. His partner was found alive but stunned and in shock still in the boat which was going around in circles. The fellow who was killed was blasted out of the boat and into the water. The change in his pocket was melted as was his belt buckle. RIP Bobby Johns.
> 
> I've had some pretty unpleasant experiences on saltwater, one of the worst being on Pine Island Sound several years ago. My wife and I fished the morning in our boat along with another couple in another skiff. We decided to eat lunch at Millers Marina on Boca Grande Pass. When we were done eating we could see storm clouds brewing to the south. We were staying in a rental house on North Captiva Island. We decided to try to make a run for the house and figured that, if things got too hairy, we could pull into Cabbage Key half way home and take refuge there. Well we underestimated the speed with which the storm was moving north and got caught before we were even half way to Cabbage Key in open water in waves we couldn't see out of, rain blowing sideways, and bolts flying everywhere. We made it to a mangrove island north of Cabbage Key, pulled the nose of the boat up into the mangroves and waited for the storm to subside. Bolts continued to flash and strike all around us for quite a while, and the rain pelted us for a long time. However, we were fortunate and never took a direct lightning strike. We lost track of our friends until the storm broke and found them holed up along the same mangrove island. I was afraid to use either my cell phone or vhf while the bolts were flying nearby. That was a very frightening experience. Even though I have a very fast boat, I never try to cross large bodies of water with storms anywhere nearby now days. I either run away from storms or at right angles to them.


sorry you lost a friend
i always carry a rain suit, even when I'm with a guide. Wont help against lighting but you stay warm and its easier to drive the boat
Thanks for your story


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## m32825 (Jun 29, 2018)

I heard that, while waiting it out, you should raise the foot of your motor out of the water so your boat is a less-attractive path to ground. Not really interested in gathering first hand data on that one...


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