Spooky Night

[Walltrout]

Sitting on the ice at night can be sort of spooky at times.  With the ice popping and cracking and the coyotes yipping all around me I always like to bring my dog to watch my back.  I always feel like someone is going to sneak up behind me because I won't hear them with all the hats and hoods blocking my hearing and field of vision. 

I was fishing by myself on a small very remote reservoir in Montana.  This was a lake I had never fished before but had heard it was a good perch lake. I had to leave my dog at home on this trip because I left directly after work since it was 50 miles from town. I was the only one on the ice all day long and fishing was pretty slow but there was a lot of wildlife in the form of deer and eagles around to keep me interested.  There were a few cars going by on the highway but it was pretty lonely.

Once it got dark, I broke out my rechargeable lantern which gives out just enough light to be able to tie lures on.  I was sitting about 80 feet from shore totally fixated on the flasher of my new Marcum LX5 oblivious to everything going on around me.  All of a sudden a chunk of ice about the size of a pack of cigarettes hits the ice right next to me and slides across the ice.  I jump off my bucket and search in the darkness with my little head lamp flash light for some practical joker.  There was no way that the ice could have come from anywhere other than if someone threw it at me.

After a few minutes of searching, I can't find anything.  That's when the thoughts of Bigfoot stalking me start to creep into my mind.  I am having a hard time focusing on the fishing now and begin to think about packing up and getting out of there.  The fishing was too slow and I was too freaked out to stick around.

I grab my gear and head to shore.  I get about 10 feet from my hole when I see a clear plastic wrapper on the ice.  I had a good laugh when I realized that the chunk of ice was actually the wrapper that had fallen out of my coat pocket.  There was just enough of a breeze and it was quiet enough out there that when the plastic blew across the ice it sounded more like a chunk of ice.  With the limited light I had, the wrapper went out of sight before I could get a good look at it.

Needless to say, I felt a little relieved when I figured it out.  I stayed fishing a while longer but even then I could not the thought Bigfoot out of my mind.  Next time I will bring the dog.

[Mainedog]

Or Smith and Wesson.

[fire831]

Or Smith and Wesson.

My exact thought.

[big j 2520]

I know exactly what you mean. I like to go jigging for smelt at night. It does get a little spooky out there by yourself or even with a friend. I get spook the easiest when it's quite and the bite is slow. If they're biting good no there's time to spook myself. The best scare I've had is a fog bank rolling in at night and not being able to find shore.

Good luck in the upcoming season,

Big J

[Walltrout]

I really hate feeling like something is going to sneak up behind me.  When I am all bundled up, it is a pain to keep checking my back.  I agree catching fish keeps your mind off it.

[scottly0]

Watch out for the satchmo.

[Mainedog]

Take a dog, and Smith and Wesson.

[captcourageous]

I really hate feeling like something is going to sneak up behind me.  When I am all bundled up, it is a pain to keep checking my back.  I agree catching fish keeps your mind off it.

Makes me wonder what you did to keep checkin' over your shoulder?

[Walltrout]

Makes me wonder what you did to keep checkin' over your shoulder?

Ohh.. you know. Just the little things.....  No no officer, that baggy full of human fingers is from the bait shop.  Havn't you heard that eyeballs work great for perch?

Just getting rid of the evidence a little at a time.

[stumpjumper]

 I'd be scared too, bigfoot being such a threat to ice-fishermen and all. 

[BojiHawk]

Remember guys...most states only allow you to use Bigfoot meat for bait if you harvest said Bigfoot on that lake. You need a commercial license to sell Bigfoot meat.  Just FYI. 

[2 dogs]

Great story. Really spooky though is when your wife and mother-in-law come hunting you down on the ice after dark. No way out of that alive

[happy perch fisher]

lol one time i was on ice at night and a muskrat came out of ice i was so freaked out i started running and i got lost it was pitch black at night. It took me like a hour to find my tent.

[Whitefish Slayer]

I know exactly what you mean. I like to go jigging for smelt at night. It does get a little spooky out there by yourself or even with a friend. I get spook the easiest when it's quite and the bite is slow. If they're biting good no there's time to spook myself. The best scare I've had is a fog bank rolling in at night and not being able to find shore.

Good luck in the upcoming season,

Big J

that happen to me one time as well.  That's when i knew i needed to have a GPS and now when ppl are leaving the ice b/c the snow is so hard everytihn looks white and they can't see shore i can hang in there for some damn good fishing

[erieeye]

Or Smith and Wesson.

now thats funny rite their^^^^^^^^^^^!!!

[Buck1985]

bein on the ice alone in the dak doesn't scare me, but being in the woods does. One morning I was walking along a farm road to go to my hunting blind to scout for turkeys. It was pitch black out, cloudy and as I was walking along the hair on the back of my neck stood up, thinking I was just chicken I kept goin. About 50 yards later something still didn't feel right so I started making a loop out in the field to head to my blind. About a minute later I couldn't stand it anymore, so I sat in the chair I was bringing with me and was going to wait till I could actually see before I went to my blind. I was about 100 yards from a little pond, but I was on the other side of the dam so nothing from by the pond could see me, and as I was sitting in my chair, nekked (no knife or sidearm) everything by the pond shut up at the same time, the birds stopped singing, the frogs, everything at once shut up. I heard from various shows and books that attack victems will say just before the attack, everything was quiet, there was even a shark attack victem on a show that said the ocean was quiet before the attack and said if he'd have just listened to the ocean, he'd still have his leg. Knowing this, I hastily retreated to the truck, locked the doors and took a little nap. I still don't do well in the woods, in the dark, by myself.

[4cator]

OH, thats funny 

[fishinmoses]

 :laugh:sissies

[POk3s]

That's pretty funny but I actually had a similar experience. It's kinda a long story but I'll tell it anyway

Ok so me and my dad were up camping where we go deer hunting. It's both mine and his favorite area in the world and he's been going there since he was a kid so obviously I've been going there ever since I could remember. Well anyway we decide we'll walk up the creek to some beaver ponds and fish. Well we get to our usualy first spot, "the boulder", and I got just an eerie feeling like I was being watched. We fished for a while, and I decided I was gonna go downstream and try a couple spots we'd passed up that were only about 100 yards down....but i'd never tried them and figured what the heck. So I think I catch one go to try this waterfall pool thing. Well I keep looking back at my dad because of the weird feeling I'm having and every once in a while I see him look up from the book he's reading and look around. Well I'm fishing at the waterfall, and of course I see bones laying right there. Typical I say to myself. Well then my mind creates a sound of something walking through the water below me (had to be just my mind). But I'm like ok this is enough i'm headin' back to my dad. Well I get back there and he puts his book away and I told him I'm gonna try upstream now. He says ok. Well I'm spooked and I don't know why so I just suck it up and go down into these willows. As soon as I get down there I hear sticks breaking and something going bizerke. Well I look up and see the top of a beaver dam, of course it looked like a grizzly bear in my head because I'm in the wyoming backcountry. Well I climb out of there and gain some elevation, and see there's a deer running dead away from me through the willows a long ways away....i don't think it could've already went that far but maybe..... WOO! So we go a little farther up stream and I see bear tracks and such which isn't really that unusual....well a couple minutes later I hear a woof! I ask my dad if he heard it and he says no, so I tell him to listen for a second and it does it again. Woof! Now not a dog woof or wolf woof but a bear woof. Then we hear it/them heading up through the trees and woofing every couple steps. I tell my dad let's get the hell out of here. Then I start telling him how I felt like I was being watched the whole time. He responds with, "ya me too. I couldn't even read my book cuz I was too busy looking around." Was just weird we both felt it and decided to ignore it to be manly....lol. Still don't know what kind of bears they were or anything but I didn't really want to find out.

[hollis]

Having fog roll in and not being able to find shore would be scary, good reason to carry a handheld GPS. Similar some years ago in a white out. I couldn't  see my  vehicle  until I was feet away from it. The GPS put me right back to those few feet! (need to remember to turn it on and mark the spot though) They have come down in price enough to be a good thing to have. (marking fish spots too)

As far as not being able to find your tent in the dark, Well with cheap LED flashers it might be a good idea to attach one. I find them for just a few bucks and the batteries can last for days,..can be seen from quite a distance but also a small flashlight always carried on your person. Your tent have reflectors? TAPE? They are required here so a #&^%@# snowmobiler doesn't hit you at night. Even a small flashlight will show the reflective tape for a long ways. Of course if you do get a white out or fog,..that GPS would get you back there too if you marked it,...(yikes,.. I can just imagine setting out in the wrong way on one of the great lakes,........)