Your worst crappie fishing day

I was just thinking about my worst day ever crappie fishing. Funny now but not so funny then, I was launching my boat on the Arkansas river when I forgot to tie my launch rope off to the trailer. I was alone with no one else around. Well you guessed it, I launched it right off the trailer and watched it come off the trailer, and just keep on going down the Arkansas River with the current.

It was warm so I decided to quickly strip down and swim for it not wanting to see my boat slam into the dam just down river. I was lucky to grab the rope and swim it back to the boat ramp. Just a lil embarrassed but hey no body needed to know.

Next I motor five miles up river to a favorite fishing hole catch a couple of keepers and not much else. I decide it's time to call it a day. Guess what my motor wont start...it's getting dark, a storm is coming right for me, and not another boat in sight.

To make a long story short it was a long hard ride back to the boat ramp with only a trolling motor, two fish, and being pelted with wind, rain, hail, and lightning zooming by in the air. It was my worst crappie fishing day ever and one that I would just as soon forget about.

What's Yours?

P.S> The two fish got a Pardon.

Ain't nothing like that but I do have a story. This happened a long long time ago. I was prolly still in my teens. My brother and tomtom decide to night fish under a bridge "down by the river". lol

We take my car, and theres about half a can of bug spray in the trunk (maybe even less than half can). You can maybe see where I'm going with this.

So we walk down to the river and set up. I think we were just catfishin'. And we notice the skeeters are biting. My bro and tomtom go back to the car for the bug juice. They go there about a minute ahead of me as I too determined it was definitely necessary. Well, I get there and one of them is spraying the last bit of the juice onto themselves. I thought I'd tough it out the rest of the night, and just continue fishing without the spray. It was dark anyway and I could not really see how bad it really was. The next day I counted over a hundred skeeter bites on one arm, and that was only what I could see. I prolly had over a thousand bites! If I remember correctly, I called in sick to work that next day! Was long ago for sure.

Ouch... the tiger gnats hatch will eat you up in the spring also can make a bad day worse if you don't have the right juice. LOL

I can stand Mosquitos but Buffalo Gnats can be killer some springs here! Nothing worst than Gnats and high water . Fishing can be tough and the Knats leave large whelps where they bite even though they are ting little devils! Bug spray is no use , Vanilla can help but must be reapplied often. Only sure defense is long sleeves , gloves, and a headnet! i I can tolerate heat , cold , rain, wind, and most anything nature can dish out most times but draw the line on biting Gnats!

This year on Dardenelle ... Put in at Illinois where I had a very good catch the week before, Bass tourney going on with 90+ boats ... Things were slow on the crappie so I decided to motor to Piney ... Didn't realize it was that far !!! ... Started spidering .... All 90 boats of the Bass tourney came by (or so it seemed) ... About got seasick from all the rockin ... Have had enuf of the "rockin" so I head back to Illinois ... 60 hp Etec locks up (lower unit was toast $3000) ... Troll from Piney to Illinois for the next 4 hrs (all 90 Bass boats come by without stopping) .... Burned trolling motor up ($280) ... Caught a 5 lb drum

BAD DAY !!!!

LOL...Don't mean to laugh but I know that spot and can see it happening. Good One!!!

Fishing an Ark Team bass tourney outta Degray 1991. Right after weigh in at iron mountain a bad storm blew in with high winds while everyone was attempting to get back to the dam site, 2 water spout tornados blew up and we ran right between both of them and directly onto the bank in a cove..... Dumb Arse kids!!!

My worst day of fishing was February 18th 2012, it was late in the day and we had about 15 crappie. We were fishing the little red river out from bald knob and decided to run back up the river to try one more spot before calling it a day. We were the only ones on the river at that point. The water was 43 degrees, the air temp was around 45 with a 15 to 20 mph wind, we were in 20 + feet of water. One of my boats has an inboard jet drive and the chop on the water began to get rough at about 20 mph and the bounce caused my reverse bucket to come unlocked which threw the boat into reverse, this in turn forced the back of the boat up out of the water and drove the front of the boat under. In an instant the boat rolled over and began to sink. We got the life jackets out and laid across them and began to breast stroke toward the bank that the truck was on. We only had about 40 yards or so to go to get to the bank but quickly hypothermia began to set in and our arms and muscles began to become ridged, my best friend who was a little closer to the bank made it. I on the other hand tried to grab a tree limb and catch my breath. But when I tried to reach up to grab it, I couldn't lift my arms up, and my life jacket floated off and I was in serious trouble. I can't move my arms enough to swim any more and the water is at my lower lip. My friend looked around, and God provided us with a straight limb just long enough, 15 feet, to reach me. I collapsed on the bank but my friend wouldn't let me stay down and forced me to try to keep moving, the pain in my back and legs was excruciating just to move. But I got up and started to try to get up the levy. It was over a mile back to the truck but we made it, seemed like it took days to get warm again and cough up the water droplets we sucked into our lungs while trying to swim. We should all wear or life jackets at all times. Recovered the boat 3 weeks later with most of our stuff still in it and had it running within 30 minutes and it's still going today. And I fixed the reverse bucket.

A friend and I were bass fishing in a two man scamp loaded to the gills with gear and a trolling motor. A storm blew up with high wind, pelting rain and lighting all around us. The scamp wouldn't do anything but get blown in circles and was taking on water so we jumped in the water and swam to the opposite side of the lake just to get off of the water until the storm blew over. Some guy was over on the other side of the lake hollering at us wanting to know if we wanted him to call someone to rescue us. We declined his offer, waited out the storm, swam back out, retrieved the scamp and continued fishing. Good memories right there.

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Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

My worst day of fishing was February 18th 2012, it was late in the day and we had about 15 crappie. We were fishing the little red river out from bald knob and decided to run back up the river to try one more spot before calling it a day. We were the only ones on the river at that point. The water was 43 degrees, the air temp was around 45 with a 15 to 20 mph wind, we were in 20 + feet of water. One of my boats has an inboard jet drive and the chop on the water began to get rough at about 20 mph and the bounce caused my reverse bucket to come unlocked which threw the boat into reverse, this in turn forced the back of the boat up out of the water and drove the front of the boat under. In an instant the boat rolled over and began to sink. We got the life jackets out and laid across them and began to breast stroke toward the bank that the truck was on. We only had about 40 yards or so to go to get to the bank but quickly hypothermia began to set in and our arms and muscles began to become ridged, my best friend who was a little closer to the bank made it. I on the other hand tried to grab a tree limb and catch my breath. But when I tried to reach up to grab it, I couldn't lift my arms up, and my life jacket floated off and I was in serious trouble. I can't move my arms enough to swim any more and the water is at my lower lip. My friend looked around, and God provided us with a straight limb just long enough, 15 feet, to reach me. I collapsed on the bank but my friend wouldn't let me stay down and forced me to try to keep moving, the pain in my back and legs was excruciating just to move. But I got up and started to try to get up the levy. It was over a mile back to the truck but we made it, seemed like it took days to get warm again and cough up the water droplets we sucked into our lungs while trying to swim. We should all wear or life jackets at all times. Recovered the boat 3 weeks later with most of our stuff still in it and had it running within 30 minutes and it's still going today. And I fixed the reverse bucket.

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After reading your story, I think it might have been one of your best fishing days ever. Although it was certainly close to being your worst day ever. You were blessed that day!!

Good friend and I got caught in lightning storm on Ennid. Ran my toon a ground at 17 mph. Hid like wet rabbits in the bushes for over an hr. Scared to death. Won't happen again.

We are blessed with great smallmouth streams!! One of our favorite's is on the Eleven point river Elms store at the missiouri/ark state line!!!one of the prettiest rivers!! My Brother,my father and I rented a canoe to fish this river one spring mid. April.We were going to float about 5-10 miles 6-8 hr float!! Put in at daylite and take out around 3-5:00 pm!!We started out fishing was hot was catching a smallmouth around every big rock!!I was in front my brother in the middle My father in the back!! We had floated around a mile down stream taking out time and stopping on the shoal to fish!! We got back in the canoe had went around 100 yards I made a cast at this big rock just knowing a 5 lb smallmouth was on the other side.My cast missed the mark and landed in a bush right behind the rock!! I was casting a # 7 Gold shad Rap!! Not wanting to lose my lure we started paddling over to the bush in the bush was a huge WASP Nest big as a pie plate 500 angry red wasp on the nest!! Already mad at the from shaking the bush trying to get my lure back!! Dad said do not break it we will paddle over and get it!! As we paddled over to the bush the wasp started buzzing their wings!! We backed off!! Dad said we will paddle over and be real easy and break the limb off and get your Shad Rap!! We paddled over I reached out and broke the limb real easy.It was cool enough the wasp could not fly well!! The first flight(50-100) of wasp came over our heads did not sting us!! Dad said that was close!! I held my breath they (wasp will not sting )if you hold your breath!! My brother said hold your breath cause here comes the rest of the 500 mad wasp!!As My Brother dove in the water!! They stung all of us in the face neck arms anything that was not covered!!! Our face was swollen,hurting!! We gathered all our things that was floating!! We had to float down the river to our take out point With swollen eyes!! Stopped a few times to dunk our faces in the water!!

Hmmmmm. some scary and painful story's in this thread. Man... glad you all recovered from these days on the water. I know we think about how lucky we were now. There are some who were not so lucky and maybe something we write in this thread just may save the life of someone just getting into fishing or boating or jar a memory of the experienced angler or boater. I haft to admit I have not always been the safest boater on the water, but safety should always be on our mind when we are out there. A serious accident happens in a split second, our best defense is to be careful, use safety equipment and sound safe logical thinking when we are on the water.

Wear your life jacket!!! It don't work if you don't wear it!! But folks wading around in lake conway(LOL) with the gators!! and copper moccian's(snakes as big as your leg) don't know about sometimes(LOL) Keep safe!!

About 25 years ago, when I still lived around Houston Tx, a friend invited me to go fishing in a tidal pool off of the Trinity river. He had just refurbished a 22' Champion and was itching to try it out. His wife had also fixed me up with one of her buddies on a blind date. So, we only had the morning to fish. We didn't catch anything all morning. But, we did get caught in low tide. Our brilliant plan was to push this battleship in 4" of water and waist high mud to the entrance of the pool. August in SE Texas is not very acomadating for this activity. And to top it off, we were both afraid of his wife if I didn't make my date. After about two ours of pushing, I decided it was a better idea to just go ahead and die. We didn't pack any drinks and were in bad shape. My buddy waded over to the shore to answer a call from nature. While he was gone, I tried to get under the butt seat for a little shade. I got my second wind (3rd or 5th?) and decided I was not going out this way. I dug around in his boat and found a bottle with a little Gator Aide. That stuff was amazing. I wanted to live again!! When my buddy arrived back at the boat, we noticed the tide was already coming back in. We made it out fine. He never did forgive me for drinking all of the Gator Aide. I told him before I found it, I didn't care if I died. After I drank it, I didn't care if he died. I was about two hours late for the date. We didn't like each other anyway. So, not much lost there. DP

I was out running the boat in 2011, I think it was. I had just dropped the wife off on the dock, and wanted to run one more time up the lake to "burn out the cob webs". As I was making the wide sweeping left turn to head back to the the ramp (at full speed I might add), the motor kinda jumped. When I looked back, I was horrified. The motor was hanging off the transom and only had one clamp still one the boat. As I let off the throttle, the motor let go also. I had enough sense to grab the marker bouy and throw it towards the bubbles coming up from the bottom of the lake.

3 seeks later, a buddy with scuba gear located the motor and we had it running within an hour of removing it from the bottom of the lake. Kill switch did its job that day.