Worst experience was not really with another angler but with a pleasure boater. Buddy and I were going catfishing and had the ideal spot. Knew you had to claim it early or someone would beat you there. The spot was a big sandbar in a backwash area next to the main river channel. Catfish loved to come up to the flats to feed around midnight. You had to be just off the sand bar in 8-10 FOW and be able to prevent the cats from getting back in the river channel.

We anchored around 6pm, stretched out and got into relaxing. Half asleep around 9pm my buddy said sounds like a big one, probably gonna rock the boat. Yep, make sure your rods are in the holders. Few minutes later I hear #&^%$ hes gonna hit us. Needless to say, I was now wide awake and turned to see a big, big sea ray bearing down. I was able to hit my horn 2x before abandoning boat. Crash crunch treading water and seeing you boat sink is a terrible feeling. Started yelling for my buddy and hear I'm OK.
Turned to see the back half of my boat disappear in a bunch of bubbles. Front half is floating. Swam over and grabbed hold waiting for my blood pressure to drop to a reasonable level and looked around to see the boat that hit us about 1/4 mile away and still going.

Hear some hollering, y'all OK and turned to see a guy and his son in a small I mean small John Boat motoring over. Said yes we are OK. He offered to take his son to the dock and come get us one at a time. I declined and told him to enjoy his evening because helping us would ruin his. He felt bad and stayed near us until someone with a pontoon boat came motoring up, they had everything on Video from quite a distance and offered assistance. We gladly accepted.

On the long trip to the marina, they guys wife told us about the boat that had hit us and their run ins with the same. He had never hit them but had come close and they were anchored to the bank. They had filed complaints but nothing ever resulted from it. Great folks though, they shared a few beers and burgers and dogs. Actually became friends with them and discovered how great fishing from a pontoon can be.

Between their video and some great local police dilligence, they found the guilty party in a marina about 12 miles upstream. That is another story and one not worth sharing.
End result, lost a bunch of tackle 25 years worth of collecting, Insurance paid for boat and gave a pittance for the tackle. Relatively unscathed except for a lifelong disdain of pleasure boaters that fail to respect the rules of the fishing community. Moral of the story, is to inventory your tackle. Back then I was spending $20.00 weekly on tackle. Not much you might think but that was 1983 and most of the plugs and lures were only $1.50 - $2.50. Good rod and reel were $40.00. But the worst part was the loss item items given me by my father and grandfather that could never be replaced.