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Decided to hit late erie today with a good friend for some fall monster smallies, weather is overcast with a chance of showers, fish most of the morning with limited success, around 1:00 p.m a small rainshower starts but some thing weird is happening, evertime i lift my rod its making a buzzing sound, the more i move it the louder it gets, i look over to my buddy Rick and low and behold all the loose threads on his rain jacket hood are sticking straight up in the air, to top it off we cast out and our braid line will not lay down but is arching 20 feet into the air, we were totally freaked out but just as fast as it started it stopped, our lines dropped and everything was o.k, honestly i think we escaped maybe a possible lightening strike, very weird for sure! some pics!!

Very weird indeed.
Reminds me of a time I was fishing from a dock, and as it started to rain I could feel static electricity charging up in my hands while I reeled in my line.

On a better note, that's an awesome smallie!

St. Elmo's Fire, if it would have been dark, you would have seen the light.

Billy Bones

I would have been cowering in a ball on the deck of the boat the whole time.

Nice smallie

you are VERY lucky...that is often the prelude to a lightning strike

lucky boy u are! nice smallie too!

Yes! Very lucky! That is an extremely clear sign that you are about to be the target for a lightning strike. Usually, people only get to witness one of those things and if they know the signs, they drop everything and boogey! If they do not, they become a bbq. You guys have no idea how lucky you actually are! Casting flouro line and having the lure almost suspend itself in mid air is one the biggest signs of all. Let alone braided line! Holy!!! Rods crackling and snapping would be more then enough to get me moving the heck out of there!

Ab

Had something like this happen to me once but I just thought it was the mushrooms Well that and it involved no boat or water and more of a screwdriver and electrical outlet!!!

walleyemen wrote:weather is overcast with a chance of showers

understatement of the year award!

Glad you guys are alright! I'm not sure I'd have a clean pair after that....


E

Abraxus wrote:Yes! Very lucky! That is an extremely clear sign that you are about to be the target for a lightning strike. Usually, people only get to witness one of those things and if they know the signs, they drop everything and boogey! If they do not, they become a bbq. You guys have no idea how lucky you actually are! Casting flouro line and having the lure almost suspend itself in mid air is one the biggest signs of all. Let alone braided line! Holy!!! Rods crackling and snapping would be more then enough to get me moving the heck out of there!

Ab

With a near gravity-defying lure... thing of how far you could cast that "one last cast" though!!

It is definately from the electricity in the air, I have had that exact thing happen to me a few times. my lure would lit the water but the line would remain arched and not drop. I dont know if it means you are going to get hit by lightning but I wouldnt take the chance, unless the fishing was really good

I have had that same experience (mono arcing and not settling on the water) happen on at least 3 occasions. The most recent time was this summer during a torrential rain storm. There was no visible lightening or thunder anywhere in the area. Like idiots we continued to fish although we were quite nervous. We would have had about a 6 mile run back to the dock and it seemed like we would have been running into the storm not away from it.

The first time that I experienced this phenomena was about 6-7 yrs. ago. That time it was not raining but lightening could be seen and thunder heard in the distance -- probably at least 10-15 miles away. We skedaddled off the lake that day.

Yep sounds like St. Elmo's fire. Still, I would have probably been on the deck in the fetal positioning turning my pants 3 shades of brown. Yikes!

My brother and I were just talking about some memorable times we've raced electrical storms back over the water. When that happens, I start praying my Hail Mary's. I've been in some scary spots, but nothing like where you see your line hanging in the air or rising up. I would have died. Actually, you're lucky you DIDN'T !! Crazy pictures (cool, though)!

W.

PS: very nice bass, but not sure worth getting crispy fried for.

That is amazing....I'd have been searching the clouds for alien craft & expecting to be beamed up at any second.