When Lightning Strikes

A fishing rod

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Unreal

Reel still looks good.

Wow! I think I will get off the water a little faster when I see lighting. Never feel I had a close call but have friends say they have seen there fishing line lift up into the air and hair start to rise on top of head.

I was casting 1/2 ounce Krokodile lures off the Two Harbors breakwater when a storm began approaching and the line lift was enough that the lure would just skip along the surface and was not able to sink. I left as soon as that happened. An ugly storm hit by the time I made it to the parking lot.

Nothing scares me like lightning. Thursday a bolt hit 2 houses down while sitting in the screened in porch. It makes a much different sound. Sizzle, crack and then the thunder rolling away from you.

I get paranoid even with distant lightning. It just freaks me out, although I’ve gotten a little better with it.

Don’t have to be on the water to get zapped. We saw the storm coming so we exited the water. I was walking around the boat to tie it down, buddy was in the boat putting things away. Huge crack of thunder then my buddy crying out expletives. Glad I was not touching the boat and greatfull just a small jolt effected my buddy. He goes did you feel that?
“No, but I sure heard you”

Lightning is nothing to mess with.

When I was a kid we had a red roan and blue roan quarter horse(just trail horses, not show) that we had both bred with a blue roan stud (hoping to get another blue to sell $$$), dad put a good chunk of change into it and had a guarantee if they died in the first 12 months for any reason the mares would get bred again no charge. We ended up with another red and blue. At about 14 months all the horses were huddled under a tree and lightning hit the tree. Only killed the two foals. Last time we wasted money breeding horses.

There was a local famrer who had been hit multiple times, never direct, it would hit the barn and travel through the milk lines and zap him, his name I cannot remember.

Lightning hit this tree a 100 yards from my house. Blew it up. Debris scattered for a hundred yards

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When I was younger I had the line lifting into the air,But I heard a clicking sound and between the reel seat and my thumb a steady blue spark. Got out of there.DK

With that nice of a reel I am sure it was also a nice rod. I wonder how the warranty worked for him. Looks like it would have been hard to get the serial number.

I got stuck in a storm on Pepin about 4 or 5 years ago. We were in my duck boat. By the time we saw it come over the bluff, it was too late. We high tailed it to shore and had to pull the plug halfway to drain some of the water. We hit the sandy shore going at least 15mph, beached her and ran. Seconds later lightning hit a tree just up the shore from us. About 15 minutes later? Blue skies all day!

Have experienced the line levitating twice. Also heard a distinct snap at the rod tip while making casts on one of those trips. Would happen with every cast. Decided it was time to head in.

Hmmm. Mike was there more to the story?

Where did the charge go from there?
I would of thought there would have been some boat damage even though fiberglass is an insulator, wet fiberglass will conduct.

The motor is running so that wasn’t effected. I would have thought anyone on board would have died or at least been taken to the hospital with a bolt striking that close to them.

I’m not calling it fake, but leads me to some questions.

You can look it up on Facebook (can’t access it on work computer here) Billy Alstrom (Suncoast Fishing Charters) and get more details and photos.

The photos are just of the rod 4 different angles and not anymore revealing. He does say the boat will be out of commission for a while. He also says that they were stranded in the middle of a lightning storm after being struck. But he also does pimp a couple products (Yamaha and some bibs).

This is the Captain who is always on Fishing the Flats with Henry Waszczuk.

Speaking of Waszczuk, I can’t stand him. He’s worse than Get the Frabil Gillespie.

A former coworker’s dad was struck by lighting bailing hay a number of years ago. He was all by himself, the thunderstorm was still miles away, but BAM, dead.
This is why they now make sure to mention that lightning can strike miles from any thunderstorm. So even though you may see it off in the distance, they are still very dangerous.

While people think golfers are at highest risk, between 2006 and 2014, people fishing accounted for more than three times as many deaths as golfers, while camping and boating each were responsible for almost two times as many deaths as golf.

The idea of a lightning bolt finding and striking a person directly seems so random, but in fact, most people who were hurt or injured weren’t struck directly. People can fall victim to lightning striking a nearby object when the current jumps, as well as through conduction and ground current.

Because ground current strikes affect a much larger area than the other causes of lightning casualties – the current travels over the surface of the ground – this type causes the most lightning deaths and injuries. It’s especially bad for livestock.

11 Facts about Lightening

I was always told, if you are close enough to see lightning you are close enough to get struck.

Most experts say if you can hear it (10 miles), you can get hit by it.

Babble mode engaged:….
Summer of 2000 I was headed SB on the KS Turnpike(I35) just S of Wichita in the big truck during a good TS….Heard a LOUD crack and the truck’s engine shut down…..guy on the CB says “dude you just got hit by lightning!”……
The fillings in my teeth hurt for 2 days…

Just turned on a show I’ve never seen on the outdoor channel called Survival Science. The show is on lightning.

Turns out that is what happens to a graphite rod when its struck by lightning. So it’s legit that the rod was struck by lightning.

On the show they have a machine that reproduces lightning. They showed that a car is about the safest place to be. They had to sit on one for 9 minutes while the charge built up and then zap. There is no way I would have done it, I don’t care how much they assured me I’d be ok.

I hope the universe isn’t trying to tell me something with all this lightning crap.

Can we talk about boat inspections now?

WOW!!! That’s crazy! I hope I never have to experience that..

The last time I was on the Big Pond a few weeks ago, I cast out, & my line stayed about 2 feet off the water! It wouldn’t “settle down” until I reeled in. That was the first time I had experienced anything like that. I had always heard of it but never saw it. Weird thing was, it was overcast but not a storm in the state..