Went fishing up in the mountains this weekend. Kicked azz but on the third day(sunday) we woke up to a light rain.

We headed out on the water at about 9:00 to the usual spot and trolled for about 30 minutes.Big black clouds started rolling in. As my girlfriend was reeling her 2nd fish in, each time she lifted the rod up gaining line i noticed a humming noise, like the noise you hear under power lines. I looked around and couln't figure out where it was coming from. In a minute or so she landed it,we restarted the motor and when she picked up her pole and grabbed the line she got a small shock. She told me this and i grabbed the pole and felt nothing, then just as i grabbed the line we both heard a crack that was about half as loud as a fire cracker, and i got a big time shock that raced up my left arm and stopped at my right shoulder blade and then began to hurt instantly. I looked at my girlfriend and our 6yr old and their hair was standing straight up, and it hit me, we are about to be struck by lightning. I grabbed both of them and shoved them to the floor with me and hit the gas and moved as quickly as possible. When we stopped, the noise was gone and the hair was down, so we motored over to my friends boat to tell him about the strange experience and as i am talking to him i hear this noise again and look over and my g/f and her hair is stranding straight up again, so we both motored off the lake as soon as possible.

At first we didn't put 2 and 2 together. But the more we peiced the story back together, it was obvious that we were right in the middle of an ion field that builds just before a strike. And that i either got struck or completed a circuit by grabbing the line and the pole, and the air, full of static created the juice.

This experience was not funny at all. And taught all of us a very serious lesson. I had never experienced anything like this. If i had known that sound and that taste in the air, we would have moved alot sooner and may have avoided injury alltogether. Then we get home and see the news issueing a severe dry lightning warning for the mountains and foothills.

I have been in dry hot weather many times edlessly trolling with downriggers and have never got any sort of spark from the boat, DRers, or trailer. So we ruled that out. Anyways, if you come across any of these strange occurances, move quickly or just get off the lake. I wouldn't want any of you to become toast while fishing. So keep your eyes ears and noses open.

FlyFishnFreak