Join the Discussion "What do you do when a thunder storm comes up while you are fishing? Do you keep fishing or do you take action to protect yourself?" Ronnie
More of this Feature
• Part 1: A shocking boat wash  • Part 2: Praying in the storm:
Related Resources • Fishing and Lightning • It Was A Dark and Stormy Night
Past Articles One Year Ago - 7/29/02 - Crazy Fishing Critters Two Years Ago -7/23/01 - Night Fishing Three Years Ago - 7/17/00 - The Bassmasters Classic - Close Don't Count Four Years Ago - 07/19/99 - Netting Crappie Five Years Ago - 07/20/98 - Snakes I Have Known - Part 2 Six Years Ago - 07/21/97 - Bowfin - Fish or Monster?

Last Sunday the Flint River Bass Club had our monthly fishing tournament at Sinclair. About 30 minutes before quitting time thunder started rolling way off in the distance. I couldn’t help but think of the irony of my article about lightning the same day I was fishing in a storm.

Some other lightning memories make me realize how careful I need to be when I fish. I used to camp by a family at our boat club at Clark’s Hill and got to know Bobby Hammond pretty good. One day he was washing his boat while it was tied to the bank and a thunder storm came up.

He got into the boat and continued to clean it. He later said he felt safe since he was in the boat, not on the ground or in the water. He happened to reach over the side and dip his wash cloth into the water at the same time a lightning bolt hit a pine tree on the bank about 150 feet away. It knocked him on his back in the boat and he was knocked out for several minutes. It was a good thing he was not standing in the water.

Back in the 1970s I lived on College Street and had a dog. There was a big pine tree just one step from the side of my carport and I ran a 1/4 inch steel cable from it to another tree about 100 feet away. From the cable a chain hung to the ground with a clip on it. I could clip the dog’s collar to it and she could run around a little.

We had a bad thunderstorm one afternoon and I got the dog in the house just before a tremendous bolt hit the tree. When I went out later the chain the dog had been on was welded to the cable and grass was burned where the clip was laying on the ground. It was a good thing I brought her into the house when I did.

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