I’ve been passing lots of Halloween-decorated houses on the way to the water this past week, giving each trip a spooky feel right from the get-go. That in combination with the fact that most of my fishing buddies have cut back their fishing hours has had my mind wandering to possible bad scenarios that could play out while alone on the beach at night. Some fears are grounded in reality—a hook pulling out of a fish and into my face, getting swept out to sea—and others are totally irrational, but kind of funny.
1. Seal Attack
I hate seals. Not just because of what they’ve done to Cape Cod surfcasting, but because I genuinely fear them. Nothing creeps me out more than wading into the surf and having a basketball-sized head pop up and stare at me from 15 feet away. These animals weigh two or three times what I do, are probably ten times faster in the water (maybe even on land – I need to hit the gym) and have inch-long canine teeth. In reality, seals have no interest in fishermen, just in their fish, but if they wanted to, seals could dish out some serious damage, and that is why I get spooked every time I hear a seal surface nearby when I’m fishing. At least when I’m with a buddy, that rabid seal has some options.
2. Earwig Burrowing into Ear
I used to call them “pincher bugs” when I was younger. I think I preferred that name, since before I heard the name “earwigs,” I never considered that these insects had any interest at all in my ears. Earwigs are all over some of the rocky beaches I fish. Cuttyhunk especially seems to be infested with them. They readily crawl into my eel bucket, and I routinely find two or three in there after returning from a night’s fishing. My worry with earwigs is that they’ll crawl into my ear while I’m sitting on the rocks between tides. If that happened, I’m also worried that instead of carefully extracting the bug from my ear cavity, I’ll overreact and smash it, leaving bug bits all over the inside of my ear.
3. Alien Abduction
Ridiculous, I know, but if I were an alien looking to abduct someone, I’m not taking some person out of their bed or house in a city where they’ll almost surely be noticed missing. I would find the poor lost soul walking a dark beach on the wrong side of midnight, and beam them up. There are lots of surfcasters with stories of mysterious lights over the water at night. Even OTW Publisher Chris Megan has a hair-raising UFO story from a trip along the Elizabeth Islands.
So what has you looking over your shoulder when you go fishing?
Funny stuff. We’ll have to fish Montauk and alternate Montauk Monster watch duty.
oh man jim, that article was a trip. i often get spooked when i’m by myself trying to find some action for my pole. i’m mostly into ice fishing and the thing that gives me the willies the most though is drunk drivers. when im out on that ice on a cold february night, i find myself constantly looking over my shoulder for a crazy drunk who stumbled out of the bar and is now slipping and swerving all over the frozen lake looking for a parking spot. man, even typing that gives me the goose-pimples. thankfully, that never happened to me but it came close one time. last january i was on erie by myself when i found myself in a steaming heap of trouble with – you guessed it – a drunk driver. i had an unusually big bite especially for ice fishing. i was fishing for yellow perch but this was taking more line than that. i thought it might have been a monster walleye or something like that but after fighting with the goober for a good 45 minutes, i didn’t know what to expect. i felt like i was battling with a mother-lovin marlin or something!! so i finally bring the sucker to the top of the ice and i reach down to grab it by the mouth and to my amazement a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee came busting out!! i was so scared i wet my waders!! i tried to calm to SUV down but the crazy driver wouldn’t take his foot off the pedal. finally i wrestled him out of the driver’s seat. he was wasted and apparently got lost on his way home from the bar. anyway jim, what could have been an awful situation ended up being my favorite fishing story. the driver was actually a good guy. his name’s frank. i have him mounted on my mantle.