Scary-But-True Fly Fishing Stories from Our Listeners
“So I’m sitting with my feet off the edge of the boat, and my dad hooks a fish. It seems pretty big, based on the way it was pulling, so I look over to see if he needs help. Sharks, barracuda, eels, and other creepy ocean dwellers can freak out fishers. I haven’t fished that section of beach since, maybe someday I will. He put his head down and started to walk down the beach with his dog. One cloudy morning, there were maybe a handful of sufrcasters up and down the beach that morning.
You see, the USCG paints/sinks/burns the rafts when they are found and the occupants detained and returned home. However, when you find one that isn’t painted or burned and without life… you can kind of guess what happened to those people on board while trying to find their freedom. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is not a perfect horror anthology since it’s extremely simple in concept. A monster shows up, a kid disappears, and then it’s rinse and repeat for an hour and 47 minutes.
Captain William Toney with a nice Big Bend trout.Florida Sportsman Big Bend Podcaster Captain William Toney is a fourth generation Homosassa fishing guide. He has a treasure trove of great stories, but his favorite involved his grandfather and great grandfather. They were out fishing one night when they ended up deciding to spend the night on a place called Ghost Island. Now Ghost Island already had a spooky reputation, but old timers like those two weren’t about to be scared of any ghost. They had just settled down in the total darkness when they heard the unmistakable sound of a commercial mullet fisherman setting his net. A little investigation revealed their nephew, young Ken Toney dropping the end of his net at the edge of the island.
Finally, we found the ledge we needed, and started filling our box, much to the relief of us, and our guests. The Japanese Coast Guard has reported around 200 instances of ghost ships over the last few years. However, unlike the Bermuda Triangle, the boats have been found, and with human cargo on board. One such recent incident happened off Fukui, a port city on the main Honshu island. The decomposing corpses of seven people were found on a drifting wooden fishing vessel in mid-December last year.
We sprinted through the undergrowth and made our way to the police station. On the way, I told Oleg in a trembling voice about the severed hand and the man’s terrifying face. Not knowing what I had seen, he looked at me in bewilderment. The man in the hood was standing up and coming towards us.
To put it another way, people have died from this fish, being struck by their solid, bony heads as they jump. Those who survive an attack walk away with broken bones, scarred hearts, and a healthy newfound fear literally hammered into them. Here are three scary-but-true fly fishing stories our listeners have shared with us. My two buddies from the war and I go about twice a year on a weekend long fishing trip.
They hid in silence while Ken returned to where he had started his set, and then grabbed the end of the net. When Ken first started pulling his net, their tugs on the other end must have made him think he had a net full of mullet. The closer he came, the harder the old men pulled back against him until Ken must have suddenly believed the stories of Ghost Island were true. Overboard went the net, catch and all, and to this day I don’t know if William’s Uncle Ken has gone anywhere near Ghost Island. I quickly looked over the back but saw a big stir of silt where the battle happened but no sign of the catch.
If it’s too cold the fish are harder to catch because they are sluggish and not to mention very uncomfortable for you no matter if it’s hot or cold. However you also see things at the opposite end of that spectrum. I’ve witnessed predators hunting, people get hurt, and the downright scary. Growing up my whole life in Northwestern PA it was interesting to say the least. When you throw outdoorsman into the mix you get a brand new mix. I’ve seen a lot that Science refuses to admit is real.
I had been fishing at night off some of the cliffs on the west side of the island, out past Kahana and I was always buying my bait. I was after some GT or Ulua as they’re called in the islands. From late 2002 to 2004 I lived on the island of Maui.
Lashell Middlebrook is a former American zookeeper and the current director emeritus of the Zoo and Aquarium. She is 37 years old.