My Fishing Near-Death Experience....

[Chad Justice]

And I didn't even have the boat!!



I decided to head out to Elkhorn Creek in Frankfort, KY tonight to do a little wade fishing for creek smallies.. It's something I do pretty often on a stretch of the creek that I've grown to like really well.



Now, this particular stretch runs through a big cattle farm, so it's a really beautiful, serene location where you can do as much clear thinking as you can good fishing. Well, I stayed out a little longer than usual tonight, as I went a little further upstream than normal, looking for bigger holes and bigger fish.. I found a good one, but by the time I got there it was too dark to wade in safety... A shame, given that there were smallmouths throwing water a good two feet up, busting critters on top of the water!! As bad as I hated to, I turned back...



As I walked back down, I noticed that the herd of cattle had come to the creek for their nightly watering. No biggie, I'm pretty comfortable around cattle since my in-laws run cattle themselves. The herd appeared to me to be either Black Limousine or Angus, with a Charolais here and there.. They were stretched out in such a fashion that I had no real option but to walk right through them..



I was cautious as I approached, cause I didn't want to start them running through the creek with the risk of injury. I was also cautious because I knew that, given the time of year, there'd prolly be a big bull out there too... When that thought crossed my mind, I began to REALLY hope they weren't Angus, as Angus bulls tend to be a bit mean spirited... I got about 1/4 through the herd, trying to determine the sex of each animal, when I spotted an AWEFULLY BIG COW.. I was about 30 feet away when *he* noticed me and turned his head.. Not only was he a HUGE *Angus* bull, he hadn't been dehorned... GREAT!!



I just kept up my pace as he eyeballed me.. He was off to my left, standing ankle deep in the creek when I got up even with him on my hopeful trek past.. At that point, he was about 15 feet away. Unfortunately, one of the cows picked NOW as the time to loudly scurry away from in front of me.. WELL, he DID NOT like this at all, and turned toward me and began shaking his head, snorting and pawing in the water.. AWE CRAP! I continued walking forward, pretending I didn't care if he was there or not (like his owner would probably do, I figured...) Just as I got past him, and heard something I'd hoped I wouldn't... Big boy coming out of the water.. DOUBLE CRAP!



I heard him take a few steps on the rocks behind me, so I sorta glanced back to see if he was gonna follow.. Sure enough, he started walking, following me along. I was pretty much out of the herd by this point, and none of the cows got TOO upset, thank goodness. Luckily, when he was confident that I wasn't going to harm HIS herd, he simply stopped pursuit and let me go on my merry way. WHEW!



Lemme tell ya, folks, it got to the point where I was picking the best tree to SLEEP IN for the night, and figuring out which rocks to throw to slow him down!! On a side note, I wish now that I'd gotten the chest waders instead of hip waders... See, you can just hose the chest waders out!!! HAHAHAHA!!

 

[Barry Loos]

That is why I used to put in a Strohmeyer's ramp and ease my way up Elkhorn a little. Fishing isn't as good as wading farther up but it's a bit easier to get away from shore critters than running in hip boots.



Glad you made it out.



Bear

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

You musta read my post on shooting that old bull in the nards whith my BB-gun. LOL! Them bulls can be real serious when they want. Had my rear saved by an Australian Shepard once, mean A _ _ bull had a bullseye on my behind and this dog knew exactly what to do.....he bit that old SOB on the nose and held on till I could get out of the pen. I was wading the Shenandoah River when I felt something on my leg...looked down and a copperhead decided to wrap around my thigh and take a rest while swimming across the river. Let me tell you that was about the closest I have ever come to a full blown panic attack. He let loose and went on his merry way, I don't think he liked the fact that the temp of the water around my leg went up to 98.6 if you know what I mean!!



TOXIC

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Matter of fact last night I went out to power wash the boat, reached down to grab my power washer in the garage and there was a 5 foot blacksnake curled around the wand. Now I know that blacksnakes are harmless and the old rule goes that if you have blacksnakes you won't have copperheads (I live on 4 acres of forestland so copperheads are as thick as flies and I have a LOT of blacksnakes/no copperheads), but that didn't stop me from screaming like a little girl and running out of the garage. After I swallowed my heart I laughed and went back in and "shooed" her on out. My wife who witnessed the whole thing was having a mild hysterical laugh fest in the kitchen and my 5 year old daughter wanted to keep it as a pet (yeah, I'm the man of the family).



TOXIC

 

[Bill McElroy]

WOW,..that's a lota BULL!!!...ahahaah.....I think I woulda filled those waders too!!...ida freaked!!!

Mac

 

[Staci Matheis]

Note to self: City life ain't all that bad.....

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Been there, done that, but NOT with waders on! LOL Not a huge snake fan myself. A few years back while prefishing at Lake George, I had to go, and I mean BAD! Mother nature was screaming, not calling. So I pulled over to what appeared to be a relatively barren stretch of rocks along side of a mountain bluff. This was early June mind you, when the weather finally starts warming, and reptiles come out to sun. Well, about 2 steps onto those rocks and the drawers fell promptly to the ground, see, I was in a hurry and had NO time to inspect the area, I began to tend to bidness, when I hear what sounded like the entire mountain "rattle" behind me. Now the only poisonous snakes we have are mountain rattlers, and that area is known to be infested with them. Never looked back, wiped, or anything, made one huge leap drawers still around ankles, from the squating position directly onto the bow of the boat! LOL Good thing I was alone! LOL Got in the boat, and later learned on my map that that particular mountain is called "Rattler Hill"........duh!!!!! Not that I needed the crap scared out of me at that point, but it happended none the less!

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Rob,



"Not that I needed the crap scared out of me". There you go getting Literal again. I'm sure the blast propelled you into the boat. LOL.



TOXIC

 

[Tom Mann]

Could have been worse.......could have been the dreaded "BLACK FLIES"!

T

 

[Rob LaMoy]

In retrospect, had anyone actually seen it, that must have been one hell of a leap! LOL Adrenallin helped I think! I did have to throw the tighty whities away! LOL I looked back and only counted about 4 rattlers, but I know there was more in the rocks. Now see, if I had YOUR abilities, I simply could have lit a match while letting loose and rid that mountain of ALL living things! LOL

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

T_Mann,



You HAD to go there didn't you.



TOXIC

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

With my abilities, we'd be havin' rattler for dinner!! (PRE COOKED)



TOXIC

 

[Tom Mann]

Hmmmmmmmmmm........Say Rob, you don't supose that's how those fires got started in Colorado. Boy, I'd hate to have that one on my record! "Well ya see, Mr. Rangers sir, I told these guys that I could shoot a blue streak 3 feet long when all of a sudden..........."

T

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

.........there was this rattler and I scorched 3000 acres.



TOXIC

 

[Chad Justice]

Hehehe.. It's funny you guys should talk about snakes, cause I had actually considered that to be my biggest safety concern when wading (until the bull thing, anyway!) There's yet to be a time I've waded that area that I haven't seen a snake or two, and they appear to be copperheads. I'm pretty confident that they're as scared of me as I am of them, though.. I figure as long as I watch where I step and don't let one get the feeling that he HAS to bite me, I'll be OK. Even if I do get a copperhead bite one day, I'm a pretty big guy at 6'1" & 250+/-lbs, plus I'm only 24.. It prolly won't kill me anyway. I might WISH I was dead, but hey.. Small price to pay for the chance at a nice big smallie, right??!!?!?



Hey Bear... What county is Strohmeyers ramp in?? I'm really only familiar with Elkhorn creek in it's Scott & Franklin county stretches, but I'd like to explore it a little more. It's a GREAT smallmouth creek, isn't it!!

 

[Bruce Freeman]

I don't do snakes. Most of the ones found on my property are in pieces, at least after I see them. Bruce

 

[Tom Mann]

KRIKEY!

I seen those caught in minnow traps! They can hold their breath a long time but alas, not long enough!

T

 

[Mark Hofman]

I think I've told this one before, but its appropriate here. Pardon the duplication.



My body-building, firefighter, rescue-squad member brother-in-law and I were wade fishing a section of the St. Francis River south of St. Louis. Got through a shallow riffle and stepped into a pool a couple of feet deep at the upper end. Scattered exposed rocks all around. My B.I.L. decides he needs a little nap and lays down in the water, his feet up on one rock and his head on another. Water is flowing over his stomach and chest. He tells me to keep fishing the pool and he'll catch up.



About five minutes later I hear a gasp, short of a scream, followed by a few swear words. I turn around and he's standing up. "What?" I yelled. "A $@%@$%' snake just crawled onto and over my belly! It's comin' your way."



Sure enough, here comes a big cottonmouth, lazily swimming down the middle of the pool. That thing actually swam up to Ross, stopped for a minute on his stomach like it was a resting place, and then slithered on over him back into the water.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hmmmmmmmm....... I just love these soft, warm rocks here in Missouri!

Emma Snake