I fish with guys that have a little difficulty with "size estimation", whether a fish, wave height,or more personal anatomical measurements. What I want to know,though, is what is your biggest seas you have fished in on purpose, whether breaking waves like the OI bar or swells in the deep, and what were the snottiest you have been caught in un-awares. Also boat size,too,please.

To get the ball rolling, I was mate on "Therapy" a lo-o-o-ng time ago and we spent nine days fishing out of OI from the fishing center in May. During that time,we had o fishable days,so we went for it ,out to the Stream in 35 mph from the NE. While only a few miles off,we stopped and were catching chicken dolphin,and it wasn't bad UNTIL WE GOT IN THE STREAM. I have no idea what height we were fishing in, but baby, what a beating. That counts as stupidity. Fishing in the Mako (22 ft) this past winter I had quite a few times I got caught in 8'ers plus,which were breaking.
OK,what about you all?

Wreck fishing out of Atlantic Beach, NC on a 55ft boat in 5-7ft seas with lightning striking the water about 50 yards from the boat. What a sight to sea, I will never forget that one. Tuna fishing out of OI on a 55ft boat in 6-8 foot seas all day long with some rain here and there at times. Tuna fishing out of Hatteras last year in 6-8 with a 9 or 10 in with the mix on a 45ft boat. Last but not least flounder fishing in the bay at the cell we got caught in a nasty storm. We were in a 25ft mako in 4-5ft seas with rain like needles going about 15knots all the way back to Poquoson.

8 - 10 out of Hatteras earlier this year....bigger swells in the stream...didn't stay long.....Otter, Don and Mike (Skinney skid and Rockn Robin) were with me so they can verify or change wave height if required...I'm in a 28'6 Southport Center Console...

Can we count being out at sea in a Navy vessel ? Because I was in a Typhoon back in 1987 in the pacific where the seas had to be 20 - 30 or higher, I was on an LHA (like a carrier) and waves were breaking over the bow !...however high that is.....

Don...on another note...you web site is now linked off my web site..locals page...check it out....Bob

http://www.teamstillthinkn.com/locals.htm

Whew! I always ask old time navy guys who are patient's of mine what their biggest all time waves were,and they always say North Atlantic winter gales, when she can pitch up fifty footers plus. I have no desire to see those puppies except on TV.

1st. 55 mile out of rudee the wind picked up out of the west about 25mph it was a 3 1/2 hour ride in into 7-8 footers. one of my buddys was praying on his hands and knees for his life in the cabin.

2nd. was hatteras inlet big south swell it was calm once we broke threw 5 or 6 12 footers tubing across the inlet.

3rd. was right off the beach in hatteras with 4 big reds on and a 6 footer broad sided the boat i thought we were going to roll over.

24 foot 1972 sea ray great boat still try to fish it every weekend.

also almost folded my 16 foot polar craft coming back from false cape one day when the wind came out of the NE

Worst by far, my mainden voyage on the Still Think'n outta Hatteras this spring!!! 8'-10' was right on the money and that was before we hit the gulf stream, wore the skin off my hands holding on to the T-top. 30+ knot winds makes no where to hide on a center console, even a mighty Southport!!! Glad we made it home that trip!!

My Oldest Sister takes the cake,she is a professional singer she does Vegas and Atlantic City,she has cut a few albums and had a MTV Video when MTV first started.She was the headlining entertainer on a cruise ship named the Princetendom,they were 120 miles off Jenu Alaska when in the middle of the night the ship caught on fire.The Crew bailed and left every man for themselves,the lifeboat instructions were in every language but guess what.My sister was considered an employee of the ship so she was one of the last people off the boat.She was in a nightgown in a liferaft for at least 10 hours in 13 foot swells finally she was airlifted by the USCG Helo team.Not one person was lost and there were alot of elderly persons onboard.Later in court she was awarded 110,000K but most of that was spent on paying back her wardrobe company.That pales any stories that I have.

Wow...that's a hell of a episode to have to endure...glad she and everybody else made it out OK......Bob

10-15 out of oi on the dream girl

As an old salt I've been in 25' plus but the biggest I've ever tried fishing in was 8' to 10' on the first day of this years rockfish shoot out. That was in a 27 footer. I'm sure that there were a few larger but they went unnoticed.

When you are in the trough and you cant see the boat next to you,its time to head back to the inlet.

14-16 footers on 18hr trip out of Morehead on the Continental Shelf 95% of people
aboard were sick.you couldn't be inside it smelled SO BAD!!!!
6-8 footers on 25 Angler coming back from one of the towers out of OI,and surfing
the bigger ones at the inlet plus another time out of HI coming back from the gulf stream after the winds picked up.

Yes...the "Hatteras Revival Trip" with Bob gets my vote. 8-10 with 30 knot winds and breakers rolling past while offshore...nothing I want to see anytime soon!!

Black Adder, My Dad served 25 in the Navy and tells stories of crossing the North Atlantic and taking waves over the bow of his supply ship. The ocean can be an angry beast.

--Don

My reason for bringing up the subject is some new folks may be under the impression our intrepid band of small boaters are (what somebody said earlier when the forecast was 18'-25' out of HI) going for it in extreme seas. I think I speak for all that we may get caught in big stuff,but WE LIKE LIGHT SWELLS AND LIGHT AND VARIABLE IS STILL MY FAVORITE FORECAST for wind.

I agree that slick calm is often not the best bet for catching, but I am looking forward to seeing it again!

Amen, Brother Adder!!!!!

My worst was 26 years ago in Chesapeake fishing stripers at Bloody Point when looked like huge school of bait was coming straight at us under beautiful skys. When it got to the boat temp dropped 10-12 degrees. I yelled to get everything up and going cause I had never felt that much of a temp drop so sudden. Had my wife and one other couple onboard. Within 5 minutes we had 6 footers in the bay coming out of the North. We needed to get to Sandy Point (North). Ran in the trough across the Bay and the lightning was everywhere. The tallest thing in that boat was my head. Boat was a 17' Boston Whaler Montauk. So much rain that when I gunned boat on eastern side of channel motor went under water. Guy in boat jumped on 5 gallon bucket and started bailing. Last trip I ever made without bilge pump. Guy bailed his own rod and reel overboard without knowing it. We found his lure hooked in the back with line out but couldn't retreive rod. Made it to Uncles cottage on the Severn River because we were done getting beat up. Another 2 miles straight into the waves would have taken us to our car and trailer but we couldn't make it. Guys wife was hysterical. Never so glad to get on solid ground. Broke steering wheel (plastic) about 2/3 the way through the battle because I was using it to hold on. All arrived safe but will never forget that trip.

Good Point BA.The Bay can get really ugly in a short time that trip around Cape Henry can be a Bitch in the winter time.

One of the worst we had was off the Research Pier down at Duck in late Feb. a couple of years ago. That day it blew up into brisk 20 kt northeast breeze in the afternoon at 20 degrees F. Of course, we were in the fish big-time and stayed too long--leaving Duck at 4:30 pm in near darkness, howling wind, big choppy seas and then - the worst ICE, I have ever seen. When we finally got to Lynnhaven (we had to abort an attempted entry to Rudee Inlet) at 11:00 pm, we had 2 inches of ice over most of the boat and 4 in on some parts. The radios quit because the VHF antennas were 2 in. in diameter with ice. The reels looked like white basketballs of ice. We were listing to starboard from the weight of so much frozen spray on that side. The windshield was 2 in thick and we came home almost completely with the GPS chartplotter and looking out around the curtains because we could not see a thing. If it had gone another hour at the rate we were accumulating, I think we may have capsized from the load. I will never say a bad word about Yamaha motors because they saved me that time.
In keeping with Don's memorable quote -"we got right with God that night."

i guess it was 1998 or 98 i was fishing on the Obsession out of pirates cove. Weather called for 4 to 6 building to 8 winds out of the Ne at 25. The group of green horns that i was with thought no big deal and asked me what i thought. I told them i have caught my share of fish and didnt need to prove myself to any one. but i did tell them it would be rough.

Jeff Ross said he didnt care he had fished 20 days in a row. he could use the day off.

well needlesss to say we went and the stream wasnt bad espically in that big battle wagon, the problem was the storm that covered OI out about 10 miles. I ran the Obsession in through because Jeff and his Mate Jeff were stowing gear.

Now i have surfed down the face of waves in 20 footers cobia fishing on diamond shoals in the past but to surf some of those wave in that 50 footer. it was weird. the waves were a sloppy 8 to 9 with the odd 12 to 14 thrown in.



But the worst was Decemeber 3 years ago. 30 to 35 degrees out side light wind ran from the Rappahannock to 36 A. the winds turned to NE at 30 seas 6 foot and sloppy.

took two hours in my Albemarle to get home. and i left early. some guys that went with me took 4 in bigger boats.

As always, this site is informative and entertaining!
By the way, I ask this every year about this time, so here goes: Anybody's boat ever been struck by lightning? The National Weather Service folks go on and on about the danger, but I don't know anyone that actually had a strike! Course,those that DID have a strike may not be around to report!

Back in the 80's, I used to codfish every Good Friday out of Montack Point with a Capt Mike Potts and Blue Fin IV.One time, we decided to try even though it started out with 8 to 10 ' seas, as they were more rollers than chop.One of us, the only professional waterman among us(lobsterman) got sick on the way out, but we continued.
The fishing was good and the mate got alittle behind shucking the skimmer clams.
My brother , in his search for more bait,did discover a bucket in a corner of the deck and tried to bait his hook with it. But it turned out to be the puck from our seasick buddy!!!
We did have some real giant swells that day, but because they were swells,rather than steep waves, it was kinda fun.

By the way, I only heard one story (from my seasick lobsterman buddy) of a boat being hit by lightning.
He was out pulling traps off Huntington harbor in LI sound and a storm came up fast. He saw a strike occur very close to another lobster boat near him.He tried to raise him on the radio,but could not, so decided to check him out.
Turned out the lightning bolt hit the poor guy's radio ant.,exploding the fiberglass covering. The guy looked like he got mauled by a tiger. Due to Pete's hunch, the guy lived.

14 - 16 feet. We were on the leader board with two days to fish at the Big Rock. With no laydays left, there was no other option. Only 3 boats out of over 200 fished that day. Cap'n B is a 46 Jarvis-Neuman out of Hatteras Harbor, built in Maine for the North Atlantic. The owner/captain is an old buddy of mine. Crazy SOB. The tournament helicopter came up to see the crazy bastards out of Hatteras battle the big seas. They got a pic of the boat laid over on her beam ends, and posted it on the tourny website with the caption "Hatteras Hardcore". Well, we never saw another marlin, and finished out of the money, but the pic made us local heros, for about 5 minuets.

Have you ever been in an electrical storm and felt your hair get tingley?Thats when you are on Zeuses menu.

I have had lightning strike the light pole at CBBT pier while sitting with some other chaps beside it. (30-35 years ago) Not sure if the energy from the stroke or our own muscle response took over, but we were all knocked down, and I clearly remember rolling agcross the deck.Next thing I remember was racing half a dozen other hardcore types down the pier to the snack bar. I think I won. Maybe.

Yea lets put Johnny Knocksville of the MTV show Jack Ass in one of those storms with an aluminum Foil cap and a long car antenna attached to the top.I bet he would feel the pain then.

30 footers deep in the Lynhaven Inlet.We were cobia fishin.18ft boat by the way.The beatings only make us stronger!!!!

check - out the web sight the uss St LO/uss midway-bad day at sea,My old man was 15 yrs old