crazy animal encounters

I had a rabid mosquito attack me once. It ended up splatted on the living room wall. Naturally, at my wives request, I cleaned it off real well, and buried it at sea (flush!).
That is all I can come up with......

 

Fishing a pond in SC and a big gator was on the bank across from me, threw a cast and it got in coming straight for me. It's common that they get close to try and grab your catch but this one kept coming and full on chased me a good 50 yards. Ran right over my two other rods, somehow neither one had a scratch on it. good adrenaline rush.

Another time I was walking out along a jetty and a big fish started flapping between me and my board, scared the shit out of me. The water was super muddy so I never saw what it was but let's just say the water got a bit browner.

 

Had my boat out on a local lake and a similar thing happened. Beaver was pi$$ed we were fishing where we were. I didn’t see him until he slapped his tail about 10 feet from my boat. Sounded like a cinder block hitting the water. Then he swam under us and did it on the other side. Did a couple laps around my boat and then left. Pretty wild experience. 17 foot bass boat, so it’s not like I was in a little row boat, he def was not intimidated by us.

 

When I was growing up in FL, we would catch bluegill and slam them against the ground to stun them and then feed them to the gators. One particular lake near my house the 7 foot gator would sit about 4 feet out and just wait.

Another time went to visit my aunt and her husband up in Safety Harbor at their condo. My unc was showing me his new salt water baitcaster in the neighborhood pond. About a 5 foot gator grabbed the lure. Yeah reeled it in, grabbed it by its tail and threw it in their outdoor utility closet until his boss got there to see it. Then grabbed it and threw it back in the pond. Florida. LOL

 

Sounds about right for the 727 lol

 

Raccoons. I was camping with the fiancee. Hanging out by the fire. It's dark. I usually tack a garbage bag to a tree until it's time to go to bed. So we heard a rustling, look over and see this raccoon messing with the garbage. My drunk ass thought I'd scare it away so I kind of got up and yelled or whatever. This thing just looks at me. So then I give it a little charge and yell combo and it runs off into the woods. Ok cool. A few minutes later I start putting the fire out and cleaning up so I can go to bed. We heard some serious rustling coming from the woods. Serious enough that I was convinced I would see a few deer scatter by any second. So I'm looking into the dark woods not seeing anything. Then the noise stops. Then I see the gleam of a set of eyes looking at us. Then I see like 6 more sets of eyes looking in. Threw a rock into the woods and they run away. I told the lady there attacking. We got a code red. Throw everything in the truck and jump in the tent. As were running around the eyes start popping up all around us again. Damn racoons, or rake-ins (how i like to pronounce racoons), were staging an attack. Grimy little guys

 

You went about it all wrong...

 

Hey brother, I am old skoole, we were 813! HA HA

 

I was playing disc golf at the new course in Surf City a few weeks ago. On hole #9 there was a large barn owl sitting in a tree in the fairway. We decided not to throw and scare him away, so we just walked the hole. When we got to the pin I turned around to snap a pic and it swooped out of the tree and grabbed a rat out of the brush. He flew back up to his perch and started ripping it up. The owl had to be 6 feet wingtip to wingtip.

 

Reminds me of another story... I used to fish a lot from a canoe in the cedar rivers and lakes down in South Jersey. One evening I was out and all of a sudden something slammed into the bottom of my boat. Then it did it again... and again. Scared the crap out of me... and I couldn't figure out what it was... thought somebody was throwing things at me from the shoreline. Next thing I know I see this river otter giving me the stink eye from a log.

 

Same difference lol, I remember those days.

 

Sept 2005- 0415- Late shift. SLC-4 East. VAFB. Walking down the hill, whooped…..carrying a cheap wally world zipper top lunch box. On my back swing this damn coyote grabs the bag and spins me around. I instinctively grab harder and then I’m facing 3-4 of the damn things that think this lunch bucket contains the cornucopia of food……I release the stupid shock-green bag, snap out the buck knife and back slowly down to the gate as they tear that fkn thing to shreds trying to get to my greasy left-over containers…….my nads dropped back in place about 30 minutes later.

 

When I was maybe eight my brother started screaming from the bathroom. He was sitting on the toilet and right in front of him with its tail arched up was a scorpion. Grandpa came in and pushed me out of the way. He squished the scorpion with a piece of toilet paper and said "Cockroach." Another lesson in not being scared from the greatest generation.

 

Lol, similar thing happened to me about a dozen years ago. Going to bed one night and one of those little bastards zapped me on my bare foot. I whopped him a few good ones and tossed him in the toilet, flushed him and went to bed.

Woke up the next morning and proceeded to the head for my morning thing. After a few secs I looked down and saw the scorpion between my legs just mere inches from my most vital organs.

I totally firehosed my entire bathroom.

 

Dolphin are territorial, and highly sexed. Very intelligent, not primitive and reactionary... notashark lol, so you were very smart and lucky to get out of his zone. Once a big bottlenose shot right past me in the opposite direction as I was paddling out an inlet along the rip, and it was like a full grown thoroughbred race horse just missed me, almost a head on collision, mere inches away. All muscle, 800 lbs at least. Majestic but holy shit I almost freaked out but it was over so fast I didn't.

Too bad their football team sucks so bad.

 

Yeah man. Up here on LI, when i see dolphins they are usually way past the line up. You'll see them swim by and jump or whatever. And it's cool to see. But it's at a distance. I was down in OBX awhile back. It was my first experience with a dolphin up close and personal. I'm out surfing and again we all see dolphins much further out. Cool. Well they got in close and started swimming all around the line up, just hanging out. Still cool. Well then one swam directly under me, inches under the board. I had to throw my feet up on the board. Didn't exactly spook me, just took me by surprise. That's a big animal, like you said, solid muscle. Of course i knew that, but it didn't really register in my brain until that moment.

It was a really cool experience the way they were just hanging out with the surfers. Not being aggressive or anything. But it was humbling realizing the sheer size up close. Definitely surfed more cautiously after that. Probably wouldn't end well if i goofed and got in one of those things way.

 

Similar experience for me down in OBX. Was out surfing alone and some dolphins came by. Looked like the juveniles were more curious than the adults, and would come in really close to me... then the adults would come in and chase them away, and would pass under me just an inch or so under my board. Then they just moved on.

 

I see dolphins almost every session but two encounters stick out in my mind.

One time, just before sunrise I’m sitting by myself on a super foggy morning on a head high to slightly overhead swell and no wind. Very grey and gloomy. Suddenly out of nowhere a huge bottle nose comes flying out of the wave that was approaching me, I froze and just braced for impact, I have never seen one so big in my life. The sound he made when he broke the surface and went flying i’ll never forget. Luckily he landed just shy of my dome piece, and then he swam under and disapeared. And then it went back to being quiet, calm, and eerie. But the waves were really fun I know that much.

Another time 4-5 dolphins decided to come flying right toward my wife and I when we were at Ponce Inlet. They swam under and then caught a wave with me as I rode down the line right behind them as they cruised along. I’ll never forget it. It was a chest high glassy day with crystal clear blueish water.

 

Two stick out in my mind.

1.) When I was 7-8 years old, my dad, stepsister, who was 4-5 at the time, and I had walked through a wooded beaten path to a nearby Bay Area beach. On our travel back on the path we got charged by 4 German shepherds going full throttle from 100 yards away. We ran but they surrounded us kind of like wolves in a pack, snarling and showing teeth. My dad quickly swooped up my sister and put her on his shoulders. I was 5 yards too far from him to get me, so he just told me to stay still. We were locked down by this wolf pack for a solid 20-30 seconds, which felt like an hour. I wasn’t very big either so looking at these beasts almost eye level snapping at me was scary as hell for me. Eventually the owners ran calling after them before anyone got bit. Turned out they were being trained as police k9s. Will never forget that...


2.) Surfed some stomach hi waves within 25 yards of humpbacks breaching at IBSP this past summer. They were following bait fish. Hundreds of ppl on the beach gathered for a standing ovation, while I got a front row seat in the water for 10 minutes. Beautiful big beasts.

Nature sure is something.