Night Fishing and 2 lights go out

hunter24605

Handloader
Apr 30, 2016
2,540
4,225
Went to a local lake to try to catch some channel cats last night. Heading back to the truck around 1:30 my headlamp crapped out, fumbled around until I found my backup flashlight and dropped it, I heard it roll away. It was cloudy without much moonlight, so it was pitch black. I used the light on the iPhone, but it died rather quickly. Now it’s dark and no way to call out. I tried to find my way through the woods, but got off the path and ended up in a laurel and greenbrier hell hole. I think I was falling further than I was walking. At some point a twig grabbed my glasses and flung them. Oh boy, now I’m really in trouble. Around 3:30 I finally realized further attempts is just dangerous, and got comfy and waited for day break, actually caught some Z’s. Once the sun was peaking over the horizon I could see well enough to get out. I was only about 30’ from the trail, but even if I found it, I wouldn’t have known I was on it. Never did find my glasses or light, and honestly didn’t have the energy to fight back through the thicket and briers looking for them. My legs look like I tried to castrate a bobcat on a phone booth! Through all that I never lost the stringer with 4 channel cats. I’ll admit I was kind of worried about a bear or bobcat thinking my fish would be an easy snack, and thought about tossing them. I had the 2 piece rods broke down, but falling and getting them tangled up lead to 2 of the 3 getting the tips broken off.
 

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A rough night for sure. As Gil said, you knew enough to just relax and wait for daylight. None of us want such nights, that's for sure.
 
At first I thought a bobcat may have used your leg as a scratching post. Good to hear you made it out safely. It was a good idea to wait for daylight to be able to see your way out.
 
Sorry for your ordeal. Took a bad fall one evening going catfishing like you. Nothing hurt but my pride. Nobody asked so I will. How big were the cats and what bait did you use? Dan.
 
Glad to hear you made it back to fish another day.
I used to fish shallow riffles in a stream to catch what I have always known as fall fish ( creek chubs) the little buggers gave a decent fight and would make all kinds of sounds when you tried to take the hook out of their mouth.
I used a Mepps spinner to catch them and they made excellent bait for catfish and ells when night fishing.
 
I hate, hate, hate hawthorn. Hate it. We have some growing along our creek. We are in the high desert. Some fool brought it in 150 years ago. Hate that stuff. Glad you made it out ok. What a night. Jeepers.
 
I hate, hate, hate hawthorn. Hate it. We have some growing along our creek. We are in the high desert. Some fool brought it in 150 years ago. Hate that stuff. Glad you made it out ok. What a night. Jeepers.
You sound like my dad. He had a burning hatred of hawthorn. He made it a life’s mission to hack it down. He would say “I spent enough time tangled up in the hawthorn hedgerows getting shot at following the D-Day invasion”.
 
I had to look up hawthorn. Up here it looks like what call thornapple. Miserable stuff to walk through. The back 40 where I have 1 stand in and where my son and brother hunt is full of that crap.
 
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