Biggest waves/swells you've been caught in ?

[floppychicken]

Ok,

I know you die-hards have been in some rough water. What was your worst experience and where ? Fishing or not...

Cheers,

/FC....

[TJG]

30 foot drop off a wave, on the coast of Aruba.

[Jamie]

20 footer that crested into the back of the boat on the west side of the QCI.

It got a little wet....
I can still see it like it was yesterday...
Both Doug and I saw it comming and both said OHHHHH **** at the exact same time. Funny thing was it didnt overly effect the boat. I was surprised, well surprised and wet.
The water out that way is not for the weak at heart or stomach.

Jamie

[floppychicken]

Holy Sheep Sh!t !

Those are mighty big waves.... Beats me hands down !

A buddy and I were stuck in 4 and 5 foot swells in a 10 foot Zodiac in Lower Arrow Lake with improper PDF's and no emergency gear (first and last time I can assure you...).
We got stuck in the middle of the lake in a freak storm and were riding waves over peoples docks that had been torn from their moorings. Some of those docks were freakin' HUGE !!
That was by far, the freakiest ride I've ever been on. Being only 10 inches off the water was pretty weird to begin with and I was just waiting for debris from one of those docks or a stray log (tons of logging wood floating in that body of water) to come up through the floor of that Zodiac. I've been told that we were lucky it was a inflatable boat or we might not have made it back....
After 'smoothly' riding out that storm in that little inflatable, I tend to agree with that statement. We both learned a valuable lesson that day !

/FC....

[The Fisherman Guy]

Eighteen to twenty five footers rolling in sets on the coast of Peru. Wooden fishing boat would pick us up at the local fishing dock, and shuttle far too many men at once out to the main transport boat, then to the platform, offshore, everyday.

http://photos-e.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v250/149/99/518079652/n518079652_501924_546.jpg

[Reeves1]

East coast of the QCI, was headed for the Skedans to fish for Rockfish, Ling etc. In a 14' Hourston Glass Craft, 50 Merc. That inlet goes nuts during tide change. Had one wave come at me and I was standing up...had to look almost straight up at the wave. All I could do was head straight for it and hope the crest didn't break (it didn't). Had to be in the 15'-20' range.
Last time I ever tried to go through that area during tide change !

[bearbait]

6-8 footers out at slave is the biggest ive fished...after that the boat stays at the dock...

[SNAPFisher]

4 to 5 foot waves on Siebert Lake during the fall. Crazy little storms one after another with big wind. There were 3 of us in a 12 foot aluminum. Draft was maybe 6 inches at the back. Once we got into these bigger waves the life jackets were on and I followed the waves in. My arm was so sore from coming down the front of the waves. The pressure on the tiller was impressive. I knew if I made a mistake by turning sideways that we would be in the lake but that didn't happen. Felt good to get back.

[Map Maker]

good stories..

My worst was when i was 18 yr old with my father, going across the huge Sturgeon Lake in Nor. Ont.
We had to head across the main lake in the middle of a squall. The waves were huge.
We were driving a 14' aluminmum with a 25 hp on the back. I was driving and i had to throttle the gas to stay just to front of the top of the wave. I remember my father peering down over the front and all he said he saw was air for about 8' to the bottom of the wave.
our boat was just like a surfboard. one of those times where you know you were lucky to have survivied.

[gonefishin]

The biggest were about 10 - 12' off the coast, but the most memorable was on Chain Lakes (Athabasca). A buddy and I were in our float tubes during a storm and the waves were so high that when one of us would go and the other would go down, we couldn't see each other any more. The storm only lasted for about 15 minutes and then the fishing was awesome, so it worked out ok. The legs sure got a workout that day.

[Appletree]

I've jogged some miserably high seas in the Gulf of St Lawrence on a DFO survey boat; I couldn't tell you how high the swells were, but they certainly dwarfed the 20 footers I'd seen previously. Winds were at 60kts for a couple of days.

Needless to say, we weren't trawling (or doing anything else that involved going out on the deck).

[SouthAltaHunter]

4 - 5 footers at Lake Newell, at beginning of June in 2007. Was in 12" alluminum fishing at spillway when storn blew in. Thought we could make it to Kinbrook park, when boat started to fill up fast with water. Boat had to much gear, 2 people plus 2 batteries, trolling motor, cooler, fishing gear. My cousin was bailing water as fast as he could. We made it to island just north of boat launch, back end of boat was completly submerged. I upgraded this year to 18" Crestliner Superhawk 1800 with 150 Opti-max. Fished Lake Newell the last 5 days, with 2 bad days of high waves. Yesterday morning & Saturday with no problems, sure nice to fish there now when the water is rough.

[Hunter Trav]

Played in 5-6' waves at Lesser Slave a few years back. We rented a big pontoon from shaws point, and we were launching it into the waves. We'd go over one, and nose dive into the next. We were having fun until one guy got cold and whiny, so we had to go back in...wussy...:rolleyes:

[Walleyes]

It can get very scary out there often enough.. One thing I have learned over the years is to not be brave but smart and you may live to talk about it. No fish is important enough to risk your life over.

I have been caught by surprise a few times and each and every time I have been very thankfull to make it off to talk about it.

I think some people and myself included tend to exagerate the size of a wave we get the lenght and height combined and the waves appear or become much bigger. Here is a handy tool I have found that explains waves quite well and can be a handy little experiment.

Have fun with it.

P.S. here is to a safe summer on the water to all.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/volvooceanrace/interactives/waves/index.html

[Penner]

I wasn't caught in the swells but kind of forced into them. I'm uncertain to how big they were but I need to get our 12ft aluminum boat from one spot on shore over to the boat launch on Winefred Lake as we were heading for home that day. It was only a short distance a few hundred yards but crazy none the less. Empted the boat of everything except the motor, gas tank, and me and a life jacket and I headed out. My buddies on shore said they lost sight of me everytime I went down into a swell. They were scary big but I made it to the launch alive.

And the other time I was out on lake Atha B on a trip where I thought our guide was smoking something when he said the waves were not all that big. Again when you loose sight of the 18ft aluminum boat thats traveling 100ft just ahead of your boat, in my books those are big friggen waves. With 50HP outboards we were not traveling more than a real fast troll due to the rough water. Needless to say we got very wet on the trip back to the lodge. Me thinks the guide was just saying that to keep us from jumping overboard. Those are by far the biggest waves I've ever seen on a fresh body of water. HUGE!:sick:

[sportster]

ran into 25 footers off ucluelet, 50 ft. cruisers 100 ft in front of us would disappear in the swells. the skipper wouldn't head out to the halibut grounds cause it was just to dangerous.

[floppychicken]

Yikes !

Those are some pretty wild Experiences ! I suppose I'm fortunate that I haven't been in anything quite as nasty as most of you. I certainly don't intend to either....but as many of you have stated, the storms blow in quickly and you either head for the launch or head to the nearest shore and wait out the worst of it (which is what I should have done on Lower Arrow Lake).
It does however make me feel a bit better about owning a 16' Deep V though..... I figured a wider beam, deep hull would be safer on the water and I hope I'm right in that assumption. Please correct me if I'm wrong !

I've seen people fishing in some lakes in 2 foot rollers, which aren't very big but with 2 or 3 persons in a narrow 12' aluminum! I swear the backs and sides of those boats were only INCHES away from the waterline and these dudes had no life-jackets on or anything... I just don't understand that ! I mean, give yourself a chance ! If you have a 'good' Life Jacket, you can at least bob around for a 'good long time' after your boat hit's the bottom of the lake.

Wasn't there some kind of terrible drowning tradgedy recently that had to do with inadequate Life Jackets or Life jackets not being worn or something ?

/FC....