Things that go bump in the night

[Philip]

So I was fishing a little lake after dark this evening, isolated place set down in some woods so quite dark and eerie. Now don't get me wrong as with allot of fishermen I am very used to the various nocturnal noises & rustlings that go on after the sun sets so dont get scared easily

However there I was sat all quietly, not a breath of wind and eveything still & calm when what appeared to be a sizable tree collapsed without warning in the woods just a few yards directly behind me. As you can imagine trees collapsing are a pretty noisy business anyway but in the still of the night in the enclosed surroundings & right behind me it really was, well lets say, quite a "event" !!!

As it was happening I shone my little head torch into the canopy behind me and fully expected to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex appear Jurrasic park style out of the trees!!! ...I think its fair to say its not something I would like to go through again :scared:


Anyone got any bump in the night stories they want to share ?

 

[peterjg]

I have night fished for decades and have done around 1200 nights. I have never seen anything unworldly and I certainly don't believe in ghosts! However; on one occasion when carp fishing I was standing next to my rods, it had just gone full dark, when 'something' gripped' my right shoulder, I span around and there was nothing there! It was most weird, I continued to stand there watching the water and then I felt something brush across my back, again I spun around, there was again nothing there?! It was not windy and there were no branches or anything that could have done it.

I fished that swim many many times after without any reoccurrence of events. Some of the club members would not fish that bank saying that it was spooky. The next swim along was called "the beware swim" , many years ago someone had carved into a tree there 'beware of the ????????' - what the last word was could not be made out. One of the members once showed me a photo of him holding a carp caught from there which had an odd ghostly outline in the background.

 

[Tee-Cee]

Apart from the odd occasion when I have packed up and headed home for no apparent reason other than not feeling 'comfortable' I have enjoyed my nocturnal outings. To this day I cannot say why the shadows or whatever got to me, but they did from time to time and staying on the bank wasn't an option!
One of my more weird experiences involved fishing a still water close to certain length of the Thames in the Maidenhead/Henley area that had these huge paddle steamers trundling up and down, loaded with party goers with much dancing and drinking. I could hear the boats coming, then this cacophony of noise, then eventually total silence. The water was that close to the Thames that the whole area would light up and I could see the lake in its entirety - then total blackness! Give it an hour and the boat would make its return journey...

I remember reading about Chris Yates having some really weird happenings at Redmire in one of his books, including sitting in near total darkness when an almighty scream rent the air and then total silence. Nobody else was on what was a very private water at the time and no explanation ever found..................I don't think he ever forgot it.

Night fishing back in the 60/70's was nothing like it is these days. Very few home comforts with just an umbrella and a deck chair for the night. Many the night when hot drink ran out and I near froze, even in mid summer. Not from cold, but lack of sleep as the body defences closed down. The only bump in the night was probably me falling flat on my face when trying to put a fish back!!

Happy days...

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Many years ago we would take one week a year sailing on the Norfolk Broads, this being long before the current "gin palaces" that have infested and ruined the peace and quiet of the broads . . . . .


One night we moored on the River Bure close to St Benets Abbey ruins and the adults departed for the pub' leaving my brother and I happily reading in the boat.


Around 9pm we were drifting off to sleep when I heard a scary high pitched scream that lasted for what seemed like ages.

When the aduts returned to the boat we told them about the noises and they said it was probably just a fox or vixen . . . . . .

I never forgot the incident and years later read up on Norfolk Broads "ghosts" and was chilled to discover the "Ghost of St Benets Abbey" having been a Monk who betrayed his brothers to the Norman invaders and who was later hanged by the Normans himself . . . .

 

[john step]

The screams are always vixen.
I bet the grip on the shoulder was a touch of cramp from sitting too long coupled with a sense of heightened awareness in the dark.

There are sane normal people who are adamant they have seen a ghost. There is a syndrome called CHARLES BONNET SYNDROME that explains this. It is an eye condition that makes people see figures out the corner of their eye. Usually dressed in bright or ancient clothes. People are relieved about their sanity once it has been diagnosed. There is a bit on the Youtube about it.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Apart from the odd occasion when I have packed up and headed home for no apparent reason other than not feeling 'comfortable' I have enjoyed my nocturnal outings. To this day I cannot say why the shadows or whatever got to me, but they did from time to time and staying on the bank wasn't an option!
One of my more weird experiences involved fishing a still water close to certain length of the Thames in the Maidenhead/Henley area that had these huge paddle steamers trundling up and down, loaded with party goers with much dancing and drinking. I could hear the boats coming, then this cacophony of noise, then eventually total silence. The water was that close to the Thames that the whole area would light up and I could see the lake in its entirety - then total blackness! Give it an hour and the boat would make its return journey...

I remember reading about Chris Yates having some really weird happenings at Redmire in one of his books, including sitting in near total darkness when an almighty scream rent the air and then total silence. Nobody else was on what was a very private water at the time and no explanation ever found..................I don't think he ever forgot it.

Night fishing back in the 60/70's was nothing like it is these days. Very few home comforts with just an umbrella and a deck chair for the night. Many the night when hot drink ran out and I near froze, even in mid summer. Not from cold, but lack of sleep as the body defences closed down. The only bump in the night was probably me falling flat on my face when trying to put a fish back!!

Happy days...

I may have it wrong by confusing two stories, but didn't Chris Yates then hear a motorbike roar-off then, later in the light of day, a fella came back to collect his tackle? Can anyone confirm this? I'm not in researching mood.

 

[Cliff Hatton]

Many years ago we would take one week a year sailing on the Norfolk Broads, this being long before the current "gin palaces" that have infested and ruined the peace and quiet of the broads . . . . .


One night we moored on the River Bure close to St Benets Abbey ruins and the adults departed for the pub' leaving my brother and I happily reading in the boat.


Around 9pm we were drifting off to sleep when I heard a scary high pitched scream that lasted for what seemed like ages.

When the aduts returned to the boat we told them about the noises and they said it was probably just a fox or vixen . . . . . .

I never forgot the incident and years later read up on Norfolk Broads "ghosts" and was chilled to discover the "Ghost of St Benets Abbey" having been a Monk who betrayed his brothers to the Norman invaders and who was later hanged by the Normans himself . . . .

That will have been St Gordon of Benet, Peter.


Like others, I've fished a thousand thousand nights, often alone in deepest, darkest environments and have never had a problem...except on one occasion at Gobions Quarry, Mucking, near Stanford Le Hope, Essex. Like so many Essex pits, it's gone now, filled to satisfy London's thirst for dumping grounds.

I'd settled in mid-evening having really made an effort to establish a well-ordered camp for the night; it had taken an age, what with cooking arrangements, buzzers, seat-levelling etc etc. Once the sun had gone down to leave that orange afterglow on the horizon so the wild life seemed to take over...a pair of screeching herons landed atop a dead, skeletal oak...the gravel margins chinked as large rats casually sniffed around...a silhouetted fox appeared on a mound close behind me...and it was getting dark quite rapidly. I sat uneasily for some while but still sure that I'd see it through the night after so much preparation and sheer effort, but soon the doubts began to nag at me. The afterglow had reduced to a mere strip of rosy light so, perhaps, it was now or never......but I snapped out of it and mentally dug my heels in: what, in heaven's name, could possibly harm me? But my courage was short-lived. As the very last vestiges of light dimmed toward blackness I stood and swept everything up onto my back and into my arms then ran as best I could over the sand dunes and across the field to my car.

Back on the A13 and with the radio on I felt I'd had a very lucky escape!

 

[binka]

I've always been of the opinion that there are far worse living beings than anyone who has passed on, the former of which are capable of causing far more harm than the latter.

I enjoy my extended evening and night sessions, nature is at its boldest which in turn puts us on the back foot as we're generally less well equipped to deal with darkness and it always raises an awareness rarely experienced during our regular comfort zone in daylight.

Certain things such as a screeching rabbit getting nailed will always make me sit up, as would a falling tree, but I can't say I've ever felt the urge to cut and run.

I don't doubt the eeriness of certain situations though and I quite enjoy it to be honest, it adds to the whole atmosphere and draw of after hours fishing for me.

I suspect the rest is down to our individual imaginations...

Most of the time

 

[nicholaslukey]

During my years carp fiashing, a local water near me, was in the grounds of an old Regency pile, the lake was a prolific runs water. I was late arriving and setup in near dark it would be late september, got the rods out and bedchair sorted under the brolly, and promptly fell asleep, I woke up to find it really foggy, curiously I saw a small glow on the far bank, and thought another angler had turned up at a late hour. I stayed awake for a couple of hours made a brew etc, the glow was still there when I eventually nodded off again.

As it was, no fish action during the night, and as dawn broke I was anxious to see who was fishing, so I wound in and took a walk, only to find no one around. I fished the place over quite a few seasons, but never went there on my own again. I still don't like fishing on my own during darkness.

 

[chrissh]

Some of you that fish Lincolnshire may know this…it not as spooky as it sounds there is a lake/s in Lincolnshire and at the crake of dawn all you hear is carp buzzer going off even if no one is using them

This lake has a big population of parakeets which I was told escaped from a wildlife park a sum years ago in one of the high wind storms and thriving and breeding in the wild

These parakeets have learnt to mimic the sound of buzzers and it’s become there calls to each other and have got them off to a T with different sounds which make you look around for someone else on the lake

i dont want to name the lakes because one of the lakes is a very good tench lake

 

[bracket]

I have never had a supernatural occurrence whilst fishing. I did have an out of boddie experience in the pub some time ago. They had run out of Boddington so I had to drink Fosters. Weird. Pete.

 

[The Runner]

Years ago when I lived up there, me and a mate were night fishing a pond about ten miles out of Newcastle (the splendidly named Willie's Well) for eels. At about one in the morning I got this really uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched, turned round but couldn't see anything, and feeling more than a bit spooked, got up and walked along to my mate for a chat. At which point a voice close behind us said "It's OK, its just two blokes fishing" and a couple of lads emerged from the undergrowth , one with a crossbow and the other a few yards behind him with a very dead deer draped over his shoulders.
Had a chat and a cup of coffee with them before they disappeared into the night again as silently as they must have approached us.

 

[maggot_dangler]

I have been fishing the canal by me .

When a huge splash just out of sight of my position someone had tossed a settee over a bridge into the water not unusual around here .

As for the urgent feeling of needing to cut and run yes had that one twice recently linked to not being how shall we put it not in a nice place for a month or so and spells in hospital i actually managed to overcome said feeling wednesday just gone at last .

PG ...

 

[Philip]

When a huge splash just out of sight of my position someone had tossed a settee over a bridge into the water not unusual around here .

..was it followed by someone shouting - I said a LOAFER float, not a sofa float


...I'll get me hat..mg: