It's not uncommon to witness something intriguing while kayak fishing and I've had some pretty incredible encounters that are difficult to describe. From the humpback whale that almost knocked me out of the yak to the great white that sniffed out my kayak, to the moment I peered down underneath my yak (first time out on Woody Head) and saw about a dozen sharks swimming around underneath. All pretty amazing stuff to witness. But none of these come close to the storm Carl and I witnessed while fishing Teemburra dam back in 2007.

Now Carl was fully focused on catching a barra and I guess because he sees a lot of storms up there, wasn't paying as much attention as I was. He did see the lightning fireballs shooting out in all directions (and he wondered if they were meteors at the time) but what he didn;t catch was the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen, and that includes the very best Hollywood has been able to dish up.

I was transfixed on the storm clouds, which were right above us. At one point a fissure opened up and I could see clearly into the heart of it, and what I saw inside was simply incredible. The core of this cloud was literally alive with electricity, and this is where the fireballs of electricity were coming from. At one point (Carl missed this to) a bolt of lightning streaked out and forked off in a 1000 directions, each finger clinging to the base of the clouds as it traveled across the sky and dissipated. This was happening right above us, and yes, I was nervous about being out there with a yak-full of graphite rods!

I just spent about 10 minutes scanning google images to see if I could find anything that looked remotely like it, and unfortunately couldn't find anything that even compared. Even more unfortunate, I'd left my DSLR camera in the car so wasn't able to capture the moment. Real shame that, because had I been able to, I reckon I would have been able to get that shot in National geographic!

I did, however, manage to capture the moment that humpy almost knocked me out of the yak with said DSLR, and I'm pretty damned proud of the photos I got. For those of you who haven't seen them, here's a few in sequence:


*gulp*

*splish splash, I was takin a bath*

*eeek*

Thats my rod holder in foreground, just for reference, which should give you a real idea just how close a call it was. Believe me, that moment was scarier than this moment:

Awesome shots Josh, great to see them again.

Those are pretty amazing things mate. I've never seen anything to compete with either of those. I did see an enourmous oceanic sunfish doing the surface floaty thing last summer, and that was pretty cool, but no pix.

To be there on this day was AMAZING blew me away

Amongst others

I bet mate. Damn I wish i was there for that. Imagine what it was like for Paulo!

WOW guys some great stories. Cant really compete there.

Loads of beautiful mornings with the sun coming up over the ocean, dolphins jumping alongside the Yak, or Seals, and a few scary shark moments. Great experiences that make up for all the tangles, snags, and hook point cuts I experience!

I could regale you with stories from years of scuba diving weird places around the world buts thats another interest lol