OT: Phobias-Never go in water you can't see the bottom

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:35 am

We all have phobias, even me and I'm not afraid of much.

The one phobia I have, and I've mentionedit before is I will not go in water I can't see the bottom of. Period. I don't care how shallow or deap it is, if I can't see the bottom, no way.

I just found an article about some sort of animal biting swimmers in an Indiana lake. Here's the link:
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Warnin ... 50959.html

They even got pics of the 2"x2" hickey that things putting on people.
It just reinforces my phobia ... stay out of the murky waters. Boats OK, shores OK ... water - NO.

Joe

Gun Smith · Post by **Gun Smith** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:40 am

I agree. Going into unknown water in your bare feet is crazy! Anything is there from Stingrays in the surf to broken bottles in a lake.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 11:48 am

I don't think that line of thinking would do you much good down her in N. Fla. Joe. I can take you on a tube trip where some of the water looks to be 5 or 6 feet deep but if you slide off your tube you won't touch bottom till you hit 18 or 20 feet. The water is crystal clear and move very slowly.

bdhold · Post by **bdhold** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:12 pm

Catfish? They just need a good grappler to solve that problem.

Jason_W · Post by **Jason_W** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:15 pm

Hmm, definitely not a toothy fish. A catfish is probably the correct hypothesis, though most kinds of sturgeon have a mouth that could leave a similar mark.

Anyone else like "River Monsters"?

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:39 pm

Rusty wrote:I don't think that line of thinking would do you much good down her in N. Fla. Joe. I can take you on a tube trip where some of the water looks to be 5 or 6 feet deep but if you slide off your tube you won't touch bottom till you hit 18 or 20 feet. The water is crystal clear and move very slowly.

Rusty,

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough when I said:
"The one phobia I have, and I've mentioned it before is I will not go in water I can't see the bottom of. Period. I don't care how shallow or deap it is, if I can't see the bottom, no way.

I should have added: If I can see the bottom I don't care how deep it is either.

You see, it's not the depth of the water that bothers me, it's weather or not I can see through it to the bottom.

Joe

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:46 pm

I'm out of my depth on this issue.

Sometimes I get anxious feelings, and won't go somewhere that involves crowds, or bad traffic.

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:49 pm

Joe,
And I was going to take you skiing/tubing up here at Seneca Lake!
It's nice and black and 600-700 ft deep! How bout just long enough to get you up on skies quick?

Jason_W · Post by **Jason_W** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 12:56 pm

BlaineG wrote:I'm out of my depth on this issue.

Sometimes I get anxious feelings, and won't go somewhere that involves crowds, or bad traffic.

I have that as well. It's not so much crowds as traffic and the unknown for me. It gets pretty bad at times, occasionally to the point of being paralyzing.

I have that and a fear that I've left the door unlocked, or an oven/coffee pot on when I leave the house. I've been halfway to work before and have had to turn around, go back and double check

2ndovc · Post by **2ndovc** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:00 pm

BlaineG wrote:I'm out of my depth on this issue.

Sometimes I get anxious feelings, and won't go somewhere that involves crowds, or bad traffic.

I'm with ya on the crowds. Can't stand it.

I grew up next to a big 'ole muddy river. My my parents couldn't keep us out of it.
Back then Lake Erie wasn't all that clear either. The zebra muscles did a job on that.

jb

Griff · Post by **Griff** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:00 pm

BlaineG wrote:I'm out of my depth on this issue.

Yeah, most murky topics leave me high & dry also.

rangerider7 · Post by **rangerider7** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:14 pm

Your dads and grandpas must not have made you strip off and go get the doves that landed in the tank! If you hesitated they would hoo-rah you all the way to grandmas.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:46 pm

RR7,

The strange thing is, as a kid I didn't have this phobia. Mud holes, ponds, murky edges of slow running rivers, lakes, didn't matter. Sure does now though.

Joe

2X22 · Post by **2X22** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:37 pm

Crowds don't bother me much and I'm what my wife calls a recluse, a hermit, a mountain man

But spiders. I have arachnophobia. Fought it for almost 50 years....

Deep water? Naw, I'll swim in the ocean and not let it bother me a bit!

2x22

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:43 pm

Joe, it just might be that you have more sense than the rest of us......There's big, teethy stuff down there....

O.S.O.K. · Post by **O.S.O.K.** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:52 pm

I don't mind not being able to see the bottom in a freshwater lake - though it does give me the the heebies to swim in the ocean. Guess I watched Jaws too many times.

KCSO · Post by **KCSO** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:58 pm

So this means you don't want togo noodling? Hey there are places here you couldn't even go in the POOL!

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:04 pm

KCSO wrote:So this means you don't want togo noodling? Hey there are places here you couldn't even go in the POOL!

togo noodling ....

Not a chance!

Naw, I don't any love bites like that girl in the article.

Joe

RIHMFIRE · Post by **RIHMFIRE** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:18 pm

JOE
WE HAVE TO TAKE YOU SCUBA DIVING....IN ABOUT 100' OF WATER....
OH YEA....ITS TONS OF FUN WHEN THE VISIBILITY IS LOW....
WITH SHARKS, BARACUDA, STINGRAYS AND TONS OF OTHER GAME FISH!
USE TO WINDSURF IN THE OPEN OCEAN.....MILES OFF SHORE....
BUT.....TOO OLD AND FAT FOR THAT ANYMORE!

OR MAYBE GO SWIMMING IN ONE OF FLORIDAS RIVERS....STAINED
WITH TANIC ACID FROM THE TREES....LOOKS LIKE ICE TEA....
IT MAKES IT REAL EASY FOR THE GATORS TO SNEAK UP ON YOU!
AND NEVER MIND THE WATER MOCASINS, RATTLERS, COPPERHEADS
ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLES, SCORPIONS, SPIDERS AS BIG AS YOUR HAND....
THE WILD SWAMPS OF FLORIDA ARE REAL FUN....
CHECK OUT SAVAGE WILD ON THE OUTDOOR CHANNEL....TO SEE WHAT I MEAN...

THEN YOU CAN GO INTO SOME OF THE SPRINGS HERE....AND ITS
CRYSTAL CLEAR...SO CLEAR ITS HARD TO TELL HOW DEEP IT IS...
IF IT HAS NOT RAINED IN A WHILE....VISIBILITY CAN EASILY BE OVER
100' ....EVEN MORE....

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:35 pm

RIHMFIRE,

Wouldn't mind trying scuba diving. Just once.

As for the rest, I'll skip 'em all but the last one.

Joe

Blaine · Post by **Blaine** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 4:02 pm

Old postcard of The Blue Hole in northern Ohio near Lake Erie....

It was always reputed to be bottomless. Divers have lost their lives trying to find the bottom. I guess they have closed it as an attraction as people kept being snatched by something from the water. The old indians would camp there and worship the Water God that lived there.....I was there a couple times...it's one spooky EssOhBee

Mike D. · Post by **Mike D.** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:01 pm

I routinely dive in the local river, which is murky to the point of being able to see only a few feet with the most powerful dive light. We call it black water diving. With all the northern state rains in the past few days, excess water will be released from Lake Shasta and the river is expected to rise about 1-1 1/2' by tomorrow. No river diving until July for me.

Old Time Hunter · Post by **Old Time Hunter** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 5:34 pm

Not to sound too flippant but, out on our lake you only see down maybe twenty feet or so and I do not have a problem diving in off the boat. Not even ten years ago or so my sons and I would motor half way between Marinette and Fish Creek, Wisconsin to swim in the middle of Green Bay...'course that's only a couple of hundred feet deep so I do not worry about hit'n bottom with my head.

O.S.O.K. · Post by **O.S.O.K.** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 6:17 pm

BlaineG wrote:Old postcard of The Blue Hole in northern Ohio near Lake Erie....

It was always reputed to be bottomless. Divers have lost their lives trying to find the bottom. I guess they have closed it as an attraction as people kept being snatched by something from the water. The old indians would camp there and worship the Water God that lived there.....I was there a couple times...it's one spooky EssOhBee

Weird. Maybe is a sasquatch.

Never heard of this. Something snatching people?

gak · Post by **gak** » Fri Jun 04, 2010 7:50 pm

J Miller wrote:RR7,

The strange thing is, as a kid I didn't have this phobia. Mud holes, ponds, murky edges of slow running rivers, lakes, didn't matter. Sure does now though.

Joe

----
+1 the older you get, the more you know...
I've always been a water rat. As a kid my folks called me a fish for the amount of time spent--and ability to stay long periods at a time--under water. A very good swimmer too. If not for bad eyes, I would love to have been one of those Sea World whale and dolphin trainers--would have been great at it. Always loved ocean snorkeling, and still do; if I can actually get down in it and see, I'm ok. Used to be I didn't care a bit if it was "black" below. The older I get though, looking down if I can't see I don't like it at all.

El Chivo · Post by **El Chivo** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 2:04 am

The thing that bothers me the most is tight spaces, we went spelunking once and had to squeeze through an area where there was only about a foot of space. I was a skinny kid at the time but the feeling of those slabs of rock against my chest and the idea of getting stuck in there made me turn back right then.

firefuzz · Post by **firefuzz** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 5:31 am

rangerider7 wrote:Your dads and grandpas must not have made you strip off and go get the doves that landed in the tank! If you hesitated they would hoo-rah you all the way to grandmas.

I haven't heard a pond called a tank in years. My Grandpa always called them that, I think it's an Okla/TX word. Fond memories, thanks. Getting nibbled by perch and crappie is common in the murky lakes around my local, especially if you have a mole on you arm or leg. Never got bite by a big fish, got bumped by about a 20lbs catfish while siening a pond for crawdads tho. Scared the bejeebers out of me.

Rob

rjohns94 · Post by **rjohns94** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 8:53 am

more info on the blue hole:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Hole_(Castalia)

Nicknack · Post by **Nicknack** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:22 am

This eerie place Mt Hypipamee crater Atherton Tablelands is in Far North Queensland it is the most beautiful country in Australia.
Still gives me the chills to even see it in picture form.
Regards Dallas Australia

Old Shatterhand · Post by **Old Shatterhand** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 9:51 am

J Miller wrote:---I just found an article about some sort of animal biting swimmers in an Indiana lake. Here's the link:
http://www.whas11.com/news/local/Warnin ... 50959.html

It looks like the kid has been bitten by a pike (Esox lucius) - not quite uncommon here in Scandinavia. A hungry pike can bite anything that moves, and they have rather nasty teeth.

I think that abhorring to go into the water unless you see the bottom is not a meaningless phobia - it is just being careful. A pika could hide ther in the dark!

Old Sh.

milton · Post by **milton** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:06 am

The Blue Hole area has some interesting geology.The company I worked for has several quarries in the area mining high purity dolomite.There are several sink holes in the area as the dolomite is prone to producing them.Before I left the area someone was drilling and found the buried remnant of an impact crater that was pretty good sized.

kimwcook · Post by **kimwcook** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:09 am

I was told a story years ago by one of my Chief Deputies that was also a diver. The Grand Coulee Dam, which is at the north end of our county, has to be inspected at times by divers. Now, these are professional construction diver's that dive all over the world. One of these divers went down and immediately came back up and quit the job. He said there were sturgeon down there as big as buses and he wasn't going in again. I understand sturgeons aren't maneaters, but when they're that big, I wouldn't want to swim with them either.

Oh, and professor, I don't have your phobia, but I have a very healthy fear of sharks.

gak · Post by **gak** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 10:43 am

For you Texans out there, I lived as an Air Force brat a few years in San Antonio (64-66). We used to go to a place called Edge Falls north of town...a limestone (or such) sink hole, I think on the Guadalupe. Gorgeous falls, clean cold water pool of decent size -- a real summer treat. But talk about dark water! Reportedly, some amateur airmen divers tried to find the bottom, never could. Edge Falls was shut down years later, I understand, by the local rancher/owner after some trouble, a drowning, diving (from the top of the falls) accident or such - maybe combined with too many folk (they charged something like $5 a car back then). A real dream-like, almost tropical place of the sort you just don't expect stumbling around south central Texas. What a great place to while away a sultry summer afternoon in the Hill Country. Never went there, but I understand that much-better-known Hamilton Pool in the same general area is very similar.

Markbo · Post by **Markbo** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:19 pm

I've dived with sharks, I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, I routinely handle spiders and snakes - including Diamondbacks.

It is not a phobia, but a neurosis bordering on obssesive compulsive... I cannot STAND the way my wife loads the dishwasher! I have to have all the silverware segregated and everything else in the right place. This kind of obsession leads me to be rather organized though.

As far as phobias... I am not sure if it counts, but I don't much like roaches. We have little ones, medium sized ones and great danged big ones and I wll jump and squeal if one runs over my bare foot and I'll hop around like a cat afire getting away from one coming after me. Not proud of that, but it's the truth. And it seems to be just roaches. Beetles, spiders, etc, etc are all good.

O.S.O.K. · Post by **O.S.O.K.** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 3:54 pm

Ever see the movie "Hildago"?

Remember the locusts?

Well, if times get real tough, we will be glad that the roaches are around - roast em up a little and they make first rate survival food.

Hamilton pool huh? I had not heard of either of these - I need to check this out! Thanks for the head up.

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 4:46 pm

I've caught rattlers with my hands, I am avid spear fisherman, i've wandered all through Grizz country with no gun

but these things scare the poop out of me

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:21 pm

Joel,

I have no idea what that thing is, but I saw them often enough in AZ. Outside I'd walk away from them but the one time one got in the house he got a very liberal bath in chlorinated break clean.

I have no phobia for roaches but I do detest them. I also use chlorinated break clean on them. It's the one thing I know of that kills them deader than dead right now fast. And with the spray nozzle I get to where they are.

kimwcook,
I've been around fishermen in AZ often enough to hear many stories about the huge monster size catfish that live at the bases of the dams. Not sturgeon but huge enough to have mouths that are as big around as most humans. I do take these stories with a grain of salt, but having seen pics of the huge catfish caught in Spain in recent years I have to believe it's very possible.

The fear of huge fish in the water is not anything to dismiss I think. Considering that we humans are not native to water we are totally out of our element. So these big fishes got the edge on us. Especially sharks. I really like to watch them ... on television. I don't wanna be in the water with them.

Joe

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:26 pm

J Miller wrote:Joel,

I have no idea what that thing is, but I saw them often enough in AZ. Outside I'd walk away from them but the one time one got in the house he got a very liberal bath in chlorinated break clean.

I have no phobia for roaches but I do detest them. I also use chlorinated break clean on them. It's the one thing I know of that kills them deader than dead right now fast. And with the spray nozzle I get to where they are.

kimwcook,
I've been around fishermen in AZ often enough to hear many stories about the huge monster size catfish that live at the bases of the dams. Not sturgeon but huge enough to have mouths that are as big around as most humans. I do take these stories with a grain of salt, but having seen pics of the huge catfish caught in Spain in recent years I have to believe it's very possible.

The fear of huge fish in the water is not anything to dismiss I think. Considering that we humans are not native to water we are totally out of our element. So these big fishes got the edge on us. Especially sharks. I really like to watch them ... on television. I don't wanna be in the water with them.

Joe

If they made a Brake Cleaner you could spray underwater, I bet you'd be a little ballsier Joe.

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 6:32 pm

Break clean is my favorite stuff. I don't know what I did before they invented it.

Miller's Law #16: If I can’t spray Break Clean on it, I won’t work on it.

Joe

firefuzz · Post by **firefuzz** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 7:37 am

Lake Tenkiller is one of the most beautiful lakes in Oklahoma, a favorite of divers with cold, very clear water for our state, I took my open water there. Noodling is also a favorite past time there. I've SEEN catfish with mouths big enough to swallow a basketball with no effort. I'm not about to stick my arm in a mouth like that.

Rob

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 8:49 am

Just found this on my ISP news this morning:
http://www.sailangle.com/news/details/id/3436
250.3 pound, 8.136 feet long wels cat fish. No, I'm staying out of water I can't see the bottom of. PERIOD.

Joe

madman4570 · Post by **madman4570** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 9:40 am

Joe,
Ok,I give up on getting you into water with no bottom able to be seen.
So,I guess I can tell you of the little trick I would have played on you if I got you up here at Seneca Lake

(Our little lake Initation)

What I do is when who ever the new person is (not knowing this trick)is trying to put on the skies/ bobbing up and down in the 600ft deep black water like a top.(I quietly slip over the other side of the boat and swim underneath the boat and come up from below your feet like a shark and "grab/pull you down a tad"

Usually I tell them as they are slipping into the water to get their little minds warmed up "watch out for jaws/you know huge man killer Bull sharks thrive in fresh water?

See what you missed?

When this trick was done to me in 1975 up there---it was the week after I saw Jaws 1 at the theater.(it almost gave me a frigin heart attack)

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:31 am

madman4570,

I'll go out on the lake in the boat, but I ain't getting out of it.

Joe

Mike D. · Post by **Mike D.** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 10:43 am

Joel wrote:I've caught rattlers with my hands, I am avid spear fisherman, i've wandered all through Grizz country with no gun

but these things scare the poop out of me

That's just an old Jerusalem Cricket, often called "Potato Bugs". Harmless, they spend the majority of their lives underground.

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Tue Jun 08, 2010 8:52 pm

I live about 30 min from Hardy lake. Go kayaking/swimming there often. Not had any problems, not smart enough to be afraid.

Don

J Miller · Post by **J Miller** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 8:41 am

Don,

If you come out of the water with a big hicky, you realize pics are required.

Joe

Mokwaw · Post by **Mokwaw** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 9:25 am

We had a blue hole here in Huntington, it was very popular in the early part of 1900's for swimming, and parties, there used to be a band stand, and concession stand there. Was reputed to have fish large enough to swallow a child. It was an abandoned lime stone quarry approx 100 feet deep. The water was actually blue due to the lime stone. They drained it a couple of years ago to start reworking the quarry due to the type of lime stone came into demand again. The DNR was there to catch and relocate the fish. The biggest fish they came up with was 35# carp, no monsters there. Although there were the remains of the old tool shack the was covered over when the quarry filled with water. I would like to have worked the bottom sludge over with a metal detector, who knows what small treasures were there, coins, rings and other jewelry, but the company that owned the quarry would not allow it. They scooped it all up with front end loaders and used it to build berms....

...oops I think I'm getting this thread way off track.... so I guess my phobia is the government coming to my door demanding surrender of my guns...............................

gak · Post by **gak** » Wed Jun 09, 2010 11:55 am

Deleted. Meant as a PM.