Odd Static charge..

This might sound weird.
Saturday had been a patchy stormy day so we waited for the weather to blow over before we went out. Got to the sand bar and anchored, about an hour passed and we noticed a dark cloud coming.. check the weather looked like a little rain that should last about 5 minutes. (which it did)..
Put the top up so we wouldn't get wet. Wife and I are sitting in the back the pontoon where I have a plastic 3 rod fishing rod holder with rods in it... I noticed a buzzing sound and when I leaned closer I noticed the hairs on arm being attracted mostly to the center fishing rod.. when my arm was about an inch way Zap I was nailed by static electricity...HOLY Crap... I could hold my arm an inch away it was a constant charge. literally a small lightning bolt from my arm to fishing rod and it even jumped from my leg over to my wife's leg... Yeah it didn?t feel great but I was kind of intrigued...I look up at my 2 boys standing out front and their hair was standing straight up... This where I crapped my pants and got the hell out dodge. I'm no meteorologist but I know lighting is the cause of negative and positive charges and I didn?t like the situation. Got back to the marina and the charge was gone but I was talking with my buddy who came from the opposite direction to the same marina and said he noticed the same thing with his wife and daughter's hair...

Anybody else experience this or have any input on what happened???

Re: Odd Static charge..

That's pretty darn wild!....I don't know what would cause that but would like to find out!

Re: Odd Static charge..

Yeah I'd like to know too. I've been shocked a few times and this wasn't some little rub your feet on the carpet thing..I was amazed by the length of the arc

I actually grabbed the one fishing and and pulled it out the holder... that didn't feel so great..

Re: Odd Static charge..

That dark storm cloud still had the potential for lightning, just so happened you were slowly draining off the charge with your fishing rods. There are an amazing amount of lightning hits to fishing rods specially if they are the graphite variety.

Re: Odd Static charge..

Basically you were damned lucky you didn't get hit by lightning. There was a strong potential difference between the cloud and ground (water), but it hadn't yet built up to the point of a lightning discharge.

Re: Odd Static charge..

Had that happen to me and a buddy of mine on a redfishing trip down on the flats out of South Padre Tx. Scared the hell out of us too. My buddy was standing by the center console rod holders and the rods started humming, we looked at the guide and he said to cast out one more time watch what happens then gotta go. We did and the weirdest thing happened the bait hit the water but the mono stayed airborne...... As luck would have it though we were hurrying to get all the lines in and my bud caught the biggest red of the trip. We got the fish in and ran through the rain back to port. Interesting trip to say the least. Wouldn't want to do it again!

Re: Odd Static charge..

Pretty common event to have graphite rods rattling in the holders with a thunderstorm around.

Re: Odd Static charge..

When a conductive rod points up in the air, it will draw the static to it. If you ever get caught like this again, lay them down flat on the deck.

TerryMSU

Re: Odd Static charge..

you guys should have went out and bought some lottery tickets right afterwards, lol. Definitely a pre-lightning strike situation.

Re: Odd Static charge..

Happened to me backpacking once, I was on top of the tallest mountain for miles during a cloudy day with slight rain. Looked over at one of my fellow hikers and his hairs was standing straight up. I said ha ha, you should see your hair, he looked back and said "well, you have an afro, dude". We ran down the mountain, once we hit the treeline our hair sat back down. SCARY.

Re: Odd Static charge..

TerryMSU said:

When a conductive rod points up in the air, it will draw the static to it. If you ever get caught like this again, lay them down flat on the deck.

TerryMSU

Click to expand...

Terry is right on---thats the story people tell right before they were struck by lightning---squat down as low as you can- with only your toes touching-and do not touch any metal---
Lightning comes from both positive charge in the clouds and negative (ground) up from the Earth.
it may be cool if you are not struck & live!

Re: Odd Static charge..

Wow I don't think you realize how insanely lucky you are to walk away from this. LOL def. play the lotto