Fisherman tells of ‘lucky day’ after surviving close lightning strike
A Townsville fisherman was lucky to escape serious injury as his rod exploded 3m from him after being struck by lightning.
Townsville
Don't miss out on the headlines from Townsville. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A Townsville fisherman was lucky to escape serious injury as his rod exploded 3m from him after being struck by lightning.
Eugene Dryden, of Stuart, was trying his luck from the fishing pontoon near the Rockpool on The Strand following a series of good catches from that spot at the weekend.
“There was a nice fish caught on Sunday, so I thought it might be my lucky day,” he said.
It was Mr Dryden’s lucky day, but not for the reason he was expecting after his rod was destroyed by the lightning strike.
Mr Dryden’s fishing trip was abruptly shortened when the storms passed over from Pallarenda.
“The storms built up, and built up, and built up and I thought it was getting time to pack up, then rain came,” he said.
“The lightning got worse and worse and worse so I thought no, too dangerous so I sat behind the fishing pontoon
“Then 10 minutes later a big flash, a big bang and there’s my fishing rod fried by the lighting. (It) caught fire, it was on fire, a big blue flash. I was only 3m away from it.”
Mr Dryden said the lightning strike turned his carbon fibre rod into “charcoal” which burned to a cinder. While his rod was destroyed, the fishing reel survived the lightning strike.
“I started reading the carbon fibre rods were actually a lightning risk. It was too close for comfort really,” he said.
Mr Dryden said he was lucky and advised other anglers to heed the advice, not to fish in storms.
“Don’t take chances in electrical storms with fishing rods, they’re now made out of carbon fibre and that’s the part that exploded,” he said.
The storms across Townsville this morning forced the closures of a number of beaches and Riverway at Thuringowa Central.
The storms produced more thunder and lightning than rain however, with Magnetic Island recording the most amount of rain nearby the city. Nelly Bay recorded 22mm of rain since 9am while Picnic Bay received 20mm.
Originally published as Fisherman tells of ‘lucky day’ after surviving close lightning strike