I was flyfishing the Laramie, Wyoming area a couple days ago and had a very odd
phenomena one afternoon: when casting I would get an electrical discharge from the
reel seat to my wrist. There were thunderstorms brewing so my first thought is that I'm
about to be struck by lighting. I sat the rod down as quickly as possible and waited along
the shore. My friend also had this happen also. Another guy with his two daughters drove
and I walked over to warn him. Of course he assembles his flyrod and tries it himself...many
times. I had the camera ready in case I get an action shot of someone being hit by lighting.

Anyway, the only lighting that afternoon was so far away you couldn't even hear the thunder.
I was talking to another fisherman who was fishing a lake about 5 miles away who had the
same discharge. I've never had anything like that happen before. I'm not sure what is more
strange, the electric discharge or that there was not any lighting with atmospheric conditions
that would cause static charge generation so easily.

Has anybody else seen the same thing?

Yes! Even when thunderstorms are miles away, they can send charges that far. I fished a bass tournament on Potholes one time and we all experienced weird stuff, like shocks, and our line hanging in the air when we cast. One guy's foot was almost fried when he had it on the electric motor foot control. Some outside energy came through the water and melted down the wiring in his controls! We were surprised that there wasn't a major fish kill...

Well, not exactly like that, but I was fishing for Rainbows on the I-90 bridge over Moses Lake. There was a lot of lightning around. There is a chain link fence to keep you out of the freeway, and static began to jump from link to link. A step Leader climbed off of my wristwatch and lightning hit in the same second at the other end of the bridge. I got out of there quick! I have not worn a watch since.

loco-dingo, your fly reel with the vinal fly line was probably storing or produceing static electricy with the rotating motion of the reel and rubbing of the fly line you was a electricy produceing machine

Doug, that was not it. First I was casting with the line already pulled off the reel. Second, the guy
with his daughters was just doing the casting motion with the rod without the reel even attached.
Good idea though.

Graphite makes a great lighting rod ya know.

The following story has nothing to do with lightening but everything to do with electrical shock.

This story was posted by a very good freind reminising about an incident on the Kalama. Follow the link and scroll down to the second post (first reply). It was posted by Juro and teaches an excellent lesson!!!

Conductivity of Graphite