Tell us your best story of the one that got away.

Chuck7 · 05-25-2006, 12:10 PM

This one is the truth. I had just come down here with my wife. We had come from VA to go to Bible College in 1981. Up to this time my biggest bass was 14" 2 pounds. I heard about the big bass in Florida. I did not have a boat and fished off the shore of an old phosphate pit. I threw a 1/4 ounce white rooster tail out and let it fludder to the bottom. I gave a nice tug on my fiberglass Eagle claw rod to start the blade turning. I reeled slowly to keep it on the bottom whem it stopped solid.... I thought I hit a telephone pole... All of a sudden ,a strong pull to the right and I began whispering a prayer. I was at the mercy of a huge fish. Then it tore to the left . I continued praying. Then something weird.....my line got quickly slack and I knew my fish would be jumping up. Time stood still as this huge bass about 30 inches and eyes big as 1/2 dollars broke the surface completely. He shook vigerously and my rooster tail fell helplessly out of her mouth. My heart sank andI nearly started crying. About one month later an old man caught a bass that looked like my fish and it weighed 12 1/2 pounds.off of a shiner.I learned a lesson that day.KEEP THE LINE TIGHT NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES.
C7

Kyle_Hamm2 · 05-25-2006, 01:33 PM

I've definately lost my fair share of fish. One time a few summers ago I was with a friend fishing a lake full of carp which we caught continuously on bread or hotdogs. We were on the bank and we left to do some skiing, leaving our poles there. I told my friend to reel in his pole, which he did but evidently left the bait in 2-3 inches of water. Carp will come right to the bank to feed and evidently while we were gone one got his pole. The bottom was sandy and when we got back we could see where his pole had been drug straight out along the bottom. He lost a rather expensive pole but it was quite funny.

bigbuckOO · 05-25-2006, 06:38 PM

Im not sure this is my best, but it's the most recent since it happened last evening so i'll share it. I finally hit the river to try for some smallmouth. It was one of those day where i couldnt buy a bite while everyone else was catching on every other cast. It got to be about dark and there was a Tstorm on the way. I decided to throw on a 5 dollar number 4 size chartreuse Thunderstick. I waded back out in the river and made several casts and got nothing. Then, all the sudden as i was reeling back againt the current, my line got tight. I thought i was hung up so i lifted up my pole and off she went. I was using my little graphite Berkley cherrywood with 4 pound test line. This fish was big. I didnt even get a chance to make one retrieve on this fish, it took drag and all i could do was stand there and hold the rod hoping the line wouldnt snap. Finally, it did snap and off went my lure. I'd like to think this was a MONSTER smallmouth, but i have caught enough catfish in my life to know that it faught an awful lot like a flathead. The fish never came out of the water so i didnt get a look. I can only wonder now.

Another story is one of my wifes favorites. We were flathead fishing one night along the riverbank. Gar had been bothering us all night long. I threw out and laid my rod up against my tackle box and went and sat down. Next thing i know my pole goes racing over my tackle box, i bust out of my chair to get it and it goes speeding off into the river before i can get it. All i could say was "my pole". My wife thought it was hilarious. We ended up finding the pole the next day when we were out in the boat, it had got up in a weedbed. I think it was a Gar that did it but i'll never know for sure.

mauser06 · 05-25-2006, 10:55 PM

good post!......my story is very very similar to yours......

me and dad were fishing for what we call white bass...think thats what they are.....silver/white and black..smallish..almost look like a "striper" but small....but they school up and hit GOOD and we were fishing for them off the bank of the Ohio River...i was casting a blue and silver Little Cleo spoon since they were just about as fas as you could cast light lures i was trying something a little heavier to get out there farther....reeling it back in...BAM fish on....rather close to the bank.......only 30-45foot...i cant remember...but the white bass were farther out....figured ahhh just a smallie or something...."DAD this thing is really fighting! what is it!?!?" im like 14 or so at the time...i been fishing since i was in diapers..literally....we got pics to prove it somewhere lol...but even though i caught 1000s of fish i never really fought and landed a monster.....or a real fighter....something challenging....(did land a CARP that was as big as me once when i was like 10 or something...but it was like reeling in a log lol) but the fish on my line was a FIGHTER....and as a normal kid or inexpirienced angler would do when line goes out you reel and tug and pull with all you got trying to get it back....dads hollering DONT HORSE IT!! as he makes his way down the shore to me..its only 20-25 foot out now...its rolling and fighting hard...breaks the water and me and dad both seen it.....WALLEYE!! kind of a rarity unless you fish for them around here...but boy oh boy MONSTER walleye....dad got a REALLY good look at it and said 30+ incher.....i got a decint look at it and seen its back fin break the water...my buddy has a 30 incher mounted and i compared the back fin size just comparing...and the one i had on was alot larger then the one he has mounted...but right after we seen it break the water i horsed it a little hard as it was rolling.....i think the line was wrapped around it and the whole 9yds....but yep...the spoon came FLYING back at me.....i about died....i was shaking in excitment and disappointment.....from the highest high....to the lowest low..all in a split second....but live and learn........live and learn.....i was young.....i fought it too hard.....didnt play it....tried to horse it......cant do that with the bigguns.....and getting a GOOD solid hookset on big fish seems harder...more bone..more/bigger teeth.....harder fighters.....smarter fighters....harder runners.....but when you do land a brute its all worth it.....i cant wait to start catfishing for the summer....i love hard fighters....i want to catch a SERIOUS catfish this summer.....i just want a witness and a picture taker.....i dont expect no 100lber....but a solid 20+ would rock my world lol......ive caught 2 around 10...both about 30 inches.....around here catfish are your best bet for hard fighting big fish.....and ours REALLY dont get too big

m.t.hands · 05-25-2006, 11:23 PM

i lost a 4 pound smallie that would have secured me a spot in the all-american back in the early 90's (missed the cut by a little less than 2 pounds, and that was the only fish i lost for that tournament), with a shot at 100K against 49 other anglers[&o], jeff mcgee won the tournament, i finished 13 i think, and got a little bitty check, i've lost other bigger fish, but not that many folks ever make it to what used to be the all-american, oh well theres always next time

big fish don't just break your line, they break your heart[&o]

Chuck7 · 05-26-2006, 01:41 AM

.....from the highest high....to the lowest low..all in a split second...Mauser 06

Very well said.We can all agree with that one.It was probably the beginnings of bi polar.[8D]

Chuck7 · 05-26-2006, 01:46 AM

big fish don't just break your line, they break your heart[&o]

Ain't that the truth...I felt more sick when I lost my 12 pounder than I have many of my girlfriends.

Chuck7 · 05-26-2006, 01:56 AM

And here is another truthful story...

I was fishing another lake called John Lake. I had already caught a few nice 5 - 6 pound bass. Now this next fish wasn't a 12 but here goes. It was a perfect morning. It was just daylight. I was in my poverty college stricken years so I only had one Rooster tail on me. Walmart never carried them down here and I had to order them. Anyway I'm in a cheap flemsy boat and made a long field and stream type cast with a 1/4 ounce white rooster. Big hit.NOW!!! Experience has taught me KEEP THE LINE TIGHT ..so I did. The well over 2 foot bass jumps twice like a miniture tarpon from about 25 yds. I pump the bass in perfectly adjusting the drag all along on my cheap graphite Diawa. The fish is now side ways about 6 foot from the boat. Looks ...maybe 8 pounds. I'm thinking fight is over.I tightened up the drag. All of a sudden the fish comes back to life and slowly [ like a Johndeer in a tractor pulling contest} starts pulling harder and harder....I cry out NO please NO! pop....[:@]no more Roostr tail no more bass. I gently put the rod down.took a breath and went home.
Lesson.learned ..don't tighten the drag till the bass is in the boat.

Jimmy S · 05-26-2006, 09:31 AM

I decided to do a little fly fishing in a NH trout pond where I have a three-season camp. My left leg was in an immobolizer due to a softball injury a few days earlier. My kneecap was cracked during a double play collision...

Anyway, here I am in my aluminum boat, trolling on the pond with intermediate line with a "Joe's Smelt" and bang there goes the fly rod. When I picked up the rod,I knew it was a very big fish because I could feel the fish fighting close to my wrist rather than the top of the rod (did that make sense).....

While I was fighting this trout I began to get close to a man and his son in a canoe. They assured me not to worry about them but to focus on the fish. At one point, after 3-4 minutes, I brought the fishclose to the boat and it could have been netted if somebody (ANYBODY) was with me OR if my stupid leg wasn't restricting my movement. I got a good look at this fish and estimated the Brown Trout would tip the scales over 10 pounds. (My buddy caught one that weighed 14 pounds even, and was the largestbrown trout caught in the state that year.), so yes, there's big fish in those waters.

Well, you guessed it, a minute later the fish started to run deep. I figured that's OK, he's almost ready to bring in and I'll just tire him a little more. I could feel the fish still fighting real hard and my flyrod was bent more than ever. Sudddenly, the fish was gone and my line went limp. So "Mr. Brown" lives to swim another day.

The strange thing was that when I brought up myline, it did not break and there was a sticky, clear coating on the streamer, like the fish regurgated or something.Kinda like a coating of vaseline.

So that's my "The one that got away" story. I wish I could blame someone. I mean it couldn't have been MY fault.

Now if that player on first hadn't slide high and hard into my kneecap, then maybe I would have caught that beautiful fish. Then again, it was a Friday morning and I would have been at work then.

I guess maybe it's better to lose a big fish than to never have hooked him at all.

Chuck7 · 05-26-2006, 09:48 AM

I knew it was a very big fish because I could feel the fish fighting close to my wrist rather than the top of the rod (did that make sense).....
Jimmy S

I liked that. Made a lot of sense.