Red Hawk

I posted this in the youth forums but they don't seem to want to share any stories so figured people would in here. Share, share, share


I was about 8 years old when my dad and I went to the coast for couple of days. We did some fishing off the pier but we didn’t have any luck (someone actual did catch small shark off it the previous day) so we decided to go to near by lake called Lake Lopez. We saw good size buck on the way there standing on side of the road so that was cool. We got the lake and drove around looking for good spot. My dad spotted open water area so we went out there and fished maybe about hour or so. He finally caught good size largemouth bass while I didn’t have any luck. We decided to drive around the lake little bit more to see if we could find another spot. We came across this little gulch about 50 feet inland and about 40 feet across covered in moss/lily pad, and other plant life on both sides but there was clearing in between from all the waves although currently the lake itself was calm in that spot. We saw some Bluegills there. We didn’t have any mealworms and all we had was red worms. We throw on some boppers and cast in. Within about 10 seconds of the first cast, the fish went crazy and we end up catching them as if they were jumping in our nets willingly. After awhile my dad went to the local bait shop and got three cans of mealworms while I stayed there at the place which was actually about 150 feet from the park ranger/security station so they were keeping their eye on me for my dad. He came back and we were must have caught about 30 bluegills by this point and it started to slow down little bit. One bummer thing was because of the moss and plant life on the water, we had to drag the fish through all that muck and several times we snapped our lines. It did look like bopper graveyard out there. I think we must have lost maybe about 6 of ours the whole time we were there. Finally on this one cast. The bopper sat there for actually couple of minutes then next thing I know, it sank down as if a whale was on the hook end. I set the hook and fought, and fought it (at that time, both my dad and I thought maybe it was a largemouth bass) the whole fight looking back was actually for close to minute give or take. I was reeling the fish in and the line snapped! The bopper itself was on the surface but entangled really bad with the muck. I was crying needless to say but I didn’t notice it at the time but my dad did. The bopper was so entangled that the fish couldn’t get away although it was trying. What did my dad to? He took off his shoes and socks, took out his wallet, and went right into that water, muck and all the way up to his chest and got that fish for me. It was the biggest Bluegill I’ve never seen, let alone caught. Found out it wasn’t record but it was record for that lake. We had our picture taken with it.

Now in case of horrible poetic justice gone very, very wrong. We did actually keep come of the good size fish for us to eat but we caught and released the others. We went to the fish cleaning station and when my dad put it on, it was so slimy, the fish end up sliding down the hole into a 55-gallon drum full of fish guts. What did my dad do? He took the drum from underneath that bench and was up to his shoulder in fish guts looking for that fish. I helped me but we never found it lol.

Looking back at it, it was such an awesome thing for my dad did for me not only once, but twice. Its things like that, which will always make him my hero. I would definitely do that for my son, or any children I may have in the future.

Chuck7

Expensive Rainbows[8D]

Back in the early 1980s while in church, I was talking to another in my Sunday school class about how I loved to fish.He said, "I've got a great place to trout fish." I said, "Is it legal?" " No sweat, he said..Very legal..It's in the Blueridge Mountains of Va..a 70 mile drive from D.C.

AS we slowed down I notived Posted Signs everywhere.I said , "What is that?" Oh that's nothing..they've always been there. "Let's split up" , he said. I had a small can of worms on me and I saw another fisherman there so I figured it was alright although now the signs were saying.Posted Keep Out Hatchery. Fishing was great..I quickly caught 4 chunky rainbow trout..when all of a sudden I here "Come out of the woods right now..Game Warden."

[&o][X(][X(]Oh Crap!!! I wasn't going to lose my fish..I hid them and ran about1/2 mile up stream. My friend was stopped but had no fish..The game warden told him he could fish another 3 miles up stream..Later he came back to find me..I met him on the road We hid the 4 trout in his truck and fished the 3 miles up stream..Of course there were no fish there but the game warden stopped me and fined me 75.00 for not having a trout stamp.[&o]Those were 4 expensive rainbows..

buckhunter14

I posted this on the same thread in the youth forum.






May 2001 ---> Fishing small lakes in Michigan. 11 years old.


My friend and I had a Friday off of school so we thought we would do a little scouting on Thursday night and hit it hard for spawning largies in the morning. On our way out we found a boat tipped over and submergedin the water about 3 feetwith the anchor down. We shored the boat and emptied the water, looked around for anything that was left, and assumed that the kids that live up on the hill trashed the boat there because theywere having a huge party and bon fire. After that, we marked some nice beds and headed in for the night. On the way in we tied the boat to ours and hauled it back to my dock.

5:15 AM came early as the alarm sounded. We were really excited. We loaded the gear and headed off back through the channel to the lake where we had marked the big bass. As we came out of the channel the darkness of the morning had not yet rose. It was very dark but visibility was about 10 feet. The fog was beginning to lift. We crossed the area in which the boat had been tipped over only to hear a large CLUNK of something hitting the prop. I quickly looked in the wake to see a dead body floating on the surface.

We proceeded to think awful and profane thoughts, swear a little, throw up because I was so scared, and race back home. I got on the telephone and called the state police and we had sirens coming from every direction, FBI agents, scuba team, the whole works. It was now about 7:00 AM and I had to take the officers to where the dead body was. We searched for about 30 minutes and found nothing. The officers kept asking me "Are you sure you didn't mistake a dead body for a swan." I assured them I know what a dead person looks like. We buzzed around the lake and on the other side, there lay a dead man in his middle 60's. Autopsy confirmed he had died from drowning the previous day when he flipped his boat.

Sad to think that if we had been out a few hours previous the day before we could have saved this mans life.