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post your fish stories

grillebilly

grillebilly

Empty Head
Lots of us fish and you know the old adage about fishermen and their tales. If we aren't fishing we're talking about it. Another thread (with a killer tale) got me thinking there has to be tons more to tell here at AK.
Let's hear 'em.

I got plenty...real ones too! So I'll get the ball rolling.
The best has to be the time I was fishing for bass at a local reservoir in between my daughter's soccer games. It was a tournament so I had a few hours between games. I packed a little ultralight setup and was tossing grubs on a small jighead near the end where the creek fed the lake. I caught a couple pound bass right away, it was pretty good fight on the light gear. About 15 casts later I hooked a little bigger one. It took a while to get it near shore, then took drag, reeled it in again, took drag again, reeled it in a third time and was bending down to "lip" it when a snake swam up next to it. The snake unhinged it's jaws and slammed the head of the fish, with my hand only inches away. I pulled back, the line went slack and the fish was pulled off the jighead by the snake. The fish disappeared and I guess was eaten by the snake.
 
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About 20 years ago, I was skiing for 2 weeks, staying at Jindabyne.
The middle Saturday was crappy weather, so I went fishing instead, rented a rod at the petrol station.
Third cast hooked up a 52cm, 1&1/2kg rainbow trout, had a dozen more casts- nothing.
Went back to the petrol station around 20 min, and the guys jaw hit the ground, he couldn't believe I was back so quick.
It was the biggest he had seen on the rental gear that year.
Fed 4 people very nicely.
I still haven't come close to equalling that catch.

I guess when you don't care that much, you can get good results.
 
I used to go out on business trips to Idaho National Lab near Idaho Falls, ID and stay a few extra days to fly fish on the South Fork of the Snake River with my Idaho buddies who have drift boats. One day when we showed up at the boat ramp, it was temporarily closed with a bunch of black SUV's around. It ends up that Dick Cheney (VP at the time) had just launched and we were the next to launch after him. We drifted down the Snake for ~20 miles next to Cheney, outfishing him the whole way. We probably caught (releasing all but a few for dinner) 50-60 trout from 1-5 pounds that day.
 
Ten years ago, I was sitting on the banks of the Ohio River with a friend on a Saturday night. It was late; somewhere around midnight or 1:00 AM. We had caught nothing the entire night but it didn't make a difference, because it was great just to sit there and watch the city skyline and boats buzzing by on the river.

We were amateurs at best, using treble hooks and chicken liver as bait. We would simply cast out as far as possible and let it sit for hours. Catching fish wasn't the point, but we would clip a small brass bell to the end of the rod. If there was a bite and we weren't paying attention, we would certainly hear it start ringing. :scratch2:

After an otherwise quiet evening, the bell on my rod began to ring. After a long and exciting battle of landing the fish (again, I was an amateur and had light line on my reel), we discovered that I had hooked a striped white bass about 18" from nose to tail. That's the biggest fish I ever caught, and certainly the most memorable.

I miss having the free time to just sit at the river all night and watch the water. :beatnik:
 
~ Did I ever tell y'all about catching two fish on one fly, on the same cast?
~ Or about catching the same wild rainbow trout twice in the same hour? (catch and release does have its benefits).

Been fishing since I began walking. fly fishing since I could first tie my own shoes.
I've got so many. I'll try to capture a few thoughts when i get a chance.

Another good one,..
Scene: King Harbor, Redondo Beach, Ca. -- harbor fishing for bonito.
Losing a bonito on a fly rod, losing my grip on the rod, and having/watching it towed away like a water skier, when a sea lion bagged the fish. I jumped out of my 8' Avon raft when the rod stopped, desperately trying to retrieve it. This was just as a large Coast Guard patrol vessel entered the harbor, and they issued a man overboard alarm, and came racing to my rescue. They pulled me out of the water, and called the lifeguard rescue boat to assist me back to my raft, which was now drifting away. The Life Guard boat arrives and gets me back to my raft. They needed report information regarding what happened. I told them I'd lost a Sage fly rod, and had tried to save it by swimming to it, only to watch it sink to the bottom.
The life guard guy said; A Sage fly rod?, evidently knowing what it was.
So, they called for a rescue diver, and could only find one from the state park system. He agreed to come out to assist. It took about an hour for him to arrive. When he started diving, he went to an area that was not where I'd lost the rod. I'd been able to triangulate its location by a couple of bouts. I'd suggested where I thought it was, but, he'd gotten disoriented, and moved away from where I'd pointed him to. He came up empty handed, and I was dejected. Out of desperation, I asked him to try again, directly below where I'd anchored my raft. He followed the anchor line down, had another look.
Suddenly like an emerging spire, came the tip top guide, and then the rest of the rod followed in a vertical emergence from the water. He'd found it!
So, I got a federal agency (coast guard) to cooperate with a municipal agency (city life guard), who cooperated with a state agency (rescue diver).
Lets see anyone else get all of that accomplished in an afternoon.
 
Twenty years ago, fishing Big Pelican Lake in the Detroit Lakes MN Area.

I'm fishing light tackle, a Browning 7' light action fast taper Spinning Rod with Garcia Mitchell 300 with 6lb test line for some nice slab Bluegills in one of the little Bays, amidst lots of cattails, and lots of foliage.

Fishing Worms, with Bobber, the cast, and the drift had the bobber about 150' out. Then it disapperared.

Set the hooks, and I knew I was into a feisty large fish. A fight all the way to the boat, and 6' from the boat, I finally caught glimpse. A Dogfish! (Bowfin) Dammit! LOL

He tipped a slight bit over 8 lbs on the scale, I stabbed him a dozen times with needle nose pliers, threw him back, and watched as a 1/2 dozen Turtles came to the task, and was devouring him as he sank!
LOL
 
I caught a brook, brown and rainbow trout in 4 casts at Lake Sabrina in the Eastern Sierras, while fly fishing

While fly fishing for steelhead on the Upper Trinity River, I got snagged. I gingerly pull the line back and find it had snagged a 6 1/2 foot spinning rig. I pull it's line in and find a dead 6-7 pound steelhead.

Another time on the Trinity River during winter it was real cold. My fly line kept freezing in the guides. I hooked a feisty steelhead. After I brought it to land it turned into a fishsicle.

My first ever fish on a fly was a 7 inch brook trout. Caught in 6 inches of water that was a foot wide, flowing out of a beaver dam.

Three of us (two were fishing guides) sitting in a crowded glory hole in a drift boat on the Chetco River, we got skunked fishing for king salmon. The next day after relenting to my protests we stopped by the store and picked up some marshmallows. I was watching the successful fishermen. I surmised that the marshmallows were floating the bait (roe) off the bottom. We limited out. When you hooked a fish, you pulled up anchor and drifted down stream, away from the mass of fishing and anchor lines. This one fish was pulling three of us in the boat around. It turned out to be an estimated 45 pounds. It was thicker than my waist. We released it so it could go and make more big fish.
 
I love fishing and have been fortunate enough to have fished the Yellowstone River on July 1st...several times!

This was some years ago and I don't know what the situation is now but, NPS would open the stretch just below the dam on that date and the Cutthroat were really, really hungry and the stoneflys were hatching. You had to wait in line to get into a good hole and once you did it was like magic...a fish on most every cast. Everywhere in the water you looked there where fish. You'd fish until your arms couldn't take it anymore, go rest up and come back for more. This was only for the first couple of days:sigh:.

I caught fish that had been hooked mulitple times. It was all catch and release and the best time I've had. Well, except for that time, in the back seat with what's her name:D. Preston
 
The first, and as it turned out the last time I went fishing I was 5 years old. My grandfather took me. I still remember all the gory details. First of all it was one of those god awful hot and humid Midwest summer days. The mosquitos were out in full force. It was just miserable. The fish weren't biting, I was bored, and then, we heard a scream coming from just downstream. We of course went to investigate and found some poor soul with a fishhook that had gone completely through his thumb. :scratch2: I can't imagine how he accomplished that but there was enough blood to even gross out a 5 year old. We packed him up and took him to the nearby hospital and that luckily ended my fishing career. I can't say I've miss it one bit although I do enjoy eating most all kinds of fish.

cubdog
 
I've got a million fish stories. I'll start out with a prank we pulled on a buddy who thought he was fishing.

We were all camping on a beach at the lake, nobody was doing anything but drinking, cooking, eating - partying. Except Phillip. He ties some jigs on a line, sinker on the bottom, bobber on the top, and casts it out there - right where everybody else was swimming. He doesn't get a bite for a couple of days, but keeps an eye on his line/bobber.

In the meantime, somebody finds a dried up dead fish, still mostly intact. We decide to fill it up with sand and gravel and tie it onto Phillip's rig. We get our chance when he heads off to visit up the beach.

So he comes back and can tell his line isn't exactly right - we didn't get back in perfect position. He asks who as been messing with it, we all claim indifference, "You ain't gonna catch nothin!". So he cranks up the slack and can tell there's something there, he sets the hook! As he's reeling it in, the curved shape of the dried fish starts making a wiggling motion. He looks back at us and proclaims, "Boys, I got one on!". We can hardly keep a straight face.

He can tell at a few feet out that something's not right, when he finally gets it to the bank we can here him say, "Sumbitch got a ROCK in its mouth!" And we just die laughing, him too.
 
My dad took me fishing on Cherokee Lake, a TVA lake near here. Somehow or another, I managed to catch a Bluegill, which we kept, & took to a restaurant. They cleaned him, & fried him up. I saw him laying there on my plate & I thought, You poor little thing...This morning you were swimming around, minding yr own business, & now because of something I did, look at you now...I ate a couple bites, & couldn't eat any more. That was when I was 8,9, 10 maybe, & I've NEVER been fishing again... Nor do I really have any great desire to.
 
Sandy, we don't eat 'em, just catch and release.

Another story, another prank.

Lake Fork is a vaunted bass lake in north Texas, I've caught a lot of big bass there - usually in late March/early April. But a buddy named Tyson called and wanted to go in February, so we did.

Fished hard for a day, weather was, well February. The second day, Tyson catches a very small bass, maybe 6 inches long. I tell him, "Hey, let me get a picture of you with something, this might be your only shot!". So I got a pic of him, his hand nearly as big as the fish.

This was before I had a digital camera, still shooting film.

Fast forward to the next February, I see Tyson and he says the entire Bass Club is heading out that Thursday to fish Fork. I think about it and tell him I still hadn't developed the film from last year, I'd get it developed and let him look at the pics before they headed out.

And there it was, the picture of Tyson and the little fish. Well, he wasn't going to see that one. So they left that Thursday morning, Thursday during lunch I was at the newspaper office. The sports editor didn't know anything about fishing, luckily, as I explained that my buddy Tyson was too humble to bring his own picture in, but how I'd like to submit it for him. He took down Tyson's name, the name of the bass club, where it was caught, etc.

The picture came out in the Sunday edition sports section, delivered Sunday morning. The bass club guys rolled back into town Sunday evening. Tyson's phone was ringing when he walked in, his wife told him guys had been calling all day about "his fish". On the phone was Bill, one of Tyson's fishing buddies that didn't make the trip.

"Dude, what are you doing in the paper with that little bitty fish?"

"What paper, what do you mean? I just walked in the door!"

"I don't know, today's paper. It's you in your Chiefs coat, holding this little bitty fish, says you caught it at Fork."

"That f-n Jeff!"

I tried to call him at work the next morning, he wouldn't take my call. I had somebody else call and got through. "You sorry mf-er!" was all he could say for a bit. There had been a copy of the clipping on the main door of his office building when he got to work. One taped to his door. One taped to his desk. He had to wait on a guy off the street, "Hey, you're the guy in the paper with that little bitty fish!".

On top of that, the bass club meeting was Tuesday night. Several members wanted their copy autographed. He caught grief over that for years. I still have a copy of the clipping in my office :D
 
Fish stories, got a million of them.

I grew up in the Alpine area of Victoria and we had a couple of rivers winding into the mountains and as kids we used to fish them for miles.
One of our pass times was to tickle trout which was simple.

Watch the trout and which rock it hid under then get into the water and shove your hand under till you felt the fish then get a good grip on it and viola, trout for dinner.
Usually done in the summer months when the water is warm

One winter we were fishing in one of these rivers.
Keep in mind that this water was coming off the snow and was freezing cold.
The mate I was with was always known for his bravado and would try anything once.:yes:

We spotted a nice trout which dived under a rock
The water was about 10 foot deep.
My mate say " I'm going to tickle it"
He stripped down to his jocks and dived in.
He attempted a couple of times to get the fish but the freezing water got him in the end:D
 
Fishing with a fat head minnow (very large minnow) and bobber on a western MN lake. My bobber went under and I set the hook. The next thing I saw was a lot of splashing and then wings, then a Loon came out of the water (Minnesota state bird!) Google loons - very cool birds with a wonderful sound they make. I was freaked and immediately cut the line. I sure hope the bird made it. Loons can swim underwater for a very long distance in search of fish.
 
My older brother loves to fish, and also surfs. He lives in south Florida and fishes the Jupiter inlet for Snook at night. The way he describes it he drifts with the current using live fish as bait.
One night while drifting out toward the ocean he heard a cry for help, but could not tell where it was coming from. He screamed back to just keep on hollering so he could tell where it was coming from. He dove in and swam toward the voice, and eventually found a man flailing in the current. My brother managed to drag him to the boat, his friend held the arm of the man and they got him through the tuna door.
The poor guy was in bad shape and was puking all over the floor of the boat. They called the rescue squad and hauled him to the hospital. Turned out the guy was an illegal immigrant and was very sick before he ended up in the water.
 
grillebilly said:
My older brother loves to fish, and also surfs. He lives in south Florida and fishes the Jupiter inlet for Snook at night. The way he describes it he drifts with the current using live fish as bait.
One night while drifting out toward the ocean he heard a cry for help, but could not tell where it was coming from. He screamed back to just keep on hollering so he could tell where it was coming from. He dove in and swam toward the voice, and eventually found a man flailing in the current. My brother managed to drag him to the boat, his friend held the arm of the man and they got him through the tuna door.
The poor guy was in bad shape and was puking all over the floor of the boat. They called the rescue squad and hauled him to the hospital. Turned out the guy was an illegal immigrant and was very sick before he ended up in the water.
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Well done, catch of the day!
 
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