Bass Fishing Sad Moments / Horror Stories

[Smallmouth Hunter]

Saw a thread for "best fishing moment" and they were really interesting. Now lets hear your worst fishing moment. Not trying to bring in negativity and sadness but you guys have some great stories on the other threads!

 

I'll start it with a depressing story:

 

I was fishing at my home lake and I decided to stop by a really small cove before I had to go home. It is probably 50-60 feet long and it is full of blue gill beds. So I ended up not catching anything in the cove but when I went around the corner and I was on mainlake, I saw a pack of maybe 6-10 big largemouth cruising on the surface and about to turn into the cove. The smallest was probably 5-6 lbs and the biggest was 10+ for sure. I picked up my rod with a super spook jr. and I cast about 10 ft infront of the pack. I waited a few seconds for the bass to swim closer, then I started to twitch it. After 2 twitches I caught the attention of the bass. The biggest bass of the whole pack shoots out infront of the rest and attacks the lure. It was unbelievable to watch a 10+ lb bass swim so fast and just attack something like that. The only problem is he missed my lure! What happened was he missed it and on his way down from his attack, he gets hooked by the back treble in the left side probably near the tail causing him to flip out, scare the rest of the pack with splashing, and swim out away. He was on my line for a second, but he came off and I found a scale or two on my hook. My extreme excitement had turned into sadness as the whole pack of the bass was spooked off from the splashing and commotion and fleeing of the big bass. I don't think I slept more than 5 hours a night for the next few weeks after that.. The whole scene just kept on replaying in my head.

 

 

[aquaholic]

I almost fell out of a jon boat once. It was pretty terrifying at the time.......

[Sam]

Just remembering the ones that came off at the boat or that I missed for one reason or the other.

 

Very frustrating moments.

[mrmacwvu1]

We were fishing the first tournament of the year and my partner and I were doing great. We were culling bass in the first thirty minutes after we started fishing. It was getting time to head back to the weigh in and I was throwing rattleing rogue in clown color. I knew there was a stump that was under the water but not visible as the water was muddy. I threw perfectly on the first cast and started to work the bait when I felt the strike. When I set the hook I yelled at my partner that we just won the tournament. Then something did not feel right. Needless to say when it gets to the boat it is an 8 foot walley caught in five foot of water. We lost the tournament by one ounce. That one haunted me for weeks. Although we did win the overall for the season, it was tough to lose that one.

[Darren.]

Hmm. My eldest son and I were in boggy waters in our canoe. 50lb thrust motor was up and out so we could cross over fallen logs near a beaver dam. Got a little stuck on a log so we scootched forward. Unfortunately we tipped and the motor broke, our $300 digicam was soaked beyond saving, my brand new mobile phone was soaked, and my crocs were sucked off thanks to the goopy muddy bottom.

 

Rods saved. Some gear lost. Very expensive. After that I made pontoons so it would never happen again. Now I ride a kayak I can stand in w/o pontoons. And everything is in waterproof pouches, LOL.

 

That's my horror story.

[jhoffman]

Last year in a lunker with a $300 pot I lost a 7-8lb fish right at the boat by trying to net it rather than lip it. She jumped strait up and spit the jig. I almost went iconelli

[Bankbeater]

One time when I was little, my Dad and I drove for about 1-1/2 hours to get to this lake that he liked.  When it was time to leave we had started putting stuff back in the car and my Dad realized that he didn't have his keys.  Well we tore that car apart looking for the keys and couldn't find them. 

Just so happened that we were bank fishing.  Earlier I had gone back to the car for something, and forgotten to give Dad his keys back.  When we finally got home Mom was worried to death and about ready to call the police.

[FrogFreak]

Hello, new to the forum. Just joined!

 

I bass fish up here in Minnesota and I use a Kayak (just ordered a boat, more on that when I get it). So I took my grown boys out with me a couple weeks ago to one of the smaller lakes in Central MN. They were both in float tubes and I was in my Kayak. We had caught about 10-12 fish when I decided to lean back in my 'yak and take a break. Well, it was an overcast day so I had set my Oakley sunglasses on the top of my hat and when I leaned back....you guessed it, they went into the drink. We searched for a bit but the wind was making it difficult to even find the spot where I dropped them. I gave up on the search and decided it was time to go. We started to head back to the ramp. Both boys decided to hitch a ride by holding onto the back of the 'yak. My boys weigh in at about 200 lb each. Needless to say, I was paddling like crazy and on one stroke, I caught the top eyelet of the extra rod one of my sons had in a rod holder on the side of his float tube. The next thing you know it was at the bottom of the lake. I really wanted to get on him about not using the rod holder correctly but it happened to be his birthday so I didn't. All in all, that was about a $450 dollar loss that day. Yep, he was using one of my better rod and reels....It was his birthday and all.

[Rolltide09]

This year fishing a wacky rig in a managed lake I lost one of if not the biggest bass I have ever seen. She came up a couple times and stripped a lot of drag but there wasnt anything I could do to stop her run and finally the hooked popped out. Half hour or so after that I was reeling in a 1.5lb bass, got it close to the boat and a massive bass comes up and steals it off my line. Wasnt a dozen or so cast later on the same bank the exact same thing happened again. I was sick but amazed at the same time.

[Felix77]

This year fishing a wacky rig in a managed lake I lost one of if not the biggest bass I have ever seen. She came up a couple times and stripped a lot of drag but there wasnt anything I could do to stop her run and finally the hooked popped out. Half hour or so after that I was reeling in a 1.5lb bass, got it close to the boat and a massive bass comes up and steals it off my line. Wasnt a dozen or so cast later on the same bank the exact same thing happened again. I was sick but amazed at the same time.

 

One bass eat bass moments is amazing enough let alone two.  I guess there is something to that Baby Bass colored fluke.  LOL

[AK-Jax86]

Worst moment is when I get my new PB basically to shore, close enough that I can see that it would have beaten my previous, and it comes off!! Happened to me 3 times so far this year. My PB is 6lbs 10oz could have been broken 2 times definitely was shattered my most recent PB lost 5 or so feet from my grasps.

[bigbill]

When I was new to bass fishing using fishing equipment for trout I lost my first 3lb.

bass do to cheap line. The bass also tore up my cheap $5 spinning reels too. I had to

Do a 180 on buying better fishing equipment. Trust me I don't need the high priced

stuff for bass fishing even a three ball bearing spinning reel will last if we lube it.

I can fish with any decent reel and cheap rod but we have to use good a a good line. I prefer copolymer.

[_Coelacanth_]

Mine happened just a few hours ago...I went fishing this evening with a buddy. We both have 10' Pelican Bass Raiders and we were on different sides of a point fishing in some flooded brush and weeds. I wasn't having any luck and then I remembered that a few weeks ago I had bought a KVD Sexy Frog. I have never fished with a frog before and figured I'd try it out. I took off the jig I had been pitching and tied on my new toy.

I started casting and working the frog around the taller weeds sticking up by throwing into them and pop, pop, pausing it out. About twenty feet further down the bank, as my frog cleared the taller weeds sticking out of the water and passes over some shorter weeds with the tops a couple of feet below the surface, I watch the biggest bass I've ever seen in my life outside of the tanks at Bass Pro come up and swallow the frog. There was no big violent splash, just GULP, and the fish turned on its side and started back down for the weed bed.

I immediately felt the weight on my line (I somehow had the presence of mind to remember to wait until I felt it before setting the hook) and holy smokes! The fight was on!

The fish first tried running to the left, then reversed and ran to the right towards some thick brush. I managed to turn it again just before it got there and got it coming towards the boat. I get it next to the boat and get it at the surface. I dropped to my knees in the floor of my boat and start to reach to lip the fish out of the water. As its mouth is open, I remember thinking to myself that it looks about as big around as a plate. At that point it tail dances away from my reach and I have to turn it one more time. I get it back up to the boat again and am once more reaching to lip it out of the water. I then remember thinking that I am finally, EASILY, going to reach my goal of catching a bass bigger than five pounds. I'm sure this fish would have been in the 7 to 10lb range. Just when I almost have my hand on it...snap. My line breaks and I watch it swim away in what seemed like slow motion.

As of right now, I cannot think of a time, outside of losing a loved one, that I've been more heartbroken about something. I don't know how the heck I'm going to sleep tonight.

[Bluebasser86]

I was fishing the BASS Weekend Series on Lake of the Ozarks a few years ago and got my heart broke 3 times in the same day. At the time they had a monster bass tournament at the end of the season at El Salto for each angler who caught the biggest bass of each tournament. I had my 3 fish limit (non-boater) and had culled a few times to something like 10-12 pounds so I needed a big bite to cull again. We were fishing a deep drop off so I started dragging a one ounce football jig and after just a few casts it got smoked. I stuck a very heavy fish that I was guessing was a catfish or big drum but it never rolled so I wasn't sure. When I got her up to the boat I saw it was a bass that was way bigger than anything I had in the boat. My boater all but refused to get the net (his day wasn't going nearly as well as mine was) so I broke a cardinal rule and grabbed the line to try to lip her. She dove under the boat and popped my line. I was fuming but kept to myself since no amount of yelling or cussing at my boater would change anything. (On a side note my buddy was prefishing the same area the next week and caught my fish with my jig still in her mouth, she went 8lbs 2ozs).

My boater got tired of fishing the deep water so we moved to a shallower gravel bank and he started cranking while I kept dragging a jig. About 10 minutes before weigh in I stuck a fish in the 5 pound range. I thought she was mine but for some reason she just popped off at the boat. She would have added at least a pound or two to my total.

The 3rd big disappointment was back then BASS had this silly rule where if the non boater caught at least one keeper fish then they added the boaters weight to the non boater. So like I said my boater had a bad day and only weighed 3 keepers for 9 pounds. I had the highest individual weight for a non boater but because my boater had done poorly I ended up in 5th place. I still have flashbacks and what if moments about this tournament.  

[Downeaster2010]

I don't remember that rule, and I have been bass fishing for 40 years.  Adding the boaters weight to the rider.  That is a

crazy ruling.  We all have to get over the What if's.  They happen all the time.  I fished a tournament 30 years ago, when

$1000 was a big prize.  They paid only for only first place.  I came in second and lost by 1 oz.

[CPBassFishing]

Lesson of the story....... never use anything short of 50lb braid for frog fishing. Sorry to hear about that. What line were you using?

Mine happened just a few hours ago...I went fishing this evening with a buddy. We both have 10' Pelican Bass Raiders and we were on different sides of a point fishing in some flooded brush and weeds. I wasn't having any luck and then I remembered that a few weeks ago I had bought a KVD Sexy Frog. I have never fished with a frog before and figured I'd try it out. I took off the jig I had been pitching and tied on my new toy.

I started casting and working the frog around the taller weeds sticking up by throwing into them and pop, pop, pausing it out. About twenty feet further down the bank, as my frog cleared the taller weeds sticking out of the water and passes over some shorter weeds with the tops a couple of feet below the surface, I watch the biggest bass I've ever seen in my life outside of the tanks at Bass Pro come up and swallow the frog. There was no big violent splash, just GULP, and the fish turned on its side and started back down for the weed bed.

I immediately felt the weight on my line (I somehow had the presence of mind to remember to wait until I felt it before setting the hook) and holy smokes! The fight was on!

The fish first tried running to the left, then reversed and ran to the right towards some thick brush. I managed to turn it again just before it got there and got it coming towards the boat. I get it next to the boat and get it at the surface. I dropped to my knees in the floor of my boat and start to reach to lip the fish out of the water. As its mouth is open, I remember thinking to myself that it looks about as big around as a plate. At that point it tail dances away from my reach and I have to turn it one more time. I get it back up to the boat again and am once more reaching to lip it out of the water. I then remember thinking that I am finally, EASILY, going to reach my goal of catching a bass bigger than five pounds. I'm sure this fish would have been in the 7 to 10lb range. Just when I almost have my hand on it...snap. My line breaks and I watch it swim away in what seemed like slow motion.

As of right now, I cannot think of a time, outside of losing a loved one, that I've been more heartbroken about something. I don't know how the heck I'm going to sleep tonight.

[Bluebasser86]

I don't remember that rule, and I have been bass fishing for 40 years.  Adding the boaters weight to the rider.  That is a

crazy ruling.  We all have to get over the What if's.  They happen all the time.  I fished a tournament 30 years ago, when

$1000 was a big prize.  They paid only for only first place.  I came in second and lost by 1 oz.

Silliest rule I've ever heard. I could understand the boater getting some kind of reward for their nonboater catching fish because they can greatly influence whether or not their nonboater catches any fish but the nonboater has almost no influence over their boater catching fish. A buddy of mine told me they did away with that rule the next year. It only worked to my advantage during one of the tournaments, the rest I would have done better if it was just an individual weight. It was only in the Weekend Series as far as I know. 

[BassinLou]

This story is more of a scare than horror. Last year my brother-in-law and I were fishing in the FL. Everglades during a low water period. For those of you who do not know, low water period means alligator congregation. We were fishing an area that happened to be occupied by at least 10 gators, that we could see. For some reason or another my brother-in-law had to stand up from his seat where he was fishing from and he lost his balance and fell butt first into the water to the point of complete submersion. In one split second he shot out of the water like a bat out of hell. The challenge that presented itself was that we were fishing out of a 16 foot aluminum boat so how to get him out of the water was going to be tricky. I laid down across the deck and helped him get his leg over and from there he was able to get on board safely. This whole time the alligators were more amused than anything else. After I realized we were out of danger, I laughed so hard I almost pee'd in my pants. My brother-in-law was not so amused, but to see a grown man fall in the water and shoot out of the water at the velocity and get back on board the boat at the speed that he did it was funny.

[whitwolf]

Horror story: I fished with a buddy for nearly 11 years and while we talked about all kinds of things and generally had a blast for the most part there were things that simply were assumed and never came up.

 

We were fishing a small creek that was always good for 3-4 bass and on this Fall afternoon we fished It from back to front. I don't remember It being a great day fish-wise but there was enough fish to think It a good day. He happened to be on the trolling motor and as he hit the pedal to go down the bank he hit a semi-submerged tree an over the bow he went. I casually walked to the front deck waiting for him to surface; It seemed like a long time before he surfaced when It actuality it was probably just a few seconds.

 

I started to troll over to him and as he regained his awareness he starts flailing around and screaming "hurry, I can't swim!". I got the boat along side of him and helped get his hands on the gunnel so he(we) could work his way to the back where I helped him In. he sheer terror In his voice and my not knowing he couldn't swim created a situation that I never want to re-live again.

 

After we loaded the boat I asked some general questions about his well being and then asked why he never told me he couldn't swim and why in the world he didn't wear a life jacket at all times. He talked around those questions and never offered any apologies or a thank you.

 

We no longer fish together and to this day he still fishes without a life jacket.

[Brian6428]

Horror story: I fished with a buddy for nearly 11 years and while we talked about all kinds of things and generally had a blast for the most part there were things that simply were assumed and never came up.

 

We were fishing a small creek that was always good for 3-4 bass and on this Fall afternoon we fished It from back to front. I don't remember It being a great day fish-wise but there was enough fish to think It a good day. He happened to be on the trolling motor and as he hit the pedal to go down the bank he hit a semi-submerged tree an over the bow he went. I casually walked to the front deck waiting for him to surface; It seemed like a long time before he surfaced when It actuality it was probably just a few seconds.

 

I started to troll over to him and as he regained his awareness he starts flailing around and screaming "hurry, I can't swim!". I got the boat along side of him and helped get his hands on the gunnel so he(we) could work his way to the back where I helped him In. he sheer terror In his voice and my not knowing he couldn't swim created a situation that I never want to re-live again.

 

After we loaded the boat I asked some general questions about his well being and then asked why he never told me he couldn't swim and why in the world he didn't wear a life jacket at all times. He talked around those questions and never offered any apologies or a thank you.

 

We no longer fish together and to this day he still fishes without a life jacket.

I bet he was embarrassed. I am sure he was appreciative for what you did but I could understand a grown man not wanting to talk about a situation like that. Now as for not wearing a life jacket, that just seems foolish.

[bmlum415]

My two worst moments are when I lost a 7-8lber during a tournament on a swimbait and I had a 5lber snap my line during the california high school state championship. I got 3rd but I was only off by 1lb from 2nd place, so I would've had 2nd easily.

[Basseditor]

I have more sad stories than I care to admit to. Just a quick one. My first state tournament as a boater. I'm leading day one. Day two, my best spot I break off a 6. Then miss a couple, but by now the whole area is full of boats (I was the only one in there the first day).

Out of frustration, I leave the area. Long story short, I break off two more in some trees. Come in with no bass. Finish 8th.

At least I won the state tourney a couple years later. And in previous years, I finished in top 5 several times from the back seat.

[LWD]

The time I fell out of my kayak in 49 degree water.  I was setting the hook, as I set the hook my paddle falls into the water.  Trying to reach for it while a fish was on the line made me go over board.  I had my PFD and had to swim about 5 minutes to shore to find out my fish got off anyhow.  Had to drag my kayak half a mile through a golf course to get back to my truck.