A True Fish Tale!

[Crestliner2008]

Walt & I were planning on taking the boat out today, but due to the rain forecast, we pushed it off. So, I took my UL rod down to the local Oxbow to try for some crappie from shore. Not much happening until around 8:00 am. Made a cast with the tiny jig. Felt the familiar "tick" and set the hook. All of a sudden it started getting really heavy and the "fish" started taking line off the drag! Definitely NOT a crappie.

Fought the fish for a few minutes with my 7' UL bent almost double, figuring I hooked a big carp, or bowfin and that it was going to strip out all my 2 lb. test line and spool me. No way I could prevent it. However, I continued to fight the fish as best I could, holding my finger on the line spool, to assist the drag, as it surged out and started plowing through a weedbed. I figured, that's it.....here's where it breaks off. I kept a steady pressure on the fish and it actually got itself out of the weeds. How I still had it on was amazing to me.

Finally I was able to start steering the head towards my shoreline. I climbed down the side of the bank in hopes of at least seeing the fish. It came up and I was amazed to see that I had a huge largemouth bass on......maybe 6 to 8 pounds(?). The behemoth rose with only it's head out of the water (it was too big to jump), opened it's mouth and - believe it or not - out pops my crappie with my jig still in the crappies mouth, not the bass! The bass just sunk back down into the depths. I unhooked my jig from inside the crappie's mouth and tossed it back, although it was pretty bad shape by that time. It was just shy of 9". That big ole largemouth just was determined to eat that crappie - period! (Maybe something for you big swimbait fans to think about!)

I know the bass can grow pretty big in these waters (state record is 15 lbs, believe it or not!). I've also "heard" of people down south having this similar kind of experience. Just never heard of anyone around our neck of the woods having it happen to them. Then it started to rain so I quit after catching about a 1/2 doz. more crappie from that spot. Sure do wish I had a vidcam today! That'd be something for the books! Figured you guys would get a kick out of this one!

[BassB8Caster]

thats quite interesting. Bass sure do love them some live bait. 

[buzzed bait]

there's a video i saw a while back of greg hackney fishing for crappie and he hooks one and gets it wrapped up in some brush for a second.  when it gets free his rod seriously loads up and ends up landing a big bass that had come along and ate that crappie and somehow managed to hook itself in the process!

[MassYak85]

 

5 hours ago, Crestliner2008 said:

It was just shy of 9". That big ole largemouth just was determined to eat that crappie - period! (Maybe something for you big swimbait fans to think about!)
 

Hmmmm....

 

 

 

That's an awesome story though, always fun to catch a big bass on UL spinning gear. I used to fish worms on a 4'6" ultralight uglystick (out of ignorance not because I wanted a challenge). 

[Sam]

Great story.

[frosty]

I've seen them charge bluegills I've hooked, Never had one grab it though! Awesome story!

[jbw252]

Good story.  Thanks for sharing it with us.  

[Darren.]

Wow. A tale of the one that got away for the ages!

[OCdockskipper]

Too cool...

[Bluebasser86]

I had a 5-6 pound fish eat a small crappie I was fighting in once. Ended up catching it a few minutes later once I ran to the truck and got my bass gear instead of a crappie rod. 

[Jigfishn10]

12 hours ago, Darren. said:

Wow. A tale of the one that got away for the ages!

That's funny, just after I read @Crestliner2008's post I thought the same and was gonna post the same thing until I read yours. ...Couldn't have said better myself!

 

Great story for sure, thanks for posting that.

[CoBass]

Reminds me of a pond by my house. It has some decent sized pan fish and a lot of stunted bass as well as some decent ones. There's about a 3 lb. bass that sits on the drop off about 10 ft. from shore and he will attack and steal the small bass if you're not quick about getting them to shore. Strange thing is, he doesn't go after the bluegill or crappie, just the smaller bass.

[MassBass]

Thats great. Those big swimbaits work but its just so low percentage and you have to accept you will get skunked more.   

[Bankbeater]

A couple of years ago I took my daughter bluegill fishing.  I was handing her the rod after hooking a small sunfish when a 2-3 pound bass ate the sunfish.  After a couple of seconds the bass let go and we got the sunfish in.  It was still kicking so we released it back into the water.

[Lures'n'Liberty]

I accidentally caught my PB largemouth (17lb) on a bluegill with 65lb braid on a 10' King Kat and a baitrunner while trying to get a catfish out of the pond.

[huffman1988]

About ten years ago I was trout fishing a small lake with my dad. The lake is catch and release only for bass so it has some big ones. They were on beds and he was reeling in a small stock trout and a bass grabbed it right off the bank. Stripped some line out then let go. Good story thanks for sharing. 

[Jeff H]

On 6/27/2017 at 10:52 AM, Crestliner2008 said:

Fought the fish for a few minutes with my 7' UL bent almost double, figuring I hooked a big carp, or bowfin and that it was going to strip out all my 2 lb. test line and spool me. No way I could prevent it.  

So, here's what I need to know...what brand is your 2lb line and I'm assuming it's mono??

[Crestliner2008]

14 hours ago, Jeff H said:

So, here's what I need to know...what brand is your 2lb line and I'm assuming it's mono??

 

Wrong. It's 2# test Fireline Crystal, with a 2# test fluorocarbon leader.