The Haunting

[N Florida Mike]

I was fishing a tournament on Rodman in '86 I think. Slow day. We were fishing the big stump flat, with the dam in the S.E corner of the lake in sight.

There was a lone stump out by itself that had part of it angling out semi- paralell to the water. Using a T-rigged 7 1/2 inch red shad  culprit worm, and 14 pound test ,  I made a long cast that went right under the overhang, next to the stump. Felt the tap, set the hook, and I did not turn the fish 1 inch. It actually violently turned the other way at the hookset and at probably 3/4 speed, swam directly away from me. To this day I can still feel the weight of that fish, and remember hearing what sounded like a pistol shot as the line broke. I really have no way to gauge how big that fish was...I just sat there with the broken line in the water for a while.

[Mobasser]

Excellent! You guys deliver the stories I love to hear. It's a humbling experience to lose a truly big fish. You sit there for a minute in kind of a daze. I could read these stories all day long.

[TnRiver46]

I actually caught the one that haunts me! I was about 14 yrs old and in a small Jon boat in south Alabama on our annual weeklong fishing / camping trip. The guy in the boat with me is a notorious jokester. I was throwing a buzzbait in the grass and hung a good one. We get him into the boat and start taking pictures (pre camera phones). As a youngster I really don’t know how big the fish is, my partner thinks 7-9 lbs. I decide to keep the fish and mount it, and all we have is one of those metal clamp stringers. My fishing partner says you don’t want to lose this one, put the clamp through both lips. So that’s what I did and I eased it over the side of the boat. With one mighty head shake that fish ripped itself free and splashed in.  I actually got my hands on it for a brief moment after it broke free but it powered away. Not sure if it just ripped its lips or ripped the stringer apart, as I recall I wasn’t really interested in the details at that point hahaha. We still have to fish for like 5 more hours and I just sat there wanting to puke. Not to fret, you might think, because we still have the pictures and a fiberglass replica is now something we had heard of. The nearest place to develop photos is a wal Mart one hour away, which we learned by asking the very few people we could find (pre smart phones). When we finally get to wal mart, they develop the pictures and as i learneda few days after we returned home, the roll of film was double exposed...... ouch......... took me a while to get over that one. Luckily I have caught 2 bass around 8 lbs since then and did get one of them mounted. And I sure as heck haven’t used a metal clamp stringer ever since . My buddies on the same camping trip still give me grief all the time. They usually give me a box of crayons and say “next time you catch a big one just draw us a picture of it”

[Bankbeater]

For me, the last one happened back in the spring and probably would have been my largest catch of the year if I had landed it.  It was raining and my rubber boots are not the best on wet rocks.  I cast out with a super spot and when the bass hit I knew it was a nice one.  It looked to be about a 4 or 5 pounder, and it was sluggish from the cold water.  I worked the head of the bass into the rocks so it couldn't swim out, and start down to lip it.  As I'm going down I slipped, and I started swinging my arms around to catch myself.  I guess I either pulled the fish out of the rocks when I was swinging my rod around, or I let it have some slack, because I see that bass just swim off.  I have been back to that pond 3 more times this year and have been skunked each time.

[Ratherbfishing]

Most stretches of the  river not far from my house (a short bicycle ride away) offer little to appeal to sport fish BUT there was one spot (I called it my secret fishing spot) which was CLASSIC smallmouth country-a wide riffle which emptied into a deep pool as it turned at a bend. There was a large boulder perched on the edge where the water eddied around it in a lazy curl.  It was a near perfect spot for smallies and goggle eye to wait and ambush food as it washed past.  At that early stage in my fishing "career" I used mostly Mepps Aglia spinners.  I believe I had a black fury tied on on this particular day.  There was nothing particularly impressive about my cast.  I'd been there for awhile- trying different angles, etc. I vaguely remember casting the spinner into the far end of the pool and, trying to keep it down, swimming it through, the pool-being careful to let it pass near the boulder.  As (sometimes) happened, my line tightened and this time I knew I had a better than average fish on.  By my modest standards it was huuuuuge!   Time and retelling the tale has caused it to grow but conservatively, it was at least 3 lbs.  And it was beautifully marked with dark vertical bands against a shimmering gold body (Most of the smallies there had monochromatic coloration).  I managed to tired it out and was just pulling it to the surface near my feet when "PING", the treble hook lets go and the spinner flies past me.  In cruel slow motion, my glorious ALMOST victory swam back into the depths!  I simply stood there and stared in long disbelief at the place where I'd last seen it.

 

The river has since changed (as rivers do) and this place has evolved into something less remarkable but it still stands out as the place where I ALMOST caught a monster.

[MassYak85]

Late Fall last year. I was fishing a 9" MS Slammer and was just dead-sticking it next to a tree. Maybe 15-20 seconds go by and it just gets slurped under. I set the hook with a pretty tight down drag and it started taking off for deeper water. I couldn't gain any line, the handle was just turning against the drag. About 10 seconds of just grinding against it and it pops free underwater. My theory is it was hooked outside of the mouth and the line started wrapping around the milfoil bed it was swimming through and gave it enough of an angle underwater to pull it free. I never got a look at it but I'd loooooove to know what the size on it was. 

[Harold Scoggins]

16 hours ago, Mobasser said:

I could read these stories all day long.

X2

[everythingthatswims]

I never saw it or even hooked it, but I'm sure it was swimming around on the point in front of me for a couple hours at Milford Lake. Needed it to be 2lbs 11oz.

[Bluebasser86]

Fishing the Central Division Regional tournament for the BASS Weekend Series several years ago on a God forsaken lake in Indiana, Patoka Lake. The top qualifiers got to go to Florida for the Championship on Okeechobee. The guy I got paired with for my boater the first day had no idea what to do. We ran all around the lake that was way too small for the number of boats and seemed like it had enough bass in it for every other person to maybe catch 1 or 2 in 2 days. I think I might have caught one about 8" long on a trick worm but I know for sure my boater never caught a fish. I wasn't out of it though, the first day leader had 5 pounds with 1 fish. 

Day 2 my boater had weighed fish the first day so I had some confidence we'd at least be around fish. By some miracle, around 10am I drum a Bitsy Bug jig off a rock ledge and it just disappeared. I caught a the hardest earned 2.5lb fish I can ever remember catching. Know I knew I had a real shot at qualifying if it was as tough as the first day was. My boater boxed 2 fish on a hair jig, something I had none of, but he was pitching it to stumps on a spinning rod so I went the opposite direction and started fishing a big thumping spinnerbait around the stumps and laydowns. I'd been throwing it for probably an hour with no signs of life and had really gone into autopilot, looking around instead of paying attention, when I pulled the bait down a big log. I felt the tick, I know in heart that fish had the bait, but I was so zoned out that all I did was look at where my bait had just been instead of setting the hook. There was my bait, continuing it's course towards the boat, and right at the end of the log was a giant boil still swirling on the surface where the fish had attacked my bait. Just seeing the size of the swirl, it had to be at least a 4-5 pound fish, the cut for the final day ended up being not even 4.5 pounds on the non-boater side. I threw a couple more times at the log but as lots of non-boaters know, I was at the mercy of my boater and he had no interest in giving me any extra cast at the fish as we kept working down the bank. Something like 11 or 12 pounds ended up winning the non-boater side and if I'd caught that fish I would have gone to Florida. 

[Mobasser]

The only other real "haunting" I've had came 30 some yrs ago when I was first getting into bass fishing. I had been reading about fishing spinnerbaits at night, and had picked up a couple of black single spin spinnerbaits 3/8 oz. Also a jar of black #11 pork frog trailers. Went bank fishing on a smaller lake near our home on a Friday night around 10:00. It was a hot, humid, sticky late July night. I began walking the bank , casting the spinnerbait out, and bringing back slow and steady, and I could feel the single Colorado blade really thumping on my retrieve. After fishing down this bank for almost an hour, I had not one strike. I was let down, as I was expecting some action on these spinners.Walking back to my car, I stopped to cast around an old, rotting , half sunken dock. I'm guessing water depth at 2 or 3 ft. First cast , brought in a big string of weeds, which I removed , and cast again. The next cast I thought I felt a strike, but wasn't sure and kept on reeling, when a large bass came to the surface with an almost violent, head shaking fight. I simply wasn't ready for this, and didn't get a solid hookset. This fish was hooked a short time, then gone into the darkness. I can still see her white belly when she rolled on top in the moonlight. My lesson from this: be ready at ALL times when your fishing. After casting for an hour with no strikes, I had begun to lose my concentration. Just when you think nothing is happening, a big fish can hit. I still daydream about that fish too. She was big, powerful, and strong. Gone forever, into the night

[Gundog]

My first time at Black Lake in NY, I'm fishing with a friend. I toss a spinnerbait into the shallow weed bed and start reeling it in. Just as the lure breaks free of the weeds I feel a thump and the line goes slack. I reel like there is no tomorrow and catch up with the fish. As soon as the fish starts going down in the water column I can feel the weight of the fish against my medium-heavy rod and I know its a big fish. As I jump down from the back of the boat to get better footing and stop the boat from rocking I see where my line enters the water has changed. Its no longer close to the boat but now is much further away and at a low angle. That always means the fish is coming to the surface and he's doing it quick. I try to ease off the tension by moving the rod towards the fish but its too late. All I can do is watch as a huge smallmouth bass crests the surface of the water, shakes once and the spinnerbait comes flying back at me. All my friend could say with a deflated voice was "That one was big.". A memory I will never forget. 

[burrows]

7 hours ago, everythingthatswims said:

I never saw it or even hooked it, but I'm sure it was swimming around on the point in front of me for a couple hours at Milford Lake. Needed it to be 2lbs 11oz.

I presume you’re talking about the college bassmaster classic.

 

[BassNJake]

My "haunting" occurred on Lake Chickamauga as I was prefishing for our championship.

We caught a few fish here and there, we really struck out fishing deeper ledges so we moved shallow.

We ended up in a small marina fished all around the docks without a bite.

We pulled into a slip, tied off, ate lunch and decided to head somewhere else.

My partner was moving us out of the slip and I decided to flip my reverse rig senko into the corner of the slip we were leaving. I feel the classic tap, reel down and set the hook.

I'm not sure if I limp wristed it or just wasnt prepared for that big of a fish but my rod almost came out of my hands.

It's just a stalemate, i can feel something on the line but its not moving and neither are we. My partner asks if I snagged the dock because any forward momentum we had was gone and the trolling motor was still on 5.

The fish is pulling drag and I'm just holding on.

My partner starts backing the boat into the slip and I can feel the fish starting to come up.

I jam the rod in the water just to see the bass version of jaws come to the surface on the other side of the walkway and spit my senko back at me.

 

I just fell onto the back deck shaking my head wishing I could go back in time 5 minutes to try again.

My partner was having a fit. Oh my gosh, that was a 15 pound bass!!

Holy sheet, that thing dragged the boat with the trolling motor on 5!!

Dude, that was a state record!!

 

The fish I had on for a split second had a dead eye on its right hand side.(glossy and glazed looking)

I'll never forget that head.

 

Fast forward a couple of years to last winter and my partner calls and tells me someone caught my fish.

He links me to an article about a guy who caught a 14.5lb bass out of the chick and yep you guessed it, it had a dead right eye(well both now because he mounted it). https://newschannel9.com/sports/outdoors/chickamauga-big-bass-just-shy-of-new-state-record

 

I dont know if it was the same bass as the one I had on appeared to be darker and the dead eye had a little bit of a bulge to it

But we were fishing in July and this one was caught in December so temps could have to do with the differences.

 

I have went for 5 years and have never gotten another bite out of that little marina.

[Russ E]

My haunting occured 2 years ago on Smithville reservoir just north of Kansas city.

It was april and I was fishing a fluke around flooded timber. the line all of a sudden got that heavy mushy feel.

I set the hook and there was a huge splash. I felt the fish shake its head a couple times then the line went limp.

this all happened in a span of about 5 seconds.

I stood there in disbelief trying to process what just happened.  It could have been a large catfish. We seem to have a lot of them around here.

What haunts me the most is if it was a bass, it was by far the largest one I ever hooked.

[Joshua van Wyk]

On 11/18/2018 at 9:39 AM, Derek1 said:

Great story al

I’m haunted by my broken scale saying this fish weighed 2.75. It’s definitly my pb and no idea what it really weighed. I know it’s not a giant but it my biggest. It was 22” long and thick and healthy. 

I’m haunted by my broken scale saying this fish weighed 2.75. It’s definitly my pb and no idea what it really weighed. I know it’s not a giant but it my biggest. It was 22” long and thick and healthy. 

I caught a 22 inch bass last summer and it weighed 3 pounds on the dot. It didn't seem right to me but that's what the scale said so I didn't question it, that was my longest bass yet.  My biggest Bass was 20.5 inches and weighed 4.75 pounds. Now that I caught a bass almost 2 inches shorter and 40% heavier Its driving me crazy as to whether or not the 22 inch fish actually weighed 3 pound or not.

[Scott F]

7 minutes ago, Joshua van Wyk said:

I caught a 22 inch bass last summer and it weighed 3 pounds on the dot. It didn't seem right to me but that's what the scale said so I didn't question it, that was my longest bass yet.  My biggest Bass was 20.5 inches and weighed 4.75 pounds. Now that I caught a bass almost 2 inches shorter and 40% heavier Its driving me crazy as to whether or not the 22 inch fish actually weighed 3 pound or not.

Are you sure you’re scale was set to read pounds and not kilos? A 3 kilo fish is 6.6 pounds.

[Joshua van Wyk]

Just now, Scott F said:

Are you sure you’re scale was set to read pounds and not kilos? A 3 kilo fish is 6.6 pounds.

I honestly can't remember, I was a bit in shock after watching her inhale my jig

[Derek1]

55 minutes ago, Scott F said:

Are you sure you’re scale was set to read pounds and not kilos? A 3 kilo fish is 6.6 pounds.

That’s what I’m not sure of. At the time I had one of the cheap Kmart spring scales with pounds on one side and kilos on the other. It was dark and I was using my phone as a light and I was pretty excited I may have read the wrong side or just read the scale wrong idk. Either way I’ll never know, I know this. The next day I got a digital scale. 

[DINK WHISPERER]

Mine happened when I was only about 14 or so. We were visiting family in NC. My uncle took me fishing on this private lake he had access to through his job. I remember it was in the middle of nowhere. We pulled a small Jon boat with an ATV through what seemed like endless woods to get to it. 

Right away within the hour we landed a few big bass. We were using some small renegade worms in this blue/purple/pink flake color we picked up from Walmart. We came to this enormous tree that was laying in the water. He tells me to cast my worm to the tip of the branches farthest out. As I swam the worm back one almost takes the rod out of my hands. I panic and start yanking as hard as I can. It honestly felt so heavy I'm positive it was well into the double digits. I got to see her come up and roll into a hard pull that snapped my line. Turns out it was like 8lb stren mono and he carried that combo I was using as a spare in the back of the truck. The line was brittle from being in the sun for so long. Till this day I've never seen or felt one like that. And I've caught many DD bass too. True story ?

[burrows]

Deleted 

[Allaroundfishing]

I was float fishing the Shenandoah river with my great uncle, my cousin Sean and his two kids along with my little brother. My brother and I were stopped below some rapids in the slack water off to the side of the main channel. I knew from previous experience that there was a large "cliff" or drop off under the water so I was showing my brother how to fish it with a 1/8 ounce jig head and a 3 inch Mister twister. I made one cast and hooked up with a typical Shenandoah smallie, about 10 inches or so. I handed that rod to my brother and rigged up my other rod to fish the same way. When i heard the drag go on my brothers pole he had a good one on, we got it in and it was 14 inches so after a quick picture we let it go and got back to it. Now that whole time we took pics and released my jig head was sitting on the bottom right above the drop off so I twitched it once to get it to swing off the cliff. I never felt the hit just years of experience told me to swing on it because something felt off. When I set the hook into the fish i knew immediately i had a good one on, I didn't think it was a giant but i knew for a fact it was a big one as instead of fighting the current it ran straight down stream. I handed the rod to my little brother and told him it was a good one and he was gonna catch it, I was pulling up our anchor he said oh its jumping. i turned and watched this beautiful smallie jump out of the water in a series of 3 tail walks.  I knew then that my brother had an absolute tank on easy 18+ inches probably a solid 2 and a half pounder. (Remember this is a river fish and though to some a 2 lb smallie is nothing this river is not noted for large fish) My brother being inexperienced didn't realize that when the fish jump thats more than likely when your gonna loose them, he said and i quote "i want him to jump again cause he's pretty looking" So at this point the fish was just head shaking and pulling and I figured that he was hooked good so I wasn't to afraid of losing him from my brother not fighting him very good. (My brother was only 8 at the time) I watched as the fish came up from the clear slack water beneath us with its mouth open i knew immediately it was going to jump and come off, as the hook was in the bottom corner of his jaw and he was coming up too fast for my brother to catch up. Sure enough he jumped no more than 10 feet from the boat and came off. I believe my great uncle and i were more heart broken then my brother. He had fished that river for more than 15 years and had only caught one fish over 18 inches. I had fished it for 8 years and my biggest fish was 16 and a half. To this day the image of that fish tail walking is stuck in my head, it is a beautiful yet sad image watching that fish dance with the beautiful river in the background.