The ones that haunt you... Big ones that got off

[txchaser]

I'm currently in pursuit of a big girl on a big farm pond I fish. Pretty sure it's the same one, had her hooked up twice now.

 

First time I was fishing a 4" bluegill swimbait, with the front treble taken off because of heavy weeds. Had picked up a few decent sized fish, but they were pretty tough to get in with only the rear treble. Decided to cast it to the deepest part of the pond and just let it sink all the way down and slow roll it back. Line got very heavy, and something started pulling very hard after a hookset. I had that stop, think, don't overreact moment. Got it about halfway back and then it was off. Running deep the whole time. 

 

Few weeks later, same spot, big spinnerbait bite was on, I felt the "dangit I'm snagged" feeling. Then the snag started pulling back. Got her to about six feet from the bank, flashes sideways to show off length.... and then... slack line. I was being really dilgent about maintaining tension too. 

 

I've caught quite a few 4-5lb (>20' but skinny, some weighed) from this pond, and this one seemed way bigger based on the action, and long too. Skinnier ones seem back towards the creek more. 

 

Anyway, I'm convinced this fish is mocking me. Or maybe there's a few of them mocking me. 

 

Somewhat related, it's interesting to see how much better fed the main lake body fish are than the creek arm cover-huggers.

 

 

[The Maestro]

2 giant largemouth and a giant smallmouth the likes of which I may never see again.

[Koz]

On 3/17/2019 at 10:35 AM, Koz said:

I've never lost a fish that I thought would be my PB, so I can't tell you if I'd be haunted by it.

 

Funny how things change in just a month. Today I was fishing an "ugly lagoon" that I first tried the other day and had great success. The clarity in this lagoon is non-existent. Even when your lure is skimming the surface the water is so dirty it's hard to see the bait. And there's thick algae all around the edge of the basin. But it makes great cover for bass.

 

Today I was fishing the bank standing in a corner so straight in front of me I could cast parallel to the shoreline or cast to me left down that shoreline. There was a ton of slop in front of me. So I cast straight ahead and my rod tip is off to the right so I can keep the bait close to shore as I reel in.

 

When the bait gets close to me I need to move the rod tip to my left to avoid the slop and lift the bait out of the water clear of the algae. Just as I cross the rod over and begin to lift the bait out she made a stab at my chatterbait. I don't know if she actually got it in her mouth but it caught me off guard and I was a split second late going for the crossover hookset. She came out of the water and she was big, probably 6 or 7 pounds and close enough that it may have been my PB.

 

I followed up there and all around the area, then moved down the bank but she was gone. I fished another lagoon for a while, came back, but she had not returned. I missed my chance...

 

Until tomorrow evening - then I'll be back!

On 4/6/2019 at 1:11 PM, txchaser said:

Anyway, I'm convinced this fish is mocking me. Or maybe there's a few of them mocking me. 

 

Fish are scoundrels that way ?

[aaronw08]

over the summer i had an absolute giant come off. it was at dawn, and i was throwing a jig in a cove. This lake has some nice fish, and holds my current pb, and the last one, and the last one, and so on. i got a huge bite on my dirty jigs football jig n set the hook and it honestly felt like trying to turn a log that would come up but resist some. I didnt even know it was a fish until a few seconds into the fight when it really started pulling and it eventually got off. Im thinking it was in the 9-10lb range, absolute brute.

 

but then again that just gives you another reason to go out there and catch that one you lost, so its not necessarily a terrible thing losing fish if you look at it that way.

[Jadams]

Not one I lost but one that will haunt me forever. I was prefishing the day before a big bass tournament and first cast with a spook on a point less than 500 yards from the landing a fish rolled on it. As soon as I hooked it I knew it was a beast. I got it to the boat and it was my personal best lake Murray bass weighing in at 8.4lbs. I fished the next 2 days and the biggest bass I caught was 2.75

[Trox]

Fishing a tournament just under a year ago, doing mediocre. 5 bass, 9lbs. Super slow day in the dead of Texas summer. About an hour before weigh in, I figured that I would throw a wacky rigged senko (my "nothing is working, I don't even care anymore" bait), because why not. Skipped it under a dock, didn't feel the bite at all but noticed my line moving so I set the hook on what would turn out to be "the one that got away". The fish got juuust outside of netting distance before taking one last hoorah of a dive, never to be seen again. It was every bit of 10lbs and would have taken the tournament in a 70 boat field, as well as been my PB. I still have nightmares...

[Koz]

After responding to this thread the other day I've jinxed myself.

 

The line just stopped....

 

I didn't think much of it because after all, I had already lost 3 chatterbaits in the past week when the line just stopped on something hidden in the water. That was partially my fault because I had downsized to 20 pound braid for longer casts from the bank, but that line sure does snap easy when you feel the line stop and set the hook only to have it snap off on a submerged tree branch.

 

So now my line stopped again near a submerged drop inlet about 30 feet out. The line didn't pull or run, it just came to a dead stop. So I dropped my rod tip a bit hoping to free the hook from around whatever branch the single hook caught on, then reeled down and put a little tension on the line. That's when she breached - all mouth and huge red gills flaring while spitting out my chatterbait. She was 8 pounds easy, and she was gone.

 

The good news is that there's a pattern on that lagoon that is tried and true on sunny days and fairly calm days between 11 am and 1pm and 5pm and 7pm. The bad news is that since then it's been cloudy and windy every day and I haven't had one bite in that area since. But today is all sun, although windy and tomorrow will be sunny and calm. You can guess where I'll be the next few days - searching for my "white whale".

 

And yes - this is the same section of the lagoon that I posted about last week.

[everythingthatswims]

Weighed over 22lbs on Kentucky lake, my 3rd cast of the morning I lost a fish that was over 7lbs. The smallest of our 5 was 3.5lbs, so you do the math

[SC53]

Two I can remember.

One was in a buddy tournament on lake Kissimmee back in November ‘89. Had one easily over 7 on a spinnerbait.  Got it to the boat and my buddy knocked it off with the net trying to get it.  We took third in the tournament but would have culled our small one and even if it was only 5 would have won it. I got over it pretty soon but my friend never did until he netted my PB at 11.3 close to 20 years later.  Never knew it bothered him until he said he was redeemed netting that fish.

 

Other one was down at the Stick Marsh 10 years or so ago.  I was throwing a Golden Eagle spinnerbait.  Hooked a giant, I mean a giant. Got to see her jump ( or try too) a couple times pretty close before the spinnerbait broke in half. Didn’t throw another Golden Eagle for a long time and still am reluctant to tie one on.

[gnappi]

L-O-N-G ago when I was a kid, my dad and I were on a section of a bridge close to the water in New York striper fishing.

 

The line started to pull drag, dad set the hook, and for the next few hours he'd reel in a few yards, then lose it plus some more, till finally the reel was spooled and the fish wasn't going to give any more back. With one tug of its head the bakelite spool cracked, and the line parted.

 

After all of these years I'm guessing it was either a shark, a big cow of a striper, or maybe a big piece of flotsam in the currents... ? Gads, I wish we could have at least seen whatever it was even for a few seconds.

 

 

[TnRiver46]

21 hours ago, SC53 said:

Two I can remember.

One was in a buddy tournament on lake Kissimmee back in November ‘89. Had one easily over 7 on a spinnerbait.  Got it to the boat and my buddy knocked it off with the net trying to get it.  We took third in the tournament but would have culled our small one and even if it was only 5 would have won it. I got over it pretty soon but my friend never did until he netted my PB at 11.3 close to 20 years later.  Never knew it bothered him until he said he was redeemed netting that fish.

 

Other one was down at the Stick Marsh 10 years or so ago.  I was throwing a Golden Eagle spinnerbait.  Hooked a giant, I mean a giant. Got to see her jump ( or try too) a couple times pretty close before the spinnerbait broke in half. Didn’t throw another Golden Eagle for a long time and still am reluctant to tie one on.

The big uns can bust anything. At least she bit it! Haha

[WRB]

This topic tends to come up often but I will share my stories agian.

2 giant bass have haunted me for decades. The first was a long time ago during the Lower Otay lake prime period of the early 70's. I hook a giant bass that ran under another anchored boat and it wrapped my around the anchor rope. The other boat angler was Ron Hugget fishing with crawdads and he got a good look at the bass before it broke off. Ron has caught lots of DD size bass and he told me the fish over 30" long a 20+ lb bass.

The 2nd lost giant bass was at lake Castiac where I caught my 19.3 lb PB LMB. I was back seating while fishing with a friend, the late Gary Gerber, when I hook a giant bass and fought it to within about 8' from the boat and could see the bass clearly and it was about 2" longer and bigger then my PB bass. The next thing I noticed the bottom was comming up quickly, we were fishing a long point surrounded by deep water and I looked to see Gary standing next to me, not controlling the boat on the trolling motor, we had drifted up to the point , the bass instantly made a hard run over the point ridge breaking my line on the rocks. Heart broken loosing a bass of a lifetime and still haunts me. At the end of the day it's just a fish that got away because of mistakes made.

Tom