Funny Fishing Stories

[SeaCrow]

All of us has a funny fishing story to tell, please share yours. Here's  one to get this ball rolling. My grandpa always left his rod and reels in his boat because he'd fish just about every day. My 2 cousins climbed into his boat one day while he was at work. One would cast the line into the yard and the other would free it when it would get hung up in the grass. The youngest was waiting for his brother to free the plug and as soon as he did, he set the hook!!  Caught him in the nose with a treble hook. To make it worse, he reeled him in all the way to the boat. Fighting him as you woulld a bass. This is only funny because it didn't happen to me

 

 

[Choporoz]

this one time....at fish camp....

[5/0]

I’ve posted several questions about knot tying and the majority of responses stress wetting the knot before cinching it down.

So.....Years ago I was fishing as backseat in a club tourney at Oroville in CA. It was raining so hard that I could barely see the boater in front! He had to break off a snag and asked me to hold the boat while he retired. I turn around and see him putting the knot in his mouth to moisten it and asked him what the *@&! are you doing that for? He almost fell out of the boat laughing!

[5/0]

Two more.....

 

We were fishing a night tourney and another boat in the cove we were in was having mechanical problems with the trolling motor. A flashlight goes on silhouetting the boater bent over the motor with the backseat bent over behind him. You hear the boater say, I’ll hold the flashlight and you stick it in. The cove erupted with laughter. There must have been 10 boats in there.

 

I was once fishing with a guy who was extremely meticulous about his boat. He would always ask if you shoes were clean before you got onboard. Anyway, it was a really hot day and I started to apply sunscreen, he gives me a stern look and tells me not to get any on his carpet. A little while later he wants to put some on and pulls out this huge bloated tube of sunscreen. I turn away to make a cast and hear this loud THHPPPTTT. I turn back and the tube had erupted when he opened it! He and his carpet were covered in goo. Boy, there was some moaning and gnashing of teeth! I had to bite my tongue before I said something that would end up with me in the lake

[the reel ess]

My dad and I were trolling along a bank with a deep dropoff. There was a "wandering stump" in the vicinity. There used to be a lot of those on that lake, just logs that floated off during high water and weren't completely waterlogged yet so one end stuck out. Well, we decide to pull up the trolling motor and take off and my dad guns it and runs right over this stump. The boat bounced hard off to the side and scared the hell out of us both. It was a riveted aluminum model and we have to replace a few rivets.

 

We were crappie fishing from our pontoon boat once and decided to move to another spot. The boat just didn't want to get up to speed. It didn't have a misfire, just weak. We got to our destination and discovered we'd left two anchors in the water.

 

My dad and I were out in my fish and ski (yes, I fished almost exclusively with my dad) and when we went to crank...nothing. Not even the click of a weak battery. There was another boat in the cove that offered us a tow and we accepted. I got the boat home and we poured over the manual trying to decide what had happened. We thought the oil injection had failed and there was a relay broken. I missed about 5 months of fishing because I was too cheap to take it to a mechanic. One day my dad calls me up and says...GO LOOK AT THE KILL SWITCH. ? I was relieved and mortified at the same time. I know the first rule of mechanics is always look for the cheapest fix first. But I still didn't.

 

 

[Koz]

I've told this one before, but it's a good one.

 

My son and I were fishing and not catching anything so he breaks out the iBobber portable sonar, hooks it up to his line and tosses it out there. Within the app if a fish greater than 18" swims by the fish icon is green and if it's smaller than 18" the fish icon is red.

 

Anyway, he's calling out, "Red. Red. Green. GREEN!" as fish are swimming by the iBobber. I cast out there and I'm not getting any bites at all and he's still calling out fish and getting super excited when a big fish swims by. Still not a bite.

 

So I ask him to bring me my phone so I can see what he is seeing in the app.

 

It was on demo mode. SMH

[J Francho]

57 minutes ago, Koz said:

It was on demo mode. SMH

This is a fun trick to play on a non boater - switch the console graph to demo mode.

[billmac]

I took a friend wading in a river once, and I swear he simply cast from one side of the river into the trees on the other side of the river.  He would wade across, get his lure, and do the same thing in the opposite direction.  I had the actual water all to myself.

 

I and a group of friends once had a shore dinner which consisted of cooking a shiner over a road flare.

 

These are more of "can you believe it" rather than funny.

 

I was wading for smallmouth when a big one broke off my topwater lure.  A few minutes later it broke water and spit out the lure literally a foot from me.  I just reached out and retrieved it.  I think it was a skitterpop.

 

Once I was wading in a rocky river and had one of those times the freespool didn't engage during a cast, and my mister twister meeney spin broke off and sailed away.  I tied on a new one, cast out, and reeled in my lost lure, hooked through the line eye.

[billmac]

Once when the fishing was slow, (we were wading) a friend and I put down the rods and just sat down and let the water sweep us down a section of flat rock bottom, like a poor man's water slide. We did this repeatedly.  I didn't find out until I got home that I had completely worn out the seat of my pants.  My parents were not amused.  Another time when wading, this same friend and I came across a semi-sunken old wooden boat, and we played around with it for ages.  When we came home, we were covered in tar.  We basically had to bathe in gasoline to get it off. His parents were not amused.

 

These aren't fishing stories but:

 

I used to trap muskrats when I was a teenager.  Anyone who has done so knows that you have to scrape the fat off the hide and dry the fur before you put them on the stretcher.  I got into the habit of snapping the skins like a towel to get the excess water off.   I once did this in a newly sheetrocked room, and left bits of blood and fat all over the walls.  In another instance, in a hurry, I dried off the pelts by throwing them in the dryer.  In both cases, my parents were not amused.

[NHBull]

The first time I fished out of a canoe, I WAS 10 and with my uncle.

We were in about 10 feet of water and fly fishing.  I was in the bow so I couldn't see him.

15 minutes in, he flipped the canoe!  He planned this earlier in the day and my dad was close by in another boat.

The lessons I learned that day were invaluable and my days in the boy scouts paid off.  I was then able to take the canoe out by myself.

......lessens learned the hard way ?

[SeaCrow]

2 hours ago, NHBull said:

The first time I fished out of a canoe, I WAS 10 and with my uncle.

We were in about 10 feet of water and fly fishing.  I was in the bow so I couldn't see him.

15 minutes in, he flipped the canoe!  He planned this earlier in the day and my dad was close by in another boat.

The lessons I learned that day were invaluable and my days in the boy scouts paid off.  I was then able to take the canoe out by myself.

......lessens learned the hard way ?

Those are the lessons you don't forget 

[Catt]

Catt & Pat are sitting on a little ridge just south of Indian Mounds; full moon is barely on the horizon, slight southerly breeze.

 

I make a long cast towards deep water and start the count down to the bottom. The Texas rigged worm settles down when there's that classic "Thump", drops the rod, reel the slack, and set the hook.

 

Nothing gives, then in a microsecond on my knees, rod half under water.

 

Catt: Yells get the net!

Pat: For what!

Catt: I think he's heading for the Louisiana side

Pat: You gonna land em or what

Catt: Aint you suppose to play em first?

 

Finally back to my feet, line singing again, drag slipping, rod all bowed up.

 

Catt: He's headed for Six Mile, if you start the big motor we can head em off.

Pat now standing behind me: Want me to pour some water on your reel?

Catt: No! just get the gun!

 

Look a swirl just under the surface, a sudden dive for freedom, your mine sucker.

 

Pat with quick move and it's in the net: Took you long enough.

Catt falls back into the seat drops his rods on the deck: Dude let's see it.

 

Pat turns on the interior lights: Shoot it's only a stripper!

Catt sits up, lips it and grabs

the tail, gotta be at least 36"

Pat digs around in the console for the scales 16 LB 5 OZ.

 

Catt: Slipping it back in, that's a hawg right there.

Pat: Don't count it's a stripper!

Catt: Still a hawg

Pat: You're still down 7 to 4, shut up & fish.

[SeaCrow]

Thanks for sharing your stories, keep them coming..

[sdbc]

One morning I was fishing at a reservoir in San Diego.  Middle of the city.  I was at the end of a metal dock and I heard the clank of somebody walking onto it.  I turned around and there's a deer walking onto the dock!  We stare at each other for a minute and it proceeds to jump off into the water and swim across the lake.  I don't remember if I caught any fish that day, but I sure remember the deer.

[Russ E]

My story happened today.

I was fishing brushpiles on a local lake.

It was a good day until I snagged a sunken christmas tree.

As I was maneuvering the boat to get a different angle to free my bait. The rod slipped out of my hand.

I watched a Dobyns fury 734 with a Tatula SV sink in about 10 foot of water.

I grabbed my portable anchor and threw it in the brushpile. luckily it hooked the christmas tree and I was able to pull it up with my rod still attached.

There were 2 older gentleman catfishing about 50 yards away, while this was all going down. They thought the whole ordeal was pretty entertaining.

 Both of them were shocked I actually got the rod back.

The rod was unharmed.I stripped and cleaned the reel and it is no worse for the wear.

 

[SeaCrow]

3 minutes ago, Russ E said:

My story happened today.

I was fishing brushpiles on a local lake.

It was a good day until I snagged a sunken christmas tree.

As I was maneuvering the boat to get a different angle to free my bait. The rod slipped out of my hand.

I watched a Dobyns fury 734 with a Tatula SV sink in about 10 foot of water.

I grabbed my portable anchor and threw it in the brushpile. luckily it hooked the christmas tree and I was able to pull it up with my rod still attached.

There were 2 older gentleman catfishing about 50 yards away, while this was all going down. They thought the whole ordeal was pretty entertaining.

 Both of them were shocked I actually got the rod back.

The rod was unharmed.I stripped and cleaned the reel and it is no worse for the wear.

 

You got lucky...glad you recovered your rod&reel..

[Dirtyeggroll]

Was on a guide trip in San Diego on Canyon Lake.

 

The guide was a cool guy and I had told him my primary goal was to catch a big fish.

 

We had fished all day and the biggest we had caught was just over 3. He kept saying throughout the day that the best chance to catch a big one was to go night fishing. Being such a standup guy, he offered to keep the trip going after a dinner break.

 

The strategy was to chuck weightless black senkos at the "seawall" of the lake near the docks. Its very dark so its difficult to see where the bait is going. It had been about an hour and we had caught one fish about 2.5 lbs doing this. I make a cast and as I start to drag the senko, I feel a subtle tug back. I set the hook and start feeling the head shakes. BIG STRONG HEADSHAKES. I start getting really excited as I start to fight this behemoth, telling the guide that we did it, saying "this is the one". I'm fighting this thing for a solid 2 minutes slowly making progress, when suddenly then boat bumps into the edge of the dock. It spooked me so I released the tension on my line and the line goes slack. At first I was devastated because I thought the fish had come unhooked. I reel up the slack to find that something is still on the other end. It still feels like it pulls back, but is definitely not swimming... turned out to be a dock cable and my progress was me slowing pulling the boat toward he. The guide and I had a good laugh about it. Never ended up finding one over 4lbs in CA.

[billmac]

You may have guessed from my stories that most of my youth fishing was wading the rapids.  I was wading the rapids one day with a friend and I caught a 4-5 foot eel in the rapids ( I guess I must have been using live bait).  Between the size of the eel, and the current, I completely stripped out my reel.  Ruined a perfectly good Pocket Fisherman (TM).

[jr231]

A few years ago I took an ex girlfriend fishing with me... You know how some women can be... Impatient ?. So we went to a spot I knew had numbers and size... I was tinkering with other lures but wanted to give her something I knew would catch fish with little skill working the bait... I initially thought to hook her up with a weightless senko but her lack of patience proved this was not the way to go. So I tied her up a 1/8oz bitsy bug and a rage chunk. I told her just to cast it out and reel it slowly... Wasn't long she stuck a nice one and ended up being the nicest fish of the day. I took a nice ribbing about how she was the better Fisher that day.

 

 

I let her have the win ?. Even tho it chapped me a little. Knowing I put her on the fish, supplied the rod, line, lure and told her what to do with it . I had to bite my tongue pretty hard because she truly believed she outfished me . And I guess she did ?

[Troy85]

58 minutes ago, Yeajray231 said:

A few years ago I took an ex girlfriend fishing with me... You know how some women can be... Impatient ?. So we went to a spot I knew had numbers and size... I was tinkering with other lures but wanted to give her something I knew would catch fish with little skill working the bait... I initially thought to hook her up with a weightless senko but her lack of patience proved this was not the way to go. So I tied her up a 1/8oz bitsy bug and a rage chunk. I told her just to cast it out and reel it slowly... Wasn't long she stuck a nice one and ended up being the nicest fish of the day. I took a nice ribbing about how she was the better Fisher that day.

 

 

I let her have the win ?. Even tho it chapped me a little. Knowing I put her on the fish, supplied the rod, line, lure and told her what to do with it . I had to bite my tongue pretty hard because she truly believed she outfished me . And I guess she did ?

I'm sorry honey, its not you, its me...I just can't be with someone who believes they out fished me.  

[Rip_lipz]

On 8/13/2019 at 2:03 PM, 5/0 said:

Two more.....

 

We were fishing a night tourney and another boat in the cove we were in was having mechanical problems with the trolling motor. A flashlight goes on silhouetting the boater bent over the motor with the backseat bent over behind him. You hear the boater say, I’ll hold the flashlight and you stick it in. The cove erupted with laughter. There must have been 10 boats in there.

 

I was once fishing with a guy who was extremely meticulous about his boat. He would always ask if you shoes were clean before you got onboard. Anyway, it was a really hot day and I started to apply sunscreen, he gives me a stern look and tells me not to get any on his carpet. A little while later he wants to put some on and pulls out this huge bloated tube of sunscreen. I turn away to make a cast and hear this loud THHPPPTTT. I turn back and the tube had erupted when he opened it! He and his carpet were covered in goo. Boy, there was some moaning and gnashing of teeth! I had to bite my tongue before I said something that would end up with me in the lake

Little off topic but the same thing happened to me this weekend. My father in law just bought brand new corn hole boards. He had just painted them and put decals on, he had to find the perfect dry spot with no dirt to put them. He bent down to readjust the board and his entire red solo cup full of beer went all over them. I nearly had a heart attack laughing!

[SeaCrow]

Good stories...keepem coming..

[papajoe222]

I was fishing a local club tourney with my son-in-law. i had a limit, but I knew it wouldn't be enough to win the pot, With about 20min. left to fish I pulled up to a spot less than 100yrds from the weigh-in and caught a nice 18in. bass. As I culled it, he says he needs to hit the little boy's room and can't wait. I run him to shore and back out to that same spot, only to catch another 18in. and a 21in. before heading in to weigh.  I ended up winning by a big margin, but I was last to weigh just as he got back from his emergency. When he saw me pull that 5+lb. out of the live well, he swore up and down at himself for not staying and fishing the spot.  I would have won the bet I had with him for big fish with any one of the fish I culled, but that big girl really made the win sweet.  That was nine years ago and when I bring it up to him, he starts his rant all over again. 

[river-rat]

This happened way back in the early 70's. My tournament partner and I were scouting for a tournament on Lake St. John near Ferriday, LA. We had each brought our own boat so that we could cover more water during the practice period.

 

Lake St. John is completely surrounded by cypress trees and naturally you would sometimes come across a snake in the limbs over the water. Now my friend was deathly afraid of snakes and would do anything to get away from them.

 

Anyhow, I decide to go check in with him to see how he's doing and I come across his boat drifting quite a ways out from the tree line and he's no where to be found. Of course, I'm thinking the worst and begin to try and find him hoping he was okay. 

 

I finally come across him and he is standing barefoot on one leg on top of a cypress knee and holding on to a tree limb for balance. When I asked him what happened he said that he had hung his bait on a limb in the tree and when he couldn't quite reach it he stepped onto the cypress knee with the other foot still in the boat. Just as he is trying to get the lure free a snake slithered out of the tree and fell in the water which caused him to lift his foot out of the boat and of course it drifted away. According to him he had been in that position for over 30 minutes.

 

Of course I asked him why didn't he swim out to get his boat. His response was "are you crazy! There was a snake in the water and I didn't know where it was!"

 

The funniest part was that he had a bruise the size of a sliver dollar on the bottom of his foot and could hardly walk for a few days. I still remind him of this every time I get the chance.

[12poundbass]

Every Labor Day weekend my stepdad and 3-5 other father son duos would head to the UP for golf and walleye fishing on Big Bay de noc. One year we were out trolling and one of the other boats with us had a seagull flying erratically around them. They were scrambling around in the boat, so I radioed over to them and turns out they caught the seagull! Funniest thing we’ve ever seen, not so much for them. Thankfully they released the gull so it could grow and other anglers could have the privilege of catching it. ?