What is your craziest fishing story?

[Koz]

On 11/30/2020 at 8:10 PM, roadwarrior said:

I don't like that story.

The situation sounds waaaay too dangerous to be worried about

a fish. If the gator was a dog I would be just as concerned.

 

 

I do understand your concern, however we are well versed in keeping our distance from gators as well as what to do if one gets too close. If we spent our time worrying about alligators we'd never be able to fish sincetThey are in almost 100% of the lagoons around here.

 

As for my son whacking the gator he did what he was taught to do when an aggressive gator gets too close - whack it on the snout and head area. The snout is especially sensitive area for gators and that area and the eyes are what you go after if an aggressive gator comes at you.

 

A few years ago in this forum I posted safety tips on how to bank fish in alligator territory and provided video that let viewers hear alligator warning grunts as well as what baby gators sound like. Pro tip: if you hear a baby gator near you get out of there FAST. Mama is somewhere nearby and she will protect her young.

 

 

[roadwarrior]

Okay, I will stay away!

 

[Sam]

Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico when growing up in New Orleans and me and my two cousins were having a blast catching white trout from the back of my uncle's 42-foot Chris Craft.

 

All of a sudden we started hooking the trout and ending up with only the heads.

 

Seems the sharks had moved in and were attacking all of the white trout we had hooked.

 

Never saw the sharks but we knew they were there so we did not go swimming later that evening off the big boat.

[schplurg]

Haven't been fishing long enough to have many stories but I had a sort of funny one last week.

 

Fishing a shallow creek, I had a T-rigged worm in about 18 inches of water. I could see it 15 feet or so off shore sitting on the bottom. I was busy talking to my camera (I record all my fishing, including this event)

 

I saw a duck coming from my left, just swimming along. It approached my line and I thought the duck might get tangled, so at the last second I reeled in a little line. The duck saw the worm move directly beneath it and dove for it!

 

I reeled even faster and got the bait out of the water. The duck continued searching for the worm for 15 seconds, looking down, swimming in circles a couple of times, then wandered off. "I'm sure I saw a worm down there! What the..." That's the part I think is funny, at least when I watch the video. Glad I didn't hook the poor thing.

[PhishLI]

Earlier this season I hit a lake for some night wading with my brother and a pal where both Smallmouth and Walleye live. This lake's version of rip rap is just large chunks of busted up concrete slab the town dumped along a few hundred feet of the shoreline. This spot is known to be the smallmouth zone, so we started there first with high hopes.

 

It's a bit treacherous to wade along the chunk slab, but we do it anyway. At one point I stepped up onto the pile to change baits. I pulled out one of my two 3600 boxes from my shoulder bag and opened it. As I was contemplating my choices I slipped on the wet slab. Not badly, but enough to juggle the open tackle box. I didn't hear anything splash into the water or skitter across the concrete, so I was happy nothing was lost and thought nothing of it. We fished that spot for a spell, but the Smallmouth weren't playing, so we went to the Walleye flats on the other side of the lake.

 

During the first hour I was killing it. I had 14 just like that. I decided to try my then favorite bait, a Whopper Plopper 75 in perch, but it was nowhere to be found. I ran back to the spots I'd been on the Walleye flats to see if it was dropped there, but no good. I guessed that it must've fallen in during my slip on the concrete.

 

We continued fishing for 5 more hours where I bagged 54 Eyes! It was the best night of fishing of my life with about 15 that were 4-5 pounders. Lots of pics were snapped. Smiles everywhere.

 

When we called it quits my mind turned back to my long lost WP 75. I'd caught my best bass of the prespawn on that very bait. I just had to find it, so at 5 am I went back to the busted up slab shoreline, solo. That was reckless and stupid, but I can be sentimental about odd things. I looked and I looked, but no dice. Defeated and irked, I made the 40 mile trip back home.

 

When I got home I made a mad dash to the throne room, and just in time might I add. I'd been clinching down on that one since about 4am! With the utmost satisfaction and relief I stood at the sink to wash my hands, then proceeded to splash water on my face to clear the sweat from my brow. Once I saw my reflection in the mirror, in one insane moment, the great Whopper Plopper mystery had been solved! Amazingly, the dudes that snapped all the pics didn't catch it. Still shaking my head just thinking about it. What a crazy night in every direction!

 

 

[roadwarrior]

[Johnbt]

We had two citations in the boat at one time.

 

Five years ago my friend and I were fishing a private 100-acre lake on a breezy, chilly afternoon. He was driving my boat and we were fishing squarebills on every little cove and creek mouth and picking up some dinks. He was using some no name 3" gray thing with a black dot on it. He has bins of gear going back decades, so he couldn't tell what it was.

 

Heading into the wind he made the first cast at the next little creek and hooked a big fish. He lipped the fish and started fumbling for his scale and camera. I kept saying, "Want a hand?" and he kept saying "I got it, take a pic with my phone." No he didn't. 

 

As the wind drifted us backward, I got fed up and cut the bait off his line, tied it on mine, and fired a huge cast over his head before the creek mouth was out of reach. I turned the handle 10 or 11 times and I had my big fish. 

 

His was 8 pounds 4 ounces.

Mine was 8 pounds 2 ounces.

 

We fished that area for another 30 minutes and didn't catch anything.

[Johnbt]

Back in the mid-80s iirc, a friend had an old glass boat with a walkthru windshield. One day after work 4 or 5 of us took it down to Walkers dam on the Chickahominy River to fish the herring run. We anchored just below the small dam and proceeded to catch some herring and drink some  beer. Yum, fried roe and jars of salted fillets for later.

 

At one point the wind shifted and owner told me to pull the anchor while he moved us. The anchor came up with a huge wad of mono on it and there seemed to be something on the line that was still in the water. My buddy shouted that it was his boat and he claimed the fish and he proceeded to pull in a really nice catfish.

 

While he was fooling with the fish, I found the other end of the mono where it left the big knot and pulled in a nice Fenwick Boron rod and an expensive reel that never did clean up just right. But that pistol grip rod looked like new and was better than anything I had. He tried to get it away from me, but I wouldn't trade him for that stinky catfish.

[Nelson Wormefeller]

Not very crazy...but I see bubbles coming towards me and then a Mink popped out of the water and ran into the woods.

[mikey z]

Probably when a cottonmouth quietly slithered by from behind me within inches of my right foot, luckily he was choking on a crappie about 3 times the size of his head so he was zero danger to me ?

[r83srock]

The date is June 6, of 2006, that’s right six, six, 6. The day of our high school graduation. My friend and I decided to hit the lake before walking the stage later that afternoon, so away we go. It’s a bright sunny afternoon, 80 plus degrees, beautiful day. Well wouldn’t you know it, a storm comes out of nowhere. The wind is picking up and it’s getting dark fast. As we are making our last casts, both of our fishing lines start moving upward, and are vibrating and making noise! We drop our poles on the deck and crawl under the consoles, not a second later,  CRACK!!! ?⚡️??. Lightning like I had never heard or seen. The hair on my arms was standing out straight!! I strapped the rods down with about 20 feet of line out yet and we took off! And then the rains came like no other, and the wind!! ??⛈ We booked it back to shore, and like a switch, and as fast as the storm started, ?⛅️?☀️, poof gone!  We didn’t dare go back out that day, we were done. I don’t think either of us were so scared in our lives. It felt like straight up evil coming for us, or the wrath of God himself. Not sure which but I’ll never forget it.

[Bubba 460]

I cast a Whopper Plopper 130 across a good looking point, it no sooner hit the water when a large pickerel hit it and cut my line. With the lure gone I tied on another and continued on fishing around the banks of the large cove. After about an hour I was returning to the same point when the pickerel with my Whopper Plopper still in his mouth jump right in front of me and threw the bait. The lure landed on the water just 20 feet from where I was. I went over and picked it up and thanked him.

[snake95]

This last summer I became good friends with a blue heron.  

 

I often saw him at the closest pond to our house.

 

I was fishing in a small shallow cove and caught a dink bass on a senko.  As the bass was trying to shake the hook on surface, the heron swooped down and grabbed the bass, senko, hook and all, and snapped my line and flew off.  I was worried that this majestic bird was about to eat the hook, but since I don't have wings, there was nothing I could do about it.

 

A few minutes later I thought the heron was long gone and tried a cast with a ned rig and caught a bluegill.  As I started to unhook the bluegill, the heron came back, seemingly out of nowhere, and landed about 40 feet from me.  I tossed the bluegill to a spot about halfway to the heron, thinking the bluegill would be fine.  The bluegill hit the water but before he could swim a stroke the heron had him in his beak.  I watched as the heron stood up and gulped down the bluegill like a human might slurp down an oyster from the shell.  It was amazing considering the bluegill was much larger than the heron's throat.   

 

I felt a little less concerned about the hook after I saw that, because I reasoned if you can swallow a mouthful of bluegill spines without a pause, maybe a thin wire 2/0 won't hurt too much either.

 

Needless to say, the heron now thinks we are best friends and every time I go back to the pond I am much more aware that I have an audience.

 

[bulldog1935]

The Frio Sendero.  

 

Thee of us with fly rods caught 400 bass, and each broke off 2 or 3 lifetime fish - 10-12 lbs.  

West of San Antonio, somewhere north of US-90, all the rivers disappear into the Edwards Aquifer, and somewere south of US-90, they all re-emerge into the coastal plain.  

My buddy has a family ranch south of Sabinal on the Frio Sendero, and it's 20 mi on dirt roads to get there - I kid you not, this is the river from his bluff, but there's cold clear water flowing through the gravel, and each pool is stacked with bass.  

 

 

 

It was hike the gravel bed to the next pool, and each caught 7 or 8 bass from each pool.  

 

 

 

This was the biggest brought to hand

 

here's the blue hole where the Sabinal re-emerges from the aquifer

there are 7 bass sitting on the flagstone shelf

 

[bulldog1935]

Different day, took Kevin Townsend filming an episode of KT Diaries to private water on Hondo Creek, uphill from the aquifer recharge.  

He got all the film he needed in 90 minutes, including a 5-lb bass picking up a bottom-bounced clauser.  Constantly hooked up.  

 

 

[TheBasslayer]

Mine was when this guy accidentally hooked and lost a big snapping turtle. I was casting around with a jerkbait and after around 30 minutes, I felt something heavy on the line. Turns out I snagged his broken line, turtle attached! Luckily I got it in and got the guy’s hook out.

[mikey z]

@TheBasslayer I have landed two snapping turtles by foul hooking them, one was friggin' huge and angry! I just ended up cutting off my $10 jerkbait with that one ?

[TheBasslayer]

1 hour ago, mikey z said:

@TheBasslayer I have landed two snapping turtles by foul hooking them, one was friggin' huge and angry! I just ended up cutting off my $10 jerkbait with that one ?

Nice! They aren't fun to get the hooks out of!

[LrgmouthShad]

Ya’ll will get a pretty good idea of me from this one. So it was the day of prom my senior year, and I had just finished cleaning up my older sister’s car that I was using while she was away. Had it all pretty for prom and stuff. But then I had a few hours to spare. So I said screw it I’m going fishing. Around this time for whatever reason I had a fascination with twitching floating crankbaits on the surface. I get out to the lake and about 30min in I hear a splash in the water like a gunshot. So I think “man that’s a big fish idk what it is but it sounds fun”. I cast my crankbait out and start twitching it back to me. I think this thing was like a DT-4 or something. I follow the splashes and.... a catfish jumps out of the water to attack my crankbait! I’m in a panic, I feel it back in quick as I can, when I get it next to me I have no idea what to do with it, the line broke and the line was simply wrapped around the fish which was the only thing that allowed me to reel it in. I untangle the fish and it swims away. Biggest fish I’d ever seen in my short time fishing (it wasn’t really that big of a channel car). Then I go back to the house where I launched and babble about this giant fish that attacked my crankbait and I hurry my myself up and go to prom. There you go that’s my crazy fish story. 

[snake95]

Just remembered, last summer something else cool happened, I guess this was late May.

 

Fishing a heavily pressured pond in a north Georgia state park with nearly gin-clear water - not common in GA.

 

Got to the pond about 6:30 am, sun already well on the way up.

 

Standing on the earth dam, I tossed out a whopper plopper along the shoreline.  Let it sit and ripples die out while I check the time on my phone.

 

Then "woosh!" something smashes the daylights out of my stationary plopper.

 

I reel up and have a hard pulling fish on the other end.  But instead of jumping, it dives and wrestles with the line.  I pull her close to the sloping bank... it's a carp!  I am shocked.  A carp just slammed my stationary whopper plopper!  When I go to get out my phone and take a pic, she gives a head shake, unhooks, and swims off like nothing happened.

 

 

[mikey z]

@snake95 I had pretty much the exact same thing happen to me, but with a topwater walker. He didn't do much diving and wrestling at all though, he was charging towards me most of the fight

[TnRiver46]

On 12/28/2020 at 2:55 PM, snake95 said:

Just remembered, last summer something else cool happened, I guess this was late May.

 

Fishing a heavily pressured pond in a north Georgia state park with nearly gin-clear water - not common in GA.

 

Got to the pond about 6:30 am, sun already well on the way up.

 

Standing on the earth dam, I tossed out a whopper plopper along the shoreline.  Let it sit and ripples die out while I check the time on my phone.

 

Then "woosh!" something smashes the daylights out of my stationary plopper.

 

I reel up and have a hard pulling fish on the other end.  But instead of jumping, it dives and wrestles with the line.  I pull her close to the sloping bank... it's a carp!  I am shocked.  A carp just slammed my stationary whopper plopper!  When I go to get out my phone and take a pic, she gives a head shake, unhooks, and swims off like nothing happened.

 

 

They will eat things off the surface for a very short window during a cicada hatch. 

[Supra]

Was fishing with a friend and he had a bass on.  When he got it out of the water it was hooked by and snell hook set up and his hook caught the line loop... WHAT?

[snake95]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

They will eat things off the surface for a very short window during a cicada hatch. 

Thanks, you have educated me there.  I have never caught a carp, intentionally or otherwise, and was utterly floored that it would slam a whopper plopper.

[TnRiver46]

20 minutes ago, snake95 said:

Thanks, you have educated me there.  I have never caught a carp, intentionally or otherwise, and was utterly floored that it would slam a whopper plopper.

You should have been, a carp will slam a whopper plopper about twice a decade