Once in a lifetime stories?

[billmac]

Have you ever had something happen during fishing that is so incredible it is hard to believe?  I can think of 3:

 

Once, while a friend and I were wading for smallmouth, a big smallie broke one of us off (I can't remember if it was me or him).  A few minutes later, the bass broke water a foot or so to my right and threw the lure.  All I had to do was reach out and pick up the lure (topwater).

 

Once while in a canoe with that same friend on the same river, we pulled into a small bay, and I told my friend to cast to a certain spot and he would catch a muskie, and he did!  It wasn't quite legal size, but I was kind proud of my Nostradamus moment.

 

I think the most unbelievable thing that happened to me was once when I was again wading rapids.  I was throwing a mister twister meeny spin, and I had one of those times when you cast, but the spool doesn't disengage.  So the lure snaps off and goes flying downriver.  So I tie on a new meeny spin, cast out the first time, and drag in my lost lure.  I had hooked it through the eye.

 

What have you got?

[Jig Man]

Fishing with my grandson I hooked a smallie.  It jumped and threw the bait.  I reeled in the jig with the trailer missing.

 

A short time later my grandson boated a smallie.  It spit my trailer out onto the boat deck.

[DomQ]

Saw the loch ness monster once. 

[Smells like fish]

I saw him too @DomQ he hit me up for tree fitty. 3 dollar and 50 cent 

[FishinBuck07]

13 minutes ago, DomQ said:

Saw the loch ness monster once. 

Canadians must have all the good drugs!!!!!!!!!!

[WRB]

Could write a book on this topic, so many stories come to mind.

Canada.

Catching 37 lb PB musky on 8 lb line 1/4 jig with my wife netting the fish on 4th of July, during my father in-laws birthday party. 

Flying into remote Canadian lakes with my father in-law where the wildlife may have never seen humans. We had a family of otters swim up to the boat to check us out without any fear, just curiosity.

Local ocean trip to San Clemente island and hooking a big approximate 10’ Mako shark that jumped completely over flying bridge landing the opposite side of the boat, what  a sight and lucky it cleared the boat not land in with us.

Lake Casitas taking a terminal ill friend fishing and having a DD bass jump in the as the swimbait was being lifted out of the water. That was better then catching the fish.

My late son at age 15 catching and winning our 3 bass night tournament with 35 lbs, we were so excited and he always talked about that night.

Tom

[ajschn06]

I was wading for trout once... made my way about a mile upstream, fished down and back and returned to the car as it got dark.  I'm about a two mile hike straight uphill to a place where I even get cell service, and I realize my keys aren't in my pocket.  I go back upstream, cross in the two spots I crossed, and I actually spotted them- my car keys, wedged in between two rocks in about a foot of water..... talk about once in a lifetime..

[A-Jay]

 October 2018 I was most fortunate to spend another 6 ½ days fishing with my good friend and truly a great stick, Jeff Howell.  This was my 7th trip to this special lake and once again Lake Baccarac showed out ~ Big Time.

Both Jeff & I are not ‘numbers’ guys – meaning we generally do not count how many bass we catch. Instead we choose to fish for the biggest bass; an approach that may not always result is high numbers but hopefully bigger fish. However as this special week in Mexico continued and the numbers of true giants began to and continued to go in the net – we had no choice but to keep track. In an attempt to simplify things, we decided that in order to be a “score-able bass’ the fish would need to be at least 7 pounds. These would be the ones we ‘count’.

This trip got completely nuts.

How Nuts you might ask ? Well the best example I can offer is….. the first three casts my friend Jeff took after lunch of the second day, produced a 12-4 Beast of a New personal best bass which was followed up two casts later with a 10-8 tank ! 

Btw – It’s all on video . . . .

OK so here’s the final count for two guys fishing for 6 ½ days (approx. 65 hours) on Lake Baccarac:

Number of Bass Over 7lbs ~ 20

Number of Bass Over 8lbs ~ 16

Number of Bass Over 9lbs ~ 11

Number of Bass Over 10 lbs ~ 4

Number of Bass Over 11 lbs ~ 1

Number of Bass Over 12 lbs ~ 1

 

Jeff kept track of the catches on the water on his phone -

 

So that’s 53 bass over 7 and of those, when we figured in all the exact pounds & ounces, the average fish was right at 8 ½ pounds. It’s also one score-able bass every 73 and a half minutes.

 

Jeff's biggest 5 of the trip were: 12.23(a PB), 10.58, 10.22, 9.96, 9.61 = 52 lbs 9.6 ounces

 

My biggest 5 of the trip were: 11.30, 10.22, 10.14, 9.83, 9.28 = 50 lbs 12.3 ounces.

 

That was my 'fishing of a life time' deal. 

A-Jay

 

This 6 1/2 day trip can be seen in much more detail here ~

Part 1 here ~ https://youtu.be/yyNe7yUK7j4

Part 2 here ~ https://youtu.be/MX37lAClaUE

Part 3 here ~ https://youtu.be/eVdYLCPqtAs

Part 4 here ~ https://youtu.be/jxR9UIZFTNI

Part 5 here ~ https://youtu.be/xlytrBl5yig

Part 6 here ~ https://youtu.be/HbtDHtFNgnE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bankc]

When I was a kid we used to fish a sewage lagoon about a mile through the woods behind our house.  We'd catch small trout and freakishly large minnows there, usually using bread as bait.  

 

Not exactly an impressive story, but certainly I certainly won't ever do that again in my lifetime.  

[MassYak85]

Only couple that had me saying "what are the odds..."

 

Once I was dragging bottom with a T-rig and felt a slight pull. I set the hook but it didn't feel like much, thought it might be a tiny dink or a stick. Nope, turns out I snagged someone's old line that they broke off....and somehow it still had a very-much-alive bullhead on the end of it. It was only like 8 inches lol I have no idea how someone managed to break that tiny little thing off. 

 

Another time me and a buddy were shore fishing and he was using my gear. He goes to set the hook and breaks off immediately. We figured it was a pickerel. About 5 minutes later I hook up with the same pickerel...with my other lure still in it's mouth. 

[scaleface]

This has happened to me more than once , so I dont know how rare it is . I have seen the wake of fish tracking my bait while it is in the air .As soon as it touched down they are on it .

 

  Another one that has happened once. I was bringing a buzzbait down the side of a log and a 2 lb bass was on the other side . He jumped over the log and nailed it . The most spectacular hit I ever witnessed .

[MGF]

4 hours ago, DomQ said:

Saw the loch ness monster once. 

In Canada?

[Catt]

July 22 2015 

My grandson Aiden was 8 at the time. We were fishing Lacassine Wildlife Refuge from the bank & had moved to one of the docks next to the boat launches. Aiden tells me he wants to fish a jig, after I tied one on he proceeds to flip it under the dock. 

 

I'm shaking my head saying ya ain't gonna catch nothing under there. Well he sets hook & I say don't listen to me...I don't know @#$%!

 

 

[roadwarrior]

[billmac]

Another one comes to mind.  While fishing a river in a touristy area, I reeled in a old, child's sneaker.  It had a small fish inside.

 

I once picked out a backlash while my lure was sitting on the bottom, and reeled in a fish, twice.  I reeled in over the backlash the first time with a smallie, casted it back out so I could pick out the lash, and after I finished, reeled in a pike.

 

I don't recall the details of what I was using, but I caught a 4-5 foot eel in the rapids on a Popeil Pocket Fisherman.  Stripped the gears completely.  A friend and I were camping on an island in the river and planned to eat the eel, but we couldn't get the skin off.

[slonezp]

2 hour limit for 3 guys. That's 15

[BlakeMolone]

My other hobby besides fishing is herpetology, basically I like to observe and photograph reptiles and amphibians. It’s actually similar to bass fishing in some ways, anyway here is a small gator I jumped on last yea and received a nice little bite from.

[BlakeMolone]

Oops I thought I was still on the alligator post ?

[papajoe222]

You've all heard stories of catching two fish on the same cast, but I'm here to tell you my buddy and I caught the same fish at the same time!  What happened was he had crossed my line with his cast and as we both brought our line in, we set the hook on what we thought was a double.  It turned out it was the same fish, my lure was deep in its mouth, my buddy's was in his upper lip.  We fought each other much more than that fish did as we were pulling in different directions. We argued over who had hooked him first for years to come. 

I still get a kick out of telling that story.

[DomQ]

21 hours ago, FishinBuck07 said:

Canadians must have all the good drugs!!!!!!!!!!

Straight from the government

[Randy Price]

My buddy and I were walleye fishing on Trout Lake in ON, Canada and having a good day.  Mostly catch and release except what we kept for our shore lunch.  I asked "I wonder if were catching some of these fish multiple times?"   About that time I catch a decent walleye that has a weird growth above it's right eye.  I let it go and not five minutes later I catch it again.  I think we both caught that same fish 3-4 times over the next hour. 

[PaulVE64]

A few years ago I went out west to fish the Bow River with my brother for a week which in and of itself is a once in a lifetime event. They take their trout very seriously in Alberta.

Anyway I told my bro that I was going to eat one of those trout our first night. Eventually he talked me out of it due to the huge fine and overall reverence they have for trout on the Bow. But at the end of the first day within 10 seconds of calling it quits as we turned to walk back down river to go home an 18" rainbow beached itself right at our feet. It had clearly been mauled by a coyote or bear earlier that day and we just happened to be right there when it died.

 

I got to eat a trout that first night.  

[galyonj]

On 11/30/2020 at 1:18 PM, WRB said:

Could write a book on this topic, so many stories come to mind.

 

 

Mister, you'd have a lot of people jostling to be first in line to buy that book.

[r3825]

Not me but my buddy I watch catch his 2 personal best while picking out his birdsnest.  He's since stopped using baitcasters

[DomQ]

On 12/1/2020 at 10:36 AM, Randy Price said:

My buddy and I were walleye fishing on Trout Lake in ON, Canada and having a good day.  Mostly catch and release except what we kept for our shore lunch.  I asked "I wonder if were catching some of these fish multiple times?"   About that time I catch a decent walleye that has a weird growth above it's right eye.  I let it go and not five minutes later I catch it again.  I think we both caught that same fish 3-4 times over the next hour. 

Canadian fish aren't the smartest 

21 hours ago, r3825 said:

Not me but my buddy I watch catch his 2 personal best while picking out his birdsnest.  He's since stopped using baitcasters

I've caught fish while picking my nose before