The one second-moment you'd wish you could have captured on film.

[Swamp Girl]

If there was a one-second moment that you wish you'd captured on film, what was it? I'd lead with two also-rans:

 

We were perch fishing a hump in Lake Michigan's Little Bay de Noc. I was reeling a perch up and it suddenly stopped right beneath our boat. I thought maybe the hook had caught on the boat, so I leaned over and was inches from a monster pike, which had chomped on my perch. I screamed, even though I've caught lots of big pike and muskies, and the guys teased me all day. I don't think they believed me. I wish I had a photo.

 

I was fishing a river mouth north of Chapleau, Ontario in the dusk when a great pike came out of the water like a Trident missile. We hadn't hooked it. It scared us. We were just kids, so we didn't even cast it. We hightailed it back to the campfire. I wish I had a photo of that fish completely out of the water.

 

The winner: We were fishing a wilderness musky lake north of Kenora, Ontario. The wind had been howling out of the northwest for three days and we'd caught maybe two or three between four of us in those three days. Then it suddenly swung around to coming from the southeast. It was a warm wind too, perfect for unlocking toothy jaws. So, we paddled a mile to a strait and pitched buzzbaits. At one point, I had two musky V-s at once racing to my lure. I wish I had that on video. I caught five in an hour and lost a sixth. 

[NavyToad]

I hooked my biggest smallmouth of my life on the Potomac 20+ years ago. Threw a spinnerbait out about 30-40 yards and let it sink trying to slow roll along the bottom. On the way down something didn’t feel right and I set the hook. Problem is I was using mono and a fairly moderate action rod. Between rod action and mono stretch I didn’t get a very good hookset. I got him all the way to the boat and when my brother went to net him, he jumped over the net and swam away free as a bird. I’d love to have captured the moment when that fish jumped over the net. My brother and I still talk about it.

[TnRiver46]

The 8ish lb bass I caught in the late 90s. The fish snapped one of those chain stringers. To top it off, my fishing partner used a roll of film that had already been used, pictures double exposed. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

The 8ish lb bass I caught in the late 90s. The fish snapped one of those chain stringers. To top it off, my fishing partner used a roll of film that had already been used, pictures double exposed. 

 

It should be illegal to have your heart broken twice by the same fish. 

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, ol'crickety said:

 

It should be illegal to have your heart broken twice by the same fish. 

I was camping in south Alabama and had to keep fishing, nothing else to do there. I just wanted to puke for the rest of the week 

[12poundbass]

Two

 

Fishing related, years ago I got my wife a pink spinning combo for her birthday. That morning we went out fishing. She had a bass on and reeling it back. Within 20 or so feet of the boat a good sized pike came up and grabbed her bass. The bass was hooked and the pike had the bass and the fight was on for a split second until snap! I wish I could’ve captured the terrified look on her face.

 

Non fishing 

 

Hunting in NW Nebraska. Another guy in our hunting party shot and missed a buck. The buck comes flying out of a dry creek bed huffing and puffing, and stops around 300 yds in front of me. I pull my gun up, see a massive rack, and pulled the trigger. I missed! The buck runs to another field and I hear a gun shot followed by hooting and hollering. My friends dad shot it. That buck was a 20” 11pt and scored 160”. I was absolutely devastated I missed the buck of a lifetime! 

[Jar11591]

One sticks out in my mind. Wasn’t a mind blowing experience or anything, just one of those moments where it happens so fast and you’re like “did that really just happen?”. Was fishing in my boat drifting a riprap bank with a jig. I felt the no doubt tap tap of a bite, so I real up the slack and set the hook, but my leader must have had a nick in it because it immediately broke off. As I’m sitting there inspecting my break-off, a bass rockets out of the water, shaking his head. I see my black and blue jig launch from his mouth, straight at me. It hit the side of the boat with a loud “thud” and sank never to be seen again. Broke a bass off on a jig only for that bass to chuck it back almost right at my face. 

[Swamp Girl]

1 minute ago, Jar11591 said:

One sticks out in my mind. Wasn’t a mind blowing experience or anything, just one of those moments where it happens so fast and you’re like “did that really just happen?”. Was fishing in my boat drifting a riprap bank with a jig. I felt the no doubt tap tap of a bite, so I real up the slack and set the hook, but my leader must have had a nick in it because it immediately broke off. As I’m sitting there inspecting my break-off, a bass rockets out of the water, shaking his head. I see my black and blue jig launch from his mouth, straight at me. It hit the side of the boat with a loud “thud” and sank never to be seen again. Broke a bass off on a jig only for that bass to chuck it back almost right at my face. 

 

This one made me literally laugh out loud. So did @12poundbass's wife.

[Susky River Rat]

It wasn’t long after I got my boat I was fishing the river. I heard a splash and my buddy in the back of the boat goes did you just see that? I said what? Here a heron ran into an overhead power line died and fell right next to my boat. A couple more feet and it would have landed in my boat. 
 

I have lots of musky stories. Two that stick out in my head are mind blowing but similar.

 

I was trolling for musky. Got hung up. Reeled my lines in but didn’t take them out of the water. Got the snag out going back to my console an upper 40s musky was sitting right behind one of my baits just floating in the water. Tried like hell to get it to eat but wouldn’t. 
 

another time I was musky fishing. I had just put a spinner bait on. Dipped it over the side of the boat just to make sure everything was spinning how it should. Musky comes in I start figure 8 went around a few times then gone. 
 

 

[Zcoker]

My one second fishing moment would be when a 12 foot great hammerhead shark came right up to the surf and snatched a blacktip shark that I just had landed. Actually, a buddy of mine was right there with my IPhone recording it all....only problem was: he FORGOT to press the dang record button! The rest of the hammer swimming away I recorded and it went directly onto the evening news. 

[Darth-Baiter]

mine wasnt fishing.  it was hunting.  elk hunting.

 

brother had the tag.  i was muscles-only, and calling detail.  we headed into timber.  dark timber.  we heard an elk, beating up on a tree.  my brother set up ambush along a big trail.  i went into the middle of the timber and started cow calling, while walking around like an idiot.  i figured i wanted it to sound like a cow walking around, calling out for some elky goodness and hot loving.  apparently i was really hot sounding, because a smaller elk tried to sneak in to steal her away.  he walked right up to me.  SEVEN FEET!  i was frozen.  i tried to film him on my phone, but my mind stopped being smart and i never hit record.  he never figured me out, and stood around me for about 5 minutes.  

 

i hiked back up to my brother and he almost didnt believe me.  i was shaking like a leaf. 

[Tackleholic]

I was a young teenager in the 1950's, in an old jon boat, drifting down the Mazon River in Illinois, shooting squirrels with a 20 guage.  I was not very far from where the Mazon River empties into the much larger Illinois River.  I rowed to the bank to retrieve a squirrel and parked next to a submerged log which was about the same length as my boat.  I hopped out, picked up the squirrel, walked back to the boat, and watched that "log" slowly swim away.  So long ago, and I still remember like it was yesterday.  (There are no alligators in northern Illinois)

[Swamp Girl]

@Tackleholic, do you think it was a gar? Sturgeon? Blue cat? Something else?

 

@Darth-Baiter:

 

[Eric 26]

I was probably 12 years old in Minnesota on our annual fishing trip, I was playing around watching my Aborgast “mud bug” fishing lure just over the side of the boat when the biggest yap with teeth I’ve ever seen came charging at it. I couldn’t rip my favorite lure away from that pike while my 5 year older brother is telling me to figure eight it. I don’t think my K-Mart rod and plastic bodied Zebco reel could have handled that fish. Not sure this is the rod but if not a close interpretation of it?

[A-Jay]

The one second-moment you'd wish you could have captured on film.

 

Makes it sound like it's more difficult than it is; especially not now. 

I stopped wishing and took matters into my own hands.

Since then the 'one-second moments' have been TNC.

Too Numerous to Count.

The single favorite moment on my films is below and I was happy to be a spectator

and the camera man. 

https://youtu.be/CkW-lxMZcok

A-Jay

 

[Troy85]

Was going duck hunting with my dad and brother one morning, probably like 4am, long before any light is even starting to come over the horizon.   We were out the marsh getting gear ready in the boat when we heard this loud rumble and the night sky lit up like day.  We all look up to see this meteorite streaking across the sky right above us.  It only lasted maybe 2-3 seconds then it was gone.  In those 2-3 seconds you could have read a book without the aid of a flashlight.  I don't know how close it was, but it was close enough to hear it and see the smoke trail that it left.

[Catt]

On February 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it reentered  the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board.

 

I was on Toledo Bend in the Hemphill Texas area.

[Fishingmickey]

    My fishing partner and I were out fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. I saw a pair of Marlins jump completely out of the water about ten feet apart and maybe 100' from the boat. One other time was we went out and I saw a big fish jumping in the distance. Thought it was a Sailfish. We hauled ass over to that area and found ourselves amongest a bunch of Spinner sharks that were "displaying" Jumping clear out of the water and spinning then back down. We probably saw fifty jumps. there must have been hundreds of sharks in that school.

   Freshwater was probably the time I saw a Bobcat take a Coot.  The Bobcat was on a overhanging limb and jumped down onto the Coot, I was in my kayak about 20 yards away and saw the Bobcat make it's leap. that made my day.

FM

[Swamp Girl]

16 minutes ago, Fishingmickey said:

Freshwater was probably the time I saw a Bobcat take a Coot.  The Bobcat was on a overhanging limb and jumped down onto the Coot, I was in my kayak about 20 yards away and saw the Bobcat make it's leap. that made my day.

 

^This^ reminds me of the time I had a hawk fly before my windshield with a snake writhing in its talons.

 

@Troy85, I love your story. 

 

Speaking of the sky, I once saw the rarest form of the northern lights, which is concentric circles that pulse upward. This was pre-cell phones, so I had no way to record it. 

 

@A-Jay, there has to be a moment you didn't film, when your cameras weren't running. 

[Bird]

Still to this day I sometimes forget my phone when I'm in the woods or on the boat.

Missed capturing many fish and wildlife.

Heck I caught a 6.9 bass couple weeks ago.....no phone.

 

Something that I would have loved to had on video though was when the wife backed her car in the garage and left the garage door open.

We were awoken at 3am to load noise in garage.

We turn on lights and there's a large black bear sitting in her car eating blueberry muffins that she planned to take to work.

He ripped a back window out and ended up doing $1300 worth of damage to wife's Subaru.

No, not really funny but would have at least liked a picture of him sitting in her car like a human.

[Standard]

Had a sunfish get pike'd for the first time last year.  Held on all the way up to the kayak, but let go right before I got him out of the water.  

 

Same day, another pike launched themselves about 3 feet in the air after missing a topwater.  Wish I had a gopro for that one.

[bowhunter63]

About 1993 or so I took my oldest daughter to the lake . It was really clear we were watching Bluegill in the shallows when a musky came and ate one.  Freaked her out. She really doesn’t care for Musky  to this day 

[immortl]

This is one of my justifications for fishing with a GoPro bolted to the bill of my hat with hindsight tweaked and activated and a largish external battery in my pocket.  It's constantly recording and when you hit the record/capture button, the previous 30s becomes part of the saved video.  Saturday, opening day of trout season here in NJ, thought I was hung up on a rock, tug back a few times, seems hung up good, then a decent sized rainbow erupts out of the water and proceeds to jump fully out of the water a few more times as I reel it in.  I was sure hoping I got that on camera.  Alas, perhaps this doesn't qualify for the thread, because all that was in fact captured in the recording.  I do these videos so my family can see, and for my future self to relive the moments.

[optimator]

The day I caught my PB. My son got his PB (about 6.5) out of the same spot the day before. As I was casting he asked what my PB was. I told him 5 lbs. He says "Ha, mine is bigger than yours". At that moment I felt a tap, set the hook, and told him "till now, junior". It was a 8.2 ?

[btoups]

Speckled trout fishing by myself several years ago and saw a handful of sharks swim by while I was reeling in my swimbait.  I was fishing with some bass gear.  I reeled it right in front of the sharks and was able to watch one of them open their mouth and eat it.  Of course I said what the heck and set the hook.  This lil shark freaked out and jumped out the water and spun around at least 10 times until I finally put my thumb on the spool and broke it off before it took all of the braided line off my baitcaster.

 

Another time I brought my father in law saltwater fishing and he's sitting in the back of the boat and all of a sudden his rod and reel flies out of his hand and into the water.  He swears the fish was huge and ripped the pole out of his hands.  A few seconds later, a small speckled trout starts jumping out the water with his line still attached.  I cast and caught the string and was able to pull his rod and reel back into the boat.  I guess he fell asleep or something because that trout may have weighed one pound.  I still remind him about his huge fish every so often.