Got a story like this?

[Swamp Girl]

This is the story of a 14-pounder caught at O.H. Ivie. I think they were so clever and patient. If you have a story of waiting out a bass and boating it in an unconventional way, I'd love to hear it:

 

And that’s exactly what he did—on the bass of a lifetime. “I had never hooked a bass that was remotely that big. The fish was giant,” he says. “She kept trying to get into a big tree we saw on the livescope. I couldn’t stop her; She was just so powerful.”

Smith was using an 8-pound fluorocarbon leader with a 20-pound braid mainline. The big bass got snagged in the submerged tree but stayed on the line. “We didn’t know what to do and just sat there, trying to wait her out,” explains Smith.

On the livescope, they saw the bass rising toward the surface. Then Smith and Logsdon looked into the water and saw her white belly. They cleared all the rods off the front of the boat, drove closer to it, and Logsdon managed to net the fish and cut the line. “I was freaking out,” says Smith.

[thediscochef]

My PB smallmouth was kind of like that. I was out on the ripraps around 1030pm and I felt a hard strike. After a little fighting I felt snagged, but I could still feel the fish on. Not wanting to rip anything out of anything, I decided to hit the clutch lever and let it just freely take line. After I let it swim a while, I started reeling again. Fish still there. But loose now. I got it to the shore and after catching a look at it I knew I had a PB smallmouth. As it would turn out, there was someone else's crankbait in its lip, and about 10 yards of line hanging off it. I kept the crankbait lol

If you look at my face in the photos you can see my disbelief 

[king fisher]

If I ever am fortunate enough to hook a 14 pound bass, that is wrapped on a tree, I am immediately going swimming, and wont care how many rods I may step on. 

[TOXIC]

In a tournament my fishing partner hooked our kicker fish and as I was getting the net out it jumped an arms length away from the boat and I saw his lure come flying out of the fishes mouth.  Without hesitation, I threw myself across the deck, slamming my ribs into the gunnel and with my one hand at the very end of the net, I caught the fish in mid air.  We took second and I had some pretty bruised ribs to thank.😎

[A-Jay]

Sometimes we don't even need the net ~

#jumpingintheboat

A-Jay

 

[Pat Brown]

Had a rough day fishing in April of 22' on the grass lake and shallower fish pulled off and became hard for me to pattern that day.  Big storm started to roll in and we headed back to the marina.  Jake pointed out that the storm was skirting the lake as a drizzle hit us while we packed the car up back at the marina.  Meagan gave us the go ahead to make a couple casts at the fishing pier.

 

Armed with my spinning rod and a wacky rigged green pumpkin yum Dinger with a chartreuse tail I made some casts to a nearby grass line and a few around the dock with no luck.

 

I started to absent mindedly doodle my wacky rigged dinger on the pilings coming off the pier thinking maybe a big fish was down there.

 

On the very first piling I doodle I see a giant dark shadow shoot out and my chartreuse tail disappear.  

 

I reel down and set the hook on my at the time PB of 6 lb 14 oz!

 

[N Florida Mike]

 When I was 15  I hooked my  first pb of a decent size , and she got well into a brush pile. I was bank fishing but waded/swam out to the fish and got her.

[Swamp Girl]

Whoa, @N Florida Mike.

 

[T-Billy]

This is from a post I made last October.

 

I had an awesome morning, with one of the greatest fish catches of my life. I bagged my first muskie on the new chatterbait at first light. The fish hit mid retrieve and we slugged it out through about 40' of shallow milfoil. As I got it close it made a hard run under the boat. I got it turned and it came back out going full tilt, turned in a semi circle, and rocketed up about 4' out of the water, as they're apt to do in the shallows. The fish came unbuttoned mid air, and sent my bait flying back at me, while I was ducking it, the fish landed ON THE FLOOR OF MY BOAT!!! LOL!!! So, I put in in the net to chill while I set the phone up for a pic. I get the green, uncooperative fish out of the net for a photo, and as I turn it horizontal, it goes ballistic, wrenches out of my hands, bounces off the deck, and goes right back INTO THE NET!!! NO FLIPPIN WAY!!! ? My first thought was of Paul's comment in Romans 8:31, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Lol.  Anyhow, twas a total fiasco, but my new bait is on the board with a 42". 

 

•  

 

God bless Y'all, Tim.

[N Florida Mike]

Got another one from when I was 18 on the home lake.

I was bream fishing one day with bread. I had caught 30 something at one of my spots and scraped together the last crumbs to make a last bread ball. I threw it out, and a huge swirl engulfed the bait. As soon as I set the hook I knew it was something big. Real big. I only had 8 pound test and a reel that had no drag. So I left the bail open as I pulled up the anchor and began rowing the jon boat after the fish. I was amazed that the line was traveling faster than I could row. Whatever it was then went through a laydown. I thought for sure that was the end of it but it wasn’t. Miraculously, the line came free and was still peeling off to the north at a fast clip. It finally cleared the top of our Island still going north. I made a quick decision. I had no net , and knew that I would never get it into the boat , so for some reason…..

I jumped overboard into the chest deep water to continue the fight. Looking back on this , I’m not sure why I didn’t just row over and get out on the bank but I didn’t. Maybe I thought I had a better chance of grabbing it if I was in the water too. 

So I tried fighting the fish. I would reel, it would be about to break the line , and I would pop the bail, and try to hinder its run by mashing the line against the rod. The run would stop, I would crank it in some, and it would just turn and swim away. I begin wondering if it wasn’t a big alligator snapper or even a gator . That got me wanting to get out of the water, so I began working my way to the nearest shoreline, which was a couple hundred feet away. At least the water wasn’t over my head. But it was winter, so the water was cold, even for Florida!! 

I eventually clambered out on the bank. I was not gaining line on the creature. In desperation I looked up in the property of where I was and saw a man I actually knew who just happened to be walking by out on the road. I hollered and he went home to get his net. I continued the fight. Another guy had heard the commotion and was there to help. The man brought the net , and the other guy waded out a few feet. I put as much pressure as I dared on my antagonist, and after a extended tug of war, got him close enough to be netted.

A small crowd had gathered, and a cheer went up. It turned out to be……. a huge catfish! It ended up weighing 22 pounds but it was barely hooked with the small bream hook, IN A WHISKER of the fish!!!! 

I released the fish after taking it home and weighing it.

 

[Swamp Girl]

I love your story, Mike. I wish I had its equal to share. I don't. Few do.

[N Florida Mike]

Thanks Katy. Coming from you that’s quite a compliment!!

[N Florida Mike]

I forgot to mention that I helped a friend land his PB in the same spot as the laydown  in the story 35 years later. His bass got tangled in there and he thought he’d lost it. I told him to keep the line tight as I reached over and grabbed the line . I felt a little surge of the fish, leaned over, and followed the line down to the fish through the sticks, as he pulled up. I had just enough  arm to lip the fish !!

Im hunting the picture…Found it !

[JackstrawIII]

7 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Without hesitation, I threw myself across the deck, slamming my ribs into the gunnel and with my one hand at the very end of the net, I caught the fish in mid air.

Spider-Man reflexes on this guy! I’m impressed. 

[WRB]

My Musky story was titled in the Nestor’s new “Antique Net Ruined”.

My farther in-law Jim had a wonderful sense of humor, loved that man. Jim’s birthday was July 4th and the family spend the warm months at their Lake of the Woods home.

1976 I caught my PB 37# Musky on Dominium day during a party for my father in law. One of the party goers was Millie who wanted to get back to her island before dusk so Kay and I gave Millie a ride back to her island. I had taken a bass rod rod with a 1/4 oz black hair jig with me and decided to try for a Smallmouth on the ride back to the party.

Across from Millie’s island was another that had a float plane hanger that I wanted to make a few cast to. What I hooked wasn’t a Smallmouth, it was. 37 lb Musky!  Very exciting fight with jumps waiting to get bit off any second but beyond all odds the Musky came to the boat and Kay netted it. We lifted the Musky into the boat as the fish went through the cotton net into the boat. We were both excited and decided to run full speed back to the party to show the fish.

Everyone came down to the dock and lots of pictures taken but the Musky didn’t make. The PB Musky was mounted and still have it.

Tom

[casts_by_fly]

My story pales in comparison to some of these but I’ll tell it anyway. 
 

I lived in Cleveland for a year during university when I did a year in industry instead of classes. I lived 5 minutes from the Chagrin river which had steelhead from September to May and smallmouth from April to September. It was flyrod and light line heaven. One day in June I grabbed a small 5 wt and a handful of smallie flies after work. Wet wading, no net, just a small chest pouch.  I’d caught a few small bass in the sub 14” range but nothing special. There was a railroad bridge pier halfway across the river and the channel was on the far side. The pier had a ledge about chest high from the water to stand on so I waded my way over and climbed up onto the ledge.  As I crept around to the channel side I could see them. It was an entire school and they were big. And feeding. Except it wasn’t steelhead or smallmouth. It was carp. 
 

I carp fished for a long time and have caught a lot of carp on the flyrod. I’ve caught a lot of big carp too. Plenty of fish in the 36”+ range. This was a school of them, maybe 2 dozen fish, all in that same size bucket.  I hung back for a minute to see what they were doing and eating. Turns out it was the cottonwood bloom and the carp were eating the white seed buds that were floating down the river.  Every so often a cluster would float down and whichever fish was in line would grab it. I grabbed a white Clouser minnow from my pack and hurriedly threw it out there and… nothing. Again and again I drifted it through to no interest. After watching a few times I could see that it was sinking too fast. I broke the lead eyes off and drifted it through.  The lead fish in the school nosed up and sucked it down like a brown trout on a mayfly.

 

Now I have a problem. I am 4’ above the water line on a concrete pillar hooked up to a very large carp on 5 lb tippet with a click drag reel in a river that doesn’t end for another 80 yards downstream.  It took the fish a minute to realize it’s options I think. At first it just kinda sat there.  It went upstream 20 yards to the head of the pool, settled down into the middle of the pool, and then woke up. It made a sprint to the bottom of the pool. I’m not sure if it could have gotten out of the pool but I wasn’t taking the chance.  When I was halfway through my backing and losing ground quickly I had to make a choice. And the choice was to run after the fish. Except I was 4’ up over 3’ of water and now 80 yards from the fish. 
 

I worked as a lifeguard for a long time so I did my best giant stride into the water while keeping the rod up.  I collected my bearings and then collected as much line as I could tighten. I then sprinted to the shoreline and downstream as fast as I could through rocks and water. I made up 3/4 of the line pretty quickly but still had a very large carp 20 yards away in current. By this point I think the fish was just tired of having my line in his mouth pulling in the current. I managed to get side current to her and the fight was all but done then. Heavy side pressure got her the rest of the way and I was now touching the biggest carp I’ve ever seen in person. Her head was the size of a basketball and she was pushing 48”. Conservatively I would put the fish at 30# but if you told me she was 40# I would believe it. 
 

 

 

[Zcoker]

I was in my kayak, fishing in the glades. I saw a flash in the water while coming around a bend between two sawgrass islands. The wind was kicking so I had to make a long turn and approach from the other side. My first cast got tight to a massive fish (9lbs) that immediately dove under my kayak and then popped out on the other side, vertically wedged head-first between the side of my kayak and one of the sawgrass clumps—the wind had wedged the “UNHOOKED” fish just long enough for me to reach over and grab its massive mouth! I quickly pulled her up and into my lap, dropping back into my seat with a sigh of relief and with such a big thankful grin to the big blue sky above I just sat there soaking it all in. I just couldn’t believe what had just happened, which says a lot about bass fishing, mostly to be ready for ANYTHING! 

 

 

[A-Jay]

Few years ago I hooked what ended up being a new PB Musky while SMB fishing.

Fish grabbed a jerkbait and then proceeded to put me and my woefully undersized gear through it's paces.  After what seemed like forever for both of us, I got the beast alongside the boat.

And as I made an ill advised attempt to 'net' the fish, my 10 lb FC finally failed.

So I was no longer connected to what will not doubt for me be the fish of a life time.

But she was really tired and rather than swimming off right away, there was just the briefest of seconds where she just sat motionless in front of me.

In a last ditch effort, I managed to get enough of this fish into my net and drop her into the boat.

Needless to say, I was pretty pumped.

After a quick length measurement she was back in the lake and swam off strong. 

So that's my broken line net job story . . . 

This is what the final few minutes of that fairly hectic scene looked like . . .

A-Jay

[roadwarrior]

Might be your best video EVER!

 

 

 

                                                   

[Swamp Girl]

These are great stories. And photos. And video. 

 

@casts_by_fly, I love the physicality in your story. It reminded me of chasing Arctic char on those roaring northern rivers to regain line, which I've never done, as it's FAR above my pay grade, but I've read and dreamed. 

 

Great story and great fish, @A-Jay.

 

Yours too, @Zcoker.

 

I do have one story and I've alluded to it a couple times. I was fishing the Wisconsin River with my father for crappies and walleyes below a roaring dam. The crappies and walleyes schooled in a giant eddy on one side. I had a spinning rod and 4 lb. test when I hooked something big. There was an observation platform, so I had an audience that cheered me for the first hour. Then it grew dark. Then it was completely dark. Finally, I boated a 50" sturgeon and by then, my wrist and fingers were so tired I could barely start the outboard and we slowly motored downriver, happy and pooped in total darkness, back to the car.

[Pat Brown]

Here's 'one that got away ' story that haunts me to this day.

 

In late August of this past year, some cold fronts and rain had fall patterns in full swing with buzzbait and Squarebill bites wide open up shallow on the small grass lake near my house.

 

I had been fishing my rock and wood lake for the two months prior to this trip and really didn't know what to expect or where fish would be on the grass lake.

 

We left the marina at about 11 am and worked a shallow flat that tapers off onto a point that is adjacent to a lily pad field that is adjacent to the rip rap wall.  The water drops off steadily From 2 feet deep around the pads to 12 feet deep in a ditch that funnels out  of the channel swing created by the dam/rip rap wall.

 

I have a large hybrid hunter crankbait tied on and I'm casting into the wind on the flat banks hoping to pick up a shallow fish relating to the grass edge and right as we are about to round the corner I back lash FIERCELY on a LONG cast onto that point ahead of the boat.

 

Instead of picking and pulling (Meagan and Jake are still fishing) I simply let the boat straighten out my line slowly as we move past where my bait landed and the line travels out of my spool and into the lake.

 

Finally enough line has gotten out of my spool that I can reel in (we are maybe 2-300 feet past the point now over deeper water).

 

I crank maybe three times when I see 300 feet away, a GIANT bass launch itself 2 feet into the air shaking it's head this way and that and realize.  'THAT'S MY BASS' as she finally loads up and my line gets tense picking up the backlash!

 

And that's when we start to fight.  She was HEAVY.  Like a carp heavy.  I can see her on the surface hundreds of feet from the boat wallering.  I have no idea how I have her hooked but she's not swimming or fighting or moving much at this point.  

 

I make my first mistake here:  instead of steadily cranking her in on the surface and maintaining tension, I engage the trolling motor and think 'she's probably hooked well, I'm gonna go chase her and cut this distance'.

 

Well, the *second* that tension was gone, she dove.  It was like she just flickered back online.  It was wild.

 

She plunged into the rocky culvert between us and promptly snapped me off on rebar in the rocks.

 

I saw her jump a few more times just to spite me (and shake my crankbait) and then she was gone.

 

Id guess she was 10 +

[Swamp Girl]

@Pat Brown, you really pay attention and I think your attending to details and remembering them is why you're so successful at angling...and a good storyteller too!

[Pat Brown]

What I really learned on this particular day:  a crankbait is a great topwater sometimes and less is more when it comes to putting action on a bait!

[btoups]

Me and two friends were fishing a local redfish tournament in South Louisiana.  We were catching a couple small fish in a shallow grassy pond when one of my friends got the worst wind knot that I've ever seen on a spinning reel.  This thing was a tangled spiderweb looking mess of mono just above his reel.  Instead of just cutting it and retying, he wanted to try to untangle it.  All the while his topwater bait was just sitting in the water about 10 feet from the boat. 

 

We just kept fishing while he was trying to untangle his line.  All of of sudden we hear a splash and his line goes tight.  He couldn't reel because of the tangled mess of line, so he grabs the mono by hand and starts to fight the fish.  Luckily the fish got tangled in a pile of grass and couldn't fight for very long.  He drags the fish to the boat by hand and we were able to net it.  It was just under the slot and weighed about 8lbs and ended up placing in the tournament.

 

Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.  

[papajoe222]

My wife and I were fishing a power plant lake, south of Chicago that was known for trophy size smallmouth.  She tied into a big girl and was trying her best to gain some ground on it. It had gone under the boat and made a number of acrobatic jumps on the other side.  My wife never saw them as she was looking on the other side of the boat. The fish stayed behind her and she was able to gain enough ground on her that I was able to net it.

Her, not realizing I had the fish, broke out in a series of profanity like I'd never heard thinking she'd lost the fish.  I didn't say anything until she'd reeled in her crank. I thought she was going to cry, so I told her to look in the net. She was so excited to see the fish that when she lipped it to lift it out of the net, she lost her grip and the fish fell back in the water.  I attempted to comfort her by reminding her that she was going to release the fish anyway, but she wouldn't accept that logic.  Tears followed.