The lost ones don't sting as much. How about you?

[Swamp Girl]

47 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

They also said that he would wake up in the middle of the night after a dream over that fish, and he would immediately hook the boat up and go fish the spot where he lost that fish. 

 

Gosh, I hope Tom (@WRB) doesn't lose sleep over his two world records. Instead, I hope he sleeps deeply and peacefully and dreams of his 16, 17, 18, and 19-pounders.

 

FWIW, if I ever say, "I think I lost the world record," do not believe me. I think four-pounders are big. I could lose a nine-pounder and think it was the world record.

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

Yep, more then once  it haunts me😔

 

Tom, given the unfathomable strength of a 22 or 23-pound bass (at least I can't fathom it, but you felt it), and given that you only have split seconds to react while adrenaline fills your body, losing such a fish seems more likely than landing it.

[12poundbass]

I’ve never lost a fish that I lost sleep over. I think I’m lucky enough (or unlucky) to have not known how big it truly was.

 

I have and still do lose sleep over at buck I missed out in NW Nebraska. It was a 160” class 11 point. How do I know it was a 160” you ask? My best friend dad shot it two minutes after I missed it! That one still haunts me.

[gim]

37 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

I have and still do lose sleep over at buck I missed out in NW Nebraska. It was a 160” class 11 point. How do I know it was a 160” you ask? My best friend dad shot it two minutes after I missed it! That one still haunts me.

I’ve never seen a buck that size while deer hunting. But 3 years ago, my dog kicked up one that big while pheasant hunting about 4 days after the season ended, on the property right next to where I deer hunt. I watched in amazement as that horse trotted off in plain sight and wondered where it was the week before.

[MediumMouthBass]

When i got into bass fishing i was not very good. I would walk the bank 4-6 hours a day and catch nothing. I had no clue what i was doing and didnt know about this place then, so there was very little  advice and information to go off of....

My first real bass (over 1.5lbs) was caught on a ned rig, i hadnt ever caught anything on these before and was beyond excited! I saw the fish 1' under the front of the boat and it jumped and there it went.... Ive lost several fish since then (variety of species), including some big ones😌

 

But every bass ive lost was 100% user error, i dont dwell on losing them. I use it to my advantage and learn as much as i can about preventing it going forward. Making gear changes, bringing them in a different way, etc.... Learning from what went wrong. So far it seems to be working.

 

Although years ago something big bit my dads jerkbait he was using when we were trolling back when we first got the boat, it was huge and jumped once. Line snapped clean. Always wondered what it was, im thinking a big trout since it was brown in a largemouth only bass lake.

[Glenn]

I've been fishing for bass since I was 3 yrs old (no joke!).  I stopped dwelling on lost fish long ago.

 

Except if it was a big one during a tournament. That stings and takes me a few hours to get over it.  Fortunately, that hasn't happened in over a decade.  😁

[papajoe222]

I don't get upset when I loose a fish as long as I had the enjoyment of fighting it. Heck, I was going to release it anyway. I do get upset when my hookset doesn't get the job done and the fish is lost in a heart beat. Never upset with the fish, it gave me a chance and I blew it.

[GreenPig]

  I've lost four or five DD class LM, but I don't dwell on on it or get mad, I just keep casting.   It's all good, as my four boats are uncarpeted aluminum, so there's no tear stains to worry with.😀

[Susky River Rat]

There is only one fish that haunts me to this day. It was a musky def high 40s. My dad was trying to net it fouled the net job up a few times. The musky got hooked on the outside of the bag. Quick thinking I told him just flip it over. Which easier said than done but got it in the bag the correct way. I jump up fist in the air and yell in the ******* bag. I look down my dad let the brim of the net dip into the water and the musky starting to fall over the side. The hook that was still in stuck in the net snapped and the musky went out of the net and gone. I completely lost my mind on my dad than didn’t talk to him for a week. 
 

bass? I’ve never really had a heart breaker. I just do it for fun. Sure I’ll get a little frustrated if I was fishing a tournament but, over all I just keep at it there will be more. My mind set has changed a lot from the days I musky fished. Fishing for me was almost toxic. Now I just go out and enjoy my day. Not saying I do not have bad or frustrating days but, if I come back my boat and self in one piece I am way ahead of the game.

[Catt]

"if you worry about what might be and wonder about what might have been you will ignore what is"

 

I was at the right place, at the right time, doing the right things!

[Jig Man]

I don’t think about missed big fish anymore because there are hundreds of tournaments on Table Rock with as many as 500 boats in them.  Fish over 4# have become a rare thing.  I can’t remember the last time I had a good fish on down there.

[Zcoker]

Kinda ordained to loose big fish. I’ve lost some honkers. It’s a sure thing to be angry near crying when it happens. It’s those errors that eat ya. The “would’ve could’ve should’ve”. Take it for what it’s worth, a teachable moment. Keep trying to make it right for next time because there WILL be a next time. Happy days ahead! 

[Dwight Hottle]

I have had my share of big fish lost & they all hurt when it happens. I lost a really  big lake trout ( 50lb class  ) that I had on for a long time before she breached & threw my bait back at me. I also lost a trophy pike well over 30lb when she came to the boat cradle opened her mouth & the bait came out. Both of those fish I saw as did my boat mates. On the bass side of things I have lost several big small mouth that I could not control & subsequently frayed my leader in the rocks. Never saw them but knew from the fight & my inability to control them that they were very likely new PB's. Onto the large mouth species I lost two giants down at Lake Bacarrac. One bent a 2X treble hook out on a lipless crank & the other pulled a spinner bait loose after pulling a smoked drag run. Those two really hurt then & still do when I recall the memories. I had a similar surging rod pulling drag largemouth on a glide bait that pulled off fishing a deep water basin off a water control structure here in Florida. Early this month I dumped a DD largemouth while fishing a live shiner. She hit in a shaded cove & started pulling strong left when she came out of the water tail walking. Suddenly she was off. I reeled in the braid & noticed the trokar hook was gone but the polamar knot was still intact. We could only surmise that the knot slipped off at the gap left that forms the hook eye. I was really PO'd at that set of circumstance because it really was out of my controll. But like @A-Jay said in his post our failures make our victories so much sweeter.  

[Scott F]

For the most part, losing a fish I was just going to let go anyway doesn’t bother me much. Part of the excitement in catching big smallmouth is knowing that you aren’t going to land 100% of them, no matter what you do. One fish that still has me angry was a big pike that I caught while fishing with a native guide on Great Slave Lake in the NWT of Canada. Early on, I got my first big pike of the trip and the guide was trying to bring my fish in the boat. With a leather glove on, he stuck his fingers in the eye sockets of the big fish, which unsurprisingly, the fish didn’t like. He quickly spun out of the weak grip the guide had on him, and was gone. I never let the “guide” touch another fish I caught the rest of the week. I never lost another fish due to landing them on that trip.

[SkippinJimmy]

Every big bass I have lost and never saw was a DD.

 

This site must be full of type B’s.  I don’t dwell on the big fish I lose for long but for about an hour I could make a sailor blush.

[Dan N]

I’ll never get a chance at a DD here in Wisconsin, losing a nice fish hurts a bit, but I don’t let it bother me too long. I was gonna release it anyway.

[king fisher]

I tell myself yesterday is gone, I can't get it back.  Then throw a temper tantrum a toddler would be ashamed of.  The only way the nightmares of  loosing a big bass goes away is loosing another one to have new nightmares over.  Maybe I should get some professional help, but as of right now the Bait Monkey is my therapist.  If I loose a giant bass, a new rod and reel wont get rid of the pain, but it can lower it a notch or two.  If nothing else I need to replace the lure the bass stole with 5 exactly like it, and another 10 in different colors.  If the bass didn't steal a lure she simply came unhooked, bare minimum I buy a new rod, and a different line, as well as a couple of the lures she bit.

[Glaucus]

I have a short memory. Most of the time a lost one doesn't even get a reaction. Not even a grimace. Nothing you can do. It already happened. Cast again.