Is there one that haunts you?

[Jon in VA]

It was my first trip on my new boat. 2nd week of August '09. Right as the sun was climbing up over the treetops. I threw a Rapala Skitterpop in frog color under a tree hanging over the bank, and let it sit for a few seconds. I popped it two times and 'SPUH-LOOSH!' a hoss nailed it. The largemouth jumped outta the water 3 times as I got him towards the boat. As soon I was about to lift him into mouth-grabbing range to land him, he gave one final bone-jarring head snap and the hook ripped right through his lip, and all I got was a piece of his lip.

Not as suspenseful as some of the other stories, but considering that my personal best fish was a 3lb 8oz largemouth when I was 13-years-old, and this fish was probably DOUBLE that (that thing was FAT!), it was a pretty big deal to me. Plus, I love catching fish off of topwater.

Doesn't really "haunt" me per se...but yeah, I would have liked to have weighed that bad boy, just to get a DECENT personal best...

[D4u2s0t]

I have one, but it was a musky... if anyone remembers, a few months back, I made a post asking why the heck this stupid fish would keep pecking my bait, but not biting... same spot, over, and over, and over. It was there for days, to the point that I knew EXACTLY where and when it would hit, and when it wouldn't. Then all of a sudden, it stopped. So the next day, casting around the same area, think to myself "d**n, stuck on a stump". Couldn't get it loose, so I started walking down the dock to get on the beach (should have been my first clue, not thinking that day) to get my bait back. Then all of a sudden my bait starts moving crazy fast towards the dock! I tried to reel in, but couldn't catch up since there was slack in the line from walking towards my bait, and the bait was coming right towards me. Finally caught up after running back to the dock and reeling like a maniac. Then it spit my bait, I cursed a lil, and reeled it in. Musky followed the bait right to the dock, did a 180, and took off. Never got it to hit after that. Didn't see it, the whirlpool it put out was pretty big though, and my lake has some big muskies. So who knows, could have been a huge one, could have been small. All I know is I was pulling and couldn't move it an inch.

The reason why I said I had a  clue was because I was fishing over a swimming beach with absolutely nothing to get snagged on...  I kicked myself afterwards for not paying attention.

[SDoolittle]

I had what would have been my personal best halfway in the net when it threw the hook and disappeared. I thought I was going to puke. I tried to convince myself that she wasn't that big, but my buddy kept going on about how huge she was. That was shortly before I left for Iraq and I've spent over a year dreaming about that fish.

[avid]

Oh yeah!

It was on one of my early trips to stickmarsh.  I was running a spinner bait past the wood when there was huge swirl and a thud.  I set the hook and the rod bent but I couldn't move the fish at all.  This was a B-I-G bass.   With incredible speed he darted toward the boat at an angle and got off.

I never saw him but like I said this bass was big.

[midnighthrasher]

I did a tourney with my girlfriend last year and i lost a nice lmb. Probably a 3lb'er. It was a 3 fish tournament and my girlfriend landed the only two other fish we caught. My buddies gave it to me prety hard.

[J Francho]

Yes, and I actually caught the darn thing.

Prefishing for a club TX on my home waters.  My partner Cam says, "Stick the next fish, so we can see what size we're getting bit by."

"No problem, I've got one now."

I've never been so disgusted to catch a big fish.  No weight, but one the top 4 fish of last year for me:

That fish would have put us in contention for the win, with one dink that we just couldn't cull.  Definitely would have taken lunker.

Final standings:

[Boogey Man]

A few years ago I was fishing a Mann's Chug N' Spit and this big bass came out of the water just behind it. The whole fish came out of the water except maybe a few inches of it's tail. I seemed like it was in slow motion when it fell back into the water, reminded me a whale on TV when they show one in slow-mo and it slowly falls back down. It was probably in the 6-7lb range. I reeled my bait back in and threw a T-rig worm back to the spot several times where he submerged but he was  :'(gone

[WRB]

Amazing how vivid our memories are when it comes to fish that got away. Over time the one that got away tends to grow in size.

I have one such bass in the closet that haunts me and remember the details like it happened yesterday, it actually happened back in May, 1991.

Fishing with my friend Gary and back seating, something I rarely do, I hooked a big bass on a customized scrounger lure. The strike was in about 30 feet deep, fishing parallel to a long major point on lake Castaic.

The first thing you do when hooking a big bass is get the fish into deep water if possible and that should have been easy as we were fishing in the main lake and only needed to move out into deep water.

The bass was a giant and came up about 10 feet out and 5 feet down, so both Gary and I got a good look at the bass. The problem was Gary was standing next to me and not up front controlling the boat, he was holding the net. About the same instant I realized Gary wasn't keeping the boat in deep water, the bass made a hard run for the ridge of the point and managed to get over the top and dive down the opposite side. All I could do was raise the rod as high as possible and hope the line didn't find a sharp rock. The line broke, the bass of a life time was gone.

How big was that bass? easily over 20 lbs and getting bigger with each passing year.

WRB

[microman]

the one that haunts me.... i hooked into a five pounder once, it haunts me cause it jumped OVER my boat. then i broke free.