Got a Good Fishing Story?

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mneeley490

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
SMF Premier Member
Jun 23, 2011
3,749
2,208
Everett, WA
The story of the cheaters in the fishing tournament got me to thinking. Ouch.

I've enjoyed fishing here and there for most of my life. But I've never entered a tournament, nor caught anything that would even come close to winning one.
But when I was about 12, I did pull out a 3 lb rainbow trout out of a puddle of water that could barely be considered a pond. Funny thing was, it was on my dad's line, and he had just walked off to answer Nature's call. When he got back I held up the trout and said, "Hey, did you forget something?"
 
10 years ago my buddy from Michigan came down for a little duck hunting for a week and brought his 16 year old son with him. We stayed at the camp for 9 days and brought provisions with us because the camp is remote. On the menu was a fish fry; we set trot lines for catfish and baited the hooks with duck guts from the birds we shot. After an overnight soak, we ran the lines the net day and had more than enough for a nice fish fry. My buddy's son was enjoying catching fish on a trot line because it is illegal to use in Michigan. Anyways, we get back to the camp and he has all the fish in a 5 gallon bucket. One was still lively as he was getting ready to clean it and it got away from him on the counter at the camp and slid over into the sink...started swimming around in the dish water!! About that time his Dad walks up and asks what we are laughing at. I tell him and without missing a beat he says, "Oh-that's how we clean fish in Michigan!" and takes a pull on his cigar. I about died laughing!!! His timing was perfect! LOL!!!!!
 
I once won a tournament by a fish lip. I had a bull shark try to swallow the lower unit of a 3hp motor on a jon boat. Shook everything. I've had a gator try to steal a fish from my hand as I was bringing it in. I lost my little toe to a shark wading for bonefish. In college I once got some live lake trout from the U of M fish tank, put them in my live well and took the boat to the local bait shop where I docked & showed them all my fish. For the next 2 weeks there were people fishing for lake trout in 90 feet of dead water. There are no lake trout in White Bear Lake. One of the best Jokes I ever got away with. Here's pic of the biggest fish I ever caught on light tackle. That's a qt water bottle floating next to him.
Big Grouper and a qt bottle.JPG
 
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One time back when I was about 9 or 10 my dad took us on a family trip to Nova Scotia. I was out in the ocean squatting on a rock, looking into a little pool of water. There I saw a small goldish colored fish swimming around. I had my 5 and dime rod with one of those yellow marshmallow bait thingy's on my hook. I tried for what seemed like hours trying to catch that fish, but alas he didn't like my bait. Then I realized that I was surrounded by water. The tide had come in and I was stranded on my little rock. The camp owner had to come out in his boat and bring me to shore. I was scared as heck and my older sister who loved picking on me never let me live it down.

Chris
 
For three years in a row I entered my youngest son in the Bayou la Batre Kayak Classic Jr Div, the Juniors are allowed to surf fish or kayak fish.
He won or placed every year, and raked in prizes from the awards and raffles.
They'd send the Winners and Placers home loaded with tackle, tackle boxes, rod/reel combo, fishing shirts, cooling towels and lots of other stuff.

No illegal weighting of fish involved. :emoji_wink: They use a metal detector.
Tourney1.jpg

Tourney3.jpg

0816141615.jpg
 
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This is close to 20 years afo
Friends invited my family to a weekend at their lake cabin.
Kids wanted to go fishing. Helped them with basics of casting
My daughter’s first solo attempt was met with a loud ploop as she launched the entire rod and reel in the cast
 
Damn John( chilerelleno chilerelleno ) your a nut.Between skydiving and shark wrastl'in I'm surprised your alive. I wish I had half the kahonas you do. Well maybe not.

Chris
 
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Damn John( chilerelleno chilerelleno ) your a nut.Between skydiving and shark wrastl'in I'm surprised your alive. I wish I had half the kahonas you do. Well maybe not.

Chris
Shark wrast'lin and skydiving is tame stuff.
Hell, I got married... Now that takes balls!
 
Is that a hammerhead? Chile your son looks all fisherman. Nice trophy.
Yes, it is a Great Hammer, female, 12' long and approx 500 lbs.

Thanks, he is my Mini-me, but now he is only an inch shorter.
He's been fishing since he was three, I start them young hunting and fishing.
familyfishing.jpg
 
We get huge huge hammers when the tarpon run along the coast. Tarpon school up at Boca Grande just N of me. As the migration passes us we look for diamonds on the water in the mornings. You can see reflections from the school's scales reflecting like mirrors. Anywhere you see diamonds that aren't in the sun's reflection. Run a mile ahead of them. Chum the water and wait. There are legends around here about giant hammerheads. Check out Old Hitler. OLD HITLER
 
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One summer we had a Great Hammer take up residence around the Gulf State Park Pier, that shark was every bit of 15'+.
He got named Henry and Henry would tax our hooked fish all too regularly.
Some people liked him and some hated him, finally after stealing too many nice Kings a group got together in a boat and killed him.
Why a boat you may ask, because landing sharks from the pier or beach in the Gulf State Park is against park rules and enforceable by law.
 
We get huge huge hammers when the tarpon run along the coast. Tarpon school up at Boca Grande just N of me. As the migration passes us we look for diamonds on the water in the mornings. You can see reflections from the school's scales reflecting like mirrors. Anywhere you see diamonds that aren't in the sun's reflection. Run a mile ahead of them. Chum the water and wait. There are legends around here about giant hammerheads. Check out Old Hitler. OLD HITLER
It is on my bucket list to catch a huge tarpon.....preferably on a fly rod. Been a dream since I was a kid.
 
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It is on my bucket list to catch a huge tarpon.....preferably on a fly rod. Been a dream since I was a kid.
I've hooked into a couple but never leadered one.

Here's an excerpt from one of my fishing reports that involved a tarpon while fishing for Spanish.
Still early in the AM, I was working a gold Gotcha on the Octi when my line whipped tight and my drag screamed... People were like "King?!?!"
Then a majestic Tarpon tore through the surface, jumping high and shaking his head trying to dislodge the Gotcha.
I hollered "ONE!" and it was as exciting as fishing gets.
He jumped again, "TWO!" I yelled as the drag kept screaming, ripping the 12# mono of my little Penn 5500SS.
Well on my way to being spooled I tried futilely to slow him cranking up the drag.
"THREE!" and POP! went my line and the silver demon crashed back into the water, and he jumped at least once more trying to shake my jig loose.
What an experience, three jumps on a huge Tarpon... If I hadn't caught another fish all day I would've still been thrilled with the day.
 
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