Your memorable fishing moments!

I used to do alot of coastal fishing around the Chesapeake Bay. Never failed to pull something weird out on a trip. Oyster toads were the nastiest of the lot. Slimy little pre-historic looking fish with meat grinder jaws. We usually fished double leader bottom rigs with squid or peeler crabs for bait. I had a little lake pole I liked to use. Every once in a blue moon, I'd pull out two 18-inch stripers at once with it. Occasionally, I'd hook something and just watch it strip all of my line off at full drag and snap it when it reached the end. I learned to carry a couple of extra spools pretty quick.

The weirdest thing I ever caught was when I was ice fishing on a lake in ontario. Pulled up what looked like a ten inch black salamander with red and yellow markings. It had nasty looking teeth. Never did figure out what it was, exactly. We cut it off the line and it scurried back through the hole in the ice like lightning.

I saw a Muskie ( I'm assuming that was what it was) take a loon once. Hit it hard on the surface and pulled it under. It took a couple of minutes from first hit to submersion.

I got 2 stories that are coming to the front:

The first one, I probably shouldn't repeat because it's about my neice and we've teased her to death about it. So don't tell on me, but it's just too good.....

I wasn't even there, but my parents had the grandchildren at camp. The kids took the kayaks out on the lake and neice, who loves to fish, took her pole. She had a dare devil on for a lure. Poor thing casted, but hooked herself in the butt. So she's paddling as fast as she can back to camp, where my parents try in vain to get the hook out. They numbed the skin with ice cubes but they just couldn't get the hooks out because the dare devil as you all know has three hooks and two were embedded. So they decide to take her to the emergency room. The camp is in a dead cell phone area, and it's an hour's drive to the hospital so about 2 hours has passed since the initial hooking and everyone present has been laughing and tee-heeing about poor neice's predicament. Even neice, although she really just wants the darn lure out of her butt, thank you very much! Nephew finally gets to call home and Dad answers. Nephew says, "Dad, I'm at the hospital and [sister] is in the emergency room....Dad is instantly alarmed, wondering what's wrong, what happened, is she alright? ....then nephew starts laughing. Dad can't believe what he's hearing. He says to his son "You sick Bas****! Is your sister all right?" Nephew is able now to tell Father what happened. The hospital staff were able to get the hook out, so all was well in the end. (pun intended)

Second story: My husband, daughter and I are fishing out by the bridge on the Passadumkeag Stream. We've been catching bass like crazy. I caught one but he swallowed the hook and I had a heck of a time getting it out. I finally get it out, or so I thought, and threw the fish back into the water. But the hook and line are still attached and the line pulls the poor fish back and it SMACKS on the rocks. I felt bad for the poor fish and by the time I finally do get the hook out and get the fish back into the water, he's not swimming, but more like floating. But I keep watching him, hoping he's just stunned and will come to and swim off. After a few minutes I need to go back to the truck for more bait and when I get back, the fish was gone. I said "Yay! the fish is alright" Husband and daughter can't help snickering. They wanted me to think the fish had revived so they tossed it off downstream. Everytime I think about the incident I can vividly see the fish sailing in the air toward the water when it suddenly jerks back and then smacks onto the rocks. For some reason I find that so humorous.

Oh so many memories of fishing over the years.....eel fishing at night, perch fishing at dusk, brook fishing, ...... what fun!

As i kid i remember fishing out of the canoe with my mom all day for flounder (salt water) - we caught only 4. We got the canoe packed up to go home, fish were in the big pot (kind you can jam with). Mom had set it behind van when getting the gear into the van and forgot. She backed over it and as soon as she heard it, she hopped out of the van, got her pry bar from spare tire section and preceeded to pry the pan open and refused to let those fish go to waste. Luckily the pan was only partially crushed and we had some good flounder that day.

A few years ago, we were headed up river to check limb lines. In the boat was a good friend of mine, John, myself and my 3 yr old daughter. We had about 2 dozen limb lines set and she was setting in the front of the boat with John. We hauled in a nice "Flathead Catfish" that weighed around 25 lbs. Peyton (daughter) wanted to know "What's this daddy?". I told her it was a "Flathead", and she started to pat the top of her head trying to say, "Flathead". We laughed at that one but then I told her no, baby, its a "Flathead Catfish". Next thing we knew,she was setting in the boat, petting the catfish, saying, "Kitty, Kitty, Kitty". If I ever remember anything for the rest of my life, that will be the one fishing story that will be told again and again. She is now 7 and loves to go fishing with me.

My husband just took our two oldest children 5yr girl, 3yr boy on their first fishing day last week. While they were fishing they both caught the same fish! The bobbers were both bobbing and coming in about the same speed and my husband just thought they each caught one at the same time...turns out they had the same one. Didn't have the video camera on or we might have won some money but I think some one got a picture at least.

Most memorable is catching a redfish (red drum) near the mouth of the Mississippi river in Venice, LA. I got it to within 10 feet of the boat and a shark about 9 feet long decided he had found lunch and took this fish, line, rod and all!!!!

Most unusual bait was vienna sausage to catch catfish in my neighbor's pond this past weekend. Gave it a shot and it worked!

What a fun thread! A few stories come to mind. DH and I took our firstborn DD to go fishing. She got a bite and, being her first time, she asked her Papa to come help her reel it in. Well, he got behind her and told her she needed to set the hook and was trying to show her how, but jerked a bit too much and gave her a bloody nose! Poor thing, took her a year to want to do that again!
Then another time, we were sitting on the shore of the most beautiful lake up in the mountains and bottom fishing with a crappie harness. Got a bite, and started reeling it in. When I got it to the shore, I had a fish (trout) on both hooks!
One other time, we were camping and fishing, having a great time and I cast my line out (it was a great cast...really!) and a seagull with very bad timing, I might add, flew under my line and got the line wrapped around his wing (fortunately the hook was about 2 feet underneath him). So we had to reel in this poor seagull so my dh could free him. He's never let me live that down!

Wonderful Wife had never caught a fish until about a year ago. We went surf fishing in the Atlantic north of Jacksonville.

She caught her first fish ever -- a 4 foot shark -- and landed it with no assistance.

__________________
Whether you believe you can or you believe you cannot – you are usually right.

This does not include flying or moving mountains unassisted or attempting to prove the existence of an “afterlife”.

Years ago up along the shores of Lake Ontario, I was spending a wonderful week-end "just fishing"..my fiance's family owned a large vacation spot right on the lake and there were all kinds of uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. running around for a 3 day week-end. After spending the morning helping with camp chores, I was grateful just to grab my fishing rod, a sandwich and spend the remainder of the day fishing off the dock.

ALL afternoon I sat there..not one single nibble..the sun began to sink lower and lower..I could see bass jumping in the reeds..wished I at least had a few decent "bites"..nada. Along came one of my BF's 8 year old nieces..
"Whatcha Doin'?"
"fishing."
"Catch anything?"
"Nope."
"Can I try?"
"If you want to, but the fish aren't biting, and I only have a little bit of this worm left."
That kid took my pole, cast out no more than 4 feet from the dock with 1/16 of mangled pitiful worm on the hook and caught an 8 pound bass.

Ever have a plastic smile on your face?

Man, you guys have some funny stories! The zipper-fly catching, squirrel-fishing, and hook in the butt.....*snicker*...sorry, I laughed so hard, I cried!

Hmm, come to think of it, I've done a bunch of that squirrel fishing myself. I hope someone mentions that to Elffriend....steer clear of anyone casting out behind them!

ford major, have you ever fished in the Nation River? We took a canoe down there and once even a paddleboat, caught some really nice pickerel. No sunfish, though, sorry. Who the heck likes catching those? LOL

I once snagged a fish in the back with a hook, too....a nasty old carp. Still wondering why in the Ontario books that it is illegal to catch fish this way, like as if you could really do it on purpose? Yeah, when I was a kid and dropping lines down near perch, I would try to jig the hook up to snag them, never worked, the hooks would slide right off!

Once I was reeling in a perch and as it reached the shoreline, a pike came up and snagged it! Woo hoo! So I got both!

Once my BIL had something on his line, we were on shore and at the edge, the water was deep. We never knew what he had, it was pulling so hard, he couldn't get it up off the bottom. Talk about creepy: seeing this huge dark shape (a good five feet long) scouting the cloudy bottom, bending his rod so badly we thought it would snap (which the line eventually did), and never knowing for sure what it was. We assume it was a sturgeon....we were fishing in the St. Lawrence River.

I really miss those "what will I catch today" good times. There is nothing more fun than having a good pull on the line and reeling it in. You never know what you'll get!

That's it, I'm going fishing!

DD

__________________
"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

The first fish story that I can remember was when I was about 5 or 6 years old. We were an outdoor family and I grew up hunting and fishing from the time I could walk; well, pretty close to then. It was late in the afternoon and my mother and I were fishing....not many good bites, but lots of those sunfish playing around. It was getting close to supper time and the 'snakes' were about to come out, so my mother said just a half of a hour more and we are going home....

Well, I gobbed at least three worms onto the hook and of course I was mad that we had to go home in a half of an hour (not sure if I really knew how long it as back then) so I slammed the bait into the water...and wham! I had a strike! I was about half scared, as the water was boiling around where the bait hit. I jerked the rod back and a 6 pound (or more) large mouth bass came flying up into the river bank.

I grabbed it before it got away. My mother ran over to the bass and took it...so I would not let it loose....she wanted to put it onto the stringer that was in the water. Now the bank was slippery amd muddy, as it had rained the day before and she did not want me losing that fish. It went something like this:

My mom
slipped on the grass
and fell on her **s.
and lost my bass!

This has been a little joke (at my expense) for many years...about 40 years.

Another fishy story, though not about fish, but a fishing trip, was when Illinois had a 'free fishing day' and we did not need fishing licenses. The whole family went fishing! No arguments or anything.

Well, we were catching a few fish and my daughter thought she was being smart and told me to try and catch that cottonmouth that was swimming by...a large one at that. So, it was a challenge and I casted and hooked it in the middle! She shut up and just watched as I reeled the snake in...I was wondering what to do with the snake about then....so my dear uncle got a big club to bash the snake with and it was so funny! The closer that I got the snake to the bank, the faster he moved AWAY from the snake! My (now ex) husband finally killed the snake and asked me if I wanted to save the worm that was still on the hook.

Now I live next to the Illinois River and I can catch more fish by just taking a boat ride without any fishing gear of any kind.....those Big Head Carp just fly into the boat! Seriously! There are so many of them in the river now that they 'fly' into the boats on the river. A big carp jumping into the boat can be a hazzard to your health!

You done good. It's obvious the fish had a death wish.

when I was about 10 or so I used to go with my grandfather almost every weekend in this one creek I almost always aout fished him.
I still liked to go there after one day I was told DO NOT MOVE and then as i proceeded to move he took the tip of his pole put between my legs and hit ME
then he started to beat the water with his pole
Turns out he turned to look at me and here ai was sitting on the bank with a cottonmouth sitting under my lap and yet I always liked fishing there