Tell us your story - The Fish That Got Away?

Ok... it's your chance to tell your side of the story. The shameful, unmentionable, too-difficult-to-even-think-about ... THE FISH THAT GOT AWAY!

Have you tried time and time again to catch that one special fish, and came so close that you could almost reach out and touch it? Then all of a sudden, it's gone...

Where were you? What kind of fish was it? What did you use to try and catch it? How many times has it escaped you? And most importantly, was anyone there to witness the encounter?

Tell me all about it, and I'll feature the stories in an upcoming blog post on the Ultimate Fishing Directory Blog.

Maybe somebody reading it can offer some tips or techniques for you to catch The Fish That Got Away!!

Tags: blog, catch, directory, fish, fishing, funny, getREELed.com, stories, story, ultimate

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Permalink Reply by scott holland on October 28, 2009 at 2:41am

The best fishing trip of the year for me and my friends from SBD Kayak Fishing was our trip to Antero Reservoir in Colorado. This placed was stocked regularly with BIG trout and constantly produces 4-7 pounders almost daily.
We went there in our fishing kayaks and started getting into some big trout in the edge of this tall weed bed. All in a row we each hooked into giant trout- but MINE...oh that fish. When it hit, my light reel set up with 6 pound line just screamed...and screamed again. I was adjusting drag and worrying about breaking my rod, when finally my kayak began to go with the fish as he pulled me. My buddies reeled in and started paddling over to lend a hand netting if needed. About the time they caught up to my moving kayak, the fish changed directions...and went under the boat diving deep.
This fish knew all the tricks apparently. He dived deep down taking my line under my boat, as I gave it a good pull to maybe change his direction he nose-dived into the weeds taking another 10 feet of line with him in the process.
I pulled hard risking a broken line and he came running!! With my other 2 friends in kayaks watching, this trout (estimated by what we saw) was a good 26 inches long and leapt up out of the water right between our boats and spit my swivel straight at my chest as he broke the lure from it- and disappeared with a crash of water.
Other fishermen nearby cheered as I noticed we had gathered a small crowd of boats watching...nobody seemed to mind that I lost it, because the battle was epic!

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Permalink Reply by Ira N Barnes on October 28, 2009 at 10:01am

It was so sad. I grew up on Long Island and never really fished for Striped Bass because the size limit was 36 inches at the time. I have always preferred blue fish myself, to eat and to catch. I was fishing a Jetty in Hampton Bays and let my Crippled Herring drift over the rocks and then down into the dip with the current. I always mix bait with lures and had a 5 inch silverside attached to the crippled herring, I saw the flash and then the line screamed. I fought the fish for 30 minutes. My then girlfriend was screaming with excitement as I landed her. my girlfriend said it was larger then 36 inches. I told her no and released the fish at the shore. When I got home I called a friend and was told that the new limit was 28 inches!!! then to add insult to injury, my girlfriend measured where the mark she made on my shirt and the fish was 43 inches long!!! My first keeper bass with the size limits and I let her go!!! After that I went after Striped Bass. Still took 4 years to get my legal Bass. I kept catching keeper size bass out of season and having to let them go but none were as painful as my legal size bass that I personally let get away. Ira Barnes

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Permalink Reply by Jesse on October 29, 2009 at 1:02am

All I can say on this one is this.....Me and two friends were fishing about 3 miles outside the Boyton Inlet drifting finger mullet. I'm lacking a rod holder so I have it leaning between a hand rail, after a short time i hear i buzzing noise, not thinking I ask is there a pump running? We check the pumps and nothing... then I look at my reel and it almost empty. @#$% As soon as I set the hook he ran another 30 second and.......POP..... Thats it, its all was over!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Gutsche on October 30, 2009 at 1:23pm

It began like many other days. The weather was a nice warm late spring day, clear skies and the sun shining bright. I made my way down to a hole on the North Saskachewan river just outside and upstream from Edmonton. We have been fishing there for many years and it was usually good for some goldeye, walleye, pike, sauger and some red-tailed suckers. Some of the walleye were upwards of 10 pounds and it was common to get double headers of goldeye. Our preferred method to catch these beauties was to use a simple bait rig off of a bell weight about 24" and let it sit directly on the bottom in this big eddy pool of a small bend in the river. It was a very effective way of fishing and we used dew worms and minnows primarily, with the occaissional frog thrown in. I liked frogs because you could get several fish off one frog before it was too beat up to be good anymore.

Our equipment for fishing the river was simple. I used a telescopic spinning rod ($20.00 special) with an open spinning reel set up with 12lb test line. You put the weight on the main line ahead of a swivel which stops the weight from travelling to the bait, and a 24" leader from the swivel to a single hook. (some guys used pickeral rigs) I like this method because when you get a bite the fish does not feel the weight and the line slides through the eyelet of the bell weight with no interference.

Now in previous years we would have to hike in to this hole about a 1/3 mile through brush, however the lands had been bought and developed into a golf course, so now we can just drive to within about 50 feet of where we fish and as it is off the course and beside the parking lot, the owners do not care if we fish there. The hole is between the front and back nine so there are always golfers driving by. (Important later) It was much nicer than before, because while the hike down the hill to the river with a full cooler and your gear was ok, going back up with an empty cooler was sometimes a challenge.

My usual fishing buddy Jeff was unable to join me that day as his wife was in the hospital about to deliver their fourth daughter. So I was fishing alone this day, but enjoying myself nonetheless. I had caught several fish and rebaited with a minnow on my single hook, tossed it out into the pool and set the rod butt into a small hole in the bank as a rod holder. I tightened up the slack and was sitting there watching the tip for signs of a bite.

The tip of the rod was making very small twitchs and I thought perhaps the bait was brushing up against a branch from a sunken tree we knew was in there and maybe the current was flapping the branch against my bait. So I pulled the rod out of the the holder and gave it a good yank to get it clear of the tree. Damn, snagged the tree!! I began trying de-snag operations pulling this way and that quite vigorously. I didn't really care about the bait set up, I just wanted it released so I could reset up and recast. All of a sudden the tree pulled back, nearly taking the rod out of my hands!! "Holy crap," I thought, "thats not a tree!"

So I began an earnest and cautious game of tug o' war with the behemoth that ate my minnow. I could not make the fish do anything as I only had 12lb test line and a regular spinning rod. I paced with him back and forth on the bank just keeping the line tight, and after 20 or minutes he finally showed himself. He jumped out of the water like a killer whale and I got my first look at a sturgeon!! He was about 6-7 feet long and a girth I don't think I could have put my arms around. He came out of the water straight up and gave a spectacular splash landing back in the pool and straight back down to the bottom he went. I started screaming in excitement "I gotta f'in Sturgeon, I gotta f'n sturgeon!!" A couple of golfers diverted over to see what I was screaming about and I am still yellin', "I gotta f'n sturgeon!" They had never seen a strugeon either so they decided to hang around and see this monster fish, waving all the next groups to play through ahead of them.

It took another 1/2 hour or so for the fish to come up again in spectacular fashion, surprising all three of us and now all of us were screaming with excitement of such a big fish. Some more golfers stopped to check out the action and we started to draw a crowd from all the golfers that stopped to watch the battle going on between me and this sturgeon.

About an hour went by and he came out of the water again, giving us all a good look at his fabulous prehistoric form. I start thinking" what I am going to do here? How am going to land this fish? And if I do land it, what am I going to do with it? It is too big to fit in the car. I am going to have to tie it to the roof!."

Slowly, very slowly, ever so slowly, I managed to finesse the fish into shallower water and got him close to the bank. I had him on for about 3 hours now, and I for one was getting tired. I don't think he really was though. I took a step into the water and he saw me and WOW with a strong flick of his tail he soaked me with river water, changed direction and headed for the middle of the river. He started to strip my line like I did not have a drag, and I raced up the bank and started to move with him upstream. He kept swimming faster and taking my line and finally after several hundred yards I came across a ravine filled with deadfall and I could go no farther. Monster fish kept swimming upstream taking all my line and this amazing 12lb test finally gave and the line snapped where it was fastened to the reel! I collapsed on the bank and waved goodbye to this fish that had given me an afternoon I will never forget!

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Permalink Reply by Charles Slone on January 12, 2010 at 5:17pm

I hooked a small bluegill with a worm last year and was just dipping it back in the water while still hooked. A 4lb (or better) largemouth nailed the bluegill and the fight was on. However, the huge fish ripped my little hook off because of my crappy clinch knot.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Thomas on January 29, 2010 at 10:17pm

WOW
- When I saw your discussions theme : Tell us your story - The Fish That Got Away?

Well here goes....... Back in 1995 my family and I went to Black Lake in Upper New York State on week long camping trip.
My son Tyler and I were fishing at the dock the during the same weekend that a Bass tournament was going on. (He was 5 years old at that time) During the day we were going back and forth from the campsite to the dock, just to fish and see the many bass boats. We did not catch hardly anything.... At the end of the day (after watching weigh in's ) some time near 5pm we decide to go fishing at the dock again.
I was using a Berkley soft tail crank bait (silver with red tail - I remember this cause I still have the other repacement tail ) and I hooked the biggest fish I ever caught.. it was a Northern Pike.... at least 3ft long .. I played him to the dock and when my 5 yr old started jumping with excitement as I was bending over to grab that tired fish behind his gill my line snapped and we both watch that big fish slide ever so slowly backwards into the water with my new lure in the middle of his mouth.. he just stayed there.... what seemed like for ever...
We did not have a net or we would have scooped him out of the water..
That was the fish and fishing trip that I will not ever forget..
Eric Thomas

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Permalink Reply by Al Osmond on January 30, 2010 at 8:01pm

I was on the Kennebecasis River, in New Brunswick where I live, after a sea trout. I was standing in knee deep in water casting a Rapala into the downstream end of a big pool, about 100 feet across, twice as long and I hope I never find out now deep.

I cast up and across and as I was reeling in the spool of my open-face reel suddenly starting going the other way. A huge trout hit my Rap and took off with it.

Now here's where the trouble begins. It was one of my first times out that year, I had just recently oiled my reel and I had not as of then caught anything. So... I was unaware that the drag was set too loose. I had to fight the fish and tighten the drag.

I was turning the knob while watching my line burn through the water, and the fish made a double leap that would have made an acrobat jealous. On the second jump my line went slack; he shook my hook. I know it was a he because of the deep red of the belly. If I were to make a guess, I'd have to say he was probably in the 2 - 3 pound range.

On the plus side, I did get my drag set.

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Permalink Reply by Texas-Rigged on February 1, 2010 at 1:19pm

Last spring(2009)I was fishing for crappie on Lake Conrore(Texas),having a good day until I missed a 16+ inch Crappie;there were 2 other boats fishing next to me(Neighbors)and that fish bit my line ,and I messed up the hook-set,and suddenly gone.Not 10 sec later,My Neighbor caught it......Boy I was MAD!I was fishing a Crappie tourney;That fish would of won me 500$......I ended up in 4th(14.52 inch crappie)-won 100$

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Permalink Reply by CTBassman on February 16, 2010 at 7:23pm

I was lucky (or unlucky - depending how you see it) enough to have a professional television crew witness my "fish that got away story! Falcon Lake, Spring 2009 with Mike Iaconelli while filming his show "Fishing on the Edge." Mike tells the story better than I can possibly type it, so click the link and check it out! It was by far the biggest Bass I've had on the end of my line and I'm still haunted and motivated by that fish! One of the best days I've spent on the water as I watched Ike catch what would have been a 35 pound bag. I got a 5+ and a 6-2 as well.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4071680&categoryid=null

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Permalink Reply by Al Osmond on February 16, 2010 at 8:00pm

I was fishing for bass on the St. Croix River, bordering New Brunswick and Maine (the river in my profile pic) with my friend Jamie and I felt a little tug on my line. Good enough, I set the hook and began to pull in what seemed to be a minnow, by the feel of it.

Jamie starts yelling "what a monster!!!!" and the like and I said "don't be so foolish" and the like. I thought he was being sarcastic. When it got closer to the boat, I saw what he was so hyped up about, and it WAS a monster! It caught sight of us and that's when he started his fight.

The drag on my reel (see my first story hahahahaha) started screeching and in a few seconds he got free of my line, pissing me and Jamie off. He was there all ready with the camera.

On the plus side, I DID manage to land the 5" baitfish that originally bit onto my lure. The bass was kind of secondary. We were playing for points, and I got 1 point per inch and 5 points for another species.

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Permalink Reply by SHADOW THE MUSKY MASTER on February 17, 2010 at 12:13am

I was fishing my normal musky spot from shore, the date was Sept 29th 2009. Me and my 2 buddies started fishing at about 9 pm and weren't getting any action, around 11 pm the wind started picking up good, I am talking about 25-30 mph winds that were steadily blowing directly at us. We were fishing near an outlet where the river ran into the main lake. I figured that with all the wave action from the wind and the river would create a good feeding spot. I figured I might as well throw my confidence bait and since it had rattles it would help with all the wave action that was going on. Threw it out in the spot I figured it was the most turbulent, reeled it in, nothing. I was throwing the bait out letting it drop about 3 ft in the water column and then ripping and letting it pause for a couple seconds, then repeating, well on about the 4th cast, I felt something hit it, I set the hook and felt nothing. I have had fish hit the bait in the past and run towards me with it so I figured maybe that is what this fish had done, reeled up some line, still nothing, didn't even feel my bait on the other end. I started thinking oh #*$@ did that fish bite me off, reeled up the rest of my line and sure enough my bait was gone and the 12" 100lb fluro leader I was using had about 1/2 inch left. After swearing up a storm for a good minute, I went and put a new leader on and put on the exact same bait I had just been using, same size and color. I didn't touch up my hooks before using it. Threw it back out in the same spot as before and on the 2nd cast I got hit again, set the hook, felt the fish then felt my reel work in a way it shouldn't. She started coming to the surface and within 3 seconds of feeling her she was gone, reeled my line and the back hook hanger which is made of 1/4 steel was bent in a complete 90 degree angle. My buddy said he saw the fish when it came to the surface and said it was a monster, she felt like a monster. He wouldn't tell me exactly how big he thought it was but over 45" and probably closer to 49-50", my reel had imploded, it was probably mostly my fault as I had taken it apart and put it back together within the last week and may have not put it back together exactly how it should have been... whoops. It's possible that the one that got away from me was the one my buddy caught the year before within 20 yds on Sept 29th 2008. I managed to get a 42" at about 2 am, on my buddy's rod using a brand new bait which was identical to the one that was bitten off before and got destroyed. I still have nightmares about that fish. Is it May yet?