the one that got away

[outdoors forever]

Ok guys, I know we all have this story - the one that got away!

Lets hear yours -what you were fishing, what it was ( could have been ), how big, did you get a glimpse of it, etc.

Heres mine:

This afternoon were were fishing on the west side of Lesser Slave Lake, the fishing was nothing spectacular, we only had one keeper walley and had nailed a whole bunch of smaller sewer trouts. Suddenly my brother-in-law shouts "fish on!!!" and his rod bent near in half. His bail started singing hard, so he tightened it up and was reeling hard. Now we were anchored good and the boat was NOT drifting a bit, so there was no question wether or not he had weeds - it was a fish. He was reeling hard but gaining NO ground, he was loosing line fast - he had 15 pound braided line on it so we weren't worried. He reeled for about three or four minutes slowly bringing line in, then losing a bunch more - it was pretty cool. Suddenly - the line went slack. NOOOOOOO!!!
Heart wrenching stuff right there! When he brought his line in his ( single ) hook was nicly straightened out - he just had a walleye jig head and a rubber tail on.
So somewhere out there lurking in the weeds is ( presumably ) a monster pike with a sore mouth. Pike - 1, Dennis - 0 !
Sucks though, that we never got it anywhere near the boat to at least catch a peek at it. :mad0030:

[PoorTurtle]

I was out hammering Jacks on Saturday with a buddy and he hooked on to a monster. It was the biggest jack i've ever seen up close. He fought it for 10 min. and had it to the boat 3 times. One last run and it was now time to bring it in. 5 feet from the boat it does a 360 around a tall weed and staights out the hook. Bye bye 30 pounder...............But I know where you live. We did end up with a 32" and a 35" though.

[Pudelpointer]

Many moons ago a friend and I were out jigging for ling cod (west coast) in a small aluminum. Buddy is using an old, heavy, stiff rod with a mooching reel and 50-60 lb mono that had been on the reel for the better part of a decade. It is pretty shallow where we are drifting when suddenly his jig just stops.

"Bottom?" I asked.

"Uhhhh. Oh sh!t!" he says as his rod hammers down into the water and he let's loose his grip on the spool.

Well that line screamed off that reel so fast that it bird's nest right away. So buddy reaches out and grabs the line with his hands, and because it was so coiled from being so old, it wrapped all around his fingers on both hands and tightened horribly when the fish took off again.

After about a minute of getting towed around in the boat, my buddy starts yelling at me that I should cut the line. And I am saying "no fricken way, I think you hooked a big chinook! We're keeping that sucker!" But I got my knife out just in case.

So here we are getting towed at a pretty good clip when suddenly the fish turns back and dives straight under the boat. Then I here a big "Phoooosh!" and look on the other side at a seal not 15 feet away.

"Hey, look at that huge seal." I say.

"I'M &^%&#@* ATTACHED TO IT!!!" Says he.

One swipe with the knife and they were both free. I had to cut the line in a bunch of places to untangle his hands. Big seal swimming away with a large silver cod jig stuck in it's back.

[colonel3006]

Mine was last year fishing a big culvert in a fairly good sized creek.had caught some nice brown in it before (4-5 pounds).Had a real good hit and nailed him,all of a sudden he was peeling line like there was no tommorow.My wife walked across the road and seem him come out the side and said thats gotta be a pike.I said like s**t its a pike its a big brown.I finally started bringing him back through and the line went slack.I cursed for a second and then seem him come up the creek past me and turn and go back into the culvert.He got enough slack line that when caught up with the line he just about yanked the rod out of my hand and SNAP! He was a brown and i know he would have been 8-9 pounds.

[iliketrout]

I had what was presumably a very large pike snap my 30lb braided at Wabamun this winter, right at the main swivel.:mad0100:

[300MAG1620]

Was out on the mcleod river just last night and we were just casting not having to much luck then bam my line tightened right up and started going out. I tightened my drag a bit and started making ground reeling it in got it within a foot of the boat and got a great view of the biggest walleye of my life had to be 28+ inches and very fat. My buddy reached over for the net and then he jumped up out of the water a bit and got off my hook damn was i choked.:confused:

[floppychicken]

I've had numerous 'ones that got away' but two of my favourites were at Alberta Lakes... One was when my buddy (on this forum) hooked into a MONSTER at Travers. We thought he hit the bottom as his lure stopped DEAD and it just about broke his damn arm, as he wasn't expecting it.. heh heh. It was a HUGE LOG of a fish and that thing basically stayed right where it was and just cut through the braided 15lb test with a couple of head shakes. I don't think ANY ground was made on that fish and it had started to 'steer' the boat..

Other one was at Sylvan lake and I actually had a good chance at the fish, but ended up with straightened hooks on one of my trebs along with two VERY, VERY large face scales! Damn things were as big as my thumbnails... Musta' been Molly's cousin.. :scared0015:

[Fishfinder]

:scared0015:Good stories all!-Well except all the fishies that got awy lol.
About a week after I landed my big sturg my buddy (the one in the sturg pic) hooked into a monster sturgeon at the same spot. He fought it for close to an hour before snap goes his 30# braid. Man did that suck. He was furious for about a week and you coulda heard him cussing miles away when he lost her. We did get a decent glimpse of her and she indeed was a contender to possibly beat my 67incher. I say "No way" but he says "for sure" lol. She was definently over 5ft, I'll give him that.
Myself personally, I don't have a good story....none of my fish get away:)
Jus kiddn hehe.:sSig_nicethread:

[outdoors forever]

Good stories guys - I like hearing them even though it sucks! :mad0100:

Oh, what could have been..................

[gprime27]

FIshing travers dam for pike. went into this bay and started catching small ones.

I caught one that was small and had tons of gash marks on the side of him and not just small ones. Upon releasing him I see a huge shadow (4 feet or more) as he was swimming away and the shadow and the fish just disappeared.

Down the way we see a fish flopping around and all of a sudden bang fish gone.

10 minutes go by and we decide to move down the shore to where the fish was swallowed but we pulled rapalas along the way. Not 1 minute goes by and my ugly stick bends straight down from the boat..

we shut off the boat and nothing moved. It seemed like weeds. My buddy informs me I had bottom but, there's no way I had bottom, I had a real big fish.

All of a sudden my line starts zinging and then it goes slack.. I started cranking in the line and seen the part of a rapala where the hook holds onto the rap with a key ring.. Key ring was bent straight out flat.

I still have that key ring and I swear one day I will get that fish.