Stories of the big one that got away

[ADIDAFish]

In the spirit of dube's latest post I thought I'd start another one without hijacking his thread. I'd like to hear other people's stories of the big one that got away.

Here's one of mine:
I was fly fishing at a lake a few years ago when I saw a massive rainbow. She was swimming a little funny like she was sick or hurt so that's probably why she was so close shore. I pulled a woolly bugger right in front of her a few times and then she slowly made her way deeper. Then about an hour later she was back. Again I pulled the bugger in front of her a few more times and then on the forth presentation to my surprise she actually took it. She didn't fight like a sick fish that's for sure. She jumped three times and went for 5 runs. My tippet was pretty light so I had to be careful.

My biggest fish on a fly rod is probably around 5lbs but this one was in 8lb range and very thick. I would have landed her no problem if I had my net on me although it would have been tough to fit her in there. Anyway, she was ready to come in and I went down to grab her but I needed both hands so my rod was between my knees while I was crouched down. Just as I'm grabbing her there was a little bit of slack in the line and the line got wrapped around the end of my fly rod and then she goes for a final run and SNAP! there went my tippet. I now make sure to keep my net attached to me at all times and I'm very careful with the end of my rod when landing a fish.

[fish gunner]

friend and I were bottom fishing the columbia river above castlegar expecting walleye or bows, when I started to get a weird bite the rod would bend quite far then pop back 3 times this happened. my first thought was I had lost bottom with my sinker. then next thing I know its heading for the water. luckly the rod was at arms length. now an epic battle ensued it was very one sided as I only had 15 lb test and we both aggreed I was into a sizable sturgeon. not wanting to prolong the enevitable I leaned into the rod, this produced the wrong result as the drag was not quite up to snapping the line by its self.I then spent 15 min gaining as much line back as possible. before snaping off. thankfully I was only running a 10 lb bottom that broke at the knot leaving just a size 10 hook for the big guys troubles. for the gear I had it felt like hooking a truck.

[TROLLER]

Fishing the whirl pools at Steward Island for salmon and hooked into a hog. Had the bugger on for a good 15 minutes using a single action fly reel, when after finally gaining some ground on him bam he was off.

Reeled in and and what do i find. THE FRIGGING KNOT came untied AT THE HOOK.

And the part that really ****ed me off was that the guide had tied it on.

Lesson learned that day. Never trust tackle to anyone but yourself.

[ADIDAFish]

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Fishing the whirl pools at Steward Island for salmon and hooked into a hog. Had the bugger on for a good 15 minutes using a single action fly reel, when after finally gaining some ground on him bam he was off.

Reeled in and and what do i find. THE FRIGGING KNOT came untied AT THE HOOK.

And the part that really ****ed me off was that the guide had tied it on.

Lesson learned that day. Never trust tackle to anyone but yourself.

That's the worst! When you have a big one on and you think the line gave way so you're choked already but you think, wow, that must have been a hog and I shouldn't have horsed him in so fast. Then when you see the end of the line and see it was knot (tied by myself in my cases) and then you get this lump in your throat. It's hard to let that go. Luckily I haven't had one of those in a long time.

last summer i saw some fish jumping on and off for about 20 minutes. it was just in front of me but a bit too far away to cast into. my buddy and i had the anchor down so we werent moving from our spot. i kept heaving and wipping for all i was worth to try and gain that extra 5 yards. Finally i must have brought the last cast in just perfect and sent her sailing into the zone. after a good little sink i started twitching that lure back like my arm was caught on an electric fence. then bam. game on. well she was big and we tussled a little till she just slowly ran out another 20 yards of line to my right side at about the 1 oclock position. She turned and nearly broke the surface about 40 yards out and all i could see was a big stretch of green about the length of the hood on your truck and then she dove straight across parallel in front of me. deep through the weeds a couple head shakes and then it was all over.

What she doesnt know is that Im coming back again this year.

[braxxtonn]

Hooked into a decent sturgeon, 52 incher,,,,,
Was fighting him for about 15 mins, (lighter tackel)
Then , he got my line snagged on a rock,
sat there for about a good 15 mins walking up and down the shore trying to unhook my line, my buddys were telling me to just cut it off, but EFF that , then finally it came unhooked , and the sturg was still on!!

Landed the big one that should of got away,,,!! LOL

Last summer I was fishing a lake that only has perch, was hamming them all day , then bam had a big fish on my 4lbs line , ulta light rod, fought him for a good 3.5 mins then snap, line broke , was so choked i packed up and went home, lol garenteed it was a monster perch, caught a fat 14.5 incher there the prevoius winter, and seen bigger ones on the fish cam!! such a dissapointment!!

[Dust1n]

While fishing the bow I was under the bridge on a rock and i had my rod tip down, while stripping in my line a huge brown came up and took a chunk out of my rod.(He ate the tip and snapped it off) Not sure how big he was or maybe he mistaken the blank rod and the silver tip for a PMD? Definitely 25inchs+ with a mouth of that size but i never hooked him or seen him in the water after that. A bunch of locals say they see some huge fish underneath the lights while they go swimming there but i thought they were joking about it till i seen ones head. Definitely going to go back and hook into him this season hopefully on the dry!

[npauls]

Originally Posted by braxxtonn

Last summer I was fishing a lake that only has perch, was hamming them all day , then bam had a big fish on my 4lbs line , ulta light rod, fought him for a good 3.5 mins then snap, line broke , was so choked i packed up and went home, lol garenteed it was a monster perch, caught a fat 14.5 incher there the prevoius winter, and seen bigger ones on the fish cam!! such a dissapointment!!

Was this around where you live? I didn't think there was really any just perch fisheries. I thought they all had some kind of other fish like pike, walleye, whitefish, trout, or suckers.

[DiabeticKripple]

my uncle and i were fishing on lesser slave, and he was just standing there talking with me when his rod almost flew out of his hands. he fought with it for 15 mins, then it broke off. he was ****ed. he was using a brand new LT red devil that was like 4 inches long and expensive.

about an hour later i had some nibbles on my line so i set the hook and it felt like a log. 10 mins later a huge pike is thrashing around right infront of me. We landed it, and in its throat was my uncles red devil. he was so happy haha. the pike was 15lbs. it made very good jack cakes and jack chowder.

the one that got away, and then got caught again haha

[Lefty-Canuck]

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Fishing the whirl pools at Steward Island for salmon and hooked into a hog. Had the bugger on for a good 15 minutes using a single action fly reel, when after finally gaining some ground on him bam he was off.

Reeled in and and what do i find. THE FRIGGING KNOT came untied AT THE HOOK.

And the part that really ****ed me off was that the guide had tied it on.

Lesson learned that day. Never trust tackle to anyone but yourself.

This happened to me in Port Hardy.....guide tied the gear I had a hog of a Chinook on.....got it all back but the hook (flasher and all was still there) because of a "knot failure"

....he knew that I knew....cause I asked him what I could have done better?....he said YOU didnt do anything wrong....

LC

[FishingFrenzy]

Was out fishing at ____ lake, tossing spinnerbaits into the weeds for pike and walleye.

As I reel my spinner bait up to the boat out of nowhere comes this MASSIVE pike. A solid 15-20lber at LEAST. Follows my spinner bait right up to the boat then I pause the spinnerbait briefly, and she turned slowly and swam away.

That one reallllly bugged me.

[marlin1]

ice fishing with some set rigs for pike and something big came through our set up , snapped off two rigs before we could even react . Mine had 20 lb test . Another time on the bow by Carseland a huge rainbow that I had hooked tail walked way out in the current and I swear that sucker was 7 pounds or more , then snap, gone . All my American buddy could say was "impressive" . And yes I've caught rainbows over 5 pounds so I think my estimate would be close

[Sooner]

My dad and some friends were at a fly in lake in the NWT some 20 yrs ago, ice was still on a quarter of the lake as it was a late ice out year. Fishing for lakers 100 yrds out from the ice edge and dad hooked a good one. Well the fish went straight for the ice. They were using big rods and good strong line with leaders but he couldnt slow down the fish. He said watching his line hit the ice edge and go under was tough cause he knew it was just a matter of time before the line broke, it did and they never seen the fish.

[Mistagin]

My most memorable one - I was Steelhead fishing in the Sydenham River, Owen Sound, Ontario. Spring a few years ago. Method - 13 foot float rod with center-pin reel; leader - 3 lb test due to clear water, # 16 hook with single salmon egg bait.

I was fishing in the middle of a long deep pool when the float went down, I set the hook and I knew it was a good one. The fish ran upstream - no problems there! Then it turned and went downstream, then back upstream,and back down again. Note: that river is not very wide. We battled it out in the pool for several minutes. Never saw the fish. Then it decided it had enough of playing games with me and headed downstream - heading for the lake (Owen Sound Bay off Georgian Bay). Not wanting to let too much line out I followed along the bank as best I could, calling out "fish on" so other anglers would give room. I followed for several hundred feet until I got to a fallen tree I couldn't get past with the rod. That fish seemed to know it and put 'er in high gear. I held on. Must have had 200 plus yards of line out and that fish never slowed down. Finally too much drag due to the extent of the line out (I guess) and the leader popped .

I still wish I'd have a least seen it! Best one I ever landed was approximately 12 lbs, and I'm sure the one lost that day would have been considerable better.

[mattpreat]

this winter i was ice fishing at phyllis lake and jigging for perch and i couldnt seem to get anything even though the perch were nipping at my hook a bit, but then all of a sudden all the perch cleared out of my spot and a GIGANTIC brood trout swam by and ate my jig! my reel was going crazy and i was trying to reel him in and since i havent had any practice with big fish i never really knew what to do to get him in without losing him but i got him up to the hole and seen that he was atleast 10lbs but then he took a run for it and then the pulling stopped and i reel in to see that my knot broke. since then i switched to the improved clinch knot to the Palomar knot since that seems a whole lot stronger when i can get the loop through the eye of the hook. still very mad that i lost my very first fish i caught ice fishing and the very first rainbow i caught over 3lbs!

[one shot]

last year, fall, fishing the fraser from shore, hooked a big spring while fishing for pinks and coho, 25lb main and 15lb leader. we ran up and down the shore for 20min, could see him jumping 80 yrds away then 90yards then 100yards i ran out of shore line due to big rocks and a cliff. ended up turning him around gaind about 60 yards of line, he made one more run and some one casted over me tangled me up and well
i was pixxed! first spring ever and lost it because some people dont know the ethics on the river!
landed a 34lb and a 28lb redspring the next day