Let's hear your fish stories

[AUFred]

Mine:

I was a teenager with three ponds available to me to fish any time. I had gone to the pond closest to home and found the bass were on bed. Catch and release had not become popular back then and being able to see dinner ahead of time was rather exciting. I settled in on a bass I saw which probably weighed a little over 3 pounds and began to harrass her. After a few hours she finally became irritated enough to strike. I got her in and was more than a little excited. I put her on my stringer and dropped her in the water. As soon as she hit the water she took off taking my stringer with her as I had not stuck the metal end in the gound yet. I was very frustrated and had only one stringer so I packed up my gear and went home.

A few days later I was back at the pond. This time I was flyfishing. As I approached a laydown in the water I noticed a fish hitting the surface. I flipped my fly to it. No response to my fly. I inched closer. Again laid my fly near the swirl no reaction. After a while I began to notice a twig bobbing with every thrash by the fish. I got closer to get a better look. Sure enough there was the bass from a few days before. She had gotten the stringer tangled in the laydown. I crawled out on the tree and succeeded in wrapping my flyline around the limb several times and pulled it to me. I retreived my stringer and the fish. She was worse for the wear. I took the fish home but my mom thought better of trying to eat her.

I learned a valueable lesson about making sure your stringer is secure before returning a fish to the water.

[MIbasser]

This one time at band camp..... Oh, wait that's another story....

[keithdog]

One day I got off work early and decided to take the canoe bass fishin at a local lake. It was a beautiful warm calm day and I couldnt wait to get started. I was on the water paddling across the lake when out of no where a HUGE powerful thunderstorm roared in. The calm water turned to whitedcaps quickly, the lightning was heavy and the water from rain and waves was filling the canoe quickly. Making matters worse was the wind which was so strong I could barely control the conoe, spinning me in circles and I was in the middle of the lake. Luckily I was able to get the canoe into chest deep water as it was about to go under. I bailed out and draged it to shore only to be met by a big german shephard dog, who luckily for me seemed to know I meant no harm and walked away leaving me be. I'm still mad at the guy who lived in a house on that property who was watching me from his screened in back porch, but chose to walk back inside and close the door rather than invite me onto the portch to wait out the storm.

[HarveysMinnow]

In case you missed this one a while back...

This is gonna sound like a 'fish tale', but I guarantee it's true (plus I have a witness). One morning years ago I was fishing a small farm pond, cranking a 5" chartruse plastic worm. I felt a mere nibble and yanked, only to learn that I was the victim of a failed knot. I tied something else on and continued to fish for a while with no luck.

Later that same day, my bro-in-law and I returned to this pond and I caught a 3+ lb Largemouth. We decided to keep it for a fish feast the next day. When we were cleaning it, we noticed a lump in its stomach pouch. We cut the pouch open and there was the chartruse worm I had been using earlier. It had to be the one I used, because nobody else had fished that pond recently.

Of course, this Bass was not actually caught the first time around. I think he just continued to forage because of hunger, and the plastic worm he had swallowed did nothing to quench his appetite.

/

[bamabassman]

21 years ago when lisa and i had just gotten married, we were living in hayden,al. this is where i grew up. matter of fact, in a house right next to the house i grew up in.
anyway, i decided to go fishing in the "ol pond" i grew up fishing in one day. i went to the house of mr and mrs mann and the mrs answered the door. she said i could go anytime i wanted to. so i went back home and packed up my gear (didn't have much then) and headed to the "ol pond".
i hadn't fished this place in about 6 years and it was grown up now and also mr mann had put in LOTS of catfish for his father in law a few years back. the father in law had passed by then and the fish weren't harvested any at all in almost 10 yrs. so you can inmagine how over populated it was. but i went ahead and fished it. i went all over the "usual" hot spots of yesteryear and had quite a stringer full. not many big ones, average was around 2-3 pounds cause of the over population of the little lake (bout 3 acres).
as i was about to finish up for the day i put the stringer in at the dam area and fished a bit more. walked to the other side of the dam and fished, then another 100 feet and so on. after a hour or so it was getting too dark to see much so i called it a day and headed back to the truck. loaded the gear and went to get my "supper".

i pulled up the stringer outta the ground........felt a little light for so many fish i thought. pulled some more expecting to start feeling the fish start to fight me, but no. after i got it all the out i noticed something REALLY big on the end. big and ROUND AND FLAT. WHAT THE @#$%?!?! I SAID OUT LOUD! DADBURN BLANKTY BLANK LOGGER HEAD SNAPPING TURTLE!! still had a 2 pound bass half way down his gullet. he saw me too. made a final bite and was gone. WITH ALL MY BASS TOO! all i had left was heads.

leson learned, took the rifle with me on the next trip. never saw it again. but got a few of his family members, hahahahaha.

[AUFred]

Originally Posted by HarveysMinnow

In case you missed this one a while back...

This is gonna sound like a 'fish tale', but I guarantee it's true (plus I have a witness). One morning years ago I was fishing a small farm pond, cranking a 5" chartruse plastic worm. I felt a mere nibble and yanked, only to learn that I was the victim of a failed knot. I tied something else on and continued to fish for a while with no luck.

Later that same day, my bro-in-law and I returned to this pond and I caught a 3+ lb Largemouth. We decided to keep it for a fish feast the next day. When we were cleaning it, we noticed a lump in its stomach pouch. We cut the pouch open and there was the chartruse worm I had been using earlier. It had to be the one I used, because nobody else had fished that pond recently.

Of course, this Bass was not actually caught the first time around. I think he just continued to forage because of hunger, and the plastic worm he had swallowed did nothing to quench his appetite.

/

I believe you, we have had similar incidents pond fishing.

[AUFred]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

21 years ago when lisa and i had just gotten married, we were living in hayden,al. this is where i grew up. matter of fact, in a house right next to the house i grew up in.
anyway, i decided to go fishing in the "ol pond" i grew up fishing in one day. i went to the house of mr and mrs mann and the mrs answered the door. she said i could go anytime i wanted to. so i went back home and packed up my gear (didn't have much then) and headed to the "ol pond".
i hadn't fished this place in about 6 years and it was grown up now and also mr mann had put in LOTS of catfish for his father in law a few years back. the father in law had passed by then and the fish weren't harvested any at all in almost 10 yrs. so you can inmagine how over populated it was. but i went ahead and fished it. i went all over the "usual" hot spots of yesteryear and had quite a stringer full. not many big ones, average was around 2-3 pounds cause of the over population of the little lake (bout 3 acres).
as i was about to finish up for the day i put the stringer in at the dam area and fished a bit more. walked to the other side of the dam and fished, then another 100 feet and so on. after a hour or so it was getting too dark to see much so i called it a day and headed back to the truck. loaded the gear and went to get my "supper".

i pulled up the stringer outta the ground........felt a little light for so many fish i thought. pulled some more expecting to start feeling the fish start to fight me, but no. after i got it all the out i noticed something REALLY big on the end. big and ROUND AND FLAT. WHAT THE @#$%?!?! I SAID OUT LOUD! DADBURN BLANKTY BLANK LOGGER HEAD SNAPPING TURTLE!! still had a 2 pound bass half way down his gullet. he saw me too. made a final bite and was gone. WITH ALL MY BASS TOO! all i had left was heads.

leson learned, took the rifle with me on the next trip. never saw it again. but got a few of his family members, hahahahaha.

Pulled a stringer of fish out before to find a snake wrapped around the string helping himself. Rather unnerving to say the least.

[keithdog]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

21 years ago when lisa and i had just gotten married, we were living in hayden,al. this is where i grew up. matter of fact, in a house right next to the house i grew up in.
anyway, i decided to go fishing in the "ol pond" i grew up fishing in one day. i went to the house of mr and mrs mann and the mrs answered the door. she said i could go anytime i wanted to. so i went back home and packed up my gear (didn't have much then) and headed to the "ol pond".
i hadn't fished this place in about 6 years and it was grown up now and also mr mann had put in LOTS of catfish for his father in law a few years back. the father in law had passed by then and the fish weren't harvested any at all in almost 10 yrs. so you can inmagine how over populated it was. but i went ahead and fished it. i went all over the "usual" hot spots of yesteryear and had quite a stringer full. not many big ones, average was around 2-3 pounds cause of the over population of the little lake (bout 3 acres).
as i was about to finish up for the day i put the stringer in at the dam area and fished a bit more. walked to the other side of the dam and fished, then another 100 feet and so on. after a hour or so it was getting too dark to see much so i called it a day and headed back to the truck. loaded the gear and went to get my "supper".

i pulled up the stringer outta the ground........felt a little light for so many fish i thought. pulled some more expecting to start feeling the fish start to fight me, but no. after i got it all the out i noticed something REALLY big on the end. big and ROUND AND FLAT. WHAT THE @#$%?!?! I SAID OUT LOUD! DADBURN BLANKTY BLANK LOGGER HEAD SNAPPING TURTLE!! still had a 2 pound bass half way down his gullet. he saw me too. made a final bite and was gone. WITH ALL MY BASS TOO! all i had left was heads.

leson learned, took the rifle with me on the next trip. never saw it again. but got a few of his family members, hahahahaha.

The same thing happened to a friend of mine and myself. We had two stringers loaded with gills fishing the bank of a small pond. We decided to leave and my friend pulled his stringer out only to find heads. Mine was the same way, LMAO!!!

[BigBassin144]

I've had something similar happen on our pond. I only had a couple gills on the stringer, but when I pulled it out of the water, I had a couple of bluegill heads. I've caught numerous catfish out of my pond with small bluegills, so I'm assuming that's what did it.

BB

[Mikekw3]

I caught on 6 1/2 pounder on a horny toad. Thats my best fsh story..

[ted4800]

Several year ago my Wife and I were fishing a small pond, loaded with Bass, Bluegill and Cats. I had forgotten my Jig box (1/16 oz tube tail jigs) Had a few that were used and just tossed into bag at end of day. I fish ultra lite with a 6'6" graphite one piece spinng rod and 2 lb test line.

Caught a few blue gills and was reeling anonter hand sized one in skittering it across surface when a decent Bass enhaled it. Wife got excited and started coaching not wanting me to lose it, (She is an accomplished fisherwoman by the way)

I knew that the tiny 1/16 oz jig did not have a wide enough gap to hook the Bass and the Bass was only fighting me for the Gill. As I got the pair close to a small dock I could see another Bass (both about the same size) following.

The Bass I had on the line saw the dock and spit the Bluegill out. The second Bass grabbed it. I opened the bail and let him run about thirty feet, closed the bail and when the line came tight set the hook as hard as I dared with 2 lb test line.

The bluegill popped out and the Bass was hooked. Played the Bass gingerly for about 5 minutes and Weighed it on digital scale 2 lb 15 oz.

Wife was elated that she had coached me into this catch and is one of her favorite Fishing Stories.

[AUFred]

Awesome story.

[AUFred]

Catching a bigger fish than you expected is always good. My grandfather had a pond with catfish & bream. I was casting an 1/8 oz. beetlespin on 4# test and catching a few bream when I cast near the corner of the dam when everything exploded. I set the hook and listened to the drag sing. I called for someone to walk down with a dip net. After several minutes of fighting I landed a catfish which weighed right at 9 pounds. It was hooked through a whisker.