The greatest fish story you have lived, told, sold or enjoyed-

lousubcap

After experiencing the now Stone Crab experience, I always reflect on our personal Number 1 (living in the Seattle area) in 1989 (after the Exxon Valdez).  Neighbor headed to Alaska for salmon fishing.   Commercial not allowed but the sport fisherman were.  We were taking care of their husky for the week (pretty easy assignment.)  Came home with a 60 quart cooler full of fresh caught salmon.  We were the recipients of many pounds of the best salmon I have ever enjoyed.  FWIW-
Better to be lucky than good- And it was at least this big---😁

caliking

That's winning, for sure. Good things happen to good people.

On another note, I've been fascinated by this scandal ever since it broke. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/sport/ohio-fishing-tournament-cheating-indicted

I don't even know why. Have been fishing once in my life (maybe twice). But, this story just sucked me in. I understand the (nefarious) motivation, but can't wrap my brain around how stupidly they went about it. 

keener75

I caught a 50.5" TIGER Muskie this past September!
Catch and release of course with muskies but catching a tiger over 50" seems special!

JohnInCarolina

Mickey

Took our Toyota sales crew to Aransas Pass after an exceptional sales month. 

Adult beverages the night before and reporting to the boat at 6:00 set in motion 20 minutes out the first things out of my mouth was the two Dramamine. 

My trip went south at that point. Never to return deep sea fishing. 

Now i find fishing great at Publix and H‑E‑B  

kl8ton

I've told it on here before.....

Deep sea fishing Ft Myers Beach

Supposed to be 6 hour trip - 6pm to midnight. Came back at 6am. 
Boat batteries died. His buddy came out to to tow us in. His boat died. Sea Tow came out and double towed us both in. Lots of crazy details and drama during this story but that's the short of it. Fishing was great!

RRP

and another fish story that can’t be backed up with a picture BUT trust me it happened!!!

My age: 12

Place: what my grand parents called a “lake” in Cone, IA.(which actually was an always  full backwater of the mighty Mississippi.)

What:  that backwater was always full due to breeding  grounds of rough fish such as carp, gar, dog fish, but also terrific bass, crappie and even Muskie! 

Rest on my story…: At age 12 I was a short 4 footer!

i was simply fishing with a bobber, weight and a hook thru a large minnow.

for some reason a huge Muskie hit and swallowed my bait/hook and all!

as a mere 12 year old ,child it was a wild experience which I have never experienced again! My quite elderly grandfather and I were in a flat bottom row boat. with a mere 1 hp  gasoline .engine which would seldom start! My grandfather rowed us back to their cottage  wherethey hung up that huge Muskie from a tripod with me next to it showing that fish was as long as me at age 12! And yes they made “a Kodak memory”:
of that “moment” picture has long been lost in the. last 66 years! 

Stuff happens…you  know….

StillH2OEgger

The one I still shake my head at was part of a trip to Cabo and my first saltwater fishing experience. Our guide and three of us ventured out in a tiny panga that felt like a duck boat, though I'm sure it was larger in actuality than in my memory. The fishing was fantastic -- we had our limit of mahi mahi before lunch and we also caught and released a sailfish that was about as long as our boat (possibly a slight exaggeration, but it seemed huge laying across that tiny boat). The uneasy part of the whole thing was that every once in a while these large whales would surface -- close enough that we could get a decent look and it also added enough of a wake you had to steady yourself in the boat. Our guide spoke very little English and I remember hoping that was the reason he didn't answer when I asked if the whales sense the boats and/or generally avoid them.

lkapigian

Story if my life I watch Every Fathers Day , Big Fish … brings tears to my eyes as it’s the story of my life and the Eclectic Group of Friends and stories of my life, greatest scene at the end of the movie when , what his sin always thought was BS stories , came to life when all the characters showed for his funeral …. This is how the story ends 

CTMike

My grandfather was one of the original Dory boat fishermen in Pacific City, Oregon fishing for salmon. If you’re ever in Pacific City and look at the Memorial Wall, on Tile #1 (lower left) you’ll see the name Barefoot Charley - that was the old man’s boat. 

I hate fishing. 

Bellavista52

Langner91

I was the 11th grandchild.  By the time I was "fishing age", my grandparents had been there and done that.  Every summer, though, I got to spend a week with my grandparents in central Wisconsin.  There are a lot of lakes, streams, and rivers in Sauk County, Wisconsin and the surrounding area.  Probably dozens of places to fish.

The week always started out pleasant, and then my grandmother would get tired of having an 8, 9, or 10 year old around.  I would get bored.  She would finally tell my grandfather to "take this kid fishing!"

Finally, some fun!

His idea of fishing by that time was to drive bar-to-bar, have a shot and a beer while I had a soda and ask the other drunks at the bar "How have they been biting?"  They were never, apparently, biting well enough for him to actually take me near any body of water.  Usually, they had been biting the week before, but were no longer biting.  We would simply drive down the road to the next bar, in hopes someone would report that the local fish were biting.

Fishing has never been my favorite activity.

GrateEggspectations

Sad but true…. My amazing fishing story…..

When I was an adolescent, I was sleeping soundly in my bed while having an exceptionally vivid dream about fishing. Having caught a large sunfish, I reeled it onto the dock and approached it to remove the hook. As my hand approached its body, the fish jumped with vigor, causing me to reel my hand back towards my face with great velocity. I awoke to a bloody nose running like a tap after having clocked myself in the snout in the real world. 

egret

Amazon River........17# Peacock Bass......amazing trip and those Peacock Bass are super strong !!

saluki2007

Back in my college days.  We caught it on a trout line.  

TEXASBGE2018

Not my experience but when I was a kid a friend of mine was fishing in this small pond by our elementary school and caught a 100pound catfish. It took two of them to drag it onto the bank. Dunno how it got in that small pond but there was photo evidence in the local paper

Gulfcoastguy

So many of them . Once I took my coworkers out to the oil rigs. In my 19 foot boat. We caught a small fish and Mike hooked it to a balloon rig and let it drift. All of the sudden line started to disappear, set the spool an the drag started squealing. After 30 minutes we got the fish next to the boat, a 8 foot hammerhead shark. “ Gaff him ! Get him in the boat!” Mike said. “The Eff you say !” I replied. We compromised that if he could lasso the tail we would tow it in. Just as he had the rope partially around the tail the shark bite through the leader and headed towards Cuba. 

BigreenGreg

Working night shift on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel parallel bridges with a jackup barge. One of our guys heard screaming, we sent out the emergency boat and retrieved one of our employees in a glorified bass boat taking on water fast. Swung the big crane over and placed his boat on the supply barge. Twenty miles of open water there. He, his daughter, and best friend would have died 1000’ in either direction.

BigGreenKev

keener75 said:

I caught a 50.5" TIGER Muskie this past September!
Catch and release of course with muskies but catching a tiger over 50" seems special!

Tiger over 50" is pretty special. Where are you  state wise and what were you throwing?

fishlessman

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

JohnInCarolina

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

fishlessman

JohnInCarolina said:

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

it was bigger than the boat, 25, maybe 30 footer

TheFishWhisperer

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

I was out fishing and we got lost because I am surrounded by morons.  I hooked a huge shark and we could have gotten stranded because I am surrounded by morons.  

fishlessman

TheFishWhisperer said:

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

I was out fishing and we got lost because I am surrounded by morons.  I hooked a huge shark and we could have gotten stranded because I am surrounded by morons.  

its pretty scientific when the loran goes down. in the morning head into the sun, late afternoon head into the sun. bring more gas than you should need.....gps has made life way to easy.   that and dont get close to the chum bucket, nothing smells worse than shark chum

keener75

BigGreenKev said:

keener75 said:

I caught a 50.5" TIGER Muskie this past September!
Catch and release of course with muskies but catching a tiger over 50" seems special!

Tiger over 50" is pretty special. Where are you  state wise and what were you throwing?

We were fishing the St Lawrence River. Launched near Cornwall, Ontario.
I was casting a rubber body bait similar to a Shadzilla. 
That bait was hot this trip. It also snagged a 49" and 47.5" muskies.

TheFishWhisperer

fishlessman said:

TheFishWhisperer said:

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

I was out fishing and we got lost because I am surrounded by morons.  I hooked a huge shark and we could have gotten stranded because I am surrounded by morons.  

its pretty scientific when the loran goes down. in the morning head into the sun, late afternoon head into the sun. bring more gas than you should need.....gps has made life way to easy.   that and dont get close to the chum bucket, nothing smells worse than shark chum

When you get lost, you can find your way eventually.  Just have enough gas.  And stay away from things on boats that smell bad!

Gulfcoastguy

TheFishWhisperer said:

fishlessman said:

TheFishWhisperer said:

fishlessman said:

my biggest fish story was fishing about 30 miles out after losing the loran and finding my brothers leatherman pliers under the compass. pretty much lost. was casting an 18 inch life jacket orange fly from the bow up on the cabin towards a shadow that kept getting bigger as i stripped it in.  when i saw what it was i started yelling to the two clowns on the back deck of the boat to trim the motor up. they now see whats coming and start backing up, like theres someplace to go on a 19 foot lobster boat. i dive thru the cabin window an start trimming the motor as a 3000 pound (my estimate) baskin starts rubbing his back on the bottom of the boat. thing could have hit the motor and torn the damn transom off.......

I was out fishing and we got lost because I am surrounded by morons.  I hooked a huge shark and we could have gotten stranded because I am surrounded by morons.  

its pretty scientific when the loran goes down. in the morning head into the sun, late afternoon head into the sun. bring more gas than you should need.....gps has made life way to easy.   that and dont get close to the chum bucket, nothing smells worse than shark chum

When you get lost, you can find your way eventually.  Just have enough gas.  And stay away from things on boats that smell bad!

Been there, done that in the early 90's. An idiot passenger was swinging an oar around and broke my compass. It was a hazy day and the islands to the south were out of site. When I finally found the island pass I seriously thought about marooning him.

alaskanassasin

 Too many to recall, my dad visiting and catching a huge bass in a small pond a mile from the house here after we moved to Ohio.

 Paddling up stream in a scanoe on the Swanson in Alaska and watching the ripples the silvers made in the water as they snuck by and watching them take the lure in crystal clear water.

 (I had never seen brown rivers or lakes until I moved to NC).  Speaking of NC my brother and I went fishing in the Atlantic on a friends boat, as soon as we were hooking up I reached down to unhook a fish and hooked my thumb on the other treble hook.  After separating the fish from my thumb the captain tried to push it through and as I passed out he quit, back we went to the urgent care, fishing a hour later.  

 Growing up my little brother and I fished trout at a lake a few miles from the house all summer, and one summer there was a guy (tourist) there in one of those floaty inner tube things $$, he was there quite a bit and got tired of us catching fish all the time on cheap tackle and, well one thing led to another and we got to teasing him and throwing rocks at him and it was a great time, he said he was going to kill (waving a filet knife) us but he's on a floaty in a lake and we were on 10 speeds on shore so there's that.

 We have a cabin in the middle of nowhere outside of Homer AK and went there growing up all the time, 4hrs of slog on atvs or 20 minutes on a sled in the winter.  My younger brother and I loved fishing and over the years we had tried the lake once or twice that was a few miles away with mixed results, It fed into a small creek, probably 10' wide and 10' deep.  All those trips to the cabin and we knew the fishing was basically not worth the effort.  Fast forward to about 5 years ago and my older brother and I go to the cabin, in the summer, he says bring your pole the fishing is great in Fox Creek, I said really?  We got up there and literally caught a 12"-16" rainbow on every. single. cast. for hours, best trout fishing I have ever done in my life, I just chuckled because it was right under our nose growing up, it would have been the holy grail.

  One night, and our cabin is in the middle of nowhere, it was at the time at least 5 miles from another sole, though I don't know where they would be.. anyway my dad and little brother and I were playing cards at the table with the door cracked, and heard a knock I instinctively headed for the door and dad knocked me back in my seat... Story for another time!

ksmyrl

Too many to tell. One was an epic day of redfishing off of Biloxi with a great guide. The kids 12 and 9 at the time reeled in most of them. 



Another...out about 60 miles on my Father in law's boat grouper fishing. I hooked into something...very big. Fought the fish for 2 hrs and 17 min. Got it close to the boat twice when my FIL identifies it as a giant Tuna. We were so excited. He was already calculating how much money we would each get for selling the fish to a restaurant owner buddy of his. The third and final time it got close she turned and made one final run. The reel was literally smoking. We had 100lb braid tied on and I was not horsing her at all. She spooled me, snapped the line, tore the inside of the reel apart, and broke the tip off the rod. This photo was taken about 10 seconds before I collapsed in the floor of the boat. After the hardest workout one could ever have on a July afternoon in SW Florida. There also a long video that my son took and likes to show when telling this story. 

GlennM

How about this, yesterday from the beach

RRP

alaskanassasin said:

 ... Story for another time! 

COME ON..
COME ON..
Just don’t leave us hanging! What or Who was behind that door?,