Fish that have taken you the most work to land...

[MichaelAngelo]

Inspired by tangledline's recent adventure, share the stories behind the fish that took you the most work to land!

I'll start:




Just this May, I had my first experience fishing for steelhead. I was armed with my leaky garage sale rubber boots and jeans!

Of course I hook into a colourful male that decided to ride the current downstream, so I shouted to my friend that I was going with the fish. 15 minutes later, I come back looking like the above picture...

The fish had wrapped itself around the line and wedged itself between 2 rocks in 3 feet of water. He wasn't showing any signs of wanting to come out on his own. So I went in after 'em , grabbed him by the tail, and yanked him out. He was quite snugly stuck between those two rocks!

Best part is, I didn't even USE the net... I had to carry it in my mouth the whole way! I don't do this anymore, because a net in the mouth during a fall would break all teeth!

After all this abuse of the myself and the fish (and grabbing him by the gills), I decided to try tasting steelhead for dinner.

[Giuga10]

Wow if only I had an awesome story like that .

Giuga10

[MichaelAngelo]

(12-06-2012 11:22 PM)Giuga10 Wrote:  Wow if only I had an awesome story like that .

Giuga10

Spend more time fishing, and you'll have one!

[Giuga10]

(12-06-2012 11:36 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  

(12-06-2012 11:22 PM)Giuga10 Wrote:  Wow if only I had an awesome story like that .

Giuga10

Spend more time fishing

Lol I try to

Giuga10

[MuskieBait]

Is that online scouting/detective work? Or actual in-the-field work?

There are some species I've wanted to hunt down where it took me over 4 years of Google searching for material to read...and took me 4 years to actually go fish and catch them...

Anyways, I got too many of them...but here are some fun local ones I can think off the top of my head...

First Mooneye - stepped into a deep hole in the river...went from "butt deep" to "chest deep" to "over my head deep" and losing my footing. If it wasn't the air in my slightly large waders keeping me some what floating and bobbing in the current, my waders would have flooded and I would have been dragged downstream. Luckily I just bobbed until I floated past the hole and found footing again. That evening, I finally caught my first Mooneye.

First Lake Whitefish - drove the snowmobile into a puddle on the ice, about 2 feet of water above the ice, stuck in the middle of this puddle surrounded by 100 feet of frozen water on all sides, wading thigh deep in freezing water (in snow pants) for 30min to retrieve our lost gear and pulling out the snowmobile, walking though thigh deep snow after with numb feet and legs and losing my boots in the snow (my lower body was so cold and numb I couldn't even feel the boots falling off)...and have to walk back in the snow in my wet and frozen socks...all 50ft of it! Oh of course, when we are finally dry and some what warm after the ordeal, we drove home and the truck lights turned off. We had no headlights, tail lights, trailer lights...driving in the middle of nowhere at dusk...then we finally got back to civilization just before dark, changed the fuse, drove 5 minutes on the 400 in the dark and all the lights went out again...parked on the shoulder, put in another new fuse...all the lights went out again...The trailer was the problem. Luckily we found a Tim Hortons about 1 min later and parked there and slept in the truck for the night. My feet, even though they were "warm" were tingling for 2 weeks...the feeling you get from hitting your funny bone...except it was non-stop...luckily we caught our first whitefish just before we drove into the puddle on the ice...

First Lake Trout - Hiked on a lake on the ice for 3k pulling a 40lb sled in a blizzard, set up a tent style shelter in said blizzard, auger though 24"+ of ice with a manual auger that was just long enough to poke through the last 1/2" of ice...we were literally drilling on our knees trying to make the auger blade punch though the last little bit of ice...fishing all day in the blizzard for no bites but one...which was the laker on the tip up line set outside.

I really should write a book.

[Jeremy Ray Green]

QUINTE GOLD FOR ME,

Ive caught walleye before my first was on lake scugog.

But I really wanted one of those quinte trophies, for 3 years I made trips to quinte. spending money on transportation and hotels.
Apparently my biggest mistake was not being there "YESTERDAY" or "LAST WEEK" cause apparently it was always good fishing then.

one year i organized a MEA Ice fishing trip 12 of us went out for the day and we all got skunk'd.
the trip home was near an experience like Muskiebaits white fish story, I blew a fuse and had no head/tail lights, but my hazards worked.
just as we started packing up on the ice that day the snow came in, and the drive home was not fun once the fuse blew, the snow was so bad i couldnt even see the concrete median on the highway that should have been 2 ft from the truck but we made it home safely.
in all my trips to quinte over the 3 years i caught pike and bass and perch and Sheeps head, but never a quinte EYE.

last year (2011), I made the trip to quinte for a tournament called Slam the lamb.

at the point that i paid my tournament fees and calculated my gas to get to quinte, I Had figured i spent nearly 4000 dollars just to try my luck at catching a quinte EYE, over the 3 years.
As this day was different I did not have any expectations to get into the quinte gold, as we were aiming for big sheeps head.

Well wouldnt you know it, Never caught one sheeps head that day, it was a boat full of walleye, i think the 4 of us took 9 walleye for the day and I got into my first quinte gold, it has been my largest to this day and was just under the 10 pound mark...
I have it on ice just waiting for that day when i can afford the extra 400 dollars to have it mounted

~Jeremy

[zippyFX]

Neat stories! Man I was happy with first walleye being about 1 pound.... I really would like to get me a 10lber but I'm thinking the wife will not like the $4000 bill )

I have not been fishing for that long.... Always enjoyed it but never had the opportunity (so I thought).... After fishing this summer at a cottage we rented I thought I would look up fishing opportunities in Ottawa. I was stunned and amazed to discover Urban Shore fishing! Tons of spots within 5-20 minutes of my hounse in the city. I was hooked (excuse the overused pun).

From my short experience here are a couple of my most interesting fights:

- Two pikes this summer were interesting. The first one was in a lake.... My hook was snagged in the weeks and we were circling the boat trying to get unsangged. So here I am reeling in with a heavy load of weeds and my brother in law says you sure there is not fish at the end of that? I was getting real good at knowing what weeds are like so I says nothings pulling or tugging just heavy weeds.... Low and behold at the end of the line under about 3 lbs of weeds is a 24 inch pike (about 3lbs). My fist pike! A couple of months later fishing at my shore spot I here a splash which I thought was a small bass. I through out my light rodd while I was re-rigging my medium rod.... Low and behold the rod starts to bounce toward the water. I get to it just in time and and see the big (big for me that is) pike diving into the weeds. 10 lb mono 4 inch leader and big fish sitting in the weeds... As I work it out I was praying my line would hold. When I pulled him in I used put my spreader to open his mouth. The angry bugger clamped down and shut the thing.... I managed to get the hook out and the other guy fishing the spot good not believe I released him. He was 30 inches and about 7 lbs.

- For my other story I go small... My bait store was closed one morning (sometime if I have late meeting and the weather is good I'll get a half dozen minnows and head out for 90 minutes before heading into the office; You gotta love flex time). I had worms though and thought I would still go out... Low and behold one by one all my worms kept disappearing.... So I more to smaller and smaller hooks. Finally when I got to 1/32 nd I started to get some fish.... about 10 perch, 10 rockbass, some blue gill, and what I swear was an Orange spotted sunfish (no picture to back it up though). With shore fishing you gotta be able to take it up and down as required I guess


Anyway not a runaway trout or huge walleye or near death experiences but the stories will come Right Guiga!

[OldTimer]

About 30 years ago I took the eager young son (14), of family friend, fishing for smallmouth on a Muskoka lake. It was late September and the weather was a bit cool, and overcast, with a fair chop on the water.

The boat we took out that day was 14’ Springbok aluminum with a 5.5 hp Evinrude.

We both had dressed warm, with wool jackets. I wore my steel toed safety boots because they were waterproof.

We visited a few spots around the lake and had caught a few, but nothing real big….. so I decided we’d troll for a while with larger lures to see if we could get something better. Nada……

The young lad loved it all, but really wanted to drive the boat. So on our last leg home I told him he could drive as we trolled through the smaller bay to the cottage. I sat in the front and trolled a small spoon on my new ultra-light setup.

As we near the dock about 60 yards out - WHAM! …….I hook into a NICE bass and stand up to set the hook while watching it doing summersaults out the back of the boat. I ask the boy to stop the boat so we can land the fish. Instead he guns the engine and I, and my rod/reel do a dive into the lake.

I come up to the surface to see the boat, which has now stalled, coasting towards the dock. I’m in about 8 to 10 feet deep water without a life jacket finding it almost impossible to swim with the heavy jacket and safety boots on. Meanwhile – I’ve got the rod – and I’m still hooked up to the fish which has circled me - twisting the line around my legs. So here’s me – get gulp of air – go to the bottom, push off towards the shore………repeat……..repeat……….repeat………… finally I get shallow enough that I can actually stand on bottom with my head above the surface, and while wheezing - get untangled, and then reel in the fish – a nice 4+ pounder Smallmouth.

The boy paddled to the dock no problem. Safe and sound.

After getting dried off I was fine, so was my gear.

By the way……….. I did release the fish………………. But I swear it was grinning as it swam away.

Cheers,

OldTimer

[Giuga10]

(12-07-2012 02:00 PM)zippyFX Wrote:  Anyway not a runaway trout or huge walleye or near death experiences but the stories will come Right Giuga!

Haha, you got that right. I think this ice season might bring out some stories for me.

Giuga10