Fishing Stories and Tall Tales

[Ridx]

Here is a pretty funny story. At least i think it was, My father would not agree if he was still with us.

I was only 14 or 15 at the time (34now) and my dad took me to a pond on 24 highway jsut outside of Brantford to go bass fishing. We were there for about an hour and i had already landed a 5lb smally ( biggest smallie ive ever caught) but the bigger fish was yet to come. I was casting a green/orange rapala and all of a sudden during one of my casts I was snagged in the tree behind me... or so I thought. Without looking I jsut started yanking my rod trying to free lure from the so called tree.. Well didn't my dad start screaming at me to stop. I had hooked him in the back of the neck! When i realised what i had done i dropped my rod and started running down 24 towards home afraid he was going to kill me! He called me back and we packed up and took the trip to the walk in clinic where after many hours in the waiting room and alot of laughs and people staring the hook was removed!

Now when i take my kids fishing, because of this incident I am always aware of where they are casting so i don't end up on the painfull end of the same situation!

[MichaelAngelo]

(09-23-2012 08:50 PM)Ridx Wrote:  Here is a pretty funny story. At least i think it was, My father would not agree if he was still with us.

I was only 14 or 15 at the time (34now) and my dad took me to a pond on 24 highway jsut outside of Brantford to go bass fishing. We were there for about an hour and i had already landed a 5lb smally ( biggest smallie ive ever caught) but the bigger fish was yet to come. I was casting a green/orange rapala and all of a sudden during one of my casts I was snagged in the tree behind me... or so I thought. Without looking I jsut started yanking my rod trying to free lure from the so called tree.. Well didn't my dad start screaming at me to stop. I had hooked him in the back of the neck! When i realised what i had done i dropped my rod and started running down 24 towards home afraid he was going to kill me! He called me back and we packed up and took the trip to the walk in clinic where after many hours in the waiting room and alot of laughs and people staring the hook was removed!

Now when i take my kids fishing, because of this incident I am always aware of where they are casting so i don't end up on the painfull end of the same situation!

LOL the tree that fights back!!

[OldTimer]

Father’s Day Gift:

In the mid 70’s I gave my dad a 1 Day “Fly-In” fishing trip for two for his Father’s Day present.

He had always wanted to do a fly-in and had mentioned a few times that Billie Bear Lodge, just outside Huntsville, had such a service. So……. That’s what I bought him, - he was thrilled. He wanted to go in late July.

Billie Bear Lodge is on Bella Lake which itself had decent fishing, but the air service out of there flew people in to remote lakes (not accessible by road) to the north west of Algonquin Park.

Dad insisted that he wanted to go for Brook Trout rather than go to a “Pike” lake as the pilot suggested (since it was July and the lakes with Brook Trout might be slow)………..OK…………..

We left our family cottage near Dorset and arrived at Billie Bear just before the sun would rise. The bush pilot was waiting for us and we all quickly got on board the waiting Cessna sea plane that was already loaded with a small 2HP outboard motor and fuel for our day of fishing.

Gorgeous flight to the lake, with the mist rising from the forest as the sun rose.

On arriving at the chosen lake – the pilot taxied the plane up to a very rough looking dock to offload. A 14 foot aluminum boat was already there chained to tree. He helped us launch the boat, put the motor on, test fire it, and load our gear, lunch, and supplied bait into the boat.

The pilot leaves…….. And we begin.

The lake itself is quite small, narrow, - maybe 300-400 acres with a creek coming in and one going out (spring fed we were told). Water is stained and the surface is warm to the touch.

We both put on a #2 Mepps Minnow with a piece of worm and begin a slow troll around the perimeter to scope out the lake. Wham! My dad’s rod almost jerks out of the boat and he’s fighting a good sized fish……….. gets it boat side – it’s a brookie……. and a REAL nice one (at least 3 pounds)……. But it gets one look at us and bolts… Spitting the hook and gone.

I think “FANTASTIC – here we go!”

Was I wrong – for the rest of the day we trolled, and cast, and still fished every inch of that lake with everything we had with us ……..and the best we saw was a few chub.

So……….. At 2:00 pm we are back at the “dock” awaiting the plane as arranged with the pilot. Pretty quiet………..

Round about 3:00 he shows up in a much larger Beaver aircraft. Apparently the Cessna had mechanical difficulties. And now…..since there wasn’t much wind there……. The pilot wants to fly us out separately to lighten the load apparently.

It’s decided I will go first; my Dad will come back on the next trip. The pilot runs the plane to the extreme end of the lake (the tail is actually touching the trees on the shore). Off we go down the lake……….. gee seems to be taking a while to lift off…………..suddenly the pilot jerks the plane sideways one way then the other getting the pontoons broke free from the water………..gee the trees are getting REAL effing close………….. UP we go! …. I MEAN UP WE GO………. ALMOST STRAIGHT UP and I hear something hit the underside of the plane. Back to the lodge we go, and I get dropped off.

The pilot goes back for Dad. It shouldn’t be much more than an hour to get Dad and return back again.

Wrong.


2 ½ hours later I manage to get a girl at the lodge to radio the pilot………..turns out my Dad wouldn’t get on the plane until the wind came up a whole lot more to make liftoff better…………. But they are just now on their way. (Note: my Dad served in the RCAF, could fly, and knew his stuff about prop driven planes……).

They finally get back, and I meet them at the dock (I was totally bummed out that my planned great day for my Dad was a sad piece of sh&#).

Dad jumps out of the plane smiling and says “Did you know that you two clipped off the top of a tree on the way outta there?”

I was amazed, but still sad and began to apologize for his wasted disappointing day.

Dad grinned at me, winked, and opened his large wet canvas shoulder bag – then pulled out a matched pair of bragging size brook trout he had caught using worms from the dock while waiting to fly out from the lake.

“You’re cleaning them and cooking them for us tonight” he said……. And …”I’ll get out the Scotch when we get home… it was a great day, thanks!”.


SOB.





Cheers,

OldTimer

[Giuga10]

Here's a quick little story;

While fishing at a local stormwater pond my brother had biked over from my house to call me over for dinner. I wanted to take a couple more casts. My brother had walked down the hill that led to the little island I was fishing at. I was fly fishing, I took a couple more casts and on one of my last casts I pulled back (not really sure what it's actually called by it's when I pull back the line to cast) and yanked forward. My rod went to a quick halt then I hear a shriek followed by crying, at first I thought I had snagged a tree but after the scream I quickly changed my mind.

I had deeply hooked my brother in the inside of his ear and he was going crazy. I had told him to try to be as calm as possible so I could take the hook out easier. After he had calmed down to a soft sob I had done a couple of slow regular pulls but the barb was preventing that from happening. So I thought of a way to bypass the barb. I would push the loop part of the hook down then pull out which would cause the barb to be clear of any skin. I had noticed that the hook was progressing forward so I knew it was working. I had kept using the same method and withing a couple more pulls the hook was free causing no damage to him and caused no cut besides the entry hole. We had gone home and now it's a story that we can both laugh about.

THANK GOD IT WASN'T HIS EYE.

When we were home he applied some disinfectant and was good to go.

Giuga10

[MichaelAngelo]

Loved that one too OT, great stories!

Can't believe you guys clipped a tree on take-off.... close call there No wonder your dad wanted to wait LOL.

And brookies from the dock in the middle of summer? Doesn't sound like too bad of a lake after all!

[MichaelAngelo]

(09-27-2012 08:09 PM)Giuga10 Wrote:  Here's a quick little story;

While fishing at a local stormwater pond my brother had biked over from my house to call me over for dinner. I wanted to take a couple more casts. My brother had walked down the hill that led to the little island I was fishing at. I was fly fishing, I took a couple more casts and on one of my last casts I pulled back (not really sure what it's actually called by it's when I pull back the line to cast) and yanked forward. My rod went to a quick halt then I hear a shriek followed by crying, at first I thought I had snagged a tree but after the scream I quickly changed my mind.

I had deeply hooked my brother in the inside of his ear and he was going crazy. I had told him to try to be as calm as possible so I could take the hook out easier. After he had calmed down to a soft sob I had done a couple of slow regular pulls but the barb was preventing that from happening. So I thought of a way to bypass the barb. I would push the loop part of the hook down then pull out which would cause the barb to be clear of any skin. I had noticed that the hook was progressing forward so I knew it was working. I had kept using the same method and withing a couple more pulls the hook was free causing no damage to him and caused no cut besides the entry hole. We had gone home and now it's a story that we can both laugh about.

THANK GOD IT WASN'T HIS EYE.

When we were home he applied some disinfectant and was good to go.

Giuga10

Good stuff figuring out how to take the barbed hook out!

This is exactly why I always wear my $10 Walmart polarized sunglasses...

Just last weekend I had somebody whack me in the eyes with the tip of their noodle rod when they set the hook and missed the fish. Sunglasses, sunglasses, sunglasses....

[Giuga10]

(09-27-2012 08:15 PM)MichaelAngelo Wrote:  Good stuff figuring out how to take the barbed hook out!

This is exactly why I always wear my $10 Walmart polarized sunglasses...

Just last weekend I had somebody whack me in the eyes with the tip of their noodle rod when they set the hook and missed the fish. Sunglasses, sunglasses, sunglasses....

I really got to get me some polarized glasses. Hopefully my dad has some lying around.

Giuga10

[OldTimer]

I have already shared one Bustard Island fishing trip story in this thread…… here’s another:

Each year on one night of our late spring fishing trip to the Bustard Islands in Georgian Bay the bunch of us would be invited over to the Drever cabin for a fish fry.

The Drever brothers (Bryan & Art) were commercial fisherman who held a licence for the surrounding area. They apparently were quite good at their profession as the income from a partial year sustained their families for the entire year. Their ship was a typical steel hulled fishing vessel about 60-70 or so feet long. They had a small group of cabins/sheds on another island not too far a run from our place.

They rarely got into a large town much while concentrating on catching and delivering their catch to Britt, or Parry Sound. Their target fish was walleye.

The deal was that we would provide the beer (lots of it for the meal, plus a full case), the bread, butter, and baked potatoes…………. They would provide and cook the fish and baked beans.

Everything would be cooked outside sorta “shore lunch” style.
They had two of the largest lumberjack skillets I have ever seen, really deep – each about 2 foot in diameter with 4 foot long handles. These were used over an open fire with lard and left over bacon grease to fry up the flour drenched fish fillets.

It was a GREAT meal, and really fun times. No one went away hungry! Everyone had seconds or thirds+.

Over the years I wondered about the type of fish presented as it varied widely in size and shapes. I never really got a definite answer from Bryan Drever.

On what turned out to be my last trip there – I went down to their cabin earlier in the day in the Boston Whaler to drop off the beer, ice, and a few other things and discovered something……….. there was Bryan, Art, and their nephew cleaning that night’s fish…….. Yes - there were some walleye (pickerel to them), but also a fair quantity of carp which they were filleting and then slicing the large THICK fillets in two planes to produce smaller and thinner chunks for that nights fish fry party. They’d been doing this all along through the years - They made me promise not to say a thing that night.

That night’s guests also included two couples we invited along - from sailboats that had anchored in our bay.

I found it interesting and amusing that the crowd that night repeatedly praised the cooking and the excellent deep fried walleye fillets.

Good times.

I never did tell any of those guys the secret…… why would I - it all was so delicious.


Cheers,

OldTimer

[OldTimer]

Lure Hunts:

All through my teens I worked at a tent & trailer (camping) park in Muskoka, Ontario near Algonquin Park.

Didn’t really make all that much money – but I did get to fish almost every day all summer long.

I also learned to snorkel and dive.

Close to the campgrounds there were three or four popular “tourist” scenic stops with public parking on a lake or river.

All through July and August you’d see many anglers trying their luck from shore at these spots. If you paid attention you’d also see many of them snag up and break off their lures……….. LOTS!

A friend and I would visit each of these spots 2 or 3 times a month to snorkel and to fill our tackle boxes with recovered lures and tackle.

One spot in particular had a series of waterfalls with interconnecting 2 foot deep riffles between them – which then plunged into a large and much deeper pool filled with a fresh bunch of sunken deadfall trees each spring that were about 40 feet off shore. This spot one day yielded over 40 name brand lures of all types (just for me)………….. Just snorkel\dive along the brush piles, or crawl along the riffles and yank them off with pliers, or free them from under rocks and put them in a large coffee can. Most lures would be brand new.

Neither my father nor I had to buy many lures for years after I stopped working there. I still have some of these lures.

Fun and reward at the same time.

I’m too old to do this now but………Got ya thinkin………don’t I ………….?........... happy hunting……………

Cheers,

OldTimer

[Ridx]

Well here is another story. I was only 13 or 14 at the time and my father and I arrived at the Nottawasaga river during the salmon run. We got down to the water and I didnt feel like lining up my rod so I used my sisters rod which was alrady lined and ready to go. I tossed on a roebag and casted out into the river. I leaned the rod down on my Y stick and turned around to have a quick look at the ground to see where i was going to sit and looked back at my rod.. Well where i thought my rod would be. The rod was gone! Instead of sitting against my stick the rod was wakeboarding upstream! A salmon had hit and tore off upstream with my sisters fishing rod. That was the last we seen of it. until 4 years later! My dad always built our fishing rods and he always put our names on them and the year he made them. Well 4 years later he got a phone call from a fellow angler who knew my father telling him that he had hooked up on a snag in the river and had reeled in a fishing rod with the name "karen golden" on it. My dad made plans for another trip up to the nottawasaga for a weekends fishing and the angler who snagged the rod returned it. The reel was shot but the rod still works great I still use it to this day!.

Since that incident I have always used steel rod holders we made. No more worries about a big fish stealing my fishing rod!