Post Another Fish Story!

SKP · 10-31-2002, 07:34 PM

Ok, now that we all have come aboard to ifish.net and told our fish story as our introductory post, let's all now tell a second fish story. Maybe it will help cheer up Jennie, while her eyes are doing optical illusions, and she decides what to do. Maybe it will help all of us, while we anxiously await the overdue pitter patter of rain.

Here's mine:

About 10-12 years ago, I was fishing Finley Bend near Grants Pas in early September on the Rogue River for fall chinook. There were only about 4 guys fishing. I was drifting a larger orange with black tiger stripe spin-n-glow with eggs. Another guy about 30 feet upstream of me was fishing with just red yarn. After a while, we both made a cast that landed within about 3 feet of each other at the same time. He yells, "Fish On" first, then about a micro-second later, I feel a slight head shake, and I set the hook solid, and I yell, fish on. As we see our lines in unison both go upstream, and then downstream, then straight out, then back up again, I decide that I have ran into his line. I give him a click of the bail, and free spool it. After about 5 minutes, I hear, "&%$#, lost it" and he reels in. I click my bail, and low and behold, I still have the fish on. After a couple more relentless runs, then the fish tires. Into the net it goes. I hooked the fish inside the corner of the mouth. Funny thing, is this guys hook with the red yarn and light test leader is also inside the mouth, but in the other corner of the mouth. I never told him that it was the same fish as he hooked, but I think he knew. It was a 30 pound buck.

Now it gets better :grin: . In a little while, this guy hooks a bigger fish, probably 35 pounds. He lands it. The strangest thing happened next. He pulls out a bag of white powder, mixes water with the powder in his bucket, and covers the fish. I asked him what in the world was he was doing. He said he was a taxidermist, and needed a mold of that size of fish. I said, whatever, and walked away not hardly able to contain the laughter. :grin: After a while, Mr. Taxidermist tries to peel the mold off the fish, but it just fell apart. He tried it again, but with the same result.

I watched this guy catch and release if I remember correctly, 9 chinook hooked in the mouth, with his red yarn with no bait - none were snagged. He lost a couple others also. I only hooked the one fish that day. I should have switched to light leader and red yarn.

SKP

crabbait · 10-31-2002, 09:59 PM

Before the bass were such a probelm on Crane Prairie, I used to fish it for a week every spring. The place is famous for trophy trout and it was not unusual to catch fish from three to ten pounds or better.

After several conversations about the big trout, I convinced my brother, Randy, to join me on the lake. We proceeded to drown dragonfly nymphs under a bobber waiting patiently for a take.

After an hour or two my bobber went under. I counted to ten and set the hook. The trout felt big and, after a minutes tussle at fairly long range, he came racing straight for the boat. I was reeling as fast as I could but had not caught up with the slack yet when he came hurtling out of the water at top speed three or four feet into the air and not three feet from the side of the boat starting at the stern and landing at the bow. The fish was easily six or seven pounds and had gone airborne right past my brothers face. Ya coulda s c r a p p e d his eyes off with a stick and his mouth was wide open.

As soon as the fish hit the water he reversed course, still on slack line, and went screaming the other direction. As he passed the stern everything came tight and my Tru-turn hook completely lost its tru-turn. Boink! Gone.

Until that moment, I don't think he believed how big and feisty these trout get. Instant convert! :grin:

[ 10-31-2002, 11:00 PM: Message edited by: crabbait ]

willametteriveroutlaw · 10-31-2002, 11:22 PM

I guess I never posted my first fish story so here goes:
One Day After deer hunting this fall me and my hunting partner decided to stop down at three rivers to see if we could pick up a couple of summers. With in 20 minutes I had a bright 8 lb hen on the bank. After fishing for a while longer with minimal success I spotted a HUGE Summer sitting in this hole. My first drift through with my lucky pink spinglow and eggs, I got that distinctive tap tap tap. i set the hook and the fish immediately became airborne, doing his best impression of a NBA player at a dunking contest. After about 4 good leaps I heard that sickening SSSSSSNAP. I then watched the steelhead slip right back into a hole right behind a rock. I frantically rummaged through my tackle box looking for another small spinglow. Within a minute I had another rigging tied up. More bait on and another cast at the fish, hoping on the off chance that it might bite again. First drift through, nothing. The next drift though I felt a different tug pull tug. So I set the hook again. The big steelie took another leap almost instantly and to my dismay, my hook was hooked in pink spin glow. I thought for sure this fish was gone, but after 20 minutes of hyperventilating a huge hatchery summer lay at my feet.

Flying Roast Beef · 11-01-2002, 12:23 AM

I'll bite on this one. Growing up in So. California my dad used to take us out in the ocean off of Long Beach. My brother myself and my dad were on fish and Dad had a bonito almost to the boat when out of no where BAM! sealion has it. This is not ten feet from the boat. Dad has two choices, freespool and hope for the best or thumb down and yank. He applies the thumb and up comes this bonito flying right into the boat! I should mention we are in a sixteen foot glastron with an outboard. Well this oceanic peice of fur is ****** now. He comes right up to the boat and is on the surface with at least four feet of his body showing and looking like he is coming in after it! Now this is a big mother! My guess at the time is 500 pounds but in after thought I'd give him at least 350. Big bull fed on So Cal's best. Oh yeah, ever see one of them guys up close? They have one heck of an impressive set of dental work on them too! Well, Dad goes for the pistol (heh it is So. Cal.) I go for the paddle and Bro goes for the gaff. This guys not coming in (capsize) our boat. He must have seen his fate because he growled at us and barked some too then took off. We figured we'd return the favor and found another kelp paddy to continue fishing but I have to say, that rattled us pretty good and to this day I want a season on those ******* things.

skein · 11-01-2002, 07:27 AM

A few years ago we were fishing out of Newport, just outside a little way, trying to entice some lings off the reef. It was one of those flat, calm days you dream about, and we kept noticing fish hitting the surface. They weren't jumping, just dimpling the top, and as we started really paying attention, we discovered they were everywhere, not just the occasional feeder like we had first thought. We didn't have a clue as to what they were or what they were feeding on.

Remember, we were bottom fishing, so everything we had in the tackle box was heavy lead, designed to get down to the bottom, not up on top. I began to rummage around and found an old spinner here or a spoon there, but when I tried them the fish just weren't interested. We needed something heavy enough to cast but light enough to stay near the surface - and it had to look like whatever the fish were feeding on. I think we've all been there.

Finally I pulled a pink hoochie down over a bud's spinner, blade and all, and tossed it out. Bam! In came a black bass about 3 or 4 lbs. Fighting from the surface, he put up a surprisingly strong fight. Back out with the hoochie, bam again. And again.

At this point I handed the rod off to my wife so she could have some fun and started digging though the box for another hoochie and *something* for weight. I found some bell sinkers and slipped the hoochie up the line, put on a couple of the bells, and tied a single hook, then pulled the hoochie back down over the weights. Cast - bam. Cast - bam.

We had other boats circling us watching with binoculars and we could hear them asking each other, "What are they using? I see something red...." Don't you just love it when you finally get to be the "boat."

We finally quit, bringing in enough for a few good meals, but seldom have I had such a good time. It was just about a perfect day and some of the fastest fishing I've ever had. Later, as we asked around, the guys in the know seemed to think they were hitting on molting mole-crabs that were floating to the surface. I guess it happens every year, but seldom is the water glassy enough to see it. I'll tell you, it was toooo much fun!

Skein

fishingfirst · 11-01-2002, 09:53 AM

A few years ago my wife and I joined three other couples on Lake Shasta for a week long house boat trip. I was the only fisherman on the boat so it was next to impossible to get them to stop or even slow down enough for me to fish. Finally one afternoon we put the boat ashore for the night......fishing time for me!!!! I decided to try a little bass fishing, as this was my first time there I had no clue what to use, so I just started walking the bank looking for action. I got out to a point that went out quite a ways into the lake and I could see baitfish (I think they were shad) jumping all over the surface (this bait school was about 100 yards square) and every now and then I would see a bass blast the surface feeding on these fish. I looked in my meager little tackle box and the only thing I could find even close was an old Steelie spoon. So I started casting to the middle of the bait school and every cast I caught fish, they all averaged about four pounds, it was an awesome hour of fishing, at one point I backlashed my reel while casting, my steelie ended up right at my feet, so when I finished untangling my mess, I lifted the rod tip to cast again and a bass hit my lure right at my feet (the water was muddy so you couldn't see more than two feet).

However I did get into trouble with the wife when I got back to the boat. I was telling everyone about how incredible the fishing was, well apparently I should have gone back and let everyone know so that they could enjoy the fishing as well.......YEAH RIGHT! :grin: Why in the world would I give up that kind of action just to share the experience with my wonderful wife. Oops I had forgot about being married! Catching fish was the only thing I was thinking about!

I have since learned the error of my ways, now I go fishing without her! Just kidding she is my favorite fishing partner.

Scott

Paddlefish · 11-01-2002, 10:47 AM

In the 60s my brothers and I and our neighborhood buddies would launch bicycle-propelled fishing expeditions from our Northeast Portland, Hollywood area neighborhood to the Columbia or to the various sloughs scattered between the golf courses and the airport.

We found one small slough -- now totally surrounded by industrial campuses and mini-markets -- where, for just a few weeks each spring we could load up on pan-size brown bullhead catfish. (We'd throw a stringerful into an old style wire handlebar basket, and when we got home a couple hours later the catfish would happily revive in a wading pool or bucket of water. Tough critters.)

One day we'd caught our fill and were exploring new parts of the slough. We came upon a semi-abandoned rod. It's owner, another kid, was somewhere off exploring on his own while his rod did the fishing unattended. We HAD to check his gear

, as we'd been getting constant action. He was fishing a silver Wobl-rite spoon, dangling it motionless below a bobber.

I'd guess that you could fish a motionless silver spoon for the rest of your life without ever catching a bulhead. They're down in that muddy water, with their beady little eyes, using scent to find their lunch.

So we did the only obvious thing: First making sure that the other kid was out of sight, we retrieved his gear, attached three of our catfish to the three prongs of his treble hook, and re-launched the whole rig back out into the slough. :grin:

That poor guy is probably still down there, almost 40 years later, trying to duplicate that feat in front of his camera so that he can write a Sports Afield article about it. :grin:

Threemuch · 11-01-2002, 11:57 PM

It was the CA salmon opener in 1998 aboard the threemuch I, a 1969 Reinell hardtop with a matching 69 Merc 1250. My first boat. March 14 to be exact. We were dragging Herring in RSKs and purple haze hoochies behind hot spots and it was SLOW. Lots of deep water commercial crab gear in the water made trolling interesting. We fouled a pot with the rigger cable. What a mess. Those pots are HEAVY!

About 2pm, with a couple of six pounders for 4 people, we are thinking of giving up. Then a rod starts jumping. My buddy Justin (1/3 owner of the boat) grabs it, and the reel starts to scream. I mean tuna scream. This fish is smoking away from us at warp six. I am thinking holdover salmon world record. Tuna that forgot that tuna season was over. Snagged whale. Then he stops and starts to sulk. Now I am thinking crab pot or some other wierd snag.

For a half hour we could not budge this fish. We were putting all the pressure we thought we could on 20 pound mono. Finally, he starts to come up, and the reel starts to sing again. We chase it, because the spool is looking mighty thin.

We are getting close, and as I follow the line into the water, a tail breaks the surface, about 4' long. Thresher shark! No gaff on board, I scoop 2/3 of it's body into our salmon net and dump him on the deck.

So now there is an 9' thresher (that's not that big, they are half tail) thrashing (threshing?) on the back deck playing ping pong with rods, beer cans, and tackle boxes with all of us clustered up in the front of the boat, looking at each other and the fish. So I finally say, "I guess we better kill it before it destroys the boat. "

So I straddle it, and cut both gill arches with my deck knife. The fish continues to thrash, but now it is thrashing in an inch of blood. The boat is trashed. Tackle and gear and blood everywhere. But the beast was dead.

Good eats, thresher is one fine table shark. It was a longshot landing. The fish was hooked in the toungue, and the plastic sheath on the RSK protected the mono leader from the teeth. Just a baby though, they can weigh over 1000 pounds. Can you say Zing....POW!

Scott B · 11-02-2002, 03:33 AM

Well this isn't by any means as good as the shark feat. But this is one of the best days that I have had. It was the end of November 2000, I was at Clemens park on the N Fork of the Alsea. Just below the bridge. Everyone one says that this water is too fast for steelhead, well as hard headed as I am I cried BS, and to casting I went. Fishing a small corky, yard and a small gob of eggs, my line just stopped with weight on it. Well put pressure on it to try and get it off the bottom, but no fish on. Got the fish to shore and it had a seal scraped on it so I let it go, re-bait and the same thing line just stopped. Pull up and fish on, a native so it goes back, re-bait, same thing. Mind you this is all happening with in a half hour, re-bait, stop, pull up fish on, oh fish off. Well I didn't take that many eggs so with a couple of gobs left I re-bait and my line stops gets pressure and then fish on again. Well I get this fish to shore and low and behold its the first fish I started the day with and the last fish that I ended the day with, so I brought it home. Hatchery fish of course. All in all hooked 5 landed 4 brought home 1. Sounds about normal.

Scott B · 11-02-2002, 03:34 AM

Oh by the way. I love winter steelhead fishing. Can't wait for them to hit our neck of the woods.

Corkie Monster · 11-02-2002, 09:01 AM

Here is my first fish story. No one asked me to tell one when I signed up. This is about the only one I can think of right now. The day I hooked a Wale.
I was about 6 yrs. old at the time and fishing with my brother and parents off of Point Defieance peer in the Sound. We went there all the time to fish. Well one day while fishing for the usual, (flounder and what ever else will bite) I had my rod leaning against the hand rail. All of a sudden my drag went crazy. Line was stripping out fast. As a little kid seeing this and always in competition with my brother I ran for my pole and picked it up. I was feeling proud cuase I had a big fish. It was all over when all of a sudden a wale surfaces and blows it's spout. I saw my fishing line attatched to it's back and screamed. threw my rod in the water and ran for my life. My mother eventually talked me back to the end of the peer and started to fish again. Too many jaws movies I guess.

fishotom · 11-02-2002, 10:14 AM

I didn’t submit a fishing story on my first post, but since I am still a fry, I am hoping Jen will not demote me to 4 inch northern pikeminnow for making this my first story. It was the fall of ’67 or ’68, I can’t remember which, I was living in Hoquiam, WA after graduating from WSU in the spring of ’66 (yes, I am an old fart) and working at a local paper company. At that time the Hump (the Humptulips River, the Aberdeen – Hoquiam locals always just called it the Hump) had a good run of kings (the locals never called them chinook, always kings), and some of these fish ran very very large. I had gotten out of bed at oh-dark-thirty on a weekend morning and arrived at the river at oh-dark-forty-five. I was fishing by myself, from the bank. The drift was three-quarters of the way across the river, probably 40 or 50 yards, and I was throwing the standard setup – large spin-n-glo (clown, I think) with a surgical tubing / pencil lead dropper off a three-way swivel. The spin-n-glo was tipped with a large glob of eggs. The river was high and just a little too brown, but fishable. There were a couple of guys bank fishing across the river, closer to the preferred drift, and a drift boat anchored upstream about 100 yards or so. I was using a Wright & McGill 9 foot fiberglass rod with a very limber tip and a D.A.M. Quick 220 spinning reel. I had purchased these years earlier for steelhead fishing on the Washougal (I grew up in Camas). I still have both, and use the reel on my steelhead bobber and jig rod. On about the tenth cast, the lead stopped tapping the bottom and I lifted the rod tip. Snag, I thought. Then the snag moved, just a little, upstream. I reared back and set the hook hard. Nothing, just a tight line. I put as much pressure as I dared on whatever it was, and felt nothing more than a slight movement upstream and little toward me. I had moved whatever it was a few feet, so I just continued to do the same, as much pulling as I thought was reasonable, then reel down and start all over again. No runs, no head shakes, no jumps, nothing except a mystery on the end of my line slowly working its way toward me and into shallower water. Finally the object got to within about 15 or 20 feet of the edge of the river where I was standing. That’s when it became obvious it was a fish. The fish came to the surface for the first time in about 3 to 4 feet of water. The spin-n-glo looked tiny in a giant mouth. The dorsal fin was right were I thought the tail should be. The tail looked to be about 20 inches across and about 2 feet downstream of the dorsal fin. This fish had to be 5 feet long. It was a salmon, and I remember just a little reddish tint to its side. It was absolutely huge. Apparently all the tugging I had done to get it to my side of the river was just a minor annoyance to this fish. Anyway, just after I had a good look at this monster, apparently he or she gained a good sense of what was happening, rolled on the surface once, and took off downstream like a runnaway freight train. Zip-zip-zip! went the Quick, the rod bent from vertical to horizontal, the butt section braced on my chest. I could only follow downstream about ten or fifteen steps because of overhanging trees and bushes. Line was screaming off the Quick. The fish was heading for the ocean, still no more than 20 feet from the bank. The fish was not stopping and not turning. I had no idea what to do next. Zip-zip-zip went the Quick, zip-zip-zip………ping! The fish was gone and so was more than half the line from my reel. I looked around at the fishermen on the opposite bank and in the drift boat. They had all stopped fishing and were in absolute awe of what had just happened. I got a few “too bad” comments and arms spread wide apart, indicating the size of the lost monster. After my hands stopped shaking, I re-tied, but so much line was gone I could no longer cast far enough to reach fish holding water. I went home with a memory that will last from that day until the day I die. If I fish another 30 years, I don’t believe I will ever hook another fish that large.
FisHoTom

Mad Mikey · 11-02-2002, 02:24 PM

Wislon river, about ten years ago. "The unluckiest Steelhead".......

I was in a line of guys at the Guide shop drift and a guy above hooks a nice little buck. No big deal til he landed it and started yelling. We ran up to see what was the deal and to this day, would not have believed it unless I had seen it myself.
The fish had broken someone else off previously and still had a hook/corky/leader/swivel and weight attached. The guy who caught it hooked the EYE of the swivel attached to the other leader.
No one could figger out if that was a truly fair-hooked fish, but since it was a hatchery fish no one seemed to care so he went home with dinner and a heckuva tale.
This really happened, I swear!

big guy · 11-02-2002, 07:20 PM

I was tossing a spinner in a large pool at the end of a tailout. the water had a slight backeddie and a submerged tree, boom I hooked up. after a short while the line became hooked on a branch of the tree and the line broke. I had almost finished retieing when I looked up and saw the fish floating belly upriding the backeddie right to me. the spinner had pinned its mouth shut and it could not breathe, got the spinner back the lucky way. p.s. went out and bought a lottery ticket.