The one that got away

Share your story of the one that got away! We all have likely plenty of examples!

I caught about a 6# bass, weighed on our old scale, when I was a kid. That was exciting then 2 minutes later, I hooked another whopper. I did my best with my Zebco reel but the string wrapped around the reel handle and the fish broke off. I was so excited about the first one, I couldn't be upset about the second one. I get home and show my folks this huge bass. They were really excited and then I said, I know everyone says this but you should have seen the one that got away. Dad laughed but Mom thought I was full of crap. I was using whole green grasshopper. The second, bigger one came on a grasshopper that had the head bitten off by a small bass I had just caught. 

I too have fished Georgian Bay, out of POINT AU BERIL.   My son and I were in a shallow bay with me tossing a large buck tail and my son a big gray MUDPUPPY.   We saw several large fish surfacing so my son tossed his bait and immediately had a good hookup.   After a couple of minutes we could see the long outline and the kid was shaking like a leaf.  It rolled buy the side of the boat and shook off the lure as we watched the H U G E   GAR swim off.   Too bad that we saw what it was because that would have been some story to tell about the huge musky that got away.lol.     A very disappointing trip though as we caught about 20 smallies and a bunch of perch in 2 weeks.   Too much water for inexperienced fishermen without a guide.    CARPIO 

Suspend.....fishing Georgian Bay is BIG fish water. I'm jealous. 

I had an incredible hookset (boat rocker) and immediate run, then huge boil/surface head shake, then gone. Huge fish. This was on Eagle Lake in ON. Also on Eagle, an absolute giant followed a top water right to the boat and one full follow, then drifted away. I've caught fish up to 53" on the 8, and this one absolutely dwarfed the 53.

Here's another one that came to my mind.  The year was 1993 and one of my coworkers and I made plans to fish muskies in the Georgian Bay area for a week.  Before we left, my friend tied up some special purpose, very large weight forward bucktails with twin fluted blades. We pre-tested these to be sure the blades would spin on the drop.  We also knew what the relative fall rate was in the water column.

After we reached our destination and unpacked everything, we headed out to our 1st spot of the trip.  It looked like a classic, shallow Canadian shield type of spot; i.e. small island surrounded by boulders, rocks and scattered weeds.  We, however, did not stop there to fish this area by the "textbook."  We stopped the boat well short of the shallow water "classic" stuff.  The island had a secondary break where water in the 12-15 ft depth dropped off to a 45 ft deep plateau.  The 45 ft deep shelf then plunged to a deep water basin at 130 ft.  Just off the 45 ft to 130 ft transition, we marked several large muskies related to a school of whitefish.  "They are here."  I fished a modified crankbait, my buddy threw the weight forward bucktail, allowing it to sink straight down for "x" seconds before the retrieve.  About the 5th cast of the morning, the boat shuttered on a hookset and a loud "got a big one!!!" rang out.  The rod was bent over significantly and some drag got pulled out.  After about 20 seconds...."holy XJFGSF! it got off!!"  When the bucktail got back to the boat, it was bent in a 120 degree angle and the rear 7-0 treble was bent.  Don't know how big that musky was, but the largest we hooked and got to the boat on that trip was ~54".

This thread got me thinking.  Instead of the typical end of the year "best catches" video, I decided to put together a video of ones that got away.  

Here you go.  I hope you enjoy it.  I sure didn't!

Fly in trip, Ontario, about 30 years ago.  My fishing partner and I were catching 18-20" walleye like they were a school of panfish.

I was pulling in a walleye, it was staying at bottom.  All of a sudden, the line jerks hard sideways.  I get up to boat, walleye is in the mouth of a northern, and it looks tiny in its mouth.  I opened bail, let northern run with it, it ended up dropping walleye.  I measured walleye, it was 19.5 "

We kept casting until dark.  Our group checked on us because they were concerned.  We were able to raise northern a few times, but it wouldn't strike.  We threw every bait we had at her.

I'm not sure how big she was, but I'm pretty sure I'll never see one that big again.  Man, that was most exciting fishing experience ever.

I’m not excited to share this but I lost another good fish. I had a red coho on.  It was a good one it jumped a couple times and then I lost it real close to me.

SM - That’s quite a story and I’m glad you got your rod and reel back. I recently bought a new Lund and it came with a couple of the trac mounts. I looked into getting a few more to have 6 setups for trolling, but since we troll for both Walleye and Musky I wasn’t comfortable with that setup. I ended up fabricating my own using heavier HDPE plastic and centering the rod holder over the trac. The factory mounts work fine for trolling baits for Walleye, but anything bigger puts too much strain on the unsupported bottom of the mount. With the cost of quality Musky equipment, I didn’t want risk a failure.

That’s a good story SM.

Here is a very recent one....actually from earlier today, 10-19-21.

I was fishing muskies on the big lake and it was 5 minutes prior to the peak of the major.  I was using a crankbait that was running mid-way down into the water column depth I was fishing in.  As I was intently watching the boards, one of them violently got pulled toward the center and then under, the rod bent over and the drag zipped briefly....then the Lund Sport Track mount bracket that the rod holder was mounted to self destructed and my 8.5 ft rod and reel combo got ripped from the boat, landing 10 ft behind the transom.  I watched it sink out of sight.

We quickly reeled up the other 5 set ups and went back after the board setup that the big fish hit.  We caught up to it and it was being towed by the musky.  I grabbed the line connected to the fish and confirmed that there was a big fish still attached (but I wasn't going to try and hand fight that in).  We grabbed the other end of the line and started pulling in all of the line between my rod/reel and the board.  We ended up with a big pile of 80lb braid on the deck, but got the rod/reel combo back in the boat.  Then went to retrieve the fish, but in all of our commotion trying to retrieve the rod, the fish was able to get rid of the lure.

I have caught several upper 30 lb to 40+ lb muskies on the set up we had out today with no issues.  Today's fish was very large.  I am glad I got my equipment back and the fish was not harmed.  

Maybe 8yrs ago, Father-in-Law and I went fishing on Powers Lake in SE Wisconsin. We’re on east side in a little bay doing weed and Lilly Pad edges for bass. He’s on the front deck, and I’m fishing rear. Our backs are facing each other. All the sudden, I hear a small splash and I have a 24” Pike that just slapped itself against my calf’s! I thought my FIL flipped it into the boat and accidentally nailed me. His back was still facing me and he was still busy fishin! I started laughing out loud, and he turned and thought I caught it!
The only reason I know it was 24” is because 26” is a keeper and I wanted to mount it. That would be good fishing stories at living room bar!
A friend who is an outdoors expert/guide type said he has ”Heard”, that Pike do a thing rarely called Porpoising. Where they will use their tail fin to keep their front half above water momentarily. He also said nobody really knows why they do it, and is rarely seen.
Funny thing about a lot of these stories is you wonder if anybody believes you!?! Lol Her FIL is still alive as witness!! Lol

Gosh there's too many to count at this point but here's the highlight, (or lowlight), of 2021 so far. My buddies and I were on a hot pike bite with lots of fish in the low to upper 30's each trip and three breaking the 40 inch mark which is pretty solid for inland Wisconsin waters. Anywho, one afternoon I set the hook into the biggest northern I've seen in 10 years! My 10" jerkbait was completely engulfed. After a quick battle my buddy scooped her up into my muskie net and the celebration commenced. While unhooking the fish I remarked to him about how I only seem to get my biggest pike while I'm fishing alone so I always have to settle for net pics since I'm a catch and release guy, and how great it was going to be to finally get some nice pics. Right after lowering the fish back into the bag so she could get some oxygen, the sucker rod goes off and here we are with another double. No big deal right? Next thing I know, Jumbino goes bonkers in the net and puts a cat sized hole through my bag and escapes without photographic documentation... I don't think she was my PR but damn was that a nice fish... Certainly the biggest I've put in the bag since the holy 2011 season. Realistically thinking that she was around 44" and FAT. Moral of the story, don't let your net bag go too long before replacing it.

Great vid Tiefsa!

I was fishing in the Milwaukee River with a crankbait trying to catch some nice smallmouth.  I hooked up with a really nice pike instead.  My buddy was fishing with me and he had a net.  I led the pike to his net, and it was in, but then it wasn't!  The crankbait hooked onto the net. The pike was a little bigger than the net and flopped out. I've never really targeted big pike, so I can't say exactly how large it was but we both got a good look at it.  I'd say it was around 3 feet.  Here's the video proof (towards the end of the video)

While fishing the K/D salmon tournament this year the wire dipsy took off. Had a F/Fly combo on it. As soon as it hit knew it was a big fish just by how much line peeled off on the first run. I always grab the pole and hand it off to whoever I am fishing with. Before I handed it off the fish had already taken more line out than has ever been off that reel before. I have had that pole for at least 15 yrs and it has accounted for a lot of nice fish.With a fish like that I start clearing the other poles and will clear them all and shut motor off and fight the fish. Doing this is then like you hooked up casting vs all the fight out the back of the boat.I get a big kick out of fighting them that way. After about ten minutes I saw the pole suddenly go limb. If you ever caught a fish on wire you know you feel every thing the fish does. My buddy said he could feel it shaking its head right before it went limb. Have heard they can bite you off but in all my years never had it happen. I run 22 inch lead from flasher to fly and when reeled in had about 20 inches off  line, and that is 40lb test. The K/D pays 10000.00 dollars for the biggest fish for the week but pays down at least 125 places. It may not have been the winner but for sure would have been in the money. That one will be, what if, for the rest of my years out there.Bigger than any of these pictured for sure