Fish stories,etc.

[BrokenWrench]

Here is the challenge, who can post the biggist fish story that they can back up with pictures for all here to see and judge.

Me? I need some time to figure out which picture tells the best story.

Who's going to be first?

[leelindsay]

Well you guys up north left the freezer door open and it has been cold here but the wife and I decided to get out anyways. My brother and his wife went with us instead of taking his boat. It was 34* and supposed to be calm seas, but the winds did not lay down and kept the seas churned up. We found a tempture break of 66-69 and decided to throw out some baits. We had only managed to get 3 of the 4 lines out when all of a suden, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz my sister in law jumped on the Tiagra 30 and tried to start reeling not knowing how to set the drag, I reached over and pushed the drag up to the stop and this guy was not slowing down. I then pushed the button and hammered the drag to full not even slowing this dude down. At that time I knew we had a big wahoo so out of the excitement I managed to relieve my sister-in-law from her rod to fight the fish. It made several big runs and finally got it to the boat. Everyone did a great job, my wife driving the boat and keeping the fish quartered off the back, my brother for clearing the lines and gaffing the fish, and my-sister-law for not pushing my ass in after taking the rod from her. And boy will I hear about this one for a while! "Oh, just push her out of the way!" "Oh, you stole her fish" on and on and on all day!!! and for days to come I'm sure.

My Sister in law. I wonder if she is thinking I might look good hanging from that scale?

[north coast]

Ok, I don't have pics, but here's an absolutely true story that I posted on another site a couple years ago.It was cool enough that I thought it was worth posting again:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't usually post what I caught, but this is an exception.you'll see why.

Fairly slow morning on the bank, arrived at 5:00,headed off away from the crowd about 8:30 to deeper water. I start to see what turned out to be a smokin' 6 hour, on and off surface feed.First I've seen this year.I pulled a couple hooks, had a bunch of fish boil on, smash, chase,etc.. the homemade metal I was throwing. clearly saw three fish chasing it on 1 cast.There were some kahuna's mixed in. I saw some that went well over 100. I finally get tight and right away I know I've got a big fish.

Fast forward 1 1/2 hours .I hooked this fish at 10:30, it's now noon. My buddy is sitting along side, 10 feet away, in his boat, watching the fight.he knows it's a big fish and he wants to see it.I'm in the bow and the fish is starting to do his circles.I can taste the sushi. My buddy is ordering which steaks he's going get. I look over the gunwale, I can see the fish. All of a sudden I can see something else too. A huge white shadow appears, heading strait for my fish! I think ,Shark! No,it's not going to chase my tuna,you gotta be kidding me! Yup,sure enough,He heads right up and EATS MY FRIGGIN TUNA-- WTF !My buddy yells "hey do you see that, it's a great white! I yell, Yea I know he's got my friggin tuna. This thing was 20' if he was a foot!He was right under my boat and I saw him as clear as I see my feet. I thought, great white before my buddy even said it.

POP! game over .I stood there with my jaw dropped,P!ssed and awed at the same time. DID THAT REALLY JUST HAPPEN ? Of all the way's I can think of to lose a big fish this really wasn't one of them. what are the odds?oh well . maybe I can put one in the boat tomorrow.

[BrokenWrench]

Nice Wahoo there ReelPlumber, Congrats!

BTW, just tell your Sis in Law that she hooked it and you reeled it in, truly a joint effort!

How much did that bad boy weigh ???

[leelindsay]

Nice Wahoo there ReelPlumber, Congrats!

BTW, just tell your Sis in Law that she hooked it and you reeled it in, truly a joint effort!

How much did that bad boy weigh ???

Scale said 40# but i thought 50. But things are getting heavier than they used to be.

[marlinchaser]

Hey, that thing looks as good here as on the RBO site!!

Heck Lee, you got me hooked on another forum. Thanks a bunch.

[jamisjockey]

When I was a young Marine I was stationed in Yuma, AZ. There turned out to be exceptional fishing along the lower Colorado River. Bass, bluegill, crappie, carp and catfish in the small lakes and canals, as well as the main stem of the river itself.

Anyways, we get this new Sgt from Louisiana. He had a bassboat, a million lures and about 30 rods and reels. Seemed to me like he took all of it out on the boat, too. Me, I had a Tube, 3 or 4 good fishing rods, and usually got by with a couple small plano boxes and a bag or two of plastics.

My favored rig was a light spinning outfit with 8lb test. After a trip out with him on his boat once, he told me I'd never catch a big fish with that outfit, and that the whole tubin' thing was a joke.

Yeah, okay.

What I didn't tell him about was a lesser known spot. You couldn't get a boat into it, maybe a small pond boat. It was surrounded almost entirely by thick brush and cactus. The place we launched 'toons from had a 4' drop off, occassionaly someone would drop a johnboat in that way, but it was scary to watch them turn the trailer 90* and then see it drop 4'.....

Anyways, the spawn came prety early out there. About March IIRC. I was out and nailing fish in the 4-6lb range, which was normal for this spot. Out in the middle on a shallow hump, I put my 4" worm into a pocket and worked it back. Line went slack. Started reeling, it stayed slack. Reeled fast, tight, set the hook. 5 minutes later, afer getting splashed and yanked around I was lipping a big fish.

Zebco scale called it 12lb, 3oz.

Couple days later I tell the sgt about it. "######, you're overestimating the fish...."

Until I showed him this.....

[thehonkeykat]

Fishermen’ luck

We were in Asanvari, Island of Maewo, Vanuau, we had come for the cold beer at the yacht club and resort. As an added bonus we could order meals at the yacht club. After 2 weeks of natives in thatch huts and stores that only sold sugar, rice, and canned meats, this really sounded good. Wrong. The chief used the yacht club as his meeting place, he and other tribe members had moved into the resort, not a beer to be had, cold or otherwise. The chief said his son was a chef and could cook dinner for us. That sounded good until we saw the kitchen.

As a group we were also out of fish, no-one had caught anything last 2 or 3 passages. Kip and I decided to go offshore trolling in the dink, Tom said he was going to rest.

About 1 hour later and maybe ½ mile off shore, but still in the protection of the cove, I had a strike, a large marlin cleared the water and started tail walking, jumping, spinning and gray hounding. Best show I have ever seen, and really awesome when he is bigger than the boat. After 15 or 20 minutes he was still on and we began to wonder, what next? Maybe with the flying gaff we would have a chance?? How to get it?? We started leading the fish toward home, after about a ¼ mile we could plainly see boats and could see Tom and Suzie in their dink. Kip took off his shirt and waved it, Tom headed our way. This is looking good, like leading your dog home.

As Tom pulls up the line goes slack, Tom asks what we want, we tell him we had a marlin, he says “right”, we say “really, he just got off”. “Right” says tom, “a Marlin”. I’m continuing to reel in line as I say “Yes Tom, we had a Marlin on, but the hook pulled as you came up”. At that time I see a flash and some strips at the lure I’m reeling in and I shout “Wahoo” as the line peels from the reel. Tom says “I thought you said Marlin”? This was really getting confusing and moving fast.

Now a Marlin in a dink is waaaaaay out, but a 50# Wahoo in a blow up boat ain’t no picnic. Kip gaffed the fish, then put a rope on his tail so we could hold him on the outside of the dink until we felt he was really really dead. Then we put him in the dink, still being careful of toes and other appendages.

Kip and I took the Wahoo to Special Blend to filet, Tom ran off to get his rod. Before we finished with our Wahoo, Tom came racing in grinning. He had what looked the twin of ours. He got it in by himself with no gaff. Somehow Tom and blow up boat survived.

Upon careful examination, the Captain of the boat we were on determined that my Wahoo was ever so slightly larger than Toms’.

The really lucky part was that the 300#+ Marlin got off before we got the flying gaff.

Jim