One time I...

Shouldn't this be in the OT?

...was fishing for perch with a 1/32oz minifoo tipped with a Gulp Alive Minnow and 4lb test on a 5ft lightning rod. I was running my bait under a slip bobber. I was watching the drift and my bobber just disappeared. GONE. I set the hook, knowing that there would be no perch on the end of it. I was right. My drag took off like I'd snagged a jet ski. The fish came awfully close to spooling me. I had to pull anchor and chase the fish. When I finally got it to the boat, I couldn't believe my eyes. I landed a 14lb channel cat on my perch rig! LOL! That was one of the best fights I've ever had. It's always nice to get a suprise like that.

One time I was fighting a big king on the salmon river in Pulaski,and I needed to turn the stubborn fish so idid not lose him in the rapids. Needless to say I turned him by holding the line with my hand and walking up stream hard. I ended up getting him but not before he took off on another drag peelin run and burnt right through my fingers with the line. Had to go to drug store for band aids but all they had wAs sponge bob ones so I wore Em. All in all totally worth it.

. . . was fishing Lower Twin Lakes in Westmoreland County with my dad.  'Bout 18 years ago.  We had rented a peddle boat to troll spinners and Hus Lures for trout.  He had what he thought was a snag, and handed me the rod to see if I could get it loose. 
 
Wasn't a snag.  We got dragged around the lake for a good 20 minutes, as I fought the beast as carefully as I could.  As I knew the end of my line was getting closer, suddenly an ultralight spinning combo surfaced!  I grabbed the rod, and realized the beast was on the ultralight.
 
Another 20 minutes of tug of war all around the lake.  Closer, closer, closer.  The hook came shooting out of the water, and the beast returned to the murky depths without me ever getting to see what it was. 

rsquared

. . . was fishing Lower Twin Lakes in Westmoreland County with my dad.  'Bout 18 years ago.  We had rented a peddle boat to troll spinners and Hus Lures for trout.  He had what he thought was a snag, and handed me the rod to see if I could get it loose. 

Wasn't a snag.  We got dragged around the lake for a good 20 minutes, as I fought the beast as carefully as I could.  As I knew the end of my line was getting closer, suddenly an ultralight spinning combo surfaced!  I grabbed the rod, and realized the beast was on the ultralight.

Another 20 minutes of tug of war all around the lake.  Closer, closer, closer.  The hook came shooting out of the water, and the beast returned to the murky depths without me ever getting to see what it was. 

 
Maybe a bass rod? 

....had been fishing for steelhead for 1 hour , I knew the water was going to rise cause of the recent rains. Buddy of mine met up with me but 30 minutes later where we were standing on non flowing ground there was 8 inches of flowing water now. While standing there I thought some debris hit me in the ankle but it hit me on the downside of the current. I looked down and it was a steelhead passing by where once there was no water flow. Since the water was now unfishable for a rod and reel I handed  my friend the rod and said " I dont need no stinking pole" to catch these fish. There were literally fish swimming up stream all over where we were standing. So I positioned my self to grab one swimming by. 5 minutes later I saw one and reached down with both hands to grab it up. Low and behold I snatched one up that would have swam right between my legs. If I can find the original thread from here I will link it below. tru story...
 
Found the original thread but the pics have been deleted. After reading it again I took some flack for doing what I did but if you read the whole thread ..........well you'll get it .
 
http://forums.fishusa.com...nking+pole&mpage=2

deetz as i said at the time, that's pretty cool u were able to catch one... iw woulda tried it too!
 
slab-good idea for a thread.  
 
one time i....was fishing the allegheny river in venango county after midnight.  20 lb spiderwire, one small splitshot and a nightcrawler.  Catchin walleye and bass.  Got a great fire goin.  mid 60's perfect temp, good beer, good company.  All of a sudden somethin grabs on!  I fought it for about 20 minutes, it got stuck under a big boulder, and 10 minutes later we pulled it out from the rock.  Then another 25 minute battle, and i landed it.  I have no idea how big, but it was at least 3 feet long and at least 25-30 pounds.  I was a teenager at the time and the look on my face is absolutely genuine-i had never seen a  catfish like this.  I was shaking!   Ill try to find the other pic where im holding it horizontally.  

Amazing stories! This is exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you. Keep them coming! Post as many as you can think of.

...was fishing at a local lake and suddenly got that, "I'm gonna poop myself" feeling. We pulled the boat up to a big boulder. It was the only place on the shore that wasn't covered with poison ivy. I climbed atop the rock, dropped my shorts and let 'er go. Ever seen those woodpeckers that live in holes in trees and shoot poop about twenty feet from the tree? Yeah. That was me. Well, I finished up and pulled my britches up, looked around, and saw a dude in a green (camo) kayak paddling like Hell away from me down the shoreline! I don't know how close he was when the wind blew and the poop flew, but I knew he was getting the Hell outta Dodge in a hurry! My guts hurt for two days from laughing over that one.

Fishing Erie(PI) in a boat with my wife, throwing sticks and catching a few northerns. Landing one northern about 34 inch I reached down and picked up the fish and turned to show it to my wife only to have the fish slip out of my left hand and drop,  driving two hooks of the free treble hook into my wrist on the inside of my arm.  With some help from my wife I managed to release the fish and used a pair of side cutters to cut the hooks from the plug. A trip to the hospital followed to have the hooks removed because they were right in the tendon/vein area of the wrist. The attending doctor said I was the third "hooked"  person he worked on that day.

Fishing at a small flood control dam(100 acre) near where I live for bass one day with worms I thought I was snagged. Kept messing around trying to free it and was about to pull and break the line when somrthing pulled back. A few seconds later and game on when the critter took off and started ripping my 8 pound test line quite rapidly. After a bit of give and take I was able to put my hand into the mouth of a 27 pound flathead. Took him to a local bait shop, took pictures, weighed and measured it, then returned it to the original water where caught. Sent the information in to the fish comm. and received an "Angler Award " certificate which still hangs in my office today. I needed several band -aids for the backs of my fingers where they were rubbed raw from carrying it one handed back to the car. 

A few years ago I started making my own crank baits. It was a slow learning process with allot of fugly scrap wood was the main result. It did end up with a couple decent looking small deep diving cranks that I thought would be great for trolling for crappie. The first time my dad and I took the boat out for crappie I took them with me only to find the water was too high and the launch was closed. We decided to fish the outflow for a couple hours since we were already there. Fishing was poor as the water was really ripping. We fished for a bit and my dad shouted over that he thought he'd had seen a musky a couple minutes ago. So I went over to the area he had seen it with my new crappie lure and sure as $h!t second cast with the lure swinging through heavy current and diving hard the muskie came flying out from under a log right under my feet and smashed the tiny crank bait. A few jumps and a blistering up current run and my 4lb line broke. that was the first muskie i had ever seen let alone hooked. Never did catch a crappie on that lure.

Stillhead




P.S.   You should have known you're too dang old to bring them in backwards anymore!! 

 
I can barely bring 'em in frontwards....damyoo
 
 
 
 
fishing for a mess of  bluegills on July 4th in my brand new float tube maiden voyage  on a 10 acre pond ...
I make a cast and as soon as it hit the water the float dunked.
Set the hook and start reeling...the fish put up little to no fight as I reeled .
when it got close enough to see it, i saw it was HUGE bass...and then it started fighting HARD.
4 pound test and tiny jig I landed the hog ...she measured a full 25"long and was fat.
No scale to weigh her, but i'd estimate an easy 9 pound'r
 
I already had 23" 7 pound'r on wall , so I sent her on her way back to the coontail from whence she came
 
 
..L.T.A.

We were drift fishing for walleye with weighted crawler rigs off shades beach after finding zero perch. I thought I had snagged bottom or the anchor rope. As I was attempting to break it off, I felt it's head shake. Forty minutes later I landed this guy. BTW he bend the net handle. He might have been  the reason the perch weren't there.
 

 
I've posted this before, but it fit the thread so here it is again. Any of you cat fishing guys have any idea to this fishes weight? We didn't have a scale.

slabdaddy

That's a big bass duud. Nice.

 
Biggest I've caught, Slab.
I was bass fanatic for years ...fished pret'near every evening for 6-7  years .
(it was my therapy when i quit drinking in '92)
 
Had permission to fish a dozen or more   local private ponds .
Here's a cool story about the one on the wall of my den/office ;
 
When i started bass fishing, I figured  to  kill and mount the first 5+ pound'r
I had caught countless 3-4 pound'rs before i landed my first hog...which I decided to release anyway.
many  dozens of 5 pnd  hogs came and went back  in the following years ...still none for the wall.
 
Some years ago I was chucking a spinner bait beyond some bluegill redds when POW..a big'un munched my offering .
I landed it and saw she was a beaut ...didn't have a scale, but knew from years of weighing and measuring  she was well over 5 pnd..so I gave some serious thought to bonking her for the wall.
I decided to let her go....and immediately regretted it...thinking I just let the wall hanger I've chasing for years go.
 
The very next fish I caught 10 minutes latter was a near carbon copy in length, but with  larger head and girth .
I didn't think twice....
 
23" 7.2 pounds
 
 
 

 
 
 
..L.T.A.