Conference wahoo::fishing

    This is more like the one I WISH got away....
    
    While muskie fishing in the Land of Lakes region in Wisconsin I
    saw a 50lb+ muskie gobble up a loon as it floated by my boat!
    I nearly passed out. It scared the daylights out of me. I could
    not get my wife to swim in that lake the entire week. She was in
    the the boat when it happened......
                                              NIGHTCRAWLER~~~~~~~~~~

    I believe it! re. .1...
    
    the last issue of In-Fisherman had a bunch of stories on monster
    pike/muskie...and the largest on record was caught in Europe weighing
    55lbs...
    there was a picture of the guy holding(struggling it) up...and also
    a photo comparing a 10lber,and the 55lber...what a difference...

    Well the one that got away wasn't mine but my brothers. Two weeks
    ago we were out at Quabbin fishing for lake trout using lead core 
    with 15 colors out. My brother hooked what we thought to be a big 
    laker. Turns out as the fish surfaced it was a big salmon. The 
    problem right away is that when using a shiner rig for lake trout 
    we use a small hook and my brother knew it wasn't hooked well. 
    I used a medium size trout net we had to try and land him. I reached 
    over with the net and the fish went head first into the net, but 
    as I picked him up he was to big for the net and he plopped out, 
    catching the hook in the net as he did so, thereby freeing himself. 
    I waited for an oar to come across the back of my head as we watched 
    that beauty get away.

    Jim
    

Last week we were on vacation up to Winnepesaukee, on Paugus Bay. The
smallmouth fishing was lousy for most of the week, but began to pick up
towards the end. I was out alone in the canoe one morning, finally
enjoying a little luck, having caught and released a few already that day
(1-2 pounders, I guess) when I hooked what looked (and fought) like a
monster. When he finally jumped, I could see it was HUGE, about 3X the
size of anything I'd caught so far that week! Once that happened, I lost
all reason, and when I got that beauty up to the canoe, I made the dumb
mistake of trying to lip him instead of using the net - and I almost, but
not quite, succeeded. As I was pulling him out by the line and reaching
for him, he gave a couple of big shakes, snapped the 8lb test line, and
was gone in a second - and left ME shaking. To make matters worse, while
I was tying on another lure to try for him again (fat chance, huh?) he
put on stunning display of piscatorial gymnastics not 15 feet away,
trying to shake the lure he snapped off my line... 

Oh well, at least I know where he lives... 

Ed (sadder but wiser) 

    Last February I was ice fishing at Lake Mattawa in Orange, Mass.
    I had five traps set up, two with shiners, two with worms, and one
    with a mallow/egg combo. Well, nothing much was happening when finally
    I got a flag on one of the shiner rigs.
    
    I usually just casually stroll to the trap so that whatever's on
    the line will have time to get firmly hooked. There was about 150
    yds of 4 lb test on the spool. By the time I get to the trap, all
    except 10 yds remained on the spool! I pulled up the trap and gingerly
    tugged on the line. The weight on the other end was clearly hefty,
    well over a ten pound something. Ater about ten minutes of give
    -and-take (during which I thought the fish was solidly hooked) I
    suddenly felt the line (and my spirits) go slack.  I pulled up the
    line and the hook had not broken off but the shiner was gone. 
    
    I'll never know what "it" was, as I despondently decided to call
    it a day.

    Back when I was about 17 years old, my father and I were fishing
    the south river in Conway Mass. It was spring and the water was
    fast and muddy. We were out for trout but hadn't got much because
    of the water conditions. After a few hours of fishing with limited
    success we worked are way down to a large pool where the current
    had a chance to smooth out. The side we were fishing on had a fairly
    steep bank that was consisted of pure ledge outcropping. We both
    sat down on the rocks, through out lines into the coco colored water
    and started into mom's packed lunch. When I was about 1/2 way through
    my sandwich when my pole, which was lying next to me on the rock,
    had started sliding toward the water. I dropped the tasty treat
    and reached for my pole before it was pulled into the pool below.
    I set the hook and the battle was on. Until now the largest trout
    I had ever seen taken out of this section of the river was an 18"
    rainbow, most fish were around a foot or so. Well the battle went
    on for what seemed like an hour although i'm sure it was not more
    then 5 minutes. During this clash of the titans (alittle fisherman
    exaggeration) I managed to work the brute to within a few feet of
    the rock bank, only to have him take line again. Each time I would
    strain to get a clear look at it but because of the poor water clarity,
    all I could see was a shadowy flash. By this time my father was
    getting more excited then I think I was. I can still hear him shouting
    commands; Play'em now Play'em, don't horse him in or you'll loose'em!
    Finally the fish did tire, an I was able to get him close enough
    to the bank to a spot where my father could work his way down the
    rock and net the fish. My dad had brought your standard $2 trout
    net, that had worked fine for all the years we had been fishing
    together but, this time the $2 net had a $5 fish to secure and I
    stood there hoping that he could some how manage the netting task.
    While staring at the sizeable fishing coasting somewhat exhausted
    in the slower current next to the bank, I could see that he was
    a brown trout. Probably the senior citizen of that section of the
    river. Slowly my father approached the fish with what appeared to
    be a bait net. With alittle skill and a lot of luck my dad somehow
    managed to get the large brown into the net. The fish was so large
    that his head stuck out beyond the net's rim on one side, while
    his body sank into the mesh and his tail jutted out beyond the net's
    opposite side. The fish was so large that my dad had to keep his
    hand pushing down on the body inorder to keep him in the net. I
    can still see the smile on his face as he turned and showed me the
    beauti. After the fish had been netted the slack on the line must
    of allowed the hook to fall out of the fishes mouth because when
    my father turned to work his way up the bank with one hand holding
    the handle of the net and the other pushing down on the browns side,
    he slipped on the rocks and I almost died as I watched the now unhooked
    trout spring out of the net, bounce off the rock ledge and back
    into the stream. We estimated that the brown would of went somewhere
    in the 22"+ category, weighing about 3,1/2 to 4 pounds. Even tho
    I have since caught many other trout which were larger then the
    the brown lost on that day, I will never forget the excitment and
    memory of the fish.

    
    Almost a year ago to this date a sad "one that got away scenario
    took place about 14 miles off the Jersey Cape.  My wife and I were
    out for some light tackle shark fishing, and things were pretty slow.
    We had one Brown Shark about 75# come to gaff and that was it for
    a few hours of dunking bait and endless chumming.  My wife was so
    sure she was going to catch the next fish, she held the rod in her
    hand (instead of using rod holder) for almost one full hour.  She
    said she was getting too much sun, and wanted to put on a long sleeve
    shirt. She proceed to lay the rod down across the captains chair
    at the console, and went for the shirt.  Then all hell broke loose.
    Something in the six foot range was working up our slick at a fair
    pace, and before I could yell "Hon get th............"  a few slips
    of the drag, and like a missle the whole outfit took off for a ride.
    We figured we had a blue or a mako come into to the slick of at
    least 200 plus #'s.  Net result:  One sabre stroker stand-up tuna
    stick, Shimano TLD-20 and one homemade shark rig. GONE!  Total cost. 
    Upwards of three hundred dollars.  Now dont get me wrong, my wife
    is a great "fisherperson", just sometimes I guess the brain goes into
    a "wait-state". Oh yeah,  if anyone is approached my a mid sized Mako over
    the next year, and is asked "hey buddy wanna buy a nice fishing
    rig?"  quickly proceed to sink 1 flying gaff directly into his back.
    
    
    Sad But True.
    Vinnie

    Also looking "way...back" to my childhood, the yearly trek to Leach
    Lake, Minnesota would be the first time I had reach the age when
    I had graduated from the dock and into the boat with men! After
    better than an hour we arrive at an inlet known to harbor both
    Northern and Walleye Pike.
    
    The trolling pattern was a wide sweeping pass by the edge of Bull
    reeds growing in the waters of the inlet. The lures were large silver
    "Doctor" spoons (very costly back then). On the very first pass,
    my rod lurched down and as instructed, I gave it the hardest yank
    I could................line broke..........men mumble @#!@@......
    I'm SURE it was a fish. The boat's brought around to the line floating
    on the water, line is followed back the reed where the Doctor spoon
    was retrived.
    
    Twice more "YOU HAVE TOO MUCH LINE OUT" was followed by searching
    the reeds for the lure and replacing the line which was now on the
    bottom of the boat in four pieces!
    
    Now when the next strike came, I'm convinced that I caught another
    reed, but having the grabbed the floating line I notice something
    looking back at me from below. It was a beauty, 8 1/2 lbs Walleye,
    so stunned that it didn't move until we had him in the net!
    
    Best in the boat! Best on the Lake (until someone landed a 35lb
    Muskie, 15 min. before the deadline)! Still the best fishing memory
    I have. I was seven at the time.
    
    Jerry
    

    Being a deep sea sport fishing enthusiast who likes to go for the
    big fish that can eat you if you make a mistake I was off the Kona
    coast of the big island of Hawaii in 1984 fishing for pacific blue
    marlin. We had been trolling for several hours with artificial lures
    with no success. Maybe a change to live bait would help. We headed
    out to the fish attractor and did some fishing for live bait using
    light tackle rods. After a few minutes we hit into some school tuna.
    
    We took four skipjack tuna about 3-4 lbs each and the mate wired
    them up and overboard they went as our live bait. About 30 minutes
    later one of the bait that was running deep got very nervous. You
    could tell by the was the line was moving and jiggling. Just as
    the captain mentioned it, bang, the line went taut. The mate put
    it in free spool as I jumped into the fighting chair and hooked
    up my harness. A few seconds later the mate set the hook. 'FISH
    ON'. Here we go. As he set the rod in my chair and started to get
    the other lines in I just held on as the 130 lb test just started
    whizzing off the Finn Nor reel like it was thread. I have a 273
    lber to my credit caught off the Kona coast in 1982. From that
    experience I knew this one was much bigger. After a few minutes
    the line started going slack. I pumped in the line as fast as I
    could to keep any slack out of it. We were waiting for ole blue
    to surface and give us a tail walk. Rather than that this huge head
    came out of the water about 100 yards out and violently started
    shaking to throw the hook. What a monster. Then down he went again,
    this time deep.
    
    He finally stopped about 900 - 1,000 feet down and just started
    swimming. I played him for about 45 minutes. My arms and back felt
    like lead. I would gain a little then lose it back. The captain
    did a great job keeping the boat lined up with the fish. 
    
    Then all of a sudden the line went slack. I started reeling in,
    it got taut again for a second and went slack again. The fish was
    gone. When I got the line reeled in there was a chunk of the fishes
    stomach on the hook. The captain told me that a blue marlin will
    sometimes regurgitate his stomach in a last ditch effort to shake
    the hook if he's hooked that way as this one was. Sometimes they
    can swallow their stomachs back and they are fine. If not, they
    will die. We had no idea of this ones fate.
    
    From the bill size score marks and what we saw of the head when
    it surfaced the captain estimated the weight at somewhere between
    750 - 1,000 lbs.
    
    As depressed as I was at losing "ole blue" and as tired as I was
    I had to give hime credit for his fight.
    
    In 22 more days I'll be back fishing off the Kona coast again, hoping
    to reacquaint myself with ole blue or hopefully his big brother
    or daddy. I'll let you know the results when I return.
    
    Just countin the days.
    
    Hawaii_Harry
    

For lack of a better place to post this, I'll put it here.

Yesterday (Sunday), I took the family out for a boat ride/picnic on 
Pawtuckaway Lake.  Although I wasn't planning to do any fishing, one of my 
rods and worm box accidentally got on board.

We stopped on one of the little islands to relax, have lunch, and let the 
kids swim.  Meanwhile, with the boat pulled up on shore, I sat in the back 
end and started casting a rubber worm out into deeper water next to some 
rocks.  One my 3rd or 4th cast, I felt a pick up and set the hook.  The line 
parted immediately.  Damn!  I knew I forgot to retie the line, and sure 
enough, it was frayed.  I really had no idea how big the fish was, and in 
fact, I suspected that it was a pickeral the way the line parted.  So I tied 
a new worm on.

15 minutes later, I hooked a real nice fish (3-5lbs).  It jumped twice and 
then threw the hook.  Oh well.  Then, about 10 minutes later, I again hooked 
a nice fish of about the same size.  This time I landed it.  

As I lipped the bass, I noticed some mono hanging from its mouth, and with a 
little tug, my black worm that I originally lost emerged from its throat!
Unfortunately, the bass was bleeding profusely and I realized that she would 
probably not survive, so I kept her (yeah...dinner!).

Talk about either a dumb fish...or just plain hungry.  I just know that the 
second fish I had on was the same fish as all three strikes were in the same 
area!

BTW...she weighed exactly 5 lbs. after I got home.

-HSJ-

   re:10
    The bass you caught was probably gaurding her nest, in which case
    will attack anything that come close to it. They even attack ducks
    that swim to close.
    
    Jim

   re:10
    The bass you caught was probably gaurding her nest, in which case
    will attack anything that come close to it. They even attack ducks
    that swim to close.
    

I suspect that this big female was not on a nest as I originally hooked her 
in about 12 ft of water.  The second time was about 30' away, and the last 
time was probably 20' further out near another big rock that dropped off 
into deeper water.  I think this gal was just plain hungry!  And even with 
my first worm caught in her throat, she tried two more times to devour my 
worm.  The third time did her in!  It's not too often that you get 3 tries 
on a 5lber!

-HSJ-

    re .10
    
     I think the spawn is over in southern NH. I have noticed that the
    bass don't seem to be holding over the beds anymore; at least not
    like they were the last few weeks. Any other thoughts about this?
    
     The doctah

    Yeah, why don't you make this a new topic - I'll bet there'd be
    more responses.
    
    Ed
    

re .13

I can't say that I'd fully agree that the spawn is over yet in southern N.H.
(at least it depends upon the definition of "southern").  The female I
caught yesterday at Pawtuckaway was still heavy with roe and looked almost
ready to deposit her eggs.  I do think, however, with the 90 degree days
they're predicting for this week, that the vast majority of females that
haven't spawned yet will dump their eggs before the weekend. 

BTW...my definition of "southern NH" is from Concord and to the south.    

In any event, it could make for some interesting bassin!  I'm planning to do 
another nightime trip this Thursday or Friday nite in hopes of landing 
another 6-7 pounder!

-HSJ-

    
    the only fish worth talking about loosing that i've had some
    close experiences with was northern pike i could never seem to
    get those fish through an 8" hole, what a shocker when you see
    this nose go bye and and an eye as big as mine if not bigger on
    this monster, I've hooked 4 of them but have never had the pleasure
    of removing the hook from one of these monsters mouths it seemed
    everytime they got to the hole it was enough to free the hook and
    if it didnt free the hook i'd have to change it because these monsters
    used to straighten them out into sewing needles, well some day i'll
    land one of these and i hope it's summer time on a pole.

 I went up to the Connecticut Lakes this past weekend. It's a beautiful place.

 The fishing was s-l-o-w. We fished Back Lake, and did horrible. That no one 
else was catching fish hardly made us feel better. We fished the Third Lake,
and my cousin got a 3lb Laker. Nice fish! This brought up our spirits 
considerably. :-) Unfortunately, it was the only fish caught on Saturday. I
stuffed the cavity with mushrooms and butter, and we baked that baby- delicious!

 Sunday morning we went back to the bait shop and bought more bait (small 
suckers, $1/each!) We returned to the First lake, and found the sandbar. We
tossed a few lines over, and started to wait. After a good hour or so, I decided
to get more comfortable. I sat down in the bottom of the canoe, and started to
relax. Within a minute, the line started to leave my spool; it was going faster 
than the bait could have taken it. Oh baby! I sat up, and let the fish take more
line. It stopped, then started up again. Time to see if we've got a fishy!
Bang! Yessiree bob, there's a fish on this here pole. :-) Hauled the fish up,
a gorgeous Laker (my first) of about 21" and about 3.5 lbs. I was thrilled!
My buddy carefully netted the fish (after having taken piles of abuse for
knowcking my potentially tournament winning fish off during his last net 
attempt). It flopped around helplessly on the bottom of the canoe as I expressed
my happiness in FINALLY getting a GD fish.

 Next thing you know, a couple of guys are heading towards our boat. Must be the
F&G dept, we figured. Turns out they were from the safety dept, and decided
to check our safety equipment. Wouldn't you know it, but the other boat is
missing stuff. Figures. So they came over and wrote up my cousin for not having
a fire extinguisher. In doing so, they pulled us off the sandbar, tangled our
lines, and generally screwed things up for us. Meanwhile, my fish is hanging out 
on the stringer in the water.

 A few minutes later, the wind suddenly (and I mean SUDDENLY!) picked up.
Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to get off the lake before
something bad happened. My cousin's boat started to tow us. So far so good.
We're getting moderately wet, but aside from the waves being about a foot taller 
than the canoe, I'm not particularly worried about our safety. We decided to
hug the shore. Well, wouldn't ya know it but junior farted around with the 
engine, and it conked out. Before we could get it restarted, we were aground.
(The sound of rocks meeting with fiberglas is not particularly pretty, FYI).

 We finally got things under control. The fish had been moved to the motor boat
while we had the canoe on the shore, but my cousin asked me if I wanted it back
on the canoe. I foolishly said "yes." So I took the stringer and clipped to a 
cross member of the canoe, and we were off. The wind was really kicking some 
butt, and I was intent only on getting back to the truck. But the prime mistake
was putting the fish in the water as opposed to in the boat. Somehow during
the trip to the truck, the stringer failed to hold, and completely disappeared.
Thus, the fish was "free," but with a catch- it still had the stringer in its
mouth. So not only did I not get to eat the fish, I didn't get a picture of it,
and the damn thing won't make it because of the freakin' stringer! Arrrgh!
I would have rather dropped it back in... What a pisser.

 The Doctah

     I have a good true story that happened to me last Sunday on a good
    bass pond thats used for watering some cranberry bogs. I had been
    using a jitterbug all morning with excellent luck when all of a 
    sudden something grabbed the jitterbug and bent my med action rod
    almost in half. I was using 6lbs test and I felt like I was going to
    loose what ever I had on the other end. I was in my crawdad and the 
    fish was actually pulling my boat. A friend of mine in his boat was
    yelling at me to set my drag so I'm doing that and trying to keep the 
    fish on the line. 
    
    After about 4 minutes I still could not see him and I thought I had 
    him at or near the top. I put the rod down when I felt him right under
    me and all of a sudden the line broke. I was really ticked off not
    only for the chance to catch a decent bass but I lost the jitterbug
    that I've had for a long time. I told my friend that Whats the chance
    that the bass will spit it out and hopefully float to the top. He said
    I was dreaming. So I started to set the line up with another jitterbug
    that I had when all of a sudden a few feet beside me a bass came out of
    the water and spit the jitterbug out right beside me. All I saw was
    it's face and there it was floating in front of me I couldn't believe
    it. Whats the chance of that happening???? The bass looked to be a
    decent size fish. Well next week I'll try for him again.
    
    Matt-

    
    
               I was down my favorite fishing hole (Lake Urine)
               on the last day of May using a Nunya and had a fish
               stop my line so I give it the ole Marlin hookset
               and the line broke wrapping it around me,so I say
               a few swears and retie.Cast once,twice and he stops
               the lure again,again another Marlin hookset and I 
               gotem along with my other Nunya and hook still in
               his mouth soooooo I thank him for giving me my
               Nunya back and release the louse to fight another day.
    
    
                                       LM 3lbs +
    
    
                                           The Keg