I posted this same thread in Nevada Chapter. Since I claim dual membership, I thought I would throw it in both chapters. I've heard some doozies and have had some laughs. Here is mine.
Caught a sizeable trout (6 lbs) and tripped on the rocks and fell on my pole when I tried to set the hook. The pole broke in half so I began fighting mobey with the upper portion of my pole sliding up and down the line. Fortunately it was a smaller stream that this dude was stocked into so he didn't have too far to run. Then a rats nest appeared in my line. The tangled globb of fishing line jammed up in the eyes of the lower part of my pole so when I looked down to try and work it out, I tripped again and found myself falling into the water face first. Line in hand and the broken pole following me into the drink, I followed that fish throughout the pool, up and down stream, letting line out through my fingures, then pulling in to drop the line behind me. The fish finally tired and I managed to pull his nose up out of the water and got a fingure/thumb hold on his lower jaw and up on the shore he went. When done, I was soaked, from head to toe, my wallet was soggy, my pole was broken, but I had a real nice fish to join me on the wall of fame (shame) in the local market.

Anyone else have fishing stories? I'd like to hear 'em.

 

I can only tell you about the ones that got away, but since it's along the same line, I cuold tell a bit of a hunting story, that is actually true.

Before they flooded Moccassin Creek, we used to have a good Deer hunting spot, I was only 8 or 10 years old, but always tagged along with my dad.

One year he shot a 4pointer, head on (4 on each side) and actually split the crown of the Deers head, and the horns as well.

After getting the the animal and taking care of business, he put it in the back of a '46 Chevy 1/2 ton, he got to eying how large the split rack was, and did some experimenting...best he could determine is the rack, if atached properly to the head and such, would NOT fit between the besides of the '46...means the rack had a larger spread than 50? inches.

Believe it or not, but I was there, so were his buddies.

 

With a split head, I guess I can assume that one didn't get away.

 

Not a fish story but - I have whitetail in my back yard at night. They come to inspect the yard for apples fallen out of the trees behind the house. A couple weeks ago, I was at the neighbors when 2 does walked up the hill and clipped the leaves on the 6 sweet potato vines in my veggie garden. The 4 of us watched. The deer were about 60 yards from my front door and about 100 yards from the neighbors back porch. I'm hoping this fall the ladies bring a couple bucks to visit their "munching spot". We have 4 fawns in the neighborhood.

 

When I was about 13 or 14 I was taking a canoe trip down the Truckee river from Tahoe City (where I lived at the time) with some friends. We stopped in some shallows to take a break and there was this huge (18") German Brown swimming lazily around. I came up along side of him and scooped him out of the water like a Grizzly and tossed him into the canoe. Turned out he was blind on that side from having been hooked in that eye at one time so he didn't see me coming.

Going back a bit further, when I was 7 we lived in the wilds of Trinity county. My folks drove the Land Rover down to a favorite spot on the Trinity river to fish and I decided I wanted to try my hand at it. They only had their two poles, so I scrounged a bit of line and a fly, tied them to a stick and sat happily on a rock by the rapids, dipping the fly in and out of the water. A 7-inch trout actually took the fly and I pulled it out, my first fish! I was so excited that when I went back to try for another I promptly fell in and my dad who was fishing downstream had to fish me out!

I'm sure I've given him ample cause since then to regret that action...!

 

Early June of this year I took my 13 yo daughter out for a day on the stream.
Water was up a bit and just right for some worm drifting.

Fishing was good, lots of bites and lots of fish caught.

I landed a nice 2-3 lb German Brown trout in full spring colors. Unhooked and did the jaw grab to show my daughter how to identify this trout from the other species in the area. As a warning, don't do this at home . . .

Fish is held by jaw and by the tail with the other hand so i can show the spotting patterns and colors. Mr. Brown decides to tail flip out dropping toward the ground with my thumb still firmly attached to the lower jaw. With a couple of pounds of POed trout flopping and falling toward the ground the weight pulls down my thumb thoroughly shredding said thumb, they do have big teeth in spite of what they may say about fish no having teeth.

Of course I release explicatives and the fish, who drops to the ground and in one bounce into the water and swims quickly back to the depths from which it came.

Of course my daughter is disapponited with the loss of that one, but there were more to be had and a fresh trout dinner that night.

 

bump - - bump

You guys can do more than this - everyone has more than one story!

 

Ok this is NOT my fish story but it is worth the post..

This guy at work is sitting in the brake room one day and tells this story.

He is sitting at the side of this stream fishing with no luck.
So he decides to eat a sandwich and reaches around behind himself and gets his ice chest.
He puts a slice of bread on his leg and adds all the meat and stuff.
(get ready this is the good part)
While he is putting his ice chest back behind himself a big fish jumps out of the water grabbing his sandwich and back into the water it goes.
The guy claims he is so mad he just packs up and goes home.....

Now that my friends is a whopper of a fish story..

 

Hmm, that sounds pretty fishy to me...

 

I got a Sturgeon once - or, better, he got me. We were anchored out - near Brannan Island and my two buddies were asleep in the deck chairs. We had fished all night without a bite, and were waiting for the tide to turn to try again.

There was an 8 foot dinghy tied to the side of the boat. I noticed that the line on the pole that was in that boat was moving against the tide, so I climbed in and set the hook. It wasn't my pole but I did not want to wake anyone up. I hoped it would be a nice stripper, but expected a big cat. We were using big hooks so it would not be a small fish.

Setting the hook did not seem to bother the fish - he just kept heading west. I tightened the brake on the real, expecting to horse him around. No such luck - all it did was tip the transom of the dinghy into the water. I set down to lower the center of gravity ( not supposed to stand in small boats anyway) and loosened the brake enough to keep the boat from being swamped.

The noise of the brake clicking and me moving around woke my buddies, who untied the dinghy and let it float free of my big boat. The fish pulled me up the channel at a good clip - faster than I could have rowed.

Soon we joined the main channel - the shipping channel - where I spotted that orange LPG carrier that docks in Stockton headed my way. It looked to be running 20 knots, and throwing up a bow wave like a destroyer. I feared the fish was going to pull me across its bows.

I didn't have a way to cut the line - there was no tackle box in the boat. The pole was tied to the boat with a cord - and the knot was tight. I didn't like the idea of throwing an expensive bait casting reel and deep sea rod overboard, but there was no way I was going to allow that fish to pull me across the path of that ship.

I set the reel brake tight and tried breaking the line, but couldn't. We were using stainless steel leader and 250 pound test line. I was trying to undo the knot when the fish swerved and started moving parallel to the shore. As long as he didn't swerve again we would pass the ship with lots of room to spare.

I thought I was home free but had not considered the wake left by that ocean going ship. It was coming fast and looked to be 20 feet tall. My buddies had fired up my boat and had almost caught up to us - they claimed it was only a single wave six or seven feet tall.

When I hit it the bow dug in and swamped the boat - I thought it went end over end but they thought all it did was roll me over. Anyway, my foot was caught under the seat of the overturned boat and I had a hell of a time getting free. Worse, I did not have a life jacket on so all I could do was hang onto the side of the up side down boat.

It didn't take my friends long to rescue me - we even recovered the dinghy and the oars. The pole was still tied to the boat, but the stainless steel clip that attached the hook had broke, letting my fish go. I hope the big bas***d had a sore jaw!

I now fish for trout, and use ultra-light equipment. Never again 250 pound test line with stainless steel leaders! And I will put on a life jacket before I set foot on a boat less than 30 feet long!

 

When I was a kid (many many years ago), two of my brothers went out on the Redondo Beach Harbor to do a little fishing with live anchovies. While fly lining their bate, and in the process of a cast, my younger brother got hooked in the earlobe with a hook equipped with a live anchovie. Quite an authentic earring to show off, with a dangling anchovie dancing at the end.

 

I'm not sure which tale is stretched the most...

TigerDan and the blind fish, or JD and the sandwich....

I'm not even going to comment on the "Old Man and the Sea"....WillyB's tale reminds me of the Hemmingway (think it was Hemmingway) story...

 

Come on, this is supposed to be a fish story thread - stories with a basis in fact but stretching is encouraged!

And if you have ever latched onto even a small sturgeon with heavy tackle you know it is like getting an anchor rope fouled on a nuclear submarine! Leagal limits on sturgeon are between 4 and 6 feet - any larger and you have to throw it back. I have seen pictures of some 12 feet or so long, they can grow to 20 feet - but it takes 100 years.

As to Tiger and flipping a fish out of the river - how do you think bears get fish to eat? They can not go to WalMart and buy a zebco reel - they have to flip them onto the bank!

btw, I did not take the pictures below, two are from a stergeon fishing derby.

 

Now, now. Let's not get upset

Thing is with a Bear, they kinda sit there and wait...
Anyone care to reply to this question:

Why don't you talk with the line in the water?
Answer: Because a fish senses vibration and flees away.

Can a fish "see you talk"?

Naw....

Can a fish see you?

Who know's, but long before they see ya, they know you're there.
And Clint, that photo looks nothing like you

 

Okay, well, speaking of fish stories...