good fishing stories this year

[tomcook4]

so the year is getting over with (finally) i was wondering if anyone has any good fishing stories from this year (please include pics or video if u have)

thanks,

tom

[gmoney]

had a fish come in tail wrapped this year one day, but the hook wasn't in his mouth, the line had managed to do a perfect half hitch around his tail with the hook securing itself back over the line.....

[Squidnation]

Got a ton of great stories from a fantistic year. Probaby one of the coolest thing that happened was to have a 50lb wahoo snatch a bait out of my hand 10 feet from the boat on a tld 25 with 80 floro and a circle hook.

[hotreels jr]

One 71'' BFT....One 1800 saragosa with 70 pound daiwa braid....Three high school kids, and an 11 year old. We hooked up at 7pm and landing the fish at 1:30AM....6 1/2 hours of fight time between myself and My buddy sean, while Ben ran the boat. In the last 15 minutes Ben took the rod while Sean ran the boat and I was able to stick it with the harpoon. We hooked up 8 miles away from where we landed it...and it was landed in 18 FOW. Most of that 8 miles was just from the wind/current.

[offshore]

Man it has been a good year but the White and Sail bite out of Oregon inlet had to be the highlight of the season. I cant even remember how many bites we had the days we made it out!! Great times on the water and learned a lot bill fishing this year....Mark

[Capt. Lyndon]

So many, but my favorite has to be hooking a 800+ blue marlin on a handline fishing out of Kona over the winter.

[gottaflylee]

I posted this in the "Shallow Water Froum", happened last week. It was very cool for me.


This is a true story that happened to me this week.
What is it that makes us get up out of a warm house or truck to fish for Speckle Trout on a cold overcast day, for me it is the allure of finding a fish in double digits, along with that first strike on the MirrOlure. The one that is a tic and then comes the "Ker-thump" and the rod is almost pulls out of your hand, rod bent over and the reel drag screams as the sow Trout comes to the top and wallows trying to rid her self of the lure in her mouth, doesn't get any better that this inshore and in the fall I am about worthless trying to find the big ones. Could I catch more fish on live bait or grubs, I'm sure I could, but not with the force that they his the MirrOlure, that is where I'm at, looking for big fish.

As I sat in the restaurant, we discussed what the weather man was calling for that day, over cast sky's in the morning, clearing in the afternoon, no rain and a good north wind at 15 kts, top of the tide at first light and then falling. I sat there, after asking a few of the boys if they wanted to go with me to hear they all had other things to do. As I sat there finishing my coffee, I was mapping out in my head where I would start and fish as the tide fell out.

Loading the boat with 12 rods, all with different MirrOlures in the rain and a stiff wind, I chuckled to myself that the weather man missed this one. I cruised down the no wake zone and my mind wondered back to days as a kid, fishing with DaddyPop for big Trout on MirrOlures. I flashed back to a place that he had taken me as a boy that is still there but has changed with the on-slot of new houses and docks that had been built, but the Oyster rock was still there and the big trout of the past, that he pulled off that rock called my name.

The water was clear but stained and I tossed out a hot pink (HP) MirrOlure and the one with Chartreuse sides, orange belly and black back (705) to troll the marsh edge to see if I could find fish. Soon the HP MirrOlure rod bends and the reel singes it approval as she wallows on the top, nice fish I thought. Grab the other rod and wind it up to the boat and feel a bump, I have found them. Grab the rod with the Trout and work it to the boat and look down to see that I had not gotten the cast bucket off the net and in the process, I lose the Trout.

Now knowing where the fish are, I let the boat blow down with the wind to where I can just reach the fish with my cast. Being shallow water, I reach for the rod with the MR18- 60 that worked so well for the guys in the MirrOlure school this week and fired it down the left side of the marsh. Twitch, pause...twitch-twitch, pause, twitch...bump...ah, tail slap, oue, nice fish I thought, pause, twitch. Nothing as I work it back to the boat. Hum, color change maybe as my mind rushes things. I fire it back the same MirrOlure to the area of the bump, landing it in the pocket of the marsh.

Twitch, pause, twitch-twitch pause, the tail-tail tap and then the "Ker-thump" of a great fish. The little 6' Saint Croix rod bends hard over as the rod is almost pulled from me, my arm is pulled forward and the reel sings its first zingzzzz. She wallows to the top trying to throw the MirrOlure that is under her chin and just behind her head. From the boat I can see her purple back and her spots, she is big, in the double digits weight wise, the one that I look for each year. Zingzzzz the reel spits out as she rolls on the top again, "what a fish" I think as this is the fish I seek each year. She is at least a 32 to 34" fish and is doing her best to throw the hook. Znigzzz, zingzzzz the reel strains under her weight, the 12 pound test mono stretching to its limit as she still on top trying to shake her self free.I notice a door slam and the home owner heading to his dock to see what is going on.

As quickly as she hit, she goes down and makes her run away from the boat, line ripping through the water and the reel screaming, trying to slow her down. She was as strong as any Red Drum on the flats as I have had on. I step up on the cooler to get a better angle and to try to turn her from the marsh when she makes a hard right turn and shoots off toward the rock bed, oh crap, not good. I head to the center console and raise the rod as high as I can, but she is to fast and strong and I am to slow. As I step up, I feel the first of the Oysters rubbing my line and I strain to get the rod higher but she is pulling so hard that it is hard to keep the rod held up high. Suddenly the rod goes up and the line so slack, as quick as it started, it was over. I step down thinking that the 12 pound test was cut, but not the case as I got to the end of the line, it was the 20 pound braid, chewed and frayed as it slid across the Oyster bar.

By now the owner of the house was on the dock and yelled to me "that was a nice fish, what was it?" I looked up as I set down, " the one that got away, sir, the one that got away"
__________________

[Caveman Sportfishing]

Had a request from dad that his son wanted to catch his first tuna before the effects of his disease permanently disables him. He had just returned from Italy with the Make a Wish Foundation to meet the pope in Rome and this was his second wish "To catch a big tuna with his dad".
Well we got lucky and provided that wish for him and his father and it could not have been a bigger thrill for us as well as the young angler and his dad. The best of sportfishing without question.

Picture of 12 year old Joe Finn Jr. with dad and his nice tuna

[Jesse Lockowitz]

sail on 12lb mono was a fun highlight this summer.


and some big sharks out of the kayak gettin some nice sleigh rides, and a couple im glad bit throught he wire cuz i couldnt slow em down haha!

[neilinov]

Any day spent on the water is a good day, but the one that will live on in my memory of one of the best days of fishing ever was this summer. It was early June and fishing was spotty. We decided to pull out early and hit a spot that had been productive in years past, but I hadn't been to in a long time. It is in the area around the 19 fathom lump and we were in search of bluefins. Not a lot of boats were hitting that area yet and I thought it might be productive. We arrived at the lump right before sunrise. Lines were in and we trolled over the hump a couple of times marking big marks at around 60 ft. We had baits deployed from the bottom to the surface. Every pass over the lump the fish came closer to the surface. The sun was just cresting over the horizon when I looked back and saw the pack comming into the spread from right to left. I yelled out here they come just as the first bait was snatched from the right short. Then the left short goes screaming out. I can still see them cruising through the swells like bullets. We had them on! It was a pretty quick fight and we had our over and under when the planer rod goes off. 10 mins later we had a 20# dolphin in the boat. Everyone was really excited to have our fish in the boat and the morning was still new. I looked over and said are you ready to go and he said yeah this has already been a great day. We packed it up and started our way back to Indian River.

This was the last day that my father in law got to go offshore. At the time I had no idea that it would be his last trip out there. I am so glad that he was healthy enough to go and get one last day out to sea. I can still see the smile on his face when we hooked up and gaffed the tunas. We only caught 3 fish that day and were back at the dock by 10 am, but it will forever be burned into my mind as one of the greatest days of fishing ever.