Missed Fish - The Basis Of Every "fish Story" Ever Told.

[RSBreth]

I did catch several short Largies and one Spot on a swimming jig, one short 'Eye on a Bomber 4A, and a nice Smallie on a #12 Husky Jerk in Tennessee Shad. I missed a really nice Brown on the Husky Jerk - bumped it and then followed it right to the canoe before turning away so close I could have slapped his kyped lower jaw. Then I hook a really good fish on the Rapala that pulls drag on a constant run - the type of fish that can only be a 5-lb + Smallie or a big Brown or a really big Largie - but I can't be sure because it fights deep and head shakes for a minute or so, then when I get it almost to the canoe it shakes off. I think I saw the green/gold of big 'Eye, but I can't be sure.

Of course I was pretty mad and automatically yelled "you gotta be bleep bleep kidding me!" But then I laughed - the fish won, you do the best you can to get it to hand - it's always a gamble, and this time the fish won it's freedom. Of course I'd probably let it go anyway - but the fish doesn't know that.

Missed fishes or not, it was a nice day to be out on the water, a little windy and hard to control the boat, but not too cold and only a couple of other boats out.

[Quillback]

I hate missed fish, missed one yesterday that may have been decent, got it under the boat, saw a big greenish silver flash as it turned sideways and it was off. No idea on the species, but I had caught a nice 2 lb. spot right before hooking that one, so I'm thinking a was a big spot or a largemouth.

[Diamond City Fisher]

Great story...thanks for sharing. I sure hate to miss them too. I will never forget a big smallmouth that I got to the boat 3 times before it came up, tail walked and sailed the lure back over my head. Sometimes the fish win, but what a memory.

[Blazerman]

Isn't it funny how you can catch a ton of fish on a trip, a have a great time, but your mind always goes back to the ones that got away. I can still remember some of the fish I lost better than many I caught.

One that will always stay with me was when we were wading and catching some fish on minnows behind a large tree that had a deep whole behind. I had caught about 5 and let them all go and made another cast and the minnow stopped and I set the hook and felt weight but nothing happened. I thought I was snagged so I pulled harder and then I felt a surge and the fish did a tight circle and stopped. I pulled and pulled until the drag came out but the fish wouldn’t move. But I could feel it pulsing in the current and said to my wife I can’t do anything with this fish. She said you’re probably snagged and I said here take the rod, and she did and she said your right it feels like a fish swimming. So I pulled some more and then the line broke. Never did figure out what it was but my guess is a big flathead.

Another time at the White river a group of us had loaded up our boats and pulled away from Stetson’s dock. I think there were 4 boats heading out and before we got under way I made a cast across the river towards the deeper bank with an sr5 brown shad rap. As soon as I pulled it down into the current, it got hammered and the fish swam straight towards the boat. I was reeling as fast as I could but about 5 foot from the boat a huge Brown jumped and threw the shad rap right back at me. Everyone there saw it and we all agreed it was over 10lbs easy. No one caught anything near as big that year and it ended up being the talk on the weekend because everyone saw it.

[cnr]

I love it. Losing fish keeps you coming back for more. Heart thumping, adrenaline going, all of the sudden your staring at that slack line wondering...maybe I should have done this or that. Makes us better fisherman.

[RSBreth]

I went back to upper Bull today - nothing as dramatic as yesterday. I did get a bunch of Spots on suspending jerks - today was the day of turned on 12" - 14" Spots on upper Bull. Not much else going on but I did catch some fish despite the gloomy rain and wind of the morning. The late afternoon up around Powersite was warm and sunny and very nice for a late November, and paddling around in the solo canoe catching fish is infinitely better than the very best day at work.

Best lure was the old XCaliber XS4 in Clown (which looks just like the new EEratic Shad but suspends perfectly horizontal like a Rogue or Husky Jerk - the new EEratic Shad suspends nose down like a Mega 110.)

[abbfish]

I was down for a long weekend, a week and a half ago. I hooked 3, almost all in a row, and did not land any of them. I lost 2 in a row the next day. I was starting to lose confidence. The first couple were on one jig, so I switched it out, thinking that might be the problem. I guess I was not getting a good hookset on them. They were fighting hard one minute, gone the next. Very frustrating!

[rps]

At about age 12, my father took me to Canada for the third time. We fished Rough Rock Lake. Charley Fisher was our guide. We were in an aluminum boat with my fathers 18 hp Evinrude and we were fishing a weedy mid lake rocky island. I threw out a red and white spoon using a Browning Silaflex rod with a Mitchell 300 reel. I had Stren monofilament? in something like 10 pound test. The lure stopped dead on the retrieve, then headed toward the boat. I was in the front and when the fish went under the boat, I tried to put the rod down in the water and get the rod and the line on the same side as the fish. The muskie came out of the water, shook its head back and forth, and threw the spoon back to the same side where it originally hit.

I sat there. My father sat there. Charley Fisher sat there. Then he said, "musky."

I have had several "not landed" fish incidents since, but that will always be the one to talk about.

[RSBreth]

At about age 12, my father took me to Canada for the third time. We fished Rough Rock Lake. Charley Fisher was our guide. We were in an aluminum boat with my fathers 18 hp Evinrude and we were fishing a weedy mid lake rocky island. I threw out a red and white spoon using a Browning Silaflex rod with a Mitchell 300 reel. I had Stren monofilament? in something like 10 pound test. The lure stopped dead on the retrieve, then headed toward the boat. I was in the front and when the fish went under the boat, I tried to put the rod down in the water and get the rod and the line on the same side as the fish. The muskie came out of the water, shook its head back and forth, and threw the spoon back to the same side where it originally hit.

I sat there. My father sat there. Charley Fisher sat there. Then he said, "musky."

I have had several "not landed" fish incidents since, but that will always be the one to talk about.

Now - that is a great story!

I've had too many to list - the HUGE pike that kept following my streamer around me in waders at Spinney Mountain Reservoir as I did figure 8's and then tried to get it to hit it around and around me in chest-deep water, only to hit it and NOT get hooked. Then the Striper at Beaver that was an easy 40-pounds that wouldn't stop following in the 1/8-ounce grub in to the boat as I was pre-fishing a tournament - but wouldn't hit it. AAAAArrrrrggghhhh!

[podum]

Great stories. I had one this summer in Lake City, Colorado. The Lake Fork of the Gunnison River is interrupted by Lake San Cristobal. It's a big western trout river below the lake. Above the lake it's a smaller stream with big holes and deep cut banks. It has some big browns and rainbows. I was struggling so I tied on something I've never used in the smaller water above the lake - a big olive articulated streamer. Truthfully, I was just planning to screw around with it as I just started tying these and thought I'd be cool to see how it moved in the current in the clear shallow water. Second or third cast, I start a backcast pulling the streamer up from a hole and a big brown (I'm sure well over 20 inches) comes completely out of the water chasing the streamer as it had just left the water. Big splash and gone. I sat there dumbstruck. You only get one shot at fish like that in a small stream. I'm still wondering what would've happened if I was a split second slower at pulling that streamer out of the water.