ok think ...what happened to you this year fishing that has NEVER happened before to you while fishing i got two things that has never happened to me ........1st .this is a tuff one i got spooled from a bass in the canal ..first time in 25 yrs . fish hit a plug and i never gaind on her i've been humbled....... next time i will tighten dwn the drag and hope ...... 2nd . i have never broke a rod casting it till... friday the13 .it was a sunday mid oct at the coalman, pole 100 all the stars were there .that morn it was ok w/ small fish everywhere while 8 of us stood around talking about the new lami super surf pro's n con's .big dave tomashea let me try his new 11' custom w/ low rider consept guides and my reel try it he said .....so i did . first cast felt good , 2nd toss was better , on the 3rd cast i gave it all i had . and when the plug came back it hooked a tiny little itsy bitsy root , and when i powered the rod forward . the rod blew up into two peices over head with a sound like pistol shot CRACK . it got real quite for a second. than someone said "will that be cash or charge" ... it won't happen again next time i'll pass on the rod ......sorry big dave......

I got spooled this year too.
First time ever.
I never had a chance. Don't know what hit it, it just peeled line
without ever slowing down and snapped at the knot.
I relive that at least once a day.

Two that come to mind are opening up a breakaway clip, and landing a 30+lb. fish with half a rod...talk about getting a but whooping.

i have never broke a rod casting it till... friday the13 .it was a sunday mid oct at the coalman,

:confused:

caught a fifty and won a tournament (2 actually). Usually don't catch anything when I sign up for them.
Did the rod breakin thing too. That Arra 1205 snapping in the middle of the night in the canal was a hell of a noise, as well as my sobs.......

Went 4 straight all niters, not consecutive nites, without a hit, trolling, only to catch pretty good at first light for and hour and then dead again. Several buddies experienced the same thing.

The first time I got back into surf fishing a few years ago I got spooled on the first cast. Its been dinks, skates and dogfish ever since...

1st fish on eels and pencil poppers at the Canal....only ever caught with jigs there before this year.


Thanx to TO for the tips on the eels...:kewl:

Reeled in a lobster, reeled in my first sand shark from shore, also got follow by seals for the first time.
No 50's though, congrats Red light.

ok think ...what happened to you this year fishing that has NEVER happened before to you while fishing i got two things that has never happened to me ........1st .this is a tuff one i got spooled from a bass in the canal ..first time in 25 yrs . fish hit a plug and i never gaind on her i've been humbled....... next time i will tighten dwn the drag and hope ...... 2nd . i have never broke a rod casting it till... friday the13 .it was a sunday mid oct at the coalman, pole 100 all the stars were there .that morn it was ok w/ small fish everywhere while 8 of us stood around talking about the new lami super surf pro's n con's .big dave tomashea let me try his new 11' custom w/ low rider consept guides and my reel try it he said .....so i did . first cast felt good , 2nd toss was better , on the 3rd cast i gave it all i had . and when the plug came back it hooked a tiny little itsy bitsy root , and when i powered the rod forward . the rod blew up into two peices over head with a sound like pistol shot CRACK . it got real quite for a second. than someone said "will that be cash or charge" ... it won't happen again next time i'll pass on the rod ......sorry big dave......

About the "cash or charge" comment, after looking at you then quickly looking to my right and seeing the expression of pain on Big Dave's face, it was the first thing I could think of to say to break the silence.:huh:

Oh and another thing some of us ( me:btu:) did take fish into the 30 pound range that morning.:wavey:

I caught a conger eel while fishing with an eel.
I caught 2 bluefish at night while snaggin bunker. there was no bunker, they just hit the snagger.

Let's see.... My rod snapping stories happened 2 years ago.
I had a 10' Silstar Big game rod that I had been using (and abusing) for years. This rod has fought (and beat) plenty of 20-30 lb. bass in the canal as well as off the Powderpoint bridge in Duxbury.
Well, after way too many fish being pulled up onto the bridge, the rod had (unknown to me) developed stress cracks where the 2 sections are inserted.
After a couple of strong cast, without so much as a pop or creak, the rod folded in half during the follow through of it's last cast.
Fortunately, I had a spare in my truck, so I wasn't sunk for that trip.

Now, to replace that rod I hit Decathlon Sports during their "going out of business" sale and picked up a Penn Pursuit 11' rod, hoping to "break it in" before the season ended. Well, that rod lasted 2 days before it too failed miserably. This brought memories of the "fall of the mighty giant" with regards to Penn's quality issues.

I promptly returned it and upgraded (for me, that is) to a 11' Shakespear Ugly Stick. This rod has performed spectacularly, and hasn't given me any trouble at all.

As for this year, I had a fish on and during the fight, I believe a bluefish inadvertenly bit my line in the pursuit of a meal, neatly severing me from my catch. (Note, There are no rocks where I was fishing, so I was able to scratch that off my list of possible reasons.

Anyway, that's about all I can offer.
(Now I'm waiting for solid safe ice so I can continue to "wet a line".

Merry Christmas to all!

losing my first ho'd plug ( a rockfish yellow darter) to a bass and then having biteme and mr striper find it two tides later in the same spot, I mean I guess it just floated up near the boat. and they still wont give it back to me :)

Some moron came screaming in too close (July 4th - what a suprise)
and picked up a line I had out. This guy was bookin, too. As line smoked off the reel, I one handed into my pocket, grabbed the swiss army knife, gave it an awkward open, and saved what I could.

Caught two lobsters on eels - back to back one morning along the canal ... both keepers ...

One night fishing along a beach in October I think it was, as the moon was coming up - four days past the full ... the entire beach front erupted in cayote howling, not at once ... but rather in consecutive order, at least a dozen of them ... started to the left of us and finished to the right of us pretty far awa ... it was a bit weird, as we did not hear any or see any before or after.

Also got my first fish in the canal this season, first time I fished there - nothing to brag about, but at least I didn't get skunked.

Let's see:
I caught 8 lobsters this year, all very very small. Three in one day.
I had a guy in a boat charge the beach looking for a fight...he turned areound when 8 of us walked down to the shore to say hi.
I had something spool me while fishing with tin...can't say what it was.
I saw a guy fishing next to me with dinky tackle bring a huuuuge blackfish to the surface, snapped his line, he jumped in and heaved the fish at me (miraculously I caught it).
There's lots more!
Merry Xmas,
Rick

1) I was able to finally land a fish I caught on an Eel
2) I fell down a steep bluff and fractured my ankle

I caught a conger eel while fishing with an eel.
I caught 2 bluefish at night while snaggin bunker. there was no bunker, they just hit the snagger.

Did they hit the snagger or did you snag them? If it was the latter I did that twice this year...snagged a blue.

1. Broke my first rod ever. It was a tica but I had landed a lot of quality fish on plastics in the ditch. I must have weakened it or nicked it while landing a fish because one day it just gave out and snapped. Good thing they have a good warranty.

2. Fished the Newport rocks a few times without korkers. One morning I fell and sliced my finger pretty good on a barnacle. Stopped at the SWE and picked up some korkers. Next time out with the korkers on got a nice fish on my second cast.

got a hook in my finger, way past the barb.
broke the 45# mark {with a plug}
figured out that mackeral in a livewell will still hit a sabiki
got a mako north of the cape

1. Broke my first rod ever. It was a tica but I had landed a lot of quality fish on plastics in the ditch. I must have weakened it or nicked it while landing a fish because one day it just gave out and snapped. Good thing they have a good warranty.


What that the one morning before work?

This was my first full season in serious striper country. Not to say South Jersey didn't have it's moments, but I certainly didn't it while I was working New England waters on a nightly basis.

I've never beaten the first cast curse before this year. Usually it's deadly for me. I made my way to the water hoping to catch what had been an incredible daytime topwater bite, and on the very first cast, a set of teeth blasts out of the water and onto my plug. A bluefish first cast curse seems like it would be even more deadly than a bass first cast curse. Of course, the only way to break the first cast curse is to catch a fish on the very next cast :fishslap:. So I toss out the pencil, and a few pops later I'm tight to a mid-30# bass. Of course the curse might have come back a little later in that outing when a considerably larger bass wrapped a rock and took my last Plugcaster Pencil

Jimmy,

That was that morning before work. Luckily Bill had another rod or else I would have been walking "my long way" back to my car. That was pretty stupid on my part. Got a nice little tour around the island while you guys caught fish. At least I didn't get skunked because that would have just been embarrassing.