How many have you lost?

[Parapapam]

Over 4th of July my boat hooked 10 and only landed 2. Since it obviously wasn't my fishing skills (ya, right!) it must have been something else. So off to the tackle store to up the ante on my lines.

I go back at them two nights later with 20 or 25 pound mono with a 40 pound flouro leader to see if that helps.....since it obviously wasn't my fishing skills (ya, right).

Well my son (age 7) landed the only fish of the night...a nice 18 pounder. And just to prove it wasn't my fishing skills, he caught it on the only rod that had ratty old 12 or 15 pound test line on it. You see, it wasn't my fishing skills. It must have been the line.

That is my story and I'm sticking to it....even if it doesn't make any sense...

[MrHunters]

id rather not say.... :::looks down in shame:::

[justplugit]

I was fishin a cut one night with a 5in storm with a treble on the belly. Was catchin shorts and took the treble off to make for easy release with the single.
Two casts later i got a bone jarring hit that almost pulled the rod out of my hands. I panicked and instead of letting the lure lay and twitch, cranked it in at lightning speed to recast. If i had left the treble on i may of had her.
Fish had to be funnel feeding at about 30mph. Nadda a hit after that, all the schoolies got outta there quick.
Stupid mistake, but a great reminder of the power of these fish and a moment i won't forget.

[Mike P]

3 come to mind.

Back in the mid-80s, hooked a monster on an eel from the Flats in the Canal, which I couldn't even slow down (I used a heavy white fiberglass Lami, too), and which buried itself in the bottom.

Late 80s, hooked a nice fish on bait off South Beach on MV. I had two rods out, and the Hawg Hunter man also had two rods out. I had the fish in close, saw it (long, fat sucker) and then it started running over my other line (the Hawg-man had reeled his two in). It got wrapped around, and then like a jerk I tried to horse it in on a wave and the hook pulled

Early 90s, Wasque Point on MV, fishing bucktails. I had a 38# already. I hooked a nice fish, had it on for about 10 seconds, then everything went slack. My first thought was that it was a big blue and it cut the leader, which lasted until I reeled the line up and my 150# snap got hung up on the tip guide. Shone my light on it and it was bent out like a cheap coat hanger. I stopped by Coop's the next morning on my way in, told him about it, and left. A few days later I stopped by Coop's again, and he tosses me a 3 oz bucktail and asks, "Did you lose this somewhere?" I look at it, see it's one of the Hawg-man's home poured, and say, "Yup, it's one of mine. Where'd you find it--did it fall out of the back of my truck when I was here a couple of days ago?" "Grab a seat before I tell you. I took that out of the throat of a 62# bass a guy weighed in here yesterday. He got it on a white Danny plug at Squib".

[spence]

Now that is freaking amazing

-spence

[reelecstasy]

[Surfcastinglife]

fishing in rockport on sunday....put rod down to take a piss....and it leaped into the water, by the time i got to it the 30lb test ande was broken =[
rod was jammed in pretty good on a rock wedge too =[

[Shawn B]

Mike P that last one must have hurt for sure.
I'll share my latest loss from this past weekend since it is still bothering me. This fish took me by surprise a bit because we were only catching sub-legal fish before this fish hit trolling a tube and worm. When it hit it was pouring wire line out of my reel and I leave it pretty darn tight when trolling and not one of the other fish that morning had pulled any out. So once I struggle to get the pole out of the holder I'm just holding on, can't do nothing with her and she is still pouring line out and I then see all the wire go out and I'm into my dacron backing. At this point I made my first mistake (I think) and told my fishing partner to put the boat in neutral. Right after I did that the fish came up to the surface and started thrashing around, it looked huge even 100 yards behind us, then she spit the hook with a couple shakes of her head. To add a little insult to injury on my next pass I lost my lucky orange santini tube to the bottom, and we all know tubes are not created equal and this one had some good mojo or something. So in a span of 15 minutes I may have lost my biggest fish ever and I lost my lucky tube.

[Pete F.]

MikeP that's the best fish story I ever heard.

[ThrowingTimber]

OMG Mike P. Im sorry for your loss..