Your Greatest Moment Fishing?

[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by JohnR

Rockfish - pass along my thanks and regards for your son please

I will do that.. this evening in fact ,he's home (in NJ) until May...

[jim sylvester]

decksweeper and I with easily a 600+ lb night
laughing like school children every time we hooked up

the first time I took my oldest son James fishing.....sunnies till his arms fell off


oh ya...and this as well

[vanstaal]

After coming close to death a couple of years back when I fell in @ Hazard Ave.By A rouge wave Everyday is the best.

[BigFish]

Hey Al....Fabulous picture!

[redlite]

GREAT Stories----Brings back so many memories of great times fishing with some I still fish with, others that I don't.
For the past 16 years my life has revolved around liitle but fishing for striped bass. A lot of good times with plenty of laughs, a lot of heartbreaks with disappointment. No moment, even as a young kid fishing compares to the night this past season that I caught my first 50lb.
The image of a board member here laying on his back on a rock staring up at me with his redlite on and his arms and legs wrapped around that beauty will forever, ever be burned into my mind.
As striped bass fishermen, a fifty from shore is the Lombardi Trophy. So many nights away from friends, family, activities and the wife in pursuit of that one fish, all the casts into perfect water in perfect conditions and it finally happened.
I have seen the Red Sox win a world series and caught my fifty.....now I can die in peace.
But then again the night behind the Oceanmist with JohnR is a close 2nd............

[Al in Westport]

Originally Posted by BigFish

Hey Al....Fabulous picture!

Thanks Larry,

The fish was caught off Third Beach in Newport in October. In those days we never measured the fish, just the weight. To give you and idea of the length, I was 5'- 8" at the time. Gravity has taken a tole on my height over the years.

Notice the old green Penns in the picture. They were loaded with 20 pound test. I still am useing the Thermos that you see sitting on the boat.

Al

[Hooper]

October 31, 1985

As a student at Cape Cod Tech in the Marine Fisheries program my class had authorization to overnight on Monomoy Island in the tarpaper shack not far from Monomoy Light. Early on the 31st, I woke and headed to the point with a dozen eels. An hour later I had landed a 40lb bass. It was hard work for a 13 year old kid to carry a 40lb bass the mile or so back to the group, but it was worth it, still makes me happy to this day. (1st pic)

Or, October 27th 1993.

Fished with my former skipper, Bob Lassen, on his 31 JC "Shanti". I was his mate for a few years during high school. He invited me out after I got home from the Army. We found the migration of stripers 4 miles east of Great Point, Nantucket. We were surrounded by a bass blitz that stretched as far as I could see in each direction. All good fish, 36" average. We caught fish for what seemed like hours until the southwest winds got so bad we had to run for home. The ride home was awful, but I'll never forget the day. It was the last time I fished with him, he died in 2003. Another happy memory. (2nd pic)

Workin' the deck on "Shanti" off Nantucket Fall of 1987(3rd pic)

[joe the plumber]

I think it was 89 or 90,early November at the Quonnie Breachway.We stopped at Cove Edge and grabbed a dozen eels from Henry Hetu.
Got out of the truck,wind howlin out of the north,temps in the mid 20's.Out at the end of the breachway on the hard side,outgoing tide.Now you have to appreciate these conditions.It was sooo windy that all you had to do was pitch the eel and away it went.As soon as the eel hit the water there was a bass on the end of the line.
12 eels,12 bass!! I kept one 29lbs,my buddy kept one 27lbs.I swear all these fish were the same size!!We were freezing.One hour later we were in the Andrea Hotel toasting the kind of fishing I doubt I will ever see again.

[Swimmer]

Last day of the Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby in 1985 I cuaght a 17.60 # blue somewhere on the north shore of the Vineyard. The best part was walking into the junior yacht club holding that fish in my right hand and putting it up on the bench. ThAT warmed the cockles of my heart then and it does now writing this.

[new jack]

mine came this past septmeber in the ditch. My self and another kid arrived at the spot at the same time coming from opposite directions. We both crawled down the rocks and decided to fish. It was slow at first and then i caught and 18# fish on a pencil. The next cast i caught another fish a little bit bigger. I told the the kid to put on pencil and rip it across the water. he did, and he caught a fish about 20#. for the next hour we caught over a dozen fish from 18# to 35# on top water with out any fish showing at all. guys to left of us and to right were shocked couldn't believe their eyes.

Later on in the day i ran into a buddy who was fishing across from me at the time and he told me how he watched these guys on the other side clobber fish. his jaw dropped when i told him i was one of those guys.

[jeffthechef]

1990, florida keys, watching a pod of tarpon march towards our boat from 150 yards out. readying a live pinfish on my TLD-15 on a penn slammer loaded with 20 pound test. as the school is less than 20 feet from the boat i toss my bait to the lead, and largest fish. he sucks it down and runs, and runs, and runs until my spool is closed to empty. after setting the hook this silver king leaps, dives, leaps, head shakes and the chase is on. after about 45 minutes the sun is setting and we are basically playing walk the dog with a 100+ pound fish. in and out of the bridge struts of bahia honda bridge, back out into the channnel. now its dark, the fish is tired, i'm shot too. the sheer weight of fish and current is still making it a game. then all of the sudden, line goes limp...nothing...my griend kevin gets out his Ibeam and holy %$%$%$%$, there is a huge fin swimming where my line is leading to...big mo, the legendary 16 foot hammerhead of bahi honda channel is looking to eat my tarpon!!!! ...i only guess the tarpon is playing dead or is dead! my friend says cut the line, let him go, give the fish a chance. NO WAY. i reel like hell, the SOB is there, so is the fish....end result is the picture now hanging to my left of the tarpon being held up on a lip gaff in the bow of the boat, over 6 feet long, 100+ pounds, me smiling like the happiest guy in the world... and on the other wall a 2 shot frame another guy took of big mo chewing a tarpon in mid air...that was a great moment and telling it just now was a blast!

[Duke41]

every day is the best day becuase I always catch large

[basswipe]

34lb Amberjack off the Packery Channel jetty in Port A TX.1988.

Unreal for me.The fight was so intense.

[JoeBass]

I could read a whole book of these. I'm not kidding. Great stories, great moments and some super pics.
I've been fishing so long it's impossible for me to pick just one. I can think of 3 in the past 12 months I'll never forget. 1) watching my 16 yr old son fighting large stripers under a pier. The look on his face, the rod bent in two, the drag screaming. So much fun. 2) Hiking into a Vermont stream a mile with little luck...then he hooks into a large trout on ultralight tackle and lands a 20" brown after an amazing fight and many jumps (pretty unusual for a brown). 3) a few weeks ago he and i fishing from a dock on a small island off KeyWest at night. He was hooking monster Tarpon on a rapala floater/diver. Finally landed a smaller one of maybe 30 lbs.
All great memories he and I will never forget. We are never closer than when we are fishing together.

[Bocephus]

My fondest memory is when I was about 7 or 8, my parents allowed me to walk to the local pond by myself, I caught a small largemouth and the guys that were building something nearby took it off the hook for me, and called it a nice fish. I was beaming, and never stopped fishing after that. I was at that pond every chance I got, catching mostly pickeral, perch and bullheads, but occasionally getting a small bass or trout. Leading out of that pond was a small stream that led to a private hunting and fishing club, and we used to sight fish for trout that made it up the stream out of the fly fishing pond. I couldnt have asked for a better place to grow up. And since it was a girl scout camp, it was private, and I had the place to myself, as long as I didnt bother the girl scouts.

[dangerboy]

After many frustrating days in the fall chasing Albies it seemed like they had left. No birds ,little bait . Then motoring slowley along the jetties I kept seeing a little funny water. Every cast to that spot ,boom, albie,with a wind that would push me in the right direction.

[GBOUTDOORS]

I could not come up with only one as I love any time out on the water (fresh or salt). But here are just a few that stand out. The best with my son was the first trip he and I made to a small Maine pond when he was 12 to fish for smallmouths. We put the boat in went across the pond and first cast he makes a nice 6# or better smally jumps on his tinytorpedo and the fight is on. After a few minutes he has the fish coming along side and Dad gets it caught in the trolling motor and cuts him off. Greg looks back at me and says thats ok dad I was going to let him go anyway. The fish gods did help me out as we both caught many smallys that day up to and a few over 5# but not the big one. This pond has blessed us with many very large fish and great times together. Another would be the first trip to Cutty back in 2002 with a few new found friends at a site called striped-bass.com. I found the site in Jan. and asked if some of the guys would like to fish at Cuttyhunk with me in June for a weekend and stay at our house. If you can look up threads that far back see what kind of a reaction I got to that offer. Of all the times I have fished on Cutty and Nashawena islands for more than 50 years that weekend would be the best if only to watch the faces of these new comers as they fished the promised land. And yes John R that night with you and me in my boat and Clammer and Goose in his would have to be the most none stop Fish Catching, Laughter filled night of all it was what I think most true fisherman long for. Good fishing good friends good times!!

[jredfly]

I wrote this story a couple of years ago. I can't believe my oldest son is going to be a teen-ager in two days. Thanks for this thread. It was nice to re-visit, sometimes life moves too fast.

[BMEUPSCOTTY]

Wow what a great thread!
I grew up in NE PA and lived less than a mile from the Susquehanna River. We fished it often, wading or fishing out of my dad's jon boat. On nice weekend days we would take two trucks so we could enjoy a nice 5 mile float trip. We caught mostly smallmouth, but also perch, rock bass, walleye and when we felt like it we'd tangle with the huge carp. Then one day while trolling a panther martin spinner minnow my dad hooked a musky. Quite the battle ensued on fairly light tackle. He landed that fish,a 35 incher and his first musky ever, despite growing up in a house on the bank of the river. He just never targeted them before, probably because he grew up quite poor and any legal fish he caught went to the kitchen so he focused on the smaller fish with the better odds...
One night the following summer, August 14, 1979 to be exact, dad asks me if I want to go down to the river for a few casts one evening after baseball practice, so I say sure, and we end up fishing a nice hole with a back eddy that leads into a riffly narrows. The fish weren't biting and the sun was fading fast. I sensed the end of the outing was near and was losing a little interest (as a nine year old will do from time to time). I had on a yellow quarter ounce jig and I was fishing with a telescopic fiberglass rod with a zebco pushbutton special with 10 or 12 lb. test. I had the rod butt on top of my head and was reeling so fast the jig was just skipping across the water. About ten feet from shore in about 10 inches of water all hell breaks loose. All I can manage is "dad, I got one and it feels big." I can still see the look on his face when he saw the shape of my rod. The fish gave me four or five head shakes and then just started peeling line. A tough and anxious battle took place and it got hairy when the fish started going downstream. I had to follow and nurse him down through the riffles to the next eddy where, with much encouragement from dad I finally put the fish on the rocks. We celebrated and then measured the fish at 40.75 inches. It was not a stocked tiger, but a true muskellunge. We drove it over to the local supermarket and walked in and draped it over the produce scale at one of the registers and it came in at 15.5 pounds, my biggest fish before I found saltwater and a great time with dad.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by GBOUTDOORS

I could not come up with only one as I love any time out on the water (fresh or salt). But here are just a few that stand out. The best with my son was the first trip he and I made to a small Maine pond when he was 12 to fish for smallmouths. We put the boat in went across the pond and first cast he makes a nice 6# or better smally jumps on his tinytorpedo and the fight is on. After a few minutes he has the fish coming along side and Dad gets it caught in the trolling motor and cuts him off. Greg looks back at me and says thats ok dad I was going to let him go anyway. The fish gods did help me out as we both caught many smallys that day up to and a few over 5# but not the big one. This pond has blessed us with many very large fish and great times together. Another would be the first trip to Cutty back in 2002 with a few new found friends at a site called striped-bass.com. I found the site in Jan. and asked if some of the guys would like to fish at Cuttyhunk with me in June for a weekend and stay at our house. If you can look up threads that far back see what kind of a reaction I got to that offer. Of all the times I have fished on Cutty and Nashawena islands for more than 50 years that weekend would be the best if only to watch the faces of these new comers as they fished the promised land. And yes John R that night with you and me in my boat and Clammer and Goose in his would have to be the most none stop Fish Catching, Laughter filled night of all it was what I think most true fisherman long for. Good fishing good friends good times!!

Great times, great times

Originally Posted by BMEUPSCOTTY

Wow what a great thread!
I grew up in NE PA and lived less than a mile from the Susquehanna River. We fished it often, wading or fishing out of my dad's jon boat. On nice weekend days we would take two trucks so we could enjoy a nice 5 mile float trip. We caught mostly smallmouth, but also perch, rock bass, walleye and when we felt like it we'd tangle with the huge carp. Then one day while trolling a panther martin spinner minnow my dad hooked a musky. Quite the battle ensued on fairly light tackle. He landed that fish,a 35 incher and his first musky ever, despite growing up in a house on the bank of the river. He just never targeted them before, probably because he grew up quite poor and any legal fish he caught went to the kitchen so he focused on the smaller fish with the better odds...
One night the following summer, August 14, 1979 to be exact, dad asks me if I want to go down to the river for a few casts one evening after baseball practice, so I say sure, and we end up fishing a nice hole with a back eddy that leads into a riffly narrows. The fish weren't biting and the sun was fading fast. I sensed the end of the outing was near and was losing a little interest (as a nine year old will do from time to time). I had on a yellow quarter ounce jig and I was fishing with a telescopic fiberglass rod with a zebco pushbutton special with 10 or 12 lb. test. I had the rod butt on top of my head and was reeling so fast the jig was just skipping across the water. About ten feet from shore in about 10 inches of water all hell breaks loose. All I can manage is "dad, I got one and it feels big." I can still see the look on his face when he saw the shape of my rod. The fish gave me four or five head shakes and then just started peeling line. A tough and anxious battle took place and it got hairy when the fish started going downstream. I had to follow and nurse him down through the riffles to the next eddy where, with much encouragement from dad I finally put the fish on the rocks. We celebrated and then measured the fish at 40.75 inches. It was not a stocked tiger, but a true muskellunge. We drove it over to the local supermarket and walked in and draped it over the produce scale at one of the registers and it came in at 15.5 pounds, my biggest fish before I found saltwater and a great time with dad.

Scotty, you madman

[BigFish]

I AM DYING TO GO MUSKIE FISHING! CATCHING THE FISH OF 10,000 CASTS IS A DREAM OF MINE AND ONE I HOPE TO MAKE A REALITY SOON!

Great story BME!

[MAKAI]

Originally Posted by BigFish

I AM DYING TO GO MUSKIE FISHING! CATCHING THE FISH OF 10,000 CASTS IS A DREAM OF MINE AND ONE I HOPE TO MAKE A REALITY SOON!

Great story BME!

a minute a cast works out to fishing 24/7. . . . .7 days. . .hope you are a patient man. I fished with the editor of muskie magazine , they are a devoted bunch. He felt that all the pike he caught while waiting out the muskie were like us fighting through dogfish. . .pisses him off.

[nklinesider]

last year when the pogies were running, a friend and i took my 12ft fiberglass duck hunting boat down to the harbor near my house. we were going into the channel and snagging bait and going back into the marina and casting under a big sailboat that had a huge school of fish under it. cast out, count to five and one would grab it, let it run, count to five again and stick em. there was a big marina party on the dock we were casting toward and everyone was cheering and talkin about how big the fish were. the crowd turned it into a compitition between my buddy and i and after about 2 hours we caught about 15 keepers. let all but two smaller ones go. having the people there made it feel like we were in an arena or something. a pertty cool experience and if the bait comes back like that hopefully ill do it again