Tell me your fish story

[DarkSkies]

Love these stories keep em coming! Strange thing that I saw last night-
Fishing nomoco. The craziest thing was one guy was trying for stripers because there were bunker around. He was snagging bunker and all of a sudden we thought he had a big striper. When he reeled it in it was a large sturgeon about 20 lbs! He took a quick video and let it go. Pretty unusual to see something like that.

That was a friend of mine. If you see him again don't crowd him but watch what he does and how he fishes. He lands more 30+ lb bass every year than most people I know....most in solo bites...not in bunker blitzes....fishing in the dead of night in an area somewhere there is a high concentration of bunker.....

He's the one I shared the story about some time earlier...who can smell a blitz way before anyone else knows it's going to happen....
He's been pretty disappointed this year....he mostly targets big fish.....and puts a tremendous amount of time in....

He's been out 6 times in the last 10 nights looking for bass and has been disappointed....I think he has one 25# fish to his credit for all that time spent on the water....and lost sleep....just to give you an idea of how tough it is to target big bass from land.....in the current environment we're living in......very poor fishing overall unless you're in one of the few areas that bass are passing on the migration trail........

It is an interesting story though....thanks for posting it...and the next time you see him.....pay attention to what he's doing....he is a certified fishing lunatic......

I was fishing a SS inlet with a live eel unweighted at my favorite magic hour as I call it.

The eel did its thing swimming down to the bottom.

About 15 minutes in- the eel became very nervous. Then I felt the eel swimming rapidly up to the surface. As it reached the top of the water I saw a huge shadow following.

When the bass came to the surface it whacked the eel with its tail causing it to fly out of the water.

When that eel landed the bass circled in front of it and flared it's gills and sucked that eel in like a piece of spaghetti!
Off it went - so I bowed to the cow and when the line came tight the circle hook did it's job. The bass then realized she was hooked and started ripping line off the reel swimming like hell trying to rid itself of the hook.

When it finally slowed some I started working her back to me. Then that big bass 2nd run started and game on again. Finally I tired it enough to work it to the rocks. When I got her in close I climbed down to my landing perch and grabbed the fish.

A quick weigh and measure revealed 41 lbs. 49"
I popped the hook out and put the big one back to swim again. Off it went and that's my story.

Quite honestly it was a learning lesson on how bass attack an eel. Was great to watch how it played out since this all happened at the surface. It was just the perfect time of the early a.m. Exact part of the magic hour. For the first time everything played out like I had planned it.

That doesn't exactly happen all the time. This was quite a few years ago when we still had a good number of large bass.

Wow awesome stories! Never knew a bass would go after an eel like that! And a sturgeon from the beach is like so rare I never heard of it.

Great story Rich.....

I heard you tell that before but I didn't know the exact size of the bass....seeing a fish that big come out of the water is an adrenaline-filled moment that will last forever in your head.....
Nice work on the release as well.....

[baitstealer]

Nice going. That story about the eel was good. I could picture the striper coming up and whacking it! Good job.

[surfstix1963]

That was the second time that happened to me same exact scenario that one was a 35 lb.bass same inlet same time frame same tide.They seem to react like that with unweighted eels.

[porgy75]

Awesome catch dude. Would love to catch a giant striper on a eel. Tried one time and the eel got all tangled up.

[porgy75]

Check this out a marlin beaches itself.

[surfrob]

Don't think I've shared these, and they don't compare to many of the fine stories in this thread, but here goes:

1. late September, "Albie Alley", daybreak - fishing a 11' Tsunami AirWave, 30lb braid, 50 lb leader, 5" storm shad. Cast, retrieve, repeat. I had been fishing from dark thirty, the sun came up, beautiful morning on the beach. All of a sudden I'm snagged. I am fishing near some rocks, after all, so I wasn't too surprised. Getting ready to tighten down and break off, but before I do, the "snag" moves. Hmmm. Starts slowly heading downbeach and I walk down with it, keeping steady pressure, but not getting any line in at all. The "snag" stops for a while, then starts heading to England. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ then stop, my rod is bent over, steady pressure, but unable to get any line back at all. Not an inch. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ more line out, then stop. This goes on for the next half hour. I never feel a bump, head shake or anything, just the steady ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ of line going out then stopping for a few minutes. Finally, after the half hour I give up and start tightening the drag down. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ again, tighten more, ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ again, tighten more. This happens until I'm just about 100% tightened down then, of course, BOINK! I'm off. Retrieve in, and there is my shad with a straightened hook. So who knows? A turtle? A ray, didn't fight like any ray I had caught til that time or since then.




2. Last year, May, backbays. Fishing 10lb braid, 15lb leader. Bucktail with minnie, teaser/gulp. Not doing much, some short flundies, skates, sharks. Finally moved into a shallow channel and my offering gets slammed, and the fish starts running. This is a good fish. This is not a flounder. Water was way off color so never got to see it. Fought for 15 minutes. Almost had it within netting distance and it took off again. In the middle of the fight got waked by a deep V cruising by... must have thrown a 5 ft wake, I had to go down on my knees and tried my best to not let up on this fish. Finally, the fish made a run out away from the boat, and that's death knell after fighting for so long, especially as it was 99% likely a weakie. A g o o d weakie. Gulp came back intact (not a blue), was definitely grabbed and the slam and head shake was telltale. Anyhow, who knows?




3. Last year, June, backbays. Fishing a variety of rods, most had 10-15lb braid / leader combos like above. But I was fishing with my son, who is not experienced in this type of fishing. It was blowing 20+ knots and we were going to call it, but he's from out of town, and this was his chance during the summer for getting out anywhere. So, he did his best while I power drifted, but it was tough, even if I had been fishing it would have been tough to hold. Hit prime areas and he got some hits, but a lot of snags as well. Broke off 3 rigs, so I finally made a move to the same area where I lost the weakie in #2. It's protected and in fact was the only protected spot from that wind, that day. There were a few other boats there, but definitely fishable. Set up tight to a bank with a dropoff and picked up a pre-rigged rod, my brother in law's... which I'll NEVER do again. Must have had 30 year old mono on it (after testing it later). First drop I made, in 5 ft of water (back of the boat was in 12... steep bank), I get a tick-tick. I lift and set... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, head shake, head shake and I know I'm *into* a good fish. It's big, no doubt. Work it, work it, finally I see a halibut surface. My hands start shaking, I'm standing in the bow holding pressure, and some of you will realize flounder are kind of "stupified" for a brief time when they surface and you have a good shot at netting them. I knew we had *one* shot. "GET THE NET", "DONT STAB AT IT", "GET BELOW AND COME UP" I'm yelling in rapid succession.
Sadly, my son (my fault I know... I'm a bad dad) was not experienced enough and missed it. In fact, anyone could have missed it. I saw it go down, and a tail bigger than my hand flip at me and BOINK! gone.

yes, fish seem bigger in the water but this was way beyond my personal best.

[baitstealer]

3. Last year, June, backbays. Fishing a variety of rods, most had 10-15lb braid / leader combos like above. But I was fishing with my son, who is not experienced in this type of fishing. It was blowing 20+ knots and we were going to call it, but he's from out of town, and this was his chance during the summer for getting out anywhere. So, he did his best while I power drifted, but it was tough, even if I had been fishing it would have been tough to hold. Hit prime areas and he got some hits, but a lot of snags as well. Broke off 3 rigs, so I finally made a move to the same area where I lost the weakie in #2. It's protected and in fact was the only protected spot from that wind, that day. There were a few other boats there, but definitely fishable. Set up tight to a bank with a dropoff and picked up a pre-rigged rod, my brother in law's... which I'll NEVER do again. Must have had 30 year old mono on it (after testing it later). First drop I made, in 5 ft of water (back of the boat was in 12... steep bank), I get a tick-tick. I lift and set... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, head shake, head shake and I know I'm *into* a good fish. It's big, no doubt. Work it, work it, finally I see a halibut surface. My hands start shaking, I'm standing in the bow holding pressure, and some of you will realize flounder are kind of "stupified" for a brief time when they surface and you have a good shot at netting them. I knew we had *one* shot. "GET THE NET", "DONT STAB AT IT", "GET BELOW AND COME UP" I'm yelling in rapid succession.
Sadly, my son (my fault I know... I'm a bad dad) was not experienced enough and missed it. In fact, anyone could have missed it. I saw it go down, and a tail bigger than my hand flip at me and BOINK! gone.

yes, fish seem bigger in the water but this was way beyond my personal best.

Tail bigger than your hand must of been a real doormat! Nice story anyway at least you had a good time fishing with your son.

[7deadlyplugs]

Truth is stranger than fiction. Boat capt stabbed by swordfish.
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/2...ii-harbor-dies

[surfrob]

Tail bigger than your hand must of been a real doormat! Nice story anyway at least you had a good time fishing with your son.

like I wrote, though fish always look bigger in the water, this no doubt was a g o o d fish. 7lb+ is very possible, though 12lb-ers have been pulled out near where we were.

[bababooey]

Thought this was a good one. From nj.com Capt Al Ristori. July 16 Mako Mania tourney last minute entry winner.
Congrats to Capt and crew of Big Nutz Required.


When the crew of Big Nutz Required II boated a potential contest-winning mako shark at 5 p.m. Sunday, they pinned it down with a cooler and were soon on their way back to Manasquan Inlet even though their GPS indicated they couldn't make it by the 7 p.m. deadline at the inlet.

Bait and chum were thrown off the Bertram 31 along with everything else disposable as they also pumped out their fresh water -- doing everything possible to lighten the boat and distribute weight to get the maximum out of the old Detroit engine.

With the throttle pinned, that made a difference as a bit of speed was picked up as the boat lightened -- and they made it to the check-in point at the Manasquan Inlet jetty with just four minutes to spare. With only one other mako shark on the board at the Crystal Point Yacht Club weigh-in station in Point Pleasant, their catch was a sure winner of something.

When it tipped the scales to 153.8 pounds, the result was first place in Mako Mania for a payout of $94,488.

[ledhead36]

Talk about making it in by the skin of there teeth. Nicely done Big Nutz.

[seamonkey]

Awesome story thanks for sharing.

[fishinmission78]

One fish I have never heard of being caught in NJ. A cubera snapper. 25lbs. Awesome catch dude.
http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2...l#incart_river

[surferman]

That is an amazing catch. Would not have believed it without a pic. Wow!

[bababooey]

Like finding a needle in a haystack. Great job.

[bababooey]

like I wrote, though fish always look bigger in the water, this no doubt was a g o o d fish. 7lb+ is very possible, though 12lb-ers have been pulled out near where we were.

A 12 lb fluke would have been 5 o clock news worthy if it was the barny bay. 7 pounds at least worthy of a mention by Capt Al Ristori. We never have fish even close to that size in the bay any more. Great story even though it didn't come home with you. Maybe one day it will!