# The Single Fish You won't..EVER FORGET....EVER



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

I recall many fish that I have both hooked as well as caught, and several stick out bigtime in my memory. But, the one that sticks out the most is a Tarpon that I hooked in Homassassa Fl. in June of 2001. The fish was in a group of 6 that came down the edge of a shallow channel toward the boat and as they approached I realized each of themlooled to beover 150 each and I don't think I have ever felt what I felt before trying to put my fly in front of that group of fish since that day. Anyway, I fumbled a shot and landed the fly too close and the fish passed under the fly as it sank. After they passed I picked up the fly and put it about 20 feet in front of the school and the fly sank to the level that I could start a slow retreave and the second to the lead fish turned away from the others and began to follow the fly. He seemed to follow forever and kept his nose right on behind the fly as if he was only wanting to touch it. I was a nervous wreck. I continued to strip so slow that I almost couldn't stand it. Finally the fish took and started to turn back to the others in the pod, and I will never forget feeling the flyline pull through my fingers on my left hand as he turned away to get back the school. I set up and he went airborn, jumped more than a dozen times and bulldoged forever. After just a little more than 4 hours, he frayed through my shock tippet, the game was over. 

I had a close friend on the boat that did an incredible job assisting me at every part of boathandling and making every effort to keep me in the fight. Both of us feel the fish was considerably over 200 lbs. and I still to this day feel she was better than 225. I was not as let down as I would have been many years ago, but I will never forget being tied to that single fish for a little more than 4 hours.....ever. 

Whether you landed it or not, what is the story ofsingle fish you remember the most?


----------



## jim t (Sep 30, 2007)

Now THAT is a fishin' story...

Thanks for the visual...

Jim


----------



## Capt. AHO (Oct 2, 2007)

The most remerable fish that sticks out in my mind is the last time I got to fish with my Grandfather. He was the first one to ever take me fishing and I was the last one to ever take him fishing. God new it was his last time and let the fish bite his hook often enough it wore him out. I would hook a worm on his hook and throw his cork out. And about the time I would hand him the pole I would be saying reel PaPa reel. First fish 2 pound bass. Boy I miss him and all my fishing and hunting buddies that are no longer with us. :angel


----------



## jim t (Sep 30, 2007)

> *jim t (5/6/2008)*Now THAT is a fishin' story...
> 
> Thanks for the visual...
> 
> Jim




OOPS... I forgot the theme...

Probably 4 years ago I fished with D. Woodley, Grouper22 andI think MADMAX... It was a Saturday, crummy seas, so we decided to stay nearshore. We went to the Tex Edwards Barge and anchored up. Set up a chum line and tried to lure up some keeper snapper.

Aboutan hour into the 90 degree, 90 % humidityJuly morning a60# Cobia showed up in the chum line... I tried to convince him to take a jig... butthe fish would simply approach, then veer away. Mr. Woodley, calmly but quicklyput down his bottom rod (okay he said "Frig this..." and dropped the bottom rod in the nearest rodholder), picked up a flat line with a dead bait, reeled it in, cut off the leader, tied on a 40#flouro leader with a treble hook, hooked up a big pinfish and literally fed him to the Ling and freelined the reel... ONE POTATO,... TWO POTATO, ...THREE POTATO,... FOUR POTATO... FIVE POTATO... WHAM!!! JACKED UP that fishlikethe fish was a 1000 pound marlin.



FISH ON...Unfortunately, he was using 15 # mono as a mainline. The fish sounded right toward the wreck. After a bit, afraid of a cutoff weloosed 600' of anchor line and tied the end to an anchor bouy and then allowed the fishto tow our26' Shamrockaroundcourtesy of Mr Woodley for an hourand 20 minutes or so. It was so much fun to watch Woodley gain 5' then lose it... The fish hugged the bottom... we could watch him on the bottom machine come up 5' as Dave won some line, then take the same 5' of line right back down to the bottom.

We had pictures of the bottom machineduring the fight, pictures of D. Woodley all bowed up with the rest of us drinking beer nearby, and pictures of trying to cool Dave off with buckets of water.



You can only imagine the crap Dave was taking as he got his ass handed to him for over an hour while the rest of us could do nothing more than drink beer and complain about not being able to fish...

Dave finally won, we boated the fish and drove nearly 3 miles to retrieve the anchor.



Not a 4 hour fight, but a helluva good time was had by all.



GREAT THREAD!!!:toast:toast



Jim



Jim


----------



## hebegb (Oct 6, 2007)

I was on the trip where we kicked back with beers and watched dave sweat withj the cobe on "tv"



That was a helluva catch!!



Jim! How ya been?:toast


----------



## bwendel07 (Sep 30, 2007)

One morning out of destin we were Mackrel Trolling and ended up hooking a cobia. It took us three hours to even see the fish at a distance. We thought it was the World record for sure, it took us another three hours to boat it, It was about 45 pounds but foul hooked right behind the Pectoral fin, So nothing special but for about six hours the three of us us thought we we would be famous for sure.


----------



## hebegb (Oct 6, 2007)

first tuna I caught....on the lump.

I never knew fish could do that....1 and 1/2 hour later 127 lb YFT in the boat on standup gear and no harness.



The next day my forearms and back were on FIRE :hotsun:hoppingmad


----------



## true-king (Oct 2, 2007)

The most exciting experience I have had was fishing for blue marlin in St. Thomas last summer. Wechartered a boat with our party offive (me, my dad, and several other family friends). It was to be a 10 hour trolling trip at the St. Thomas' north drop. The day started out slow, where I caught a small cuda as the first fish. We did a rotation, going between the5 of us so everyone could catch a fish.My turn was over for now. Next, a small blackfin was landed, then about a 30# wahoo, then two separate skipjack tunas. Now it's my turn again. A fish hits and I go to the chair. At first I'm thinking 'here comes another cuda.' As I'm looking down in the chair trying to get the rod situated, one of our friends says, "IT'S A MARLIN!!!" I look up to see the huge head slashing around on the surface 50 yards behind the boat! Then I just held on as the fish quickly spooled off around 500 yards of line on the 80 wide. After the capitain came down from the tower, we started the backdown. Diesels roaring, water splashing over the transom, it was wild! The fish gave several jumps out there, and after the longest 45 minutes of my life, I saw the bimini! Got him leadered, snapped a few pics, and sent him on his way. They estimated the weight a little shy of 400. I think I collapsed in the seats from exaustion and relief. 

Its been a little over 10 months since that fish and I can't wait to get back out there and get another!


----------



## Buckyt (Oct 1, 2007)

My fondest memory fishing was about 28 years ago in Destin. My son, my best buddy, and I were fishing in our bass boat off Ft Walton Beach when we hung, fought , and landed ( actually we just touched the leader then released the fish) a 6' sailfish on a 6' freshwater bass rod and 15# line. We chased and fought this fish for 1 hr 45 minutes and followed him about 6 miles before the fisht was over. The best part was sharing the experience with my son and buddy. I'm glad we didn't kill this beauty because I can still see this fish as vividly today as the day we caught him! After the fight we looked around and couldn't see land, another boat, or anything. We didn't have a compass, so we guessed right and ended up back in Destin! I have a compass, 2 GPS, and radio on my boat now.


----------



## Bodupp (Oct 3, 2007)

<P class=MsoBodyText style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">My most memorable fish was a coulda been ? shoulda been - mongo cobia that Billy and I found off Navarre in two feet of water up against the beach. The only reason we even looked there was because of a curious-looking picket line of porpi inside the green reef. We went to check them out, and saw this monster cobia not ten feet from dry land in what I call a ?baby pool?: the knee deep water next to the beach protected by an ankle deep sandbar where mommies let their toddlers play.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Billy didn?t want to risk getting grounded in the surf, so we hung out about a cast and half offshore, trying to figure what to do next. Billy told me to check my range and a live bait could only be thrown about halfway to the fish. I really wanted to feed this fish a livie and gut hook her, but we were afraid to close on her for fear of spooking her. Billy wanted me to try a 3 oz. jig, and it landed almost to her. We figured she would exit the baby pool on the west side, so we took up a position as close as we dared, and I launched the jig and just let it lay in the sand where we thought she would come out. Agonizing seconds later, she came out of the pool with her dorsal out of the water! When she was five feet from the jig, I hopped it out of the sand and she crushed it! I jacked her pretty good and she headed offshore in no particular hurry. Billy got the boat out of the way and the cobia gained speed as I climbed down. By the time I was on deck, she was aping it for the canyon. Billy?s backing down and I?m still getting spooled. I start to tell Billy to turn and chase when the line goes slack. Fungus! Knots held, line held, hook didn?t.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">I climb back in the tower, cussing, and told Billy she was over ninety, easy. Billy, through clenched teeth, said a hundred plus, easy.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"><o></o><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Note to self: Don?t jack ?em while they?re looking at you.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *Buckyt (5/6/2008)*My fondest memory fishing was about 28 years ago in Destin. My son, my best buddy, and I were fishing in our bass boat off Ft Walton Beach when we hung, fought , and landed ( actually we just touched the leader then released the fish) a 6' sailfish on a 6' freshwater bass rod and 15# line. We chased and fought this fish for 1 hr 45 minutes and followed him about 6 miles before the fisht was over. The best part was sharing the experience with my son and buddy. I'm glad we didn't kill this beauty because I can still see this fish as vividly today as the day we caught him! After the fight we looked around and couldn't see land, another boat, or anything. We didn't have a compass, so we guessed right and ended up back in Destin! I have a compass, 2 GPS, and radio on my boat now.


*That's a pretty cool story. Great Catch.*


----------



## parrothead (Oct 1, 2007)

The fish i will never forget was when i came down here on vacation.Fishing Ft Pickens,sun going down, been fishing the pier alll day,about to go back to the condo. Very last alwey(?) sent him down right next to the pilling.Getting ready to real it in,when out of nowhere, SLAM, the fight was on.Fought the King for about 20 minutes. Get him next to the pier,some guy jumps in the water and grabs the fish by the tail and throws him onto the beach. Holy crap!!!!!! Still cant believe it. Decided right there and then, im moving here !!!!!!!!!!! 2 weeks later im driving in a Uhaul with everything i own. Dont know a soul and have no place to live.But im moving to Florida !!!!!!!!! Best thing i ever did. All because of that King. Were would i be now if i didnt catch that fish ?? Dont know and dont care.

Scott


----------



## David_Z (Mar 31, 2008)

Not a single fish, but a pod.

This was close to twenty years ago. I grew up in Panama City, did my share of inshore fishing as a kid, but nothing real serious. 

When we got into our twenties, the whole ling fishing thing started to fascinate my brother and I. I remember spending every free day during one season on the State Park pier, where we had some shots at fish, but never managed to hook up.

A year or two later, my brother made the plunge and bought a 23' Grady White. He hadn't had the time or money to put a tower on it yet,but we took it out anyway to tryto spot one from the bow without much success on a couple other occasions. 

Well, one April morning everything lined up just right. The weather was perfect, the sun bright, and Gulf clear and calm. We just cleared the jetties at PC and had throttled downto start looking when my brother sees a disturbance up ahead. At first it looked to be a giant bait ball, but as we approach you can see individual fish breaking the water with their backs and dorsal fins. Turns out it was a tightly packed wad of over 100 ling just cruising along the surface. 

Of course, once we get into casting range it was an instant double hookup. As we're fighting our fish, the school just surrounds the boat. Everywhere you look were BIG fish, averaging about 50 lbs and many MUCH bigger than that. The two fish we took from the school were at 45 and 50, so I know there must have been more than one at or over 100 lbs.

That was a sight I doubt I'll ever see again. A school of 100 or more ling right out in front of the State Park and all that boat traffic. The pier fishermen had to be hating it, I don't thing the school ever came in close enough for them to get a shot.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *David_Z (5/20/2008)*Not a single fish, but a pod.
> 
> This was close to twenty years ago. I grew up in Panama City, did my share of inshore fishing as a kid, but nothing real serious.
> 
> ...


*I know several people in Panama City that talk about a specific school of Cobia, much like what you described. I don't think I have ever heard of a more popular school of fish of any sort. A couple of weeks ago, Marshall Pritchit and I had a conversation about the very same thing and his description was almost Identical to yours. That must have been something to see. Cool Story. *


----------



## Ocean Man (Sep 27, 2007)

I would have to say a large King that my buddy Duayne hooked into 6-7 years ago. It was back before I had a Gulf boat. Duayne and I used to take his 19 footer out to the pass and catch lots of Spanish, Bluefish, Redfish and Ladyfish with Gotcha's and spoons. He had an old motor on the boat so we didn't trust it to go very far out the pass. We were working aschool of Spanish when Duayne threw his Gotcha out on a ultralight with 8lb test and one strand of 90lb sevenstrand steel leader. The King smoked it after a few jerks and the fight was on. I had to give chase with the motor a few times to keep him from being spooled. Duayne wouldgain alittle line then the fish would take it all back. The fight started just outside the pass with plenty of light left in the day. By the time the sun set we were a couple miles from the pass and the fight was still raging on. We had a zodiac packed full of military guys hauling a$% go past us in the dead of night and with no lights on hooting and hollering like they were on a roller coaster. I guess the were on a practice mission. About 30 minutes later they came back in and we were still hooked up. By this time the fish was wore out and we could see him with a flashlight about 10-15ft under the boat. It was a huge King somewhere in the 40-50lb class. We just couldn't get him to budge. It was like the shear weight of the fish couldn't be lifted through the water with 8lb test. The fish wasn't running or moving at all just sitting down there out of reach. It was pretty late and we were farther out then we had ever been in his boat so Duayne started to put a little more pressure on him to see if he could get him up. When he did the thin wire leader snapped in half and the fish drifted out of sight. Even though he didn't land the fish I would have to say that was the greatest job of angling I have ever seen.


----------



## pappastratos (Oct 9, 2007)

Great stories, mine is not as good as others, my son was about 6 or 7, just graduated from his snoopy rod to a real rod. We were fishing at the Warrior River in Al. My son had a lipless crank bait on his rod. I wouldcast it, he would retrive it back. WE had just got to our spot in our little runabout, on the second throw he caught a 2 lb. bass !! Now at 21, he is a fish-aholic ! fresh & saltwater !!


----------



## Midnight Run (Oct 2, 2007)

<TABLE class=bbstable cellSpacing=1 width="95%" align=center><TBODY><TR><TD class=messagemiddle vAlign=top height=150><SPAN class=smalltext>

</TD><TD class=messagemiddle vAlign=top>OUR 2 BLUE MARLIN AT THE SAME TIME


After 6 hours of this, to the Nipple,,, to the Oriskiny,,, to the southeast for a few and them back to the nipple, I am tiring of this kind of NON action. I ask the crew, to the edge or to the house,,, the edge,,, i chose the house... 500' then 400' then 300' then 275 and I am about to tell the crew to forget this wet experience and chaulk it to experience.... Jeff and Chuck are doing other stuff and I am looking at the spread of 5 lines and damn, there is a bill thrashing at the port side rigger5. Jeff alerted, comes to the reel and free spool it goes for seemed like minutes but just a few seconds . He stops and darn if the fish hits like a truck and starts off to Orange Beach,,,,, just a second... the shotgun goes CRAZY and this fish is huge and is out of the water and in the water and surfing to the surface and generaly acting badly but wants to visit Cancun.... Bad deal, 30w to OB and 50w to Cancun... 30w is about spooled and Jeff and I look at each other and, more drag is the only thing we can think of and it works, line doesn't break and we stop the run. Now to the Cancun fish, he has 200 yards left and we with luck find Jeffs fish wanting to go to Cancun also so we can go South now and gain on both.... Now they cross and this way and this way and the anglers are to the fron the back, this side and that side, no harness for either so belt is is getting a bit old, both are STUDS and don't quit. 


Jeff gets his to the boat, I grab the leader, he says dad, might be a good idea to have gloves, too late I have him up to grab the bill, not as stron as I thought I was off he goes. This goes on for a bit longer, now have gloves so does Jeff, to the boat again, Jeff again grabs the leader, rod in holder,,, need one more angler,,, fish is kicking hell out of Jeff at the boat, have bill marks all down the side.... Get tired of watching and grab bill from Jeff,,, being stud old man, lots of pride I will die before I let this damn fish go,,,, Chuck just chill we will be there shortly.,,,, we cut the hook, retrieve my sons new Black Bart lure, revive the fish and he swims off,,,, Hey fish,,, give me back my skin off my hands and arms.... 

=

Chuck,, what can I say, he is a year older than me and what a STUD, uses his new 50 wide and now that we have no distractions, horses him Blue in and we get the lure back and off he goes...Great job Chuck... Did I tell ya, Chuck caught his biggest hoo on our boat last month. Now his fist Blue Marlin. 


OK, since I have no horse in the size race here. One Marlin, was 77 to 79 inches, we measured with a rope and the other was a few inches longer, but short of 85 inches.... Both anglers had landed their first Blues and one proud dad had witnessed it all.... 








</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


----------



## SheYakFishr (Oct 1, 2007)

I would have to say... the most memorable fish would be catching that 41" Jack Cravelle out of my kayak byGarcon Point Bridge on a 3" jig and a medium rod. Not only did I get myvery FIRST "Gulf Coast Sleigh Ride"... it took me a full 10 minutes just to get him into the yak and out of the waterafter being spooled twice. I couldn't hardly move my arms after that fight. It was the most awesome thing to be able to do that!!! When I got his head out of the water... I thought... OMGGGGGGGGGG.... what is that??? I had no idea... laffs... and neither did anyone on the 10 boats that were in the water all around the bridge. Yep... that was the most awesome catch... out of the yak.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *Midnight Run (5/20/2008)*<TABLE class=bbstable cellSpacing=1 width="95%" align=center><TBODY><TR><TD class=messagemiddle vAlign=top height=150><SPAN class=smalltext>
> 
> </TD><TD class=messagemiddle vAlign=top>OUR 2 BLUE MARLIN AT THE SAME TIME
> 
> ...


*Dang. That is an incredible Story. Just, Dang. *


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *SheYakFishr (5/20/2008)*I would have to say... the most memorable fish would be catching that 41" Jack Cravelle out of my kayak byGarcon Point Bridge on a 3" jig and a medium rod. Not only did I get myvery FIRST "Gulf Coast Sleigh Ride"... it took me a full 10 minutes just to get him into the yak and out of the waterafter being spooled twice. I couldn't hardly move my arms after that fight. It was the most awesome thing to be able to do that!!! When I got his head out of the water... I thought... OMGGGGGGGGGG.... what is that??? I had no idea... laffs... and neither did anyone on the 10 boats that were in the water all around the bridge. Yep... that was the most awesome catch... out of the yak.


*Dang Pam. How far did he pull you around?*


----------



## reel_dedicated (May 11, 2008)

THE FISH I WILL NEVER FORGET....

i was about 40+ miles offshore out of Dauphin Island, just me, my dad,and my old roommatein my college years... we pulled up to a rig to catch some live hardtails that we were about to drop down for some aj's when i saw what i thought was the biggest king terriorizing the bait... i pulled out a 6 oz dimond jig on w. single strand 80 lb wire... pitched it next to the rig and began ripping it as fast as i could back to the boat.. suddenly i saw the shadow screaming towards my jig.... he ate it within 10 ft of the boat... as soon as i set the hook the fish surfaced and began tail walking right towards the boat!! thats when i saw that it was a BIG WAHOO!!! the fish kept tailwalking until he slammed into the side of the boat.. my heart stopped because i thought i lost him... then suddenly he began running under the boat nearly snatching my penn 950 out of my hands... i finally cleared the motor and began fighting this beast... an hour past and we finally had him in gaffing distance... to my amazement this was probably the biggest wahoo i had ever hooked... my roommate struggled with the gaff.... 2 misses and then finally stuck that 6.5' aftco gaff right behind its gills... i then grabbed a smaller lip gaff and helped him bring it into the boat... we estimated it to be around 80 lbs... once we got the fish in the boat we realized we didn't have enough room in the ice box to fit him due to all the snapper and good aj's we had caught... so we had one option... lay him down on the floor and cover him up with a beach towel and head to the island... we got back to the marina and weighed him... tipped the scales at a lil over 92 lbs.... ONE WORD DESCRIBES THAT MEMORY.... PRICESLESS!!!


----------



## captken (Feb 24, 2008)

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I had to take notes as soon as I got in from the following ill fated fishing trip. I added to the notes in the following week or so and pretty much added "The end" to the tale today, more than a year and a half later. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">TUESDAY Afternoon, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:date Day="7" Month="11" Year="2006">Nov. 7, 2006</st1:date>. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">This is one really strange fish tale. Hopefully you realize that the really strange ones are usually gospel truth as this one is. Right now, I am totally pooped but I have to get this written before I forget some of the details. Yeah, and I gotta go vote too although my heart is not in voting this time.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I woke up this morning around 4 with a serious fishing itch. Maybe the approaching front started the itch just as a front often triggers a feeding frenzy with the fishes. I checked tide and weather before cooking breakfast. This is unusual for me because, when I get through shaving and dressing, eating is job 1.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I packed camera, cell phone and GPS into my dry box. Next, I slid my yak into my truck and went in to get a couple of rods. I generally don?t use my best tackle when yakin? but this time, my Tarpon rod went in first (Ambassadeur Record 40 on a 5-1/2 Fenwick bait caster) followed by an inexpensive Mitchell Avocet spinning rig.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Before I left the house, I checked the leaders on both rods, something that may have made a great difference an hour or so later. I rigged new leaders on both rods, 20# Stren Dura Tuff on the spinner and 30# Stren Dura Tuff on the bait caster.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I headed for the C-40 ramp in YT but, after looking at the sky, decided to launch at the FMP Station on the CFBC instead. I seldom fish the canal in my yak but with the fast moving clouds and approaching front, figured it might be a good idea.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I rigged a Pop-R on the spinning rod and a Gulp Jerk Shad about 18? under a long line rattle float on the bait caster. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I decided to head out to an area of the canal with lots of springs, to see if there were any Redfish around them as there will be in a couple of months. The Jerk Shad was trolled about 50? back and I was paddling hard to cover ground as fast as possible.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">About a hundred yards past the Hwy 19 Bridge I caught a 5-6# Jack Crevalle. Several hundred yards further on, the rod bowed up again and then straightened. (I was using one of my front mount rod holders rather than one in the rear.) I kept paddling for 50 or more yards when I noticed the line on the rod moving ahead of the boat. It looked kinda strange to me so I picked up the rod and reeled fast to take up slack. The little Mustad circle hook was locked in. I didn?t have to do anything.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The fish began to tow the boat. ?Redfish,? I thought. I amended it to ?Good Redfish? a few seconds later followed by an upgrade to ?Damn big Redfish? soon afterward. After about a hundred yards with precious little drag slippage, I angled the rod to the side to sort of turn the yak a little sideways to increase the drag on the fish. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">This is kinda hard on the wrist so I laid the rod against my knee and kicked back to relax. I passed the old Casino Boat Dock and then the Hollinswood barge loading facility. I was putting a pretty darn good strain on the fish but he didn?t seem to notice. Somewhere about this time, a couple of guys came up in a bass boat and asked what I had on. I was asking myself the same thing right then too. The only logical thing was a big Shark, most likely a Bull Shark. The guys stayed with me as I headed for the Gulf and maybe to <st1:country-region><st1lace>Mexico</st1lace></st1:country-region>. They even shot a few pics.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The fish was moving fairly fast but definitely not in a state of panic. At this time, I may have had 50 yards of line out. I decided to tighten the drag a little and aim the yak straight at the fish, crank like hell and see if I could get right on top of him. When I got within about 20 feet, he took off on a smoking run that stripped 50 or more yards of line off the reel and got the yak to moving faster than it has ever gone before.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">When we passed the next to last pavilion, less than a mile from the Gulf, about 4 miles from where I launched, a big boat went flying by at warp speed. This upset the fish badly and, all of a sudden, there was 7 feet plus of Tarpon headed straight up. He turned and headed back east for a hundred yards or so then jumped again. This time, I was looking right at him and the guys who had been following me were within about 10? of him.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The jumps took everything the fish had left and I had him along side my yak within about 10 minutes. He was totally whipped. In the last 10 minutes I tried to break him off several times but couldn?t do it. Twenty pound test Spider Wire cannot be broken from a yak. The tiny Mustad circle hook was pinned in the corner of the fish?s mouth. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I slipped my little flying gaff around his jaw bone and found out I couldn?t resuscitate the fish from the yak. Instead of moving the fish back and forth, I moved the yak.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The guys in the bass boat took a bunch of pics of me holding the fish along side. I asked them to tow the Tarpon around to see if they could get him going again. They didn?t have a clue what I was talking about and it took a couple of precious minutes to explain. They held him on my little flying gaff and towed him in a circle for a while then on down the canal.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">All of a sudden, they yanked the fish aboard and headed toward the Gulf at 50mph. They killed MY fish and took my gaff too. Now I am 5 miles down current and wind from my launch site.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I hope they have the common decency to return my gaff or the stupidity to have a photo in the paper. I don?t recall ever seeing either of them before and the boat had a GA decal if I remember correctly. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">If you see a pic of a really humongous Tarpon in your local paper, how about cutting it out for me.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Several hours Later Tuesday afternoon: I just heard the turkeys showed my fish off at the Inglis Shell Station. No names yet, though<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><st1:City><st1lace><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Sharon</st1lace></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt"> just asked me how big the Tarpon was. If you've seen the big Tarpon under the cleaning table at Pete's Pier--the one with the white fin, add a foot in length and considerable girth. <SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Honestly, I don't think I have ever seen a bigger Tarpon, much less hooked one. I've had the Tarpon at Pete's Pier eat fish scraps out of my hand so I have seen big ones up close and personal. Several of the Tarpon at Pete's are in the 140-170# class. I had my hand in this fish's mouth, bare handed. (Not a good thing normally but this fish was almost dead.) Its jawbone was almost too big to reach around. <SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">When Rhett was about 9 he caught a Tarpon that a Boca Grande guide estimated to be 160#. It was a mighty big fish. My clients have caught many in the 100-140# class and I've caught a few myself but nothing even close to today's fish. This fish may have hit 200#. <o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I am not a serious Tarpon fisherman. I hate to see a fish like that one die. If I had known it was a Tarpon a little earlier, I could have steered by a crab trap and grabbed the float and maybe broken the line. I've never seen a Tarpon fight like that before. I usually know I have a Tarpon on much earlier in the show. This fish was almost exhausted before I knew what I was hooked onto. <o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I'll probably think about this fish every day from now on.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">WEDNESDAY morning. I have blisters on my right thumb and forefinger, bruises on my gut and chest and my left hand and wrist ache this morning. <SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I am definitely too old for this stuff.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN class=posttext><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Do folks in <st1:country-region><st1lace><SPAN class=posttext><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Georgia</st1lace></st1:country-region><SPAN class=posttext><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> eat Tarpon?<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN class=posttext><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">WEDNESDAY Night <SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt">Ok, we are gonna find these suckers. <SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Their bass boat was red and black. I don't remember the brand. The engine was an older Merc 200hp. The boat had a new 105# thrust Motorguide on the bow mounted dead in the center. (This mounting looked strange to me. I don't think I have ever seen one mounted this way.) The trolling motor was a hand control model. I know the trolling motor was new because it hadn't even started to rust. <SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I don't care what they did with the Tarpon now but I darn well want a couple of scales and some of the photos they took of me with the fish. <o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">If I publicize this enough, these guys are gonna have to hide under a rock. <o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I talked to the DEP on Friday morning. They said they?d burn somebody?s butt if they didn?t have a Tarpon kill permit. I talked to Doug Olander at Sportfishing magazine and he said he?d keep his ear to the ground. I called several area newspapers. One of the sportswriters for the <st1:City><st1lace><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Ocala</st1lace></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> Star Banner said he?d talk to friends at other newspapers so I have done all I can do.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">A couple of weeks later, my flying gaff was hanging on my mail box but no scale or photo.<o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Today is <st1:date Day="10" Month="6" Year="2008"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">June 10, 2008</st1:date><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> and I haven?t heard any more about the Tarpon but he was one of a very few fish I?ll never forget. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10.5pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Maybe this is "The End" but, just maybe, somebody here knows what happened to my Tarpon.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

Dang.


----------



## DreamWeaver21 (Oct 3, 2007)

<P style="BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #1f5080; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">I probably won't forget either time I went in the water.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P style="BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #1f5080; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Once was my own doing, once I was pulled in. The one I jumped in after was during the ADFR years back. Just two of us on the boat and we were still within sight of the horseshoe rigs with dusk approaching. My buddyfinallygets a bigAJ (70lbs?)to the surface that he had been fightingfor 30 minutes or so and rightas it breaks the surface the hook rolls out of its mouth. There wassome current running and I didn't want that fish to get away soI took a running step and leaped inafter it. Only took me a stroke or two to reach the fishbut it had recovered enough to start diving. I took a deep breath and gave chase. The fish was obviously fatigued from the fight because Iwas able to catch it about ten feet down. Unfortunately, theydon't put handles on AJs. I was facing head towards the surface and the fishwas facing head towards the bottom. I had him by the tail / mid body and then wrapped my legs around its bodyso I could use my arms to pull toward the surface. But the fish was kicking andits tail was slapping me in the face. I could feel it slipping away. I let go with my legs and tried to death grip its tail with one hand while using my other hand and my legs to pull it back to the surface but it broke my grip. I thought about giving chase again but decided I needed air andswam back to the boat fishless.Got back on the boat and laughed for quite a while about that.<o></o><P style="BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #1f5080; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">Thetime I was pulled in was in the Bud Lite a few years back. We had an AJ to weigh but still had about 30 minutes to fish before we had to run to scales so we picked up and hit one last spot on the way in. Friend of mine hooksa decent king with like 5 minutes to go before it was time to go. He only had the fish on for a couple of minutes when we saw it very closeto the boat. It was definitelystill green.The closest gaff to me was a four footer and I grabbed it to take a shot at the fish when it circled the boat. It circled slightly out of four foot gaff range but I leaned way out and sunk the gaff. Next thing I know I am underwater. Stillgot the gaff and the fish though. That fish was kicking like hell butcouldn't really pull me through the water. Damn sure could spin me in circles though. We were 5-10ft under the boat doing circles. The water wasvery clean blue and I won't soon forget seeing that fish on the end of the gaff as we spun. We had twoother linesout the back of the boat andI got wrapped up in both of them. Still had the fish though. Swam back to the surface using one hand toswim and one hand on the gaff. Got to the back of the boat (still tangled in lines) and handed the gaff off to someone on the boat to lift the fish in. They lifted and the gaff tore out. Splash, fish is back in the water. We lucked out though because the fish was still hooked and we were able to leaditback to the boat. I climbed back in, we landed and iced the fish and headed to scales. I would like to saythat fish won us the tournamentbut it didn't. It did however place on the class of 23 board as it was 35.0lbs.


----------



## Magic236 (Oct 1, 2007)

Sorry it's long, thanks for making me put this one down on paper.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">It was our last day of fishing in Chub Cay, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Bahamas</st1lace></st1:country-region> late in June in 1972. It is all but 4PM, time for lines in. It was one of the rare days that I was the angler, rather than the second mate and I had been praying for a blue all day. I see an explosion on the left rigger, get too excited and drop back way too short. Andy, my grandfather?s captain is screaming as usual that I ?messed? up. The fish swings back showing massive shoulders and a huge wake as it takes the Spanish again, 5 seconds later the line is tight and it is slamming me against the transom. I?m no longer the source of Andy?s cursing but surprised that I?m struggling to get to the chair as the pressure I?m experiencing seemed somewhat unusual. Maybe this was the big one.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Amazingly, we have the fish by the boat in about 10 minutes. I was trained to advance the drag when you got the double line back. When I asked ?permission? to touch the drag, Captain Andy said, ?Hell this fish has no clue she?s even hooked!? After seeing this massive fish swimming with the boat for about 10-15 seconds it took off heading for deeper water which was toward our bow. The fish took out a good bit on line and put on a very spectacular but brief show on the surface. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We were now about 20 minutes in the fight and it began to sound. I had had some experience with Blues sounding but at 5 PM the fish had been sounding a steady 40 minutes and showing no sign of slowing. I was getting worried that it would be another blue that beat us. Having to back off the drag as the spool shrank was all the more disconcerting, but I knew why. The fish began to slow when we got down to about a ¼ of the spool but I was really praying we could stop the beast. We managed to slow it down when it looked like we would see the core of the spool any minute. The reel was an International 80; before Wides and Two Speeds, so I do not know how much line was out. I will tell you cranking on a sounded fish with out a two speed was very difficult. I?m glad I was young and in good shape.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We were able to play a tug of war with about 20% of the line for a few more hours but I don?t think I ever regained enough to get back to the quarter spool mark. It is now dark. Two boats that had just run across from the states had been cheering us on during the fight but had lost interest and wanted to get in now that it was dark. Now this was before spreader lights and Chub had very little lights on it too. It was a very isolated feeling out there at night hooked to this fish.<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Suddenly, we managed to regain a decent amount of line, clearly beyond the ¼ spool mark. Andy was seeking all feedback, fearing sharks had eaten the shark and that I was just pulling up dead weight. I told him that I could still feel the fish so maybe we were about to get her back toward the surface and have a chance. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Then suddenly, I could not gain any line. In a matter of minutes the fish starting sounding but at a slower pace. The slower pace encouraged me, but this time we were getting spooled. As we were approaching the spool?s core Andy appeared with this old gigantic FinNor that had hung in the cabin for years. I had asked him several times what it was for and he always told me, ?You hope you don?t ever have to know what it is for.? He proceeded to clip the Dacron pigtails to the 80 International and told me to put it in free spool and put it over the transom and that now we had to use the FinNor and now I knew why we had this massive 16/0 FinNor. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The fish continued to sound for about 10-15 minutes and we recovered the 80 after its 20-30 minute swim. We hosed it off; hit it with a predecessor to WD40. Again, we began a tug of war with at just beyond the ¼ spool mark, and then we noticed that the fish was in an upward spiral, but still digging. We managed to fairly steadily gain line but it still was not easy task. One thing a noticed was that I had lost all peripheral vision; all I could see was the reel. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">We are now approaching 11PM. I had been in the chair for over 6 hours and approaching 7. The fish seemed to surface less than 100 yards away. We backed down aggressively and could see the fish on the surface on it side and sometimes belly up. We only had the moon to go by, but it looked like we were going to pull this one off. As we approached Andy instructed our Deckhand to carefully wire but hold on as the fish was all but dead. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Sherman</st1lace></st1:City>, the deckhand took two wraps of the heavy wire with each hand that set up a kink in the wire. Andy screamed at him to hold the wire that there was no way the fish had the strength to run. The fish I guess sensing the boat, made another effort to swim off and as soon as <st1:City w:st="on"><st1lace w:st="on">Sherman</st1lace></st1:City> felt a little pressure, he dropped the wire, the wire snapped and we watched the huge blue sink into the depths of the Tongue of the Ocean. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I was too exhausted too care at the time, but in the 40 minutes it took us to get back to the dock it had set in. Oh, how it hurt. I then asked Andy how big was the fish? And as usual, he said, ?It swam off, it didn?t way a thing.? I did not know his estimated weight until 26 years later when his widow gave me his journal about a month after his death. He estimated the fish to be an 850# fish. He made reference to it through the years, even while fishing in places like Hawaii that are known for big fish and I never knew him to overstate a fish. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Yes, I know today, we count that one a release. But in ?72 the gaffs were out, release was not our intent. <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o></o><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I?ll never forget this one and thanks for making me put this down in writing.


----------



## JoshH (Sep 28, 2007)

Mine isn't really that great compared to some of these....

It was early one morning and we were still rookies at the whole offshore thing and we are sitting at the spot we fish 75% of the time we're out, nowadays the one that never fails us. (knock on wood) I am still basically asleep and it is freezing outside. We are just starting to come tight on the anchor line and I make the first drop on my go-to, nothin better, 6 oz diamond jig. I have a brand new 4/0 loaded to the brim with 40 pound sufix. I drop and I am just staring at the water not really paying attention to what I'm doing, after about 10 mins I realize I'm down to the knot and my reel is empty.... it never stopped. I come tight and I have dead weight so I'm reeling and I get maybe 50 yards on my reel and its peeling off now. After a little bit I see this king and I get our brand new big fish gaff that we havent broken in yet. I was focused so much that my dad didn't even know I had a fish on, hes just getting our limit of snapper over on the other gunnel. I stuck this joker 3" behind the eyes and get him in the boat. Here is a pic of me 3 years ago with my 2nd king (my first was like 25") Its still my personal best and every time I see this picture it makes me wanna hop on an SKA boat because kings are the best fish to catch.


----------



## Sequoiha (Sep 28, 2007)

About 15 years ago Me and a buddy were diving the Tenneco, I was standing on one of the rig legs about 128 feet down, leaning into the current, hunting AJs, Just me and my AB Biller 42 and a million freakin barracuda,, a nice AJ swims by and I aim and take the shot... right behind the gill plate all the way through. This should have been a kill shot but Oh no he had other ideas,,, straight to the bottom we go... 176' and me on 32% nitrox. not a good combination. He commenced to circle the leg of the rig and my legs, and you say just let go , not a chance and loose my AB Biller. so when he runs out of circiling cord I pull out my trusty little dive knife, and poke him right between the eyes, right in his little pea brain, well he starts to quiver and i go to work untangling my shaft cord. ease back up to the top, make about a 10 minute saftey stop at about 15 feet, the whole while wondering if one of those cudas was gonna take him from me. but my speargun prevented that. and i did fend off a few of them,, well on the boat with the fish.. and he is a good one,,, 72 lbs... my personnal best on the gun... and he tasted good as well....

:usaflag


----------



## Jetpowered (Feb 18, 2008)

God I miss her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:doh


----------



## brnbser (Oct 1, 2007)

saw this post last week and gave it some thought, alot of memorable stories but none that really stood above the rest so I never responded........well that all changed this past weekend.

Fishing an SKA tourney, the Kajun Sportsman tourney over in Fourchon during fathers day weekend this past weekend with my daughter, SET 4 Life and both of his daughters and a friend from work......this was the entire teams first SKA event of the yr and we're all rusty and apprehensive and know it. We haven't fished together as a team since national finals in Nov and know it could be a long frustrating weekend but it's time to give it our best shot.

We made our decision on where to go and the couple of spots we had confidence in.....beelined it there Fri morning and was probalby third or forth to arrive. Kwazar was first on spot and picked up a 44 there and left....we fished a bit just in case with nothing notable and made the move to our other spot about 8 mi away........there sits Kwazar 1/2 mi away on another rig so we know we are in the right areas.....and our confidence improves that we're making good decisions.

We finally hook up big, me and the bud from work both tended the rod while the deck was cleared and knew this was a BIG fish before handing the rod off to my daughter on the bow for the fight. We're all thinking big king or a quality hoo......time will tell.

At the 45 min mark, my 12 yr old is whipped, blood red hands that are starting to cramp up and dehydrated even though we've been giving her water. This isn't a tournament that only she is allowed to touch the rod so I decide to lether shake her hands out for a minute andpour water over her head and take the rod and see if I can make some headway real quick for her..... I take the rod, make a few determined pumps on the fish to find out that even after 45 min into the fight, I make virtually no headway.......my daughter already has blisters on her hands from the fight so far.....this fish isn't big.....it's real big!

She jumps back on the rod with a somewhat renewed but still tireddetermination. So far during this event, she had gone through every form of emotion possible, some spurred by me and many self imposed. She's gone through it all to try and beat this fish from crying, anger, pleading, frustration, you name it......

We finally start getting a few glimpses of color but still aren't sure what she fighting.......the visibility is somewhere around 30-40 in cobalt blue water.......at the 1:10 minute mark the fish is coming up and I get my first full broadside view and it's all silver....no stripes.....not a hoo......this is the biggest king I have ever seen come to a boat I was on........I keep my mouth shut and let her continue to work. Lou see's the fish about 20' down as does Waymon. I got my best view then and I'm thinking at least 55#+.......Lou's looking at me expecting me to say "big hoo" but it's not and everyone on board realizes it's the biggest king any of us has ever seen........Katelyn knows we can see it but can't afford to take a chance and look herself. The fish comes to 20' again on the port bow, my best view yet, surges to the starboard side, I holler for a turn, the fish surges again towards the motors and I holler again as I reach for the leader.........when I touchthe leader.....there's nothing.....I look at my daughter and she's the first to say.......it's gone!

No one on board knew what to do or say and it's just silent for a minute.......every emotion possible goes through me in a split second.I take the rod from my daughter and reel the leader and 3 hooks remaining from a 5 hook rig in........I'm instantly mad, not necessarily atanyone, just that we couldn't finish it. It just wasn't meant to be.

I realize I've just watchedmy 12 yr old daughter fight one of the most impressive fights I've ever seen.........she's devastated. I turn to look at her and she's already laying down.......I tell her and make sureshe knows she did a great job and that it's nothing she's done..... it's just part of fishing........we need to get back to it and find another.

A couple of items to add to the story and help explain what my daughter endured..........I'm sure she won't be happy with me sharing this but it was pretty rough that day and while she has tournament fished in bigger seas, she got sick firstthat morning while we where making bait as did both of Lou's daughter's but hung in there better than alot of men I know............while I still look at her as daddy's littlegirl that was literally conceived on my wife and mines wedding night, I still see a little girl. Last month was her first official body "maturing to that of a young lady" and that was a big event in her life. We all knew that the tournament was going to be a not so good weekend for her new found"maturity" along with being away from mom and out on the water for a weekend with dad during that time of the month. I push my kids pretty hard, alot harder than most now-a-days to always be the best they can be. I don't believe in the touchy-feely way of doing things and raise my kids with tough love rarely cutting them any slack that's become so common.

I watched my little girl perform above the standards that I set for most adult men.She constantly strives to do one thing.......make daddy proud! I can not explain how proud I am of her and who she has become. She was enduring extreme nausea and cramping during her battle with this fish....adversity that I will never be able to understand........to make daddy proud. She reads the forum and is a new member........Katie Mae.......you have no idea how proud daddy is of you! I am truly blessed to have you as a daughter and honored that you trust me enough and have allowed me to experience these things with you!

How big was the fish? We'll never know and it doesn't matter. We all made our speculations the rest of the day........

What we all do know.......when we got to the scales that evening to weigh the biggest fish we did boat.........we took a look at the top fish so far for the day......a 54#............it looked skinny and small!!!

It just wasn't meant to be for us this past weekend but I now have probably one of the most memorable fishing stories that I will probably ever have.......me fishing with my daughter and the one that got away on fathers day weekend.


----------



## Halfmoon (Oct 3, 2007)

The5lb pissed off Ladyfish!!!

Well when I was living in Crystal River fishing the main springs in winter for Tarpon. I was using

mirror lure to catch some 30lb jacks busting finger mullet. Instead I caught a poor mans Tarpon. As I was trying to untangle the treble hooks from this fish he,was still green and going nuts. Next thing I know the barb is stuck into my knuckle on my thumb. The way it was in I had no room to maneuver to try to get the barb out and to try to keep this fish from flapping and digging it in deeper. The pain I felt from the barb being embedded in my bone was putting me into the bottom of the boat in agony. At this time I was getting so pissed at the fish constantly moving around and not stopping for just one minute to catch my breath. I started to take my pain out on the fish. I squeezed as hard As I could to make him stop.

Until the last flop he really dug it in deep. With one motion I squeezed his head right off. I have know idea how I did it but it popped like a zit. an hour goes by trying to work this barb out of my knuckle Pulling skin farther than I thought you could pull skin. Screaming on the top off my lungs the worst you ever heard in you life. Finally it popped out of the bone and now I have the chore of cutting my skin little to weave the barb out.

Near to passing out in pain I went home with out catching that Jack or Tarpon.Buthaving a story to tell about the Ladyfish that got me good. To this day when the weather changes I'm reminded of that day.:doh


----------



## Captain Woody Woods (Oct 2, 2007)

i am going to keep this one short and sweet. my most memorable trip from last year was one of our last...in september or october i believe; whenever auburn played florida i think. trip was an overall asswhupping of tuna. no big ones (except the one i am about to describe), but steady action with 80 pounders on topwater all night long.

the sun was setting as we headed from the elbow to petronius. we snagged a small 40 something wahoo en route, and upon reaching petronius, noticed 2 or 3 whiteys circling bait. straight out of a guy harvey television show, it was pretty neat. well they weren't really interested in our spread, so myself and my other deckhand climbed to the top of the tower to navigate for awhile. we noticed small (3-5#) blackfin start erupting in our spread and immediately became agitated as A. we hate blackfin and B. hate them when they're eating our ballyhoo rigs meant for yellowfins. i noticed though that they weren't busting on our lures, but appeared to be evading something from down below. a few seconds later our shotgun line went off and down the tower we both went to clear lines and help our guest lady angler into the chair. line was peeling off the 80W like i had never seen before and 10 minutes into the fight (line still peeling) the blue suddenly switches dirctions and turns to the port side of the boat. it jerked the fighting chair with it with a fierceness like i had never seen before. came unbuttoned a few minutes later but was still pretty cool.

fast forward a few hours. we were at another rig absolutely slaying the yellowfin on spinning tackle that night. so much that myself and my boss' nephew skipped dinner because we wanted to stay in the action. we were hooking them from the bow and then walking alongside the boat, passing the rods underneath the outriggers and going thru quite a dangerous balancing act trying to make it to the back deck. well i had hooked this one fish and had passed it off to the same lady i talked about earlier. she faught this fish for the better part of an hour and as she was starting to gain line, the fish peeled off line very quickly for a solid 15 seconds or so. my other deckhand and i exchanged glances both thinking shark (chasing our fish). well fish comes to color another half hour or so later and i see electric blue and shout out "mako mako!" the fish is still swimming upright but soon rolls on its side and we see now that it is a big yellowfin lit up, and not a mako. this tuna is probably in the neighborhood of 140#, maybe a little better. long and fat fish. now normally on that boat, i gaff and the other senior deckie wires typically, but we decided to switch it up that night just for shits and giggles. using only a 36" or so80# leader, we dont take full wraps when leadering a fish, but rather what we call "half-wraps." well i get this fish in gaffing range and as soon as our other deckie hits it, the fish dives under the boat and pulls the gaff out of our deckie's hand. the leader pops ABOVE my hand at the rod tip (still not sure how that happened) and we lose the fish but get the gaff back (who cares at thispoint?). nothing huge, but still an impressive feat on a spinning rod. heartbreaker for sure. to this day my boss still gives me hell about losing that fish, even though we werent in a tournament that weekend.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *brnbser (6/16/2008)*saw this post last week and gave it some thought, alot of memorable stories but none that really stood above the rest so I never responded........well that all changed this past weekend.
> 
> Fishing an SKA tourney, the Kajun Sportsman tourney over in Fourchon during fathers day weekend this past weekend with my daughter, SET 4 Life and both of his daughters and a friend from work......this was the entire teams first SKA event of the yr and we're all rusty and apprehensive and know it. We haven't fished together as a team since national finals in Nov and know it could be a long frustrating weekend but it's time to give it our best shot.
> 
> ...


*Great Read, and Story.*


----------



## bigone (Jan 2, 2008)

Fishing in Walkers Cay, 80ft of water on the hook, chumming catching big muttons, yellowtails, small groupers, AJ's, somebody yells Oh Sh-t!, working up the chum line was the largest shark I have ever seen in 45 years of fishing. A large Tiger shark long as the beam of our boat (46 Ocean), We rig up a 80lb rod, with a dead 15lb Mutton, he takes it no problem and proceeds to pull drag, at strike setting, 1/2 drag, full drag, never slowed down, constant steady pull for 800 yrds. By the time we could get the anchor up he was down to the bare spool, and was gone. Unbelievable, we guessed the fish at way over 1k lbs.

Needless to say we did not snorkle any more that trip


----------



## PensacolaEd (Oct 3, 2007)

Two stand out in my memory, my first "ulua" (Giant Trevally) and my first Blue Marlin. The Ulua was caught from the Kaneohe Marine Base in Hawaii at night, using a moray eel for bait. I had fished for ulua for 2 years, and never hooked one until that night. After trying for 2 years, the relief I felt at finally catching one of these amazing fish was unbelievable. The story was printed in the Hawaii Fishing News magazine. Imagine catching a 73# Jack Crevalle, and you have some idea of how hard these fish fight, now try to imagine hopping along the top of a cliff at night while fighting one while your 6/0 reel is screamiing. I can still close my eyes and smell the drag cooking.......

The marlin was only 187#, but was fought stand-up style on 50# gear with no harness. Took 1 hour 45 minutes, but we landed the fish. I've caught several larger marlin, even lost one that was probably over a grand once, but that first one stands out. I don't even have a picture of that fish now, except in my head.

Ed


----------



## hebegb (Oct 6, 2007)

> *Garbo (7/9/2008)*
> 
> 
> > *brnbser (6/16/2008)*saw this post last week and gave it some thought, alot of memorable stories but none that really stood above the rest so I never responded........well that all changed this past weekend.
> ...




Absolutely! great post Scott!


----------



## jaceboat (May 5, 2008)

i havent fished near as much as everybody else but this is mine. 

go out with some friends to dive we get to the wreck. this is late may. we get there and one of my friends jumps in the water to cool down and comes up and screams 30lb cobia right there. i dont have sun glasses and vis was bad so i couldnt see it. but then we do our dive and the cobe was no where to be seen. we come up and start fishing in between dives. well the first bite is a monster king on frozen cigar minnow on lite tackle so im trying to get him up and then the line popsreeled in the slack the the 40lb swivel pulled apart. then we see that cobia just cruising on the surface fins out of the water. so the other boats freak out and throw live pinfish and cobe jigs and he wont eat. so after a while we rerig the pole with a king rig and hook on another cig. i throw it out and its not even in the water 5 seconds and this cobe crashes the surface and slams my bait. we were using braid and i had my finger around the line and he took off and cut my finger open to about 3/4 of the way to the bone. so now im thinking of caught redfish about this size on this size tackle so maybe a have a chance. this cobia runs a little bit then just stops so i start pumping him up and he is coming really easy then he just takes off runs to the right of the boat and just runs and the reel is making all sorts of noises he just keeps on going. so i tighten down the drag and he keeps on going i started to thumb the spool then and he keeps on going and then the rod just starts bending like crazy and then pop. he spooled me. i almost fell backwards when it finally poped the line. i had never seen a fish with such power. i will neverforget that fish for several reason one he left me with a nasty cut, just howstrong he was and that was my first cobia.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

> *jaceboat (7/12/2008)*i havent fished near as much as everybody else but this is mine.
> 
> go out with some friends to dive we get to the wreck. this is late may. we get there and one of my friends jumps in the water to cool down and comes up and screams 30lb cobia right there. i dont have sun glasses and vis was bad so i couldnt see it. but then we do our dive and the cobe was no where to be seen. we come up and start fishing in between dives. well the first bite is a monster king on frozen cigar minnow on lite tackle so im trying to get him up and then the line popsreeled in the slack the the 40lb swivel pulled apart. then we see that cobia just cruising on the surface fins out of the water. so the other boats freak out and throw live pinfish and cobe jigs and he wont eat. so after a while we rerig the pole with a king rig and hook on another cig. i throw it out and its not even in the water 5 seconds and this cobe crashes the surface and slams my bait. we were using braid and i had my finger around the line and he took off and cut my finger open to about 3/4 of the way to the bone. so now im thinking of caught redfish about this size on this size tackle so maybe a have a chance. this cobia runs a little bit then just stops so i start pumping him up and he is coming really easy then he just takes off runs to the right of the boat and just runs and the reel is making all sorts of noises he just keeps on going. so i tighten down the drag and he keeps on going i started to thumb the spool then and he keeps on going and then the rod just starts bending like crazy and then pop. he spooled me. i almost fell backwards when it finally poped the line. i had never seen a fish with such power. i will neverforget that fish for several reason one he left me with a nasty cut, just howstrong he was and that was my first cobia.


Great story,


----------



## billyk (Nov 15, 2007)

I was fishing whith some friends, in one of their boats, off the coast of GA, out on Greys reef, in the vicinity of the NOAA bouy. It was balls as hot out, and we were slow trolling for whatever would bite.

We had on rookie on board, and I was showing him how to attach the line to the down rigger clip. I really wasn't paying to much attention to my line or bait, just showing him the in's and out's of attaching the line. 

Well about this time this Polaris missle of a King mackrel hit the bait on his way out of the water, and took off like a bat out of hell with my line, and bait just as soon as his ass hit the water. Scarred the living shit out of me, but I managed to recover, and grabbed the rod with the fish and commenced to regaining some of my line. About this time, a Yellow hulled contender eased around behind us and continued on his way, I just happend to notice the boat, but did not think much of it, he seemed to be far anough away, and we were pretty close to the bout where alot of folks went to catch bait...so no biggie...back to fighting the fish.

Seemed like I was gaining some line on the fish, so I told the guy driving the boat, he could back down of the throttles a bit. He had been doing a good job of pacing the fish, and letting me get some line back on the reel, and I figured it was time to put some pressure on the fish and start getting him ready to come into the boat.

About this time I noticed that yellow hulled contender again, and again, I payed him no mind. About this time I start loosing line to the fish again, so we kinda crank up the throttle abit and catch up to him, get some line back on the reel...you all now the drill.

After about 5-6 times of this, ( about 45 minuted or so of hot and humid physical labor ) and every time noticing that yellow hulled contender in the vicintiy of my rod tip, I finally but 2 and 2 together ( most of you all have proabably done that awhile ago ) and yell out to the guys in the contender...

"hey, you all got down riggers out ?"

"yup" is the reply, so I holler out "raise them some bitches up and see what the hell you got"...sure as shit stinks, there's my fish, all tangled up in his down rigger line. I could have fought that damned boat all day and still not got it into our boat !!!


----------



## mdrobe2 (Oct 12, 2007)

I used to fish the Pensacola sea wall of 3 Mile Bridge before class while I was finishing my degree at PJC. The late (and great) Captain Bob Gray said that was his best spot for gator trout. Well, a guy had showed me how to slow fish DOA's there and catch big trout.I hooked a fish one morning that ranand ranand I figured it for a red and got tired of fighting it since I was late for school (graduated PJC 1995 to give you an idea how longago). I caught plenty of bull reds during that period, so what doI care if I break one off? Well, I finally get the fish up to the sea wall and I decide to cup the spool to turn its head and net it so I can go to class. The trout was probably 12 lbs. but if she wasn't ten I'll kiss your rear end.I broke her off when I tried to turn her head to the net- 10 lb. test no leader, but I saw her, and she was huge.


----------



## Garbo (Oct 2, 2007)

Great Read.


Thanks for Sharing.


.


----------



## marmidor (Mar 15, 2008)

Back in the early 90's I was running the deck on a private boat,we were fishing the MBGFC Memorial Day tourney out of OB. We had been circling the drill ship Discovery when BAM My left short flat rubberband pops and the penn 80 wide starts SCREAMING. Everyone on the boat starts yelling........BLUE MARLIN.....BLIE MARLIN!! 20 mins into the fight she sounds and the tug-o-war was on and she was winning. This lasted just a couple of mins and we started getting slack in the line. I'm yelling CRANK CRANK CRANK to the angler and GO GO GO to the capt. We thought we we lucky when the line came tight and we were still hooked up. She decided that she was ready to make a jump and when she did it was like everything went into slow motion.......HEAD SHAKE LEFT......and we all sat in disbelief not only at the size of this beast but also that we watched he sling the pink and white softhead out and she was gone. Obviously we can't say for sure but it was guessed that she went well over #800 and that was being conservative!! CRUSHED!! I posted this on another thread but thought it fit this thread also.


----------



## chicon monster (Mar 7, 2012)

My brother,my friend, and I went out on our 9ft jon boat into the bay with three foot waves.I was borrowing my friends gold spoon on light tackle.I threw it out one. Time and I get a nice bite.the drag starts scheming as im trying to winch it to the boat since my rod was bent all the way over.after 30 minutes I get it to the boat and the waves are literally crashing over the boat.we realized we left the net so my friend reached over and grabbed it to bring it in.when I held it I realized my 4lb test was frayed badly.the fish was around 29 inches and a good 15 pounds.that was the mist memorable fish/fight I've had.


----------



## MathGeek (Mar 31, 2012)

This is my favorite because it was my son's fish and shows how God in heaven works to make fathers look smart in front of their sons. My younger son Joshua truly loves to fish, just like his father and grandfather before him. He's been fishing since he was about 4 and often when we'd catch a small fish, I'd hook the small fish up and throw it out for Joshua, explaining that this was the "special trick" that my dad had taught me. In farm ponds, this trick would often produce 2-4 lb catfish and in midwestern lakes it would produce walleye. Back in 2006, hooking up a bluegill produced a 19 lb muskellunge for my son.

Well, we were planning a trip to Fourchon, LA and I was having a hard time finding hooks big enough for the "special trick" saltwater style, when I finally ordered some 11/0 Mustad hooks from CharkBait.com. I made a big deal out of the arrival of the hooks and explained all the exciting things that can happen hooking up a 12" sand trout or croaker at the edge of the gulf. We'd stopped to fish Belle pass after an unsuccessful run to E Timbalier (too rough) when my son caught an 11" sand trout. I immediately took out a steel leader and one of the big hooks and my son let it down. It wasn't 5 minutes later when the drag was screaming. 30 minutes later, I netted the 40" bull redfish for Joshua and we had it in the box as keeping 1 over 27" is legal in Louisiana. My daughter caught the one in my avatar (38") a bit later on a dead shrimp.


----------



## CallMeQuig (May 30, 2011)

7' 300+lb nurse shark. Myself, Better Half, Devinsdad and several other were sharking when the screaming drag on my Penn 4/0 (lil reel) went crazy! 1.5 hours later and landing the fish 3 times (thanks to 1 less than sober person) we finally got her on the beach, took some pics and released her. WHAT A NIGHT!


----------

