Whats the craziest thing youve had a fish do?

[jbird]

I was in BC a few years back and hooked a good Chum salmon. He ran straight across the river and lept clean over a log system that was suspended above the water. I grabbed the spool and went for the breakoff when the crazy thing jumped right back over. The fish had to be 4 feet above the water to get over the logs.

This is the actual fish...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/jbird35/Picture032.jpg

[David Lee]

1987 or 88 ....

Fishing Amador w/ a gutless Ugly Stick UL spinning outfit/4 Lb. line at night in late Winter -Tossed a small jig behind a long row of moored rental boats . Trout eats , I set , Trout jumps straight up and lands INSIDE a rental boat . They don't fight so good that way ....

Later that same night .....Standing on the tiny dock next to a boat ramp . Make a long cast , get a huge snarl of line . Try to fix the mess , can't do it . Don't want to leave all that mono littered everywhere , so I cut it , gather up the mess , and grab the line from the tip and hand-line my Jig in . Notice that the line that was going OUT into the lake is now going the wrong direction - UP the ramp ?!? I'm coming tight to the line and walk a 4+Lb. Rainbow out onto a dry ramp .

On a fly ? Had to be a Ladyfish that ate right in the wash - I set , Ladyfish jumps 4 or 5 feet into the air and goes SPLAT high and dry on the sand .

Fish are almost as strange as we are .

David

[Darian]

Back in the 60's, I was fishing the estuary in the San Lorenzo River (Santa Cruz) for Silvers and hooked up while standing in a line up. The fish ran straight across the river at me and glanced off my right leg. Then decided to weave in and out of the guys in the line up, jump and break off. :eek: Never saw so many people scrambling to disengage so quick in my life.... :lol: :lol:

[Hairstacker]

I've mentioned this one before but here goes again -- my all-time favorite topwater bass hit:

I had cast a size 2 red/white Tap's Bug deer hair popper onto a big hole in the weeds and was watching the rings die when a bass left the water about a foot away from the fly, went straight up in the air, looped over like a dolphin, then came straight down, perfectly vertical, headfirst on top of the fly like an Olympic diver. To this day, I sometimes ponder why that fish chose to leap up in the air away from the fly rather than just hit it directly. Loved it. Wasn't a particularly big fish but still my fond favorite and I can still see it in my mind's eye like it happened yesterday. :)

[mikel]

1990 or so on the Tsiu in Alaska...8 of us together in a lineup 50 yards above the river mouth...All 8 of us are hooked up and MY fish does the serpentine thing in and out of the guys. We are all doing the silver salmon boogie trying to get out of each other's way...my guy heads back for the salt. Landed him in the surf...what a circus!

I've had those darn fish run between my legs and up on the beach...too many stories...-Mike

[jbird]

Good stuff guys. Hope to hear a bunch more.

David, I once had my biggest fish of the day jump straight onto the bank right after the hookset. I was so disappointed to miss out on the fight, I ran down to it and kicked it into the river and fought it back LOL.

[mems]

Good topic, I was in X-mas island and we were fishing for GT's, ulua from the boat outside the reefs. The guide would cast a hookless teaser plug into the surf and retrieve back out. A school of ulua chased the plug up to the boat. I cast a fly and the ulua hit and then ran right into the boat, bang!. We got the stunned fish and revived it and released it! Sorry we didn't have any asprin to give it for the head ache. Mems.

[IronMtn]

Just two days ago we were on the E Carson. I hooked a fish, about 10-11 inches, and as I was gettin' the fish in, another fish comes flying out of the head of the pool and starts trying to EAT the fish on the end of my hook.

Totally understandable if the other fish were just a total cannibalistic monster of a trout, but the other trout was only about 5 or 6 inches longer than the trout it was trying to eat. My trout's head wouldn't even fit in the other trout's mouth if it had been cut in half, but that didn't seem to slow it down.

I could feel my fish getting its tail bit at as I was pullin' it in.

My buddy tied on a sculpin and popped it right next to my fish, and wham!... It's easy to recognize the trout hatch when it happens.

3 points for the assist.

[Bob Laskodi]

This just happened to me in AK. Hooked a nice rainbow and he immediately jumped up about four feet, right into the overhanging tree! I thought, oh $%^& I'm gonna loose him in the tree. I pulled hard on the flyline, yanked him right out of the tree into the water and landed him. True story, here's the fish getting tossed back in the river the right way!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/laskodi/077a.jpg

[Hairstacker]

Good stuff guys. Hope to hear a bunch more.

David, I once had my biggest fish of the day jump straight onto the bank right after the hookset. I was so disappointed to miss out on the fight, I ran down to it and kicked it into the river and fought it back LOL.

:lol::lol::lol:

[Hairstacker]

Bob, after watching one of my casts get hung up in a tree overhanging a creek we were fishing, David Lee advised me the fish aren't in the trees . . . henceforth, I shall beg to differ. :lol:

[Larry S]

A few years ago, I had several spotfin croakers swim right up on the beach (San Diego
surf) after being hooked. Usually these fish can be depended upon to give you several great
runs and fight like a NFL linebacker. Once, while one of these was beaching itself,
another spotfin 20 or so yards up the beach proceded to beach itself. I've heard of
cetaceans doing this; but, why fish?
Larry S

[David Lee]

A few years ago, I had several spotfin croakers swim right up on the beach (San Diego
surf) after being hooked. Usually these fish can be depended upon to give you several great
runs and fight like a NFL linebacker. Once, while one of these was beaching itself,
another spotfin 20 or so yards up the beach proceded to beach itself. I've heard of
cetaceans doing this; but, why fish?
Larry S

Something large and hungry in pursuit ?

D.~

[Paul B.]

Mike's (Hairstacker) story reminded me of a rather large brown that jumped at my elk hair caddis from a foot or so away attacking it from above. It must have chased the smaller rising bow away that I had cast to. Like the bass he mentioned I'll never forget that fish even though I didn't stand a chance of landing it with my 6x, 3wt. and all the overhanging brush. Big browns always seem to know where to run to don't they. Paul

[Willisbrow]

me and a buddy were fishing a river when he hooked maybe a 10 inch rainbow. After 30 secs of getting a hooked a Huge bass came out of the depths and was going after my buddies fish. He was yelling at me to come over and look i thought he was exaggerating but when i got to where he was i was amazed. At one point the bass smashed the rainbow on the surface and the water erupted. The rainbows gill plate was ripped off and was dead now. but the bass was still interested. We looked for the biggest hook we had i think it was a size #8 and baited it with the trout. We fished for the bass for 10 minutes or so, he would follow the trout all over the place but he never put it in his mouth again. We were talking about going back there and using some striper gear for those bass. The Fish was easily over 10lbs. my friend was saying it was 15+

[john]

I was tarpon fishing in Belize 4-5 years ago with a buddy who's a spin fisherman. We were staked out and he had a live sardine on. A 40#-50# tarpon hit his sardine and took off. During some jumps the sardine worked it's way up the line, and a frigate bird dove, picked it up and regained altitude. For about 15 minutes his line is running 60 yds up to the bird, then 40 yds down to a still leaping tarpon. On the last jump the hook let go and the line kinda recoiled up to the bird, and tangled line all around the bird. He did execute a nice live-bird release, eventually.

[Darian]

Mems story about the Ulua running into the boat reminded me of an incident a couple of summers ago while fishing at La Ventana. We were chumming up some Skippies from a panga and a Needlefish popped up about 30 yards away and started running on the surface at a high rate of speed toward the middle of the panga. The captain saw it coming and headed for one end while the fish slammed into the side with a loud thump!!! :eek: .... Afterwards, everyone had a good laugh. :lol: :lol:

[Steelie-Stalker]

Was downstream nymphing under some low lying trees this summer on the pit river. I hook about a 10 inch fish and the first thing it does is leaps....into the trees. Now I didnt hear the Tarzan sounds because i was laughing so hard. Luckily after about 10 seconds of flopping in mid air hanging from a tree he shook the hook and swam away. THe lost leader was well worth the laughs.


Also this summer fly fishing for salmon in the salt. I was shooting out line and noticed a loop that some how got tied into my running line, so i strip in until i get to it and set my rod down to untie it. As I'm untying it the line starts to jerk, so i jerk back. Next thing i know i'm fighting a silver on a handline! After it got me way into my backing and i got back to fighting it with the rod I landed it. No time for a pic because the fish was pretty stressed after a long fight.


This summer coming back from halibut fishing with my buddy Paul we decided to motor through one of the known salmon spots of ketchikan to see how it was fishing. As we motored through (me sitting in the front) I see a quick flash of silver in front of me and it goes over me. I look back and paul is knocking down a pink salmon from hitting him in the face. it was PRICELESS. We laughed for about fifteen minutes and got a quick pic before returning him to the water.

http://i882.photobucket.com/albums/ac25/Steelie-Stalker/AK010.jpg


-Ryder

[fj40]

Smart Brown...East Walker fishing an island below the dam almost to the Hwy crossing. Standing on the island. Hooked fish and felt heavy head shake. Fish took off downstream. Stopped, and then slowly started back towards me until he was above me. Took off down stream again, stopped, and then came up the other side of the island so that the hook was pulling away from his jaw instead of into it. Lost fish as he came up beside me. I still cant believe how smart that one was. Thanks for all of the good stories!

[Steelhead Guide]

I had a stringer of small trout off the side of my boat one day while trolling up a large arm of one of my favorite lakes. I was trolling fairly slowly when I heard a splash and a bang on the side of the boat. I stood up to see a large mouth bass with 2 of the trout in its mouth being towed along.
I couldn't belive it. The bass had to be in the 7-8lb range and would not let go of the fish. I have had big lings grab bottom fish before but never in fresh water had I seen such a sight. I had to actually bend over and pull the trout out of this basses mouth to let him go.
Haven't thought about this story for a long time until I saw this post.
Thanks guys and gals.

[Kurt P]

We have a quarter acre pond where I practice casting and my kids bait fish for bluegill and perch. A few bass are in there too and one monster would come lay right at the bank at our feet, taking passes at and often grabbing a blue gill as we brought em in. My oldest daughter was bringing one in one summer evening a few years ago when "Big Johnny" (as they'd come to call him) snagged her fish. It had always been a fun 20-30 seconds of wild fighting before the blue gill came unhooked, but this time the #10 eagle claw the kids used somehow hooked the bass. She was using a little Barbie pole and it took her forever to land it, having to run around the pond (younger siblings in tow) when Big Johnny would swim around the island. She eventually got it in the net but it was so dark by then the photo didn't turn out great, but it's one of the best fishing memories I have...the kids and I all hooting and hollering and ending up finally getting to look Big Johnny in the eye. We released him, but I was worried the long fight was too much for him for a few weeks because we didn't see him, but then he showed up at the bank again, stalking our blue gills.
I think I still have that photo in the computer somewhere, I'll see if I can post it when I get home tonight.
Kurt
Thanks for all the fish stories, guys. Great thread.

[Adam Grace]

Great stories guys!

Kurt, what a great family story.

I've had bass attack trout on stringers before too. Had fish jump onto the bank and into stream side foliage. I have experienced a bunch of these situations luckily and thanks to all your stories I got a chance to remembering those fun fishing experiences.

My top 2 are these:

About 18 years ago I was fishing a small sierra stream back in the spin fishing days fishing with my Father. It was a slow day of fishing and out of pure boredom I climbed onto a log that crosses a pool in the stream to look down and hopefully to catch a glimpse of just one fish. Looking down I see some small trout swimming around and for the sake of feeling a tug on my rod I dip my salmon egg covered hook into the water in front of a little guy, I hook it and let it swim around the hole, just kinda playing with it until all of the sudden out of the shadow of the boulder to my left a big shape shoots out at my fish. In an excited/shocked impulse I vertically yank my rod and before I know it 2 fish land right into a rotted out knot in the log that I was standing on. Strangely enough the original little fish became unhooked all by itself, I returned the lil guy to the water and kept the 8-9" brookie into my creel for dinner that night.

About 8 years ago fishing Henderson Springs Ranch, in one of their many stocked ponds. I hooked a nice 4lb trout. Right from the start it was fighting strangely, just like it was snagged. As it get closer I can see that it is coming in backwards, here I feel bad think that I snagged the fish. Well as it gets closer I see that my fly has snagged something other than the fish. After I land the fish I see that my woolly bugger had snagged a chernobyl ant that was slightly deteriorated. Well the funny part is that the line connecting the chernobyl ant to the trout was tied off at the bend out the hook and the mono was coming out of the fishes anus. The trout had PASSED that entire HUGE chernobyl ant through its system and must have had the dropper finally catch on something inside. I clipped off the chernobyl and returned the fish. I still have that chernobyl! thats one of my favorite stories :-)

Keep the stories coming guys, I'm loving them. - Adam