FISHERMAN NEVER LIE .. THEY JUST TELL WHOPPERS!

[BuoyJumper]

   I guess I'm elected to start off this new topic.  So post your best WHOPPERS, "THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY FISH STORIES", photos of some catches  you've made, local legends and fishing lore, fishing tips, hot spots or whatever.  Let's just have some fun and lie about all the biggins we caught! 

Out of consideration for usmilnet:  If you are using ImageShack, PhotoBucket or tinypic.com, lets show our appreciation to the folks here at usmilnet by downsizing the photos we post.   Thanks everybody...  

[BuoyJumper]

My wife Sherry holds the BIG FISH record for our family when she caught this monster Tarpon off of Port Aransas, Texas from a party boat.  I'm 5'10" so you can get an idea how big this brutus was.  Weighed in well over 100 pounds and it took my wife almost an hour to wrestle this torpedo to the boat.  The photo at far right was taken with a telephoto when the monster broke water off of the starboard beam at about 300-feet away. 
     Everyone on board was really pissed off too because they have paid the charter boat for the trip and now all they can do is sit and watch somebody else fish.  That's because when you hook a big one like this, everyone else on the party boat has to bring in their lines so that the running Tarpon doesn't cross every fishing line on the boat into a tangled mess. To this day she hasn't let me forget who's the BIG FISHERMAN in our family...LOL   

[vftb]

****, that's one big fish.  I'm a west coast boy but have spent a lot of time in Florida sailing; see the Tarpon hanging around the docks and know they get good sized.  I had no idea they got that big 

[debk]

About 7-8 years ago, in the spring, I caught a 120+ tarpon in the channel off of Key West (NE) in an area called Hens and Pebbles.

I had a little sparkly white flash jig on 10lb test. We were on the flats in a 17' flats boat.

First one I caught, scared the crap out of me and I yanked the line...it was bigger.

The second one, took me an hour and a half to get to the boat, got the leader just in and the sucker broke the line. I cried!!

It was really windy and Michael had to hold me onto the front deck...I was barefoot. (tan lines look bad with sandals! ) Our guide was taking pictures, but all you can really see is my legs .

It was just the 3 of us in our boat, and our friends were in another boat with a guide. We had a bet going for the trip...first, biggest, most.

I was the only one that caught the "fish of choice"....so I won everyone's money! Ended up with $240,

By the time we flew into Cincinnati...the guys were ready to kill me...I told anyone and everyone who stood still long enough about my fish and that the guys didn't catch one!

Except for a Mercury Redbone Celebrity/Am tournament, Michael hasn't taken me tarpon fishing since.....


I have a beautiful custom made for me graphite titanium rod with a Shiumano spinning reel. It has teal wraps (my color!) and will perfectly balance on three fingertips....

It's my "kick ass" baracuda catcher!

[BuoyJumper]

   You go girl, that's one bad-ass big fish on light tackle.  I'll bet your arms and shoulders ached for days.  I know my wife had a big ol' bruise in her lower abdomen from the butt end of the pole.   

My bro-in-law fishes the flats all the time around Tampa and has been wanting me to start stalking and fishing tailing reds with him.  That's something most on the left or right coasts don't get to do.  Redfish, bonefish and tarpon cruise the flats in crystal clear shallow water, 10 inches to 3 feet deep for blue claw crabs and shellfish.  Their mouth is on the bottom so as they forage the bottom for crabs and shellfish their tail breaks the surface of the water. When you see a tail you have to stalk them just like you would as if you were hunting big game, very quietly approaching your target.  When you get close enough within casting distance you gently lay your bait in the area so as to not spook the fish and hope that it drops close enough for the fish to pick up the bait and run with it.  It's the closest thing to combining hunting and fishing that I know of.   

[debk]

Our guide put one of those belts around my waist for the butt-end of my rod. Even so, I was exhausted. And so disappointed that I didn't get my "Kodak moment"! I drank a coke and ate a bag of peanuts from the plane, then laid down across the cooler and slept for an hour!

I have to tell one on myself....

We were out with our guide, Bobby, off of the Marquesas about 35 miles out from Key West.

There is a wreck there in water that's maybe 20 feet or so. It was stormy off in the distance....I'm afraid of thunder and I don't like when I can't see the bottom and know what's in the water with me (leftover from "Jaws"). So I'm antsy and ready to go in and Bobby and Michael are going crazy cause there are what seemed like hundreds of permits below us. It was like doing one of those little kid things with fish in a barrell....just drop a line with a shrimp and someone's going to take it.

Michael's up in the front, Bobby's up on the platform and I'm in the well by the console so I can grab if I want to.

We're catching one after another.

Suddenly, I've got one! Then Michael gets one! The lines are buzzing! My rod is almost bending in half....then it lets up a bit.....Michael's then does the same thing!  We're yelling...Holy ****...we've each got a huge one!....Bobby puts his rod down...waiting to see what's going to happen next...

My rod's bending and bending......THWACK!!!!! Line (10lb) gets "tail cut".....and my rod snaps back up and hits me straight up the middle of my face....Thank God I was wearing sun glasses....still it split the bridge of my nose open.

Now, Bobby gets all flustered....looking for ice for me, advil, trying to stop the bleeding (blood's going everywhere!).

Michael...my sweet of heart...the guy who loves me....he's still up on the front trying to get his damn fish in!!!!!!  :chairshot:Hey, honey....are ya okay? Bobby'll take care of you...I gotta get my fish in!   

Forget the damn fish...what about my face?   Put ice on it honey....Bobby, get the gaff ready!  Hey honey, can you find the camera to take a picture.....

 

I didn't get the camera...for two reasons...one I was hurt....but the main reason...IT WAS MY DAMN FISH!!!!!!  that was at the end of the line!

We had both hooked the same permit! When Michael and Bobby got him on board...my hook and part of the line...were wedged into his lip!

He tried to collect on the bet with that one...on the theory that he brought it into the boat....I wouldn't pay up on the grounds that he only got it cause I got hurt!


I get pretty competitive when there's money involved....

[BuoyJumper]

OW...damn that had to hurt to have your rod snap you on the bridge of the nose although I don't mean to laugh at your pain but I can just see Michael telling you to get the camera with blood streaming down your nose and probably yelling a few explatives back in his direction is a pretty funny picture       Got to ask this, your hook was in the mouth, where was Michael's?  I have seen a fish double hooked.  Usually one is in the mouth and the other will be in the tail from when the fish turned to run with the bait in its mouth.

[debk]

We both hooked it in the mouth!

It just depended which direction it went in as to how our rods went. Plus Michael was up on the the forward platform and I was right behind the center console.

And yes....there were lots of "words" flying around.....most started with an F!

I ended up with a cut and swollen nose, and 2 slightly black eyes! I would have gotten hurt a lot worse though, I think, if I hadn't had my sunglasses on. Weird thing is, I really hate to wear them, and I only wear them because they are polarized.

Don't feel bad about laughing...he and Bobby both did....

We did go in after that though....I had been watching water spouts in the distance...and I finally convinced the two of them to go in!

If you had any idea what a non-outdoorsy, sports person I am....you would see even more humor in all of this! I get seasick on deep water, I don't like to sweat, and I hate mornings!

He wakes me up, but all I have to do is get myself ready...he makes lunch, gets the gear ready, and he doesn't talk to me until I've been up for a half hour or so...

[Thor]

 

[debk]

Found a baracuda pic.  This was off of Key West, had to have been a January trip the way I'm dressed. Bobby's holding the 'cuda...I don't hold them!

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[OFFSHORE DIESEL]

I mentioned that I like to fish the coastal waters off the coast of LINY. Now everyone thinks I have fish stories. Right now I have a bunch of broken Detroits to deal with and can't get to the fish stories. I will leave you with a picture until I get back here.
Can you say "Striped Bass"?



Thank You for Your Service.
Diesel
NY

[BuoyJumper]

DIESEL, good to hear from you in the cold, snowy northeast.  Thought you were MIA in the snow.    That's one whopper of a striper you got your hands on.  Our land-locked stripers in Lake Texoma get big, but nothing like that!  Keep warm, no fun working on broken diesels in the cold.

Deb, that's one big ass Cuda girl!     What amazes me about Cudas, King Mackeral, Muskies and other fish of that shape is how fast they can run your line off your spool and how damn hard they fight.  Good catch 

[BuoyJumper]

Deb I also have one to tell on me too.  My brother had a horse ranch about forty minutes north of me here in Dallas with a large tank (that’s a farm pond in Texas) on his property.  I don’t know how or when fish got into that tank but they were there when he bought the property.  It probably resulted from runoff from a Texas frog-choker we often have in the spring.  In that tank he had some big largemouth bass, crappie, catfish and bream (aka redear sunfish) living and reproducing in that pond.  I loved fishing there, my own private "Honey Hole".

One day as I was standing on the levee which was high above the pond I observed my brother cutting the grass around the edge of the pond with his tractor.   As the tractor-mower went around the edge of the pond I noticed that bass and bream were following the tractor around the perimeter of the pond feasting on grasshoppers and crickets that were hopping into the water to escape the mower. 

So I grabbed my rod & reel and tied on a tiny torpedo (that’s a topwater plug with a small two blade propeller at the back).  I started following the tractor around the lake pitching that tiny torpedo in the water just behind the tractor and catching a bass on nearly every cast.  The second that topwater plug hit the surface a bass would be all over it.  I fished like this for years and caught many bass that way.

One day I was following the tractor on a nice warm spring morning pitching my tiny torpedo behind the tractor when I hear my brother say, “Oh ****”.  Didn’t think much about it at first until I looked down at my feet and saw parts of water moccasins and a couple of really mad water moccasins slivering all around my feet.  Then I said, “Oh Shiiiiiiiit”, dropped my fishing rod and got the hell out of there in a big hurry.

             

My brother had run over a water moccasin nest with the mower.  I was a bit more cautious about following the mower from that day on; ya just never know when you might step on one of those nasty snakes. 

[vftb]

NO SNAKE STORIES!!!!!!!

[debk]

I would have died!!!!!

I love fishing on the flats off of the lower keys. When I get bored, there is always something to watch in the water.....sting rays, the birds flying off the mangroves, looking for starfish, and on and on....

Although, I have to admit when bored...I have a tendency to start naming the bait and making up stories why the "fish of choice" is not available. Or I take Sebastian the Crab or Sammy the Shrimp and start giving them either flying lessons or water skiing if we're moving...

I'm only "allowed" to have one of each per trip out to "play" with... .....Michael and Bobby really prefer it if I go to sleep instead....