the biggest fish that you never caught

[jigglestick]

i would like to hear about the ones that got away.
it has long been my theory that the ones that get away are always the biggest monsters in the lake. that's why they get away right?

mine was two summers ago here on moose lake.
i was walleye fishing with my good friend joe in his boat. we were slip bobber fishing off of a submerged island with tall cabbage in about 14-16 feet of water.
we had already caught a couple of nice mid-day walleyes when another had taken the lively shiner down underneath that bright yellow wave buster bobber. slowly it disapeared. reeling the line tight, then feeling the fish, i set the hook, only this time was different. it wasn't coming in. i wondered if i had some how gotten snagged, but i know i felt a fish just before i set the hook. fishing moose lake as long as i have, i instantly realized that i had probably hooked something much larger than any walleye. leaning back on my rod just a little i watched the line where it entered the water. slowly it made that little water bug type trail heading to the deep water.
"nope, i aint snagged" i told Joe. "what ya got?" he asked, i told him he would soon know.
it turned and made its way toward the boat and went right underneath us. in the gin clear water, we both got very excited.
it was a week before muskie season, so i wouldn't be able to keep it, but to get it close enough to get a good look at it and maybe that outside chance to land it on four pound test and get a photo was enough to get my heart beating.
i was soon made aware of just what had taken place. i could see the walleye, about an eighteen incher sideways in the muskies mouth. i could see the head of the walleye clearly out side of the jaws of this fifty plus inch beast.
she was a sow!
i knew the hook was only in the walleye and that the muskie was not hooked at all.
now i knew my chances were almost nil.
the only chance i had i thought was to patiently play the big fish until she tired at least enough to cooperate for one chance with the net.
she made several cruises by the boat within twenty feet. slowly, idling deep, then letting me haul her back in towards the boat.
let me tell you, Joe was at least as much if not more excited than i was. one pass, she got sideways, with the line sort of wrapped up around her, with tension on the line, her massive tail came out of the water. at least twelve inches from tip to tip!
i played this fish for fifteen minutes before she even knew she was at the end of my fishing line. then while she was coming in straight in towards the boat, she lit out to my right like she was struck by lightning :o
now this situation was getting serious.
the longer i had played her, the better i thought my chances were, but after she decided she didn't like what was going on, i was fairly confident i wasn't going to win this battle. i didn't. after twenty five minutes, while she was heading south, the line simply snapped. i think the line just got tired. i wasn't pulling any harder than i had been. it just snapped in open water :'( she went away with the walleye she had every intention of keeping.
i wasn't disapointed to bad. hell, i got to see her about a dozen times withing twenty feet.
the best part is, she's still out there. waiting for me.

who else has got a story?

[Brandon_Collins]

my uncle had the same thing happen to him at the angle except for the muskie grabbed a rock bass. We missed it the first time and the second time rite before we were about to grab it it let go of the fish and up came the rock bass. It was so cool.

My fish story is i was fishing up at Lake traverse on the south dakota minnesota border. We had just got ther with about 2 hours of sunlight left. I was in a hurry to get the lines in teh water cuz we were shore fishing the eyes and wat ever else bit. Rite away we pulled in about 6 eyes that went from 16-19 and we were all pumped next i landed a 11 inch sunfish which was the biggest i had ever seen and the night was just going great. All of a sudden another bobber went down and it was my moms turn and it was on the junky pole with the drag not set at all and so she was fighting this fish for a while and i was on the rocks waiting to net it. All of a sudden it shows it self to the surface jsut out of netting and i could see it was going to take off and i knew the drag was messed so i was just telling my mom to let out line and it snapped this was a 10+ lb eye it was a very nice big fish. She ended up loosing two that night that went over about 8-9lbs. But owell that is fishing. Me my self had one on that went about 7-8 lbs and i got it all the way to shore and my buddy missed it with the net and i got it up again and wen he went to get it with the net the hook came out of his mouth after he done a couple of major head jerks. So i was all bummed after all those fish were lost But the the bobber went under again and i set the hook and it felt really nice so i got excited and i get it up to the rocks and here is a 16" crappie again the next biggest panfish i have ever seen. So i throw it in the basket and put the basket in the water not realized how big the fish was and was going to mount it after thinking about it for a lil bit so i go back to the basket to grab it after they had just caught another walleye and wat do i find?? That one of the lil kids that was up there threw the basket in the rocks so the bottom of the basket opened up and we lost 3 eyes and my crappie. So that just topped off how my night was going. But i dont care thats y they call it fishing and not catching there are many more to catch out there and it was still a fun weekend.

Has anyone else caught a 16" crappie before cuz i have never even heard of anyone i wonder wat that fish weighed??

Brandon

[jigglestick]

brandon, sounds like it was a heck of a night to go fishing. sixteen inch crappie in any book would go over 2 pounds. closer to two and a half.
i have come so close many times on red, but i have not hit that sixteen inch mark.
i believe i will get one even bigger on a smaller lake, but those red lakers seem to come out of the same mold.
i saw one that a guy caught closer to seventeen inch out of the same holes i had fished the night before. he had just caught it when we were ariving through the fog, via GPS and they were just leaving when i asked how they did. they both just looked at each other like ..should we tell him? then the one guy reaches in the bucket and pulls out this monster! WOW was all i could say.
now back to the ones we didn't catch :)

[GRIZ]

The biggest one I never caught I never seen. So I have no Idea what it was. We were trolling over a weed bed 14' of water which come to a point. I was using a 10" suick when we got to where our lures should just be coming of the point I got a solid bite. What ever it was, decided to go out to deeper water and stay on the bottom off to my right.

It fought just like a big carp (slow but steady) but I knew it wasn't as there isn't any carp in this lake. Line just steadily screamed out of my reel. Which didn't bother me as I had 300 yds of 80 lbs line on the reel and could horse just about anything out of weed if need be. I always had the drag set pretty taught when all of a sudden the rod went straight with no tension.

After tieing on a new lure but still puzzled since my line had appeared to not been broke we proceded to turn around and continue fishing but in the oposite direction. Upon getting to the point of weeds I noticed my lure floating on the surface. We went and retrieved it and found my line had indeed not broke which is what we first thought. Then after looking at it realized that my snap tied to the line wasn't on the lure either.

The whole thing still puzzles me but to our nearest guess is we figured the snap had been damaged so when it broke it come off the line and off the lure. The fish later got the lure out of it's mouth which floated to the top. Funny thing is it was a 300lbs snap and I had a knot tied to it which should have held the broken piece of snap to it. So I really have no clue what happened or what it was. Boy what I'd give to have at least seen what kind of fish it was. We've already eliminated catfish, muskie and carp. (they don't exist in the lake) which has no inlets or outlets. Anyone got any other ideas other than the elusive mermaid or seal?

[dogonpoint]

Snapping turtle?

[jigglestick]

i would say that's a very good guess :)

[Fawkinnae]

Brandon
I caught a 16" in crappie 2 or 3 years ago on Rainy Lake. Mid September and we're drifting for walleyes and the walleyes are deep (what is it about those lakes around there, the walleyes are always so deep in late summer and fall). I hooked him in 54 feet of water. The poor guys eyes blew out of his head coming up. I was pretty proud of that fish. The next day another guy in our group got one 17".

[Brandon_Collins]

Wow those r some nice craps

Brandon

[GRIZ]

Never even thought bout a snappin turtle b4 thats bout the best idea I've heard. Trying to remember back it seemed smoother (than turtles I've caught in the past). Besides I still like to believe it was a fish. Or something like it, like a brunette murmaid. How else would my snap not be on the end of my line or on my lure ??? ???