Share a story (or tale) with us.

[Outdoors Junkie]

I wanted to start a new thread to encourage members to post a favorite story from your outdoor experiences.  Tell us a fish tale, or about the one that got away.  Describe your first whitetail, or hunting with your family. 

We all love to hear about other people enjoying the great outdoors!  So, tell us about you, and a favorite memory you enjoy.

[Outdoors Junkie]

I will share a story about two big fish.  It was Labor Day weekend 2005.  My dad, son and I were fishing the mouth of the Tamarack river by URL.  I hook the biggest fish of my life.  I struggle for 15-20 minutes trying to reel in this big pike.  We finally get it into the boat and I was exhausted!  It was 39" and 19 lbs.  The biggest fish anyone in my family had ever caught!

Twenty minutes later my nine year old hooks a big fish.  He reels it to the boat in 2-3 minutes.  It is 40" and 20 lbs.  He now holds the record for the biggest fish (Northern Pike) caught in the family.  I have not heard the end of it since.  :)

It took me 30 years to get my big fish, and he passed me up in 20 minutes!

[Woody]

Too funny OJ!  The next time someone ribs you about your son catching a bigger one that you-tell them he had a GREAT teacher!  It usually works for me!    (My son is ALWAYS outfishing me!) 

[Grute Man]

Reminds me of my oldest son.  He begs me to enter him in a fishing contest so I see a Fisher's of Men contest for $12 each and I said thats about our price range.  So I catch nothing that day and he lands a tiger muskie winning the dang contest with it!!  A couple of years later when he's turned hunting age, I get stuck in a job in Pennsylvania and he goes hunting with his uncle and bags a 6 point buck.

I'll have to use the "teacher" line the next time he rubs either one of those in because he LOVES to tell those stories.

Grute Man

[Outdoors Junkie]

Thanks for sharing Grute Man!

Do be shy everyone else!!!  Post a story!

[DIRTBALL2]

My story is about a super, rotten trick I pulled on my younger brother one year while we were deer hunting. I still get the giggles every time I think of it! :laugh:When we are deer hunting, we like to change deer stands about every 4 hours or so, just so we don't get tired of looking at the same stretch of woods. It also gives us a chance to warm up, stretch our legs, etc... My brother's stand is located way up nailed to a couple big tree's. There is a small creek that run's right between the 2 tree's. When I walked up to change stands with my brother, right away I noticed this big pile of crap right at the base of one of the tree's. Of course I questioned my brother about it. He's starts complaining right away about how he's got the rumble gut's, Hershey drizzles, etc...I told him no self respecting deer was going to come within a mile of his stand with a pile of fresh crap sitting there. Then I said if you have to go that bad, at least go in the creek! He climbs down then and I climb up in his stand. When I looked down, there he was in all his glory, with his bare butt hanging over the creek, grunting mightily and bitching. So I says to myself,"Self, this is too good to pass up!" I took an apple out of my lunch and taking careful aim I dropped it, just barely missing his bare butt. I was about 20 feet up in the tree so it made a hellacious splash when it hit. You never saw a man move so fast with his pants down across his ankles. His eyes got as big as saucers! He must have thought a muskrat was after his goods or something. It took me a good 10 minutes before I could stop laughing. Dam near fell out of the tree! He's down there shaking his fist at me and calling me every unprintable name he can think of. The more he did that, the harder I laughed. He swore he was going to get even with me. This happened about 30 years ago and he hasn't gotten even yet. Who is more fun to pick on than your younger brother, eh? Have to stop now. Getting the giggles again! :o ::) :P ;)DIRTBALL2

[Big Slick]

Back when the years were long and the time seemed endless, a friend of mine and I were sitting in the fishhouse playing card, drinking beer and talking about the things that interst teenaged boys. (ie. girls, dirt bikes, girl, fishing, snowmobiles, girls and weather or not an ATV could be as much fun as our motorcycles...and girls.) This went on pretty much all night without the bobbers slipping below the serface even one time. When the sky started getting the glimmer of the new day to come we decided to pack it up and head home. I started wrapping line around the two pegs on the old jiggle stick and about the same time me friend, Doug, who was winding line on his jiggle stick in the corner next to mine, blurted out that he was getting something. I stopped long enough to see if there was a bobber still floating...there wasn't. As I started winding line again I noticed that sometime during the night we must have had something playing with the minnows as our lines were tangled together and just as I was about to say something, BANG! My buddy Doug sets the hook dang near pulling the Jigglestick out of my hands!
So I did what any good friend would do and started mimicking the action of a fighting fish...a REAL BIG fighting fish!
What happened next was so funny that I will remember it till the day I die.
"Holy Mother of S**T!! I got a big en" were the words he used.
"Oh yeah, sure you do" was my reply still playing the BIG FISH.
Doug was over in the corner pulling as hard as the 10 pound test would let him but just as he was making progress the BIG FISH would make a run pulling the now hysterical boys arm into the freezing cold water past his elbow trying to give out line.
"GET THE PHUQUIN CHISEL...GET THE PHUQUIN CHISEL" Doug was shouting. "IT'S A PHUQUIN WALL HANGER"!!!
This went on for about 5 minutes with me trying to suppress my laughter long enough to hand him the chisel and encourage him to take it easy on the BIG FISH or he will break the line.
After a while the BIG FISH was tiring of the game so I started letting out some line, and as the BIG FISH started coming to the hole the tell tale sign of the BIG FISH came to view as both of our lures and bait came out of Dougs fishin hole.
"YOU SON-OF-A-B***H" Doug was shouting, Along with just about every other nasty word he could think of. "I JUST ABOUT PIS*ED MY PANTS" he shouted as he threw the jig stick at me.
This whole time I'm laughing my damned-fool-ass-off so hard I did piss my pants,(although it may have been a spilt beer). I decided to head for the car when the hissy fit was about done and the mess in the house was somewhat cleaned up.
We caught absolutely no fish that night but it sure was fun.

To this day when I mention the BIG FISH that got away he turns an angry shade of red and changes the subject. Probably not good for his blood pressure.

[holdemtwice]

OK HERE GOES. it was the summer of 1998 i was over on lake Winnebago with my father . we were trolling the flats and humps  for late spring early summer  eyes. anyway one of the poles started to bend. i grabbed it and let the drag go { i thought we may have been hooked on the bottom} so anyway  my pop  turned the boat around and off to the races. remember we thought we were snagged. we get to the spot  and he shuts the motor off. well ...............  the snag started  moving. real slow.
 i told my pop that i think may have a fish on. but by the way it was moving it could be something submerged in the water. big log   running with the current or something along those lines.  i played it out for about twenty minutes and what do you think i had hooked ???????????  it was about a 95 pound sturgeon.  how wild that was . anyway i had to cut the line and lose my favorite bait. was one to remember . memories with my dad will be all i have left someday . so remember  make all the memories you can with your loved ones. you never know when  the time is up
   cheers everyone   Scott

[DIRTBALL2]

Shame on you Big Slick! That's a rotten trick to pull on a buddy. Wish I'd thought of it!LOL! ::) DIRTBALL2

[Realtree]

I have a deer hunting story to share. I had been hunting with my Dad and a buddy for several years and invited another friend (whom we will call Steve) to come along with us for the first time.

We go out a couple weeks before opener to scout around and pick our spots. I told my buddy Steve who was joining us for the first time that he can pick his spot first and I will go wherever he isn't. We all find some great spots with scrapes and rubs and come back later and put our stands up.

Opening morning we are in our stands about 45 minutes to an hour before sunrise. About 5 minutes after legal shooting time I spot a group of 4 doe being followed by a couple of decent bucks a couple hundred yards out from my stand. As I am watching them through my binocs, I hear a couple of shots from Steve's direction. A minute or 2 later, a couple more shots. 30 seconds later another shot. As I'm standing in my stand, shotgun at the ready for the stampeding deer sure to be coming my way I'm thinkin, Steve there is no way you are gonna hit that deer as I am sure he is running like the wind right now and already several hundred yards from your stand.

No deer come my way after the shooting so I turn my attention back to the group still hovering a couple hundred yards from my stand. Pretty soon here comes Steve walking towards my stand as I am trying to motion to him to stop as I have some potential customers coming my way. After lots of sign language and gestures to each other it finally hits me...Steve is telling me that we are filled out already as he shot 2 nice bucks and 2 big does within about 75 yards of each other within about 4 minutes.

Needless to say, Steve only gets 1 shell to start out opening morning these days. He is issued the rest of his shells at lunch on opening day. What a memorable hunt. Steve has the well-earned nickname DEERSLAYER now in our camp.

[Mayfly]

 

Thats a good one Realtree

[Realtree]

Thanks Mayfly...It is one hunt that we will surely never forget. Steve had another memorable hunt a couple of years after that first hunt with us while hunting the URL area with Outdoors_Junkie and his family. Hopefully "Steve" will come out and post this other hunting adventure for us all soon. Or maybe O_J can post it. It is another "you just can't make this stuff up" kind of hunt.

[Outdoors Junkie]

Thanks for sharing that great story Realtree! 

Who is going to share next?  Don't be shy!

[Realtree]

No one else has any good hunting or fishing stories to share? I find that hard to believe with all the active outdoorsman we have in our midst....

[luvnlife]

OKAY Here it goes...
For our first anniversary my husband and I went fishing on Millac's. We had found a honey hole on 8 mile and were back trolling, lindy rigging back and forth. All of the sudden, my husband has a bite and is working this fish in, "Get the net honey this is a big one" I also seemed to have a bite, my line had tension, I let him know I also had a bite but reluctantly grabbed the net and waited, he was smiling and gloating like no tomorrow,as he brought the walleye up SNAP his line broke, poor guy,  ;)I went back to my line and I'll be $#% my fish was still on "Honey get the net this is a big one" Sure enough I caught a 10 pound walleye but the unreal part that no-one would believe unless they were there is that my husbands sinker was on my line. That is how we had it mounted and that was probably the best anniversary present I ever got!!!!! AND YOU BET I NEVER LET HIM FORGET THAT I CAUGHT IT!

[Mayfly]

Love it

[kayaker]

I used to fish a small lake near clearwater quite often. There was a huge snapping turtle that lived in it and over about a 4 year period, he stole many stringers of fish from me. He ever cut holes in 2 wire fish baskets and took the fish out. One day I was fishing panfish from the end dock and I had a wire fish basket with a float on the lid hanging off the dock to put the fish in. I happend to look down in the water and I saw him coming along the lake bottom towards my basket. I quickly pulled the basket out of the water and he swam away. After a few minutes I put the basket back in the water and within 10 minutes I seen him coming back. This time I waited until he was coming up under the basket and I slowly picked it out of the water. As I did this , he popped his head out of the water. This gave me an idea. I went to my tackle box and got a fish stringer that was made of heavy metal cable. It had a spike on one end and a steel ring on the other. I put the spike through the ring to form a noose. I then put the basket back in the water and when he came back I lifted yhe basket out slow and when he pooped his head out of the water I dropped the noose of that stringer over his head and gave it a jerk. As he was trying to get away he was probably 2 feet under water and the surface of the water was just boiling. I couldn't beleive the strenght of him. I put him in the pontoon boat that was tied to the dock and tied the stringer to the railing towards the front of the boat. A little later I layed down on the front deck of the pontoon, directly on the opposite side of the railing from the turtle to take a little nap. I just couldn't grt myself to fall asleep thinking about that big turtle right on the other side of the railing from me so I got up and moved him to the other end of the boat and tied him to the railing there. I no more than fell asleep when I heard this loud crash. That turtle had climbed over the railing which was about 2 feet high and was hanging over the side of the pontoon by the stringer that was still around his neck. If I wouldn't have moved him he would have been right on top of me. He was the biggest snapper I have ever seen. His head was 4-1/2 inches across. Well I put him in my trunk and took him for a long drive and never lost another fish basket in that lake.      

[Outdoors Junkie]

Kayaker,

Now that is a great story!  Thanks for telling us about it.  Good thing you moved that big snapper to the other side.  :)

Welcome to MNO!  We are happy you joined us here.

[Realtree]

Great adventures Luvnlife and Kayaker...thanks for sharing them with us. Welcome to MNO Kayaker. We are glad to have you here.

[Fishahollik]

Ok, This goes WAYYYY back to my high school days. My Dad and a freind of his used to hunt raccoons down near La Crosse in the bluff country. At that time there was decent money in the pelts. When you shoot one, if it isn't stone dead when it hits the ground, the dogs who have chased it half the night and tree'd it, generaly begin to fight with it. The resultant tears in the hide depreciate the value of the pelt.

 So one night we have a a REALLY big fat coon tree'd. We get to the tree and spotlight the tree until we find him hugging a limb. As my dad is getting ready to shot it He says to me, "get down hill, find a big stick and when it hits the ground, smack it in the head and kill it so the dogs don't tear it to hell."

 So there I am below the tree on the down hill side looking around on the ground for a big sturdy stick that would resemble a louisville slugger to bust this coon with.   I hear the crack of the .22 and the next thing I know I get cold cocked in the back of the head. Knocks me completely to the ground. I wake up and roll over leaning up against the tree seeing stars and this really pissed off coon with a nice .22 caliber red stipe up his forehead. About then the dogs see him and tear into him and down the side of the bluff they go fighting and snarling. Meanwhile my head is killing me and I am having a hard time breathing. Then a light shines in my eyes and I hear my dad exclaim, "holy chit, are you ok?" I look up at him and suddenly he and his buddy are dragging me thru the woods up the hill by my arms. Apparently I was bleeding profusely from the mouth and nose. (I had bit my toungue) They put me in the truck and my dads freind is yelling "GO GO! Don't worry about me, GO!

 A mad dash of 20 or so miles to the hospital in La Crosse and a couple hours of Xrays and examinations and I am on my way home with a few bottles of pain killers and muscle relaxers and a brand new neck brace. Not the soft ones either, the big hard plastic ones.

 Doc said I was lucky it didn't break my neck as all I had was a concussion and pulled muscles and ligaments in my neck. No damage to the spine or vertabra.  Seems that the coon, (estimated to be 20-30 lbs) hit me in the back of the head on its way to the ground after it had gotton shot.

Needless to say, in a small town, you can't lie about stuff, so it wasn't long before everyone knew. I sure took alot of grief for that in school for awhile. But its kinda funny looking back now.

[Fishahollik]

I'll post more later, but I am waiting to see if Buff will post the one about the hess truck and the gas can when we were 14.

[vickieschessies]

I went to high school with fish and when he came back to school with a neck brace on and we asked what happened........ well you can just imagine(I thought he could have made up a better story than the truth)

[Fawkinnae]

For years now my 2 kids and I and an assortment of neighbors have taken a one week camping trip to the English River north of Kenora.
This must have happened about 4 years ago and it was my daughter Cara's last trip. She wrote the story.

My name is Cara. You see, a few years back I was with my dad, brother, and neighbors on our annual fishing trip to Canada. I was fishing with a jig and a leech, and I only had 6 lb. test line on the rod I was using. I was getting snagged a bunch and my dad was getting a little frustrated with me.
“What did I say about having too much line out?” he lectured for the third time.
I got my line straightened out and back in the water, but it wasn’t long before my line wouldn’t budge. I sat there wondering what to do, until my dad turned around and asked for the rod in an exasperated tone.
“You can’t have so much line out. You’re gonna keep getting snagged,” he said and pulled on the rod. “What are you...”
All of a sudden the line gave two strong, quick jolts.
“I think you’ve got a fish on, and it’s big.”
I took the rod back and little by little began reeling the monster in. After ten minutes it’s head surfaced. It was the biggest muskie we’d ever seen. It dove back into the water as we all stood completely shocked.
“Fawkinnae, that’s a big fish,” we muttered in unison (even me), “Fawkinnae!”
Our neighbor pulled out a camera to film, and my dad, brother, and I took turns trying to reel it in. Every time we thought we were getting it close to the boat it zoomed away. Finally, after an hour it started to wear out. Our neighbor hopped into our boat to help pull the beast in, and we finally got it to the surface. It took my dad and neighbor six tries to pull it into the boat. Finally, they put a net over it’s head and heaved it in. It looked like a hippo in the bottom of our boat. We took pictures and tried to measure it, but nothing was long enough. We ended up holding it up to a paddle, and it was two inches shorter. When the paddle was measured we found out that fish was 52 inches long. It was the fish of a lifetime, and the experience of one too.

[luvnlife]

That is what makes fishing fun! Great story Cara!

[holdemtwice]

Michigans another one. back in 1989 my friend and his dad were out on lake michicgan trolling for salmon. any way  we were out of Cline ave . in Indiana  about 25 miles out.  the wind switched direction  and in came a fog. let me tell you something ....  it was so thick we couldn't see one another on deck. (36 footer)  anyway  the capt . said lets just take a our compass heading and start back. with that said  my buddy went over to the compass and gulped. he didn't realize that someone had put a magnetized pair of pliers next to the compass. the capt. kept his cool  and radioed in an emergency , help needed.  back then there wasn't the gps or sonar on this small of a ship . so the light house operaters  had to triangulate where we were and gave us a compass heading. well we made it back into port . it toOK 3 nail biting hours though. and a lot of fog horn blows.
 Oh yeah i forgot to mention i finnaly joined the fugowie tribe.  (meaning where the fug are we) lol

[QuillGordon]

Did I mention a dry sense of humor somewhere?? Concerning luvnlifes story...

[Outdoors Junkie]

Thanks for sharing.  Anybody else have a story?

[kenhuntin]

There is a guy who works for my company that knows how to screw up a pheasant hunt.
  I'd shot trap with him before and he did well. But a couple years ago I asked him how his red label was doing He said it was gone and this is his story.
 He went on a pheasant hunt with about 5 or so guys and he rode with another guy who just bought a brand new suburban. They weren't far from the trucks when a bird got up and somehow he gut shot the guy with the new suburban. He ran back and drove the suburban out to pick up his injured buddy while the others tended to him.
  It was really dry and windy that day and they all put their guns in the back and were gonna load themselves up when the catalytic converter ignighted the grass he parked on so now they all turned into firefighters and had to swat out the flames with their jackets
 It wasn't bad enough to shoot his hunting partner so he topped it off with burning all the guns and leaving the new suburban a burned out shell.
They shot guy ended up O.K.
 ALWAYS MAKE SURE OF YOUR TARGET AND WHATS BEYOND IT.
 That cannot be repeated enough even to the most experienced shooter.

[holdemtwice]

Now that was a story  ken !!!  I am glad to hear your buddy was ok from the gun shot wound.

[Realtree]

That is an unfortunate story and hunt Ken, but I'm glad the guy that got shot was ok. I've heard way too many stories of hunts that went astray because of over eager or inattentive hunters. People need to take their time and stay focused on what they are doing in the field...too many bad things can happen if they don't.

Thanks for sharing that Ken. I think stories like these are what people need to hear as well as the good, funny ones to keep some perspective on what we are all doing out in the field and how quickly things can turn if you loose your focus.

Have a great day.  :)