I take my rookie friend fishing. First cast he sinks the treble hooks straight in his scalp. He turns to me and says, " in my head isnt it?" I say yep. I take a good look at it and lordy its in deep. Have you ever walked into the ER with a lure on your head? Pretty funny after all was said and done.
Yes. Sucked at the time, funny looking back. It was a just sharpened, multi-treble hook adorned bass lure that my friend was trying to cast a long way.
Haha, glad it was you and not me. I have tons of good stories since I was a charter captain for 15 years. Most involve something like a tarpon getting eaten by a bull shark right after release, blood red water and things of that nature. Seen a kingfish skyrocket over 15 feet in the air attacking a bait, 100 lb Tuna free jumping and sailfish swim right by the boat. The gulf is good for something besides waves because we aint got shiz in that dept. Well we will get some long awaited onshore chunk tomorrow.
two stories: this past November, i went out on my kayak and was trolling and jigging about 200yds off the beach. using a pretty large metal spoon, I wound-up catching two large squid, back to back within a few minutes. about a foot long a piece. never happened to me before. i kept them on the deck of the kayak and they were scared and squirting ink all over the place. i tried to catch a few more thinking i was gonna have fried calamari that night, but that was it. i threw them back still flapping. a few years back, on an early summer night, i was targeting stripers and blues on the beach. at about 2AM i hooked into what i thought was yet another skate (i had caught like 10 skate at that point that night and was getting sick of them). when i reeled it in, i noticed it was a huge fat fluke. it measured 24". i hiked it back to my car, threw it in my rubbermaid tote, and filleted him alive as soon as I got home. nobody was home except my dog and I since the wife and kids were down at the in-laws that night. i fried the entire fish in panko breadcrumbs at 3AM (at least 3-4 pounds of meat), and my dog and I ate the whole thing in one sitting.
This is a little off track but I've been wanting to get this story off my chest for quite some time now.It was about 10 years ago on a cool October fall night.It was around 11:00 pm and my wife was in bed.I was watching the Yankees in the Alcs.I had the sliding glass door open a slight crack because I like the cool crisp air.We live a few feet from the woods or forest if your reading this thread from New Zealand.I hear some rufffling of some leaves outside but Jeter was on 3rd so I could not leave the couch.I figured it was a few deer because i feed them apples .The ruffling got louder and louder and I heard some grunting.I turned on the porch light and could not belive what I was seeing.It was Sasquatch.Bigfoot if your reading this thread from Nebraska.I was kind of taken back but ticked off and said to him Sasquatch your in my back yard.He looks at me all serious and what not and pounds his chest and points to the ground.He was telling me it was his back yard.I realized right then he was right.It was his back yard.He's been probably living there a lot longer then us.I figured to make peace I would give him some food.We ate Vics pizza from Bradly Beach that night so I said yo Sash,I felt like we were starting to bond a bit,I'll be right back so I got him two slices.I opened the sliding glass door and walked over to him and handed him it.He took a couple sniffs and ate both slices in one bite.He looked over at me and gave me the peace sign and took off.I only saw him one other time with his lady and two baby sasquathes playing in the woods and we just talked a few minutes because there was an epic swell that day.I still leave Vics pizza every time the Yanks are in a post season game and the slices are gone the next morning.
That is beautiful. Does life get any better than that? I'll occassionally pretend to regurgitate chewed up meat to mine.
Mystery fish Since we're into the true fish stories now...I caught a really weird looking fish off Cape Lookout once. It was silvery like a tarpon but definitely wasn't a tarpon, and it was huge. I mean way bigger than any tarpon I've ever seen. Took forever to get it in and was so big we couldn't even get it in the boat. We drug it all the way back praying the whole time the sharkys didn't come chomp on it. We finally got it to the dock and they had to use a crane to haul it up. The thing was so heavy when it hit the dock it split open and there was a freaking body inside. Freakiest thing I've ever seen. Got pics to prove it...
Resurrecting this thread because of a banner ad that shows a guide with a weird looking fish. It reminded me of this. When I first moved to NC I went fishing on High Rock Lake. I caught a few small cats and white bass, which I had never caught up in NY. I set my drag loosely and went exploring. Suddenly my rod started bobbing and my my drag started squealing. I readjust the drag and start reeling in what I think Is a 3 or 4 pound catfish when I see this bright red/orange flash in the water. I Keep on reeling having no idea what I hooked. A few other people came over to see what I had on and when I finally landed it I had know idea what strange southern fish I had caught. It was a 4 pound Goldfish! I know they are just pretty, domestic carp, but this thing was 18 inches long, and bright, bright orange. I found out that they were used as bait for catfish and it must have been a survivor bait fish.
I caught a 5 foot tarpon off the beach in Naples Florida while visiting my parents, but my best fish of all time is this guy.
Today: I got cracked square in my forehead with my rod. You can laugh, it was kind of funny. I paddled out on my soft top about a half mile to snag and live line bunker in Mantaloking. There were a few Striped Bass around, but I couldn't produce. As I paddled in, I let out a good amount of line with a live Bunker on the end, and dragged it behind me. I paddle with one arm and hold the rod straight up in front of me, resting the butt on the center of the board. As I approach the sandbar, some kook, racing his boat along the inside, intersects my line behind me and whack!!! I was using 50lb braid with a 50lb leader so the line didn't break like butter and my forehead took a pretty good shot from my rod. Haha. The kook stopped his boat about a half mile north of me. I'm guessing it was because he had a ton of line and a big weighted treble hook wrapped around his prop. Friggin dork.
My first story happened during a family vacation to oak island the summer of my junior yr in college. Started as a normal day, me and my brother took a walk on the beach. In the distance you could see a big mass on the beach. The closer we gotwe realized it was a beached whale. We stayed with it for a long time pouring ocean water on it to keep his temp down. Eventually the a animal rescue unit came from one of the aquariums. I was taking a break to get stonef so i missed out on helping carry the baby whale to the rescue vehicle and didnt get in the paper. The mother as it turns out had beached herself up the beach a mile or so north and died. The whale we rescued lived four more years but died in captivity. The second story is about my stepson. He is one tough kid. His first time out surfing. He gets dragged under by a six foot reef shark. Thank God it let him go. A total miracle he has a clear bite mark from his fore arm to bicep of a shark jaw. Of course nc called it unidentified marine predator, the dr. And marine bioligist that studied his arm identified it as black tip. The cool thing is he is a little ripper!!! At 15 1/2 still surging!!! The dr. Was able to re atach his radial nerve and he has95% use of his hand. That nerve is less thick than a human hair. So stoked he is coming to pr for his first sessions on a real reef break for thanksgiving and christmas. The third story is from when i was surfing some crappy windswell after just getting back from my first trip to pr. Caught a couple forgettable waves and was telling God how sh!tty the waves were. Not two seconds later a 9 ft bottle nosed dolphin breaches ten yards from me, i was stiked and thanked God. Maybe nc not so bad.
Used to live in Colorado, and my neighbor had been fishing and caught this massive trout. Anyways, he had no idea how to clean the thing, so he asked me if knew what to do. I told him I did, so he brought over the fish and i started cleaning it for him. As soon as I cut into the belly, fish eggs start pouring out of it. My neighbor gets super grossed out, and tells me to throw it away. At this point, I'm pretty grossed out too (it was an ungodly amount of fish eggs), so I threw it in the dumpster. 2 nights later, me and my room mates were chilling on our deck, when we see this massive grizzly bear bound across the river, heading straight for the dumpster. We ran to the other side of the house, and proceeded to watch this bear go absolutely ape**** in this dumpster. The sound of a massive bear thrashing in a dumpster is a sound i will never forget. Eventually, the bear hops out of the dumpster, rotting fish in mouth, and runs back across the river to where he came from.
Bottom fishing about a quarter mile outside Indian River Inlet about 10:00 at night on a boat. Catching nothing, all of a sudden I felt something. I reel it in, it's not fighting, just a little weight..... It was a pair of women's panties. Weirdest $hit I have ever seen, we cracked up!!
