crazy animal encounters

Nice fish. Super bony... so I'm sure it was released. Caught a lot of chain pickerel in South Jerzy growing up. Biggest was 35", and that won SECOND place that year! Won a nice Penn reel.

Then I moved to Michigan and caught my first Northern Pike... thing was an alligator!

 

Those fish are so gnarly.

 

Biggest freshwater fish I ever caught was a 40 inch Muskie in the Schuylkill River above the flat rock dam about 15 years ago. I was fishing live bluegills for catfish when he clobbered a cast I had dropped short of a trough. By some miracle he didn't saw through my line. Most guys fish for them with steel leader. It took me 15 minutes to land him. I knew right away what it was the minute I hooked him. Catfish will try to dive after a strike, this guy ran like a sonofabitch. Still remember that fight like it was yesterday. Teeth like a goddamn crocodile. I CAREFULLY got the hook out and sent him on his way.

 

Always wanted to catch one of those. It was on my bucket list for a long time...

On another note... the yakers are killing big striped bass right now, releasing fish in the 40lb range. Not interested in a fish that size, but definitely would like to start working the suds with some consistency soon.

 

Wow.few years back I caught a 22” in my back yard (biggest one I have ever caught)...and I thought that was big! 35” is huge!

 

The ironic thing was that I wasn't even fishing for them.

 

Caught that fish twice... swear to god. First time on a yellow rooster tail. Line snapped as my dad was pulling it up out of the water. A few more casts with a purple rooster tail and I hooked up again. Tired him out a bit, then got him in... still had my other lure in it's mouth. No sh!t.

 

Dude, that's amazing, it was your luck day, did you play the lottery that night?

 

I was, like, 12... lol!

 

That’s funny. I had one break line right at the bank, then a month or so later caught the one. I thought it was probably same one! Don’t recall what I was using when line broke but was using original rapala when I caught it.

 

Saw a dude kick a keeper striper up onto the beach out of a tide pool on Sandy Hook one day. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself.

 

Go to You Tube and search on Musky/Muskie fishing in Marsh Creek PA. That's where I do a lot of my largemouth fishing. The Muskie they have in there are huge. I've seen guys pull out behemoth muskie. It's only 10 minutes from my house in PA.

 

Do you eat Muskie? Never fished for them

 

I wouldn't eat them, especially out of the Schuylkill River in PA. They are the apex predator of fresh water so I would never keep one. Most guys don't. I was very careful with releasing him. I have a fish grip, hook removal tool, and gloves. You have to deal with them like you would a shark.

 

come on LB

 

Fact is stranger than fiction, brother.

Not that I don't love the tradition of "fishing tales." I do. But this one happens to be truth. The only one left alive that was there to confirm is my dad... and he's not long for this world. His dad... my grandfather... passed a long time ago. It was just the three of us early one morning at one of the cedar lakes in the Woodbine area of NJ. The lake side of a spillway... maybe the "Pickle Pond" spillway? One of those lakes, anyway... The Pickle Pond was the site of an old Pickle Factory. And here's another legend that's stranger than fiction... the remnants of the little driveway/parking area of the factory was made of a combination of crushed clam shells (not uncommon) and buttons! Fact! Thousands upon thousands of plastic buttons, from a number of nearby button and textile factories in Vineland. TRUTH!

Oops... I lied. My mom can vouch, too. The family ATE that fish that night at my grandmother's house in Rio Grande. It fed 7 us.

 

Yep - she was released.

 

On a lake in Maine, an old timer took me fishing for northerns. Got up against this granite wall at sunrise and he pulled out a wind up little rubber ducky with trebles on it. Winds it up and tells me to get it right up against the wall... I nail it. And wait about 10 seconds. And the water explodes and long fight short, I reel in a 44” black eyed male that had to go 35lbs. Teeth like a freak show and just looked MEAN. He was a release and the old timer told me back in the day, they used live baby ducks...

 

ATTACK OF THE SEA TURTLE!