Let's hear about the one that got away!

[h2ohhh]

Being somewhat of an ol' timer I've got a few 'ones that got away' stories. But here's a memorable one.

Back in the late 80's I was at our family beach house in Duck, NC. Had an old and inexpensive (but reliable) Diawa combo we kept there for anyone to use. I'd grab it and a 5 gallon bucket with a couple of double bucktail jigs (still one of my favorites to this day) and walk up the beach towards the Army Corps of Engineers pier which had some great flounder holes around it. Had my girlfriend with me too (let her get away later too). Caught a few flounder and noticed a cobia running around in the breakers. Tossed the jig at him a few times with no luck, he disappeared and I forgot about him. Of course he hit that jig soon thereafter as soon as it hit the water. Now I hadn't even thought about setting my drag beforehand and it was tightened all the way down. The FISH WAS PULLING ME TOWARD THE WATER while I'm trying to adjust the drag. In just 30 seconds the line went slack and I figured that cobia had broken the 20 lb. test. Nope....bent the hook on that small jig straight out! Awesome power on a cobia!

[lemonshark24]

this past april me and bigpenfisher were out at oakisland. chillin on the beach when the 9/0 started rolling hard i run down wait a second tighten down jam the hook and.............. nothin i puled my bait back in and it had the tell tail tooth marks of a shark

[Greenford]

Two weekends ago at Fort Fisher. Things were slow except for small sharks. The wifes spinning set up started screaming out line and doubling over the rod. . Before we could get the drag set it ran right into my shark set up that had braid on it. Big "pop" and it went limp. I was so ready for her to tie into a big one but oh well maybe next time.

[Jake]

I was fishing an NC river for smallmouth in June 2009. I cast my 3" tube into about a foot of fast moving water, hopped it one time and felt a bite. I set the hook, and immediately, a monster smallmouth went airborne with my tube hooked in its mouth. It dashed into to deeper water, and fought incredibly hard for a solid 5 minutes, jumping and spitting up crawfish multiple times. I finally got it up next to the little rowboat I was fishing out of, reached to lip it, and... pop! The 10 lb. line I was using snapped.

That was the most heartbreaking moment I've had fishing. The fish was around 5 lbs, a once-in-a-lifetime chance for this river.

[tarheel fly flinger]

OK the first part is an 8 lbs Bowfin on the fly...second part is the one I want you to see!! It's a case of too small of a net for too big Fin!! Nothing to do but smile!!

[RaymondWells]

Hey you had it in the net! Thanks for sharing great video.

[oceanslayer]

recently me and quackhead went shark fishin on the surf. I had a monster on the 9/0 senator with 80lb line and the drag locked down(still pullin line out). Fought him for around 20-30 mins and had him pretty close to the beach when all of a sudden the line went limp... the 20/0 circle hook had pulled out of his mouth... would have been my biggest shark to date for sure.... oh well theres always next time.

[Bassman101]

Ok..so I live maybe 2 miles up the road from Lake Higgins and fish there religiously. About 2 weeks ago I decided to go out an try my luck. Stood out there for 2 hours, had alot of little bites but nothin caught... Not to mention I was going throughh livers like noone's business the fish were basicly getting fed. Any way at one time I did see one of my cat rods start to dance slightly. I was on the other side of the peir so I started to walk that way..when all of a sudden that same rod bent over the railing and proceeded to go into the water the only thing keeping it aboard was the reel on the rod. I hooked up with a monster bullhead and I got him right to the peir but still in the water. I did NOT bring my net so as I was lifting him out the water, my leader snapped and he fell back in...darn

[zachg]

One day last summer I was fishing a farmpond with Bassbackwards and his 2 sons, any way it was like 2pm and about 89 outside
and the bass had shut off. So i got my ultra light and a 1/32 oz. beetle spin and started fishing for bream and after a while I got
a bite and set the hook on it, after a good fight I got it in. It was a 9" green sunfish and my second NCARP fish (North Carolina Angler
Recognition Program). But five minutes later I worked My way to where the creek flows in to the pond, the water there is
3-5' deep and 10-15 degrees cooler, so i stood beside a tree where the bank is washed out from under it, and dropped my
beetle spin down right in front of it and BAM a bass that probably went 7+ lbs grabbed it. I had him on for about 20
seconds before he got around another tree and broke me off, in that time he pulled of 20+ feet of line.

Just a couple of weeks later,in the same spot, in the same conditions, I was fishing with a 6" black n yellow plastic worm
on my bass rod and I got a 4lb bass 2-3 lb bass and several 1lbrs. All in all a GREAT couple of trips.

[Striper704]

I was at McGuire station today.. saw a guy caught about a 3lb spotted bass. He was there for 3 hours before catching it.. Because he had nothing to put in it.. He put it a bucket.. and then proceeded to fill the bucket with water at the bank.. and then it happened right before my eyes...the fish jumped out!

The bass jumped out!! He was so pi$$ed.for the next hour he kept saying.."****".. it was hilarious.. Thought I'd share this one.

[NCStateFisher]

This spring my buddy took me to his friends pond out in stem... he told us about a big bass that lived under a tree that they had never even got to bite on anything in years but it was a big one... my buddy played around a little under the tree while I fished the dock and caught a couple 2lbers, as we were about to leave I casted a red eye shad under the tree maybe 3 yards from the bank, BAM! got about 5 cranks on him and had to horse him so he didn't wrap me up, got him literally about 18" from the bank was leaning down to grab him and the hook came out and hit me in the face. I felt like a 12 year old jumping up and down and cussing up a storm, it was a QUALITY fish of at least 8.5 pounds

another was last fall, I was flounder fishing and hadn't caught much all day and something just took OFF with my mud minnow, at the time I thought it was a big flounder but looking back the way it tore off and fought im starting to think it could have been my first big drum, drag wasnt set loose enough and it snapped after about 8 seconds of tearing off line

[Crabby Captain John]

I was running walleye charters in '96. After getting an early limit I was going to get close to the shoreline as it was loaded with smallmouth, 5#ers were not uncommon. About a mile offshore I stopped the boat to help the mate get the trolling equipment stowed and set up 8 lighter rods. One or 2 trolling rods were not yet in the boat when one doubled over. As the boat was drifting it had to be a snag-- very unusual as that was mostly a smooth bottom. Cleared and set up all else as I went for the rod the line changed direction. A 24' glass boat with cabin, 6 men, nearly full fuel -- and the boat is moving against a 1' chop. The boat changed direction twice more before 20# line broke. Never saw what was pulling that line but whatever it was had to be the biggest fish I ever had on a line.

[roddo27846]

Maybe not appropriate because we were offshore at the time, but my wife who weighs about 110 pounds hooked up with something in rough water. There were only the two of us and she went back to the rear of the boat to check the lines when something BIG reeled off a lot of line. She kept screaming that it was hurting her until I went to the back of the boat and let the steering go on its own. When I got there with her, I could see that this was not an ordinary fish. Out behind the boat I see a shape at least six feet long and the reel was screaming as line was disappearing. The pole was digging into my wife which was what hurt. I took the pole and began reeling only to see the fish froth the water with its tail as it headed the other direction. In my heart I knew there was no chance. I never got to see him again, but the fish was huge and faster than wnything I had ever see. I suspect it was a Marlin ( we were rigged for mahi). Needless to say it broke off to our chagrin. I wish I had another chance at hime with larger tackle though.

[meckardt]

This is a story from some years back, when I was a boy living with my family in Fairbanks Alaska. It occurred one summer when my dad took me moose hunting. Using his 19' Grumman aluminum cargo canoe, we launched into the China river on the downstream end of town, motored out into and across the Tanana river, and into one of the numerous creeks on the south side of the river. From there, we proceeded upstream a distance of about 20 miles or more to the designated hunting area. Our plan was to camp for a few days while we tried to bag a moose. So we had our camping gear and a pair of rifles, and on the off chance we might catch our lunch, we brought along one of those kid's spin cast fishing poles.

This was an established hunting area. We quickly found a great site with a limbed tree that allowed views of the surrounding area. We set up our camp, then climbed up to look around for game. No moose. Oh well. We decided to try to catch lunch, so we jumped back into the canoe and motored up stream a half mile and then let it drift in the slow current while we cast.

One cast. Bang! Nice little Arctic Grayling... about 1/2 lb. Cast again... another one. A few more casts and two more fish, all between 1/4 and 3/4 lb. Pretty soon we had drifted back to our camp, and we found ourselves with a dozen fish. So we pulled up to the bank, and fried us some lunch. Yum.

Up the tree. Still no moose. Back in the boat. More fish. By now, we were starting to be a little more selective, since there was a limit of 10 fish or so per person per day. It got to the point that we would watch for the fish getting ready to strike, and if it looked the least bit small, we'd jerk the lure out of the water so it would take it. The darn fish were jumping out of the water trying to get the lure!

Two days later, we gave up on our hunt. But in addition to eating fresh Grayling for breakfast lunch and dinner for two days, we brought home about 60 of those little suckers... maybe 20 lbs. All this with one little fishing pole, and a couple of spinner lures. Never seen fishing like that before or since.

Oh yeah... we did see two moose - a cow and a yearling - as we motored around a bend in the creek... with our rifles buried under a tarp to protect them from the rain. At least we got the fish.

[tony93]

This was around 1999 or so - I lived in north-central Oklahoma and had gone into Ponca City to fill out job applications... after an afternoon of paperwork with several companies, on the way home I decided to stop by the spillway at the dam of Kaw Lake for a half hour or so. I had a medium-action spinning rod spooled with 8# line - not having anything in particular in mind, I started casting a Rat-L-Trap into the flowing waters below the dam.

Before too long my rattlebait hung into something... what, I have no idea! This lake is known for big catfish and even a run of paddlefish at certain times of the year(I've looked up some info - they've caught flatheads over 70# and paddlefish over 100#!). At first I thought I was hung up - I'd say to myself, "okay, this can't be a fish... it's been 20 minutes!!" but then it would strip line, swim upstream from my position aways or shake its head, etc. A guy who had been fishing too stopped by to watch for awhile on his way to his car. I could do nothing with this fish but hang on... After awhile it started to get dark and the guy said "well, I hope you land him - I've got to go home. Good luck!"

So there I was - no flashlight, no landing net, and who knows what on the end of my line! I had to get home... I should've been home already - I just stopped by to make a few casts at the end of a boring day. Sadly, I took out my knife & I cut my line. I had been fighting the unknown fish for an hour and a half!