Every avid fisher has a day on the water that you look back on and think to yourself, ‘did that really happen??’ We’re talking about an extraordinary fishing day. A once-in-a-lifetime day, one when recalled brings a smile every time.
What one day on the water stands out as extra special? What was the key to your amazing success that day??
Key West in early April 2018 on a guided saltwater fishing trip with my Father, something we had planned for years in advance. Tarpon, jacks, barracuda, various species of snapper, amongst other inshore saltwater species. On the second day I piled into a 28 pound jack and it took me 25 minutes to land it. A “slob” as our guide called it. Hardest fighting fish I’ve ever caught. Hope to go back again someday in the future.
The key to success? Hiring a guide.
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Had many “decent” days that I can look back at and smile. Best for me ever was a deep sea trip with my dad. They used to winter in Port Aransas Texas. My family went down to visit them just after my birthday. Wife and folks asked what I wanted for my birthday. I said a deep sea fishing trip. So my wife split the cost with my folks. I caught 7 Wahoo 30-50#’s, a 240# shark, probably a dozen kingfish10-20#’s, a dozen or so Red snapper5-20#’s, about 40# amber jack, couple barracudas, a 10# yellowfin tuna, and had a hammerhead shark the size of a Buick lesabre on up to the boat that got off. My dad did just as well. Funnest was watching him catch about an 80# amberjack. He had his hands full for about an hour! We got into the wahoo on our way back into shore. Captain pulled into a spot and wanted to troll through it and see if anyone was home. Each pass we caught several! He said we ain’t going in until the fish stop biting. The boat ended up with 19 wahoo total. This caption had never had more than 4 ever in his career! Those wahoo are the hardest fish I have ever battled by far. I have never been so sore in my life than the day after that trip!
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A day with a guide in Zihuatanejo about 10 years ago. Wife took too much dramamine so she slept on the boat most of the day. I ended up with (3) sails that day. I’ll never forget the wife waking up just long enough to take pics then back to sleep she went.
Only thing I was disappointed about was I never ran into Andy. 
Fly in fishing trip out of flin flon Manitoba.
We parked the boat next to a school of fish and reeled in 18-20 inch walleye with every cast for about 30 minutes. Cast the jig, let it sink, lift, set the hook. Over and over for 30 minutes.
After the fish petered out we moved to a new spot and found more walleye almost as good until a 46” northern broke up the pattern.
Took 15 minutes or more to land that fish on light line.
Couldn’t find the walleye again after that.
Up on LOTW hardwater –
My Cousin and me, we keep track of fish caught. First day he crushed me and had a huge lead going into day 2. No way could I catch him as I had my worst day ever on the lake and MAN did I hear it at the bar that night.
I’ve always heard that sometimes the bite was sooo good you could only fish one rod, I thought “yeah right” that’s just a fishing story.
Day 2 –
Crushed it! Could only fish one rod, the fish were biting that good. Ended up winning.
What a difference 4′ makes. LOL
First that comes to mind was a good casting bite for yellowfin tuna down in the Baja. Fish were blowing up on the surface. Bomb cast in to them, rip a twitch bait a few times and BAM they’d absolutely smash it then instantly rip out 50+ yards of line. We caught a ton of tuna that trip but the casting bite was the highlight for me. Salt water fish are something else.
Second was a musky outing where conditions aligned. Sky got all hazy and humid. Slight wind picked up and the shiners stacked up on this shelf. They were busting like you’d see in the ocean. We caught 6 Muskies in a little over 2 hours ranging from 41-50 inches all in a 80 yard stretch on a shelf. We got two on back to back casts. I have no doubts we could have broke 10 in that time if we didn’t spend about 45 mins reviving a 49.5. Weather changed and the party was over.
August 2002,on a small slough off the channel on pool 10 i hit the mother load of bass.I and the ex wife caught and released 100+ large and smallmouth bass all on topwaters.
I took a fishing partner back the next day and did it all over again.I could’nt believe it when he wanted to leave and try other spot because he was tired of catching fish.
I will say these were not 5 pounders but most were 2-2.5 pounds with and occaisional 3 and it was a blast.A fish on every cast and several times 2 on the same cast.
I never found them there again that thick it was just a day the fish gods shined down upon me.
15 years ago, I lived on the Mississippi River north of Sartell. I took a guy out fishing after we took our kids to school. We caught 3 walleye, 2 northern and more than 60 bass. This was all casting crank baits in mid September. We even caught a catfish on cranks. We had a lot of doubles on bass. I have never had a day even close to that again.
A very windy day in 1996 (maybe 97?) A partner and I found muskies that were going wild We landed 19 fish in 6 hours between us. I had 13 of them. Lost as many, if not more than we landed. Many times we would be fighting a fish and have another or two following the hooked fish. I have never aeen a frenzy like that before or since.
It will never happen again in my life – and is partially the reason I no longer pursue them.
Every trip to Isle Royale.
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Back in the late 80’s we had a Minnesota opener when my mom came out with my dad and and I. She out fished us both using a technique she had learned watching Virgil Ward on tv. We really caught the walleyes that day but her teliing us that she was using Virgil’s jigging technique really made the day and the memory.
One of my best has to be on the Mississippi River. Trolled up 10 walleyes early 9 pounds or bigger in 3 hrs. A pile of other nice walleyes to. Largest two in the 11 pound range. Crazy thing is it was this time of year on a night just like this. Buddy of mine is out there tonight and has a pair of 29s for big fish so far. I might be headed out later tonight.
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My day (morning) to remember so far came on our first Kab trip. The was a particular boulder/point I’d had my eye on all all week and finally on the last day the weather calmed enough for us Kab ‘novices’ to try it. The plan was to start there amd then our way through a nearby bay the rest of the morning. We never left that boulder all morning. It was mostly huge smallmouth bass but we caught some walleye amd pike too, just consistent the whole morning. I’ve checked that area everytime we go and have never repeated it since (decade).
There was a day on Rainy with Mr. Koonce that is a close second too, we had to have caught 100 eyes that day.
Not only do I have a fond memory, I have video of the entire trip! Over a 4 day trip we caught over 6300lbs of catfish with the best 1 day session of 164 fish weighing 3000lbs
I’m pretty certain there is not many times or places in the world where you can catch a 20+lb fish every 3 minutes for 8 hours straight…but we did it and it was truly magical.
Went bass fishing on a southern MN lake last year and was doing quite well. Best 5 went around 18 pounds or so.
As the sun started to creep towards the trees we noticed an ocean of splashing and swirls in the middle of the lake, so we went and investigated.
For the next hour, we caught an absolute mess of sheephead on topwater and soft plastics right on the surface over 20 feet of water. Probably caught over 30. There were a couple of massive white bass thrown in, too. (All over 18″) Never underestimate how fun those rough fish can be.
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Had some great Sturgeon trips, a very memorable LOTW trip on the Canadian side with shore lunch every day, some salt water excursions but by far the best times are the trips where I’m either out with my dad (who doesn’t fish much) or my boys. Usually these outings last only an hour or two and sometimes we don’t catch anything, but I wouldn’t trade those moments for ALL my great quantity and quality fish outings. Sometimes they overlap, My son catching a 28″ Walleye was a day I’ll never forget. Or my Dad and I catching a few nice gills on Father’s Day morning a few years ago.
I will share one. Flash back about 17 years ago or so. New 18.5′ boat, second time on the water.
Out in early May on Chisago/South Lindstrom.
Afternoon started slow … zoomed around a bit … did not find much of any bite.
One more spot. Closer to the boat launch. 12 feet of water. We caught over 80 crappies in 30 minutes and kept 19 or so 12″ – 13″ long. To be honest it may have been 100+ total fish … I quit trying to keep accurate count at about 81 or 82 …
It was sweet because it was my two oldest kids (both under 10 at that time) and my wife in the boat. I suppose I caught a dozen, but most of my time was baiting hooks and removing fish.
Ran out of minnows and caught maybe half on an a jar of little soup can shaped silver spec gulp. Those were nice because you could catch a few on each piece …
A few boats came by and fished near us, but caught next to nothing … finally a dad (with his son) in a smaller fishing boat yelled over … what am I doing wrong? Told him … suspended and closer to the surface than the bottom.
We left because I wanted to pull the boat before sunset. At the time it was pretty much me doing all that by myself.
I’ve been lucky enough to have a number of “trips of a lifetime” over the years, but the one I haven’t been able to reproduce was a night in 2006 when I took Bob Moore out catfishing on the Mississippi.
We started fishing with bullhead and ended up with 4 or 5 (It was many fish ago) walleyes over five pounds and at least one at 9+ pounds. I figured if nothing else happened to bite, it would be a good night. I never imagined what was about to come.
We moved the boat to another location to get away from the walleyes. While baiting the second rod, the first rod went “thump”! Alright, a flathead in the boat too!
Now for the next 45 minutes to an hour I never had enough time to get the 4th rod out and seldom time to get the 3rd rod out.
Bob was pleading with me to take a rod and bring a fishing. I wouldn’t do it! After boating 9 flats, Bob said STOP! I need a cigarette and I joined him.
We didn’t catch another fish the rest of the night…but after 4-5 walleyes and 9 flats both of use were ok with that. I don’t recall exactly but I’m pretty sure we didn’t have a flat over 25 pounds but I was just as worn out netting them as Bob was landing them.
RIP Bob! I will never have another night like the one we had together!
Pretty much every trip with my daughter Sharon and her late husband Billy. We always hammered the panfish and had enormous fun.
What kind of a weird reel is that in your hand and what’s that thick plastic line on it? 
Ture story, once the late great forum member KWP and I were out on Pool 2. The wind was blowing about 10 gusting to 20 and we looked over and saw this guy working the riprap for smallmouth. Now I’m not judging but get this. This weirdo was out there on pool 2 using a freaking fly rod! No, really. Like as in actually fly fishing in Minnesota!
So I said to KWP, “Man, there’s something you don’t see every day, a guy fly fishing in Minnesota. He must be lost or maybe he suffered a blow to the head and thinks he’s in Montana or whatever. We should go over and help him.”
So we trolled over there and got just close enough so we could see the side of his boat and I said, “Stop. he’s not lost…”
The side of his boat said, “Rootski” in big, white letters.
Okay, day of all days.
The scene. The late forum member KWP owned (and his family still owns) a fishing camp in the Canadian sub-arctic of northern Ontario. The camp is accessible only by water, the camp is on a vast river system.
I believe it was about 2015 or so. After hammering the fish on the main river system for 3 or 4 days, Kendall got antsy. Deep in a bay on one side of the river, there is a portage used by moose hunters to access another lake and river system that literally has no name on maps. Noname Lake. Who could resist?
The moose hunters store a boat on the far side of the portage, so we figured fishing Noname Lake was at least theoretically possible. So we loaded up some gear, grabbed the 2 HP backup outboard, and hiked a mile over the ridge and down a faint portage trail through the muskeg. Sure enough, the boat was there and at least reasonably seaworthy more or less, so I hooked up the outboard, and off we went.
The weather was about the worst walleye fishing day you could imagine. Hotter than heck, about 85 and almost no wind. As I said to Kendall, “There’s just enough of a breeze out here to keep us from dying too quickly from heatstroke.”
Long story short, for reasons that I cannot explain, the walleye in that nameless lake were on the bite like nothing I had ever seen. We found them on a pair of rocky “comet tails”, which were long boulder piles that extende off the points of 2 small islands like the tails of a comet. These rock piles were anywhere from a foot under the surface to 6 feet under and they were several hundred yards long.
There must have been tens of thousands of fat walleyes on those rock piles eating baitfish that had come up in the warmer water. Despite the insane temps and no wind, pitching a 1/8 oz jig and a twister tail on top of those rocky comet tails produced a fat 18+ inch walleye. Every. Single. Cast.
The strange thing was that this was all happening in crystal-clear water and you could see the fish come streaking up out of the depths to hammer that jig before it got 12 inches down. And if they missed or bumped it or I missed on the hook set, well, they’d just spin around and hammer it again. I had fish that flopped off after the initial hookset and they spun around and just grabbed the jig a second and third time until they got hooked. It was like they were crazy.
We caught those fat, slob walleyes one after the other after the other all day from about noon to 4:30. And we only left because in that heat we had run out of water and sunscreen and we had blown through 8 packages of twister tails. Think about that for a second.
How many did we catch? I have no idea. How fast can a guy throw a cast out 25 or 30 feet, set the hook into a walleye, reel it in, take the hook out, and cast again? We both agreed at the time that between the two of us we boated 60 or more fish per hour as an absolute minimum. I think that’s underselling it because at times I know we were both catching and releasing at least a fish every minute.
But enough about the numbers. I remember it not for what we did there, but for who I was there with. Just a few years later Kendall was gone and so too was our chance of ever bettering that magnificent day.
Camp Kendall is still there and my son’s and I finally got back there last summer after 2 long years away. Noname Lake is still there, but in the twp times I’ve gone back, the fishing has been nothing like it was on that day of days.
But maybe one fine day to come, he’ll see me there on Noname Lake. And he’ll know. He’ll know the day that I’m trying to relive. He’ll know what I’m thinking. Maybe he’ll smile on me and I’ll have one more hour like we had.
Rainy Lake – North Arm. Probably about 20 years ago, 2 buddies and I were trolling for Pike. Got into a small bay that the wind had been blowing into all day. 10-12 feet and scattered weeds. We had doubles and triples on every pass. they were even surfacing around us. Must have ended up with 8-10 fish over 10lbs. in not much more than an hour. Epic to say the least, and has never happened again.
My story revolves around something amazing that we all saw, not necessarily the numbers that we caught.
This had to be 12-14 years ago. 4 of us made a trip into the BWCA, started out on Kiwishiwi and ended on Malberg. That was a brutal stretch of portages in one day. We had found a back bay on Malberg that my friends in another canoe had caught some decent walleyes. Both canoes started fishing and started catching 9- 10 inch sunnies on every cast out of one spot the size of a medium closet. 4 bobbers lined up next to each other. Mind you, whatever guide book for the lakes we were on said that there were no sunnies/gills in the lake to begin with. However, the part that I will never forget, is watching a pike, come straight out of the water vertically, like it was a missle shot from a sub just below the surface…with my buddies bobber in it’s mouth! Everybody witnessed it because our bobbers were inches apart from each other. Seeing my friends eyes turn to saucers and him asking us what does he do was priceless. He couldn’t set a hook. He couldn’t really fight it per say. It went on for only about 30 seconds, but was the craziest thing I had seen on the water. His bobber was black on the underside, so it really wasn’t color that attracted the pike. He wasn’t really twitching the bait. No idea why that pike decided to hit. We still talk about it to this day and laugh.
One of my first days walleye fishing ever, was on the Rainy River. Weather was great, like 60 degrees and sunny, and we had to catch over 100 walleye with 20 of them over 26″. Have come close a few times, but never had a day like that since then in a decade+ of RR trips.
An ice fishing trip up to the islands on LOW was the best ice fishing I’ve ever had. We caught 124 walleye in one day, fishing bankers hours. Buddy caught a 14″ and 16″ at the same time on the 2 hooks of a chubby darter. And we brought home limits all right up to the slot.
Couple IDO member trips, with Matt Moen in Puerto Rico where he caught his profile pic 150ish pound tarpon on light tackle. And TMF and I had the best Northern fishing day I will probably ever see, I want to say it was 24 fish all over 36″ including an absolute unit 44″.
Pretty much every trip with my daughter Sharon and her late husband Billy. We always hammered the panfish and had enormous fun.
SR
I miss those too Dadio. Our fishing trips were always tons of fun, but I love that most of our stories when we reminisce are about something totally random and make us laugh! The world is just too quite without our wonderful Billy.
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LOW a couple summers ago in Canada. Me and a buddy landed 98 walleyes in just over 90 minutes. It was epic. We found a little finger that stuck out from a sheer drop off and just worked it back and forth and absolutely hammered em. That year our boat total was 600 walleyes or there abouts. We had lots of big fish over 24 inches too. I think our biggest was 30.
I’ve done a lot of fishing in my 53 years on this earth. I can’t say I’ve had one day or trip that stands heads and shoulders above the rest as an extra special memory. I treasure many fishing memories and wish I had documented many better, as sometimes my memory isn’t so good on some of the details. I only have a vague recollection of my best day bassin on Platte Lake. It was the first or second year after I moved up here, and I was fishing frogs with a buddy. I found a school of big bass in a small area. I don’t remember how many I caught or their exact sizes. It had to be somewhere between 12 to 20 fish, between 3 and 5 pounds. I’ve got no clue about the sizes of the best 6. I’m kind of sick about how my memory of that trip is so poor. It was unexpected, and being new to the lake, I didn’t realize what a special thing I had stumbled into.
Okay, I’m still buzzing about this past weekend and have to believe it will be a strong contender for my ‘day of all days’.
We decided to target smallies over in Door County WI and wasn’t sure what to expect, not having fished over there in a year. Drove over Friday night and on our first spot Saturday morning we started slamming them right away. The bite didn’t let up until there were 202 smallies in the boat, with 10 over 5lbs and our top five weighing 27.5lbs. Big fish was 5lb 14oz. We fished only part of the day Sunday, though still boated 97. Big fish was my son’s PB at 6lb 5oz. On the drive home, we were having a hard time processing the days events and wondered out loud ‘did that really just happen?’
We caught fish on 10 different lure types, but lucked out by finding one that really shined above all others. All of the key success factors must have been present in that particular bait to get bit the way it did.
Not sure if we’ll ever put 202 smallies in the boat in one day ever again – didn’t think those numbers were attainable – but who knows. It’s was a magical day for sure.
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