The one that got away

Read a Bassmaster article the other day about the pros losing giant fish. I’m curious to hear what stories you guys have to tell.

I’ll go first.

Surprisingly, I haven’t lost that many once-in-a-lifetime fish, as I just don’t seem to cross paths with bass over 5 pounds. There is one, though, that comes to mind.

I was probably 10 or 11 at the time. I was up at my friends cabin with some buddies for the weekend. It was a rainy morning, and I had woke up before everyone else. I decided to take some casts from the dock, and caught a couple small pike in about 20 minutes. After one cast, though, my rod doubles over. I thought it was a bigger pike, but then it jumped.

To that point, the memory was a little fuzzy, but the next part remains crystal clear in my mind.

I was trying to play the fish out with my 6’6 2 piece spinning rod, and it kept making runs around the dock. I finally got a good look at the bass, but then it jumped and hit its head on the dock. I went down to grab it, but the only thing there was my Firetiger jointed shad rap. That bass had dwarfed anything I had ever seen to that point. Looking back, that fish was every bit of 5 pounds, no doubt pushing 6. I still think about it from time to time.

Let’s hear em!

Musky fishing around 20 years ago on a central MN lake chucking a Suick. I feel a thump and set the hook. Horse the fish toward the boat and see its an absolute monster Largemouth. It would have been the biggest bass I had ever caught and if I guessed at size no one would believe me because it was enormous. It spit the hooks only inches from me. I stood there in shock for like 20 minutes. I am not even a bass guy, but that thing was tremendous. Not much of a fight obviously since I had musky gear.

About 10 years ago I was fishing a small river in a jon boat for brown bass as I often do during midsummer. Fishing was good. We normally target them with topwaters or shallow wobbling crank baits. We had caught several fish of reasonable size in the 18-20 inch range that day and with about half an hour left I hooked into a really big smallmouth. This river is close combat fishing, as there are over hanging trees, stumps, and large rocks all over, in addition to swift current in certain areas. I saw the fish jump down stream and shortly thereafter my line got cut on a log that was stuck up against a large boulder. The biggest river smallmouth I have ever caught is 20.5 inches. This one seemed bigger.

Have a big panfish lake we fish, tiny acreage, private, can only get to it couple times a year cause the landowner doesn’t like pressure. Makes his own strict regulations on it. Open water crappie fishing and have a hog on, biggest one of my life could see clear as day, tell someone in the boat to grab the net which is on other side of 14′ boat with 2 other guys, and noone does, flops right at boat gets off.

Caught a few 14″s that day and that one was substantially bigger.

I’ve lost a few walleye on Rainy that were heart breakers, not necessarily PB but big and pop free and fade away right into that iron stained water. Always a heart breaker!

Had a monster Lake Trout on, had to be close to 40″ and my buddy knocked it off with a net. He still hears about that one.

My buddy is an avid Musky guy, but when he started it took forever to actually catch his first one. Well I netted it, a nice mid-40’s class fish, went to set it in the boat and it touched a seat and vaulted out of the net, right over the side of the boat. He was pissed, and I still tell him picture or it doesn’t count!

BigWerm wrote:

I still tell him picture or it doesn’t count!

That’s cruel! LOL

Hooked a monster lake trout jigging in the boundary waters from my canoe. went on multiple runs on my MH rod that lasted at least a minute each. I got him probably 20 feet under my canoe and he started feeling a little weaker so I cranked the drag just a little bit to get him in faster, as it had already been a 10 minute fight. right as i started pumping the rod he did a giant headshake and started going straight down on the biggest run I had ever felt. My drag was too tight and my line to line connection snapped, the fluorocarbon leader getting cut by the braid. The worst part about it is that I saw the giant bubbles that he burped up right after it snapped, and it looked like the water was boiling with huge bubbles. That moment is permanently burned in my memory, the far the most painful fish loss I’ve ever had.

BigWerm wrote:

Well I netted it, a nice mid-40’s class fish, went to set it in the boat and it touched a seat and vaulted out of the net, right over the side of the boat. He was pissed

I had something like that happen once too. I had a friend with when we were muskie fishing and hooked into a decent one, maybe 45 inches. I said “fish on.” I’m fighting it and as its getting closer to the boat, I turn around, expecting to see Tim ready with the muskie net. He’s sitting in the back of the boat eating a fu**ing sandwich! I yell “dude, you gonna net this muskie!?” He pauses, looks up and says “Oh…sure.” Of course while he’s fumbling with the net, the fish is tired and laying there on the surface and when he reaches for the muskie, it ‘wakes up’, turns, and spits the hooks. I yelled a 4-letter swear work so loud that half the lake had to hear me.

We didn’t say a word to each other for 20 minutes. When it was time to go home, he apologized. Turns out I did catch another smaller one later that he made up for. We’re still friends, but I remind him about it every so often.

I was fishing on a shallow lake in Northern Minn known for big largemouth last summer. It was hot, and the water was very low at the height of the drought. Earlier that day I was out in mid-depth areas and caught a couple decent bass, plus two 7 pound pike that were pretty fired up. Didn’t break me off but I didn’t want to catch any more toothy critters either.

Mid-day was bright sun so I decide to skip some docks with Nekos. Hardly any water under the docks, but a very dark stained lake provided some level of cover. Never have had that kind of ferocious bite in my life. I caught a minimum 2 fish under each dock and pulled 4 off of a couple right in a row. Many came out of the water or took wild runs at the boat.

Then I skipped under one of the last docks and got the big pull and the fish wrapped around a dock post. I could see what looked like another 7 pound pike thrashing to get away. Pissed I had another snot-rocket, I leaned on him a bit too hard to free him up and then – SNAP! My line went limp and then the fish turned side ways to me in about 10 inches of water as it swam off – I got a full view then and it was a largemouth I’m guessing all of 7 pounds.

There is a lake in Central Minnesota that is only open to People who live in the home association that the lake is located in, or to guest of those who live there. A friend of mine had a home there. He always told me he hears of some big bass being caught out of that lake. We had plans to fish it one Sat. and he ended up having to go to work that day. He said go ahead and just take his boat and go fish it. It was mid summer and really hot and I noticed there was a few big trees that hung over the water on one side of the lake. I had recently really gotten into skipping a weightless ring fry up under Docks and overhanging tree’s. After skipping under a few tree’s and Catching a few bass in the 3lb. range. I hook into a big fish. I end up landing it and toss it in the livewell in hopes of getting a picture taken with it. I was still shaking and on the next cast I make a great skip into a real small opening under a huge overhanging tree. Before the lure even stops skipping a fish blows up and Inhales the lure. The fish gets hung up on a branch for a few seconds and then Makes a monster run out into open water. It goes past the boat and I can not seem to slow it down. I tighten the drag down slightly and figure now that its out in open water and away from all the trees on the bank I’m good to go. Get it close to the boat and get a decent look at it and almost crapped my pants. This one was a fair amount larger than the one I had in the livewell ( that one ended up being 21.5″ and 6.5 Lbs. ) In the blink of the eye it made another massive run back towards the trees on the bank. Even with the drag tightened down and trying to palm the spool that fish ran probably 25 yards or so and got back up under the trees. A few wraps around a branch and some thrashing around and it was off. I had to sit down for a few minutes because my heart was about to explode out of my chest. After calming down a little I almost cried ( Ok, maybe I did cry a little ) I truly believe that fish was well over 7Lbs. That was over 20 years ago and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. My buddy sold his house shortly after that and I have never fished the lake again. My buddy knows another guy who lives on that lake and he’s got 2 on his wall over 7lbs. and said he’s lost a few others he believes were over 7.

fishthumper wrote:

There is a lake in Central Minnesota that is only open to People who live in the home association that the lake is located in, or to guest of those who live there. A friend of mine had a home there. He always told me he hears of some big bass being caught out of that lake. We had plans to fish it one Sat. and he ended up having to go to work that day. He said go ahead and just take his boat and go fish it. It was mid summer and really hot and I noticed there was a few big trees that hung over the water on one side of the lake. I had recently really gotten into skipping a weightless ring fry up under Docks and overhanging tree’s. After skipping under a few tree’s and Catching a few bass in the 3lb. range. I hook into a big fish. I end up landing it and toss it in the livewell in hopes of getting a picture taken with it. I was still shaking and on the next cast I make a great skip into a real small opening under a huge overhanging tree. Before the lure even stops skipping a fish blows up and Inhales the lure. The fish gets hung up on a branch for a few seconds and then Makes a monster run out into open water. It goes past the boat and I can not seem to slow it down. I tighten the drag down slightly and figure now that its out in open water and away from all the trees on the bank I’m good to go. Get it close to the boat and get a decent look at it and almost crapped my pants. This one was a fair amount larger than the one I had in the livewell ( that one ended up being 21.5″ and 6.5 Lbs. ) In the blink of the eye it made another massive run back towards the trees on the bank. Even with the drag tightened down and trying to palm the spool that fish ran probably 25 yards or so and got back up under the trees. A few wraps around a branch and some thrashing around and it was off. I had to sit down for a few minutes because my heart was about to explode out of my chest. After calming down a little I almost cried ( Ok, maybe I did cry a little ) I truly believe that fish was well over 7Lbs. That was over 20 years ago and I can still remember it like it was yesterday. My buddy sold his house shortly after that and I have never fished the lake again. My buddy knows another guy who lives on that lake and he’s got 2 on his wall over 7lbs. and said he’s lost a few others he believes were over 7.

Maybe we could get a big drone to fly us in and drop off on the lake somewhere – lol!

Was in HS and we went down to Table Rock lake in Missouri. I wasn’t much of a bass fisherman so all I brought was a pannie rod and some small jigs. The morning we’re heading home I’m vertical jigging next to a dock in about 20′ of water and wham…..I fought the fish forever because I had to just let him run. The docks were the floating type so he didn’t have anything to get caught on.

Finally got him up but the dock was about 3′ above the water. I was laying on my stomach trying to lip him and he shook and snapped the line. I can see the size of that fish’s mouth to this day….I think it would fit a basketball.

Hard to tell how big…but my guess was between 6-7#.

FryDog62 wrote:

Maybe we could get a big drone to fly us in and drop off on the lake somewhere – lol!

Ya, I’d love to get back out there again. They never use to monitor the landing real close, but my buddy says they do these days. Be my luck if I sneaked in there I’d come back to find my Truck and trailer towed.

Matt Moen wrote:

Was in HS and we went down to Table Rock lake in Missouri. I wasn’t much of a bass fisherman so all I brought was a pannie rod and some small jigs. The morning we’re heading home I’m vertical jigging next to a dock in about 20′ of water and wham…..I fought the fish forever because I had to just let him run. The docks were the floating type so he didn’t have anything to get caught on.

Finally got him up but the dock was about 3′ above the water. I was laying on my stomach trying to lip him and he shook and snapped the line. I can see the size of that fish’s mouth to this day….I think it would fit a basketball.

Hard to tell how big…but my guess was between 6-7#.

Table Rock has a ton of spotted bass ( man do those fight ) If that was a spotted bass that would be a Monster one. I believe the State record was caught out of Table Rock and was just over 7 lbs.

In June of 2018 at a lake in northern Saskatchewan (where we had not been before) we had just started fishing so we were trolling to hopefully find walleye.

We had not trolled very far when my crankbait just stopped, I was sure I had snagged up. I told my friend that was running the motor to stop and back up so I could hopefully get unsnagged. We backed up a ways and then my “snag” started to move.

We were able to get a quick look at a northern pike that had a head that looked to be 10 inches wide – just huge. Then the northern turned and sliced my line, it was gone – yeah, I know I should have had on a steel leader.

I have caught northern pike that were 36 inches long and this one was much bigger than that. But, I will never know!

Buffalo Fishhead

I was ice fishing a local metro lake a few years back with my dad. I was fishing a spot where someone had drilled a bunch of holes with a four inch auger. My dad was recanting about that’s all they use to use back in the day. I was arguing with him that if you got a decent fish on you wouldn’t be able to get it through the hole. Sure enough the I drop the first hole and there is nice red mark suspended off the bottom so I drop my spoon down to him and wham! 15 minutes later and multiple attempts to get it up this hole my dad grabbed an auger and started drilling a hole next to the 4 inch. Looking back at it I should have just opened my bale at the end, but sure enough right when he popped through he nicked my tight line and it was gone. I never saw the fish which is what bothers me the most. First and last time I will fish a 4 inch hole and the one time I hated being right with my Dad.

Looking back on the fight I am guessing it was mid 30s pike, as a caught a 35 on Red with that same set up this winter and the fight was similar.

Was fishing in northern Manitoba for lake trout. We have caught up to 43″ lake trout on this lake and the lake is noted for bigger ones. My friend nephew is along on this trip a high school football player in really good shape. He hooks into a big one and this fish is beating the crap out of him with long runs and he can’t get any line up on him. We do not use light tackle and are all now just sitting wondering who was going to win the battle. We were fishing in 100-110′ of water so the fish when eventually do give it up they come up right under the boat. Not this one it came up about 15′ away from the boat it was so strong. Have to use barbless hooks in Manitoba and the fish finally gave up and stopped fighting and started a roll and the line angle must have gotten just right and the jig came flying out of his mouth. This fish dwarfed the 43″. Never have seen such a strong fish.

I’ve certainly had a few big fish come off the hook and break my heart, but nothing compares to the buck I had a chance at this year, but stupidly bumped the barrel of my rifle against the side of the composite blind and spooked him off. Never seen a buck that big in my life and i’d give a hell of a lot to be able to go back in time and do that over again.

Mistakes happen. That’s life.

Was fishing divisional on Detroit river/Erie. 1st place $50k package with boat and cash. On the final day, less than 1# separated 1st through almost 10th place. One tournament where an ounce equaled money.

Anyways, I had an easy 6-7# smallies slap a rap Ala at the side of the boat as I was lifting up to cat again. Drag was a little too tight for only having about of 2feet of line out. Had it on just long enough to get a good look at it. Hooks straighten right out and lost it. Turned to my non boater and stated that fish just cost me the tournament. That day when I weighed in, I had a 2# that I couldn’t cull out.
That cost me a 4-5# upgrade and I was 7 ounces out of 1st at final day. That fish cost me over $45,000.00

Randy Wieland wrote:

Was fishing divisional on Detroit river/Erie. 1st place $50k package with boat and cash. On the final day, less than 1# separated 1st through almost 10th place. One tournament where an ounce equaled money.

Anyways, I had an easy 6-7# smallies slap a rap Ala at the side of the boat as I was lifting up to cat again. Drag was a little too tight for only having about of 2feet of line out. Had it on just long enough to get a good look at it. Hooks straighten right out and lost it. Turned to my non boater and stated that fish just cost me the tournament. That day when I weighed in, I had a 2# that I couldn’t cull out.
That cost me a 4-5# upgrade and I was 7 ounces out of 1st at final day. That fish cost me over $45,000.00

I’d have found a good therapist after that… ouch ~

FryDog62 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Randy Wieland wrote:</div>

I’d have found a good therapist after that… ouch ~

That was the 8 hour drive home thinking about it. Worst part was I figured out I could take 1 big smallies of a each of a specific rock points. Prefishing you only have so much time to search. I knew every spot that rolled up on would produce and I had to land every one. Can’t win making mistakes against the best in the country

Twas’ late spring, 2007. Pool 4, MN side, wingdam. Temps were in the mid 60’s, a fishermans dream. I had caught a mess of 15-17″ fish all morning and I was on the hunt for a lunker. We start pitching the wingdams. 6th cast, I set into a MONSTER. I start freaking out, the headshakes were enough to give me the shakes. After an 11 minute fight, I think I can see something starting to surface. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There it was, my PB…I was in shock, I didn’t know what to do. I looked at my buddy and he was also in disbelief. I needed to stop and think about how I was going to land it…We decided a boatside release was best as there was no way we were getting it into the boat…Just as I get it close to the side, SNAP. I break my 20lb braid. Never seen a stick so big.

Randy Wieland wrote:

Was fishing divisional on Detroit river/Erie. 1st place $50k package with boat and cash. On the final day, less than 1# separated 1st through almost 10th place. One tournament where an ounce equaled money.

Anyways, I had an easy 6-7# smallies slap a rap Ala at the side of the boat as I was lifting up to cat again. Drag was a little too tight for only having about of 2feet of line out. Had it on just long enough to get a good look at it. Hooks straighten right out and lost it. Turned to my non boater and stated that fish just cost me the tournament. That day when I weighed in, I had a 2# that I couldn’t cull out.
That cost me a 4-5# upgrade and I was 7 ounces out of 1st at final day. That fish cost me over $45,000.00

Ouch. That one would hurt and stick with a person for awhile. I’ve lost a few fish in tourneys that have hurt me, but nothing as much as that one.

My most poignant loss was during a spring outing with my brother and grandpa walleye fishing below lock and dam 10. We were drifting and vertical jigging one eyes and buck tails. I pick my one eye off the bottom and hold it and I get a monster bite. I get the fish boat side and it’s a 12 plus pound walleye, I have a few 10 pounders on the wall and this thing was just a tank. Anyway, I had just the back treble hook in the fish’s mouth, so I tell grandpa not to try and net him yet as he had a couple more runs in him. Anyway, grandpa felt he could get it and he slides the net under the fish and the top hook on the one eye catches the net, the fish jerks it’s head, and swims back to the bottom of the river. My heart is literally broken, and I could see grandpa’s was as well. I just took a breath, and went back to fishing. I couldn’t say anything to grandpa as he was obviously upset about it. Oh well, gives me a reason to keep fishing for walleyes

A couple come to mind.

When I was kid, my dad had a 14′ Herters with 3 HP Evinrude and his passion was trolling with cane poles and daredevils for Northern on the lakes around Faribault. We were on Cedar Lake that day and trolling the weed edge on the SE corner which is all homes now but at that time was a cow pasture. It was real windy and the notherns were on the bite. That day there were three of us and we probably had 7 northerns ranging from 5 – 10 lbs on a metal snap stringer. I had just caught a 5 lb and put on the stringer and when I dropped back over side, there was a splash, the stringer snapped, and slowly the fish went out of sight. I almost cried. Catching 5 lb northers on a cane pole in those days was an adventure. Sometimes we would let go of the pole and wait for the northern to tire it self out and then grab the pole again.

A few years back on one of Jame’s trips to Rainy, we were heading out for the day and going through the Brule Narrows to Saginaw Bay where we had found the walleyes stacked up along a shoreline the days previously. We decided to try a hole we had been passing across just to the West of the Narrows and try some vertical jigging. Son (Drew) hooks up with a big one that for probably 30 mins we followed around the hole. We finally gave him an ultimatum, move him or loose him as we had walleye to catch. He wasn’t able to move him and we can all pretty much guess what was being so reluctant to show itself.

Oh, one more. I was on Kodiak Island a few years back fishing for Kings with a guide. We walked a couple of miles along a river to get to a location and when we got there, someone else was already there so tried a couple of different spots with out any success. Later that afternoon we head back to the first location and on the way the guide notices some dark spots in a pool and we hit the jack pot. I had a camera with and while I tangled with a big king, the guide was supposed to take a video. After battling for what seemed like forever and releasing, upon wanting to view the video, ouch, no video.
We continued fishing and caught multiple other big Kings and did get one on a video and the video is over 12 mins in length. That fish ended up the centerfold of the next year’s Kodiak Island Visitor Guide. This section of the River has special regs which allowed for unlimited catches.

Here is the picture, not so much desired by Kodiak Island for the fish, but for the clear sky because if you know Kodiak, that happens once every decade.

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The most memorable loss while ice fishing was a big walleye on mille lacs about 10-12 years ago.
I knew it was big on the hook set so I took it easy and gently brought it to the ice. Right under the hole I could see it was huge 28″+ and suddenly it just opened its mouth and the hook just swung out its mouth, it was never even hooked. It paused for a second and my heart sank as it swam out of my life forever.
My most memorable open water loss was shore fishing on a small river. I hooked into a heavy fish on a night crawler and assumed it was a carp. I pulled back hard and kept it out of the dead fall we were fishing next to. I worked it towards the bank but where we were fishing the bank was undercut a couple of feet and the fish kept pulling into the bank under our feet. Finally got a look at it right before it came unbuttoned and it was without a doubt the largest walleye I’ve ever seen. It was a true giant, something in that 31″+ class. I’ll always remember the tail on that fish, the white tip was the size of a Dorito chip.
It was heartbreaking but that day ended up being one of the best days of smallmouth fishing I’ve ever experienced.

Last year on rainy I caught my 30 inch walleye and a few casts later I caught one even bigger. Got him boat side I tried solo netting him because my partner was battling a hog as well. I stabbed that walleye with the net and I watched him spit my jig and slowly fan his big tail and he was gone. I bet that fish went 31 and was fatter then my 12lbs 30.

Few hours later the key way on my fly wheel sheered and we called it a weekend. But that weekend was amazing

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I was in my early 30’s and went out muskie fishing with a buddy that was in is mid 60’s (just retired). He wanted to teach me how to fish Millac Lake for muskies. I meet him at the launch and helped him load his gear. I asked him if he would like to use one of the rods I brought with because his didn’t look like it had enough of a backbone. “Lesson up boy, this rod has put more 50” muskies in the boat than you have see pictures of! I got this rod in my late 20’s and it has not let me down.” he said. We were trolling along when his rods buckles over all the way to the handle. I though he caught a log until I saw it move. He could not gain any ground on the fish so I started trolling closer to it. The muskie just swam where she wanted to and he could not do one thing about it. We got up along side the fish and it would have been a world record. (I have held a replica of the word record muskie and this one was bigger) The fish was so big it was not even fighting. Just swimming around casually and eventually spit the hook. After a little bit later my buddy asked “could he try one of those fancy Thorne Brothers rods.”

So, up near the BWCA we have a small trout lake that we can hike to. It’s a mile or so hike through dense woods and some hills … and not often visited. I used to go back on occasion to toss dry flies to the brookies that are stocked there. A very nice place to get away from it all. One spring I was back there wading and casting, catching the occasional 10 incher … nothing much larger, just there for fun. I rarely have anybody else on the lake, but this day a half-dozen college-age folks hiked in. I was surprised to see them. They kinda wrecked the serenity, but I had been there for a while and was getting ready to hike back out. I was still casting though not paying much attention anymore. There was a sudden “ker-sploosh!” down by the shoreline. I immediately figured it was a rock thrown by one of the other group. Pissed me off because it was in the vicinity of my last cast. After a moment or two of indignation, I started to reel in. And then felt the tug on the end of the line. Again, not sure what to think, I figured a weed. Nope … the “weed” soon went ballistic and was running down shore right in front of the group of kids. I realized it was a huge trout, running and jumping down the shoreline. I couldn’t do much to control it as my leader was in the 1 to 2 lb range, so I only kept light pressure on it while it ran. And ran. The kids saw what was happening and all started to cheer … which changed my mind about them. The trout pretty much spooled me when I added pressure, and felt the TING of the leader popping. We didn’t get a good look at it, other than when it jumped. But it left a lasting impression and made me think twice about using such light leaders on that lake again.