Best fishing story

[Ethan]

I don't do much fishing any more, but I used to love to go fishing with the family. We'd fish mainly at Lake Tenkiller here in Eastern OK and sometimes at Bull Shoals Lake up in northern Arkansas.

My own craziest fishing tale was one time we had spent a weekend at Bull Shoals and had done a ton of fishing, so I was just sitting there at the dock with my pole and had used up all my bait. Well, I got bored so I just tossed my line in the water and let it set for a few minutes. Sure enough, the line starts tugging and I pull up a baby rainbow trout... from just the hook! I was shocked, not only that I was still catching fish after so many days, but that I had managed to catch one with no bait at all. Well, I figured that fish was probably too stupid to eat anyway, so I threw him back, but it always seemed so weird to catch a fish with just a line with a hook on the end of it. I had never heard of that before and it never happened again, but it was just such an odd event I thought I'd share it with ya.

Anyone else have any weird or crazy fishing stories?

[heliotropicmoth]

I have a similar story related to fishing without bait. When I was a kid I would go to Rhode Island in the summer to visit my grandparents and of course work on their corn farm (That's what kids are for right?).
My grandfather had a large farm pond back in the woods. This was a very hot and dry summer so the pond was about 1/4 of its normal depth. You could see all the fish swimming just under the surface. My cousin and I stood on the bank and caught fish after fish with no bait at all.
I know this doesn't sound to sporting, but to a couple of 10 year old boys, this was the most amazing thing in the world.

[WayneH]

When I was about 10, I went fishing with a coffee can of worms I had from the previous weekend. 
I'm not all that bright, so I didn't even think to open the can and check on the worms.  When I got to the lake,
I opened the can and found a disgusting pile of maggots (Did I tell you this was in the middle of the summer and the can was left on the front porch with the lid on?)  The smell was awful.

I was stuck with no bait.  So I tried just about everything I could find to use for bait.  I discovered that the foil wrapper to a stick of
Wrigley's Doublemint Gum actually made a good lure.  I caught two crappie and went home feeling like I was the greatest outdoorsman of all time!

[Jason Akers]

My favorite is that of my largest bass.  We fished at a little idyllic lake that was so far back in the woods.  I mean like 3 mile hike at least.  But it was so worth it.  So we'd carry a five gallon bucket with a tacklebox and a rod/reel. 

I think I was 13 or so.  My little brother and I hike back one morning intending on just spending the entire day fishing.  Well about noon I'm throwing a Rapala crankbait and I'm cranking it and it stopped like I got hung.  I took one more crank on the handle to tighten the line up and it took off.  When I finally pulled the fish in I thought it was a record.  I'd never seen a bass over 2-3 pounds.  So we filled up the bucket and took off running to a neighbors house.  There we called my mom and she took us to the hardware store to have it weighed.  7 pounds exactly - not too bad for Kentucky. 

Its not a great fishing story but great nostalgia.

I watched my dad battle a huge devil ray for about 2 hours in a Florida canal one day. 

I nearly hit a barge on Kentucky lake one night.  I have all manner of boat stories including one catching on fire. losing all steering control, and just not starting in the middle of the lake.

[heliotropicmoth]

I opened the can and found a disgusting pile of maggots (Did I tell you this was in the middle of the summer and the can was left on the front porch

I bet you could have got some hits with the maggots!

Hey Jason, did that barge move out of the way and take out a bridge by-chance? Maybe carrying a payload for Nasa?

[WayneH]

I couldn't get past the smell.

Anyone remember the old White Castle french fries?  Those were awesome catfish bait!  The ones they sell now don't work so well.

[heliotropicmoth]

Never tried the white castle fries. I have heard the catfish love liver soaked in vanilla. I am going to try it this year.

[BZHound]

The bare hook is usually shiny. When we go to Florida and fish off the piers, the way to catch bait fish is line up 3 or 4 hooks with a weight on the end and pump it up and down. It's shiny and fast.

[BZHound]

We took a trip to Grand Isle, LA one summer, with a couple of boats and little idea of what was biting and what to do. I was around 14. Apparently, my Dad forgot one of the main things you need for a boat...the keys.  We had to hire a locksmith to hotwire one of the boats and install a push button starter. My uncle gave him a hard time until he realized he forgot his registration. Strike two! We finally got in the Gulf and found a crazy spot where we were catching a fish on almost every cast.  We didn't know what they were, but we had several big coolers. I know now, this is not cool, but I was a kid. We ended up catching about 50 spanish mackrel, all in the slot limit. Then we moved out to deeper water and my uncle in the other boat hooked a big tuna or jack. The game wardens pulled up beside our boat and watched. They asked us if we had life jackets and took in the sights. My brother and I had so much fun catcing fish and watching Dad and my uncle squirm. The wardens could have thrown them under the jail. Everything was above board, but very funny.