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That last one about the walleye fishing on Norfork reminds me of a fishing trip with my brother off the coast of Oregon a few years back. My brother and I were bottom rock fishing up near Brookings in 40-50 feet of water when he got a pretty nice 5-lb red rock fish on his line. He's slowly bringing it up when all of a sudden, the line got really heavy. We figured a big Ling Cod had grabbed the rock fish so we decided to try to get them both in the boat. Bro told me I would have once chance in netting them when they got to the surface. He had a good size salmon net for the job. Anyway, up they slowly come and I could see the bright red of the rock fish stuck sideways in a 35-pound Ling Cod - which has a really big mouth incidentally. Just as they hit the surface, I gave it the old college-try and got both them suckers in the net. Both fish made excellent table fare shortly after that.


Cheers.....
 
Discussion starter · #42 ·
A couple years ago I took my wife to the little red for her first try at trout fishing. Drove the hour drive and when we got to the river the water was moving fast. I told her since we got up early and made the drive we might as well give it a shot. I get mine and her poles rigged up with several sinkers and power bait and throw out into the water. My wife's line gets caught in the current and is carried down and back up against the bank. After a few minutes she says she thinks she's getting a bite. I laughed and explained to here that what she was feeling was the bait bouncing in the current. After a few more minutes she says she thinks she's getting a bite. I once again tell her that it's most likely the current. The third time she says she has a bite I gave in and said real it in and see. Sure enough as she starts realling in I see her line running off into the current, there was a 12" trout on the end. She ended up out fishing me that day 3-1. All 3 of hers were caught right up against the bank.
 
Back when I was young, us guys of the family would go down to Moon Chute below Eudora and put out trotlines. Typically we done this three to four times a year. Normally it was my Papaw, my Dad, four Uncles and six cousins. Using four boats, we would put out over a thousand hooks plus yo-yo's to boot. Down where it connected to the Mississippi we would put out my Papaw's special lines. The hooks on these line were Hooks that my papaw made himself and were bigger than my hand. We would bait these with any mudcat we caught during the trip (which with that many hooks out was way more than we could have ever used). I remember he put four foot drops spaced every ten feet. No more than ten hooks on one line. We normally set five lines of these, and through the years I couldn't tell you how many 50lb+ flathead and Blue cats we caught off of them five lines. I know one weekend we caught 31 over 50 lbs. Over ten years I would bet a paycheck it was close to 500. I was not in the boat on this, but my cousin was helping his dad and another uncle set the line out. As they were going along, a tree floating down the current caught the line and pulled it from my uncle's hand and the next hook caught my cousin right under the bend of his knee. It did it so hard and fast that the point (and barb) of the hook came out the top of his knee cap. My uncle in the back of the boat grabbed him as he was being dragged overboard and his dad jumped in the water and cut the line. The diameter of these hooks were a little smaller than the size of a pencil, and there was no cutting the hook to get it out. They loaded up and carried him to Greenville, MS to an ER where they brought in a grinder and cut the hook to get it out. No permanent damage was done, but the women of the family put down an ultimatum that us young-uns could no longer go in the boat to set those lines.
 
Sort of a fishing story. I was about 10years old me and my dad and some friends were running yo yo's on Kelly lake . Two guys were camped by us they got super drunk and one of them keep talking about how hungry he was so the other guy told him to get a fish they caught out the ice chest and cook , well guy gets fish and puts it in skillet , and other starts hollering at him telling him he has to have oil to cook the fish! So guy grabs some motor oil and puts in skillet cooks the fish and then eats it ! Not long after I can remember the guy puking his guts up prob a combination of the fish and alcohol, well shortly after the guys crank up and leave , and barley make it down the road and run out of gas , so they ask if we have any gas all we had was two stroke they used it anyway and then put Coleman fuel out there lantern in there also . I remember hearing the truck back firing as it was going down the road . This is a true story !!!
 
Sort of a fishing story. I was about 10years old me and my dad and some friends were running yo yo's on Kelly lake . Two guys were camped by us they got super drunk and one of them keep talking about how hungry he was so the other guy told him to get a fish they caught out the ice chest and cook , well guy gets fish and puts it in skillet , and other starts hollering at him telling him he has to have oil to cook the fish! So guy grabs some motor oil and puts in skillet cooks the fish and then eats it ! Not long after I can remember the guy puking his guts up prob a combination of the fish and alcohol, well shortly after the guys crank up and leave , and barley make it down the road and run out of gas , so they ask if we have any gas all we had was two stroke they used it anyway and then put Coleman fuel out there lantern in there also . I remember hearing the truck back firing as it was going down the road . This is a true story !!!
ROFLMAO That's the description of some true rednecks!
 
Discussion starter · #47 ·
Sort of a fishing story. I was about 10years old me and my dad and some friends were running yo yo's on Kelly lake . Two guys were camped by us they got super drunk and one of them keep talking about how hungry he was so the other guy told him to get a fish they caught out the ice chest and cook , well guy gets fish and puts it in skillet , and other starts hollering at him telling him he has to have oil to cook the fish! So guy grabs some motor oil and puts in skillet cooks the fish and then eats it ! Not long after I can remember the guy puking his guts up prob a combination of the fish and alcohol, well shortly after the guys crank up and leave , and barley make it down the road and run out of gas , so they ask if we have any gas all we had was two stroke they used it anyway and then put Coleman fuel out there lantern in there also . I remember hearing the truck back firing as it was going down the road . This is a true story !!!
Why is this not surprising :smack:
 
Two stories with a friend of mine for most of my life.

Fishing a farm pond when we were about 12 and my buddy spots a pretty good sized cottonmouth floating in the pond. He says, "I'm gonna catch that sucker." Then he proceeds to make a perfect cast with his Rooster tail landing about five feet past the snake with the line right across its back. My buddy reels up within about 18 inches, holds his rod tip low, and yanks -- hard. Well, now the fight is on! About a two foot cottonmouth snagged in its side and VERY unhappy. When he gets the snake about ten feet from the bank I just had to ask the obvious question, "What are you gonna do when you get him reeled in?" He stopped, looked at me, and pulled out his pocket knife to cut the line.

Same buddy, only add about 10 years to our ages. We were wade fishing a creek north of Greers Ferry Lake that we have fished our whole lives. One spot we called the beaver pond and would always produce some goggle eye and bass. I was fighting a particularly large goggle eye and it came up about twenty feet out to give us a tail dance. Well, it threw the hook and I had just enough time to turn my head before the Rooster tail hit me in the right cheek bone and stuck. I turned and looked at my bud with the lure hanging in my face and said, "Well, that did not turn out like I had planned." Like any good friend, he was laughing his rear off.
 
I've got nothing to top some of these but I've got a couple.
I was really little, probably 5. My dad and I were camping at hurricane and running yoyos in the summer one night with a group from church. I was worried about snakes the whole time and dad assured me as long as I stayed in the boat I didn't have to worry about snakes. Well we drove under a limb to check a yoyo and a huge cottonmouth falls in the boat by my feet.. I Don't run yoyos at night there anymore in the summer

About 4 years ago, was running yoyos at a lake. We left my buddy to start a campfire for us on the bank. We're gone running yoyos for like 20 mins, and we start smelling smoke. We don't think anything of it and keep setting yoyos. We finally get them all set out and drive back to find my buddy yelling at us and waving his arms on the bank, a massive cloud of smoke behind him. He had let the fire get and it had probably burned like a half acre. He starts Flipping out and beats the fire with a little stick. We can hardly put the fire out for laughing at him so hard. We finally got it beat out though. We called him Smokey after that and always crack jokes about it when the opportunity arises!!
 
My best friend and I were fishing Greers Ferry a very long time ago. We'd fished a few hours with no luck when hybrids start schooling all around us, big hybrids. We drop down and in the boat and tie on topwater baits. As soon as we both get our lures tied on the hybrids go down. We stand there watching and talking about how these were the biggest hybrids we'd ever seen schooling, when up they come. My buddy makes a tremendously hard cast with his 5 1/2 or 6 foot at most fiberglass rod, this was the late 70's or early 1980's, and precedes to hook himself right under his shoulder blade, through his shirt and pretty deep with a Zara Spook He hollers but I've got a 10 pound hybrid on, so he has to wait. I get the fish in and the other fish stop schooling so I check him out. The barb is barely under the skin so he tells me to take a set of forceps and get it out. So I clamp the forceps on the hook, he didn't like that, and just start to put pressure on the forceps when the hybrids start schooling again. So I did the only reasonable thing I could do, I dropped the forceps and grab my pole and catch another big hybrid. The fish go back down so I go back to work on my buddy when the school comes back up again. I stop operating and go back to fish'n and catch one. By now my buddy is get'n just a little put out, but I did cut the line off his Spook so he could tie on a new plug and fish, too, but that didn't seem to satisfy him very much. We repeated this process about 4 or 5 times until he got impatient and reached around with his left hand and got ahold of the forceps and just ripped it out. He still brings this up on occasion, even now.
 
Me and a buddy went up to the New River in WV on a camping trip with his dad and brother. We were wading the river for smallmouth. I was standing on a rock at the top of some falls when I thought I had a bite. Turns out I set my hook into a rock and I somehow lost grip on my rod and it went over the falls. I got my other rod and was trying to retrieve the first one. My buddy was standing on a rock below the falls and saw the whole thing happen. He laughed so hard he fell right in the river haha.

Same buddy, same fishing trip. Once again I thought I had a bite and I fought this monster of a "fish" all the way from the depths of the river. When it got close to the surface all we could see was a black blob of something. Didn't know what in the world it was so I dragged it up on the rocks and kicked it over. It was a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll that was so waterlogged it must have weighed 20 lbs.

Same trip again. We were all about chest deep in the river just down from the camp. I was the farthest upstream when it hit me, I had to go. Not wanting to send my buddies a school of baby Ruth's downstream I booked it as fast as I could to a spot where I could climb up on the bank and get to the ports crapper. Too many campsites around or I woulda just hugged a tree right there.

Same buddy but back at one of the catfish ponds on Fort Bragg. We were fishing one night and a cat tries to take all the line off my reel. I fought this stupid thing for a few minutes and the line went slack. I could tell there was still something on as I was reeling in. When it got close enough to the bank my buddy shined his light and we both thought it was a cottonmouth. Turns out the fish I hooked wrapped itself around a golf club that was at the bottom of the pond. We had a good laugh. My buddy used the golf club that night to kill an actual cottonmouth than some other dude was screaming like a girl about.
 
Couple of alligator stories:

I was fishing a canal down south of Miami for tarpon and came across this 8-foot alligator floating in the middle of the canal. I had a pretty heft rod with a salt-water spinning reel so I thought I'd give this critter a hard time. Cast the spoon I was using on the other side of the gator and when the lure hit the crease between his belly and his hand leg, I gave the rod the old heave-ho. The gator went nuts and rushed across the canal to the other side, up the bank and into a marsh . I really put my drag to the test but in the end, had to say goodbye to my spoon. Was fun while it lasted though.

During another time, I was down in Panama fishing a small pond fairly close to Lake Gatun which forms the Canal. I was using a pretty big popper and looking for anything that would bite. My daughter was standing along side me and about 20 yards out in the pond, there was a 4-foot Cayman just floating and looking at us. I put the popper along side and behind it and told daughter that when the Cayman went for it, I'd pull it away before he could get it in his mouth. As the lure got close to it, it started quivering ad when it lunged at the lure, there was no way I was going to out-maneuver it. It grabbed my popper but with a flick of it's head, threw it maybe 10 feet away. I thought I had pretty good reactions but this critter was twice as fast as I was. But at least I got my popper back.


Cheers.....
 
So about 25 years ago my future father in law retired and decided to start fishing full time. He bought a 14 ft flat bottom boat and a old Johnson 10 HP motor. He spent months working on the boat to get it to stop leaking " as much " I think half the rivets was loose and I thought he would never get the motor back after looking at all the peaces on the ground in his garage. Well on weekend he called me up and lets go fishing boy... He said the old Johnson was running like a new sewing machine. So we went to Lake Conway, got the boat in the water, and he tried to start the motor. Well it would start but when you try to twist the handle to give it gas it would dye. He gave out so I took over as he bailed out water. So I bulled on the rope for about 2 hours trying to get that motor running. Same thing over and over, give it a little gas and it would dye. So we gave up and slowly idled back to the bank. I get out and back the trailer in the water then get out and watch him land the boat, and when he gets up to the trailer the motor came alive. I am jumping out of the way, and I kid you not, the the boat ended up sideways on the trailer. He had no clue what just happened. And yes there was a line of people there waiting to use the ramp.... We got every thing buckled down and headed home. Not much talking on the way home. Come to find out when he put the motor back together he put the decal on the throttle backwards. So WOT was Stop & Stop was WOT. We laugh at it now and I have some wonderful memories in that old boat!
 
I got one that is kinda funny.

A couple years ago I fished out of a 12 foot Waco flat bottom. That is what I had and I love to fish. I was fishing on Lake Winona. I saw a boat approaching pretty fast. This is always a concern in a small boat. I see it is the fish police. They pull up and check my license. One of the officers says those are some big crappie. How you catching them. I showed him the couple on the bottom and he ask if he can take a photo. You know you have a big crappie when a game warden ask to take a photo. Talking to them I tell them I like their boat. He says if it makes you feel any better we checked the other 4 $30,000 boats on the lake and you are out fishing all of them combined. Then I get back to the truck and I have a warning on the truck for to small of a boat on the lake from the manager of the lake. I stop on the way out and have him measure it. Nothing smaller than a 12 foot boat allowed. He said dang that did not look 12 ft.
 
Discussion starter · #55 ·
Last summer I was on Ouachita with a buddy from work. I tied the Zara spook and whipped my rod back to muster up the longest cast in histery and when I slung the rod forward as hard as I could my line felt heavey and next thing I know my spinning rod goes flying past me and into the water. My heart instantly sunk into my stomach, my buddy is laughing so hard he couldn't talk. Some how in the 20 feet of water my buddy managed to hook my spinning rod off the bottom and reel it back in.

While in the Marines, me and a few guys in my platoon would go catfishing. One buddy decided to leave his chicken liver on the front porch for a month and then give the "stink bait" a try. We go out one evening, get set up and after lots of gagging and teared up eyes we got the stink bait on his hook. We all cast out and start drinking. We drank and would occasionally check out lines and reel in the slack. After we were all feeling good I looked over and my buddy with the stink bait had unknowingly reeled his slack all the way to about 10 foot from the bank. I start poking fun at him about how his bait isn't even out in the water. He reels his line in the last 10 feet and there was an old decaying catfish head on the end, hooked right in the corner of the lips. We fell out laughing! All we could figure out was that old chicken liver was so ripe that the catfish decayed as soon as it bit the hook.
 
Me and my uncle was down on the coast fishing for what ever would bite the hook. He had just bought a new ambassador that he was in love with. Thought he pushed the button and turned the bait clicker on but he didn't. We was throwing out some crab nets when he pole went flying over the sea wall. He ran and never made it to find it. About 3 hours later he decided to go buy another one and went back to the same spot. Somehow he caught the fishing pole and reeled it in and the red fish was still on it.

One day me and my cousin was fishing top water for bass. He kept having blow up after blow up but nothing would eat it. I told next time one hits it to jerk it hard as he could... Very next cast one hit it and he jerked so hard the lure flew back and went straight into his mouth!! I don't know why he had his mouth open but I had to get pliers to get it off his tongue
 
A friend and I were night fishing for stripers on Norfork a few years back in April and it was pitch black with no moon. We were using the big Rattling Rogues with three treble hooks. It was a good night with plenty of bites and for the first hour or so, we were both catching fish. Later on, I was still pulling them in but my friend was getting bumps and jerking but not hooking anything. We kept it up for another hour or so and ended up catching 16 stripers but my friend only caught three of them. When it was time to quit, we swung the lures in to hook them in the rod eye and my friend had one treble hook left and it was the one directly behind the bill. During that first hour of fishing, the stripers had ripped two hooks off his lure. I would add that we through all the fish back.


Cheers.....
 
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