Your Best "One that got away" story

[JoeBeck]

I have a few memories of losing some good fish . The worst fish I lost actually was not mine, it was my wifes, 2 years ago in the Steve moyer tournament. She hooked a good size halibut, her fist legal halibut, not a tournament winning fish but would have won her the female division. She could not figure out how to gaff it, the fish looked completely wiped out from the battle. So I paddled up, I knew it was not a 20 pound fish, she had 30 pound line, I grabbed the line brought the fish to my boat grabbed it and put it between my lap. It went nuts!!!!!!!!!!! Jumped off the boat, still hooked, grabbed it again and it jumped off the other side coming undone and being free. She was crushed, I was crushed more losing her fish.

The good news is my wife didn't weigh a bigger fish than me . Actually I didn't weigh a fish either.

[GregAndrew]

I would not know where to start. Let's just say that most of the contestants for the honor were due to user error.

[Aaron&Julie]

Jim,
You're my kind of fisherman. I liked your stories, and I can relate. Besides the fact, you fish out of my original stomping grounds, Redondo and such.
Gotta say though per Joe Beck's post, Julie's lost halibut, was my greatest loss.
Aaron

[Matt]

As for mine ask Gary Sullivan hahaha j/k Gary

[steveooo]

[deepdvr]

Originally Posted by steveooo

I think that one got hit by a boat prop

[T Bone]

I think we all have more than one of these stories.This is going to be a great thread for sure...

My Dad is (Was) a bigtime longranger Cow tuna/Wahoo guy(He is now retired in Lapaz B C S Mexico with a house 300ft from the water and has a 19' robalo and 14' valco to play with.I will finally get to go down there now that things are getting better with my boy)anyways I wanted to finally get some bigger model tuna and wanted to do a 5 day to the 'lupe but he wanted to do at least a 10 day.I told him that The wife would never boil on that chum,so we picked a 7 day Alijos trip on the RR3.
In the mean time my Dad and I become aqainted with a guy named Rex who was friends with the Owners of Avet reels,two Armenian immigrants named Harry and Sarkis who's love for saltwater fishing led them to begin making reels.Rex told them about the trip we were going on which is Ultra prime time August 2006(what is known as a "Hurricane risk"trip)and were offered to demo a new reel the "SX 2pd" Harry just caught a 600+ black marlin on a JX2 and was convinced this new little gem could take 100# YFT and asked if we would do some tuna fishing with them.If we caught a "Good" tuna with them and got pictures we could keep the reels.I thought this was a win-win so what the hell.The little reel seemed at the time like the coolest thing I had ever seen.300yds of 50# spectra with short flouro topshot and away we went...
Alijos is an unbelievable sight.It is comprised of 3 big rock pinnacles that are taller than they are wide and is nick-named "Neptunes Castle" The fishing there is amazing.After catching my first of two big wahoo for the trip we settled into some tuna fishing.There were two grades of fish being caught,25-35#YFT were stupid thick with skippies mixed in.The bigger models were 60-90# and the JP fish was over 100# for the trip.I had the sx2 on my 800M and through out a dine,which was bit in seconds by a 30#YFT which was tackled in a reasonable amount of time and the lower gear was sweet.I re-rigged with a balloon and fished opposite the current because the wind was blowing the other way.The stern was a cluster "FISH" of guys hooked up and 2 kites were going too in the direction I was fishing and they were getting the bigger models out away from the boat.It wasnt long before I was a good distance away from the boat,probably 80yds when the balloon goes down and pops.When I put the reel in gear it was like pulling the pin on a grenade! There was no doubt this was the right kind and it was on!The fish took another 50yds in about 5 seconds and then slowed a bit.I began to draw some attention by deckhands and passengers since everyone new what we were using.I was down to 1/2 spool and slid the drag past strike but not completely to full.There was a lot of back and forth,but mostly forth.I made gains only to lose them and more.I had about 100YDS left when I put it in full and put the wood to him.I got back to a half spool and by this time I had Capt. Andy and my Dad both beside me coaching me.I felt pretty good until the fish really showed me what he was all about and went into overdrive.The spool was rapidly diminishing and I was actually asked If I wanted a backup rod.With only about 25 yrds left I just high sticked it straight in front of me.I have never been spooled before so was quite unaware that I was in trouble by my position.The fish spooled me and popped the knot without missing a beat,The fully bent rod cracked me right between the eyes and I actually saw stars.I thought my Dad was going to literally die laughing as it took him minutes to collect himself and wipe the tears from his eyes.I was bought a few rounds of beer that night for my stand up comedy act.My dad got a 64#er so we got to keep the reels anyways.I lost it in the surf at LJ after pearling in the dark because I had 60+#WSB between my legs(See Ultimate Yardsale)my avatar fish.

Anyways I ended up getting several nice tuna on that trip but switced over to the LX2 with 50# and a more appropriate Graphite USA SW70hp that I also lost in that yardsale.Lesson learned,IF YOU ARE GOING TO GET SPOOLED HAVE THE ROD AWAY FROM YOUR FACE!

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

I think that one got hit by a boat prop

Classic Mantis Shrimp marks. Notice how clean the forward mark is, it's not tooth scrape but a slice like it was made with a knife. Hit it towards the head to stun it then tried to chew the tail off. Seen those marks many times fishing halibut.

Jim

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by Aaron&Julie

Jim,
You're my kind of fisherman. I liked your stories, and I can relate. Besides the fact, you fish out of my original stomping grounds, Redondo and such.
Gotta say though per Joe Beck's post, Julie's lost halibut, was my greatest loss.
Aaron

Thanks Aaron. Yours really hit home as well. It's a drag to loose your own fish but I really hate loosing a fish like that if it's someone else's. My old Redondo fishing buddy Mike hooked a huge dorado off SBI during the late 90's El Nino~ maybe five feet long. He hooked it on ten pound as there were some small line shy yellows on the paddies. So he had it on for a good while, and we eventually tried to chase it down. I had to gaff it off the bow while the boat was in gear, and I gaffed in the gut and there was no-where to drop it. So I tried to walk it back to the stern deck, it went ballistic and it then ripped out shaking off the gaff by tearing it's own guts out before I could flop it on board. So it not only broke off in the end but with the hole in the belly I killed the fish as well. Still haunts me to this day when I think about it.

Jim

[WahooUSMA]

Ask Kent and Premo

[mtnbykr2]

as most have said,
probably too many to count, and without a pic I will add mine, with only witnesses and a failed Go Pro film attempt...
Most recent one I let get away....a couple months ago I took a fishin partner up to Santa Barbara, four of us launched at the landing, sunrise...calm water easy bait, anchovies everywhere, but the gang had decided we all had to leave early so we cheated and bought bait at the barge a couple of the guys headed out to 1 mile or there abouts...a couple of us decided to fish the beach and drift for buts...I had a 15 lb rig out on the drift with a anchovie pinned on, we had a few calicos around the pier, and the bass bite was pretty good, however we were after dinner...we paddled underneath the pier to get to the sand on the other side and as I went under the pier I decided I would drift with squid on another rod, I left the one rod in, while I was setting up the other rod.
I had the clicker on the Corvallus and set it in the holder, just as I came out from under the pier, I had finished the squid rig, and started to drop it down. I took a quick look around and up at the rod tip that was in the holder, and I noticed the line was slack, I was facing the beach at the time so the horse shoe end of the pier was to my stern and I was moving in a forward drift, I thought that's funny that line is in the wrong place according to my drift, adrenaline level rose I quickly set the squid rig in a rod holder and picked up the Corvallus and reeled up the slack paying attention to the end of the line, I felt a couple of shakes and knew this was not a snag.
Now I have the slack tightened up and the line is going out and back to the stern, I set the hook and the sliegh ride was on...when I set the hook, this fish turned my yak around like I was hooked to a train, after the 180 degree turn I was headed straight for the back of the pier approx 150 yard away, I yelled over to my partner and he heard the echo of my voice
"turn on your camera" I said, now I am settled in on the fight and ride. Now unknown to me my friend had fired up the Go Pro and looked in my direction and I was gone...he thought to himself that's rude he's not there anymore...I was headed toward the back of the pier at a rapid pace. though the that got away was not taking large amounts of line off it was
still taking out some line, I realized it was either I stop the fish now or my yak and I will be slamming into the pilings in a very short time, you can get through on the sides of the pier but the pilings at the end of the pier
are in such a way that there would not be enough room for my kayak to fit through especially being towed at about 2-3 mph, I thumbed the spool.
the line started to come up like the fish was going to go airborn, by this time I knew I was going to be the loser here, I was running out of real estate as they say...I was about ten yards off the pilings, by this time my friend caught up to me only to see the line coming up, I had to put the binders on and tighten the drag, thumb was getting hot and "click" it was all over, but the adrenaline rush was awesome, I couldn't tie a hook on without shaking for a good half an hour after that...it was definately a wonderful feeling even though "it" got away

[Nic D]

I don't really know what to say.... other than its never happened to me. I've seen other guys get fish right up to the gaff only to be bit off by the tax man, I've seen guys fall out of boats, I've seen lotsa other stuff, but just don't have a great "the one that got away" story.

knocking on wood, cause now it will happen to me.

[premo]

Originally Posted by WahooUSMA

Ask Kent and Premo

I will let Kent to write Roger's embarasing story.
I would blame Kent anyway for been lousy gaffer
one time i have been towed by fish in LJ so strong that this them thing allmost pull me out of my yak I couldn't lift my rod( it looked like water skiing). I was scraming like a guy in kayakhunters video and my buddy couldn't keep up with me on his prowler 15,unfortunetly fish broke me off in kelp.