If you Could Have the Fishing Moment Back Again

[ccmtcanada]

Would have to be fishing with my Dad again. Six months before he passed away from cancer, he took me on the last fishing trip of his life. A charter on Lake O for lake trout. I'd love to re-live that day...

 

Here's a pic of his last fish ever caught...a bright moment during a very difficult time.

[musky_man]

As I think more about this, other related memories come back. This is something that any parent or grandparent might want to remember; it is how I got the fishing bug ... real cheap fun and no electronics or batteries required.

 

1959 ... Grandma and grandpas house -- a 2-story down in the Beach area. Sunday night was always dinner at the grandparents. Over we would all go in anticipation of a great meal and lots of fun ... because we knew we could go fishing at their house! Grandpa had invented a cheap game that my brother and I spent hours playing. All you need is 10 pieces of cardboard, some strong magets, string and two "fishing poles". Grandpa, who was not bad at drawing, had drawn several fish, of various sizes, onto the pieces of cardboard. Next he cut them out into the shape of fish. He taped a piece metal to each; if memory serves me right, it was a big flat washer. Then he tied about 10-12 feet of string to each pole and a strong maget to the end of each piece of string. He would then tell us to go to the top of the stairs and he would throw the "fish" all over the hall floor onto the bottom landing. Up the stairs bros and I would go, dangle the magets over the rail on the second floor and we would "fish" for hours on end. Man, even today I think I'd have fun with that one!

 

I guess that was our version of Nintendo (or whatever) in 1959!!

 

Cheers .. and thanks to everyone for sharing their great stories ... it has been a wonderful experiencing reading them all. It is any easy thing to see why fishing is so popular ... it brings families/friends and different generations together to make wonderful memories.

[Fish Farmer]

Just to have a chance to fish or hunt with my dad one more time.

Great thread

[jjcanoe]

Here's my story...

Springtime fishing In Algonquin Park with a 5' browning ultralight rod and fenwick ul reel spooled with 4lb line, We were casting out of the canoe towards the shore and catching a few unremarkable smallmouths. I hear a splash behind me out in the open lake and cast towards the ripples. AW CR@P! I'm snagged. Rick and I start paddleing in the direction of my "snag" which starts to move. Cool, fish on! I've fished in Algonquin park for years before this and caught some large trout but this was giant. It did what it wanted, when it wanted, we didn't see it for a good 20 minutes. When I caught my first look at it all I could see were white spots on a green background. WOW GIANT LAKER! or so we thought. A few minutes later we got a real good look at it and the Lake trout had sprouted fangs. Holy Cr@p It's a pike. This kind of threw me for a loop since I had never caught a pike in the park before and totaly wasn't expecting to catch one on this lake (remember the 4lb line ultralight rod and reel and of course you don't need a steel leader for trout fishing!). Finally the pike has tired itself out and sitting at the side of the canoe I measured it against my 53" paddle and it comes up 3" short. We decide that the fish is NOT coming into the canoe. Rick paddles us over to the nearest accesible shoreline with me holding my fishing rod in one hand and the pike (still in the water) with my other hand under the gill plates. Not sure of the best way to get out of the canoe and onto the shore with a large pike attached to me I jump out of the canoe into thigh deep water and get a good grip on him for a picture. This was the first time ( and also the only time) I had brought a disposable camera on one of my canoe trips. By the time The camera was set up ( wound and flash charged up since it was getting dark out) the fish had been revived, when we paddled it to the shore, enough to chomp down on my thumb and struggle enough to make me lose my grip and plop itself back into the water before the pic was snapped.

 

5 more seconds is all I want back! but at least I have one witness!

[musky_man]

iicanoe,

 

Great story ... don't you just hate when that happens!

 

 

 

Here's my story...

Springtime fishing In Algonquin Park with a 5' browning ultralight rod and fenwick ul reel spooled with 4lb line, We were casting out of the canoe towards the shore and catching a few unremarkable smallmouths. I hear a splash behind me out in the open lake and cast towards the ripples. AW CR@P! I'm snagged. Rick and I start paddleing in the direction of my "snag" which starts to move. Cool, fish on! I've fished in Algonquin park for years before this and caught some large trout but this was giant. It did what it wanted, when it wanted, we didn't see it for a good 20 minutes. When I caught my first look at it all I could see were white spots on a green background. WOW GIANT LAKER! or so we thought. A few minutes later we got a real good look at it and the Lake trout had sprouted fangs. Holy Cr@p It's a pike. This kind of threw me for a loop since I had never caught a pike in the park before and totaly wasn't expecting to catch one on this lake (remember the 4lb line ultralight rod and reel and of course you don't need a steel leader for trout fishing!). Finally the pike has tired itself out and sitting at the side of the canoe I measured it against my 53" paddle and it comes up 3" short. We decide that the fish is NOT coming into the canoe. Rick paddles us over to the nearest accesible shoreline with me holding my fishing rod in one hand and the pike (still in the water) with my other hand under the gill plates. Not sure of the best way to get out of the canoe and onto the shore with a large pike attached to me I jump out of the canoe into thigh deep water and get a good grip on him for a picture. This was the first time ( and also the only time) I had brought a disposable camera on one of my canoe trips. By the time The camera was set up ( wound and flash charged up since it was getting dark out) the fish had been revived, when we paddled it to the shore, enough to chomp down on my thumb and struggle enough to make me lose my grip and plop itself back into the water before the pic was snapped.

 

5 more seconds is all I want back! but at least I have one witness!

[jjcanoe]

Rule #1, always bring a reliable camera because you never know what you will catch!

 

jjcanoe

[Rizzo]

biggest musky I have ever caught was my second musky. I was fishing Nipissing for the first time in my first boat...a 12 foot tinny with a 1967 6hp evinrude. Being only my second musky ever (first was a 34 incher that came 15 minutes earlier) I had problems holding it. Decided to sit with it across my lap while my buddy took the photo. The fish actually swam right off my lap and was gone...no photo, no measurement. To make matters worse, my friend tells me at that moment "that was a fish of a lifetime, you may never beat it" and to this day I never have.

[scuro2]

It was our last day at Kesagami in June 2007. My wife Leslie came up with me and fished like a trooper for the whole week. I had been worried since this was her first fishing trip ever. It had been a really good week in so many regards, and we lingered that early afternoon over her first shore lunch of fresh walleye. My wife wanted some action to finish off the trip, so I brought her to place were we had seen some hammer handles earlier in the week. After about 10 minutes she hooked into an absolute monster. Thick as a brick and we worked together to bring her in. The lodge has a barbless policy so we brought her in perhaps a little too green. Of course it had rained a little that day, and of course nothing was where it was supposed to be in the boat. Coats and other layers of clothing were strewn about in a haphazard fashion. We had no idea where the camera was. And there SHE was is in the net...at least 44 inches by my estimation and probably a few inches longer. It could have been the largest fish to date caught at the lodge that cold spring. Leslie was actually frightened by it. I told her to find the camera. I knew she was worried that I would ask her to hold it up like she had held up a smaller pike earlier in the trip. I should have said, get a camera we need a picture of this. She started complaining about how messy the boat was but I think she was really just trying buy herself a little more time to mentally prepare for how she would grab this thing. I had unhooked the pike and held it just by the jaw in the water. I should have kept it in the net just below the top of the water but the thing was oversized for the net.....Time elapsed and you can guess what eventually happened. Just one picture.......a head shot would have put me in heaven.

 

Here she is holding a pike she caught earlier in the week. The one that got away would have been more then a foot longer and probably about double the weight of the pike shown here. She had no idea how special that fish was until we were eating dinner and we went around the table and most of the guys said they had never caught a pike that big.

Edited March 31, 2009 by scuro2

[scuro2]

I'm not sure of my age when this happened, but I couldn't have been older than 10. Me and my brother(5 years younger than me) were just casting off the dock. We never really caught much, we just liked to cast. There was a jug out there that we would try and cast to.......kinda like a distance casting competition. We'd go thru the old mans tackle box, and get the biggest, heaviest lure we could find, and just chuck it out as far as we could. I always got the title for the longest cast.

 

So, one year, we're out doing the distance cast thing off the dock. I always did best with a big old rusty 5 of diamonds spoon. This time, my brother got his hands on it first. I was a little mad, but I let him keep it. So, here we are casting as far as we could, then reeling it in as fast as we could, so we could cast again. It wasn't about catching a fish......we never did anyways. So my brother lets a good long cast fly.......he almost got it to the jug. I will admit, I was quite impressed with that cast. He goes to reel reel in, and nothing will budge. He says, there's something wrong with my reel. It was an old Mitchell 300. I look over, and his rod is bent right over......he's looking at the reel. I said, your snagged dumbass.......now your going to lose my lucky spoon!! Just at that moment, the reel starts screaming. We both looked at each other in total disbelief. Now I'm getting a little excited, and wanted him to give me the rod......yeah right.....that's not happening. He's got his tongue hanging out of his mouth, rad jammed into his belly, and he's reeling against the drag like a mad man......I'll never forget that moment and the determination in his face.

 

By now, we've drawn quite the audience. There is an old guy that comes running with a net, who is now coaching him on what to do. Well, wouldn't you know it, he ends up landing this HUGE pike. The old fella nets it, we get it up on the dock, get the hooks out, and the old guy says "Are ya gunna keep it? You should really let that one go." There was no chance he was letting it go......it was his biggest fish ever, and we just had to show Dad this fish. We put it on a piece of rope, and dragged that sucker up the hill to the campsite. When my dad saw us coming, he didn't know what to think. It measured 42", and had a 2lb smallie in its belly. It was FAT!! We filleted it up, and had a huge fish fry with it.....LOL. I think we fed the whole park with that fish.

 

Now, If I had that moment back, I would have taken my spoon off that little brat in the first place, and that pike would have been mine!!!! We still talk about that fish everytime we get together.

 

Sinker

 

A damn good piece of story tellin'.