Post by Brian on Apr 12, 2015 12:57:46 GMT -5
There are two "ones that got away" to this story. The first was someone else's one that got away. We caught a ~35" fish that was very sluggish and never fought very hard. It had something embedded where a tag might be, but it wasn't a tag, it was a 5/0ish hook with only the eye exposed.
I removed it and put him back in the water pronto without measuring or weighing. I'm guessing that this fish took a swipe at a bait and got foul hooked and then broke off since if it was feeling good it should have been nearly unmanageable hooked in the side like that.
The other "one that got away" was further down the same bank one of my boards took off with no foreplay. Just submerged and drag started screaming... I picked up the rod and thought the drag must be loose because it just was not stopping.. I cranked down the drag then cranked it some more and brought the fish up to the top 100 feet behind the boat. It was a hoss, it kind of wallowed on top for a moment pulling little spurts of drag, then submerged and the hook pulled out
Total n00b move on my part particularly since it was a small thin wire hook that straightened a little under the strain.
I had a spread of 3" shad, 6" ales and 14" shad on a mix of free lines and light lines. All fish came on the small shad. The ales got chased or skinned a couple of times but those were likely LMB from the way the strikes went down.
I removed it and put him back in the water pronto without measuring or weighing. I'm guessing that this fish took a swipe at a bait and got foul hooked and then broke off since if it was feeling good it should have been nearly unmanageable hooked in the side like that.
The other "one that got away" was further down the same bank one of my boards took off with no foreplay. Just submerged and drag started screaming... I picked up the rod and thought the drag must be loose because it just was not stopping.. I cranked down the drag then cranked it some more and brought the fish up to the top 100 feet behind the boat. It was a hoss, it kind of wallowed on top for a moment pulling little spurts of drag, then submerged and the hook pulled out
Total n00b move on my part particularly since it was a small thin wire hook that straightened a little under the strain.I had a spread of 3" shad, 6" ales and 14" shad on a mix of free lines and light lines. All fish came on the small shad. The ales got chased or skinned a couple of times but those were likely LMB from the way the strikes went down.
