crazy times

Hang with a fishy crowd.

Moderator: Scott Waters

User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

i have to tell you this one before i forget about it. actually, it sort of has to do with fishing, but is more herp related than anything.

i have to give the credit for this idea to chad huss. he always came up with goofy ideas. another from him was the minnow bucket scam. i'll tell you guys that one some other time though.

near us was a large field with a few apple trees in the middle. this was our destination for the day. chad kept his plan a secret, so we just grabbed our rods and followed. we spent half an hour riding through the neighborhood until we found our target. apparently chad needed small flags, which we stole from someones yard who had recently had his/her underground lines marked.

we finally got to the field. we set up "camp" under the trees and wondered what the heck we were doing. chad grabbed a flag and tied a slip-knot on the end of his line. he then pulled his line out and laid it on the ground and marked it with a flag. huh??? "gopher fishin'" was his reply. we spent the rest of the day reeling in gophers. it was a blast. all you have to do is pull 'em in when their heads poke up. we released most, but some were kept to feed our snakes.

what can i say, we were goofy kids. there was even talk about trying to find a badger hole. believe me, one of us would have tried if we knew where to find a badger.
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

Lloyd Heilbrunn wrote:I think I did two guided day trips when I was in Montana but did not do overnight. IIRC, one day wading both in and outside the Park, and a day float trip on the Yellowstone fishing Hoppers.
Lloyd, do remember how the hopper fishing was on the Yellowstone that day?

-Dell
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

Here are a pair of fly reels and a bit of history to go w/ them.
Hardy Perfects from the house of Hardy. The reel on the right is circa 1944, right hand retrieve. The one on the left is circa 1977, and left hand retrieve.
Image

I'd always coveted one of these reels as a kid but could never afford one. By the time I was old enough to afford one they had stopped making them, after nearly a century of production. This brought the price up and made them collector pieces and once again I couldn't bear the expense for one.
15 years ago I took a client fishing that had one on his rod. I beamed to him about how much I liked his reel. The gunmetal anodized finish, the 15 stainless steel ball bearings for smooth winding, and the agate line guard, oh, how I loved the agate line guards, and how each piece of agate is a little different from any other.
We had an enjoyable day of fishing, and at the end of the day when it came time to pay and tip for the trip, he tipped me w/ the Hardy. Saying you appreciate this reel more then I do, and I've got others I like to use anyway. Best tip I've ever got.
Perfects were only right hand retrieves then, and I had to teach myself to reel right handed but the difficulty of learning to reeling right handed was a small hurdle to get over to finally have a chance to own and fish this classic reel.
Image
Image

The left hand retrieve 1977 Hardy Perfect came from an old fisherman in Billings here who has so much fishing gear it'd make your head spin. He had this reel in it's original box unused and I bought it from him at a fair market price.
Image
Some of my friends tease me about these old reels and that there are better reels being made now days, and they're right. But there is something about fishing these reels that make me feel good, so I keep fishing em.
Image

-Dell
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: crazy times

Post by BillMcGighan »

Wow,
Beautiful reels..
you appreciate this reel more then I do
Wonderful story.
Lloyd Heilbrunn
Posts: 285
Joined: June 9th, 2010, 8:15 pm
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Fl

Re: crazy times

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn »

Dell Despain wrote:
Lloyd Heilbrunn wrote:I think I did two guided day trips when I was in Montana but did not do overnight. IIRC, one day wading both in and outside the Park, and a day float trip on the Yellowstone fishing Hoppers.
Lloyd, do remember how the hopper fishing was on the Yellowstone that day?

-Dell
Sorry I missed this, I've been swamped with work. I remember it as being very good, but I had no frame of reference.....

Any special reason you ask??
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Ben, your story reminds me of the times my friends and I would have "Warbler tournaments" on the days during Tarpon season down here in the Keys that were too windy to safely go out. A big wind like that, combined with the spring Warbler migration would stack'em up on the island I lived. We all had our "secret flies" (mine was a simple #14 Adams or Royal Wolf) but it made no difference if you were in the ball park size-wise. Heck, a friend use to tie a half dozen of the old school Bivisibles in the snowbound, godforsaken place he lived every winter and did just fine.
It was funny to watch a grown man, "staking out" a flowering Seagrape tree...beer sitting on the ground next to him while he waited for the Black-Throated Blue or Cape May to come low enough in the tree to "rise" to the fly.

We of course had the hook points cut off the flies, and to score a catch, the bird simply had to pounce on the fly and get it off the ground...even just a foot constituted a catch. We had spotters and judges for style and score keepers (Our girls.) On the good days, it was nothing to get a dozen quick bites from 3 or more species.

Thanks for the memories. See ya in June?
Tim
User avatar
pete
Posts: 745
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:11 pm
Location: cape cod ma.

Re: crazy times

Post by pete »

Dell, thats a great tip!! MUCH better than money in my opinion :thumb:

Tim, that is an incredibly creative way to spend a day :thumb:

I'm loving all the reading you folks are giving me! I caught three white perch on my way to work this am, hoping for a brownie but they'll work :D
User avatar
Ted
Posts: 312
Joined: December 30th, 2010, 10:02 am
Location: SoCal and Cape Cod

Re: crazy times

Post by Ted »

well, I just noticed this thread. call me clueless I guess... :roll:

my best fishing story comes from Cape Cod. When I was younger, (about 8 or 9), I would take a fishing class during the summer. this specific story takes place in the last fishing class i ever took there. Since I had taken this class once or twice before, I was seen as the expert if the teacher wasn't around. The very last day of class, we were all out fishing from a dock in woods hole, and it was the best day any of us had ever seen. We were pulling in stripers and bluefish every minute, and loving it. In fact, we were pulling in so much that our teacher left to go get a small grill for a cookout. About five minutes after the teacher left, one of my close friends got his only rubber lure bitten in half. He was unhappy to say the least. I helped him set up his line for dropfishing, and he just kept fishing. about ten minutes or so after that, he called me over again because his line was stuck. I took the rod and started to feel out how it was stuck. Just as I started to think about cutting the line, I felt some movement.

Suddenly this wasn't just a stuck line. I gave the rod back to him, and he started to reel the line in, ever so slowly. as the fish kept coming up, a couple more kids had to hold onto his rod so he wouldn't fall in. We knew this would be a fish of a lifetime. We also knew that it was a flounder, that kind of deadweight is unmistakeable if you've ever caught one before, its like trying to haul up a board. Just as it started to get near the surface, someone ran to get the teacher. We finally got it to the surface, and to this day i
swear that it was at least three and a half feet long. By this point everyone was watching, and no one could believe it. once it actually broke the surface, about 5 kids had to throw themselves onto the rod so no one fell in!(keep in mind that we were only 8 or 9). We managed to get it about 3 inches above the waters surface before disaster struck. the rod had been fighting heroically, but with only 8lb test it could only fight so hard. with the whole amount of the fishes weight on it, and no way to get a net to it, (this being a very tall dock), the line finally snapped. as we all sat down with a sigh, our teacher finally arrived. The best catch of the entire class and she missed it! can you believe it?

Also, this is a great post, we should all try to keep it alive.
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

My first time fishing in Brazil I went with three friends of mine, and we fished for Peacock Bass for a week at a fly fishing only lodge. All these guys are great guys, and easy to fish w/, but one of them, Bruce, is very fish hungry, and a bit competitive about the number of fish he catches. Bruce not only counts every fish he catches, but counts your fish too (drives me batty). As long as I catch a few fish, smoke a cigar or two during the day I'm fine, I could care less who's caught more.

Getting my gear ready for this trip I'd ran in to this product called Berkley stink bait. Some of you may have heard of it, it's a jell and has a pungent odor. You put it on your lure and it's supposed to work wonders on getting more fish to chase your lure or fly. I bought the stuff, you never know, and threw it in my gear bag.

We had a great 5 days of fishing, but the 6 day Bruce and I fished together it was the slowest morning by far. Just before lunch Bruce complained that we weren't doing that well. Mainly because he was casting horrible. We would cast toward the jungle from the boat floating the river, or pull into a lagoon and cast toward the structure that the jungle provided on the lagoons edges. If you could cast as close to the trees, and logs as possible the fishing was always better of course. But Bruce was blowing every other cast by casting to far, not just by a few inches, but by 4 feet, or 6 feet. Then we'd have to stop fishing, and the guide would paddle the boat in to the trees to retrieve Bruce's fly, then paddle back out to a casting distance again, and Bruce would cast a few times then stick his fly in the trees again.
I started giving him grief about it, "Jesus Bruce, what kind of cast was that, you're killing us? I find that 99% of the fish are caught in the water not the trees. What do you think?" Even the guide started in on him. "Oh, Mr Bruce you catch monkey?"

He was getting pretty worked up about it now, and I was enjoying teasing him. But we weren't doing very well, and at lunch I remembered the Berkley stink bait. I covertly gobbed a bunch of the unpleasant smelling stuff on to my fly without Bruce seeing me do it. When we started fishing again, I immediately started hooking, and landing Peacocks. I even caught a couple as we were paddling in to retrieve some of Bruce's bad cast out of the trees.
He admitted that I was out fishing him, and asked if I was doing something different then he was. I said, "Yeah, not casting into the trees for one, and I think I'm stripping the fly faster then you too."
He stripped like a mad man the rest the day. At the end of the day he told me I had landed 32 fish and he only landed 6. You kicked my arss. I was like, "Oh come on you'd caught more if you'd learn to cast." Bruce said, "I don't know what was wrong with me today."
"It's only fishing Bruce, don't worry about it."

For three years I never told him what I'd used on my flies. Every now & then I'd tease him, reminding him about the day I out fished him in Brazil. Until one day trout fishing w/him, I confessed that I'd used the stink bait.
He was furious, saying, "I knew it, I knew you'd have to cheat to catch more fish then me. I knew it."

"Oh what ever buddy. Not even the Berkley stink bait could have helped you catch a monkey!"

Image

Image
-Dell
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Ted, did you actually muddle through three whole pages of our drivel?. There's jobs out there, man...don't give up. :mrgreen:

Another great story, Del. (I'll put one up soon.)

Musky...ya still there? Bill? Lloyd? Pete? Hello...? :lol:

Tim
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

Tim Borski wrote:Ted, did you actually muddle through three whole pages of our drivel?. There's jobs out there, man...don't give up. :mrgreen:

Another great story, Del. (I'll put one up soon.)

Musky...ya still there? Bill? Lloyd? Pete? Hello...? :lol:

Tim

yea, i'm still here. i think i've used up most of my good stories, and with focus being herps as of late, i'm not accumulating any more. here's one. i'm starting to have to dig deep for them now.

i spent six years in the twin cities of minnesota, and during that time, i met kevin. he became a great friend. he was there during a "not-so-good" time for me, and he will always be one of my best friends. too bad i don't get a chance to see him very often.

we ended up on a fishing league that his dad was part of. it was roughly six teams of two. just a bunch of guys getting out every monday evening. the area is dotted with lakes, and we fished a different one every time. it was fun.

i, as you may have noticed, like muskies. kevin would always give me crap for focusing on "stupid fish". i'll admit, we could get more points on bass/pike, but if i get one big one, we jump quickly in the points race. kevin's motivating force was to beat his dad, so i understand why he didn't like me going for 'skis. along with our league entry fee, each person put ten bucks in a pool each night. a species would be chosen randomly, and the biggest caught that night would take the cash. if none were caught, the money would carry over.

this night, muskie was the money fish, and the cash had carried over for two outings. $360 was on the line. we were fishing bald eagle lake in the northeast metro. great lake to fish. nothing was biting all night. few boats had any fish, and the ones that did, only had a few points to speak of. we were fishing an eight foot cabbage-filled hole surrounded by shallow rushes. it was getting late, and it was close to the landing. more league boats, including dad, showed up as well. nobody was doing well, so tension was high. it amazes me how valuable bragging rights can be. i was throwing a firetiger mepps muskie killer over the weed tops. i got a hit. it was more of a tap, so i thought that it was only a small pike. i set the hook and started reeling. i got about three cranks in when the fish turned. i love feeling the weight of a big fish, especially the head shake at hookset. game on. i told kevin it was a good fish, and he got the net ready. our audience converged on us to watch as well. the fish made a couple runs at boatside before attempting the net. beautiful fish. great lakes spotted strain. bright red fins. silver background with spots all over. different from the normal greenish barred variety. this particular one was in the high forties neighborhood. i'm speaking in inches, not pounds. unfortunately, our net was not really qualified for this fish. close, but bigger would have been better. as the head went in to the net, i turned to put the rod down in order to get back to making sure the fish got in all the way. as i turned back, kevin was lifting the fish into the boat. NOOOOOOOOO, was all i could think. the fish, which was not entirely in the net, straightened out in mid air. the hook popped, and the fish dropped. it bounced the WRONG way off the edge of the boat. dazed, the fish just sat there staring at us before slowly swimming away. i sat down, cracked a beer and lit a smoke. kevin felt really bad. this was my first big fish lost in such a way. i knew it would happen sooner or later, but the fact that $360 and good bragging rights were lost as well, was a double twist of the knife. our audience was silent. nothing was said. they knew that words at that moment would have been the wrong thing. we all motored to the landing for the night.

kevin had never netted a big fish before, so to all of you who may not know. get the fish in the net, and leave it in the water.

on a brighter note, the big fish pot carried over to the following week, and we took home $480 with the biggest pike.

-ben
User avatar
Joseph S.
Posts: 540
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 5:21 pm

Re: crazy times

Post by Joseph S. »

muskiemagnet wrote:i have to tell you this one before i forget about it. actually, it sort of has to do with fishing, but is more herp related than anything.

i have to give the credit for this idea to chad huss. he always came up with goofy ideas. another from him was the minnow bucket scam. i'll tell you guys that one some other time though.

near us was a large field with a few apple trees in the middle. this was our destination for the day. chad kept his plan a secret, so we just grabbed our rods and followed. we spent half an hour riding through the neighborhood until we found our target. apparently chad needed small flags, which we stole from someones yard who had recently had his/her underground lines marked.

we finally got to the field. we set up "camp" under the trees and wondered what the heck we were doing. chad grabbed a flag and tied a slip-knot on the end of his line. he then pulled his line out and laid it on the ground and marked it with a flag. huh??? "gopher fishin'" was his reply. we spent the rest of the day reeling in gophers. it was a blast. all you have to do is pull 'em in when their heads poke up. we released most, but some were kept to feed our snakes.

what can i say, we were goofy kids. there was even talk about trying to find a badger hole. believe me, one of us would have tried if we knew where to find a badger.
Ok-this needs to be explained in further detail. What are the gophers taking?

Funny to see warbler fishing. A friend of mine used to go "bat fishing". A small fishing lure on a few feet of line whirled round like a bullroar would bring in bats.
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

if i understand the question correctly, you are asking what we were baiting them with? the answer is nothing. just a slip-knot over the hole. mark the holes with flags, and when the head pops up, pull.
AlanER
Posts: 96
Joined: August 16th, 2010, 9:53 am

Re: crazy times

Post by AlanER »

I am enjoying this post very much. Great stories everyone! :beer:
Now, I am a terrible fisherman. I couldn't catch a dead fish on land with my own hands. I never really learned how to fish, being that my younger life was more concentrated on herps and school. That and my father has a terrible fear of animals in general. Could never go places to fish because my father would cry at the bugs and lizards. Lol, how did I turn out. Anyways...
I do have a few fishing stories though from recently. The first is about a bet gone wrong. My friend Ashley loves to fish. Her father is an avid fisherman and she would join him all the time. I decided, out of manly stupidity, to make a deal with her. I bet her that I would catch the first fish. If I won, she would have to give up being a vegetarian for a week and eat some meat. If she caught a fish first, I would go completely Vegan for a week. We went out camping with a few other buddies, and the fishing time was set. We would start 5am the next morning. I was up right at 5am, and by 5:10 I had a lure in the water. Boy were the fish biting too! But I couldn't get a single hook for my life! Like I said before, I can't fish. Well, Ashley eventually walks up beside me a casts out her lure. She is also about an hour and a half late. Luck was on my side though, as she couldn't even get a bite! We sat there for hours, me getting bites and failing to get them in and getting the occasional bite and the fish always letting go. By 11am, we had no fish.
As our patience runs thin, our other camping buddy Tyler walks up with his reel. He looks at us and cracks some jokes. I tell him that if he can catch a fish in the next ten minutes, then both Ashley and I lose. He nods with a smile a gives his rod one cast. Bingo! He gets a bass on his first cast. All he did was let it land and a bass took it. Worst mistake I ever made. For one whole week I went without bacon. I am surprised I am alive to tell the story.
User avatar
Joseph S.
Posts: 540
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 5:21 pm

Re: crazy times

Post by Joseph S. »

ah-that makes sense MM. Were the slip knots placed over individual holes?(guessing they were rather small to allow you to react in time).

Alan: fishing is weird like that. How differently were people rigged up? Dunno about the fish you are after-but from my experience the test of the line used can make a pretty big different(lighter line=more fish).
AlanER
Posts: 96
Joined: August 16th, 2010, 9:53 am

Re: crazy times

Post by AlanER »

We were all using the exact same bait. What was different was our hooks. My hook was smaller than the rest. It was also a worm hook... that was most likely my downfall. I will admit to not being an avid fisher, I just enjoy sitting around and enjoying the water. Fish are just a bonus, though one day I plan to get better.
AlanER
Posts: 96
Joined: August 16th, 2010, 9:53 am

Re: crazy times

Post by AlanER »

Oh, and I had success today! I read up a bit and decided to fish smart. Caught a grunt and a large mouth bass. The bass was about 3 pounds! I will get better at this.
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

Joseph S. wrote:ah-that makes sense MM. Were the slip knots placed over individual holes?(guessing they were rather small to allow you to react in time).

Alan: fishing is weird like that. How differently were people rigged up? Dunno about the fish you are after-but from my experience the test of the line used can make a pretty big different(lighter line=more fish).

yes, individual holes. we marked them with flags. they poke their heads out and look around for a bit. that's when you get em.
Lloyd Heilbrunn
Posts: 285
Joined: June 9th, 2010, 8:15 pm
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Fl

Re: crazy times

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn »

AlanER wrote:. Caught a grunt and a large mouth bass.

That is a bizarre pairing.....
User avatar
pete
Posts: 745
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:11 pm
Location: cape cod ma.

Re: crazy times

Post by pete »

not sure where he is but a "grunt" could be a freshwater drum.
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: crazy times

Post by BillMcGighan »

Good stuff everyone...

Don't know where you are Alan, but for a mix of fresh and salt water -

Crystal river, FL, and several of the fresh water spring runs in that region, you can catch a LM Bass on one cast, and a Red or Jack on the next; same lure or bait!
AlanER
Posts: 96
Joined: August 16th, 2010, 9:53 am

Re: crazy times

Post by AlanER »

Not sure if Grunt is the actual name. It is a local name used by the folks around here. I live in Highlands County, Florida. No salt water this far inland.
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

It's about time we get this thread going again.

Bill McGighan wrote:
Dell,I wouldn't ask you to do this now, but if you ever give up your summer guiding service, I just know you have got to have some great "Dumbass Client" stories.
Yeah, I've got plenty, here are a few questions that I hope to never hear asked again. And a few client stories too.

Which way is the river going?

How deep is the river?

I've heard this question enough. How do we get back to the vehicle?
After driving to the put in from the lodge, and dropping the boat in the river and the clients getting in the boat about 30% of my clients ask me this question. Innocent enough, but sometimes I tell them that the river goes in a circle, and that we'll end up back at the put in where the truck is. Most people laugh, but you'd be surprised how many people believe that answer.

And just so you all know, there is a shuttle service that I have to pay that will shuttle my vehicle down to the take out.

Just this fall I took a couple of nice guys that asked this question the first day, and I told them about the shuttle service. "Oh okay", but then the next day I fished w/ them again, and they asked me AGAIN how we get back to the vehicle. I said something like. "Didn't we go over this yesterday? I know we did, how do YOU think we get back to the truck? Clients: Uh, you row us back to the truck? Me: "NO! There is a shuttle service that moves my truck 10 miles down to the take out, which is where we are going in the boat, same as yesterday."

I've heard this a couple of times while fishing. Is that a bear?
No, that is a cow.

Heard this a couple of times too.
Do you know where we can get a prostitute?
WTF? I'm a fishing guide not a pimp.

Should I bring my raincoat?
Always.

This is one of my favorite questions?
Hey, I'm not getting cell service, don't we get cell service here?
Nope.
That is usually followed by this: But I had a conference call I had to take.
Then I get to say: I think you're going to miss that call today.

And Bill I could bore you to death with client stories, most people are great, something like 93%, 95%. But oh, that 3% & 5%. Priceless!

-Dell
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

Posted April 7th 2011.
Tim Borski wrote:Another great story, Del. (I'll put one up soon.)
I think we lost Tim. ;)
-Dell
Lloyd Heilbrunn
Posts: 285
Joined: June 9th, 2010, 8:15 pm
Location: Palm Beach Gardens, Fl

Re: crazy times

Post by Lloyd Heilbrunn »

Dell Despain wrote:Heard this a couple of times too.
Do you know where we can get a prostitute?
WTF? I'm a fishing guide not a pimp.

Should I bring my raincoat?
Always.

-Dell
I think these questions are connected.... :shock:
User avatar
Dell Despain
Posts: 542
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 8:08 pm
Location: Montana

Re: crazy times

Post by Dell Despain »

Lloyd Heilbrunn wrote:I think these questions are connected....
Clearly a little Freudian slip.
:lol:

-Dell
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

I think we lost Tim.
-Dell
Hey, don't write me off, I'm here; sometimes life gets in the way! :lol:
I'll try to put one up soon.

Tim
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: crazy times

Post by BillMcGighan »

Ok, I haven't looked here in months, and you guys resurrected this great post!! Thanks.

Dell -
the river goes in a circle, and that we'll end up back at the put in where the truck is.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

LLoyd -
I think these questions are connected....
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Ok, those are funny.
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Hey guys, this series needs to be dusted off and brought back.

First a little insight:

Several years ago, my in-laws purchased a home in a gated community west of Fort Lauderdale FL. The homes there are all built around a series of dredged, interconnected lakes that are roughly 30’ deep with banks dropping into the abyss around five feet from shore. The grounds and lawns surrounding them are manicured.
Being a fisherman, I saw potential here and began a rather lengthy series of recons. I found lots of Peacock bass to around 6lbs and even caught a solid 9 one Easter Sunday…a good story in itself, but it’ll have to wait for another time.
There was also a fair population of Largemouth bass and when I moved from WI to FL many years ago I’d got it in my head that I needed to hold a 10 pounder. I came close once with one nudging nine but other than that lone anomaly, I couldn’t seem to find one much over 6. In any event, I was walking the perimeter of the opposite shore one winter afternoon and a guy from the house directly up the lawn asked me if I’d caught anything. I told him I hadn't and he said “there were some jumbos in there.” So I inquired, “how jumbo is jumbo?” He immediately blurts out that he’s caught 3 over 10lbs. I guess he sensed my skepticism and asked if I’d like to see them. I of course said yes, and up the lawn we trudged to his house. Once inside he shows me a 10-10 mounted on a piece of driftwood on the mantle of his fireplace. In the next room he’s got an 11-2, also on driftwood. It is positioned in the center of a big hardwood table in the middle of the room and is very impressive. Directly behind it on the wall is “the runt,” at a measly 10-2. I ask for the details behind the catches and he says that all three were caught from shore while standing on his bank. Two were on spinner baits and one was on a buzz bait. Of more importance than what lures he used was the simple fact there were fish that size available in the system.

The next time I visited, I brought a plug rod loaded with 30lb braid, a handful of 3 bladed buzz baits and a jar of black, 7 ½” Uncle Josh pork eels to leave in the garage for future use.

Fast forward to one pleasant and typical March night...I’m up there visiting for one reason or another and as usual put the kids in bed, hang out with the in laws until around 10:00 PM, grab the gear from the garage and walk down to the lake. The program is always the same: Long cast quartering out into the lake, blub, blub, blub the buzz bait/pork eel back to shore, 3 steps down the bank, repeat. Over time I've found this to be relaxing, straight forward stuff and I get a real kick out of watching that big, ugly noise maker come back to me in the ambient glow of Fort Lauderdale. The bait itself is roughly ten and a half inches long and resembles a baby gator swimming to the bank. :mrgreen: I’ve found this approach to be mostly unproductive and average only around one fish every three visits, but I'm after a 10 and am really only interested in getting the "right" bite.
In any event, the night is typical in all respects; slow. Cast, blub, blub…, three steps forward, cast…until I’m about ¾ of my way around the lake. At a little past midnight, I’m watching the bait come in for about the 200th time and like every cast, as it gets to the bank I swing it to the right, parallel to shore and prepare to lift it out of the water for recast as I move forward. This time tho, right at the bank, and just before the lift, there is a very small disturbance and a barely audible "sipping" sound. Before my brain has a chance to process this info, it gets noisy at my feet with the big, fat head of “something” thrashing out of the water. Holy crap, it’s a bass...and a good one! The strike (literally one foot from the bank) and forward momentum, coupled with my hook set put the fish right on the lawn next to me. In one fluid motion I slide it away from the water until it is flopping around on the freshly cut grass five or six feet from shore. I fall on top to contain and quickly look it over. The whole "fight" takes considerably less than 3 seconds and the fish is freaking big! I’m not sure if it’s 10lbs but feel it’s got a shot…certainly as close as I’ve come so far.

That's when shit gets weird as I hear something immediately behind me and a guy appears from seemingly nowhere and says: “Mang, that’s a beeg feesh!!” Initially, his sudden presence, so late at night, startled the crap out of me but I quickly recover and see he’s no threat. I assume he’s been monitoring from a window in one of the houses directly behind me to make sure I wasn’t up to no good. I ask him if he could take my picture and quickly dig out my camera while the bass lies still. I unhook the fish and lift it. Click. I thank him and am about to release it when he says, “I’ve got a scale, wanna weigh it?” Heck ya!! So I grab the fish by the jaw and hold in the water as he runs off into the dark. He returns within a minute with his “scale.” I don’t know if anyone remembers these, but back when I was a kid, my Dad (and most other grown ups) carried a small black scale in their tackle boxes. They were called “Deliars” and were typically all rusted and basically useless way back then...they are no better today.

My new friend hooks the bass by the lower jaw and lifts it…his arms are shaking under its weight as he hisses through clenched teeth: “two…and…one quarter…pounds.” I say, “C’mon man, it’s bigger than that!!” He looks at me and says: “Scales don’t lie.” With that, he turns and walks away into the night.

So there ya have it, the story behind the biggest 2 ¼ lb bass I’ve ever caught.


Here's the pic he took of me with it that night.



Image

Tim
User avatar
monklet
Posts: 2648
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 4:44 pm
Location: Ventura, CA
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by monklet »

Awesome story Tim, even if I have read it before :) :thumb:
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by hellihooks »

My younger Brother, Russell Bass and his to be bride, flew out to S Ca. to get married, so my family (parents/brothers,ect) could attend. They spent their Honeymoon in Big Bear (lake) in the San Bernardino Mts. While fishing from a boat, his wife botched a cast, and put a treble-hooked lure through Russell's lower lip. Barb went all the way through, and they had nothing to cut the hook with... so ended up going to a local Hsp ER.

the doctors were like "Let me get this straight...Your name is Russell Bass, and you need this hook removed from your lip." :lol: :lol: :lol:
Other doctors were coming from other floors, to personally see it, and laugh their asses off... took like 40 min before one of them could stop laughing long enough to remove the hook... :crazyeyes: :lol: :lol:

Even I couldn't make up something THAT funny... :lol: :lol: jim
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

monklet wrote:Awesome story Tim, even if I have read it before :) :thumb:

I've posted this before?
I could use that face slapping emoticon right about now...
:oops:
Tim
User avatar
Joseph S.
Posts: 540
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 5:21 pm

Re: crazy times

Post by Joseph S. »

How about non-fish animals making the day more interesting?

I was dropped off by a few friends/coworkers to fish and frog a pond on Catalina Island, not far from Avalon. The plan was to fish and frog for several hours until sundown, then catch them on the way back into town, and prep up a gunny sack or two of bullfrogs for dinner for the next day or so. And that is exactly what happened. But there is some material for a mildy amusing story.


Since it was late summer, it was really hot and dry, which means that animals of all sorts are pining for water. On Catalina, that happens to be the introduced bison. Maybe 10 or so were in the general vicinity of the water. They are usually no big deal, but being powerful fast moving creatures they are not to be trusted. So I gave them wide berth and picked my way down to the water in hopes of stocking up on frogs. The place was as always crawling with bullfrogs, and I was stalking along the waters edge, casting a worn out senko past them, and then twitching it back along the bank. I had caught and bagged several frogs at this point when I focused on a nice sized one and made my way towards it and started casting away. I hear some footsteps and a snort. Expecting maybe a hiker, I turn and see a bison walking over the hill. I expected it to keep walking along, so kept on casting and missing the frog. I looked up again and it was now unnerving close and giving me the look. It stopped about 8 feet up the hill from me, and stared me down. I only looked over a few times but that was just to confirm that I could feel the bison's eyes right on me. I muttered of a few mean things about Zane Gray and considered my options as I pretended to ignore Mr. Bison and kept casting to the frog. I suppose I could ditch into the water if it charged right? That would be really embarrassing....so I was glad no one was watching. Just then I heard the voices of two fellows float across the pond. "Hmm looks like that feller's got himself in a bit of a pickle eh?" So I'm stuck crouching with muddy water on one side of me and curious bison on the other, with a fishing rod, a bag of frogs, and an amused audience.

But, perhaps luckily, the story does not get any more interesting that this, because after what seemed like a long time but was probably a few minutes the bison walked past and then turned and went back up the hill. The rest of the night went by as normal, a nice bag of frogs, a few bass caught and released, and a cool spectacle of a bass eating a bat as it came down for water. So overall, not a bad evening out!



Image
VICtort
Posts: 691
Joined: July 2nd, 2010, 6:48 pm
Location: AZ.

Re: crazy times

Post by VICtort »

Frogs on catalina, who knew? It would be interesting to know who brought them out there, maybe the same folks (wrigley?) that brought the bison. I am real glad to hear the bison was its usual indolent self, I am sure they could really tune you up if in the mood...Vic

I wish someone who has spent time on Catalina would post a photo(s) of the rattlesnakes there, and I have heard rumors they may be distinct and reclassified, no long C. helleri... Joseph, do you have any such photos?
hellihooks
Posts: 8025
Joined: June 8th, 2010, 8:12 am
Location: Hesperia, California.
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by hellihooks »

This guy DID NOT want me checking out his pond for WPT's... but I did... :crazyeyes:
Image
I don't take bull$#!* from nobody... :lol: :lol: :lol:
VICtort
Posts: 691
Joined: July 2nd, 2010, 6:48 pm
Location: AZ.

Re: crazy times

Post by VICtort »

Skin Fishing-It was back in '88, and one of the first spearfishing trips to the famed remote Mexican Islands known as the Revillagigedos, known to big tuna anglers, off Mexicos' west coast, about the same latitude as Colima and Hawaii. I was accompanied by some world traveled and highly skilled spear fishermen. One of them, a renowned surgeon and record holding spearman had turned to speak to me as he rinsed his hands off in the sea off the water level swim step at the aft end of the 60' yacht. He had just shot a large wahoo, the guts of which were in a bucket nearby, to be tossed into the sea when we pulled anchor to depart San Benedicto.

Suddenly Terry lets out a yell, and some explatives, something about being bitten, and holds up and inspects his bleeding/bitten fingers to prove the point (surgeons are fussy about their fingers...) and he then points his bleeding fingers at the foaming mass of fish just a couple feet away. Another guy aboard, whom is a real character and quick to seize an opportunity grabs a 20" strip of wahoo skin from the bucket, and offers it to the excited fish. One immediately gulps down about 8" of the 20" piece, and John artfully swings the ravenous 3 lb. fish into the boat, and we spontaneously start laughing and hooting and hollering and acting like excited boys. This causes the other guys to empty the galley, toss their cocktails and fight with me over the remaining wahoo skin in the bucket. In a frenzy, we pulled 3-5lb. green jacks (know to the Mexicans as "choppas") aboard as quiickly as they could swallow the tough and leathery wahoo skin, and they were flippin' and flappin' around on the teak deck until they flipped back into the sea from whence they came. After about a dozen or more, in a few frenzied minutes, the novelty wore off and we resumed our previous pursuits.

Despite the world class fishing and diving for wahoo and tuna, whale sharks and mantas, a luxury yacht and attentive and charming crew, it was not uncommon during the entire 10 day cruise to see one or more of us "skin fishing" whenever someone was cleaning a speared fish and the jacks were boiling off the stern. It shoud be noted these waters were near pristine, the fish abundant and "naiive", with the exception of wahoo and tuna and perhaps sharks, rarely if ever exploited. I happened to be diving under the vessel when someone flushed the head. I watched as the effluent/t.p. come out, and it was consumed by fish within seconds. Any organic matter tossed from the vessel was consumed, and it was fun to watch a floating orange peel get pushed around and travel on the waters surface by the trigger fish, until is was no more, and no one would have known the peel had existed. I had earlier proved with rod and reel the fish would hit any lure or shiny hook offered, and it quickly lost its appeal... too easy.

One can only wonder what other unharvested fish populations may have been like, when the limiting factor on them may have been competition with other fish for the available food (lures!). I truly appreciate the sophisticated approach sometimes required or chosen, and rewarding events to follow when a shy and wary fish is caught, but I also get a big kick out of skin fishing and other more "primal" methods. Crazy times that just evolved, unplanned and spontaneous. One of my archaeology/anthropology trained friends was very excited about our "discovery" of this fishing method...probably formerly common says I. I knew it was an uncommon event, and is now a fond memory. Vic
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

"silence of the north" -olive fredrickson

olive settled the yukon territory in the early 1900's. she talks about catching "jack fish"(northern pike). sure sounded like they were easy to catch. i bet they were big too.

-ben
User avatar
BillMcGighan
Posts: 2362
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 9:23 am
Location: Unicoi, TN

Re: crazy times

Post by BillMcGighan »

Glad to see this thread rejuvenated.
Great stories.



Vic
One can only wonder what other unharvested fish populations may have been like, when the limiting factor on them may have been competition with other fish for the available food (lures!).
Ben
she talks about catching "jack fish"(northern pike). sure sounded like they were easy to catch.

A sweet and sour aspect of fishing “then and now” is that several places we’ve lived in this country, there have been memorable bodies of water that had populations of game fish that were very possibly at the levels of pre-European invasion.

South River Virginia – north of Waynesboro
The sweet part = to be able to stand thigh deep in a cool river on a summer’s day, just keep turning in a circle, and catching Small Mouth Bass on top water in every direction. You can only imagine this is what it was like pre-colonial.
The sour = According to Virginia Department of Health, Office of Epidemiology, Division of Public Health Toxicology, warns not to eat any bass, downstream (north) of a DuPont plant near Waynesboro, Va.


North Fork of the Holston River – NE TN/ SW VA
The sweet part = Like the South River, catching small mouth on top water in every direction.
The sour = Advisories against eating bass

The Stick Marsh/ Farm13, FL.
The sweet part = A place where you can still regularly catch Large Mouth that average 3 -5 lb and seriously increase your probability of hooking a 10 lb+ fish.
The sour = Advisories against eating any bass;

Loop Road in the Everglades, FL.
The sweet part = Break out your ultralight, stand in one spot and catch dozens of pan fish, bass, and some interesting non-natives.
The sour = Biologists I met on the road told me that most fish here test many times over the danger limit for mercury.

So the good news is, maybe the future will hold many more super fishing areas approaching the levels of pre-colonial.
Bad news, we’re having to S#%t in our own nest to get there!
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

i agree bill, it is pretty unfortunate. we have plenty of advisories here in wisconsin as well. the fox river(where i grew up) is being dredged as a superfund site right now. as far as fish to eat- i suggest sticking with panfish, and others at the bottom of the food chain. i do not recommend eating anything that feeds off the bottom, or is large enough to eat larger fish(pike/muskies/large walleye).

i have to give kudos to many fishermen. there is a majority of fishermen who practice sustainable harvest. whenever i talk to walleye fishermen, many say that they throw back larger fish, and keep smaller ones. pike/muskie fishermen typically practice catch and release.

the history of muskie fishing is a prime example of what a major catch and release mentality can do for the resource. after WWII, technology aided in a massive "slaughter" of muskies. motor boats and better tackle allowed many to get to where the big ones were. unfortunately, all fish were kept and hung on a pole for bragging rights. don't get me wrong, most were eaten, which is ok by me. by the time the 50's ended, large muskies were very difficult to find, if they existed at all. this goes back to how easy they may have been to catch. i remember talking to a friend many many years ago about muskies. he had a 41 inch fish on the wall. i remember thinking that this was a small one(which it is by today's standard). i didn't understand this evolution at the time, so i judged it as a small fish. truth is that he caught it in the early 80's. 41 inches was a huge fish at that time. today, 50-55 inch fish are not that uncommon. there is a lake i fish that is full of fish in the high 40's. five more years, and these will be very big fish. in fact, the fox river(as mentioned before) flows into greem bay, and is slated as one of the top ten waters in the country to put out a future world record. it will happen some day. 69lbs. is the current.

i've noticed that many here talk about fish in pounds. talking inches may confuse some as to the true size of these fish as far as weight goes. if you are a muskie fisherman, you understand. it's all talked about in inches.

here's an example. this one was 48 inches, and a guesstimated weight at 30 pounds. double that weight and you're ten pounds shy of the world record weight. i believe this world record fish was right around the 60 inch mark. add 40 pounds and only twelve inches. these buggers get huge in the fall. this particular fish wasn't even that fat for it's size. this one was released. actually it had to be. the regs for this stretch of river is a 50 inch minimum for harvest.

Image

this one was 61 pounds and only 53.5 inches(georgion bay)

Image

these bruisers are just getting started. nothing more fun than being on the water in a blizzard at the end of november. be prepared to break ice to get on the water. YEE HAA!

i agree, this is a thread that will live on. it's good to see it come up again. i'll have to go back and read my posts. maybe i can come up some stories i haven't thought of.

-ben
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

ok, i went through to see what i haven't talked about. it's funny that fundad thought that this may be one of the best threads. i agree, and this is not because i started it.

any one ever seen a one-armed fly fisherman? not sure how that would work, but some crazy-looking lady flagged us from a bridge on the upper end of the pike river and asked us if we had seen a one-armed fly fisherman. huh? northern wisconsin is awesome.

-ben
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Ben, that's a great pic of you with the Musky! I saw that 61 a couple years back in Musky Hunter.
A friend of mine in MN has (quietly) caught and released three 50+ lbers! :shock:

These may just be "the good old days."

Tim

edit to include: In fact, these probably ARE "the good old days."
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Ben, here's another that revolves around Muskies. (I almost put it in "strangest catch" but I like seeing this thread continue.)
I agree with Fundad.


One late October afternoon a zillion years ago, a friend and I were fishing Muskies on a lake called Big Arbor Vita in northern Wisconsin. It was cold, drizzling and windy as all hell, so we were “pinned” to the lee side of a long point for the duration; we could fish nowhere else safely. I bet it was blowing a solid 25mph and gusting to 35. Temps weren’t bad though… maybe mid 40’s at first but dropping as the afternoon progressed.
At one point, I looked up and a hundred or so yards out a small group of ducks was laboring upwind. When they got even with the point we were working, they suddenly changed direction, like maybe they’d “had enough” and came hurtling by us quartering down wind. I told my partner, Randy, “Hey, watch this” and winged the Eddy bait I was using as far as I could, up in the air in front of them (http://www.justmusky.com/products/eddie/eddie.htm). At a full eight inches long, 3-and-a-half ounces, and sporting 3 giant treble hooks…the large Eddy is a formidable projectile. Anyway, like I said, I heaved it as hard and far as I could on an intercept and the unthinkable happened… one of the ducks in the group began back pedaling. In seemingly slow motion, I watched as the huge chunk of wood and bird eventually collided!! :shock:


A puff of feathers exploded from the duck and it began tumbling downwind. The flock was traveling at a high rate of speed and boosted by a 25mph wind. I won’t even guess at how fast they were moving, but the bird sailed and sailed and sailed, finally splashing down a couple of long football fields away out in the cold, open rough stuff. My friend and I were absolutely flabbergasted as we watched the incident unfold and finally he asked, “Whaddya’ think we should do?” I replied, “We’ve got to go get it.”
Well, it took us a really long, wet, cold, 15 minutes to reach it because the wind/waves were blowing it further from us. (It was an even longer, colder, wetter event as we limped back to the point’s lee that we had been “pinned” to.)
When we reached it, I leaned over the gunnel, picked it up, looked it over and saw it was a Black duck! I’d never seen one before and was going on and on. “OMG, it’s a Black, look how cool, Never seen one before, It’s huge, Blah, blah, blah…” Randy finally said “Throw the f*cking thing in the f*cking well, it’s dangerous out here!!” I did, and that was that. For awhile.

The afternoon moved on, the wind continued to howl, it began snowing, fishing was slow and the duck was forgotten.

When we finally called it a day, Randy was backing the truck down the ramp as I prepared to ride the boat up the trailer. My thoughts were more on a hot bowl of chili and a pitcher of cold beer at a local tavern than anything else when a muddy, flat-green DNR truck drove into the parking lot. A young (but older than us) warden stepped out and walked down to the dock.

He said “Howdy, how’d ya do?”
Me: “Nothing; ‘couple of follows.”
DNR: “Mind if I take a look?”
Me: “Go ahead.”

He began rummaging through our vessel and when he got to the back hatch, he lifted it and saw the duck. (I’d completely forgotten about it.) He recoiled like he’d touch an electric fence and immediately asked, “Where’s the firearms?” I told him we didn’t have any and then proceeded to explain the whole story you’ve just read. He wasn’t buying any of it and probably felt he had his first “big collar” of his young career. (Water fowl falls under Federal jurisdiction.) He looked and looked through the boat and came up empty… beside the obvious Black duck.

He told us, “Don’t move,” and then grabbed the bird and walked back up to his truck. I could see he was on the radio and assumed he was talking to a superior regarding how to proceed. I was correct.

Meanwhile, we were out in the wet snow getting colder by the minute. Randy was ripping pissed at me and my “stupid duck.” Almost an hour passed before another dirty, flat-green truck swung into the parking lot and the first warden went to chat with the driver. Eventually an older gentleman stepped from the vehicle and walked past Randy, straight to me. He said:

Old guy: “So, I hear you’ve got a story for me…”
Me: “Yes.” (And then I went through the whole story again.)

So, the senior guy asks” “Do you have a fishing license?”
Me: “Yes.”
DNR: “Let’s see it.”

I show him and he asks if I’ve “got a small game license.”
I say “yes” and produce. Then he asks if I “have a State Duck stamp.” I DID, because I’m a duck hunter and had done some teal hunting during the “early season.”

He then asks if I have a Federal duck stamp and YES! I’ve got that too!!

This all took place during one of the last years of the “point system” for waterfowl. The point system worked on the basis that you were allowed 100 points and 1 duck (but only if you shot a bird that was LESS than 100, FIRST.) For example: A mallard drake was 75, but a mallard hen was 100. If you shot a drake first, you were allowed another bird, but NOT vise verse. (Black ducks were a hundred points.)

He then asked, “Do you have any other birds?”
Me: “No.”
Him: “Why not?”
Me: “Um...it’s a 100 point bird.” :lol:

He chuckled and then ripped some feathers off the breast of my duck. We then, both plainly saw the bruise from the collision with my Eddy bait.

He handed my bird to me and said, “Thanks for a story I’ll tell for a long time…”
I hope he did. And now I’ve told it for perhaps the last time.

Tim
VICtort
Posts: 691
Joined: July 2nd, 2010, 6:48 pm
Location: AZ.

Re: crazy times

Post by VICtort »

Tim, that is so outrageous! It may actually be true...great story, really a fun one, incorporating the comraderie of buddies, the tensions that even good sportsmen feel when a warden approaches and searches, the amazing serendipity of unplanned events while pursuing fish & game, a warden who technically had a violation (unlawful method of take) but enough experience and artful use of his discretion to make a reasonable call, etc. Great story, this one is hard to beat, and it made my day. For a while there I thought we were going to hear that old but funny joke about the warden determining where the ducks were from....

tight lines, Vic
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

that is so outrageous! It may actually be true...
Ha ha! Vic, believe it or not, that's how it all went down at a cold, snowy boat ramp in northern Wisconsin...so many years ago.
a warden who techinically had a violation (unlawful method of take)
In all the years since the event, I've never once thought about this angle. Not even once. Very interesting.

Tim

Btw, I did receive the story you sent re "serious business." Funny stuff. Sorry I didn't get back to you...I'm really bad at simple stuff like that. :oops:
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

yea, well it would have been "illegal method" or it would have been "wasting of game". in my opinion, you did the right thing by taking it. do you still cast at birds?

big arbor. got my first muskie out of little arbor. we caught a ton of northern water snakes in the drainage between the two lakes. man, that was a long time ago. 1986. the only downside to this sort of story-telling is that it forces one to remember your age.

-ben
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

Ben, I caught my first legal on Little Arb too. It was on a perch colored Bobby and came off the little "mid lake" hump in front of the tavern. :thumb:

No. I can't remember the last time I threw a lure towards a duck.

Tim
User avatar
muskiemagnet
Posts: 1253
Joined: June 11th, 2010, 8:43 am
Location: kaukauna, wi

Re: crazy times

Post by muskiemagnet »

you said legal. mine was only eighteen inches. it was awesome for a sixth grader though. funny you say perch. the week we were up there, small perch countdowns were the hot item for legals.

-ben
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

muskiemagnet wrote:you said legal. mine was only eighteen inches. it was awesome for a sixth grader though. funny you say perch. the week we were up there, small perch countdowns were the hot item for legals.

-ben
Ben, I had a handful of undersize fish before that first legal and the big, perch colored Bobby was one of my staples. At the time, I loved throwing large jerk baits and working them hard...'made me feel like I was really "up north" fishin' muskies. Yep, crazy times. :lol:

Tim
User avatar
gbin
Posts: 2292
Joined: June 10th, 2010, 4:28 pm

Re: crazy times

Post by gbin »

Tim Borski wrote:One late October afternoon a zillion years ago...
Awesome story, Tim, truly awesome. Best fishing/hunting story I've heard in a long, long time. And yes, I believe every bit of it; a story that good simply has to be true! :thumb:

Gerry
User avatar
Tim Borski
Posts: 1855
Joined: June 7th, 2010, 7:28 am
Location: FL Keys
Contact:

Re: crazy times

Post by Tim Borski »

For a while there I thought we were going to hear that old but funny joke about the warden determining where the ducks were from....
Vic, that "rings a bell" and I thought if I gave it a couple days, it'd just come to me...no such luck. Please refresh my memory.

Best fishing/hunting story I've heard in a long, long time.
Thanks Gerry, that's saying a lot when you take into consideration all the truly excellent and varied stories we've compiled on this post alone!!

Tim
Post Reply