everybody's got a story to tell. lord knows ive got some stories to tell about my adventures on the water. what about you???

did you land a lunker using a busted rod?

did you have to swim across the river to land a fish?

did you make three casts in a row, landing three fish in a row?

how about the day when you finaly outfished your mentor!!!

lets hear your amazing fishing stories! no tall tales!

That would be remembering “back in the day” fly fishing with my Dad at Gold lake when the evening bite would get so good that you cast toward a jump and get a bite. On occasion you would get lazy and your line would hit the water behind you and rather that thrash the water you would just turn around to take up slack only to find you had a fish on! You could even every now and then get a second fish on the dropper on the way to the boat. Man I wish is was still like that.

One of many many cool memories that lull me to sleep every night:

Anchored up on the Alijos bank on an 8 day long range trip out of San Diego. Had a killer yellowfin tuna bite all afternoon on fish to 90#. The bite slowly turned in to a VERY slow pick......a fish here, a fish there. I waited until 3rd call for dinner to go and eat. During dinner, I could see out the galley to the stern of the boat. Guys were lined up in the back, soaking sardines with no action. The deckhand on the bait tank was tossing one and two baits at a time to keep the fish 9interested. They certainly were not charging the corner like they were earlier in the day. The sun was setting and I could watch big fish rolling and boiling on the sardines that were getting taken by the current way back in the chum line. They would not come any closer, and the guys that were getting bit were on the long soak (letting the sardine swim WAAY back in the chum line).
These fish were way out of reach of the guys fly lining the live sardines off the stern. I left the galley, grabbed my 9' 690J jig rod with a Newell 332 reel and 30# line, tied on a Tady 45 surface iron and went to work. From the back row (behind the guys soaking the sardines) I loaded the rod and fired that jig WAAAAY out ther and landed right in the zone. 2 cranks later, it looked like someone dropped a washing machine on my jig.......FISH ON!! Line peeling off the reel, line throwing a rooster tail of water because it was cutting through the water so fast Brought that 50# class fish to gaff and over he came. I proceeded to do this 7 or 8 more times, going over and under all the guys standing at the rail. The bite eventually died completely after the sun went all the way down. I think I gave away a few jigs after that episode

OK.....some more that come to mind.......
Then there was the next morning.......chasing breezing schools of #70-#130 class bluefin tuna, fly lining 4# scad mackerel at them......but that is another story .

Then there was the time on the Morgan Bank where we found a kelp paddy absolutely loaded with Dorado. 235 Dodos on the boat in 2 hours........EPIC......got a pair of 50# bulls out of that bite too.....but that is another story .

Then there was the time we had a monster hammerhead eat 3 out of 4 troll caught yellowfin on their way in RIGHT AT THE BOAT. Stuff you just dont see every day.

Getting 20# skipjack on the troll looking for yellowfin.......and a 500# + Blue marlin decided he wanted to eat one of the skippies that was hooked up right at the boat.......a 50 yard water spraying tailwalk followed by the jet head minus the skippy flying back at the boat

Sea of Cortez during an epic night time giant squid bite, I had about a 35# squid on and just about to call for the gaff, when one about 3 times his size came up from the black depths, grabbed my squid, bit him in half, and swam back to the darkness
Man I love this stuff.......keep em coming

JEEEEZ John, how could anyone compete with that Great memories buddy.

Mine's not near as eventfull but one day i was fishing the middle Rogue for winter steelhead with a good
buddy of mine and he caught a skateboard. Really he did. He landed that baby too.
Of course being the true sportsman and conservationist that he is the skateboard was immediately
released unharmed to continue it's arduous journey to the skateboard spawning grounds helping to ensure
that we will have healthy skateboard runs for generations to come. Matter of fact he released that trophy
skateboard so fast i was'nt able to get a photo of it. Surley the speedy release was intended to not put
any additional stress on that beautiful winter run skateboard. Next time i'll be a little quicker with the camera.

Sorry John, could'nt resist.

Ksteel

REELTECH wrote:One of many many cool memories that lull me to sleep every night:

Anchored up on the Alijos bank on an 8 day long range trip out of San Diego. Had a killer yellowfin tuna bite all afternoon on fish to 90#. The bite slowly turned in to a VERY slow pick......a fish here, a fish there. I waited until 3rd call for dinner to go and eat. During dinner, I could see out the galley to the stern of the boat. Guys were lined up in the back, soaking sardines with no action. The deckhand on the bait tank was tossing one and two baits at a time to keep the fish 9interested. They certainly were not charging the corner like they were earlier in the day. The sun was setting and I could watch big fish rolling and boiling on the sardines that were getting taken by the current way back in the chum line. They would not come any closer, and the guys that were getting bit were on the long soak (letting the sardine swim WAAY back in the chum line).
These fish were way out of reach of the guys fly lining the live sardines off the stern. I left the galley, grabbed my 9' 690J jig rod with a Newell 332 reel and 30# line, tied on a Tady 45 surface iron and went to work. From the back row (behind the guys soaking the sardines) I loaded the rod and fired that jig WAAAAY out ther and landed right in the zone. 2 cranks later, it looked like someone dropped a washing machine on my jig.......FISH ON!! Line peeling off the reel, line throwing a rooster tail of water because it was cutting through the water so fast Brought that 50# class fish to gaff and over he came. I proceeded to do this 7 or 8 more times, going over and under all the guys standing at the rail. The bite eventually died completely after the sun went all the way down. I think I gave away a few jigs after that episode

OK.....some more that come to mind.......
Then there was the next morning.......chasing breezing schools of #70-#130 class bluefin tuna, fly lining 4# scad mackerel at them......but that is another story .

Then there was the time on the Morgan Bank where we found a kelp paddy absolutely loaded with Dorado. 235 Dodos on the boat in 2 hours........EPIC......got a pair of 50# bulls out of that bite too.....but that is another story .

Then there was the time we had a monster hammerhead eat 3 out of 4 troll caught yellowfin on their way in RIGHT AT THE BOAT. Stuff you just dont see every day.

Getting 20# skipjack on the troll looking for yellowfin.......and a 500# + Blue marlin decided he wanted to eat one of the skippies that was hooked up right at the boat.......a 50 yard water spraying tailwalk followed by the jet head minus the skippy flying back at the boat

Sea of Cortez during an epic night time giant squid bite, I had about a 35# squid on and just about to call for the gaff, when one about 3 times his size came up from the black depths, grabbed my squid, bit him in half, and swam back to the darkness
Man I love this stuff.......keep em coming

great stories!!!

about four years ago i was fishing on the south fork skykomish, early october. the water was low and crystal clear. i was at what me and my buddies call the "blue shack hole". cant imagine why we call it that???!!! the run is about 50 feet long, 15 feet deep, with a killer tailout full of basketball sized rocks. the entire bottom of the run, other than the tailout is made up of a blue/greenish clay. i fished for about an hour with nothing, but finaly i was able to hook one (steelhead) way up in the riffles. right off the bat this fish ran straight to the deepest part of the hole and began shaking its head like ive never quite felt before...? something was weird about it, but i didnt know what. then the line went dead. there was still something holding the line down at the bottom, but the shaking had stopped. i could see the top of my bobber through the clear water, but i couldnt figure out what was going on. after a few minutes of tugging i gave up on the fish idea, because at this point it felt more like a classic snag. what the hell? so i tried to release it in classic snag releasing style. eventually it popped free, and i saw the bobber quickly rise to the surface. i could also see the jig tailing behind it. but it didnt look right. it looked like a rock!!! it was totaly covered in this blue clay, im talkin mashed!!! the marabou was nothing but a smeared, matted mess with this clay from the bottom!!! i was disappointed, but laughing. it was deffinately the "A" for effort on the part of the fish.

that same season me and my buddy were fishing that same stretch of river, but at a different spot. it was late summer and the steelhead werent biting. i was standing on a rock looking into the hole for signs of life when i saw a huge chinook, slowly swimming by us, in about 2 feet of water. without a care that we were so close. it acted like it was spawned out, but it was still fairly bright. we could see it 15 feet out away from us! so, i tossed a spinner at it a few times. well, this slow moving chinook slammed it big time!!! and proceeded to drag me down river on a quarter mile, 45 minute tour of the country side!!! i was running my 9ft, light loomis spinning rod, with 8 lb test. man oh man... i hate to say it, but after a while it started to get a little boring. i didnt want to intentionally break off, but he wasnt coming in either. but, i finally got him in, using the fast current as a means of pushing him towards the bank, all the while im pulling him with all ive got, trying not to snap off though. he came in and we got a killer photo!!! awesome day on the water!!!

Its very difficult to pick out one memory. I guess one that sticks out in my mind was late summer fishing for big browns back in PA. There was a stream about 5 miles from my house that had some good sized browns in it. Its a small stream, like 25cfs kinda small, so the fish would concentrate in what few deeper pockets there were, and the deeper pockets were 2ft. I would go around my parents property in August and catch 50 grasshopers or so, put them in my trusty coffee can, grab my 5'6" ultra lite spooled with 2lb test and off to the stream I'd go. I alway dressed in full camo, because these trout were super spooky. One summer I spotted a monster, well, for this stream it was a monster, but I could not get him to bite. I was determined to catch that fish, so I was back the next day and to my dismay he wasn't in the hole any more. I figured a coon had got him or maybe an osprey. So I fished up stream 50 yards or so and then I saw him. His big tail just barely sticking out of the water in the shallow tail end. It was game on. I studied the whole for about 10 min trying to figure out the best approach angle. I could not approach from down stream due to to much brush over the water. I decided a belly crawl from the side was the only option. So, I circled way around, once I got within 30 yards I began my crawl. I got with 15 feet of the water and decided that was as close as I was going to get without spooking him, and besides I could easily cast a big fat grasshopper that far with 2lb. I grabbed the fatest hopper I could find and put him on a #16 thin wire hook. What transpired next is what made it so memorable. I opened the bail and gently casted toward the water. oh no it not going to be a good cast, I'm screwed goes through my head, the grass hopper lands 2" from the bank in 1/2" of water, before I could even think about trying another cast, the big brown charges out of the tail end up stream 10ft, kinda like a shark going after a seal, right into the shallow water with most of its body out of the water and inhales the grasshopper. I set the hook and landed him without to much trouble. He was 19 1/2" big hook jaw, and bright red spots. What a fish. Maybe not a monster by alot of standards, but for that stream he was a true trophy, and he gave me a memory I'll never forget. I haven't fished that stream for years, but hope to be able to take my kids back there some day and show them how I used to do it.

thats awesome archer, sometimes the little ones end up being the big ones!!!

Heck that brown was bigger than most of the big browns we catch on the upper deschutes! Thats cool!

No brainer! Christmas day 1955. My folks, who could not afford it, bought me a Pfluger Supreme baitcasting reel for Christmas. Silver thaw on the Pilchuck River (a beautiful tributary to the Snohomish). I lived in Machias, 500 yrds from the river. Walked down and landed ( and kept for food for the family) 5 beautiful fresh run steelhead. The biggest was 24lb buck. (Weighed on the scale at the Pilchuck Tavern). Rod was a Wright McGill Steelie. All caught on a florescent orange yarn fly. Just a few hunks of yarn tied in an overhand knot though the egg loop, trimmed to the bend of the hook, and combed out. None of us kids could afford "fancy" stuff like corkies, wing bobbers, golftee spinners, etc. so when we found them on the bank or in snags that was also a great bonus. To this day I can remember making the perfect cast into the only slot at the Clay Bank Hole and feeling the pickup as the big buck picked up the yarn and it snared in his teeth. Wow!! That's a day I will probably never replicate but I'm floating the upper Siuslaw tomorrow and fishing all day with micro jigs. Will give a report. Tight lines, Mike

Mike, those micro jigs will produce for you especially now that the river has dropped into shape, good luck out there!

All great stories guys. Daniel........that would just about be the end of me to watch that. Thats COOL Buddy!!
Tyee, great story......isnt that funny how the things that we used to use that were so effective we just try to complicate as we get older???
Great stories Skyfisher.......awesome.
Barry.......you stole my thunder.......and my next story Too bad it seems we only get a run of only one skateboard a year up the Rogue!!!

in september 2003, i was having one of the worst fishing streaks ever. nothing for almost two months. maybe a little longer. but with my head up high, i headed out with my buddy shawn, up to our favourite spot on the skykomish. it was the same weekend as the puget sound regional coho derby. but for some reason we didnt enter...? we didnt really expect to win, given the thousands of fishermen who entered, and the weigh-in deadline was 5 pm. who stoppes fishing at 5 pm on a beautiful september saturday???!!! anyways, we fished all day. literally. all day. without a bite. as darkness set in, i decided to pull out my go to rig one last time. a silver on silver, #3 barbless spinner. i made a few casts and nothing. so, i made a joke to my buddy, who has a habit of plopping down a giant spoon right into the middle of the whole, "why dont you move down river about 100 feet so i can hook one". no kidding. i was sorta joking, but i actually said it. suprisingly he moved down river and i stayed where i was all along. three minutes later i set the hook into a beautiful 15-16 pound (give or take) silver salmon!!! i was running my 9 foot, light action loomis spinning set up with 8 lb test. the hook set was rock solid, common with spinners, and we fought for almost 20 minutes. i got it in, knocked it out, and headed for home. later that night, while in town, we were talking to a few guys about the derby. we told them that we skipped it to venture out on our own. they told us that the winning fish ended up being around 15 pounds or so. i said "oh yeah"? i pulled out the slab i had laying in the cooler and showed it to them. we all agreed that i could have taken first place... oh well, next time...