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Thread: The Haunting...

  1. #11
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    Good Reads Bronson & Skeet.... I hope others post about some fish that have haunted them. I think even the trophy's we catch even haunt us... beckoning us back on the water. I love to read your all's stories in the morning with my first cup of coffee and before sunrise, gets me pumped up to hit the water. Thanks Guys.
    BATES FIELD & STREAM PRO STAFF, MAYFLOWER AR
    CRAPPIEHOLIC APPERAL PRO STAFF
    If Your Big Crappie Star Bound, Let Me Warn You It's a Long Hard Ride. CP
    Likes wannabe fisherman LIKED above post

  2. #12
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    CrappiePappy is offline Super Moderator - 2013 Man Of The Year * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Default My story ...

    The only "fish" that has "haunted" me was a probable 3lb Crappie that I had on ... TWICE (in two days) ... and managed to sling it off the hook, both times/days.

    Fishing Lake Barkley back in the early 1970's, out of a 15' Bassmaster tri-hull style bass boat (raised decks), using a 10' long collapsible rod with 15lb test Cortland braid & 8lb test mono leader (hook/sinker/float rig) & a big fat minner. Fished around some buck bushes in one of the small coves up around the dam/canal area, and was catching some good fish. I was lifting & swinging in 2+lb fish with little problem. Then one morning I stuck one & as I was lifting it I realized it was a bit heavier than previous fish, and figured I could stand on my tiptoes and that would be enough to allow the fish to clear the gunnel ... rod was bent to it's max capacity and the fish was barely above the water's surface when I first started to swing it towards the boat.

    Well, it worked ... problem was, it worked too well ... the extra lift from me standing on my toes and holding the rod as high as my 8' reach would go, was just a wee bit too much, and the fish cleared the gunnel ... right across the boat & past the gunnel on the other side ... and right back into the lake. No sooner than it hit the water's surface, off it came.

    I continued fishing after about a 15min "break" to gather my wits, and caught some decent fish.

    The next day, I put a minner in that same exact opening in the buck bushes ... and the float never even had time to right itself before going under. I set the hook & as I started lifting the fish I got a serious case of deja vu when I realized that I wasn't lifting the fish past the surface with my rod in the air as far as I could reach. Most probably the same fish I thought to myself, and instantly formulated a better plan than what had happened the day before. I figured this time I would lift/swing the fish towards the middle of the boat, rather than straight back to me, and drop the rod the instance the fish cleared the gunnel ... "boating" the fish, literally.

    Well, as (my) luck would have it, the fish swung just a little farther away than I anticipated .... bounced off the flat top of my 50hp Chrysler outboard ... and went right back into the lake AGAIN.

    This is the 2+lb
    size fish I was hoisting into the boat with little problem: (14-16" fish)



    Closest I've ever been to catching a Crappie approaching the 3lb mark was when I caught this one out of Watts Bar Res. in E Tenn ... 30 some years later. This one was a egg laden female of around 17-18in.



    My roommate and fishing buddy from back in the early 70's caught a 3lb Black Crappie from those very same buck bushes ... a few years after I lost my fish TWICE from them. The only thing about that, that doesn't haunt me, is the fish I lost was a White Crappie

    .... cp
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  3. #13
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    My partner and I started fishing the Crappiethon USA tourneys back in the mid 80's. After 3yrs of trying to qualify for the classic we finally did back in 1988. We were long line trolling jigs in shallow water when my partner said he had a good one on. We were trolling 12 rigs and the wind was blowing I started to reeling in my rigs and then went to the back of the boat to help my partner net this huge female slab. As my partner got her close enough to net we noticed she had about 5 or 6 rigs tangled up. Just as we went to net her she broke off. We ended up placing 3rd place winning $500 but would have easily won the tourney and $2000 if we had of got this pig in the boat. Only 3/4ln separated us and 1st place. That has been over 20yrs ago and I still think about that time.

  4. #14
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    You know, I never really thought about it as haunting, but the one fish I'll always remember losing was a big white crappie in a small farm pond. It was the first warm day we had that Spring back in the early 70's, and I had just married and moved to this area. The local cop said that I could fish his pond any time I wanted, and I had since the previous summer. I wasn't fishing for anything in particular and was using my favorite go to lure at that time-a #2 Mepps spinner. I was strictly a bank fisherman back then unless I had permission to use someone's boat, and this little pond was only about 3 acres. I had never made my way all around it as there were some serious briars and weeds on the north side, but that day the warm south wind and the sun warming the north bank made me try. I was wearing 16" rubber boots and could wade out about 4' from the shore to get a better casting angle and to get over some brush. About the third cast I hooked a good fish. Mind you now, I didn't know that there were any decent crappie in there, and when I got it close I was shocked to see how big it was. I've always been good at estimating length, and I'm sure it had to be right at 18". I have not, however, been good at staying calm under pressure, and I went over my boot tops, jerked the rod and tore the lip right off that pig. No one else knew there were crappie like that, either, and I often wondered if it was the only one. I've never caught one anywhere close to that one, and every time I lose a good fish I think back to that day and things don't seem so bad. My wife lost a really nice fish two years ago. She had been wanting a cane pole, and I didn't realize how difficult it was to find one. What I got her was pretty cheap-several sections and poorly made, but she wanted to use it. An older couple invited us to fish with them on their poontoon, and the crappie were killing it. The man was impatient, though, and wanted to get to one particular spot. He said there was one hole where the water dropped quickly to about 12' from 3-4'. All four of us were catching 7-9" crappie and some redear when that cane pole bent double. I tried to get her to quit horsing it, and that got everyone's attention. When they turned to look about 6 pounds of a bass over 8 pounds got jerked up into the air until SNAP! - the pole broke in half. I still kid her about it, and just recently she told me she didn't know what I meant when i said not to "horse it." She will always remember that one.

  5. #15
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    crappiekid24 is offline Moderator Ice Fishing Forum * Crappie.com Supporter
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    I spent several days chasing a big slab this summer and had several follows from it but could never get a bite. I plan on trying to catch it this summer.

  6. #16
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    Good read, CrappiePappy. Collect another 50 stories or so and it would be enough to make a fine crappie fishing book, "Mistakes I Have Made."

  7. #17
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    My wife has a haunting tale. Every fathers day we head up to Drummond Island in Michigan's Upper peninsula. The year before this past, during a lazy afternoon, my wife, then 4 yr old daughter, and my old man, were on the boat dock. Using a kids pole with a broken reel, my wife and daughter were casting a jig with crappie nibbles, trying to entice the rock bass. My daughter lost interest, and they were packing up, when my wife made the always vital "one more cast". She let the jig sink a second, then it was HAMMERED(her words not mine), by the biggest fish of her life. She was able to maneuver the broken reel enough to get the line close to my old man. He then started pulling the fish in the remaining distance by the line. He knelt down on the dock, reached in to lip the fish, and proceeded to dump the contents of his pocket into the water. His reading glasses, pocket scratch note pad, ink pen, and the ever important can of chew, dumped into the lake. In all the commotion, and the reflex action to catch his stuff, he didn't keep a firm grasp on the fish. It fell back to the lake, spitting the jig as it hit the water. Never to be seen again.
    My old man claims it was probably the biggest bass he's ever laid hands on. My wife tells the story like it was a giant tuna she reeled in.
    Every time we go back up to Drummond, the first thing she does is grab a pole and the nibbles, and head back to that same dock, cast to the same spot, and hope she can give proof to her story.
    Here fishy, fishy, fishy...

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