Best Big-Fish-Eats-Little-Fish Story

[joman 0]

May not be another fish, but I was fishing at the little creek by my house, hooked into a little catfish, maybe 12 inches, and as I'm reeling it in all I see is the heron come down and grab it and hooked the heron. That was fun to get out. 2 I was fishing bluegill in the pond and had a 50 pound alligator snapping turtle bite. Best fight ever on a 6 wt. Good stew though

[Bryon Anderson 0]

joman wrote :

 

<< I was fishing bluegill in the pond and had a 50 pound alligator snapping turtle bite. Best fight ever on a 6 wt. Good stew though>>

 

You are a braver man than I, joman. Those big snappers freak me right out, as does anything with teeth. I don't even like landing pike.

[vicrider 0]

Having lived up north for years and doing a lot of fishing I had any number of pike/musky rips the walleye off the the hook episodes but the one that stands out the best was when I was trying to teach a friend from Chicago how to flyfish on a small lake in WI. We were standing on a dock catching small bluegills and I had him casting good enough to take out do some fishing when I tried to show him how to play a bigger fish on the fly rod. I hooked a small bluegill and was looking and talking to him and showing him to hold the rod up and let the rod fight the fish when I felt the rod bending more and more and the expression on his face was one of complete amazement. I turned and looked in the water and a musky in the 3' area had swum out from the pads and was nonchalantly swimming away with my bluegill.

 

Of course, my reaction was to set the hook and the musky didn't like the bluegill trying to get away and the water blew up, the rod went down, and the fortunately the tippet snapped before the rod did. That was the best remembered mostly because of the look on my buddies face when I hadn't seen the musky yet.

[Woodinfliezz 0]

duck ate blue gill -.-

[Stevester 0]

Not big fish story per se. A number of years ago I was fishing late afternoon at one of the local trout streams. I had a dry fly on which is unusual for me, I normally fish nymphs or streamers. Anyway, I was popping the fly in some pocket water, maybe 20' casts and suddenly after one backcast my forward cast doesn't feel right. And in fact it goes forward, stays in the air and then starts moving in a circle around my head like an old model airplane. It took me awhile to see that a big dragon fly had grabbed the dry and did not want to let it go. I had to strip almost all my line back before it grudgingly gave up the fly. One of guys in the TU chapter I belonged to back in grad school claimed to have had a bat grab his fly up on the Beaverkill but no one could corroborate that one so we decided to call it a fish story until he could produce photo evidence. They were a tough crowd.

 

A couple of years later my wife and I were renting an apartment in an old farmhouse on the Vermont side of the Connecticut river. I could keep my canoe right behind the house on the river bank and spent a number evenings fishing for smallmouth almost in my back yard. One time I had a nice smallie on when the line suddenly changed direction and weight. Sure enough a big northern had the bass crosswise and was fighting me for it. He eventually let go but it was exciting while it lasted. I knew there were pike around since I had landed a couple and lost a lot flies to others. The locals hated them for some reason I never understood. They get bigger than bass and hit like an MMA fighter.

 

Steve

[xrayts 0]

... It took me awhile to see that a big dragon fly had grabbed the dry and did not want to let it go.

Steve

 

I too, had a big dragonfly latch onto a fly, but mine was a beadhead prince nymph. I tried to take pics but the stupid thing wouldn't hold still. I eventually had to thump the dragonfly to make him let go.

 

Tim

[mybadhabit 0]

I've had this happen twice to me.

 

1. I was fishing in Northern Manitoba off a dock catching small perch, when I was reeling in a smaller one the line started screaming off the reel and the rod bent to the water. I had an idea what happened but wasn't really sure, I was 14 and had seen large pike in the #10 range swimming around the docks and low and behold I landed a #6 pike that had swallowed a 6" perch. I really didn't want to stick my hand in his mouth to get the hook back so we clobbered him so I could get my hook and the small perch back. He made some nice steaks for dinner.

 

2. I was night fishing off Catalina Island docks when I had a small hit and hook-up, I got the fish within 25' of the dock when the strike from something else hit and the line started racing off the reel. It ripped off about 200' of line until it hit the end then about pulled the rod out of my hand, it was 20# test. The line snapped and I don't know if I was more relieved or pissed at what had just happened. We decided to call it a night and didn't do any more night fishing the rest of the time on the island. I found out later that some pretty big sharks come in the cove at night but it never even flinched when I tried to turn it, it just ripped the line like it wasn't even there.

[joman 0]

Another one I had was a tiny little sz 20 dryfly, I was fishing it for perch in the pads around the dock and caught my biggest bullfrog ever on it. About half a pound (huge for up here)

[xrayts 0]

Another one I had was a tiny little sz 20 dryfly, I was fishing it for perch in the pads around the dock and caught my biggest bullfrog ever on it. About half a pound (huge for up here)

The next big thing...bullfrog flyfishing!

[mikechell 0]

I've caught a several frogs and a few Anoles lizards while slinging a fly around heavy cover.

My Mom-n-Law's boyfriend says he hooked a bat on the back cast while learning to fly fish. Fly went back, forward cast almost snatched the rod out of his hand and there was a splash behind them (They were on a boat). When he got it reeled in, there was a small bat hooked by the wing. He did a quick catch and release and the soggy little flying mouse lived on, as far as he knows.

But, his favorite saying is, "Never let the truth get in the way of a good story." So, I don't know if that happened or not.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Love the dragonfly-eats-artificial fly stories - that's a new one on me. I have watched them pluck 2" long Hexagenia mayflies out of the air, though -- I think dragonflies are the Northern Pike of the winged insect world. I have had bats nip at my fly while false casting, but they never held on or got hooked, for which I was grateful.

 

Know what would be really cool? A big-fish-eats-little-fish-only-to-be-eaten-by-even-BIGGER-fish story.

[mikechell 0]

I don't know about small-eaten-by-large-eaten-by-larger ... but the videos (youtube) of Goliath Grouper coming up boat-side and taking something are impressive.

[Stevester 0]

I love the dry fly frog fishing!. I can see a whole new sport open up! It could even have the same arguments about the purity of dry vs. wet fly when frog fishing. And think of the all the new species we can travel the world looking for. Picture the magazine covers of exotic frogs from the amazon! Where is my lawyers number, I've got to corner this now!

 

Steve

[joman 0]

Yeah I think this would be a great sport! Well have to open yet another subforum though... Then their will have to be the topic of, frog on a fly eaten by_______.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

I've lost permit up to 15 lbs to a big goliath (jewfish for us politically incorrect types) when fishing around a shallow wreck in less than 20 feet of water. We call them the landlords - every wreck and marker usually has one and they can literally gulp a 15 to 20lb fish like it was a snack. They're the baddest fish in the 'Glades, absolutely fearless and will fight you without letup until you un-hook one or they break off....

 

Slightly off-topic but the craziest stuff I get to see usually involves tarpon.... Last night we had two small fish that actually knocked my pushpole off its cleats while we were fighting them on fly. Just when we thought things had calmed down a 30lb fish jumped in the boat with us toward the end of the fight.... When they're going berserk in your boat you can't control them at all since their heavy slime coating won't allow you to grab one until they quit kicking. That poor fish was eventually released and swam off but my skiff was covered in slime, big scales, and assorted other body fluids. I won't know what's broken until I clean the skiff later on today (we came off the water at about 1Am this morning... All of this on fish that ate a fly.