Best Big-Fish-Eats-Little-Fish Story

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Everybody who's fished any length of time has a story about hooking a little fish only to have the little fish attacked (while still on the hook) by a much larger fish. It's always an exciting few seconds when it happens. So what's your best "I was reeling in this little ____ when all of a sudden a HUGE ____ appeared and ...." story? Here's a couple of mine to get the sharing started.

 

This first one involves a little fish and an unexpected predator...this was ages ago, when I had just learned to fly fish. My buddy Jordan and I and our wives (no kids yet) drove out to a little park with a lake for a picnic. While the ladies were getting the food laid out, we grabbed rods and walked down to a little gravel canoe launch to cast for bluegills . There were trees right down to the shoreline on both sides of the canoe launch, and big patches of lily pads on either side in the water, so there was basically this narrow lane straight ahead between the lily pads where we could cast without hanging up. Jordan began flicking a little foam spider just a few feet out and immediately commenced hooking tiny little 'gills and pumpkinseeds one after another. I had some sort of leader issue and had to walk back to the car, parked just a few yards away, for some tippet. As I was walking away, I heard him say something about trying for a longer cast in hopes of bigger fish. As I was futzing around in my gear looking for the tippet, I heard Jordan start hollering bloody murder. You have to understand, Jordan is one of those unflappable, taciturn guys who hardly ever gets visibly excited about anything and never raises his voice. It sounded like he was being eaten by an animal, or had hooked a very large fish. I ran down there and, sure enough, his 5-weight was bent nearly double. "Bass?" I said. He shook his head and raised the rod tip. Up out of the water came a little pumpkinseed about 6" long, with a brown water snake about 4' feet long firmly clamped to its tail.

He kept looking from the water to me and back again, and asking, "What do I do?" He was truly freaked out. It was clear that he wasn't about to bring that reptile any closer, but the fish was firmly hooked he also couldn't apply enough pressure to break the tippet. I picked up a handful of pebbles and tossed them into the water near the snake, which startled it, and it let go its prey. Jordan unhooked the fish, which was basically unscathed (but was now having a truly bad day). That would have been the end of it, but then the snake slithered up out of the water and arranged itself on top of the lily pads and waited, watching the water intently. After satisfying himself that it meant to come no closer to him, Jordan started fishing again. As soon as he'd hook a fish, the snake would feel the vibrations and would go zip! Into the water like a shot, and then it was a race to get the fish out of the water before the snake could get to it. At some point the women came down, saw what we were doing, shook their heads and walked away. It was fun.

 

Story #2 was just a couple of summers ago. We were spending the afternoon at the cottage of one of my wife's relatives on a decent-sized lake. I was watching my son and daughter, both 9 years old, bobber-fishing off the dock for bluegills. As is his habit, my son was bragging to his sister that he could cast much farther than she could. As is her habit, she matter-of-factly informed him that he could cast as far as he wanted, but she had caught a 12" largemouth the summer before and he would never top that. Of course, that was like waving a red flag at a bull, so he proceeds to fling his line waaaaayyy out there--it was pretty impressive, actually, given that he was using a little 4'6" spincaster--and, lo and behold, hooks himself a 12" bass. Lord, you never saw a kid so proud and self-satisfied in all your life! The whole time we're getting the fish landed, getting the photos and releasing it, his sister just sits there looking daggers at him. They start fishing again, and she flips her line out no more than 5 feet from the dock and the bobber immediately goes down. She whoops and sets the hook, but it's a tiny little bluegill, barely big enough to get its little mouth around the bait. Her brother starts laughing and giving her all kinds of grief about her tiny fish that's now thrashing the surface of the water right below our feet. That's when the big shadow emerged from under the very dock on which we stood. A huge white mouth opened under the 'gill, and it went down in an actual mini-vortex, like it was being flushed down a toilet. This was happening literally right at our feet and we could see everything. When that bass felt the hook, it just went ballistic in the 2 feet or so off water it was in--HUGE splash, water flying everywhere, daughter screaming and holding on for dear life, her brother jumping back and landing on his butt in the water, hollering his head off because he doesn't know what's happening, complete pandemonium.

Then the line broke, the bass disappeared into deep water and it was all over. The whole thing lasted maybe seven or eight seconds. After a moment of silence, she quietly asked me, "How big was that fish?" I told her I didn't know exactly, but I guessed it was at least 18 to 20 inches. "Was it on my hook?" she asked. I said I thought it was, though very briefly. She then turned to her brother, who was still sitting in the water trying to figure out what just happened, and calmly said to him, "Then it still counts."

[Piker20 0]

I took a friend out for a day of stolling along the river and throwing a lucky 13 for pike. First time he had been fishing and we walked up to an old mill pool at the head of a section of local river and sat watching big chub moving around in the pool tail. First cast to the head of the pool and plop plop plop SMASH. A small jack pike around 6lb hit the 13 and as it was brought to the net a second pike the same size chased it in and we landed both. He was just gobsmacked. The day was a lovely sunny day in a corn field with a lovely old mill race and stream and then 2 HUGE (his words) fish come out together. 18 years later and he still talks about the day we caught 2 massive fish. Makes me smile everytime. Also makes me realise how lucky we are in angling land to be exposed to some of natures finest moments. Millions of our fellow man are blind to so much stuff.

[xrayts 0]

Not exactly a big fish ate small fish story, but...

It was 15 years ago on a balmy summer evening when I was walking the edge of a small farm pond casting to some hungry bass. As I strolled along, I happened on a tiny, half-dollar sized, Red-eared Slider (turtle). My future wife and I had just began dating, so I thought I would bring her the oh-so-romantic gift of Terrapin covered in green pond scum. I took her the thoughtful gift, she oohed and ahhed, then I leisurely took it back to the pond from which it came. By this time, it was almost completely dark, and I decided to release him in the most convenient place I could think of...the dock. I knelt down, lowered the adorable little guy down gently until he was almost touching the water, then SPLOOSH, a Largemouth Bass jumped out of the water and wrapped his jaws around the turtle and my fingers. Needless to say, my fingers had no choice but to sacrifice the turtle to save themselves. After my heart started pumping again, I went inside and broke the news. To this day, my wife still reminds me of the time I fed the turtle to to the fish. If you have kids, you've probably seen that part of Madagascar where the Crocodile snatches the baby duck...yup, pretty much just like that.

 

Tim

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

This incident happened almost ten years ago now...

 

Most think of miles and miles of sawgrass, freshwater, and alligators when they hear about the Everglades -but at least a third of it is brackish or salt and mostly true mangrove jungle wilderness where everything is on the menu. One day a fish is the predator the next day he's a meal - and that goes for everything there...

 

One of my anglers had just caught a small shark inside the mouth of the appropriately named Little Shark river on the Gulf coast of the Everglades (about 35 miles southeast of Chokoloskee, and 21 miles northwest of Flamingo). It was a baby great hammerhead with the wide hammers and tall dorsal fin, but long and lean.... Roughly five to six feet long it weighed in at around 50 to 60lbs and we carefully un-hooked it and watched it swim away.... That young hammerhead didn't get fifty feet from the boat when it was eaten right in front of us.... I figured that the culprit was a much, much bigger shark -either a very large bull shark or a medium sized tiger.... Whatever it was it sure made my 17' skiff seem small. With the dark colored waters along the 'Glades, going for a swim has never seemed like a very good idea at all.

 

Here's a link to a large scale map of the Park. It's a place that's only 70 miles from Miami but it might as well be a world away...

http://www.everglades.national-park.com/ever1.htm

[Bryon Anderson 0]

Piker and Tim -- great stories! Just what I was hoping for. Thanks for sharing. Piker, you are so right that there are so many people who go their whole lives without any notion of the incredible beauty that is the natural world. Reminds me of a line from one of my favorite movies: "The whole world--everyone you see, everyone you know--is asleep, but those who awake live in a constant state of amazement." Tim, if you found a woman who saw the romance in the gift of a wee turtle festooned with pond scum, you were right to marry her. She's obviously a keeper.

[FlyFishin'Jam 0]

Hahaha some great stories, mine is pretty bland. Fought this queenfish for a while on light fly gear and just as we had it boatside ready for the net this huge ass shark comes up and tries to swallow the thing whole!!! My buddy started smacking the shark with the net and it let go and swam off, not exactly sure what happened as it went by so fast, i just remeber it being a load bigger than the bronze whalers hanging around, the fish even released okay but not sure if it survived. Sharks can swim super fast if they want to kill something.

 

[Bryon Anderson 0]

That young hammerhead didn't get fifty feet from the boat when it was eaten right in front of us.... I figured that the culprit was a much, much bigger shark -either a very large bull shark or a medium sized tiger.... Whatever it was it sure made my 17' skiff seem small. With the dark colored waters along the 'Glades, going for a swim has never seemed like a very good idea at all.

The Everglades looks just amazing, thanks for the map. I almost got to go bass fishing there once, but it fell through, which I've always regretted. You wouldn't catch me putting so much as a toe in that water though...as I understand it, that whole place has teeth.

[mikechell 0]

Back in the '80s, I was fishing brackish water feeders around MCAS Cherry Point. I usually used a 5 inch bronze Rapala and had great success catching LMB left and right. I was fishing an unusually clear area of this small creek, when I hooked a bluegill. It wasn't even as long as the lure, and it had taken the tail hook.

SO, in my amusement, I was letting it swim back and forth at the side of the boat. From under the boat, a striped bass swam up and inhaled the bluegill and the lure. It just sat there with both in it's mouth for a second and I am also just sitting there looking at this 20+ inch fish. Suddenly, I realize what has just happened and in my excitement, I lifted the rod tip instead of setting the hook. That fish spit the lure out as soon as it felt the pressure. Somehow, the bluegill had come off the hook, so the bass got it's meal ... I just got a memory.

[TheCream 0]

A few years back, I took my little 3wt to a nearby lake to try to catch some panfish on lighter gear. I caught several bluegills, then had a nice bass come after one as I was stripping it in. The bass just sat there, 10' in front of me, watching me, like he was just waiting for me to hook another one. Instead of trying that, I fished around in my bag and found the biggest streamer I had, a #6 olive/gold zonker. I tied it onto the 5X tippet and slung it past the bass, stripping it back past him aggressively, and it chomped the zonker. That bass put up the best fight I have ever had from a green bass, and is still my public water PB largemouth in Ohio at 19.5".

 

[JSzymczyk 0]

Down at the mouth of the river near Naval Station Mayport, I was catching croakers or drum or something like that... they would fight along the bottom. I hooked one, and it immediately came to the surface and started literally flipping out of the water... nothing at all like the others. It was probably 50 feet or so from the rocks we were on-- then a dorsal fin and a huge swirl, a massive weight on the rod for a few seconds and that was it, a shark had come up and eaten the fish. During the same time, we used to fish off the fantail of the cutter late on the eight-to-twelves and on midwatch, and the turning basin there was full of 2 to 4 foot long Cutlassfish which only came out at night apparently... they look like eels but with a mirror-like silver skin, and a big mouth full of barracuda teeth. They would strike at anything, and if you didn't have a wire trace they bit off 100% of the time. In fact it took me few tries to figure out what was happening because I was getting bit off ABOVE the 18" wire traces I was using--- one fish would get hooked, and another would come bite the swivel at the top of the trace, attracted to the movement. Anyhow, these nightmare creatures would attack another hooked one--- if we let a hooked one splash and swim at the surface for more than a few moments, others would come out and literally chop it to pieces. Then, the day before we were getting underway and leaving, we learned that a local tackle shop was paying $1 each for them dead but in good condition... seems the offshore guys like them for trolling bait. Dammit.

 

In freshwater I've had a few bluegills get attacked by largemouths, once a pretty nice pike chomped a small bass I was catching, and I had a very nice walleye take another small bass I was fighting--- I didn't hook the walleye but I had it on for quite a while and had it right up to me before it let go.

[ikerajala 0]

I remember fishing in the clark's fork river. I hooked and released lots of little pea mouth chub on dry flies. There are huge schools of chub and northern pike minnows. I hooked a little guy and was bringing it in when I started getting big jerks on my line. I was excited and told a friend a big fish was trying to eat my eight inch chub. I unhooked the chub and released him/ her. It swam out maybe 2 feet from shore when the huge fish swallowed him up. It happened so fast I said wow a big brown trout! Or maybe it was a bull trout? But really looking back it was probably a big smallmouth. That was almost ten years ago. I have been fly fishing for almost 20 years! I got to go back there with some streamers some summer and try for bass.

[Philly 0]

I was fishing up in Northern Ontario a couple of years ago and tossing a fly toward a rock shelf. I got a decent hit and set the hook. The fish was giving me a good fight and then there was a hard pull that bent the rod double and then it seemed like the fish was swimming toward the boat. It wasn't fighting me anymore. My buddy netted a 24 inch pike. As I was unhooking it I notice a lot of blood dripping on the deck. The pike wasn't gut hooked or hooked in the gills. I checked it out and there were three large teeth marks on each side of the body just behind the back fin. Not sure whether it was a big pike or a big walleye. I'm headed back to the lake in July. I wonder if I should give that rock shelf a try. I'll make sure I'm using my 8 wgt instead of the 6 wgt I was using then.

[Bryon Anderson 0]

I started this thread because I was feeling pretty beat up by the winter blues this morning and needed to hear some good fishing stories. These are just what the doctor ordered. This is making me want to fish, well, basically everywhere.

[mikechell 0]

Another situation I was in ... this was before my previous post, and I'd almost forgotten about it. Philly's story about the tooth marks brought it back.

 

I was fishing with my Brother-n-Law, my Dad and a friend, from the friend's boat. We were fishing saltwater off Cape May, NJ. The other guys were fishing cut bait, but at the time I was a bass guy. I tied on a spoon with a 10 inch piece of white leather hooked to it. On my third cast, I got a really nice hit. I fought the fish for about 30 seconds, and we were sure it was a good sized flounder.

Then my rod bent double and I about lost it. The rod straightened up, and I reeled in with very little resistance. When I got it to the boat, I had the head of a flounder (fluke, whatever) ... we estimated that the whole fish would've been close to 20 inches and several pounds, but all I got was the head.

The boat owner (who was the only one truly familiar with the waters) said the Makos were moving in. The other guys started catching Mako Sharks in the 3 and 4 foot range. I didn't get anything else on the spoon, so I tried the cut bait, still nothing. In fact, I didn't get another bite the rest of the day. Every one else on the boat caught 4 or 5 sharks.

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Here's a pic that pretty clearly illustrates what we deal with where I am.... this big snook got chopped within 300 yards of where the first shark story occurred.... In all of the warmer months along the coast of the 'glades the population of small to medium sized sharks is so heavy that I expect to catch one fish from any spot and try to move after that. If we try to catch a second fish -it's chop city and the shark responsible is rarely much bigger than about seven feet.... I'm comforted by the fact that sharks can't catch a healthy fish -but this big snook would have been over 18lbs and we were in the closed season so it would have been a "catch and release" fish..... I had to toss the five pound head back in the water where that same shark was probably waiting...