[perfect hook set]

Long story short
I was fishing local water.

Took a couple cast with my jointed jerk bait and noticed that there was line hanging from a branch into some weeds.

So after a few tries I caught the line.

As I pull the line up out of the water there is a fish connected to it, a fat sunny!
Unfortunately for the sunny he was dead.

I ended up getting a small ½in jerk bait out of the deal.

!!!
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[PECo]

A few weeks ago, I spotted a stick bobber moving against the wind in the outer cove at Hamburg Cove. I pedaled The Other Woman over to it, but when I reached down to grab it, it was pulled under the water and away from me. It was like that scene from Jaws where the shark pulls the barrel under the water. I spotted the bobber again about 10 minutes later and, again, it disappeared before I got to it. But when I found it again, I was able to pull it up:



Unfortunately, the fish that must have been pulling on the little minnow (it looked like a baby largemouth bass to me) missed the hook and let it go. I'd bet it was a sunny that was pulling it around.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[perfect hook set]

Thats funny, the evading bobber
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[KingCranky]

So glad I remembered this site and twice as glad I decided to read this thread. Stellar stories!

[KingCranky]

OK, I'm pretty sure "I never thought this would happen" is a fairly apropos thread title for what happened to me today.

Fishing in a small pond in North Haven where I recently caught a 3 lb LMB on a dropshot and a 6 lb LMB on a lipless crank in the past two weeks. The place isn't loaded with fish, but when you catch onto the school - it's on!

Watched a hawk lazily circle overhead, hundreds of sparrows around me swarming and singing. It really is an enjoyable new local fishing hole I've stumbled upon. Had been fishing a side of the pond I hadn't explored yet, but after 90 minutes I knew the spot I had been fishing the last two weeks was the place. I looked across the pond at where I hooked into those two big girls and low and behold a pig jumps out of the water! I knew I had to leave this new spot and head back to the proven area.

It was dusk and the bass were patrolling the shallows up from their deep part of the pond. Easy pickins. Tied on a War Eagle Mike McClelland finesse spinnerbait and caught a short fish on my first cast out there. Not even a moment after I release the fish does a fat carp do his carp thing jumping out of the water right in front of me. Great - it wasn't the 6 lber I spotted jumping across the pond again, it was just a filthy carp. Decided to stay and ride it out until it got completely dark and I would pack up.

Very next cast. In typical King Cranky fashion, I attempt to "throw my lure where no lure has been thrown before". I slipped on the razors edge of too close a parallel cast with the shore and my line ended up hanging over a few low branches. I started to reel the spinnerbait in so I could surgically rip it out of the branches and a small bass hits it and hooks himself!

Now the thought process begins - I know it's a tiny bass. Do I cut bait and let the fish go with my $6 spinnerbait and basically an entire spool of line or do I try to do the absurd? I was feeling ridiculous enough, why not. Started reeling the fish and lure into the branch, hoping it would be as smooth as I pictured it.

Negative.

Lure and fish get stuck in the tree. There is no way I can climb and do this by hand. I'm not letting this laughable combination of dink and lure forever hanging there be a reminder of how stupid I can be sometimes. I'm all in. Start raging, whipping the rod back and forth, fish/lure catapult out of the first branch and onto another. Continue on with my maniacal process and eventually get it into open water, free and clear.

The hook had initially been a simple hook into the lip, hence the reason it got caught in the tree - not exactly as weedless, or branchless in this case, as I had envisioned. I suppose my method of berating this fish/lure while it was in the tree worked because the hook had gone from just being in it's lip to being through one eye and out the other. I'm pretty sure I put this hook through his brain. Took some coaxing to get out, took an eyeball along with it, and just chucked the fish in the water, understanding what I had done and not feeling so hot about it. The little s.o.b. did two backflips on top of the water as if to say "thanks for nothing jackass but it takes more than that to kill the likes of me!" and headed back to the floor of the pond, thinking he got the last laugh. You'll be food for that hawk soon enough buddy. Live tonight like you mean it.

[perfect hook set]

I am gonna pray for you tonight....

You couldnt have brought it home and kept as a pet for the rest of its life, you kind of owe him. He would have been living a luxurious life, being fed daily, living in a comfortable 60º water....

You ruined his freakin life

and I am done

Man if only I wasnt so lazy, I would write a book for each of my posts like this guy does!

He will never forget the ride of his life, Mr bass will be telling his grandchildren about this one.
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[PECo]

That's another reason why I prefer fishing from a kayak, instead of from the shore.
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Don't forget to wear sunscreen and don't litter!

[colburn]

i was fishing with ryanmalloy## last year... he caught a line pulled it up and had a 2lb large mouth on the line!!