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Sorry for the non-musical post but I've had some amazing and really funny things happen to me while fishing. These are all TRUE:

A few days ago I was fishing at a nearby lake off the marina dock. It is a spot that is heavily fished. I was with my buddy and had told him I was looking to buy a really small ultralight outfit to fish docks. I was casting a really small crappie jig, probably with a size 12 or 14 hook. I'm reeling in and all of a sudden there's a dead weight on the end of my line. I didn't even feel the jig stop, just reeling in something with some weight. To my utter surprise I have hooked onto the rubber handle of an ultralight rod and reel. It's not just any old rod and reel but a Shakespeare rod and Quantum reel, both good quality. What are the odds? My fishing buddy can't believe it. It's astronomical odds that a tiny hook would go into a rubber handle WITHOUT setting it and hold on strong enough to reel the thing in. I took it home and cleaned it up and it works great. Damn I'm a lucky fisherman.

A few years ago I caught a small crappie when my size 0 Mepps Aglia Silver Blade spinner foul hooked the fish in the middle of its back. I was reaching down to unhook the fish when my line broke and the fish swam away with my lure still in its back. About five months later I'm fishing the same spot and I hook a small fish, another small crappie. There's a big ugly mossy bump on its back. I clean the fish's back and sure enough it's the exact same fish that I caught months earlier with the spinner still on its back. And by the way this time I caught the fish in its mouth WITH THE EXACT SAME MODEL MEPPS spinner! Again, what are the odds!

Many years ago I was fishing a lake in New Jersey with a Dardevle spoon. My lure got stuck on the bottom and I pull it free, there's something on my lure. I can't believe my eyes, I have hooked the exact same model and color Dardevle I was using. So that's twice in my life I caught the exact same lure with the exact same lure. Considering there's many thousands of lure models and sizes and colors I would say I might be the only fisherman to ever catch two different lures with the same lure...

When I was very young (about twelve years old) I was fishing with my good buddy Charlie. We were sitting on a dock with our feet dangling in the water. I saw what I thought was an eel swim right under my feet. I told Charlie that I saw an eel. He said there was no such thing as freshwater eel, so I bet him fifty cents there was and that when we go home we'll look it up. About five minutes later he gets a huge fish on his line and fights it for about five minutes, gets it up to the dock and pulls its head out of the water. It's a HUGE eel with NASTY teeth. He drags it on shore and cuts the line. "Okay CHarlie you owe me fifty cents!" I said.

A couple of years ago I was fishing by a busy boat ramp. There wasn't any boats coming or going so I was fishing right on the ramp itself when I feel a bite and then I'm reeling in dead weight. It was a large crappie that had already been cleaned and filleted. I actually had hooked it in the mouth. It felt like a legitimate bite but obviously was quite dead. I'm holding my rod and the dead fish is dangling at the end of my line. Me and this guy fishing near me were laughing so hard we were practically in tears. Maybe it was the ghost of crappie past...

The ultimate weird thing that happened to me was when my boss and me were fishing in a small boat at Spruce Run Reservoir in New Jersey. We were right near shore when I caught a small yellow perch. I threw it back and then a guy fishing in a boat about 150 feet away in deeper water asked me "How many points was it?" I turned to my boss Ziggy and asked "What's this guy talking about?" The guy in the boat asked me again "How many points was it?" I said "seven points." I thought to myself what is this guy talking about, stripes on the fish, spines on the dorsal fin? I told the other guy "It was eight points." He turned away from us shaking his head. I yelled back to him "Look man I don't know how many points it was, I THREW IT BACK!" Just then Ziggy taps me on the shoulder and says "Hey Bob turn around and look on the shore" I turned around and there standing right behind us was a spike buck....The guy must have thought I was an idiot saying I THREW THE DEER BACK! I tell this true story to hunters and they laugh so hard it hurts their stomach...

COOL stories Bob. I like em.

Thanks for the comedy relief Bob.

Now it's time for some coffee.

The next time you go fishing, you should tell your buddy that you would really like a bag full of $500 bills. Who knows? With the luck you have, you just might hook one!


By the way, if you're a Mepps spinner guy, you have to get some of these:



http://www.panthermartin.com/lures/Spinners.aspx



They will out-fish a Mepps any day of the week, and they catch everything- bass, trout, crappie, perch. Only spinner I ever use anymore.

Fishing off of a seawall in the port of Tampa, me and buddy we're sitting there, with our rods propped on our bait buckets, I was seated next to the rods, and my buddy was getting his cast net ready to go look for more bait, and while hes doing that, by buddy gets a bite and it snatches the rod off the seawall towards the water, my buddy with wonderful reaction time, leaps over the bait buckets over the seawall, into the water..But I had slightly faster reaction time, as I reached out and grabbed the handle before the rod went all the way in..it was almost slow motion watching him fly over and land in the waist deep water..I said, "dude. I got it." lol

I was on my neighbors boat, and we were trolling fro grouper just inside of Tampa bay itself, and generally we'd troll the edges of the shipping channel, there was a series of rock formations that dotted the channel, and grouper would live, in and around those rock formations, we'd be using large plastic plugs, in particular we were using Chartreuse bombers on this trip, and we was having great luck...My neighbor casually made the comment, that he's seen days where two fish would fight over one plug, we all laughed figuring he was telling tales, the next rod went off, and the guys who's turn it was to take the fish, about got snatched into the water, we assumed he had hooked a huge one, maybe even a Goliath..
he got it to the boat and sure enough it was a keeper grouper on the front set of treble hooks, and a smaller grouper on the rear set..within 5 minutes of telling us this was possible, it happens.

not as good as your stories Bob, but fishing has a way of crazy things happening huh? lol

I never quite learned the skill to catch with a spinner. How does one draw it in? All I know is that I must be doing something wrong. I've lost three Mepps Black Fury #2's, one to a turle, & the other two to underwater junk. Is this normal?

I just got a bee, that sinks & swivels side to side under as you draw it in. I've caught quite a few bass with it, & even more of those damned sunnies - sometimes on the surface & sometimes as I crank it in. It was cheap, but it's been working for me. I hope to find a few more of them.

philbymon wrote:I never quite learned the skill to catch with a spinner. How does one draw it in? All I know is that I must be doing something wrong. I've lost three Mepps Black Fury #2's, one to a turle, & the other two to underwater junk. Is this normal?

I just got a bee, that sinks & swivels side to side under as you draw it in. I've caught quite a few bass with it, & even more of those damned sunnies - sometimes on the surface & sometimes as I crank it in. It was cheap, but it's been working for me. I hope to find a few more of them.

If you're using spinners anywhere there are obstructions, you're going to lose one once in a while. But then if you're fishing where there aren't any obstructions, you aren't going to catch many fish. If you keep the rod tip high on the retrieve, you can keep the spinner clear of a lot of junk. The usual method of fishing a spinner is to retrieve it just fast enough to keep the spinner blade turning. The most important thing is to put a good ball bearing swivel in front of the spinner. Otherwise, you're twisting your line with every retrieve.


Get some Panther Martins. They do catch fish when everything else fails.



Trolling for grouper? Most people don't know that you can do that. We used to troll for grouper in the Keys all the time. They will chase a plug like crazy, and you've already got them clear of their rocky homes when they hit it.

"Grouper!" I was just thinking the other day that the word just doesn't sound like a fish, to me. It brings to mind an events coordinator at an orgy!

Sorry...my sick mind is still at work!

Q: So what do you do?

A: I'm a "grouper" at Plato's Retreat.

90 dB wrote: Trolling for grouper? Most people don't know that you can do that. We used to troll for grouper in the Keys all the time. They will chase a plug like crazy, and you've already got them clear of their rocky homes when they hit it.

Haven't had the opportunity to swim down and watch how they strike the lures, but I believe you could be right, that said, the channel markers coincided with some of the location of the rock formations, and you couldn't get more than 50 yards from them, before you got hit, if you was going to get hit. lol
Grouper are like bass, sometimes they strike because they are hungry..sometimes, your lures presence pisses them off and they strike out because they are ornery..lol
Trolling is the best way to fish for grouper IMO..you set the rods and wait for nature to do the work..lol our best day with me there was 27 keepers..I heard stories of 40+ days, although I wasnt there for any of those.

but even at 27, just about all of my friends and co-workers got fresh grouper fillets the next day. (I don't eat seafood) lol

Tronix wrote:

90 dB wrote: Trolling for grouper? Most people don't know that you can do that. We used to troll for grouper in the Keys all the time. They will chase a plug like crazy, and you've already got them clear of their rocky homes when they hit it.

Haven't had the opportunity to swim down and watch how they strike the lures, but I believe you could be right, that said, the channel markers coincided with some of the location of the rock formations, and you couldn't get more than 50 yards from them, before you got hit, if you was going to get hit. lol
Grouper are like bass, sometimes they strike because they are hungry..sometimes, your lures presence pisses them off and they strike out because they are ornery..lol
Trolling is the best way to fish for grouper IMO..you set the rods and wait for nature to do the work..lol our best day with me there was 27 keepers..I heard stories of 40+ days, although I wasnt there for any of those.

but even at 27, just about all of my friends and co-workers got fresh grouper fillets the next day. (I don't eat seafood) lol

Fillets??????



GROUPER FINGERS.



Cut fillets into finger sized pieces, batter and deep-fry. Serve with copious quantities of ice cold beer (while listening to Jimmy Buffet, of course).

I'll try those Panther Martins. Thanks, 90, for the tips. too.

bob - I've heard one or two of those stories before, but they're all a hit with me & mine! I wanna go fishing today, but I'm still too burnt, & it pisses me right off, it does! I might go tomorrow, anyway, but if I do, it'll be at dawn, so's I'm done before the heat of the day (& the direct sunshine!).

Ha, just had the dog swimming at Spruce Run Training Area this am..

smalllllllll worrlllddddddd...

Bob those stories were AWESOME!!!!

Mine can't compete but I'll share them anyway.
I was fishing in a dammed up part of Craigs creek in Craig county near Roanoke. It was about 20 feet across and 7 feet deep at it's deepest. I had snorkeled in it earlier that summer. It was LOADED with fish. A few red eye bass, but mostly perch, horny heads, and chubs. I always fish with live bait. Crawfish and helgramites mostly. Sometimes grasshoppers or other insects. This time I cast a crawfish and hooked a small perch. I was feeling frisky and said watch this! I'm going to catch a big one! I never rehooked the perch. I just slung it across the creek with the hook still in it's mouth. A 2 foot long pike hit it!! I reeled it in to within 3 feet of the bank. It snapped his head, snapped the line, and swam off with the perch! Cool!! My friend and I were laughing like crazy because this creek should only have creek fish. It's a foot deep in most places. The guy who damned it must have caught the pike at another place and released it there.

Another time my dad and I were fishing for perch to eat off a dock. He had a two piece bamboo pole with a metal sleeve in the center. He got a bite. It broke at the sleeve. He caught the top half in mid air!! Then he pulled out a small catfish. Dad is cool!!

Growing up, I was a big-time fisherman. It's all I cared about for recreation, and I would take my pole no matter where we lived, and walk around till I found a lake or river to fish in. Luckily in Jacksonville (The River City) there were plenty! My grandfather took me fishing one day, and after hours, we hadn't caught ANYTHING big enough to bring home. He stopped by the fish-store on the way home, and looked over and winked at me, while he told my grandmother we had caught it!

Another cute story, was when I was fishing in a small inlet, and a cop came by, and asked if I had caught anything. I was a small boy, maybe 9 years old at the time. Fishing alone there. I was leaned back against a sign while I fished. The cop just smiled, told me good luck, and drove off. Believe it or not... only decades later, as an adult, did I bother to read that sign, when I was showing the spot to my step kids. I had to smile, when I read it, and it said... "No Fishing!" I know darn well that cop saw the sign clearly, as it was facing the road, and I was leaning on it, while he talked to me. Very cool officer! It must have looked like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting... a little boy, leaning on a "No Fishing" sign, while fishing away happily!

I have used Panther Martins in the past. I did pretty good on trout with them when I lived in New Jersey. Mepps XD spinners are very similar, the shaft goes through the blade like the Panther Martins. I've just had the best luck on fish with the Mepps. Mepps are my go-to lures. I also have real good luck with other lures. My current favorite is Bobby Garland jigs. I've also had terrific success with Crappie Sliders. The key is color selection. Pick a lure color that contrasts with the water color. For green (algae) tinted water use orange, red, pink, silver, or black lures. A lure that has two or more of these contrasting colors is even better. For turbid (brown) water use chartreuse, gold, yellow, or black. Never use bright lures when there's bright sunshine, they actually blind the fish when they get close to them. Have you ever seen a fish come right up to your lure and then veer off at the last second? Tone down your offering. I reel in slow and steady just keeping the lure moving and off the bottom. Another method that I've been using a lot lately is fishing crappie jigs with a Wingit (slip) bobber. I also always have better luck using Stren Hi-visibility gold line. I know the current trend is away from hi-vis lines but the line acts as a bobber. You can very easily see the line twitch and thus can set the hook on more fish. I haven't noticed any difference in the number of hits with the camoflaged line. I also use very light line 2-6 lb test. I may lose a few more lures and occasionally big fish break the line but I catch a lot more fish. Most of my luck is based on using high quality light line, very visible lures fished slow and steady, and make LOTS of casts. I work spots HARD. Some people go to a spot and make a few casts and if they don't catch anything move on. While moving your line isn't in the water. Keep working those spots and change lures often, don't change spots often. You'll catch more fish.