Was thinking today... what was the biggest bite I ever had that I deserved the least?

The one that sticks in my mind most was at San Pablo about 5 years ago. I was fishing 9" Stocker Trout and made a terrible cast. My thumb slipped off the reel, the lure went almost straight up in the air, and landed in 3 feet of water, about 50 feet from where it was supposed to land.

I decided to fish the cast, mostly out of laziness. Took a about 2 cranks and watched a 9lber come out of no where on a bare nothing bank and eat the lure. There should not have been a bass there, let alone a 9lb bass. It was a sandy, shallow, nothing shoreline.

Your stories? :)

Mine was slow trollin a bbz floater.

Not paying attention to the bait and trying to hold my ridge line
felt something pulling back so i swing. (had my ipod on so i didn't
hear a splash)

really not payin attention while winding in the hookup. after a
few seconds i realize my line is in the air. wtf fish don't
fly ;(

9 lb seagull

Son of a Bitch!

Im fishing Castaic Lagoon for the first time and throwing a Hudd. Finally get that little tick and rear back. Rod loads but Im thinking WTF. I reel in a western grebe fouled hooked in the belly. The bird bit and thats my story.

I was in my boat but my buddy was running the front since he knew the water. I was also using his rod because mine were having technical difficulties. I make a long cast over a long point and it lands in about one foot of water. As I was casting I asked him if he thought that spot was a good spot. Before he could answer and about 10 cranks into the retrieve I get popped and bring in a 12-10. Theres a little more to the story (Ill let him tell that part), but I still think my buddy is pissed at me about that one.

This last spring me and my buddy are working our way around a big main lake point with tons of trees under the water. He throws a 3:16 Wake Bait way out behind the boat and drags it along as I work my way across the point. We are both watching my bait that I had thrown out in front of the boat, I had a blow up but the fish missed and was sitting under it. We hear a HUGE splash behind us and think a MONSTER bass has taken his wake bait. Instead, when we turn around we see that a Bald Eagle has just nailed his bait. He hits free spool real fast and starts yelling "what do I do!" Luckily the Eagle drops his bait just as he was about to run out of line. I have no idea how he didn't get a hook in him.

Another time I was throwing swimbaits in the river for big stripers. It was getting pretty dark and I was about to pack it in when I get a massive hit. My line just starts screaming off my real and I have my drag cranked down! All of a sudden I hear something thrashing on top of the water and hissing? (pretty dark, hard to see) I'm really not sure at this point what I'm hearring, or what I have. My partner shines a light out in the river to see that there is an otter on the end of my line. I try to bring him in as close as possible before cutting the line. The last I saw of him he was running up the bank with my swimbait stuck in his face. Man I really felt bad about that one! I hope he survived that ordeal.

Hey! Was this subject supposed to be dumbest big bite you ever got from a FISH? Oh well, I have had plenty of those too.

I was in my Kayak trolling a homemade wood bait at Casitas and right at the very end of the day my partner in his yak was way ahead of me. I wanted to catch up to him quick so I dropped the hammer on the trolling motor (yes I had a trolling motor attached to the yak :P ) and a few seconds into my full throttle-ness my rod doubled over but quickly bounced back. I thought I had snagged something so I stopped and retrieved in my lure. Well it was very obvious I got a bite, my lure was demolished and had huge bite marks dragging down the side of the bait deep into the epoxy.

That is still my only bite at Casitas on the big baits and it haunts me to this day, it was probably a 23lb bass :)

The dumbest big bite I ever got has to be my PB and first Swimbait fish I ever caught. It was on my second ever cast and I was more or less just making sure I had the cast control on the filping rod I was using to throw the Castaic SBT trout was set correctly. I just chucked the bait out there and reeled it back, as it came by a submerged tree I got nailed by a 9.75 pound bass. I feel I didn't deserve that fish as I did not put in the time, and countless fish-less hours that is supposed to come with swimbait fishing. I guess the fish gods agree with me as I have never had a fish close to that size since and that fish was caught in March 2002.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

Probably the dumbest big bite I got happend 6-7 years ago. I was fishing out of the back of a friends boat and as we were cruising down the shoreline we went right over a big fish that immediately kicked off into deep water. It was late May at the time, so it may have been on a bed, though we didn't see one.

We kept on moving down the bank, but I picked up a brush hog and made a long cast behind the boat where I thought the fish was, hand-pulling line off my reel as my bait sunk and the boat was moving away.

Soon as I tightened up my line the fish was on... 13.7lbs.

It's much easier to think of big bites I deserved to get, but didn't deserve to land. Like the time I broke my rod in half setting the hook on a 10lber with 100 feet of line out. Or the time I hooked a 10lber in the back of the throat. My stinger rig broke, the bait flew out of the fish's mouth, and the 2nd treble hook snagged it on the outside of its head. Or even just a couple months ago when I had a 10lber swim through a hole in my landing net while fighting it on spinning gear.

Don't even get me started on the birds. I've never caught two bass on one cast with a swimbait, but I have snared a double-header of canadian geese, for a while anyway :)

Well, It's nice to know I am not the only Otter catcher. LOL!
I had not had a hit all day it was dark now and one hit came I set VERY hard. Splashing and thrashing I thought " WHAT IS THIS??" I went all over the lake following that thing. It had a 150.oo bait it it's face. After 1 hour I lost track of it.:(

Don.

http://calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bassindon69/basspics/

Nothing like fishing!

the dumbest for me what the week that i got my braces put on. It was darn neeer imposssible to eat anything and by buddy got me nachos, so i gave him the front of the boat as i worked super slow at my nachos, i casted a carolina rig out, hes been fishn for about 30 min and i decide to reel in, well pole wasnt bent or anything but as soon as i reeled in there was a fish, but thats not the dumb part, this happend 2 more times, buddy= no fish, kid tryn to eat nachos with new braces =3 fish.

fish tremble at the sound of my name

A few years ago the fishing at lake Barrett was soo stupid 100 fish days were easy. I read a report from a biologist that said the fish had prasites thet made them think they were always hungry. I rember catching a fish and letting it go and watching it swim away and casting in front of it and cacthing it again. I did it twice with 2 different fish and then I felt bad for them and didnt do it anymore even though I could have. They werent big though, around 3lbs.
I have caught a couple decent fish that Mark calles "line jumpers"
You cast out, the bait hits the water but your line never stops going out. It always takes me a second to figure out what just happened. Those fish must actualy see the bait before it hits the water or I must have litteraly landed it right on top of them.
This seems to bunk the theory that the loud splash of a swimbait spooks the fish.

www.mattlures.com

Not exactly a big bite.. but a couple stupid bites! Was fishing with a boater in a small club tourney at the local lake last year, It was windy, and we were hitting an area in open water I know well. I threw a Beaver out, let it sink, and was fishing when my partner hooks up. I net the fish, and somehow in the process manage to scatter my gear acoss the rear deck. My rod was on the passenger seat with the Beaver out, andI'm sitting there scrambling to get all my #### back together. Pick up the rod after 5 minutes, start to reel in for another cast, and fish on! Had one recently where the fish ate a dropshot while I was helping my dad untangle his rig. I'm sitting there and just finished put everything back in order when my rod goes sideways down the gunnel. Ended up being a solid 3lber. Don't get me started on birds. Seems every trip out I almost hook or nail a bird on the water with a cast. My worst ever was when I was fishing a Vixen last year and ended having a great blue heron take in in the leg. He didn't even hit the lure! I made a cast across this long point and as the line settling on the water, this bird just comes out of the trees right across the line. The bird takes line like crazy and I'm holding onto the rod with one hand try to find my pliers (which I had left on the bottom of the boat in an Einstein moment..) I watched the friggin Vixen fly out of the water into the bird's leg right as I run out of line and it snaps off the knot. Long story short(er)... my friends who was on the lake that day had to join me while we netted and proceeded to do removal surgery on a really pissed off heron.

Bass + Fisherman= BAASS ADDICTT!!!