What's the most memorable fish you've ever caught?

Mine occurred in the spring of 1970. I was with my family living in German Town (Philly) PA for a few months.
I was in the 6th grade, and was hanging around down on the Schuylkill River (I think that's the river that flows through Philly).

There were a few old black men fishing with their cane poles, I was hanging out with them checking out the fishing. Being from the westcoast this style of fishing was new to me. Tangled in the weeds I found a gold coloured egg hook attached to about eight feet of mono.

I wrapped one end of the mono around my right index finger, and while squatting along the waters edge I proceeded to flip the gold hook out into the rather still river-water. I gently jigged the bare hook back into shore. On about my second "cast" I hooked into a nice fat bluegill that I successfully landed.

The old men next to me were quite surprised. What sticks most in my memory is one of the guys exclaiming: "Look at the white kid, he don't even need bait". I'll never forget that moment. I gave him the fish.

I want to say it was around 1980, I was 18 at the time and went Sturgeon fishing with my dad on Rainy River, I hooked into one with my Walleye rod with 8lb Triline( didn't have a heavy rod along that day), and the fight was on.

It took all my line out down to the bare spool three times, we ended up starting the motor up and had to keep going down stream with it until it tired.

Took an hour and five minutes and 3 miles down the river to get it in the boat!

After dad and I got it in the boat he hooked into one and got to fight it for about 5 minutes until he got it up to the boat.

When we went to net it the line snapped and we thought it was gone, but somehow it snagged on my hook that was dangling over the side of the boat and I got
to reel that one in too!

My fish was 32lbs and dads was 16.

Not mine, but the best.
Older gentleman called saying he'd heard I could find large pike. He was suffering the effects of a stroke and could not move well nor certainly stand in a boat. I set the trip up and in we flew. Morning of the first full day in camp it blew like a hurricane but he wanted to
try. He wasn't able to cast so we trolled and as we turned out into a 4 mile channel we hooked up.

I had to stay in that wind blown channel to keep clear of rocks and reefs, he had to stay seated, and the boat had waves breaking over.
Re checked his life vest and kept the battle up nearly 30 minutes. Finally got the pike along side and a hand up under the rakes and lifted her into the boat. Well, not a smart move on my part as the boat at this point was shin deep of water. That big girl took every advantage of that thrashing and lunging non stop.

Finally calmed the fish down, got some pictures of him sitting there holding her on the boat seat with water swirling half way to his knees. A smile bigger than big. I had an ipad in a ziplock I used for a fast bunch of pictures that day and for the rest of that trip the guy kept it on and near smiling at the pics every chance he could.

The fellow had a reproduction made, she was a touch under 50 inches true measure when we released her.
He lived long enough to see that repro on his wall, I think God has a soft spot for fisherman.

Osky

There's been a few,most memorable would be a musky i caught.It was a windy day and we were fishing a saddle with the wind ripping through it,i saw the follow and went into the figure 8.It was tough to see clearly due to the choppy waves,overcast day etc,i remember seeing my orange and black bucktail stop so i set the hook back into the musky guessing it had stopped because it was in the mouth.Love those boat side strike's,fighting the wind and fish was awesome,then the musky jumped boat side it was like slow motion a big fish vertically 2 feet out of the water,i was looking up at the musky.I'll never forget that jump......Another memorable fish was when i lived in Montana,i had taken a friend from ID to the Beartrap canyon Oct 23 to do some streamer fishing on the Madison river.I remember my second cast i hooked a giant 27" brown trout with my 5 weight on a sculpin pattern,my friend eye's got huge.I told him that was not the norm,great fall spawning colors big hooked jaw and no camera.Those are my 2 most memorable fishing stories.

There's a few that stand out.
1) dad and I (probably age 9) @ a small pond warden comes by checks licenses tells us not many people here lately + they just stocked so no limit for you two. Dad pulling out 2 at a time against my one. I finally caught 2 on the same cast. Ended up with nearly 40 trout.

2) deep sea fishing around NY. I caught a fluke my 2 kids at the time were beyond excited. Urijah (not 1 yet) wanted to fish so I manage to drop line and had to reel in to move boat. Next stop Urijah helped drop the line got a hit right away. He also got a fluke. Reeling in while holding a baby was a challenge

3) Shayla and Urijah fishing with my dad one caught a small mouth and the other a catfish.

4) Noah the other day with his sunfish

Summer of '98, I was fishing a pond that had been stocked in the late 70's with bass, blue gill and 50 channel cats. The cats couldn't reproduce in the standing water and none had been caught since the early 80's.

So on this night it was a hot, dank evening and I as in a canoe with my buddy. The fish were not biting. After an hour of nothing we were about to head in. I had an earth worm on the hook and we were in the shallow end. I flipped it into the water, and it felt like I caught a snag. I tried to reel in and couldn't move the reel. I jerked it trying to get it unsnagged. That the line started moving away, then it started taking out line. I tightened the dragg and all of a sudden the canoe started getting dragged around the pond. This went on for several minutes. Finally I got some line in and a massive channel cat of over 20 years old surfaced. We banked the canoe and I went to the house and got a camera. Snapped some pics and tossed him back. Didn't weight it but it was easily a citation.

48 1/2 lb yellowcat on troutline

We got permission to fish an old gravel pit. Owner wanted us to just keep a few to eat and release the rest. My first fish was a 19 inch crappie. Took pictures and released it. Had to be close to 4 pounds. We caught 45 thst night, with the smallest being 11 inches. A week later they started pumping the pit again and couldn't catch a fish after that.

I didn't catch it but when my boy was three he catch his first fish with me. A little bass 4 or 5 in. long playing with a lure almost as big as the fish. I think a lot of that day.

When I was about 13 or 14 me and my dad were out bass fishing in a small swampy lake we like fishing, we weren't having much luck maybe one or two 11-12 inchers. A few days earlier he bought me a bait as a gift called a "bassarino" or however it's spelled. This bait was huge and bulky and I honestly didn't expect to catch anything on it but I figured I wasn't having much luck on anything else so I'd give it a try. Anyway, we're going around shore casting and my dad goes "how about we take the boat to the thick stuff and cast in the holes?" So that's what we do. We pull up to this decent size hole and he says "you cast to the right I'll cast to the left" he casts to the left but I didn't cast to the right. When I was little my dad told me "if the water ever looks like it's boiling there's a bass down in the weeds trying to stir up little fish" and I noticed the water boiling in the middle of the hole. I casted my bait right on top of the bubbles and almost instantly the bubbles stopped, I popped the bait and it dove like it does when you pop it just right and I saw a HUGE mouth open underwater and the fight was on, the whole time my dad's saying to me "you got a dogfish on" but I told him it wasn't. It gets close to the boat and it's mouth opened and he says "that ain't a dogfish!" He netted it and it was a 24 1/2 inch largemouth. The only other fish I've caught on that bait was an 11 inch bass. That bass now lives on my wall

7 in. bluegill caught on a 6 in. Rapala,
somehow fit the entire treble hook (all 3)in it's mouth,
or
Went ice fishing for steelhead,there was one other guy there,
he hadn't got anything all morning and had holes all over,
offered me to use his holes so I wouldn't disturb the water,
dropped a jig and almost instantly had a fish on,
he grumbled a little but came over to assist me,
he was real "impressed" when the fish turned out to be a 29 in golden rainbow (palamino).

it would definately be one with my Grampa.And ive caught 50+musky,40+plus northerns,and 30 plus walleyes without him around.probably be a 10-11 in crappie.

2 1/2 pound bluegill on ultralight 2lb test on a rebel minnow lure.

Same creek 4lb spot (alabama bass) hits a rooster tail on the same ultralight rig. Wade fishing, the fish hits current and spools me. I chased that fish down to get back line, he spooled me twice.

Lots of memories fishing that creek.

this thread make anyone else remember just how much fishin you've done over the years???

54.5" long x 27" girth Musky on lake Mille Lacs. She ate at boat side and it just happened the two people with were watching my pearl Pounder Bulldawg as it came in. The fish looked like it could have swallowed a basketball. After a short fight she was sent back to fight another day. I should have sold all my musky gear that day as I havn't come close to anything that size since.

WS

Mine was/is a 26 lb. rainbow trout caught in 1982.

Funny you'd ask this right now. Just yesterday we caught it! I told my wife, this is the best fish we've ever caught...



No, it wasn't the biggest fish we've caught but that older fellow is a very good buddy of mine who's dealing with some major health issues and that's his grandson holding the fish. We caught it on a ditty pole, 34#, but the joy on my buddies face when he got to watch his grandson wrangle it into the boat, and then again later when we had this picture enlarged and framed and surprised him with it, made this fish by far the best one we ever caught!

~ADC~

A 50 inch really girthy muskie (pictured) stands out for me since it was during the Muskies Inc. International tournament and I was fishing with my youngest son. It hit my homemade surface bait in the bullrushes and I could see it coming like a shark with it's dorsal fin and tail out of the water. It did not win since it took multiple fish that year to place. I had lost one on the jump just previous to that one that was easily as big.

Another was a 41 inch Pike (no pics) that I caught during the Northern's Inc. tournament on my home lake (second place). I was also fishing with the same son and we both got to see it engulf a spinnerbait after it missed it on it's first attempt. Something about catching a big fish during a tournament that gives me an extra adrenaline rush and sharing that with my son makes it especially memorable.



Awesome stories, guys....keep 'em coming!

I remember many fish that are memorable for me (I have fished a lot) I could tell many stories and would still have some to tell, none super big but many special

Big bass with grandpa the year he died
Big bass with son and granddaughter in the boat
Nice walleye that graces my wall, my son netted it, we had no idea there were walleye there
Big brown in a tiny creek at my in-laws place on the second cast of a trout opener
Nice steelie off a pier in Rochester NY Lake Ontario when I tossed my rod in to my luggage for a business trip
A Northern Pike on opening day that had three other hooks/lures with broken lines stuck in his lips
Yea I fish a lot

my brother in law was floored with stage 4 cancer about a year ago and i watched him help his 3 yr old grandson catch a couple trout outta a little pond on my farm last weekend.very memorable for all.