Soon to be two years ago. Shortly after my dad passed I went to the small 58 acre lake he and I had fished many times together. The lake he taught me how to fish really. I hadn't been there to fish in close to 20 years. I was bass fishing but wanted to catch one "big" redear for my pop. I caught several nice bass then got after the gills and red ear. Dad talking to me all the while as he always had. Came to one stump and he said to make sure I cast to the deep side of it. I did and bingo, a 10.5 inch ear. I sat there looking at that fish, recalling the best times of my life for most of an hour.

I have caught many larger fish, many 'special" fish, none meant to me what that fish does.

About 9 years ago when i was in 3rd gradew we went to minnesota for the first time and i read about pike and walley anf muskie and really wanted to catch any of the species because they all had teeth and i never caught anything with teeth. Well we trolled alot and i had alot of big fish break the line. It didnt look like it was gonna happen but our last night there at about dark i was fishing off the dock with my sister and we were using minnows for bait under a bobber, i should of had glasses because i couldnt see worth a darn but i didnt so i told my sister to tell me if i got a bite cause i couldnt see my bobber. She said i had a bite and i reeled in a 24 in. Pike. I was running round yelling i caught a pike lol. Ive caught more pike now on other minnesta trips but thats still my biggest.

21" rainbow in black hills

I netted my son’s Land Locked NH Salmon....27 inch 9.28 lbs.....and yes I spent all the money and had it mounted...old school way...with the original Fish Skin

10 lb 2 oz largemouth around 1975. Lake Gaston in NC.

254 Lb Pacific Halibut-Cook Inlet-1990
6 Foot Lake Sturgeon-Black River-1987
62 Lb Chinook Salmon-Kenai River-1990
24.5 Lb Rainbow-Ganaraska River-1998
13 Lb 11oz. Walleye-Lake Ontario-1999
21 lb Coho (Silver)Salmon-N.Sandy Creek-2004
5.5 Lb Smallmouth Bass-Brocton Shoal, Lake Erie-2006

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It was 1975, and the TV commercials advertising Ron Popeil's "Pocket Fisherman" were airing daily on TV...
My Grandmother could see that I wanted one bad, and secretly placed a mail order, she surprised me with it one hot
July summer day back when kids did much more than waste time on cell phones.

Loaded up the Pocket Fisherman on my Schwinn Stingray chopper bicycle, and headed toward Little Cypress Creek.

First cast under the old iron RR bridge and the needle float bobbed, before being pulled under.

It was a nice and dark, wide back bluegill, that swallowed the cricket on a long shank #4 cricket hook,
and fought a skinny, excited, kid like crazy...Might as well have been deep sea fishing for Marlin that day, because for a kid
with a pocket fisherman, Little Cypress creek was as good as the ocean...Thanks Mamaw!

The charters caught some big tuna and mako when I mated out of Montauk Ny.

For me probably my first fly fish trout at 16 years old and all by myself, Catskill Mountains, Ny.

12lb brown trout I caught in the Holston river using live shad for bait, riding on a john boat that we stuck a jet ski motor on so we could take it up the shallows

When I was about 12 I hand snared a 12 lb pickerel at night with a light while spawning.

May 29th,1989. My youngest son was born about 3:00 am. They had to stay overnight so I went fishing. My son weighed 5 lbs 15 oz. I caught a largemouth bass that was weighed on an official scale at 5 lbs 15 oz. It's looking a little ratty but still hanging on his wall.

With my grandpa

Probably a halibut I caught in the Icy Straights of Alaska. I killed a brown bear a few hours earlier, and had just got back to the big boat with the bear when a good halibut took my bait. Hardest and longest fighting fish I ever caught.

Mine is a 50.5 inch muskie that I caught in 1987 using my Mitchell 300 and 8 lbs. test line in our 12 foot row boat with no motor and a small bass net. It took 40 plus minutes of slow work to finally boat the fish. My uncle who got me into fishing mounted the fish for me while he was dying with cancer. It is on the wall and a whole host of memories, mostly about people instead of fish.

Bryce

A five foot shark right off the Malibu pier as a kid.

For me its the little things, like my grandsons first crappie fishing trip this year. We caught it just right, and that youngster caught about 100 crappie that day. There is nothing better than a bank full of slab crappie.

I was about 5 years old. Sometime around 1955. All the old guys had fancy baitcasting reels and steel rods and weren't catching anything. I caught a 22-24 inch northern on a cane pole with redworms for bait. I was a hero.

more about the people than the fish i see and agree.

I believe it was 2003 ice fishing on the back waters of the Mississippi. I hooked into a 36” Northern and it was the first and only Northern I’ve caught.