Let's hear some stories.

By the thread title this is going to get good. I can't wait for some of the stories.

I've never caught a fish in my life. Oh, I've tried. Nothing. Never. I've gone fishing plenty of times with people that have sworn I'd catch a fish. Nope. Never.

Haven't fished since I was a kid. Don't even own any fishins stuff.

edited to say: I like to eat fish, though

This post has been edited by alpo: July 21st 2007 9:26 AM

Due to time constraints my wife and I fish the Rio Grande just north of Taos when it's at it best: during the spawn, which is roughly the month of October.

From the confluence of the Arroyo Hondo and the Rio Grande we walk up stream at least a mile. Past numerous springs that flow out of the basalt cliffs, across sand banks, over and around car sized boulders, thru patches of wild mint and yes...poison ivy. Past century old cedar trees, junipers and ancient indian carvings on the rock. Above, there are many eagles that make this canyon home. The ledges provide cover for deer that escape danger and the heat. Deep in the 300 foot gorge, the experience of being there is as good as the fishing. The area is wild and remote, but the local fishing guides can be hired out if needed as they are familiar with these areas.

This area has family history for me. My great uncle, Adlai S. Hunt and his friend of 30 years, Alvin C. Wakefield were the second party to go down this notorious stretch of water in 1938. Wakefield died after their homemade boat broke up in the rapids. July waters were still high that year. My uncle survived. That area today is know by the local rafting companies as the Upper Taos Box and is rated Class 6 rapids-not negotiable. I have his first name as my middle name. According to my mom, he was sorta a free lance explorer and generally pushing the limits.

Anyway, once well away from the partying locals, only the sound of the river can be heard.
We use shiney lures and the fish attack nearly immediately if there are any in the deep pools. Mostly browns and rainbows and the odd Northern Pike that somehow got into these waters.

The state limit in these protected waters is two per day and that is easy that time of year. We generally catch and release all our fish except a couple for the pan. Many are in the pound and a half range and my largest so far is a 3.4# rainbow nearly 22" long. When I caught it, it actually had less fight than many others half it's size.
When returning from one of our many rock climbing trips thru here, we once observed a fish much bigger sitting in the shallows between two rocks.

Down here in Las Cruces, the Rio has some good size catfish which I have caught on chicken livers. They have less fight than the frisky trout in the colder northern New Mexico waters but are very tasty.

This post has been edited by TaosGlock: July 21st 2007 9:05 PM

wow Taos, the way you describe that, it makes me want to experience it too. that sounds like just the type of place that i can truly appreciate.

got any pics?

this is just a fishing story, not exactly about a certain fish.

several years ago my sister and her husband and kids were in town and wanted to go on a canoe trip. i borrowed a couple of canoes and off we went. it was a fun trip. we had to get out a time or two to go over some rough stuff, but nothing major. i caught some fish when i wasn't paddling, and generally had a good time.

well one day last summer, me and my buddy were bored as hell and we wanted to go fishing, but we were sick of fishing the same old spots over and over. i suggested we duplicate the float that i had done with my sister and her family. he agreed, but we neither one had a canoe. hmmm.....he had a john boat. so we loaded up, drove to the take-out spot and i left my truck there. we drove up to the boat landing about 7 miles north to find a pleasant suprise. it is not actually a boat landing, but a canoe landing. you know, the kind that is just two rails to slide the canoe down to the water. well, we should have taken a hint from this, but we were already there, so we said what the hell, lets go! we manage to get the john boat down into the river and we set off on our adventure.

we stop several times on little beaches or big rocks to do some fishing, as you can't really do much fishing when you are moving because you are constantly having to paddle to avoid rocks, and generally keep heading in the right direction. we were having fun, catching fish, and just soaking it all in. a whole slew of canoe's came floating past us and we could tell it was a boyscout troup doing an organized float. they kept looking at us really strange, like we didn't care.

about an hour or so later we could see them all up ahead. they were porting their canoes and walking them through some rough water. well, we couldn't really port and carry his boat as it was a little too heavy, so we both turned out hats around backwards and went head first into it. i am really suprised we survived without flipping, or busting a hole in his boat, but we did, much to their dismay. they all cheered and yelled after we made it through. we felt invincible.

we weren't making good time tho... the water was low, and his john boat floated a lot slower than the canoe i was in the last time i had been on that stretch of river. we decided to quit fishing and just try to make it to my truck before dark.

all was good till we got to a blind right-hand bend in the river. once we saw what was ahead in the river, it was too late, we could not change direction in time. a large tree had fallen into the river, right in a deep hole. the front of the boat skidded up the tree and put me quite high in the air. i yelled to kevin and asked him if we were F'ed or not? by the time i turned my head to hear his reply, he was already waste deep in the water....and he was still in his seat. when the front of the boat had hit the tree, it went up and water flooded into the boat. about 5 seconds later i was swimming. i suddenly realized my tackle box, among other things, was floating down the river. so was kevin. i knew i had no chance of getting to our stuff, but it sure was funny watching him run, and trip, over rocks to gather our things. he made it out of sight, so i started working on the boat. the hole it sank into was about 5 feet deep. i could still just barely have my head out of water with my hands on the boat. i managed to roll it over and try to bring it to more shallow water. i succeeded, but i forgot about something. the boat was upside down when it came to the surface and it created a HUGE vaccuum suction. i tried and tried to break it free but i couldn't. i had to wait on kevin to come back. while i was waiting, i dove down and tried rescue what things of ours i could see. the tie downs for the boat, the 4 fishing poles we lost, etc. i managed to get the straps, and 2 poles, but i couldn't find anything else.

meanwhile, kevin comes back with out tackle boxes and one life jacket. everything else he couldn't catch. the sun is getting really low, and we are still miles from my truck. it is cooling off, and i am soaking wet, and still shaking a little bit. well, i'm shaking a LOT because i'm freezing cold. my lips are turning purple and i feel like i'm getting hypothermia. we tried for at least 20 minutes to flip the boat over but the suction is too strong. finally kevin finds a dead tree about 10 feet long, and we use it as a huge lever to break the air tight suction the river had on the boat. by this time it was right at dark. no use floating in the dark. so we ditch the boat, and most of our stuff on the side of the river. there was a road not too far away, so we hiked through a corn field to try to hitch hike a ride. well don't we look like a sight for sore eyes. my shirt was lost in the incident, as was his. well, this is a pretty remote road, so we start walking. we only had to walk about 1/2 hour before someone came. i flagged them down and she stopped in her ritzy SUV. i explained what happened, and asked if she could give us a ride. i am very suprised she said yes, as we were dressed in the manner we were. God bless her soul for doing it though. i would have paid her, but i didn't have a single dollar on me. we went home and crashed as we were both exhausted.

the next day, we took his truck back down to where the boat was and it took us over an hour to get the boat up over the steep river bank. then we had to drag it around the corn field just to get to the truck.

looking back, that is one of the funnest fishing trips i have ever had, and i sure as heck won't ever forget it.

i will float that river again someday, hopefully this summer, but it will be in my canoe, and not his john boat.

Largest fish I ever caught was about 10 feet from a causeway bridge and 30 feet from the shore.

Thought I was hung up on the rocks but the rocks pulled back. Ended up being a pretty big Black Drum, which can get quite large the state record is 81 lbs and 51" long. This one weighed probably 30ish lbs and no idea how long. Probably right at or over 2ft. I didn't have a scale or a tape measure or anything. I released it back, wasn't any sense in keeping it. They taste pretty bad when they are that big and I'm not into the mounting thing. This was before I had a digital camera so go ahead and start with the fish story one liners....

I've had lines break on Red drums before, I use squid line on all my reels.

I got a few. The hikes to some of these areas can be quite challenging to mildly dangerous.
Despite the dry looking area:

It is quite lush in some places. This is fall pic, September, before the spawn.:

Wow that is beautiful! I don't think our part of the Rio Grande looks like that....could be wrong though I've only seen it a couple of times and admittedly it was near cities.

Well there was the time I hooked a pike, he wrapped around the bow anchor rope, water clarity was about 14 feet and I could see him. I kept the line tight and asked dad to come forward and lift the rope AND my fish. My brother, then about 5 and in the middle of the boat had secretly put a Lazy Ike from my tackle box on his Zebco 202/Kingfisher rig, he wanted to be like me and fish a lure. FYI this was 1975.

Dad comes forward; bro gets excited and makes a cast. Sinks lure in dad's skull, Dad grabs line in time to prevent him being casted out like bait! Dad is out of commission. Screw him; I am lifting the anchor and my largest pike ever with one hand, keeping line as tight as possible with rod in the other. Pike spits lure and swims away.

Meanwhile my mom is in a second boat nearby. Guy running that boat is the one who taught me how to fish, we will call him Col. V. He no longer likes the sight of blood, result of seeing too much in combat. Anyway in the bow of his boat is his dad, my quasi grandfather as mine were all dead. Gramps has had a few beers and his blood pressure drops and he falls backwards into my mom’s lap and passes out. This boat is going to be of no help to us.

So I am 11.5 years old and it's on me now. I run boat back to cabin while dad makes sure he does not lose an eye to a treble hook. The hook is in the bone in his forehead, we futz with it, standard hook removal tricks will not work. Dad hands me heavy duty pliers, says do it. He too is a Colonel and has five tours of combat under his belt. We will call him Col. Z. I have to man up if I am going to last long in this crowd.

WHOLLY CRAP! It is stuck in him good, no matter how hard I pull. I am getting a bit grossed out and dad is getting pissed, plus we are pretty far from anything close to medical help. Screw this Pop, it ain't coming out. About this time Col. V pulls up to the dock with Grandpa V passed out in my mom's lap. I snip the hook so the rest of the lure is not in his face. I go help unload the other boat, dad puts on his hat and Mrs. V. takes my Dad to nearest "Doctor" about 40 miles away. Mrs. V signs them both in as staying at cabin 3, R&R Resort.

Before they even get back the gossip lines light up. A call comes to the resort we are at, the owner is Col C. He retired and bought this old place and fixed it up. His son was one of my best friends and all the Dad's had served together. Mrs. C. answers the phone. "Did you know that Col. Z and Mrs. V are having an affair and using your cabin #3?" Mrs. C. says that is interesting and she will be sure to discuss it with them, their spouses, children and their parents when we all eat dinner together tonight, since they are ALL in cabin 3.

I ate and went back to the dock to get in the boat and go fishing for that pike! Dad is not here, that makes me the man of the house and that boat is mine now. Mom said that was enough fishing for now.

From then on, we always had two boats. One for Dad and panfishing, one for me and Pike/Walleye/Bass fishing.

Or would you guys rather hear the story about the time in 1981 when we started an Indian uprising at the same lake/reservation? I traded a cold 12 pack with the local chief and in return I got back my drunk friend, same one from above, his Pinto wagon, my drunk cousin and my drunk 11 year old brother.

Oh yeah, on both trips we caught a lot of fish. We always catch a lot of fish.

This post has been edited by Zoub: August 22nd 2007 7:04 PM

Tj Story Time "Who Caught Who?"

During the 80s, I lived on the Gulf. One of the things my buddies and I like to do is go the beach at night, build a nice fire, then surf fish. We had it down to science complete with custom welded stick in the sand pole holders. We would wade out about waste deep, throw the line as far as we could, then depend on the pronged anchor sinkers to hold them in place. We'd then get promptly drunk and wait on the tick, tick, tick, wheeeeeew and then have just 300 yards of line on on Penns to turn the fish before the line ran out.

Hard head cats were terrible in those days so rather than catch them, we'd bait heavy so best they could do was nibble at it. Going only for the big ones was the idea.

One night three sheets to the wind, my reel goes crazy. We know its a monster. Determined to not lose, I get in the fight of my life, reel, drag, reel, drag. Doing everything I can I hardly noticed going into the water. I never felt such a thrill when I knew I had turned that big fish but still it fought on. My arms felt like rubber bands but still I kept fighting.

Finally my real was full and this big fish hits surface just feet from me. My eyes grew wide and my stomach sank as I noticed a dorsal and tail fin about five feet apart. I think it was the black almost camo pattern so characteristic of a Tiger Shark that sent my surprise into sheer terror.

Its at that moment I realized I was in chest deep water with a shark that could cut me in half with one bite. It became a real case of "Who caught who?"

Screaming "Feet don't fail me now" I tried to run for the beach. I felt the tug of my pole and realized in my panic I hadn't released the reel. Without stopping I hit the lever over my shoulder and kept running.

I made it or I wouldn't be posting right now. The guys didn't believe me or thought it was be cool to go ahead and reel him in. That plan was scrapped as soon as they got him close enough to see his size.

That was one line I was more than happy to cut.

Tj

That sure is crazy TJ

The biggest fish I ever caught was a 4ft black tip shark.

The most fun I ever had fishing was trout fishing in the Youghiogheny river near Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.

The most fish I ever caught was when I was a kid with my Grandad.. we went to a starving farm pond, and caught over 200 bluegill in about an hour. They were all about as big as my hand (I was probably 8 yrs old).

I don't recall any bad experiences fishing... even when I get skunked, it's just great being out in the outdoors!

that's the beauty of it.

I caught a cold last time I went fishing.
Was for Rainbow trout up at Chimney Rock. Had a great time, didn;t catch anything but it was still fun.
That was years ago though.

Farm ponds are the best.

Oh no, I remember a bad time. When me and my dad went ice fishing when i was little at our pond, I had the great idea of goin down the pond dam on my tube (there was snow on the ground). Our pond was fenced in to keep the cows out. My head found its way into a fence pole

that explains a lot.

It is definitely possible to have a bad time fishing. Getting caught 20 miles offshore in a popup thunderstorm complete with lightning has a pucker factor outta this world.