Northwest Fishing Reports

everyone has lost fish but what were your most memorable ones?

1. lost a steelhead on the green last year pushing 20lb on a spoon because of bad line about 10 feet from shore. when i lost thet one I almost threw up i did not feel good at all. I always check my line now and never fish with old line.

2. lost a silver on the kalama in the fly fishing area last year that was easily 25lb lost it 15 feet from shore it took a huge jump right next too a guy in waders and spit the hook, the guy turned around with an astonished look on his face and said "that was a silver" all i could do was nod and trudge back up river.

so how about you guys?

Wow..Lots to think of there.. I think my most heart breaking loss should have never happened but did.

Fishing the Sun River in Montana in a Huge Hole..I was flipping a Joes Hopper in the shoot that was falling into the hole. A few tap tap..set..nothing...another tap tap...set..felt like weeds...start stripping in and found a little 5 inch Rainbow on the end, and out of now where, just like Jaws coming up..I can still see it in slow motion.. a brown trout bigger then the 11 lb'er I had caught a few months before... hit the trout..took off with it in its mouth..fought a few min..and then I brought in a half a rain bow...2 inches worth..I had to sit down and calm down the shakes for a long time after that...never did see him again...but WOW

busted off a 12+ pound king on the wallace mouth this year. but got to see gian with his first metalhead

ok so i know this is the freshwater forum but my "one that got away" was in the salt, hope you dont mind . A couple years ago we were down in the bahamas for vacation and decided to take my uncles boat out for some deep sea fishing even though we had no idea what we were doing. We trolled some ballyhoo around for hours getting nothing except for some nasty barracuda until we finally had a huge hit. We fought the thing for quite a while and when we got it boat side it was about a 5' wahoo ("ono" in hawaii i think). when my uncle went to gaff it though the safety cap was still on and in the time it took to take the cap back off and make a second swing at the monster it spit the hook right at boatside. Easily woulda been the biggest fish i ever caught.

that sucks.

Change out Line every Great fish/oversized:-$ and fight and leaders More .

Salt water almost every fish:cheers: :chef:

How do you break off a 12lb king#-o thats good Bait size:bounce: :bom: :chef:

Quessing on a 25lb Coho#-o without weighing her and taping her a bit of a stretch:-" and less then 10 state side come in that large ever by a angler I got 2 that size off the wreck =salt water feeding fish in 2006 :cyclopsan

Both great fish= lines cheap get lots of it sent to me

25lb buck coho and 20lb steelhead Priceless:-$ on line or leader error:cheers:

1) I was fishing down in Oregon on the Clackamas in my friends sled when a monster steelie took my wiggle wort. I fought the fish down river a while then it took a big run to the other side of the boat and when it did some how some way I thumbed the spool... SNAP NO MORE FISHY#-o

2) I was fishing bass at my favorite lake when I made a cast under this tree and my line started to move to the right I set the hook and almost got the rod jerked from my hands. I fought the fish out of the tree and got her to the boat and as I bent down to lip a possible WA state record lmb she took off straight for a dock and Lilly pad field. Again I thumbed the spool and tried to turn her but again all I heard was SNAP I moved closer to the area and got to watch the monster bass for 20 minutes with my lure sticking from her mouth. Talk about a case of the shakes

(Wart) you guys and spelling and I got hell for Bonics:cyclopsan:-k :joker: ???

swedefish4life1 wrote:(Wart) you guys and spelling and I got hell for Bonics:cyclopsan:-k :joker: ???

It is ok Swede no one is perfect

Thats the point:-$ you guys masterbaitered#-o :@: it to bits:cheers: Bonics is much closer then French:bounce: :dwarf:

Well this won't qualify as much of a fish to anybody that fishes steelhead or salmon... but considering the lesson I learned and the age I was, I really meant something to me.
Those of you who know the Stilly well, must know that one BIG bend the river takes, the bend I'm talking about is past GRanite falls, and maybe just before Verlot?? It's the biggest bend in the river anywhere around Verlot/Silverton area.

When I was about 16, I used to hike all those lakes, like Heather lake, Lake 22 etc. We of course were trout fishing the lakes. One day on the way home, we stopped at that sweet looking bend in the river. Through my little Luhr Jensen Bolo spinner out there. What was either a Steelhead or Salmon took the spinner... The fish just went up to the surface in the middle of the pool...layed there, and then did a little roll over/flip. That was it...broke line, game over.
The thing that was so cool about it was that when I got my line in I could see that my knot had just unraveled#-o
I was a kid... and I had known for years that I had needed to really figure out a TRUE knot. I was tying a bunch of ****.
After that I quickly learned some knots, and a lesson from the moment.

My real heartbreakers were in the salt as well, hope that's ok.
First was off Clay Banks fishing kings, and I hooked into a SLAB. I always fish light gear, and I was in a little rental boat, so I played this fish for almost an hour, having my son motor around as I tried to not loose what would have been my first king. I finally got the fish up to the surface where I could see what I was battling, and my heart skipped a beat when I saw the size of that fish. Right about then there was a boat full of 7am drunks motoring towards my line, and even though I was yelling that I had a fish on my line that they were about to cross, they just looked at me and kept motoring, right over my line.......It's probably good that I didn't have a firearm with me that day....
Second was on my honeymoon, fishing off the Kona coast on the Big Island of Hawaii, on a charter boat. We had been trolling around for a while, so my wife and I had decided to go up to the deck on the bow and have some lunch, and sure enough as soon as I took the first bite of my sandwich the bell went off, fish on! I strapped in and began the fight of my life, a blue marlin, Captain estimated to be 250-300 lbs. It put on a spectacular show, and worked me until every muscle in my body was quivering, about 45 minutes to get it to the boat. But before I could get him in close enough to tag and release him, he still had enough gas left to do one last big head shake that worked the hook out of his mouth and he was gone. That was a great memory nontheless.

f1sh1nf00l wrote: But before I could get him in close enough to tag and release him, he still had enough gas left to do one last big head shake that worked the hook out of his mouth and he was gone. That was a great memory nontheless.

Somehow I almost think that moments like that are even better than catching the fish. I mean,, it's a catch and release fish..... but what the hay.... to have that kind of a moment, and then, slip...... It's all about a great memory.

About a 40" brown trout, I know because the hoop on my net is 20" and it was double the size. I was by myself, 10# leader, fought it for about 45 minutes, but in the end, the hook was not deep enough and my final attempt to net it by myself in the boat nocked it loose.

On the other hand, I will never forget the fight.

O.K. something a little different...a freshwater fish.

I was fishing on a farm pond using my favorite pond lure, a humpback shallow running Rebel, caught anything and everything on that lure. I was using spinning gear with 8 lb test line. I was running it through water that I knew was clear of stick ups. But, my lure came to a dead stop then after a few seconds my line starts moving up to the surface and I saw the biggest bass of my life (for some reason my drag was set too tight ). It shook its head and headed straight for the bottom with me scrambling to release the brake... SNAP.

I was sick. And to add insult to injury, about 5 minutes later the bass comes up out of the water shaking its head with my lure in her. Besides the lost fish, I lost my favorite lure. I thought that I'd never see it again. Surprisingly enough, I came back a few days later and found the Rebel lure floating next to the shore.

25# on that silver is probably a little exaggerated:) but it was the biggest silver i had ever seen.

Was flipping a 4.5" Tube into some reeds on the winchester wasteway. Wack! Fish on. Water was dingy and I couldn't see it till it got up near the boat. I seen the side of it flash in the water, big fish. Then SNAP! Drag was set too tight (novice mistake) and it snapped my 10lb test#-o

crankbait42 wrote:25# on that silver is probably a little exaggerated:) but it was the biggest silver i had ever seen.

Come on now, everyone knows if there is no pic and it got away, it was HUGE.

Maury wrote:

crankbait42 wrote:25# on that silver is probably a little exaggerated:) but it was the biggest silver i had ever seen.

Come on now, everyone knows if there is no pic and it got away, it was HUGE.

Darn right!! Few the witnesses the larger the fish!!

I was about 12 years old and my folks had taken me up the Walla Walla river ten or 15 miles from the mouth. I remember the water level being pretty low at the time, so I think it was late summer. We'd found a nice group of holes just down from a small bridge and set up shop. My mom didn't really fish much, so she read while my Dad I worked the water. I think I was using a simple nightcrawler on a hook and was letting it drift into the holes from the top. We hadn't had much luck that day, so I was not expecting much. No sooner had my line moved into the top of the hole I was working, then WHAM!, something nailed it hard and took it to the bottom. My pole doubled over and I was about to have a heart attack. I yelled for my dad and he started working his way down to me. That fish ran all over the hole, which really wasn't much larger than a hot tub and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get the thing to surface. It fought like a bass though. I was so excited my knees were shaking. I solely used 10 lb test back then (because I fished for everything from trout to steelhead with my one pole), but this thing was big and I was worried about my line. About the time my dad got to me, the fish made a big lunge straight down and SNAP! I don't think we caught anything else that day. I still wonder what exactly was on the end of my line and how big it really was. :cyclopsan