Missed fish woes!

[Ty Sennett]

What fish this year did you not catch, but wish you had? Here's mine:



I'd say the fish that went after my creeper down on the south end was the most impressive. Didn't touch the bait. Really moved water like crazy though. Lonardi and Snizz were with me. We saw a bunch of big fish that night but the one we didn't see the length of was the one I really wanted. We saw three or four in the four foot range but this one was way different. I just really wanted to get a look at that fish. We always seem to see big fish with those guys. I didn't post how many fish we saw that night because I could hardly believe it myself. Fish of all sizes. One of the best nights of fishing I've seen. And we didn't catch any! Doh!

[twells]

I lost a fish during the Hayward tourney. I cranked the hooks on the fish to have everything go slack. The fish hit a double cowgirl. after I looked at my busted Florocarbon leader and figured out what happened the fish came completly out of the water head shaking hearing the CLANKING from the bait still in the mouth of the fish. That one was roughly 44-45 and thick. It would have been my biggest this year. Plus it hurts knowing you buried the hooks good and the fact they were still in the fish.

[Jason L.]

Damn, I wish you would’ve had a chance to put hooks in that fish. Minus the first fish we saw getting any one of the others would have been nice. I’d trade an upper 40’s fish to experience that night again.




“Topwater cough cough”

[Lund4Fishing]

Mine was an early Sept. morning on Pete's. We were watching a video the night before and there were many clips of fish pushing a huge wall of water from behind. Then a savage hit. I commented that I had never had a fish do that. That morning while bringing a globe back across a medium chop I saw the water behind it start to churn. I said to Pete somethings behind it. Then came the wall of water and the big girl came over the top of the globe and crushed it, it really was cool. I felt the fish, set, and the lure came flying back at me. After inspecting the globe the head of the lure was full of deep teeth marks. Usually missing a fish that big, upper 40's, pisses me off, but the hit was so great I didn't really mind...........no, really I didn't mind. Ah who am I trying to kid.

Have a GREAT Thanksgiving

[deantre]

Hi Ty, when was that night, any special conditions, dark moon, windy,frontal? Just curious about the conditions.
I had my first follow ever on the sisters, had been at it for 5 hours and was not paying attention like I should have. Brought the bucktail back to the boat, did an L and paused to look at my depthfinder, glanced back just in time to see those big white jaws sink away from my bucktail that was just hanging in the water, as you say, "DAH". Then there was the big one that followed my ghosttail in when I was just beginning my day with Fred Hirsch. I was pumped and when I saw it I immediately went into a big fig 8 and pushed the rod down deep. Fred saw it too, thought it went maybe 30. Well I'm down there doing my 8's like my life depended on it and Fred finally said, "Dean I think it's gone". Then he said "Dean you can stop now". Got my first not an hour after that, finally.
Ty, could you go through your thought proccess as you start a day on the water step by step. What goes into your location, lure selection, retrieve etc?

[Keith M]

It was an early august morning down here on okauchee about 3rd cast into a spot were I had seen some fish before, but definatly not this girl. I was throwing thats right one of those dahm pacemakers, as the bait reached the boat I saw her behind and below it. As soon as I paraelled the boat she lunged at it but just barely caught the rear treble, with one solid head shake the bait came flying up and over the boat. I wanted the cry! EASILY 50+ I would bet the bank 52-53?

[Texas Dan]

Mine was in July on the east fork of the chip. I was dragging new weedless jitterbug bait (i forget what it is called something like..."trash bug") through some wild rice and the bait just dissapeared at the edge of the rice. I felt weight and set the hook and the fish came directly at the boat. I caught up to it and when it saw the boat it turned and started taking drag back towards the weeds. My mistake was pulling up on the fish, rather than having my rod to the side, because my tight drag stopped the fish short of the weeds (only ten feet away), but I ended up bringing the nose of the fish up. You can guess what happened next, the fish came completely out of the water and cartwheeled, throwing the bait.

I got a good look at the fish twice and it was flawless and wide. My personal best is a 46" and this looked to be at least that size. Considering my biggest this year was 40", that really hurt.

Dan

[BucktailScott]

One morning around 5am in chicago bay I caught a nice large mouth bass on a black/orange bucktail. It was to dark to see well so I grabbed my musky net to net it, but just as I was scooping the bass up a 45" musky jumped in the net with the bass and chewed the crapolo out of my bass.
My brother in-law and me laughed for hours.

[lil man tait]

The fish I would have liked to have caught was for my brother in law. We were back in the slop and the boat ran one over in an opening the size of a kitchen table. the fish darted to another opening, where two casts later my brother in law set the hooks on it. wasn't very big, less than 40", but he is just getting started in musky fishing. It would have been huge to him.

The one I missed: A 40" fish back in the slop again. Saw it follow about 40 feet out and into two figure 8s. on the second figure 8, I ran the reel into the side of the boat, breaking the reel and scaring the fish.

tait

[ryanmitchell]

Pewaukee Lake in southeastern Wisconsin.

This was my first half season musky fishing. I caught my first 2 muskies in one Day, July 5th, and never caught another one after that. Sad = $1500 later!

I went out with a guide on an early October Friday. Fished for a couple hours, threw on a Black/orange blade Super Raider (it was a bait my buddy brought along, not one provided by the guide). Three casts later and 40 yards out, this really good fish wolfed down the raider and headed towards the boat. I was in the back corner and the other angler and guide were on the front deck. After he saw the boat, he made a sharp turn to my right towards the front of the boat. I should have followed the fish to the front deck, and let him have his way, but I panicked, tried to horse him back to my corner of the boat. He took the opportunity to leap out of the water atleast three feet and spit out the raider. It happened so fast. Guide thought it was mid 30's me and my buddy thought it was high 30's. Anyway, one I won't forget. I was not that disheartened. It was just cool to see the black on the raider all chipped up.

[Snizz]

I was with 3 other people in the boat...I was in the back, reeling in a spinner bait, and I swear i saw no follow...and while i was looking at my buddy reeling in his lure he looked at mine just sitting at the side of the boat with a high 30" fish just chewing on it...needless to say, but whoopsies...i think i was busy scratching my ass or something...not paying attention...

i also blew one on a spinner bait deep in the weeds cuz i wasn't keeping the pressure on him, cuz he was a mid 30" and I wasn't that interested...but in retrospect(cuz i didnt get one this year) i wish i tried a little harder...

I prolly missed more but those are the 2 that stand out in my head...it was a miserable season for the boat i was in...and we hit the water hard all year...

...but we did get a 44.5" for a guy who never goes so we figured that we have banked some "muskie karma" for next year...

Geeze i feel like the cubs...(always next year)

[RobertTB]

That would be the one I missed on Chief on the VERY first cast of the year. I had a brand spankin' new Pacemaker (plastic, black/orange) on, flung that bad boy out there and about half way back on the retrieve, I just had to glance down at the depth finder. Bad idea. Fish hit it, and I just stood there. I found that ironic because I was sitting down. None the less...

It was a classic good thing/bad thing. Good in that it was the first cast, that seemed to bode well at the moment, and bad in that I missed the first hit. Ack. Oh well.

I did manage to nail a couple of Pike later on during the trip that were not so foutunate to escape the Suick. They saw the net, the pliars, even the hook cutters ! Way cool. Wheeeee. Now I need to figure out how to snap a photo when I fishes by me lonesome. A challenge indeed. ( For me. )

Hold it ! My feeble memory has suddenly jogged itself ! I was fishing with this one dude that I fish with, when a fine Muskie came up behind a Pacemaker with it's mouth wide open. In my infinite wisdom, I chose to slow down my retrieve speed. So long, Muskie. Or do you say Musky ? That one dude chastized me for not going FASTER. I blew it. Bummer.

Someday, I might actually catch another Muski....uhh...Musky.