Weekend mixed bag

Well, I managed to get out on Sunday to drown some worms and toss a little bit of hardware. Got there about 2pm and very quickly was into some Rock Bass and Catfish. The Catfish are fun (when they don't try and swallow the hook...and yes, I fish barbless mostly) and pretty consistent. I did manage to land a few Smallies (pound or so) and a surprise catch...a friggin Gobie! I have NO idea how the heck it would have gotten up that high (above Belwood). That of course ended up on the bank!

So while I was fishing I see this "odd" thing floating in the water (at first I thought it was a stick)...and wondered if it was a Gar, but then realized it was a big bloody turtle with his tail straight up floating backwards down the river. He would disappear every once in a while and I did land a catfish with a chunk out of him (fresh and bleeding).

I get this BIG hit and then nothing...reel in...hook is missing! Damn turtle! A bit later another big hit (but I could see the Turtle)....bam bam bam...peeling off some line...then nothing. Reel in...hmmmm....hook is still there...well, there are some big Carp in there...so a possibility..just didn't feel like a Carp though.

Meanwhile....an old boy shows up and starts fishing off of the bridge and within 5 minutes...his first Bass....he shuffles back to his truck, comes back and 5 minutes later another one! Goes back to his truck...walks back and does it again another 5 minutes later! LOL! He jumps in his truck, stops on the bridge and tells me of a place I should try. He leaves and I start to pack up.

There is still 1/2 a worm left on my hook, so I thought what the heck...he's gone, so I'm going to snake the spot he was at and giver a go. I go to where he was and tried for about 15 minutes and nothing! I thought...hmmmm...there is a hole on the other side of the bridge that is a hard cast, so figured I would give it a try. Drop the line in....jig it a couple of times...and BAM...this was no little smallie!! Reel in...and it is the biggest Pike I have seen in that part of the river (hard to judge on size or weight...but I have landed a 4-1/2lber and this was a LOT bigger and quite thick!)

Now I have a problem....he's 20 feet or more below me! There is NO way I could get to any shore to try and land it...so now what? I didn't want to cut the line and leave that much attached to him...so...figuring I'm going to grenade my little sub 6 foot Ugly Stick...go for broke and try and reel him in (hoping that maybe the line would break at the knot). Got him just out of the water, he gave a bunch of huge head shakes and dropped back in!

Learned a couple of lessons I did!! Barbless is a good thing...and don't fish off of a damn bridge if you can't get to the shoreline easily!

Tight lines all!

And no, I didn't get a picture as I figured I would drop my phone off of the bridge for sure if I tried! LOL!!

OCDComputing said:

There is still 1/2 a worm left on my hook, so I thought what the heck...he's gone, so I'm going to snake the spot he was at and giver a go. I go to where he was and tried for about 15 minutes and nothing! I thought...hmmmm...there is a hole on the other side of the bridge that is a hard cast, so figured I would give it a try. Drop the line in....jig it a couple of times...and BAM...this was no little smallie!! Reel in...and it is the biggest Pike I have seen in that part of the river (hard to judge on size or weight...but I have landed a 4-1/2lber and this was a LOT bigger and quite thick!)

Now I have a problem....he's 20 feet or more below me! There is NO way I could get to any shore to try and land it...so now what? I didn't want to cut the line and leave that much attached to him...so...figuring I'm going to grenade my little sub 6 foot Ugly Stick...go for broke and try and reel him in (hoping that maybe the line would break at the knot). Got him just out of the water, he gave a bunch of huge head shakes and dropped back in!

Learned a couple of lessons I did!! Barbless is a good thing...and don't fish off of a darn bridge if you can't get to the shoreline easily!

Tight lines all!

And no, I didn't get a picture as I figured I would drop my phone off of the bridge for sure if I tried! LOL!!

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Nice report!

If it's any consolation, I will add my report from today.

I caught the biggest pike I've ever seen in my life today, netted him twice, but I was on a platform about 6-8ft above the water, and the net was too small for him to fit in. Tried to get him up, but the net would bend and he'd fall right back in the water. This was a 20lbs+ fish, around 4 ft in length (Lake Ontario giant). On my last attempt to get him in the net, the treble got caught in the mesh of the net and he shook off..I watched him swim away. Happy he swam away so well, and devastated that I didn't get to hold him up and get a pic.

I was casting totally impromptu (was nearby promising looking water..had my rods..when in Rome..), when I noticed him, thought it was a tree at first. 2 follows on the jitterbug, nothing on a jointed rapala, nothing on a spinnerbait. Then switched to a silver Mepps Aglia 3, and sure enough, first cast he takes it.

The power pro is amazing for bringing fish in quickly, with the drag set tight, the fish hardly gets tired at all. It was pretty funny, my net was in my car, so I had to remotely unlock it and get a passerby to grab it and bring it over.

This was the fish of my life. It's a bittersweet night for me.

Shortly afterwards got a snot rocket then called it a day. Funny how the giant was hooked perfectly in the roof of the mouth, and yet the little guy ended up with the mepps deeper!

The aglia is mangled but still usable.

salmotrutta, yep...we do get into situations that are unexpected as fisher-people! LOL! We fish and we learn...and usually from things like this!

Nice reports fellas - even though you never got them to shore, they're still great experiences and stories! Thanks for the share!

Lol, those snapping turtles are always trouble. Sounds like you found an awesome hole.

MFG - the memories will always be there for sure!

cppronin - Not a bad place for some pretty constant action...lol..it wouldn't be bad if all the catfish didn't keep trying to swallow the hook!

Thanks MFG.

There's only one thing I can do. It's to go catch a giant white sucker, rig the sucker up, huck him out where that pike lives and catch him again! I don't think he'll hit a mepps ever again :lol:

And I should come prepared with a big salmon/muskie net.

Great report and thanks for the share. I think that many of us have had a good turtle story, mine ended in a rapala being bitten completely in half. thanks again