The biggest fish you almost caught

wallie

bigoutside

Wallie,
I was fishing at 2 in the morning off the shore at the mouth of apalachacola bay with my brother in law.

I had a live pinfish on a 1oz sinker and had cast into "the hole" and rested my rod on a chair.

I heard line running off my spool. Before I could get to it, my rod was being pulled down the beach at an easy walk.

I picked it up, adjusted my drag, and watched 250 yds of 25# test spool off my reel and snap.

It never turned. Never slowed. Never changed speed or pace.

Near as I can tell, I hooked a submarine.

Not sure if it was one of ours or one of theirs. Nor the class or tonnage.
But that's the biggest.

11echo

I had a similar event (like bigoutside) happen to me on a 3 day charter boat out of Dana Point. I was fishing with a live bait ...not much action at the time and I was BSing with my Father-n-Law ...had 20 to 30 pound test line on and I hooked "something" ...drag was screaming, and line was just pealing off, got down to about half a spool when some of the old-pro's yelled "grab our line or you'll loose it all". I did and the line popped right there, got about 1/4 of it back, so I had 3/4's of a spool to continue fishing the other 2 days with. Everybody thought it was a seal ...but we didn't see any when we were out there! Maybe it was a sub! We were right up-against the Navy property off that island!!?

wpage

Offshore @ Hudson Canyon hooked and fought a swordfish. After I landed it the mate measured it @ 71.5" and unfortunatly it was a "short" the minimum was 72" and back over the side he went...

What a beautiful creature he was! And may still be.
Thats my big fish story!

montanajoe

....almost caught a 'Super Fish',once by talking to Joe on the computer,,,Amend,,[;)][;)][:0][:0]

317wc

Biggest fish I have ever landed was a Pacific halibut, just over 160 pounds. XH Shimano jigging rod paired with an Avet HX lever-drag reel with 80 pound test PowerPro. Fun, but those big fish don;t really fight, they use their body size and shape to their advantage, still took about 20 minutes to get into the boat. We would usually harpoon them, with a large harpoon attached to a buoy, once they are tired out we would release them, or, in some cases, a .22 or .38 round between the eyes, would subdue them sufficiently. I have seen some halibut too big to pull in the boat, (even with 3 strong guys), one was taken out of the water with our cargo crane, it was over 400 pounds. When I was a rookie saltwater fisherman, we tried to pull a smaller one in the boat(100 pounds or so). Ended up with a broken finger when I got my hand caught between the gaff and the still alive fish.

gartman

Last time in Baja had lines out for dorado and suddenly had a nice sized marlin ripping off line. Each jump took it farther away and my 20# line was nearly gone before I got turned around and started chasing it and regained the line. Just when I cut the motor it dove under the boat. I shoved the rod down deep but was not quick enough to back off the drag so it broke off. Maybe I didn't "almost catch it" but I think I at least scared it some.

dcso3009

quote:Originally posted by gartman
Last time in Baja had lines out for dorado and suddenly had a nice sized marlin ripping off line. Each jump took it farther away and my 20# line was nearly gone before I got turned around and started chasing it and regained the line. Just when I cut the motor it dove under the boat. I shoved the rod down deep but was not quick enough to back off the drag so it broke off. Maybe I didn't "almost catch it" but I think I at least scared it some.


Where do you fish out of in Baja? I go almost every year, mostly to Cabo San Lucas, but also to Los Barriles.

gartman

I was out of San Lucas Cove, just south of Santa Rosalia.