The monster that got away ! Let’s hear your stories

[terrin]

In 2019 I was guiding out of westview marina with a very nice middle aged couple from Ont. The guy owned a 60 ft viking on Lake ont --so he's the fisherman--right-- wrong-its his wife Ellen who's the die hard. Last day of a very successful 3 day charter and we are just jinking around middle reef in the sunshine catching our remaining coho-no pressure-halibut and Springs are processed-easy day-I see a sunfish and point it out to them--that's nice!! 3 min later they want a picture so gear in the water I do a lazy 360- and they get ready to photo it from a safe distance. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose-unbeknownst to me there were 2 of them the rigger braid is hung up on it-thought my rigger was gone-reached for the knife when the braid rolled off him--safe- only for a second or 2-- the coyote hooked him-what a ride I thought sunfish were slow-this thing put up a bow wave-figured I'd lost my braid-so just palmed the reel and hung on -just about spooled and the hook straightened. Got everything back and just was amazed-never seen anything like it-unstoppable power

At least you knew what you hooked. Got spooled at Hutt Island mooching off the bottom one year could only hold on and palm the beast went straight to shore and found a boulder or something to break off on.

 

[Deepaaaar]

The day started with me losing my #1 rod off the kayak on the paddle out to the jigging grounds, so I had to use my backup rod. Jigged for hours and hours with no signs of life, then, finally, I saw some fish in the distance and raced to them. Tossed the jig. BAM. Fought the spring for a bit, then it swam to the surface, jumped, and spit the hook. No biggie, the fish were still around. Tossed it at another boil. WHAM... SNAP! Broke me off on the hit. Damn. Couldn't find the fish again and the wind came up. It was blowing around 15 kts by the time I decided I ought to paddle back in. Juuuust one more drift. As I was cranking up the jig to reset, my rod doubles over... zzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ... line screaming out. It was all I could do to hang onto the rod. ZZZZZ it kept going. 15 seconds... 30 seconds... 45... I'm beginning to get concerned about getting spooled, so I reach up and give the drag juuuust one click. SNAP.

I had forgotten to re-line my backup rod and the line was old. Oof. Who knows, it could've been a seal for all I know, I never got to see it. It was pretty fishy, though, and I'll just assume it was a tyee.

 

[Fisher_dude]

When I was 14, my dad and I were fishing around Norris rocks using live pole perch for bait looking for lingcod. My dad had a heavy rod setup with an old Penn senator with 60lb mono. He’s getting a bite so he sets the hook and the rod doubles over. The fish is taking line like nothing so we start to chase it. There was nothing we could do to stop it and after a 10 minute fight, the hook straightened out and off it went. No idea what it was.

 

[drpower]

Fishing from the Salmon Seeker at Kindakun Point last day of the season 2010, we had a Chinook next to boat in the 80lb or 90lb range, I stopped to get a camera out and lost it. I'm glad it got away because we would have bonked it.