Should have bought a lottery ticket.

[zehnd]

A buddy of mine and I were fishing at a local spot on Friday. It's a smaller place and we usually fish in the spring while the water is cooler as when the water warms up the meat on a Northern pike. It gets spongy and muddy tasting.

Anyway I have a favorite hook that I use there and its successful. I've even named it. It's one of a kind and I can't find another one like it. I've named it Stampy. It's a Rapala with a stamp on the side of some company I don't even know.

We'll on Friday I lost Stampy, the line broke while on a nice jack. I was upset but I knew that it would have happened sooner or later due to all the water lilies that grow in there.

I have another hook that's similar in looks and decided to use that. A couple of casts and low and behold I have a fish on. Brought it to the boat only to find Stampy in it's mouth. Pretty lucky I would say, but wait there's more.

The guy I was fishing with lost his hook too, we were laughing at the chances of us finding that one. Well I did no more than a half a dozen casts with a hook that looked the same as the one he lost. Guess what? I catch a fish with his hook in it's mouth.

We saved ourselves 14 bucks in hooks.

 

[bkwapisz]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

That's a great story. I always wondered if fish that were hooked and got off went after another bait or were scared off for a while. I guess I have my answer now. Glad you found your trusty lure.

 

[rebars1]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

Need pictures of that one, for sure!

 

[zehnd]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

Ask and you shall receive. I wanted a photo asap, so it's tied up in the net. The photo was from a BBerry. If I could post a bigger photo you would be able to see it closer.

Don't have one from the second catch because when I landed the fish with the net, both hooks flew around and hooked into the back of my shirt.

 

[zehnd]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

Our catch for that day. BTW I released the one that brought back my hook.

 

[DJ]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

I've had that happen to me, more than once with Barracuda. They are very territorial. I suspect pike are too.

Cool story.

 

[Doug N.]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

My God! You guys have more northerns than my dog has ticks! One looks more like a small muskie though. I gotta party up north some time.

I once caught a perch through the ice and I pulled him up. I noticed that my other bobber had gone down. When I pulled up the second one, the first one had disappeared. My buddy was laughing so hard at that point that he couldn't even drink his beer. He had watched the first one go back down the hole when I pulled on the second line. It turned out that the fish had got to both minnows one right after the other. Boy was I mad at being teased, but it was really was pretty funny after I got over the embarassment.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

It must be a locality thing cuz at first I thought you have a single particular "favorite hook" until I figured out you meant a lure. I know a snow bird who winters in Florida with a similar story. He has a place by the water and went out to his dock one morning just to mess around and lost his lure. Later that evening, he went back out just to mess around again. He caught a flounder with the lure that he broke off that morning in its mouth. He and his wife had flounder for dinner and he got his lure back.

 

[riptide09]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

About 20 years ago I was up in Maine fishing with my Dad. I had on a jointed floating Rapala that had been producing good results. I got a strike and set the hook. The fish took off and wrapped me up in the lily pads and the line broke. I bummed out and shortly after wards we moved on to other parts of the lake. During the course of the day I kept telling my Dad about the big one that got away and he was lucky cause it was surely the biggest fish in the lake.

Several hours later while returning to the ramp we stop to fish that same area again. I kept noticing the lily pads moving around in the same area where I lost the fish earlier. Finally I decide to go over and take a look. The line was wrapped up in the lily pads and stuck and there was my lure with the fish still on it. It wasn't the biggest fish in the lake, not even close. It was a 12" Pickerel.

My Dad and I laughed about that for years. Every time I would lose the biggest fish in the lake he would remind me of the Pickerel.

 

[Curly Fry]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

I haven't done many incredibles things. But i have forgotten to reel in my lure one night and left my pole on the dock. The next morning a nice 5 pound catfish was waiting for me on the end of the line.

 

[PGFISHER]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

Got tired of getting my bait stolen, so I put two hooks on my leader. I ran one hook through the anchovy bait and ran the other in from the opposite side; figuring that no mater which side they bit from I'd get them. No sooner dropped it to the bottom, and I got a bite. Set the hook and started reeling in. They must have been fighting over the bait 'cause I had a striper on each hook. Nobody on the boat believed me 'till I got both in the net.

 

[RobbyA]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

I was on Tybee Island pier and lost my rod and reel to something big ( forgot to put the bait click on). I was sick to my stomach, it was my favorite rod & reel. I stood on the docking mopping and groaning for an hour telling everyone who would listen and saying I would give anything to have my rod & reel back. About 2 hours after I lost it a guy was reeling his rig in and said I got something, not sure what it is. It was my favorite rod & reel! He said I heard you would do anything to have it back, I said yeah, he said, Well I guess I would like a 12 pack! I brought him a 24 pack and we split it the rest of the day. Fast forward 1 week, I go to cast the thing and it sounded like a clunker at idle. 2 hours of being drug around the sand and salt water is really not good for a reel. I still have it but can't use it as it is rusted up, and it is a really nice conversation piece in the garage.

 

[PGFISHER]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

My son had a bite and set the hook. As he reeled it in it felt like a cat, but his line snapped at the leader. He grumbled all day but when we were ready to go my wife pulled up the chum bucket and there was his catfish, hook line and sinker wrapped around the bucket.

 

[-DannyBoy-]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

I was cranking a lake in Quetico Park, Ontario by canoe a few summers ago with a friend. I was in the back and had a great strike. I set the hook and shortly after that my line snapped. Several minutes and about a half mile later my buddy's rod buckles. He fights it and pulls it in and sure enough, my crank was in it's mouth. A nice northern. They are super aggressive!

 

[DevonS]

Re: Should have bought a lottery ticket.

So where are you in Sask, zehnd? I thought we called 'em Jack up here, not Northern Pike... maybe that's just me thinking of what my grandfather called them. Of course, Canola was also called Rape or Rapeseed a while back too.