Your best (or worst) fishing trip story.

[Shane Limbeck]

Every fisherman has one. The perfect day that still feels like a dream, or the total disaster that turned into a legend.

What’s yours? The one that still makes you laugh, curse, or reach for another drink when someone brings it up.

Tell the story, set the scene, and let the rest of us feel it too.

 

[Pete Correale]

Running our 45 Bonadeo back up to Montauk from Miami a couple years ago.... Decided to run out through Oregon inlet when I had no business doing so in heavy winds, an ebbing tide and gnarly sea state. Every other boat in the fleet made the right decision to not leave the dock that day. The ocean was in absolute chaos as I came through the inlet, it was like a washing machine. I figured once I got out into deeper water it would lay down a bit. I pushed through out into about 70 to 80 feet of water and made my turn to start the 200 plus mile trip up the coast, and the first thing I said to my buddy with me was "holy shit, there is no way we can do 200 miles in this shit, we are going to have to 8 knot it." About a minute later we came into a patch of water that had a full on breaking wave that I couldn't see over the top of. As I came up the face of the wave all I could think was that we were going to break everything on the boat when we came back down the other side of it. The reality was worse than that, there was another wave even bigger about a second behind it. I buried the entire bow of the boat, and took on so much green water that I flooded two of our four outboard motors and lost power in them. Once I’m down to two motors I have very limited maneuverability, and my max speed is reduced to around 6 knots. At that point I remember looking towards the beach, about a mile or two away and wondered whether I would be able to swim there once the boat sinks. I was eventually able to make my turn back towards the inlet without taking a wave on my beam. I white knuckled through the entrance fighting tide and swell, and finally made it back under the bridge to flat, but skinny water. I was so disheveled I ended up running the boat aground a few minutes later and had to get sea tow to pull me out. That was the first time I ever did that, and quite embarrassing. Needless to say I got very lucky, and I like to say it was mother nature giving me a slap in the face and reminding me to not push the limits so much. All I had to do was wait another day for the weather to lay down before leaving the dock. On a crazy side note, just recently, a very similar boat to ours was headed south for the season and came through Oregon inlet on a large swell, they ended up capsizing and the captain died and his deck hand had to be rescued by helo. That story made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

 

[Cagney]

Running our 45 Bonadeo back up to Montauk from Miami a couple years ago.... Decided to run out through Oregon inlet when I had no business doing so in heavy winds, an ebbing tide and gnarly sea state. Every other boat in the fleet made the right decision to not leave the dock that day. The ocean was in absolute chaos as I came through the inlet, it was like a washing machine. I figured once I got out into deeper water it would lay down a bit. I pushed through out into about 70 to 80 feet of water and made my turn to start the 200 plus mile trip up the coast, and the first thing I said to my buddy with me was "holy shit, there is no way we can do 200 miles in this shit, we are going to have to 8 knot it." About a minute later we came into a patch of water that had a full on breaking wave that I couldn't see over the top of. As I came up the face of the wave all I could think was that we were going to break everything on the boat when we came back down the other side of it. The reality was worse than that, there was another wave even bigger about a second behind it. I buried the entire bow of the boat, and took on so much green water that I flooded two of our four outboard motors and lost power in them. Once I’m down to two motors I have very limited maneuverability, and my max speed is reduced to around 6 knots. At that point i remember looking towards the beach, about a mile or two away and wondered whether I would be able to swim there once the boat sinks. I was eventually able to make my turn back towards the inlet without taking a wave on my beam. I white knuckled through the entrance fighting tide and swell, and finally made it back under the bridge to flat, but skinny water. I was so disheveled i ended up running boat aground a few minutes later and had to get sea tow to pull me out. That was the first time I ever did that, and quite embarrassing. Needless to say I got very lucky, and I like to say it was mother nature giving me a slap in the face and reminding me to not push the limits so much. All I had to do was wait another day for the weather to lay down before leaving the dock. On a crazy side note, just recently, a very similar boat to ours was headed south for the season and came through Oregon inlet on a large swell, they ended up capsizing and the captain died and his deck hadn't to be rescued by helo. That story made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

This was intense. Glad lived to tell the tale.

 

[The Gimp]

Running our 45 Bonadeo back up to Montauk from Miami a couple years ago.... Decided to run out through Oregon inlet when I had no business doing so in heavy winds, an ebbing tide and gnarly sea state. Every other boat in the fleet made the right decision to not leave the dock that day. The ocean was in absolute chaos as I came through the inlet, it was like a washing machine. I figured once I got out into deeper water it would lay down a bit. I pushed through out into about 70 to 80 feet of water and made my turn to start the 200 plus mile trip up the coast, and the first thing I said to my buddy with me was "holy shit, there is no way we can do 200 miles in this shit, we are going to have to 8 knot it." About a minute later we came into a patch of water that had a full on breaking wave that I couldn't see over the top of. As I came up the face of the wave all I could think was that we were going to break everything on the boat when we came back down the other side of it. The reality was worse than that, there was another wave even bigger about a second behind it. I buried the entire bow of the boat, and took on so much green water that I flooded two of our four outboard motors and lost power in them. Once I’m down to two motors I have very limited maneuverability, and my max speed is reduced to around 6 knots. At that point i remember looking towards the beach, about a mile or two away and wondered whether I would be able to swim there once the boat sinks. I was eventually able to make my turn back towards the inlet without taking a wave on my beam. I white knuckled through the entrance fighting tide and swell, and finally made it back under the bridge to flat, but skinny water. I was so disheveled i ended up running boat aground a few minutes later and had to get sea tow to pull me out. That was the first time I ever did that, and quite embarrassing. Needless to say I got very lucky, and I like to say it was mother nature giving me a slap in the face and reminding me to not push the limits so much. All I had to do was wait another day for the weather to lay down before leaving the dock. On a crazy side note, just recently, a very similar boat to ours was headed south for the season and came through Oregon inlet on a large swell, they ended up capsizing and the captain died and his deck hadn't to be rescued by helo. That story made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

@Pete Correale How tight were those ass cheeks clinched?

 

[Pete Correale]

@Pete Correale How tight were those ass cheeks clinched?

Tight as a piss clam buddy!

 

[Pete Correale]

Running our 45 Bonadeo back up to Montauk from Miami a couple years ago.... Decided to run out through Oregon inlet when I had no business doing so in heavy winds, an ebbing tide and gnarly sea state. Every other boat in the fleet made the right decision to not leave the dock that day. The ocean was in absolute chaos as I came through the inlet, it was like a washing machine. I figured once I got out into deeper water it would lay down a bit. I pushed through out into about 70 to 80 feet of water and made my turn to start the 200 plus mile trip up the coast, and the first thing I said to my buddy with me was "holy shit, there is no way we can do 200 miles in this shit, we are going to have to 8 knot it." About a minute later we came into a patch of water that had a full on breaking wave that I couldn't see over the top of. As I came up the face of the wave all I could think was that we were going to break everything on the boat when we came back down the other side of it. The reality was worse than that, there was another wave even bigger about a second behind it. I buried the entire bow of the boat, and took on so much green water that I flooded two of our four outboard motors and lost power in them. Once I’m down to two motors I have very limited maneuverability, and my max speed is reduced to around 6 knots. At that point I remember looking towards the beach, about a mile or two away and wondered whether I would be able to swim there once the boat sinks. I was eventually able to make my turn back towards the inlet without taking a wave on my beam. I white knuckled through the entrance fighting tide and swell, and finally made it back under the bridge to flat, but skinny water. I was so disheveled I ended up running the boat aground a few minutes later and had to get sea tow to pull me out. That was the first time I ever did that, and quite embarrassing. Needless to say I got very lucky, and I like to say it was mother nature giving me a slap in the face and reminding me to not push the limits so much. All I had to do was wait another day for the weather to lay down before leaving the dock. On a crazy side note, just recently, a very similar boat to ours was headed south for the season and came through Oregon inlet on a large swell, they ended up capsizing and the captain died and his deck hand had to be rescued by helo. That story made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

https://islandfreepress.org/outer-banks-news/boater-dies-after-sportfishing-vessel-capsizes-at-oregon-inlet-on-saturday/

 

[Pete Correale]

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/north-carolina/1-dead-after-boat-capsizes-in-oregon-inlet-saturday/291-cd9f6b4a-cc9c-4060-83eb-c8aa3223c7a1

 

[Ron Dan]

Growing up in Florida, it’s easy to schedule a fishing trip whenever you know the weather will be perfect. When I moved out of the state, scheduling fishing trips became a little more complicated. If you only had one day to fish, you were going out regardless of the weather conditions. Over a decade ago, there were 4 of us that went down to Islamorada for a trip and the weather was going to be brutal. We were just on the cusp of the whole thing being canceled by the boat captain. We went out either way and just got beat up the entire time. Our buddy Jacob Herman spent the entire time hanging over the side of the boat being sick while the rest of us did our best to pull fish off the bottom. It was a rough day of fishing and we didn’t catch nearly as much as we had planned to, but the rough conditions made dinner that much sweeter when we were eating all the fish we pulled into the boat.

 

[Pete Correale]

Growing up in Florida, it’s easy to schedule a fishing trip whenever you know the weather will be perfect. When I moved out of the state, scheduling fishing trips became a little more complicated. If you only had one day to fish, you were going out regardless of the weather conditions. Over a decade ago, there were 4 of us that went down to Islamorada for a trip and the weather was going to be brutal. We were just on the cusp of the whole thing being canceled by the boat captain. We went out either way and just got beat up the entire time. Our buddy Jacob Herman spent the entire time hanging over the side of the boat being sick while the rest of us did our best to pull fish off the bottom. It was a rough day of fishing and we didn’t catch nearly as much as we had planned to, but the rough conditions made dinner that much sweeter when we were eating all the fish we pulled into the boat. View attachment 22View attachment 23

after all that rigmarole, looks like u guys caught enough to feed .5 percent of a full grown man....

 

[Keith Wood]

I grew up in Stuart, Florida, the self-proclaimed "Sailfish Capitol of the World" but the fishing wasn't great in those days since Florida had only implemented the net ban a few years earlier.

That upbringing made it really cool to watch my son, who was about nine at the time, reel in a Pacific Sailfish off Costa Rica by himself. He may or may not have had a pretty healthy sip of Imperial Light afterwards. We hit a big school of tuna later that morning and filled the coolers.

 

[johnkenjura]

It was late spring in Texas, Southeast Texas to be more specific. It had been colder than normal for that late in the spring but my ole compenero and myself knew that there were going to be fish on the beds especially up North in the Jungle. We made a run early on the water by 4:30 in the morning. We knew the lake well enough we didn't really need the light. By the time we reached the Jungle we knew it was going to be warm, warm enough to get the big girls up shallow. We had a banner day! Not only a couple big girls on beds but some decent males who would bite anything they saw. It was zoom z craws Texas rigged that did the trick. White or Watermelon Red flake, we couldn't miss. As tends to happen on Conroe we ran into another fisherman and he told us there were some storms rolling in from the gulf. Being young and stupid plus some all natural vitamins boosted our ego. In one ear out the other. When we finally felt the wind switch we heeded the warning. There was no packing of the boat, we reeled up strapped down and shagged ass South. The rain caught us at just south of the 1097 bridge we were catching it in the teeth. 10,000 needles hitting us in the face, nothing could be worse or so we thought. When the hail hit we were just pulling into atkins creek, we could only look at each other in the unsaid " fuck it" and hung a right into the closest boat slip. After we caught our breath and surveyed the damage we realized there was a party of sorts going on on the boat deck we pulled into. The nice old couple just watching the rain weren't mad more amused. We had a couple beers with them til the weather cleared and back to fishing we went. He'll of a morning.

 

[robmcleod82]

Not sure if it was my best trip but certainly one of my more memorable ones. I was working in the far northwest corner of Alberta in a place called Zama City. We had some remote compressor stations that were only accessible by helicopter so we usually would get to be in the helicopter every couple of days to go fix or service these remote units. One of our pilot operators enjoyed fishing so quite often we would land next to the Hay river and fish while we were having lunch. Well one day we set down on the Hay next to where a smaller tributary ran into it. It was fairly early in the spring and the northern pike were making their way up the smaller creeks to spawn. The pilot and I dug out the 2 old uglysticks that lived in the back seat of the Robinson R-44 tied on a couple of red devil spoons and went to fishing. I dont think it was 3 casts and the pilot is on and the way the rod is folded we know its a good one. He fights this fish for about 5 mins before we get to see it.... An absolute monster by far the largest pike either of us has ever seen. So I tell the pilot not to drag it on shore as the rods had 10 year old 15 pound mono line and it would break for sure. So the pilot is making his last reel to get this fish close enough to shore that I can grab it, i dive for the fish, it flicks its head and fucks off back to the deep never to be seen again. We were sick. A couple casts later I land my personal best pike that was nowhere remotely close to the size of the one that got away. The next thing I know there is a black bear standing in the willows next to the helicopter huffing and snapping at us, I kept his attention while the pilot went around the other side and started the helicopter and scared him off. What a day!

 

[jcupdrew]

I was spearing open water in Key West. The current was ripping and we had a chumb line out from the back of the boat. To conserve energy, I was holding onto the chumb line and looking below for a pelagic to show up. I kind of felt like I was being pulled sideways and than suddenly the other direction. I turned around and there was a 9 ft Bull Shark in a frenzy biting all the chum right behind me. I got to the boat in a split and didn’t even unload my speargun. I pulled the line in, and it was severed.

 

[jcupdrew]

I was spearing open federal water loaded with massive permit. The wreck was also overloaded with Goliath grouper. First 30lb permit I shoot, gets smacked by Goliath, who turned my spear into a pretzel. I ended up back on the boat. My diving partners started shooting the permit with float lines and would hand me the float. I was squatting and trying to horse them up as fast as I could. Most of the time, I’d be making ground and than feel like I hit a wall or got hung up on a fridge followed by a massive surge that would almost pull me in and I’d let go. It was the Goliaths. We landed some, but they got the best of us for the most part. I’ve never felt such temptation to powerhead one. Worse than the taxman

 

[jcupdrew]

I was diving the Vandenburg in Key West. Current was strong and I was holding onto an anchor buoy while waiting for pelagics. I saw a pair of Amberjack swimming in with a shark. I made my descent to intercept them, and had to make a little extra push to close the distance. I sent a Hail Mary and connected. I was out of breath and had a reel gun, I looked up and was much deeper than I thought. I knew the top of the wreck was about 50 where I was comfortable, but I was probably at 70 when I closed the distance. I was freespooling my reel to the top while absolute chaos was breaking out below. The shark quickly turned on his copilot and was going after him in a frenzy. I made it to the top and was grasping for air. In all the chaos, my reel line was caught on my fins, legs and buoy line. All while the AJ and shark were going nuts. I basically decided my options were let go of my gun, cut my line or drown. I reached for my knife strapped to my calf and cut my line. Waste of energy, but sure was an adrenaline packed minute.

 

[Pete Correale]

Had a buddy giant fishing next to us a couple summers ago, he was solo on his 34 Contender and hooked up on a giant BFT on a heavy duty spinning set up with a jig rod. He fought the fish for a couple of hours and realized he had to get home to his wife and new born for a dinner reservation they had, so he hailed me on the radio and we ran over to him and he handed the rod off to us. It was a brutally hot day so I stripped down naked and fought the fish for like four hours, we covered 13 miles trying to get that thing up but eventually broke off right before dark.