had just learned to bed fish about 10 yrs ago on fork..spent about 4 hours on a huge female I found in dobrow(sp?) pond ,little caney

had this female pissed and just couldn't get her to bite...finally gave up...

a guide had a customer cancel, so he was out scouting...saw me leave the fish and 3 flips later I had to help him by taking the picture of him holding it...... 10#6oz

I threw jig, lizard, craw, ring fry, brush hog....he caught it on a tube

ouch

I caught a big fat one in the dodge tournament last year that was 16 1/32nd. That is very hard on a fisherman!

Man those stories ARE ouch...

Fishing Lake Raven when "Vanish" first came out. My fish did "vanish". First one was about 5, 2nd was bigger, 3rd was surely DD. Three nice fish lost in a row, three lost Ratl-Traps, one lost mind. I let out a hoop on the third one (fortunately it wasn't profane) that had all the people around the boat house area wondering what was wrong with me. Even worse, every so often, the DD one would jump and I could hear the trap shaking in its mouth.

I do not use fluro to this day.

I had forgotten one. . .me and my cousin were catfishing on Spring Creek around some huge rocks. We were actually posted up on a small rock island that was about 10' in diameter, small. My catfish rod is a 6' ugly stick with a Penn saltwater reel and 50lb braid. It was cast out maybe 15 feet and started sliding, my cousin grabbed it. He set the hook and almost went in the water. He was pulling up with all his strength, the fish was so big/strong his feet started slipping on the rocks, the fish was literally dragging him in the water, and he's not small. I dove down on my stomach and started reaching for whatever was on the other end. About the time his feet got to the edge of the rock, I remember looking at his face and I could see fear in it, and this is a guy thats caught multiple 10lb bass. The line just went slack, it pulled off. I had the drag locked down because of the area we were fishing and since I had that ridiculous braid on, the hook had some fish lip on it, enough to tell it was a yellow cat. Ive seen guys catch 40 and 50ln yellows on the Rio and in the current . . .I never saw anything pull this hard.

My best...there are a couple....1st....one Easter morning...I was bank fishing with an ultra-light spinning rod...casting a tiny Bomber crankbait and catching 8-10" bass...suddenly I hooked what I thought was a good fish..it pulled harder than the others...about 3 minutes later I saw how "good" it was....HUGE...it was stripping drag...I'd loosen the drag..let it make a run..then tighten the drag...reel it in..repeated numerous times...one run by the bass stripped out about 50'...she started tail walking...I thought it would either, throw the lure or break the 6lb line..it didn't....finally, I was able to land it...9.5lbs...2nd...last summer my 15yo son and I were fishing with my 77yo father at the same lake...we started fishing spinnerbaits and started catching HUGE bass....a total of about 10....the smallest bass weighed about 4.5lbs...the largest caught by my dad...9.7 lbs..just one of those "perfect" storms you hear about, but, never experience....great to share that with my son and dad.....

Red, I don't think I could think of anything better in life than having that type of day on the fish with 3 generations there doing it together. Just being there was great enough and then to catch those hogs is priceless.

I certainly haven't seen the fish that some of you have but I know a 10 when I see it and my dad and I spent the weekends in my middle school and high school years fishing together in NE Texas and the biggest loss we ever had was during the spawn on Sandlin in 92'. My dad hooked it with a spinnerbait and he never wasted anytime getting a fish in the boat so I had no time to mess around with getting the net, it had to be done quickly. The fish came up to the rear of the boat but I had already made it to the front deck with the net and this damn thing slammed into the side of the boat and turned so that we could see the entire side profile and to this day the only bigger fish I've seen were on display at BPS or some other place like that. Right when she hit the boat my dad lost her and almost fell backwards out of the boat. I don't recall any other times I've had a larg fish slam right into the boat and I remember feeling the hit from the front of the boat, 19' fiberglass so it hit the boat pretty hard. Sandlin was not known for big fish back then and not now either but I still wonder if that fish would have set the lake record because I really don't think it was just a 10. They always look bigger in the water when they get away and although I've lost a few big fish there hasn't been one that size or really even close. We had a 6# that day and I'm not sure that fish was even half the size of the one we lost.

I hate to tell this story.. it brings up a bad feeling I just cant get over.. fishing a private lake off the bank with 10 lb. test.. i was walkin the dog with a spook....

casted it way out after working it just a bit bam... world war 3 on my line... i wanted to play it easy as i knew she'd break me off so i was going to let the drag be my friend.. it was stripping line like crazy and after about 100 yards or so... it swam into a big brushpile... we tried to pull it out...the brushpile came up with the fish.. but we only saw a giant tail... slowly all the brush and the tail went out of site...

couldnt say the size but my biggest was around 10 lbs. and this bass was way stronger than that...

I was fishing at Grapevine in the heat of summer last year and there was a college girl sunning in a bikini 200 yards away, I had forgot my binoculars. Kicking myself to this day.

Mine was last year, my son was here visiting and he was my NET MAN, when I caught my SAL, I have several mishaps in fishing and losing BIG fish, but this one will stand out in my mind until the end, as the GREATEST day in my life except when he was born

It was just after daylight and I had launched my boat at Falcon and traveled around 7 miles to a place I knew there were some monsters suspended in a submerged tree top. On my first cast I was working my giant Fluke through the first branches and then it happened... I suddenly realized that I had forgot and left my STRIPES egg with bacon and cheese breakfast burritos in the truck!

My son and won our first tournament together in May 2011 on Bob Sandlin. We had spent two hard days of prefishing and found some good fish all over the lake. We decided to commit to two spots. We get started and my son gets a 5# on a buzzbait. We continue to catch a couple more keepers. 2.75# and a small keeper. Then I loose a 5#+ on a Yellow Magic in the same area. I shook a fish off on a stump the day before and I pitch a jig in there. Bamm! A 4#+ comes unbuttoned. I go around the dock and pitch to same stump and catch a 2#. We finish out a limit in the first stop. The big thing was TWO big cold fronts came in on Friday and Saturday with winds blowing about 30 mph. We made a run to our 2nd spot and immediately I pitch a Rattlesnake next to a tree and set the hook and doubles the rod over and just comes off. I am really depressed now. I have lost over 15# of fish in about an hour. We go down that bank and cull up with a 2.5#. Fish to the point and catch a dink. It was so windy that we motored back up to come down that strip of bank again. All the way down and no bites. We get to the point and I stick a 3.75#. While we are culling my son says, put the Power Pole down. I put it down, we get culled and I cast the Rattlesnake back across the point and catch another 4# on the next cast. The wind dies some and we go back down this stretch of bank and get back to the tree that I lost a good fish on. I make a cast at it and catch a 6#. This was all in less than 30 minutes. My son called it my "Power Hour". We make a decision to go on to weigh in 30 minutes early. We wound up with 21.60#

This actually went from a Heartbreak to Greatness!