Your Fishing Stories

[MK49]

Every bass fisherman has to have a funny or awesome story. Here's my 1st one.

I was in Mexico. In one morning, my friend was fishing with one of his son's friends. My friend was very frustrated, because his son's friend wasn't a real fisherman, and he kept getting backlashes, after casting right in front of my friend, crossing his line, .... We happened to be around the same area, a big shallow flat with a drop off. My friend was throwing a swim jig to the deeper water. I was fishing the shallow flat with a Megabass Giant DogX, and catching 5 ~ 10lbs left and right. Then, my friend's son's friend asked me to show him how to walk the dog. We were close enough, so I casted right in front of their boat a few times, and showed him how I walk the dog.

After the morning fishing, we all came back for lunch around 11AM. The guy who was fishing with my friend said "Thank you" to me. I said "for what?" He said "for showing me how to walk the dog. I caught an 11 pounder with a Sammy." I couldn't believe it, so I looked at my friend, and he just said "Yes, he did." My friend was really pissed off. A little later, when the guy wasn't around, I asked my friend "was he really walking the dog?" He said "not really." Then, he showed me the picture of the 11 pounder. It was just the digital scale that showed 11.xlbs and the mouth of the fish. I said "show me the fish." He said "that's the only picture they took." I asked him "did you do it on purpose, because you were pissed?" He said "yeah." That was funny. Yeah, that's pretty much the definition of beginner's luck. That guy caught an 11 pounder. I've been bass fishing for 40 years, and I caught only one fish over11lbs.

Here's a picture of one of the fish, 10 pounder that I caught in front of him, before I showed him how to walk the dog.

[MK49]

OK, here's my funny story #1. I was camping/fishing with two of my friends at Lake Sonoma. I think we camped for three nights. On the 2nd day, we came back from the evening fishing, and we didn't see our tent. We were all confused. We knew that was the camp site, but no tent! Then, we found our tent floating on the water close to the other side of the little cove. So, we went there with our boat. My friend told me to get into the water, and bring the tent. I said "why me?" He said "because you're the lightest." Yeah, that actually made sense. I was about 160lbs, and both of my friends were over 250llbs. So, I went in. It was pretty amazing. Our bags with cloths and food weren't wet at all. The tent was acting like a topwater.

That was funny, and to me those funny/stupid moment were big part of fishing. We tend to be stupid or acting like kids on the boat, and that's just fun.

Here's another one. I used to go to Lake El Salto all the time (went there about 16 times in 4 or 5 years). I was a solo fisherman, and I used the same guide for every trip. So, we became very close friends. After all, we spend 8 to 10hrs a day on a boat, and every trip was 5 to 6 days. We basically acted stupid, and had fun. One time, my guide told me that other guides told him we talked too much. To me, we're just having fun. But, I guess some of the guides don't speak good English, so they don't talk to the customers much, and most of the boat had two fishermen + a guide, so most of the guides don't talk to the customers. One time, my guide said "hey, that's one of the guys who said we talk too much." I said "OK, let's stop talking for 10 min." In that 10min, I caught a few fish, and one of them was a good one, about 9 pounder. I wanted my guide to move the boat, so I could stay away from a tree, but we couldn't talk. So, I was using my body language, and said "ugh, ugh, ugh...". He actually understood what I meant. Then, we both started laughing big time. Fortunately, I could land the fish. Later, one of my friends who was watching us asked me what i was doing. I explained that we couldn't talk at the time. He was like "oh, you guys were stupid." Yeah, that's fun.

[MK49]

OK, here's my last story, and it was about the best morning I've ever had. It was my 2nd trip to El Salto. It was the last morning, so I had to stop fishing around 9:30AM to catch the flight. I became a friend with two guys from Texas. They're leaving, and they were not goin\g to fish in the next morning, so they told me about their secret spot. In the next morning, I explained what they told me to my guide. He said "I think I know the spot". So, we went. We could easily tell that's the spot, because big fish were chasing shads at the bank. I threw a Rio Rico, and caught an 8 pounder. In my 2nd cast, I caught a 9 pounder. So, I told my guide to tie another Rio Rico on the 2nd rod, so I don't have to waste time. So, the next 45mi or so, I used two rods with the same Rio Rico to catch plenty of big fish. It was like, my guide "hey, you want to take a picture, it's a 10 pounder". I said "no, I'm catching another 10 pounder right now!." It's basically, as soon as I landed a big fish, I gave the rod to my guide. He unhooked the fish, weighed it, and released it. In the mean time, I grabbed the 2nd rod with Rio Rico, and I caught another big fish.

I caught 21 fish, averaging about 8lbs. The smallest was 7lbs, and 2 of them were 10 pounders. That was crazy. I will never forget the morning. Then, we moved to a few other spots. I ended up catching 51 bass by 9:30AM. It was Dec 30th or 31st. When I went back to the lodge, I asked them if I could stay a few more days. They said no, they had to close for the new year. Too bad.

[dragon1]

WOWZERS! Incredible stories, thank you for sharing!

[DirtyD64]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

[Kimbro1014]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I’m going out on a limb here, you in Batesville?

[MK49]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I like unknown monster stories.

Maybe, a beaver? They make huge splash and sound, when dive. Scared me more than a few times. If it's kind of dark, you wouldn't see it. They won't come up for a while, and when they do, sometimes, it's 30~40 yards away. The first time it happened, I had no idea what it was.

I think beavers don't eat fish, so maybe, the fish just sank. Of course, I'm just guessing.

[DirtyD64]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I’m going out on a limb here, you in Batesville?

Pretty much, Mark Martin's house is right in the middle of town, that is where we fish a lot.

[DirtyD64]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I like unknown monster stories.

Maybe, a beaver? They make huge splash and sound, when dive. Scared me more than a few times. If it's kind of dark, you wouldn't see it. They won't come up for a while, and when they do, sometimes, it's 30~40 yards away. The first time it happened, I had no idea what it was.

I think beavers don't eat fish, so maybe, the fish just sank. Of course, I'm just guessing.

No this wasn't a beaver. I heard the distinct "GOOSH" sound a large predatory fish makes when sucking something down. I have been around a few beavers on still waters and ponds/creeks. We were out in the current (somewhat of an eddy) of a WIDE river. Anyone that knows the White River in Batesville knows it is pretty big; anything is possible, but I have been in and around that area for 20+ years and never seen a beaver or large turtle there.

Once every summer or two someone catches a huge striper though. Same goes for flathead catfish. Both of them get very large, just still hard to imagine one eating a bass this big. Alligator gar possibly? I am not sure they eat big prey either. The 31.5" walleye I caught wasn't too far from this location. Just big, deep, dark pockets in the river hold some crazy fish. I wish I had X-ray vision so bad to see what is lurking down there...

[Kimbro1014]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I’m going out on a limb here, you in Batesville?

Pretty much, Mark Martin's house is right in the middle of town, that is where we fish a lot.

I figured so. My wife is from Bald Knob. We lived there for four years while I was stationed at Little Rock AFB.

For everyone else: Yes, Bald Knob really is the name of the town.

[DirtyD64]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I’m going out on a limb here, you in Batesville?

Pretty much, Mark Martin's house is right in the middle of town, that is where we fish a lot.

I figured so. My wife is from Bald Knob. We lived there for four years while I was stationed at Little Rock AFB.

For everyone else: Yes, Bald Knob really is the name of the town.

Thanks for your service. We also have towns: Weiner, Toad Suck, Smackover, Possum Grape, and somewhere even called Booger Hollow. I enjoy Arkansas alright, but to be honest the river fishing where I am at is not so good. Greers Ferry isn't known for being the best bass lake either. If I ever catch up and get a better tow vehicle/lake boat, Norfork and Bull Shoals aren't too far, even a smaller Lake Charles has some decent fishing.

[MK49]

A few more from me. Not really stories, but the way bass hit lures. These happened only once in my life time, at least so far.

1. I casted a Rio Rico, and a bass hit the lure, before the lure hit the water, about 10" above the water. I have no idea how and why the fish knew it was coming. Maybe, they actually see things way more than we think they do.

2. I was working on a Rio Rico (yeah, again). A bass jumped right by the lure. Her entire body was out of the water, and on the way down, she ate the lure. That was really cool. The bass knew how to entertain people.

3. I was walking a Zara Spook, and suddenly, it went up about 1.5ft above the water like a missile or a rocket. I thought the bass was pissed off. Then, as soon as the Spook came down, it went up again and again and again. By the 3rd time, I saw a big bass hitting the Spook with the tail. I was like "wow, that was cool. I've seen they did it once or twice, but not every time the lure came down. And, usually, the lure don't go that high." So, I casted again, and the same thing happened. I casted one more time, and it was the same. So, I guess they really see something above the water. The bass hit the Spook right when it hit the water or even right before it hit the water.

[Kimbro1014]

THE WHITE RIVER MONSTER:

So around here there has always been a legend of a White River Monster. Of course I had never seen anything truly monstrous till a few years back. Living in Northeast Arkansas, our area of the White River is very cold, fairly deep, and almost always flowing heavily. It is fed by Norfork and Bull Shoals to my knowledge and the heat waves require a ton of energy so they keep the hydroelectric dams flowing normally. This summer has been a poor one for fishing, just too much daily change of level and generally too high. A few summers back though conditions were perfect. The level was higher, water was very clear, and the flow was stabilized for the most part. It was before we had our child and also before she was pregnant, so my wife fished with me a decent amount. We had a few eddies where we always caught smallmouth, sauger, walleye, etc. We fished a specific one very often, a large flat with lower current about 1 mile from Mark Martin's house, and did good there.

One day we were fishing this flat, and had caught about 10 smallmouth each. Biggest being around or barely over 2 pounds and the smallest even being at least 1.5lbs or so. They weren't huge fish, but we were catching them on pretty light tackle and it was fun. Problem was my wife had developed a habit of not setting the hook instantly. She would set the hook harder than me, it was just delayed because she'd be paying attention to the phone or watching something on the bank. Right around sundown she caught a pretty good smallmouth. It had to be 15" or a little bigger. Problem was she was using an exposed hook tube, and the fish had taken the lure pretty deep. She always felt bad for doing this, and I can normally save them with careful surgery and a hook removal tool.

So I went to work on the fish quickly, didn't have but about 45 minutes to an hour of fishing left. I got the hook/tube out pretty easily, but the poor fish just wouldn't recover. I kept trying to kick start the bass in the water and he just would not swim off, kept going belly up and barely kicking its tail. We both felt bad because we are ALWAYS catch and release anglers and I don't like killing things for no reason. Either way, accidents happen, we just hoped the fish would gain traction and swim back off.

As we went back to fishing, no more than 2-4 minutes later it happened. A huge top of the water explosion happened no less than 5 feet from our boat and scared us both badly. The fear was followed by excitement, and we realized the fairly decent sized bass was GONE. Whatever fish this was had taken that smallmouth. We unfortunately we turned away from the floating bass when this happened, but it was a huge silhouette and presence we could sense was an absolute monster. This of course led to us both throwing lures at that area, I tied on a big Keitech, tried everything we could to get that fish to bite. No luck though, and shortly after it got dark and we had to leave.

I still have no idea what the fish was, I would tell some people and they claimed it was a big turtle. I have fished hard for 10 years alone and longer with my father, and turtles don't splash like this. They generally snap and grab quieter or you barely know they are there. This would be a strange place for a turtle anyways, on an eddy in the main river. I figure this was either a huge striper or a very large flathead catfish. Both of these have been caught and spotted on our river, so logically I assume this is what the unknown fish was.

I would still like some input though, if anyone else has experienced an unknown like this. I had mentioned in another post that we hooked something big in the same area, ended up getting off and left the light wire jig head in the tube bent out. That fish was pulling drag hard and seemed to be big, but whatever ate this smallmouth had to be a fish of a lifetime. I still fish down there, and hope one day to see or find out whatever ate that injured smallmouth.

I’m going out on a limb here, you in Batesville?

Pretty much, Mark Martin's house is right in the middle of town, that is where we fish a lot.

I figured so. My wife is from Bald Knob. We lived there for four years while I was stationed at Little Rock AFB.

For everyone else: Yes, Bald Knob really is the name of the town.

Thanks for your service. We also have towns: Weiner, Toad Suck, Smackover, Possum Grape, and somewhere even called Booger Hollow. I enjoy Arkansas alright, but to be honest the river fishing where I am at is not so good. Greers Ferry isn't known for being the best bass lake either. If I ever catch up and get a better tow vehicle/lake boat, Norfork and Bull Shoals aren't too far, even a smaller Lake Charles has some decent fishing.

I haven’t been too impressed with the fishing in general at the places I’ve fished in Arkansas. I did own a house in Bald Knob that was five minutes from Bald Knob Lake. It was nice to be able to hook the boat up and be in the water in about 15 minutes.

[Kimbro1014]

While we’re sharing stories I have one that I think is pretty cool. I went trout fishing by myself on a small river just outside of Greers Ferry in Arkansas. I was there right before sunrise and found a spot along the heavily fogged in river. As the sun was coming up the fog started burning off and opening up visibility. What was emerging was a beautiful sight that rivaled the scenery in “A River Runs Through It”. Shortly after, as the fog was still burning off I started to hear church music that was being sang by a choir or maybe congregation somewhere near. As I stood at the side of the river fishing, surrounded by beautiful woods and mountains, I couldn’t help but thank God for his presence in my life.

[tincanary]

While we’re sharing stories I have one that I think is pretty cool. I went trout fishing by myself on a small river just outside of Greers Ferry in Arkansas. I was there right before sunrise and found a spot along the heavily fogged in river. As the sun was coming up the fog started burning off and opening up visibility. What was emerging was a beautiful sight that rivaled the scenery in “A River Runs Through It”. Shortly after, as the fog was still burning off I started to hear church music that was being sang by a choir or maybe congregation somewhere near. As I stood at the side of the river fishing, surrounded by beautiful woods and mountains, I couldn’t help but thank God for his presence in my life.

Very cool story. Sounds like a mishmash of A River Runs through it and O' Brother, Where Art Thou. Sounds like a heck of an experience.

One of mine involves fishing trout alone on a creek in northern Michigan. I was in the middle of the creek, turn around to change baits and notice a doe watching me from about 20' away, close enough that it startled me at first. I could see her breath as it was a cold spring morning. A few minutes later, I look behind me to see if she's there, and the entire herd was sitting there watching me. I counted 11 deer, a mix of does and fawns from what I could tell, just sitting there watching me. I kinda felt like a Disney princess with a fishing rod. As I started walking toward the bank to get out and get back on the trail, they scampered off. As I was making my way down the trail to my next spot, they were still tagging along with me, but off the trail and remaining observant. It was interesting, as this was a remote area of the northern lower peninsula and the deer out that way spook much easier than those in the suburbs where I live.