Tell a yarn or two about fish you didn't photograph:

There have been several 40"ish pike that towed my canoe and I unhooked in the water. I remember them all glaring at me beside my boat.

I hooked and half landed a 47"ish musky. I was alone, casting from an island, and the fish was too big for me to manage without a net, so I brought its head out of the water, unhooked it, and slid it back to its home.

Oh man.......... it was HUGE! (Katie, you mean stories like that?) :)

This summer on Sawbill was casting a red and white daredevl. Thought I snagged but then the "snag" started moving. Worked the fish close enough to canoe to get a glimpse and see that it was a northern that easily exceeded 3-feet. It went on a run zinging line off of my reel. I tightened the drag and started reeling it toward the canoe again and again when it got close, it went on a run, still zinging off line with the tighter drag. A third time I got the fish near the canoe and it was now getting tired. My buddy was able to lift it a bit out of the water and the look we got this time made the face look about 6-inches wide. The fish had a little energy left and gave one last thrash of it's head with which it just bent the hook straight enough that it came free and the fish was gone.

Not a picture of the fish but there is this:

Retired Daredevl

Jackfish: "Oh man.......... it was HUGE! (Katie, you mean stories like that?) :) "

I was thinking of fish we caught and landed, but simply didn't photograph for whatever reasons, but remember because of the fight or the circumstances or their size.

My biggest Quetico angling thrill, where do I begin, which one provided the biggest thrill? This is truly a hard question for me, since I've had so many angling thrills throughout the years in the Quetico. Do I write about the 45 inch northern pike I caught last September? What about the five pound plus smallmouth bass caught last June? There was the walleye of the '03 trip that was caught on the first day which measured out at 32 inches. Or maybe I should tell the story of my last cast of the trip catch of a 41 inch northern pike last year while I was in a solo canoe and not close to shore?

All of those catches were a big thrill to me, but I think I'll go with the most adventurous catch. It happened on a June trip back in 2001, on a small lake near Kawnipi in the Quetico. I'm a big smallmouth bass fisherman and this day just wasn't my day. My partner, Tom Ray, was just schooling me that day. Things were going so well he didn't even have to move his lure to catch fish. He would simply cast out a pop-r and let it sit for less than minute and the smallmouth would crush the lure. Don't get me wrong, I still caught fish, but it seemed like most of the good ones got away.

It was towards the end of the day and we were fishing from shore at the north end outlet of the lake. What used to be a stream maybe five feet wide was now a little river with a width of 20 feet. In years past the other side of the creek was littered with large rocks, now they are a foot under water. The shore line we were on was a smooth, gentle sloping slab of granite. You could only walk down along side the creek so far before the slope increased to a point where it would not be safe to stand. Since the water had never been this high before, I had never fished the creek. I was using a bull frog colored Lucky 13 and casting it down stream in hopes of a smallmouth in the current. The first pass through a big fish took a swipe at it, but I had no idea of the species. So I made another cast to the same area with similar results, except this time I could tell it was a northern pike. I was guessing around 7 or 8 pounds. I typically wouldn't try to hook a pike that size because of what they do to the lures.

My fishing day hadn't been going well so I decided to pursue this fish. The next cast I make connects with a good hook up. Right away the drag starts to sing and line begins to peel off the spool. It's running me down stream and there's nothing I can do about it. Not only am I fighting a big fish, but I’m also fighting some strong current. I knew then this fish is much larger than my first estimation. My line began to head across the river which used to be all rocks and I saw a tail come out of the shallow water. At the time it was the biggest tail I had ever seen on a fish. My heart started to race. I began to worry about the fish breaking me off in the rocks. The fish once again made a move further down stream and I couldn't stop it. The spool of line on my reel began to look sparse. I had to do something before I was spooled. I decided to start using my thumb for a drag system and began walking back up along the creek, pulling the fish back up stream. Then I would run back down stream and reel up as much line as possible. I was in the "tug of war” mode. This scenario repeated itself several times as we both struggled. All at once my line became slack and I thought the fish was gone, but in the next instance it was right back on again. I thought it had come loose and then I snagged the monster again somehow, I was not sure what happened? Tom said this battle went on for a good 10 to 15 minutes, it seemed a lot longer to me. I finally tired the fish and drug it up the rest of the creek to the shoreline, where Tom was able to land the fish. The fish was hooked on the outside of the head near the cheek. I thought maybe this is where I hooked the fish after it had become loose.

The northern pike measured out at 41 inches and we were guessing upper teens to 20 pounds. I was shaking and exhausted after the battle. The fish was exhausted as well. Tom snapped a couple of pictures of me and my embattled opponent to document the event. The next step was to get her back in the water for revival. I held the pike by her tail and began a pushing and pulling motion to force some water in the gills. This process went on until she was able to swim away under her own power. A below average fishing day in the Quetico turned around with one cast. After that catch and release I wasn't so bothered by the number of smallmouth I had caught that day.
________________________________________________________________________

My dad took my brother and me to the BWCA for the first time in the mid 80's. I was in 2nd grade, I think. Base camped on the island on Larch Lake. As the youngest, I had to sit on the floor in the middle of the aluminum canoe. I cast my line over a boulder and immediately got hooked up. My dad complained that I got snagged AGAIN. But this time the rock moved and pulled drag. I held the rod in one hand and wrapped my other arm around the thwart so I didn't get pulled in, letting go every few seconds to make a few reels. Landed what my dad says was a 6.5lb smallmouth. No pictures, no official measurements, but my dad and my brother still talk about it.

It's not a boundary waters or Q story, and I didn't catch it, but I often think about it.

Most of you are probably familiar with the Crappie Boom on Upper Red Lake, but some are not, so I'll give a little history, as I know it.

There is an Upper and Lower red lake. Lower red lake is entirely on the red lake indian reservation and not fishable by the general public. Upper Red lake is divided, with the western half on Indian Res, but the eastern half they allow the public to fish.

While apparently Lower Red lake has lots of depth and structure, Upper red lake, at least the eastern, fishable half, is mostly just a big shallow bowl. It has very little structure. You can troll all day, and not get snagged. There are some reeds around the perimeter, and a few rocks if you can find them, but for the most part its just sandy bottom. There is one little drop, the circles the lake, about 100 yards out or so, where it drops from say 4' to 6', and sometimes in the spring the fish will relate to that little drop, but other wise, it's a bunch of nothing. There are no islands. The lake isn't particularly pretty. It gets stirred up, and kinda silty on windy days.

It's a very big lake, I think it's about 14 miles to the res line. I'm not sure how far across it is, from the south shore, to the north shore, but it's at least 10 miles.

Back in the day, it was a big destination for walleye fisherman. But between the public fishing pressure, and perhaps the Indian netting, at some point in the early 90s, the walleye population crashed. The DNR gave the lake the death sentence, and shutdown walleye fishing completely. The fishery was done, or so we thought.

With the lack of walleye predator fish, there were apparently two huge crappie spawns, I think it was something like 95 and 97. Either way, the crappies, with very little predators went absolutely nuts. And they grew to be huge. Well, at least from MN standards. Rumor has it, there was a private little plane that flew over URL, and saw a school of crappies 3 miles long and a mile wide. Who knows if it is true, but considering the pressure that lake endured over the next decade, and all of the 14 and 15 inch crappies everyone took out of there, I suppose it probably was.

I didn't even know about the crappies until the early 2000's. Somewhere around 2003 or 2004. I was at Dicks sporting goods in Woodbury, and was looking over someone's shoulder, when the clerk was showing a customer, a picture of 60 crappies, and they were all 14 or 15 inches. It was incredible. I asked him for details, and after our first trip we were hooked. (note, limits were 15 back then).

We stayed at a place called Hudeks. It was a little motel, right off the side of the lake. There was a little channel that came off the lake, right over to the motel, so you could pull your boat up, and walk to your room. The motel had a little fish cleaning shack attached, and a bar nearby. I remember going into the bar, and they had six, 16 inch, 2 lb crappies mounted on the wall. I just stood there with my mouth open.

Our first day, we didn't catch a whole lot. We didn't understand the pattern. But we learned, and soon we knew exactly when to head up north. Crappies are by-in-large site fish, and at least on URL, they like calm seas. When it gets windy, that lake gets all stirred up, the water gets silty, and the fish can't see very well (at least that's my theory, it may have something more to do with spawing). The Crappies liked to come in shallow, when the water temps reached 60 degrees. We didn't ice fish, we just fished open water. So we would watch the weather, and when there was going to be 3 straight days of calm, sunny weather, and the water temps were above 60, we would make sure we were there for the 3rd day. Game on.

We would sometimes rent a pontoon from Westwind. We'd stop at the bait store, and pick up 10 scoops of fat heads. It was always funny watching a newbie. Their eyes would pop out of their head, when we were purchasing 200 or 300 minnows at once. We'd tell them, they'll be gone by 2pm, and laugh, but it was true.

Not only would each person catch 40 or 50 crappies in a day, they were restalking URL with Walleyes. Millions of walleyes. So back in those days, we would also catch about 20 walleyes each per day, somewhere in the 3/4 lb range. They were just little 13 or 14 inch variety, and you weren't allowed to keep them. We'd also catch half a dozen sheephead each.... and there was one other bonus, about the shutdown of the walleye fishing and netting that had occurred in the 90's: Giant Pike! Some locals call them Red Octobers. With no one fishing or netting the lake for a period of time, the Pike had no pressure, and grew huge! It was nothing to catch several mid-30" pike in the same day. My brother focused on PIke, and caught 6 over 10 lbs in the same day. His biggest one was 43", and around 20lbs. But there were some 30 lb fish caught on that lake. Amazing pike fishery. Unfortunately, with all of the crappie fishing, and people occasionally keeping those big pike, they eventually thinned out. Now they protect the pike, something like 28-40 has to go back.

My understanding, is Crappies only live about 12 or 13 years. So by 2008 ish, the crappie boom started to come to an end. It was a great run, but when we were catching 14-15" crappies from those two spawning classes, we never caught any 10's or 11's. It was literally just two years that produced, and nothing else. So when they were gone, they were gone. As well, there were millions of walleyes stocked in the lake, and they were a feeding frenzy on anything small enough to eat. So other classes basically had no chance to survive.

So perhaps a couple years beyond the end of the crappie boom, we were still going up there to catch walleyes. all of those walleyes were now 18-20 inchers, and a ton of fun to catch. It was nothing to catch 40 walleyes each in a day. So even though the crappies were gone, we'd still head up in the spring for the walleye bite. Once the heat of the summer comes, the shallow, fishable end of upper red lake, gets too warm for the big girls, and they all disappear. But spring open water is fun.

So this one particular trip, we are fishing the first break along the south shore, and catching one walleye after another. Enough so, that we were kinda bored of catching 2 lb walleyes by the time the evening rolled around. So I suggested we try running over to the north shore, and see if we could find some crappies in the reeds. There weren't many crappies around any more, but if you got lucky, you could find a few. These weren't your standard 14"-15" crappies, they weighed 1.6 lbs. There were super thick, and just really cool to hold, and look at.

So we reeled in and headed to the north shore of the lake. We did find one crappie in the reeds, but it was tough to find them, so we backed off to the first break, about 100 yards out from shore and went back to walleye fishing. The walleyes were hitting hard, and we actually caught another crappie. About that time, my nephew Tyler, who was fishing off the south side of the pontoon, towards "deep" water (there isn't really such a thing. If you go out a 100 yards its' 6', you go out another 100 yards its 7', you go out another 100 yards, it's 8'), said he was snagged! A couple of us looked at him funny, because its pretty much impossible to get snagged on red. You're either hooked on someone's lost anchor, or maybe caught an ice auger extension or something. There's just nothing to get snagged on. But he was convinced he was snagged, and a glance at his pole, and what not, basically confirmed it. So everyone reeled in, and we brought the pontoon around. He was probably about as far out as one can cast. So I circled around, but it seemed like his snag might be moving a bit. Not much, just barely. Hard to tell when the boat is moving. There wasn't any wind to speak of, the lake was pretty calm. I think his bait was in 7 feet of water. So we get along side where his line enters the water. He pulls up hard, and the line starts to move, a little. It wasn't going on any sort of runs, it was just slowly moving about. He only had 4 or 6 lb test, and a crappie type rod, so he didn't want to force it. We about tipped the pontoon over, because all 6 of us, were on that side,trying to see what he had on the line. He was struggling. He would slowly lift, and it would go right back to the bottom. He fought this fish for several minutes, and we had no site of it. It's only 7 feet deep, and he couldn't get it up off the bottom. We were all getting a little impatient, but it was tyler's first monster fish, and he didn't want it to break the line.

We're all trying to figure out what it is. There are only so many species in that lake, that we are aware of Pike, Walleyes, Crappies, Perch, Sheephead. That's about it. We were just having a discussion about an hour earlier, that there were rumors that once upon a time the lake had sturgeon in it. But we hadn't heard of anyone catching one. There was no reason to believe they were in the lake, but right about now, that's about all that made sense. One really big sturgeon. I would think a Pike would have been making big runs, and even if it was huge, it wouldn't stay down for 15 minutes. Whatever this was, was relatively stationary, perhaps in a 6 foot diameter area, and not coming off the bottom at all. I was thinking maybe Tyler had an anchor rope, but he said it was clearly a fish.

Then it occurred to me, that maybe he had a big snapper. i had caught a couple turtles on the St. Croix river back in the day, that acted like that, and thought, damn maybe this is snapping turtle. But we were like 150 yards from shore, with nothing around, and I had never seen a snapping turtle on Red. I don't know, we couldn't figure it out, and we were getting bored.

Yeah, I know, how could we get bored? The nephew has a monster fish on his line for 15 minutes, and we all got bored. We couldn't see anything. He had been fighting for 15 minutes and was making no progress. Half of us were convinced it was a turtle, it was getting dark, and the fish were biting, so we went back to fishing, and left Tyler to fend for himself.

It was about his point, that Tyler got tired of being patient. He pulled up as hard as he could, and just started walking backwards a bit, in the pontoon.

BOOM!

Tyler goes flying, lands on his back, and a 1.5 lb sheephead, comes flying over the rail!!! WTF? We all stare in amazement at this little sheephead. It's not super little, but it's not big enough to fight Tyler for 15 minutes. Upon closer inspection, however, the sheephead had a big triangular bite, across it's side. about like a pizza slice, only not so narrow at the top. It was right across the middle of the body. Perhaps 4 inches wide at the bottom and a little narrower at the top. The sheephead had clearly been in something's mouth. But what?

I don't think we'll ever know. I'm guessing the sheephead bit tylers line first, and there was probably a big ol snapping turtle down there, with it's mouth open, using it's tongue for bait, and that sheephead, after biting tylers line, got bit by the snapper. That's about the only thing that makes sense to me. I still have never seen a snapper on red, and certainly not 150 yards out. Is it possible it was some big 40 lb pike, that wouldn't feel any pain, because it wasn't directly hooked. Could a big pike sit down there, stationary for 15 minutes, and just slowly kick around? I kinda doubt it. The bite isn't consistent with anything a sturgeon would do. Wouldn't it have to have been a turtle? Has anyone had a similar experience with a big snapper in the boundary waters or quetico? It bugged me for years. We'll never know.

That's a great story, Analyzer. I was fishing Little Bay de Noc on the north shore of Lake Michigan for tiny perch, that were sweet and nutty and delish. We were catching plenty of walleye and bass in the mornings and evenings, but all preferred to eat these perch. We were fishing a hump about 30' deep and I hooked yet another perch and was bringing it up when it suddenly stopped. The line angled directly under the boat and so I wondered if I snagged my boat. I took a look and saw my line leading into the mouth of a giant pike. I screamed in surprise and the pike released my perch. The guys laughed at me for a good hour.

My memorable catch was a few years ago in Quetico. I hooked and landed a pike which was about 5 lbs. Keeping the fish in the water I removed the hooks and then lifted it by hand out of the water for a quick picture. This fish was not having it. It started to shake, I dropped it in the bottom of the canoe and now it started to flop around between my legs. It jumped up almost into my lap and then proceeded to clamp down on the area between my legs. You know the area. It took a bit of prying but I managed to extricate myself and tossed that “satan fish” back into the water.

~JOE~

joetrain: "My memorable catch was a few years ago in Quetico. I hooked and landed a pike which was about 5 lbs. Keeping the fish in the water I removed the hooks and then lifted it by hand out of the water for a quick picture. This fish was not having it. It started to shake, I dropped it in the bottom of the canoe and now it started to flop around between my legs. It jumped up almost into my lap and then proceeded to clamp down on the area between my legs. You know the area. It took a bit of prying but I managed to extricate myself and tossed that “satan fish” back into the water.


~JOE~"

That puts "Are the fish biting?" into an entirely different context.

missmolly: "

joetrain: "My memorable catch was a few years ago in Quetico. I hooked and landed a pike which was about 5 lbs. Keeping the fish in the water I removed the hooks and then lifted it by hand out of the water for a quick picture. This fish was not having it. It started to shake, I dropped it in the bottom of the canoe and now it started to flop around between my legs. It jumped up almost into my lap and then proceeded to clamp down on the area between my legs. You know the area. It took a bit of prying but I managed to extricate myself and tossed that “satan fish” back into the water.

~JOE~"

That puts, "Are the fish biting?" into an entirely different context. "

There's a nightcrawler joke in there somewhere. I'll just let it go. :)

My biggest steelhead I have caught on the northshore (MN)... I set up the Gopro on its tripod, hit the record button, gave a little 10 second talk into the camera while doing a slow mo pano of the fish, released her and she went off strong, turned to shut the camera off..... only to turn it on.... got a really good clip of me bewildered why the red dot was now blinking when it should have stopped blinking.... then a short clip of me swearing at myself.... The fish will always live in my dreams, though it was very real.... Almost glad that my Moby Dick only lives in my thoughts...

THEGrandRapids: "My biggest steelhead I have caught on the northshore (MN)... I set up the Gopro on its tripod, hit the record button, gave a little 10 second talk into the camera while doing a slow mo pano of the fish, released her and she went off strong, turned to shut the camera off..... only to turn it on.... got a really good clip of me bewildered why the red dot was now blinking when it should have stopped blinking.... then a short clip of me swearing at myself.... The fish will always live in my dreams, though it was very real.... Almost glad that my Moby Dick only lives in my thoughts... "

Heartbreaker.

Funny Pete!

I have caught 2 Smallmouth Bass in my life over 6 pounds one I have a picture of on this site , the other I don’t have a picture of. So it’s with that context that I tell you I had the same smallmouth on 2 times that I honestly believe was close to the state record on the Mississippi River . It dwarfed by far the 6 pound smallies ive caught. It jumped out of the water and spit my hook one time, and the next time I had it on it broke my line . The story I’m about to tell you is also true and it has nothing to do with a fish I caught but two fish I saw caught out of Theodore Wirth lake near where I grew up. These two fish were caught the same day within an hour of each other. The first was caught by a kid , out of this tiny little lake it was an honest to goodness 3 pound crappie, not one of those I thought it was 3 pounds but an actual 3 pound crappie. To that point in my life it was the biggest crappie I had ever seen. Less than an hour later I watched this Asian guy fighting a fish from the same dock, his pole was bent over and the zebco reel with the drag set to light was working overtime. After what seemed like an eternity this guy slides this really nice bass into the waiting net, or so I thought it was a bass. When I got a closer look I saw what still is to this day the largest crappie I have ever seen caught in person. It had to go at least 3 and a half, it was monstrous . Turns out there were several 3 pound plus crappies caught that year because there was one mounted on a wall at Brynmar tire and auto on Penn Ave in Minneapolis. This was close to 50 years ago but I can see that fish, and the look on everyone’s faces when it came up like it was yesterday. A truly incredible fish!!!

joetrain: "My memorable catch was a few years ago in Quetico. I hooked and landed a pike which was about 5 lbs. Keeping the fish in the water I removed the hooks and then lifted it by hand out of the water for a quick picture. This fish was not having it. It started to shake, I dropped it in the bottom of the canoe and now it started to flop around between my legs. It jumped up almost into my lap and then proceeded to clamp down on the area between my legs. You know the area. It took a bit of prying but I managed to extricate myself and tossed that “satan fish” back into the water.


~JOE~"

Hilarious

Losing that Mississippi monster twice is heartbreaking, but I love how you were happy for the stranger with the monstrous crappie. The Mississippi does grow huge fish. I caught my biggest crappie, pike, and white bass there.

My first trip to Basswood Lake we hired a guide to learn the lake. I caught and released two 38 inch pike on a #9 perch colored shadrap. No scale or camera. The guide estimated them to weigh about 15 lbs. Still my personal best I think.

blutofish1: " My first trip to Basswood Lake we hired a guide to learn the lake. I caught and released two 38 inch pike on a #9 perch colored shadrap. No scale or camera. The guide estimated them to weigh about 15 lbs. Still my personal best I think. "

Two 38" pike in a day is quite a day!

Ice fishing for yellows in Clear Lake Iowa, daughter in law hooked into a monster fish she didn't think she could get it in. So son lyonty took over. About that time another person in our group, fishing next to us hooked into something big. I think one had 2 lb. and the other had 4 lb. test on their reels. After fighting the fish for a while I hooked into something also, I had 8 lb. test on my reel. The DNR agent watching thought maybe a school of cat fish had come through and took our baits. Not long after I hooked the fish lyonty's line broke. So me and the other person fought the fish for a while finally the other guys line broke. By this time we had attracted quite a crowd. After a bunch of runs I got the fish to the 4 " ice hole and it was too big to get through the hole. So I tried to hold the fish to one side of the hole while another in our party took his 8 " auger and drilled next to my hole over lapping it. Off the fish went again I finally got her back to the hole but the fish was so big I couldn't get the head pointed up the hole so we could get it out. Away it went again I finally got the fish back to the hole again and lyonty stuck his hand in the 4" hole and pulled the fish out of the 8" hole. He got his hand in the gill rakers so cut the crap out of his hand so he's holding up the fish with blood dripping down his arm. The fish turned out to be a 42" 22 lb. musky. Probably the most fun we ever had catching a fish.

Did a fly-in trip in the NWT where we didn't photo any pike under 40" except one exceptionally fat 38" and by the end of the week it took 45" to be photo worthy. Caught a 48 1/2" musky on LOTW that was stressed and I was solo so didn't get a photo.

Captn Tony: "Ice fishing for yellows in Clear Lake Iowa, daughter in law hooked into a monster fish she didn't think she could get it in. So son lyonty took over. About that time another person in our group, fishing next to us hooked into something big. I think one had 2 lb. and the other had 4 lb. test on their reels. After fighting the fish for a while I hooked into something also, I had 8 lb. test on my reel. The DNR agent watching thought maybe a school of cat fish had come through and took our baits. Not long after I hooked the fish lyonty's line broke. So me and the other person fought the fish for a while finally the other guys line broke. By this time we had attracted quite a crowd. After a bunch of runs I got the fish to the 4 " ice hole and it was too big to get through the hole. So I tried to hold the fish to one side of the hole while another in our party took his 8 " auger and drilled next to my hole over lapping it. Off the fish went again I finally got her back to the hole but the fish was so big I couldn't get the head pointed up the hole so we could get it out. Away it went again I finally got the fish back to the hole again and lyonty stuck his hand in the 4" hole and pulled the fish out of the 8" hole. He got his hand in the gill rakers so cut the crap out of his hand so he's holding up the fish with blood dripping down his arm. The fish turned out to be a 42" 22 lb. musky. Probably the most fun we ever had catching a fish."

Wow! That's a story and a half.

fishing toe lake in the BW , hooked into just a 5lb pike , told my buddy to get the net , then the pike skyed out of the water and landed in the middle of the canoe , told my buddy never mind i got it ;)
and we all know what a pike does in the bottom of a canoe.

on the local level , i was fishing this lake in the metro , using these double float bobbers with large sucker minnows. 1 evening all of a sudden WOOSH and pike came up and ate my bobber , i loosened up the drag and brought in the pike and it had a huge head and deep throated the bobber.