I lost a known 40lb mirror carp at the net, when I was fishing on Nutsey Lake in Totton. I was tench fishing and hooked it on floatfished breadflake. And I lost a mirror on Embley Lake that looked close to 30lbs when it got caught up in tree roots. Both would have comfortably beaten my best of 20lbs 5 oz.
The one that got away....
- Thread starter Dave
- Start date
Many years ago as a teenager, and new to fishing, I was in France on a family holiday at a place called Cascade du Sautadet, basically a series of waterfalls, pools and bigger river like expanses of water, and very popular with tourists as it was an unusual place to swim.
I'd recently obtained - perhaps even on that holiday - a beginners 7ft fibreglass spinning rod and some other bits and bobs like floats perhaps brought from England in anticipation of finding somewhere to fish. I was fascinated by fishing as I'd seen people catching tench at my local lake, but had no family members or mentors so was totally clueless, but undeterred. I don't think I'd ever caught a fish at that stage.
The family had found a fairly secluded spot for lunch, and a few footsteps away was a probably 20x20ft sort of massive rock pool - hard to explain but a kind of nearly closed off rocky area with presumably reasonably deep water below and high rocky walls, joining onto other pools. I think i had a little insert waggler on, probably quite strong line, and a large ish hook.
Bait was literally a folded over piece of ham from someone's sandwich. I dropped in the bait with, presumably, no idea of the depth or with no expectation whatsoever of catching.
I don't even remember waiting that long and the float buried and I struck into something ridiculous. As I had no experience of catching anything at that point it would be foolish to make any bold claims, but the rod bent double instantly. The fight probably only lasted 5 seconds before the line snapped.
For a first fish this was quite the experience, not to be matched for some time if ever in terms of the sheer "WTF" of it all.
The venue definitely contained chub and barbel so I guess it was one of those - I'd like to think a pretty massive one!
I'd recently obtained - perhaps even on that holiday - a beginners 7ft fibreglass spinning rod and some other bits and bobs like floats perhaps brought from England in anticipation of finding somewhere to fish. I was fascinated by fishing as I'd seen people catching tench at my local lake, but had no family members or mentors so was totally clueless, but undeterred. I don't think I'd ever caught a fish at that stage.
The family had found a fairly secluded spot for lunch, and a few footsteps away was a probably 20x20ft sort of massive rock pool - hard to explain but a kind of nearly closed off rocky area with presumably reasonably deep water below and high rocky walls, joining onto other pools. I think i had a little insert waggler on, probably quite strong line, and a large ish hook.
Bait was literally a folded over piece of ham from someone's sandwich. I dropped in the bait with, presumably, no idea of the depth or with no expectation whatsoever of catching.
I don't even remember waiting that long and the float buried and I struck into something ridiculous. As I had no experience of catching anything at that point it would be foolish to make any bold claims, but the rod bent double instantly. The fight probably only lasted 5 seconds before the line snapped.
For a first fish this was quite the experience, not to be matched for some time if ever in terms of the sheer "WTF" of it all.
The venue definitely contained chub and barbel so I guess it was one of those - I'd like to think a pretty massive one!
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That looks stunningMany years ago as a teenager, and new to fishing, I was in France on a family holiday at a place called Cascade du Sautadet, basically a series of waterfalls, pools and bigger river like expanses of water, and very popular with tourists as it was an unusual place to swim.
I'd recently obtained - perhaps even on that holiday - a beginners 7ft fibreglass spinning rod and some other bits and bobs like floats perhaps brought from England in anticipation of finding somewhere to fish. I was fascinated by fishing as I'd seen people catching tench at my local lake, but had no family members or mentors so was totally clueless, but undeterred. I don't think I'd ever caught a fish at that stage.
The family had found a fairly secluded spot for lunch, and a few footsteps away was a probably 20x20ft sort of massive rock pool - hard to explain but a kind of nearly closed off rocky area with presumably reasonably deep water below and high rocky walls, joining onto other pools. I think i had a little insert waggler on, probably quite strong line, and a large ish hook.
Bait was literally a folded over piece of ham from someone's sandwich. I dropped in the bait with, presumably, no idea of the depth or with no expectation whatsoever of catching.
I don't even remember waiting that long and the float buried and I struck into something ridiculous. As I had no experience of catching anything at that point it would be foolish to make any bold claims, but the rod bent double instantly. The fight probably only lasted 5 seconds before the line snapped.
For a first fish this was quite the experience, not to be matched for some time if ever in terms of the sheer "WTF" of it all.
The venue definitely contained chub and barbel so I guess it was one of those - I'd like to think a pretty massive one!
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Ledgering A nice fat lobworm in the River Mole many moons ago and the rod tip rattled then bent around. Picked up the rod is and whatever it was hammered off in a big damn hurry. Long story short after some ten minutes of it playing with me it hammered off towards a rooty old Alder on the opposite bank and, after applying as much pressure and side-strain as I dared everything went slack. I assumed the hook had pulled until I wound in and found just a pigtail of line on the end.
The knot at the hook had pulled.
What was it?
There's some bruddy big Barbel in that section. No doubt I had almost snaffled one.
The knot at the hook had pulled.
What was it?
There's some bruddy big Barbel in that section. No doubt I had almost snaffled one.
James5769
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I was fishing up on the Ouse in York city center with a good friend one day, piking as I normally do during the depths of winter. I had my float out set to roughly 8ft trotting a single sardine down the river, had my float go under and the bait stolen maybe 4-5 times. So, I changed my depth by 2ft so I was fishing at 8ft and once again began trotting down, this time when the float went I struck and connected with this fish. I instantly knew this was something special, it was a huge weight on the end but wasn’t fighting, I said to my mate “it’s not woken up yet” and he replied “we’ll see”, I got it to maybe 10ft off the bank when it rolled and I caught a glimpse of a big brownish green shape- this really was a special fish and would have easily been a PB pike, it was monstrous. It started to run and I simply held on tight, my rod was bent absolutely double, thought it was going to snap, but I held on and carefully adjusted my drag. Then all of a sudden, one of them bloody York City Cruise boats come from under the bridge during the run so I tightened up the drag thinking I’d be able to put more tension on the fish and get it in quicker as I was worried the boat would cut off my line. However this was my fatal mistake as the fish ran again, my 30lb braid snapped my like cotton and I was devastated. Ever since I’ve fished 50lb braid and haven’t pike fished that spot as it’s haunting hahahaha.
Another time when I used to beach fish a lot, I was with the same friend when my beach caster had a couple tiny knocks, “crabs you think?” my friend said, “we’ll see I replied”. At that point the rod absolutely buckled over, nearly going over the wall we were fishing from, I struck it and it was like I’d hooked the bottom, eventually it began to budge and I fought it till about 4ft off the wall, my friend got ready to haul the thing up over the wall when all of a sudden “ping!” my hook pulled and the lead came flying back at us. To this day I assume it was a nice cod (nice for our area, probably only 10lb maximum) however that really got to me for quite a while, I gave up shore fishing for a bit after that. I’m over it now but I was young and felt as though I’d lost the culmination of years of practise hahaha.
Another time when I used to beach fish a lot, I was with the same friend when my beach caster had a couple tiny knocks, “crabs you think?” my friend said, “we’ll see I replied”. At that point the rod absolutely buckled over, nearly going over the wall we were fishing from, I struck it and it was like I’d hooked the bottom, eventually it began to budge and I fought it till about 4ft off the wall, my friend got ready to haul the thing up over the wall when all of a sudden “ping!” my hook pulled and the lead came flying back at us. To this day I assume it was a nice cod (nice for our area, probably only 10lb maximum) however that really got to me for quite a while, I gave up shore fishing for a bit after that. I’m over it now but I was young and felt as though I’d lost the culmination of years of practise hahaha.
This is going back 36 or so years now but it was an incredible place. The photo doesn;t do justice to the scale, but there was no obvious interest in fishing from the locals unless they came (sensibly) at quieter times. In some of the wider more river looking bits where you could look down from the rock walls into the water, there were people swimming just metres away from loads of barbel gliding between the rocks.
I was feeder fishing the Thames once and about half way into my session a pike kept hitting almost every fish i reeled in, i had no gear with me to try and catch it but just by chance a guy walked past with rod and lure in hand (one of those rubber fish type with the metal head that the hook is attached to) and i said to him if you wanna have a go at it feel free, while he was there the pike hit another one of my fish but this time we got a good glimpse of it and it was massive.
He has had a couple of chucks with no luck until he strikes a bite and his rod just doubles over, i was excited just to see the fish, unfortunately hes rod just pinged up and he had lost it only to reel in half of the lure
dont think he ever hooked it and the pike had just bit straight through the back end of his lure. i let him fish there for a good half hour but we never saw it again.Happened to me last year, played it for 20 minutes saying to the other anglers it’s a strange one this, walked up and down playing it for it to show its head… an old fishing rod and reel lost by our bailiff of 76 a few years back
A few years ago (in a former career) I was on a submarine that was operating in the Bahamas for a few months (it was Hell! ) and six of us had a bit of down time and arranged to go out on a boat with a Bahamian lunatic who's fishing tackle consisted of a few museum pieces he'd managed to scrape together for us and a huge case of beer. We'd had a few fish when he suggested we anchor up and have a few beers and some lunch. We were only in about 10ft of water at anchor and I was lying on the bench at the back drinking a cold beer with my rod lying over my legs and the line just loosely held between finger and thumb. As I said, there was no finesse to this and bait/tactics consisted of a large chunk of fish lying on the sea bed with a large hook (that was probably older than me) pulled through it. Suddenly there was a gentle pressure on the line which turned into a slow pull. I picked the rod up and wound down the slack before striking into something substantial. Whatever I'd hooked decided it was going round to the front of the boat regardless of what pressure I applied. Despite being a fairly hefty chap there was nothing I could do to prevent it doing otherwise and tbh it is a scary but exciting situation to be in when a fish pulls your entire combined body weight and strength in the opposite direction to which you are pulling and there is nothing you can do about it. There was much hasty retrieval of other lines and a tussle at the anchor rope for about 5 minutes as people tried to assist and basically get out of the way to give me free reign (the beers probably didn't help). After a few more minutes and much sweating under the Bahamian sun, predictably the line went slack and the fish was off. I retrieved to find the hook had straightened. To say I was gutted was an understatement and I couldn't speak to anyone for a good ten minutes. To this day, I'm gutted that I never saw the fish to identify what it was. Best guesses were either a large shark or a Goliath Grouper. The bonefish caught on the fly a few days later went someway to compensating but it would have been nice to see what it was.
) and six of us had a bit of down time and arranged to go out on a boat with a Bahamian lunatic who's fishing tackle consisted of a few museum pieces he'd managed to scrape together for us and a huge case of beer. We'd had a few fish when he suggested we anchor up and have a few beers and some lunch. We were only in about 10ft of water at anchor and I was lying on the bench at the back drinking a cold beer with my rod lying over my legs and the line just loosely held between finger and thumb. As I said, there was no finesse to this and bait/tactics consisted of a large chunk of fish lying on the sea bed with a large hook (that was probably older than me) pulled through it. Suddenly there was a gentle pressure on the line which turned into a slow pull. I picked the rod up and wound down the slack before striking into something substantial. Whatever I'd hooked decided it was going round to the front of the boat regardless of what pressure I applied. Despite being a fairly hefty chap there was nothing I could do to prevent it doing otherwise and tbh it is a scary but exciting situation to be in when a fish pulls your entire combined body weight and strength in the opposite direction to which you are pulling and there is nothing you can do about it. There was much hasty retrieval of other lines and a tussle at the anchor rope for about 5 minutes as people tried to assist and basically get out of the way to give me free reign (the beers probably didn't help). After a few more minutes and much sweating under the Bahamian sun, predictably the line went slack and the fish was off. I retrieved to find the hook had straightened. To say I was gutted was an understatement and I couldn't speak to anyone for a good ten minutes. To this day, I'm gutted that I never saw the fish to identify what it was. Best guesses were either a large shark or a Goliath Grouper. The bonefish caught on the fly a few days later went someway to compensating but it would have been nice to see what it was.
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