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| We've recently had brief discussions of terminal tackle issues resulting in lost fish. Anybody out there have any stories of fish destroying your lures? I'll share two events like this which occurred to me in WI in recent years.
1996: I was fishing a basin where we had caught a 38" and 44" earlier in the morning. About 11:15 a.m. I had a "light" strike and set the hooks. My rod tip stopped dead, like I just set hooks into the foundation of my house. I set the hooks again and had the same response. After feeling some heavy pulling weight, the fish was "off". In disappointment, I reeled back what I thought was my lure (ie. could feel the thump, thump, of my "crankbait"). To my surprise, all I got back was the metal diving lip and a chunk of plastic/epoxy from the crankbait's head. 5 minutes later, about 50 yards upwind from the boat a very large fish surfaced and was trying to throw my lure. I hope the musky got rid of it.
1998: On this particular day, I hooked a 50" class musky with a straight model crankbait. The fish had the bait sideways in its mouth and 2 of the 3 trebles stuck in its jaws. I thought no way was this fish getting away. After battling it away from the boat for several minutes, the fish rushed toward me and surfaced, then began head thrashing against the side of the boat. This broke the crankbait in two pieces. The tail section got thrown onto the back deck of the boat, just missing my dad, and the hook in the front half came out shortly after. Even though I was disappointed to lose the fish, it was a pretty neat event to see. [:0] |
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| I have had a few occasions where hooks have broken; leaving me puzzled to how the fish got off until i took a look at the lure, but I have never had a crank or jerk bait snapped in half on me. Unfortunately, I have had experience with muskies attempting to "give back" the lure after a line or leader failure (jumping to throw the lure near by just to rub it in to me I'm sure...) |
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| Fishing for rockfish once about 30 yrs ago...light snow + dead calm...saw a fish swirl + flipped a med. running bait out + started cranking it in...almost to the boat + wham, the fish heads under the boat, pulling me arms in the water. Then I could feel the bait coming up...I didn't pay any attention but a few days later I noticed the bait was discolored, filled w/ holes + the clear coat + scale pattern were mostly missing on 1 side. I still have the bait; it is 4.5" long + resembles a Bagley Monster Shad, but I could have sworn Berkley made it...anyone have a clue? Anyway, I didn't know to figure 8 etc. but I kept the bait + put some filler in the holes. After reading the post about torn up baits, I think I'll start using it again!
***I might add the incedent tore me up also, + it has been this long + am just now able to discuss it...thanks for helping me find closure Mike T![;)] |
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| Had a fish blow up on a Jackpot and hooked it by the boat. And when the fish came off it came off with the front treble still in its mouth. Still have the bait but will send it in sometime. |
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