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Posts: 295
Location: Southern Ontario, Detroit River and Lake StClair | With the season here in Ontario quickly coming to an end its got me thinking back about the rest of the season and about some of the "goods" and "bads". I know we all made mistakes this year that resulted in us loosing or missing fish but this one here was tops for me.
I was night fishing by myself on the Detroit River casting my favorite Goldtail Sucker Pounder under some lights along a large cement wall. I had boat a nice fish in the 40"s that took the last bit of life out of my bait. I figured I'd mite aswell switch up to the new one I had in my box. I forgot my hat lite but after a bit of searching I found it and hooked it up and was fishing again. About 15min later I set the hook into what felt like a nice fish. After a few seconds of battle it was gone. Later on the same thing. It happened a total of four times that night and I pretty much chalked it up to new bait jinx or something along those lines. The next morning I told my son about it and went outside to check the bait out for teeth marks. 2 minutes later he comes back with the bait in hand laughing his ass off. The bait still had all the plastic hook protectors on it. I some how didn't notice that in the dark and been casting the bait all night like it. I went went back out side and took off every protector that were on any bait so it would never happen again.
Lets here about some of your guys dumber moments.
Good Fishin'
Tim
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Lost or missed two 50+ fish this year, and both due to me being in a hurry.
First was early summer I get to fishing and litterally second cast I set the hook on a fish and get to the boat and she was just immense. She barely faught at all and almost swam directly toward the boat. And that's how I didn't realize that in rush to get fishing I'd not tightened my drag down to where I normally do and the hookset failed to bury the hookpoints and she merely gently rolled to one side and my bucktail fell out...didn't pop out under tension....just fell out. You can always get a crappy hookset, but I blame myself for losing that fish.
The second was Thanksgiving. Samething, I was in a hurry to get home for the festivities so I come off plane and get the boat ready for my last spot on the milk run. I always let my motor cool down while I deploy the TM, take off my life jacket, get the baits out, etc...about 3-4 minutes of cool down. Well with the wind and my excitement, I forgot to turn it off and didn't hear it running (225 FOUR stroke Yammie) and I drifted a prime spot for 20 minutes with the motor running! Well I get a very active follow from another enormous fish, easily 54" and she just stops and turns and dives like she spooked. And yes again, I know fish will stop on a follow and spook for any reason, and I know they hit baits trolled in propwash. But again I blame myself for spooking that fish with my idling motor on an otherwise stealth drift. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | My biggest mistake was each time I came off the water after the cast before I would have caught my first 50"+ muskie!
It seems I did that quite a bit this year!
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 12/5/2009 10:44 AM
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Posts: 305
| exact same hook protector issue happened to good friend of mine on a buzzbait...excellent fisherman, too. we still kid him about it-and then tell our own similar stories...think we've all been there brother! |
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Posts: 619
Location: Verona, WI | Never owned a MI Shallow Invader and got one as a door prize. Didn't know they are made in a way that the hooks foul so badly that you have to modify the bait. Took it to LOTW and missed a 50" class fish. Got the bait back and the hooks were fouled in a way the fish would never have been hooked. Ouch.
Shane |
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Posts: 69
Location: janesville | not making it out enough times and all the fish i missed on sucker hooksets. and not setting the hook on a really nice mid-40's fish on waubesa. that one hurt for a while especially because the fish came out of the water just to show off how good of a fish i missed. |
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Posts: 897
| Couldn't figure out what the hell was beeping 19 times in my boat, even when all the power in the boat was turned off and the key was out of the ignition. Winterizing my boat had all the batteries in the back of my truck and it happened again. Finally figured out it was the Lindner's Fishing Edge I bought at the beginning of the year and threw on the floor under the steering wheel...doh! Caused some headaches and worry this summer before I got used to it and the Merc technician told me it wasn't the motor making the noise.  |
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Posts: 16632
Location: The desert | I read the "What is your favorite bait" thread. Never again. |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | Getting married????  Oh wait, that was 5 years ago. |
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Posts: 20227
Location: oswego, il | Forcing fish. I rarely do it but every once in awhile I try to force them to the boat. Always a mistake, lost one today doing it. |
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Location: Des Moines IA | RockPile, Big Muskellunge Lake. New Lower Unit Though! |
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Posts: 32889
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | 2009 Mistakes...I didn't fish enough. I worked too much. I didn't bowhunt enough. I worked too much.
I didn't take a vacation, because I worked too much.
Did I mention I worked too much? |
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Posts: 8788
| LMAO
Mistakes???? No self proclaimed muskie master makes mistakes! Why, it just isn't possible!!
Trollers make mistakes because they cheat. Anybody can drag lures around behind the boat and catch fish. Casters make mistakes because anybody can throw a double 10 and a weed edge and catch muskies. Row trollers make mistakes, because anybody with arms can row. The guys who fish Vermilion? HAH... 40 pounders jump in the boat, all you have to do is be there! Live bait? HAHAHAH, cheating... BIG mistake. Totally unfair dragging meat around. Any idiot can catch multiple 50" muskies that way, even in lakes where there aren't any.
Did I make any mistakes? Oh, hell yeah. I didn't fish the right lakes at the right times with the right lures on the right days with the right rod and reel and the right line, and I didn't work my lures the right way. I didn't hit the moon phases right, I didn't fish the wind right or hit the barometer right. I didn't even FISH right, because I hired a guide, which means nothing I caught counts anyway. Wrong lures, wrong gear, wrong knots wrong rods, wrong reels, wrong lakes, wrong days wrong times... Mistakes? BAWAHAHAHAH, everything I did was a mistake this year, because I just don't know what the **** I am doing. Ask the "experts", they know better! I didn't figure 8 right, catch my fish right, set the hook right, net my fish right, hold them right, photograph them right, release them right, or scratch my nuts right afterwards.
But I had a lot of fun, which must not be right! Why?
Because you are asking a bunch of little kittyS! |
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Posts: 661
Location: Roscoe IL | Just adding about 50-60' of new line to a reel that had old line on it, figuing it's just a sucker rod & I wouldn't need that much new line anyway. My Knot broke & cost me a great chance at a December fish. Not to mention, I'm worried that the fish could die if it swallowed everything. BIG MISTAKE!
Never again! |
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Posts: 229
Location: Plover, WI | My biggest mistake... doing yard work, breaking my wrist thus ending my season too short.
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Posts: 32889
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Ouch. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Removed a hook from a suick and didn't move the others (lazy). Missed 6 fish out of 8... yeah on a suick. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | first time for everything right...unhooked a little scrappy musky I somehow managed to bury a 4/0 into my index finger...a couple hours in the ER for them to cut it out...
never again! ; ) |
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Posts: 265
Location: McGuire AFB, NJ | In the military we are always focused on the series of events that lead up to a "mistake" The outcome of one mistake this year was a well buried 5/0 hook in my middle finger which was still connected to my lure and a rahter large tree branch which was still connected to a tree submerged in 10 feet of water.
Like all mistakes this one could have prevented at numerous times in the events leading up to this sh!t show.
First mis-step-Using all my strentgh to lift the connected tree branch to a reachable distance in the water were I could grab it.
Second mis-step, Attemping to use my net to retrive the stuck lure,
Third mis-step, Getting the net stuck on the lure and branch....then loosing grasp.
Fourth mis-step, Dropping the net.
Fifth and finnal mis-step, having my fishing partner Musky Matt re-raise the tree limb that was still connected to my lure and net to a height in the water where I could reach it again. I then attempted to free my lure and net when well....the drag on my reel let loose. A 5/0 hook from my lure then burried itself in my hand and I was left hanging on for dear life to that heavy tree branch still connected to the tree. My face was a mere inch from the water as I screamed like a little girl wondering what the hell I was going to do. I had made the decision that if I dropped the branch I had no choice but to go in the 55 degree water head first.
Lucky for us I'm a stud and was able to pull the branch up to a height were we cut the hook burried in my hand, freeing me from the tree.
But much can be learned from this novice and silly series of events, when in doubt....cut your line and tie on another lure
haha
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Posts: 4266
| Not this year, but the biggest ever. Fishing with a 10" glider off of a steep break adjacent to a weed flat. Boat in 30' casting to 12' edge. A few casts into working this spot, I paused the lure about 20' from the boat and let it flutter and die. A huge fish comes up from the depths like a rocket and the entire lure disappears in her mouth and she turns to go. Because I saw the fish and the "eat", I set the hook 100 times harder than normal actually leaving the deck when I added a little jump into the set. The fish bulldogged and then tried to jump and was thrashing near the rear of the boat on the surface. I was alone, so I started moving the boat with the trolling motor and held my rod low to pull her down. Mission accomplished, but as she tries to dive, my drag won't budge. I backed off on it as I dropped to my knees on the deck and then looked at the reel to find that my "extra strength" hook-set had burried the line, that was all of the way to the side of the spool, right to the bottom of the spool. I hit the free spool and try as I might I could not pull out any line. No line coming in, no line going out, 20' from a fish big enough to fit a 10" lure in her mouth sideways. I knealt there watching her pull and headshake until the lure finally pulled out. I pulled the lure in by hand, tossed it in the bottom of the boat and pulled out a knife and started cutting the line off of the spool. I never thought that you could set the hook too hard, but burying the line like I did cost me a monster. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Not getting in the boat with my wife enough. A hell of a fishing partner! Guess that's a regret.
Mistake? Asleep at the wheel and getting taken by surprise by a follow, thus a sloppy 8 and no hook-up. |
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Posts: 723
| I had a rough opening weekend, nuthin really moving, my pops loses a high 40's low 50's fish on a topraider, he forgot to sharpen the hooks on a brandnew bait,
got her almost to the net and she pops free. what a shame,
so we continue fishn, I put on a small chinsy bass style muskie spinnerbait,
figuring I can entice a bass to bite atleast, 4 casts into it I have the biggest ski of my life eat boatside, guessn around 52-53, well, i free-spooled her for about 5 seconds before she coughed out my lil offering. I was sick, waited all week at work to go back out there. (dumb mistake... no stinger on the bait)
Friday I hit the water and my buddy is going to hook up with me for the day, im fishign alone all morning, I boat a nasty 49.5, things are lookn up!
he hops in the boat, we go to the spot I lost that pig, first cast, same chinsy spinnerbait ( with stinger equipped now) and she comes up!!!! goes around the 8 once and heads back to her haunt. Im freakin now, seein that she is still there, shakin like a teenage boy gettin his first naked girl in bed, i reach for a glider,
I make about 5 casts to that spot, my buddy is callin me B.S. on the size of her, (he didnt see her) just then as im talkin her up, I pause the bait briefly on the surface, and go to hit it again, well, as I moved the bait, she comes unglued and launches to eat. well, she hit the very end of the bait ( as I was in mid pull) and it went skittering accros the water, we got to see the whole side of this giant. and well, my buddy was now shaking just the same.
I saw her 3 times in a week, follow, eat, and attempt to eat, and here I sit, recappin dumb mistakes. yeah. im still sick over those little things i couldve done different. I had my chance (s) and blew them. |
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Posts: 244
Location: Mallard Island Lake Vermilion MN | Trying to guide to early after mess of last winter.
No good in long run.
Paid for it big time.
Trusting folks I thoguth were friends....gave it away..did not make them earn it.
Paid for that in long run also but I win in end.
No flubs fishen...everything was a blast....
Bought some more land so when you want it I got it YOU PAY!
2010...look out.
T |
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Posts: 256
| This....
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Location: Twin Cities | I am having a very hard time figuring out which mistake was the biggest...quite a few contenders for that title! |
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Posts: 1289
Location: WI | Opening day. Topwater. HUGE fish. Had it on and didn't loosen my drag, as it went towards the back of the boat I tried to turn it. Feeling like I had a snag while trolling, the rod is bending and bending and then POP...out comes the lure. I hate to think about how big of a fish that was, I'm guessing at least 50". What a dumb mistake. |
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| Yeah they say wait until you feel the weight. I felt a change in the bait it just wasn't the right change. While fishing with tuffy 1 this summer using a 10"Weagle I set the hook too soon on a pig. Tuffy 1 said "Dude that was the second biggest fish I have ever seen in this lake". I almost cried when he said it was in the 52-53" range. After asking if I could buy the Weagle he added insult to injury by saying "I would have given you the bait if you had caught that fish". That hurts. |
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Posts: 8788
| 2T Critter - 12/11/2009 5:16 PM
Yeah they say wait until you feel the weight. I felt a change in the bait it just wasn't the right change. While fishing with tuffy 1 this summer using a 10"Weagle I set the hook too soon on a pig. Tuffy 1 said "Dude that was the second biggest fish I have ever seen in this lake". I almost cried when he said it was in the 52-53" range. After asking if I could buy the Weagle he added insult to injury by saying "I would have given you the bait if you had caught that fish". That hurts.
Yeah, they say to wait until you feel the weight of the fish, and you tell yourself you will wait, but then a fish blows up on the stupid thing and you react immediately with a superman hookset. I've done that at least dozen times! |
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| Exactly-that bait would have gone through a wall with that hookset. |
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Posts: 413
Location: Madison WI | Biggest mistake for me was not sharpening my hooks after getting bit off. Was throwing my confidence bait and felt a bump, set the hook and there was nothing there. Figured maybe the fish hit it and ran towards me, reeled up some line, and felt absolutely nothing, I reeled up the rest of my line and sure enough my knot held but I had about 1 1/2 inches of leader left, darn fish bit me off. Swore a little, tied a new leader on, grabbed the exact same bait that had been bitten off, threw it on there (didn't sharpen hooks DOH!) threw it back out there, 3 casts later got smoked, set the hook had fish on for a couple of seconds then nothing, reeled up bait and hook harness was bent into a 90 degree angle. It was a decent fish, oh well maybe next year. |
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