I watched an episode of the Simpsons the other night that reminded me of something I had planned on writing about. In the episode, Homer and Marge go on a marriage retreat; however Homer sees it as more of an opportunity to go fishing than to work on his marriage. While there’s an entire novel’s worth of material right there, and I’m sorely tempted to espouse several humorous anecdotal references, I will refrain and stay on target.
While Homer is out and about, he stops in a local store for bait. There, he hears tale of a monster catfish named General Sherman – so large and so mean it killed the last guy that tried to catch him. According to the clerk, “They say he’s five hundred pounds of bottom-dwelling fury, don’t you know. No one knows how old he is, but if you ask me (and most people do), he’s hundred years if he’s a day.” Homer, of course, declares he intends to catch General Sherman and the rest is, well, ‘Simpson-y.’
While the premise is funny, I’d bet most of you – like me – have a tale of a monster fish. The one GIANT fish in the lake, pond or river that no one can catch. One so wily, strong and elusive that men share tales over a free cup of coffee at the bait store – “Got a hook in him once, but danged if I know where. He drug me out to the middle of the lake and tore off all my line.”
I’ve heard quite a few tales from others. Alan – owner and operator of the charter boat ‘The Rookie’ down in Orange Beach – told tale of one trip. He had taken a well-to-do guy out and asked what he wanted to catch. The guy said, “Shark. And big ones.” Alan takes him out and, as the story goes, after about hours of fishing they hadn’t caught a thing. Eventually he gets a bite and the fight is on. Two hours into the fight the fish begins swimming up to the boat, and Alan climbed to the crow’s nest to take a picture. The shark came up behind the boat and turned sideways, as if to check out who was messing with him. Alan’s snapped the shot, and screamed like a girl…
His shot shows the shark stretching well starboard and port of his boat. HUGE. After apparently declining a treat, or simply tired of messing with them, the shark sounded, stripping off all the line. I’ve seen the pic. I don’t ever want to see that fish again…
To this day, there are tales in Mobile of catfish so large they could eat a man. Seems divers were down there working on the bottom of the dam for Big Creek Lake. After some time they shot to the surface, scared and vowing they’d never return.
I’ve even got a tale or two of my own – encounters with giant fish that I either lost right at the boat or never saw. I’ve hooked alligator gar running upward of 100 lbs that attacked the side of the boat, spitting my line back at me in disgust. I’ve hooked numerous fish in both fresh and salt water that either slowly swam off or blasted out immediately, leaving a wake behind the size of a jet ski. The ones that still make me mad are the ones where the fish grabs the line, then slowly swims off, taking line as if they’re so big they don’t even notice they’ve been hooked.
Man oh man, to see those fish…
My latest encounter with a monster fish actually came with my son on a kayak trip down the Flint. The Flint is pretty shallow for most of the way, but it occasionally gets deep for good stretches at a time. Christian and I had fished our way down to a spot we refer to as ‘White Perch Central.’ WPC is just past the base of very fast moving water, rampaging through giant rocks. The river opens wide at the base, and deep water winds around a slow curve to the left, looking downstream. Beaching to the right, or simply floating just offshore, and casting back into the deepest part of the hole is dynamite. Armed with a black and chartreuse beetle grub, you can catch crappie after crappie from this one little hole.
On the day in question, we had hooked probably six slab crappie, floating just offshore. I was paddling, holding the kayak in place so Christian could get a couple more before moving on. He cast out and, somehow, the line got tangled coming off the spinning reel. As his grub sank to the bottom, he started untangling it. That’s when I noticed his line moving upstream.
I told him to forget about untangling and to just reel. As soon as the slack came out of the line, the fish put on a burst of speed, jerking the kayak out into the river. Christian’s drag apparently jammed and, as soon as the knot in the line was reached, it snapped. When he reeled it end, the end of the line was just covered in slime.
Catfish.
BIG catfish.
I know where he’s at. I know he’s big. And I know we can catch him. Christian and I will be back to battle The General again. And this time, we’ll have the drag set right.
Matt
LOL… I love big fish stories. I could tell several, but I guess my most heartbreaking would be… Hawgdaddy, on of his highschool friends, and myself were fishing a portion of the Tennessee river close to home one hot summer day. We had been catching a few bass tossing texas rigged worms and stick baits into the edge of a grass line that sweeps close to the bank. I was using a particular favorite black and white stick bait… bomber long A model. I was in the back of the boat and at some point I let my stick bait get behind the boat so I started working it fast mainly to get in for my next cast. Before I even had time to realize what was going on something grabbed the bait hard. Hard enough in fact that all I could do was hang on to the rod to keep from losing it. And just as quickly the fish was gone leaving a swell comparable to when you peg dad’s bass boat and it comes leaping “out of the hole” like a fine stallion. In shock I didn’t even pull my bait in for a moment. The fish had pulled hard enough to even turn dad’s bass boat a little. On pulling in my trusty stick bait I found one set of the treble hooks completely straightened out. Sure would like to have seen that one.
That is AWESOME – great story. For all we know, you might’ve had a shot at the 22lb world record..
Supposedly animals get smarter as they get older – which makes sense when you think about it. So that leaves me to wonder about the really BIG fish out there – trout included. Are the big ones just too smart to be caught (again)? Maybe they’re so used to seeing lures and bait and line they just don’t go for it anymore.
Like you, I have a thousand big fish stories – most of them involving me losing a fish and/or tackle and cursing wildly. The ones that have stayed with me the longest are those where I never saw him. I guess I don’t knw which is worse – hooking a fish and never seeing it, or seeing the monster and have it get away. In either case, I won’t stop lookin for ‘em.
That’s a good question… which is worse? To see the big one that got away or to just never know??? I lost what would be my largest bass to date when I was about 12. I believe the bass would have gone around 8 or 9 lbs. but a young man’s eyes can grow in the heat of battle. I was fishing with dad and Hawgdaddy and I had hooked the monster on a spinnerbait. We had no dip net so dad was going to have to lip it. Well every time dad went for the fish it made another furious charge. In my foolish young mind a quick resolution to the problem would be to just lift the fish in the boat. You can probably imagine the rest… Yep, that one hurt real bad.
It hurts worse to see the fish and lose it. If you never see it, you’re free to invent all sorts of fantasies, further increasing the mystique of the sport, and leading, surprisingly, to more fun in the end. If you see it, you simply “lost a five pounder” or something like that. That’s not nearly as fun as, “Twas the white whale, I tell ye! The white whale! He’s down there lurking in the depths right now. Who knows how big the thing is?! Could be big as a Buick!” The possibility of fish of unknown gigantic proportions is a big part of the fun of this fishing thing.
hawgdaddy
I agree, in general, it’s usually more fun to NOT see it, but every once in a while it’s worthwhile. I accidentally hooked a sea turtle one time whilst deep sea fishing. THAT one I’m glad I saw.
I also foul-hooked a HUGE spoonbill catfish one time, fishing with my dad as a youngster. Freaked me out. I thought he was playing some huge joke on me when I saw that big ol’ snout come out of the water (it snapped my little cane pole line, BTW).
As an aside, I have Christian convinced it’s a huge flathead catfish lying down there waiting to be caught. I also told him if our rod and reel didn’t work Insane would volunteer to noodle it for us, so we can have a look…
Matt very nice story. My Dad always told everyone about this very big large mouth bass that would taunt him. We all just shrugged it off until one day when he caught that SOB (as he called it). It was huge and he won a shopping spree at the local hardware store!
T
“It hurts worse to see the fish and lose it. If you never see it, you’re free to invent all sorts of fantasies, further increasing the mystique of the sport, and leading, surprisingly, to more fun in the end.” – Seeing the fish has never stopped me from inventing my only fantasy about how big it was. If I say it enough over and over, I eventually believe my own fantasy.
Good luck chasing down the White Whale!
Well, for us HONEST fishermen…wait a minute…I just realized that’s a total contradiction in terms. You have me there.
hawgdaddy
Tim – Great story. I suppose the hardware store was a contest thing?
Dad is always right. ALWAYS. At least mine is. He took me fishing several times in Dead Lake in Mobile County (yes, it’s a real lake, believe it or not), and always warned me not to pull up the limb lines. Well, I did one day, and nearly had my face ripped off by an angry snapping turtle that has unknowingly swallowed the wrong bait.
Chris – Are we still talking about a fish?..
Matt,
All he was saying is that it was more fun in the end…good grief!
I too have many similar stories, but there is one the sticks out more than the rest. Being transfered into this so called “fly fisherman”, the large brown I hooked at the Hiwassee has to be the most painful line break in my youthful fishing career. Hawgdaddy would not tell a lie, and he witnessed this dark moment in my life. We had just waded out some 100 yards or so and were a good 10 casts into our expedition. What I initially thought was some sort of snag turned out to be a really ticked off Brown looking to make an example of a fly fisherman want to be such as myself. They made an example of Hawgdaddy later in the trip, so don’t laugh. With my background specializing in cranking huge bass out of the weeds, I immediately set the hook and cranked on the reel like no tomorrow. The fight was beautiful while it lasted as he leaped out of the water numerous times displaying his awesome colors. I swear he would have went over 5 pounds easy and measured nearly 24″. Somehow the fish are always bigger when you are in the heat of battle, but I do assure you that he was a beast. Finally he grew tired of toying with me and took off never to turn around again. To this day I plan to catch him….even if it’s the last thing I do!
Insane
[...] the crew at Tennessee Valley Angler discussed whether it is better to see or not see a big fish before it breaks you off. This is a story about the “big one” that my brother-in-law [...]