The monster that got away ! Let’s hear your stories

Loghauler

Loghauler

Well-Known Member
The story started as most do with an idea taken from a previous story “ the sacred story of a salmon caught from a paddle boat in front of Campbell river most would ask is there a river there the answer is no and yes at the same time but I digress
After reading about the size of fish a paddle boater can catch surely in my motor boat I can be a salmon factory compared to a lowly canoe ! So the two week trip is planned and game on homework is done gear is bought even a pretrip and a rental is done to learn a bit about the enemy!
Then the big trip off to salmon pointe for two weeks trip of a life time !
Fishing begins nothing the first day so a few sight seeing side trips second day same so third day change it up try jigging and am rewarded with few small rock fish ugliest things seen ever so off to tackle shop for some info and maybe a change of attack find out about fish types and regs and am told based of recent info that a large Hali was caught just out where I had come from !!! Oh wow hadn’t considered that after all I had come for the fabled Salmon so a new rod and reel some tuff line and a round of new rigging and I was off to see if I too could pull up a sheet of plywood off the bottom
Next morning I was out early and jigging up a storm lol but only small ish rockfish and the odd ling nothing one could keep
Then around noon another small bite and a small one to real up and clean off the jig when this time something grabs the line and I’m thinking this is it my halibut ! So I set the hook but whatever it was is gone ! Damm so I bring up the lure and huh there’s the head of a small fish but no body ! After a supper at the trailer I’m renting of to town for a strategy session I decide on a real big halibut jig with large treble hook I’m hunting big game now lol
In the morning off I go and sure enough same as the day before I’m surprised the smaller fish can get their mouth around the lure but same procedure and same result and sure enough the big guy shows up after several hours and fight is on !! Whatever is on the line is refusing to leave the bottom so im afraid of breaking something and im freaking out because I’ve finally done it im gonna slay a sea monster and fill my freezer
I am so excited this is much bigger than the twenty something salmon from lakelse river in terrace and I’ve never caught a halibut before !
Well the battle went on for ten mins and I got ten or twenty feet and all of a sudden it goes for a run I’ve got no chance except to let it I’m about to get spooled so I start the boat and off I go chasing it and after figuring out how to make all work as I’m by myself I start to gain some line phew crisis averted I can do this !
After another half hour or more of back and forth losing line and gaining it back I’m starting to tire of the game so I start working a bit harder to reel this fish in I’m sure it has to tire out soon! So off it goes again the battle continues after what seems like forever but maybe another hour at best I’ve still yet to see anything and feel like I’m not winning and am actually the one getting beat up the rod end had bruised me in numerous places and it’s getting uncomfortable to keep going so I up the pressure and another round begins this time I’m going for broke driving faster to gain more line and I’m getting it done should be able to see something soon and Ohhh my god is that fn seal in that rip tide gonna steal my halibut that I’m gonna land
No fn way am I gonna let that bag of fat and flippers gonna take my fish also had that happen up in the river by terrace
So I redouble my efforts to bring home the bacon that the last round starts well as I start to real in to keep my fish from getting too close to the seal the seal starts to come my way and I’m think noooo
I start to real faster and the seal comes faster!
I had caught myself a seal !!! I had been fighting an epic battle with a seal !!!!
Tired and pissed off I cut the line
What a battle! What a feeling
I could see my freezer empty still damn
every one at the resort had yet to catch a salmon they just were late that year !
Left cambell river dejected and skunked as my wife and me left the resort the manager ran over and told me the salmon are here first boat to come in with fish had three just caught I had to restrain myself from a few choice words lol as it wasn’t his fault
Beautiful area and interesting boating
And a story of the monster that got away with a twenty dollar jig
Ps I hope it hurt lol
 
Last edited:
Had a spring on at Otter Point years ago with a long time customer who was fishing with me this day alone. Flat calm morning and hooked it with the original version of Wayne Laughren’s Super Release Dodger. Customer played the fish on a 7ft Fenwick trout rod for about 20 minutes when it rode the surface about 50 ft from the boat with its dorsal fin and top of it’s tail out of the water. Another boat trolled past us 75 ft beyond the fish. Another 5 mins and we had it close to the boat and the fish was ready. He started to pull the fish towards the net and the hook flew past my head… I reached out as far as I could and managed to get the head and maybe 8-10 inches of the body on top of the net hoop. I had no more reach and it slid off and slowly sank until it was 10 ft down, righted itself and very slowly swam away. My customer sat down and mumbled to himself over and over… I will never have one that big again. The guy who passed us while the fish was on the surface went by again and asked if we got it. Nope. He says that was a big fish wasn’t it? Yep. My largest to date went 52 pounds and this one was all of that…but is just a story and one I won’t forget and I’m sure my customer won’t either. Sad that now that is all we have is stories.
 
Last edited:
About 10 years ago we were halibut fishing on West constance.
After a slow start my buddy hooks a good one. He had it almost to the surface three times and straight back down. On the fourth attempt he got it to the surface and I near crapped myself. Biggest Halibut I'd seen and likely about 140 lbs.
With a shakey hand I struck the harpoon right into the bony plate behind the head. The fish went nuts,
bent the harpoon shift like a noodle, and snapped the line on it's final descent.
Boy did I ever feel like a **** !
Half an hour later we landed an 82 lb so not all was lost.
 
Not me but my dad and his buddies are down the Douglas channel fishing over 20 years ago. It was crappy weather not much for fish to be had when they did get out due to weather. On the last day their sitting on anchor in the pouring rain dad hooks a big halibut. After an epic 3 hour battle up and down in 450’ of water he finally started winning The fish comes to the surface biggest and its halibut they ever seen they estimated it over 7’ long. Buddy leans over the side and sinks the harpoon halfway into the hill plate. Halibut thrashing around throws the harpoon breaks the line and all they can do is watch it bleed as it slowly sank out of site. Reeled up and off to bishop bay hot springs for beer and a soak.
 
I love these types of stories.....

Sadly, my biggest salt water fish was a 28 pound spring quite a few years ago......

But, the number of real big fish stories I have is of 10' plus monsters, add in double and triple headers on occassion and screaming 300 plus yard runs.....

The mighty sturgeon, I never get tired of them!
 
Sea Chaser said:
Arima + cates yes . Just one buddy with me yesterday . Was another one out there yesterday too in the bunch
Click to expand...
Right on. I was on a Blue thunder craft and we launched out of cates as well. First boat there at 6:00 and probably last one off the water when the fog rolled in. 1 coho and 1 dirty pink to show for 10 hours of work. No big ones that got away for sure. Should have fished the bottom from what I gathered.
 
Was fishing in Kyuquot with a certain NHL player and hooked into a great spring that my wife said "you fight it!'. I was trying to give the rod to her.

A good 45 minute fight and biggest fish was going to be $100 between our two boats. Finally got the fish to the boat and my wife was going to net it. (Didn't really think after the fight she didn't know how to net a fish as I let her fight the bulk of them). Told her head first and she 'scooped' tail first with the teaser getting caught in the net and it flipped out of the net and swam on to live another day and hopefully make more of its grade. My biggest is 35lbs and this one easily would have broke the 40 barrier. It would have gone back and my wife was devastated the rest of the trip.

Funny is I started coaching her on netting coho after that and now she is batting 100%.
 
Last edited:
My dad and I were fishing Church Rock in Sooke in 1978. There was a derby on that we were not part of and we were dodging the boats best we could coming to almost a complete stop. The salmon hit and went straight to the bottom. My dad thought it was bottom actually however we only had 45 feet out in 150+ feet of water. The battle was on and eventually it came to the boat. Biggest salmon we had ever caught well into the 40s. I managed to get it into the net and I swung it into the splash well on our ancient 14’ fibreglass boat as no room with the little cabin on it to get onto floor. It was magnificent! Sadly it used its tail as leverage to push itself through our net and it was gone back into the sea in a flash to a chorus of “oh no” comments from the crowd in the area. Even the local radio station that had a boat in the area commented on air about it.
Learned 2 things that day: always check your net for strength each year cause they rot or at least the old ones did and always have netted fish put on floor of boat no matter what.
 
This one hurts me.
Around 1985-87 I was 9-10 years old my dad took me up to the Thaltan river to go spring salmon fishing. He’d built a few nice birch handled, titanium hooked gaffes over the winter to handle those big fish. That spring word came out there was a pretty big landslide on the Thaltan a few miles upstream of the mouth. We hen we arrived the river was almost chocolate coloured from all the mud coming down. We hiked up above it to fish clean water. You could see the sockeye and springs stacked up in a pool about half way down the slide so down we went. There were round boulders the size of houses we could walk out and fish on while looking up the angry rushing water coming down the newly formed narrows. I hooked into a 40ish lb silver spring about my second cast. It run all over the holding pool tried going down stream a few times but I clamped down on the drag and held on for dear life. I wasn’t aware due the the epic battle I was on the receiving end of but my dad keep grabbing the rod and my belt and had to drag both of us back onto the top of the rock. Eventually I managed to wear the fish down enough to bring it along the rock I was sitting on dad asked me if I wanted to keep it. Of course I did I’d never seen such a spectacular fish on the end of my fishing rod. So he reached down and slipped the gaffe into it lower jaw killing it. It was a little jump over to the next rock but hen onto land a guy who was with us keep telling my dad to just pass the gaffe over to him with my fish hanging off of it. Dad reluctantly passed it over and buddy swung the gaffe up onto his shoulder. Now remember my dad built these gaffes he welded he hook onto a lag bolt so in the blink of an eye the hook turned down. My fish fell between the rocks into the rushing water and gone forever. I was crushed to say the least it was my dream to catch a fish like that growing up in Alberta watching Larry Schoenborn on Fishing The West. Pretty sure the old man is still not talking to him.

A picture looking down the run a few years later
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0015.jpeg
    IMG_0015.jpeg
    159 KB · Views: 58
In the early 80’s I lived in Alaska and spent a lot of time fishing a river that commonly kicked out 60 lb+ springs. There was a Ford dealership in town that had a stuffed 97 pounder on the wall from that same river so any time you had your gear in the water, you felt like you were big game hunting.

793F13D9-5527-42CB-B0BC-805361704FE0.jpeg



One day I took a guy from the office out in my boat. He wasn’t much of a fishermen (he was the office accountant and accountants rarely have the blood-lust that the sales guys like me have) but he managed to hook a 40 pounder and it was now dead in my boat. He was a happy camper and settled into his mystery novel in the bow. The guy who netted it for him also wanted a fish. Bad.

I finally get into my fish. But this fish didn’t behave like all the other springs I’d hooked in this river. It immediately started going upstream, strong and steady, not in any rush, and I had no choice but to follow. The problem was that I had to fight a huge armada of downstream boat traffic, mostly guide boats, each one with 2 or three guys in the bow, all with their gear in the water

I figured all was lost. My fish started harvesting the downstream lines one by one on my line. At one point I probably had 10 to 15 sets of gear on my rod. But miracle of miracles—-the guides knew exactly what was going on and ordered their clients to cut their lines. I was floored by that Good Samaritan behavior —-who wouldda thought?

Out came the scissors and knives.

Long story short, after an hour of upstream motoring chasing that fish, free and clear of all the downstream lines, it was finally just me, an accountant, and a huge spring which I’d managed to get into a quiet piece of water. I barked at the accountant to man the net when I got the fish up alongside my boat ( a 12 foot inflatable raft) . The head of that fish looked to be the size of a man-hole cover. The tail was bigger then a shovel blade. I had never ever seen a chinook that big in my life and I’d seen plenty of 60’s and 70’s hanging on gallows in front of all the lodges on the river bank. There was no doubt in my mind I had an 80+ on the end of my rod. I backed-off on the throttle so the boat drifted back enough for the accountant to get a clean shot at the fish.

To my horror, the guy started whimpering like a kicked dog. I can’t do it...I can’t do it...it won’t fit he kept whining over and over. (Yeah, I know what that must have sounded like)

I had no choice but to grab the net out of his hands and give him the rod because there’s was no way I’d trust that guy with his hand on the throttle of my boat. Just steady pressure I hissed. Don’t do anything stupid. I had a clean shot at the fish and figured I could get at least half of it’s body into the bag of the net then grab the gill plate and muscle the rest of it into the boat. Just as I was about to make my move, a crystal clear plan of attack solid between my ears, the accountant thought it would be a stroke of accounting wisdom to jerk up hard on the rod tip.

The tiny little metallic green spin-n-glow and the 4/0 hook popped free of the huge jaw and whizzed past my head. I watched a spring that was easily half as long as my inflatable raft sink from sight back down into the milky green depths of the river. It didn’t swim away—-it sank.

On the two hour drive back to town with the accountant, neither of us said a word.
 
Last edited:
In 2019 I was guiding out of westview marina with a very nice middle aged couple from Ont. The guy owned a 60 ft viking on Lake ont --so he's the fisherman--right-- wrong-its his wife Ellen who's the die hard. Last day of a very successful 3 day charter and we are just jinking around middle reef in the sunshine catching our remaining coho-no pressure-halibut and Springs are processed-easy day-I see a sunfish and point it out to them--that's nice!! 3 min later they want a picture so gear in the water I do a lazy 360- and they get ready to photo it from a safe distance. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose-unbeknownst to me there were 2 of them the rigger braid is hung up on it-thought my rigger was gone-reached for the knife when the braid rolled off him--safe- only for a second or 2-- the coyote hooked him-what a ride I thought sunfish were slow-this thing put up a bow wave-figured I'd lost my braid-so just palmed the reel and hung on -just about spooled and the hook straightened. Got everything back and just was amazed-never seen anything like it-unstoppable power
 
spring fever said:
In 2019 I was guiding out of westview marina with a very nice middle aged couple from Ont. The guy owned a 60 ft viking on Lake ont --so he's the fisherman--right-- wrong-its his wife Ellen who's the die hard. Last day of a very successful 3 day charter and we are just jinking around middle reef in the sunshine catching our remaining coho-no pressure-halibut and Springs are processed-easy day-I see a sunfish and point it out to them--that's nice!! 3 min later they want a picture so gear in the water I do a lazy 360- and they get ready to photo it from a safe distance. All of a sudden all hell breaks loose-unbeknownst to me there were 2 of them the rigger braid is hung up on it-thought my rigger was gone-reached for the knife when the braid rolled off him--safe- only for a second or 2-- the coyote hooked him-what a ride I thought sunfish were slow-this thing put up a bow wave-figured I'd lost my braid-so just palmed the reel and hung on -just about spooled and the hook straightened. Got everything back and just was amazed-never seen anything like it-unstoppable power
Click to expand...
Nantucket sleigh ride?
 
Not my story but it’s a gooder bug. My buddy was fishing mable lake when his rigger pops. No tugs just that slow, deep bend in the rod that you just know is a monster. That, or you’re snagged on the bottom lol. He wasnt. The fish was going bat$!t crazy. It feels huge he says. Suddenly, line goes slack and fish is gone. Figures he says, so big it broke the line. Wait a minute. he can still feel the plug. He winds it in and there he never hook was an eyeball the size of a tooney
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Halibut anchoring with windlass vs hand pull
Replies
19
Views
1K
Umos
Umos
Squire
Maximum trolling depth with Scotty 1106
Replies
10
Views
1K
A-a-Ron
A-a-Ron
ryanonthevedder
Your favorite Spoons
Replies
73
Views
7K
PEETZcanada
PEETZcanada
the force
Christmas Shellfish on the Island
Replies
9
Views
2K
sly_karma
sly_karma
B
Striper 2100 cc do I buy it, I’m a beginner , and newbie?
Replies
12
Views
708
Stosh
Stosh
Back
Top