Do you loose sleep after loosing a fish?

fish brain

Crew Member
There have been several threads on hook setting and fish fighting recently. So in thinking about @Rain City 's not sleeping before a fishing trip, a problem I share by the way. I wonder how many people lie awake at night thinking about the one that got away.
Nothing bothers me more than loosing a fish, especially a big one. I can lie awake for hours reliving the fight, and what I could have done to bring the fish to the boat. Is this only something I do, or do you share my frustration?
 
There have been several threads on hook setting and fish fighting recently. So in thinking about @Rain City 's not sleeping before a fishing trip, a problem I share by the way. I wonder how many people lie awake at night thinking about the one that got away.
Nothing bothers me more than loosing a fish, especially a big one. I can lie awake for hours reliving the fight, and what I could have done to bring the fish to the boat. Is this only something I do, or do you share my frustration?
100% agree. I remember a day a few seasons back fishing at the cap and my buddy and I were getting into coho after coho after coho all while seemingly nobody else was catching. Now this was frustrating for three reasons. The first and obvious one was that we kept losing fish. The second being the fact that a quiet day at the cap in late August means 100 guys watching the excitement of us losing all these fish. And the last one, the reason I still lose sleep over that outing, was that a combination of our lack of experience and over excitment we kept forgetting to set the hook! We were catching these feisty ho's in 20'-30' of water and they were popping the clip themselves. Each and every time we'd grab the rod and just start reeling in and playing the fish then pop off goes the hook. Over and over and over again. After the sun had set we had lost about 20 fish and didn't have a single fish in the boat. It was my buddies last trip before he headed back to the Mac. I'm not sure who figured it out first but when we realised what we were doing wrong we both wanted to puke. Such an obvious mistake. I still lose sleep over that night.
 
Used to lie awake pissed at myself, now I am older?? Does not bother me as much, no sleep loss, find myself calmer with rookies as well, have fun, enjoy the day and do your best to get them. Most now must be released so I see no sense in raising the blood pressure over a lost fish. Now trying to sleep the night before a multi night hunting trip??? That's a different story.

HM
 
The vast majority of my most memorable fish are ones I lost. I’ve replayed a few of them in my head while trying to sleep even years later.

A very large trout that slipped the hook doing a crocodile like roll as I was leading it to the net in a Kamloops lake. A steelhead that demolished a small fly reel on an island stream peeling line at an alarming rate of speed. A botched net job by a newbie on a good Spring slipping off the net (the visual of it laying on its side just out of reach with the net with the hook tangled in the net eventually watching it swim away after recovery).

There are others... we’ve all been there.
 
i don’t lose sleep about the ones you lose right off the bat. good hook set, feel the weight, big run and gone. i feel they just weren’t hooked well and perhaps the better combatant won.

the ones that kill me are the ones beside the net, the botched net jobs; the ones where you coached a newbie to the umpteenth detail and yet they still screw it up. lost a for sure tyee a while back beside the boat due to a newbie trying to net the fish tail first.
 
some days fishing on my boat can be like cheering for the maple leafs, but I don't lose sleep over it.
 
2 years have passed now and I doubt think I will forget about the big one I lost, until I catch one as big or bigger!

I don’t lose sleep over it anymore but for months after I did.

As time goes by I think it gets bigger in my memory too. This is one I had lying still at the boat for 30 seconds while my net was tangled to the boat.

Never had a fish run like that one did. It was one of the first springs i had ever hooked and it was shocking!

Now that I’ve boated a bunch of high teens and low 20’s I can say without much doubt it was a “T word”

RIP Pender Bluffs
 
Definitely lost a couple winks here and there but.....what really gets me... and it happens at least once a month is when you're trolling along on a beauty day.....you see that rod bouncing and know this is a BIG hit. I quickly reach for that rod and almost roll right off the couch and realize.....F#@$! I'm napping and still think to myself....damn that was a big hit!
 
There have been several threads on hook setting and fish fighting recently. So in thinking about @Rain City 's not sleeping before a fishing trip, a problem I share by the way. I wonder how many people lie awake at night thinking about the one that got away.
Nothing bothers me more than loosing a fish, especially a big one. I can lie awake for hours reliving the fight, and what I could have done to bring the fish to the boat. Is this only something I do, or do you share my frustration?
Thankyou for the selfhelp group.My names FC and I suffer from fishmares.
 
When I lived in Alaska I fished the Kenai River every chance I could. Usually I fished alone but one weekend I invited a co-worker. He got a 25 pound spring right off the bat and he sat in the bow of the boat reading a book while I continued to work my gear. I decided to change gear and took off a golf'ball sized Spin n' Glo and replaced it with the smallest Spin N' Glo in my box and tipped it with a small gob of roe.....

First drop I got a serious take-down and this fish, instead of going down stream like most of the springs do in that river, started powering upstream. On the way, it picked up everyone's gear who was boon dogging downstream. I gave up all hope but the guides were absolutely cool....they knew I had a big fish on and i'm not making this up....if they couldn't get their client's lines untangled from my line lickety'split they cut it off with scissors.

The Kenai is a big glacial river with a strong current . I had already motored at least a mile upstream after this fish through a very stout current and i'd cleared at least 40 lines off my gear...I was amazed I was still hooked up to this fish and by this time, really wanted to see it.

So I finally get him into a big bennd in the river where the current slows down and got within hand-grenade distance of the fish. It broke the surface and it looked like someone had dropped a Chevy into the river...it was huge!

So i'm working the tiller and working the rod and starting to eye the net wondering how all this is going to work...meanwhile my co-worker is just standing there saying Jeseus! Jeseus!

Because the current is so swift I decided to give him the net. I maneuvered the boat alongside the fish and finally got a glimpse. Not only was it huge but it was chrome bright, rare when the fish get this big. I got the head up alongside my inflatable and told my co-worker to get the head into the hoop and i,d drop the rod tip and goose the throttle at the same time and try and spook him into the net. He just stood there looking like he,d swallowed a whole egg, saying over and over again: Jeseus! Jeseus! The guy had augured into a cliff....he was just a click shy of total uselessness

I had no other choice but to give him the rod. I'd do the netting. He reached for the rod, reeled down on the hook set, then with a look of frenzy, jerked the tip towards the sky. I saw the tiny Spin n' Glo and the hook it was attached to pop free of the fish’s jaw and the fish slowly, no body movement at all, sank down into the depths of the hole and disappeared.

I know my way around 50's and 60's and that fish was no doubt 70+.....the head was the size of a jumbo water melon

All the way back to Anchorage I couldn't say a word to that guy. I had never seen someone fall apart like that over a fish and I guess it was my turn now

To this day, I fish alone. On the rare occasion that I do take someone in my boat, I hook and net my own fish

This summer I lost a biggie in Rivers. When the hook pulled I said oh well...

I guess i've come a long way since that lost Kenai fish but every once in while I toss and turn in bed, wondering just how big that fish really was...
 
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When I lived in Alaska I fished the Kenai River every chance I could. Usually I fished alone but one weekend I invited a co-worker. He got a 25 pound spring right off the bat and he sat in the bow of the boat reading a book while I continued to work my gear. I decided to change gear and took off a golf'ball sized Spin n' Glo and replaced it with the smallest Spin N' Glo in my box and tipped it with a small gob of roe.....

First drop I got a serious take-down and this fish, instead of going down stream like most of the springs do in that river, started powering upstream. On the way, it picked up everyone's gear who was boon dogging downstream. I gave up all hope but the guides were absolutely cool....they new I had a big fish on and i'm not making this up....if they could n't untangle their client's lines lickety'split they cut it off with scissors.

The Kenai is a big glacial river with a strong current . I had already motored at least a mile upstream after this fish through a very stout current and i'd cleared at least 40 lines off my gear...I was amazed I was still hooked up to this fish and really wanted to see it.

So I finally get him into a big bennd in the river where the current slows down and got within hand-grenade distance of the fish. It broke the surface and it looked like someone had dropped a Chevy into the river...it was huge!

So i'm working the tiller and working the rod and starting to eye the net wondering how all this is going to work...meanwhile my co-worker is just standing there saying Jeseus! Jeseus!

Because the current is so swift I decided to give him the net. I maneuvered the boat alongside the fish and finally got a glimpse. Not only was it huge but it was chrome bright, rare when the fish get this big. I got the head up alongside my inflatable and told my co-worker to get the head into the hoop and i,d drop the rod tip and goose the throttle at the same time. He just stood there looking like he,d swallowed a whole egg, saying Jeseus! Jeseus! The guy had augured into a cliff....a click shy from total uselessness

I had no other choice but to give him the rod and I'd do the netting. He reached for the rod, reeled down on the hook set, and jerked the tip towards the sky. I saw the tiny Spin n' Glo and the hook it was attached to pop free and the fish slowly, no body movement at all, sunk down into the hole and disappeared.

I know my way around 50's and 60's and that fish was no doubt 70+.....the head was the size of a large silver watermellon

All the way back to Anchorage I couldn't say a word to that guy. I had never seen someone fall apart like that over a fish and I guess it was my turn now

To this day, I fish alone. On the rare occasion that I do take someone in my boat, I hook and net my own fish

This summer I lost a biggie in Rivers. When the hook pulled I said oh well...i've come a long way since that I lost that Kenai fish
Where did you bury him?
 
There is never an gaurantee in landing the fish and you will infact lose some. I experienced this twice this season. Three times I can remember. The first I just grabbed a few rods and put whatever gear I had on while trolling the cap mouth. After a few trips I was trolling just at the mouth and I got a huge strike and fish on. The fish ran fairly decently and then I was retrieving line and being very careful with the drag. I inched it up and any second could see the fish which I knew was a spring. And the line snapped. I looked at where the swivel should be and sure enough I tied the leader to an eye of the flasher which had no swivel. A burr on the weld did me in.

Last two times it was a failed net job. During the closure I caught my first spring ever on a boat and I decided maybe I shouldnt net it because if i brought it in the boat it would beat itself to death. so I half assed tried to net it by the side and the hook popped. The most recent was a 25lbs spring at the north arm. And I did settle it down and take my time. Let it fight and run and inch it to the boat. And it was heavy and with a 10' rod very difficult to get any pull on it. I had my downrigger line in the water and got a little ahead of myself and decided to try to net it. One chance and the fish went head fish over the net and the hook hit the side popped and the first spun with one turn and swam across the net. Couldnt lift the net because of how far my grip was on it.

No big deal I have pulled in my share and only lost a few
 
I had an issue this year out at Swiftshire. On our way to the bank,we spotted birds EVERYWHERE, so we decided to drop the gear, sure enough the fish were there. I was using a TKO spoon. Glow and black with a silver back side. I must have hooked a dozen fish on that spoon, I would be reeling them in, tension on the line........then they were gone. No big run, no head shake, just not there any more. I switched to a Gibbs spoon and didn't loose another fish all day. We were catching and releasing Coho and Chinook until we had our limit for three guys. I got more takes on the TKO than any rod on the boat during the time I had it on, but just landed one fish. I think that the fish were able to leaver themselves off the hook. I have since added a swivel between the hook and the spoon, but have not been able to test it. Has anyone else done this? I still lay awake at night thinking about this six weeks later. Not obsessively, just trying to figure out what was happening, so when it happens next time, I can fix it quickly.
 
One, Only because I got to see it up close, Twice, And it was the biggest most beautiful steelhead I had or have ever seen. And I've seen thirty pounders. I think about that fish quite often.
 
The worst fishmare I ever had I will visit again with you all.2002 I knew work wasn't going to be ready so I showed up at the job site with the boat.At 11 am july 2 I was at the the launch at point holms and headed to palister rk solo.Theres a hole at 60' and trolled 3 lines 2 riggers@40',about 5 pm on the flood and cooking in the sun I had striped to my briefs and BAM .The fish took a hoochie on the port side and started to run.I got control of the fish and set the rod in the holder to tackle the other lines.Then the top line15' nastyboy spoon pops of and I grab the rod .As fast as I could reel the flasher was sideways comming in ,then the dorsal fin shows like a shark .The boat in gear ,the fish swims right into the prop and turns 90 on its side .head at one cleat tail at the other cleat of a 16'starcraft 85# I figure.with one thrust of body snapped the hook.The plug line still down I picked up the rod with the first fish on and gained contol of fish as it was doing cartwheels 35#.I grabed the plug line and poped it off the rigger and bam another fish screaming line and lost .Lines and riggers in ,I played the 35# first fish to the side odf the boat .with net in one hand and rod in the other I went to net the fish.The fish then winked at me and with a head shake the hook popped out and caught me in the cheek .I sat down in the seat and wonderd what had just happened ,when a boat pulled up along side, me in my underwear tried to explain what had just happend .still haunted .
 
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