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Best day of fishing


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I like to read other peoples stories about fishing, so was just wondering what was the best day of fishing you ever had.

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Boy, thats tough...I've been lucky enough to have a few great opportunities. In 96, 1st trip to AK, we hit a day on the Russian river when the red salmon were coming in waves...picture the postcards you see where the river is more fish than water; it was just riduculous. Fish every cast, if one came off you'd hook another on the same retrieve. After hours, we were so tired and our hands full of line cuts that we just sat on the bank and watched others...simply unforgettable. And I was with my wife:) One more...a couple years ago fishing marlin in Cabo San Lucas; A good day is 1 marlin, and I'd never landed more than 2 in a day. One morning we ran into an area that was just full of fish; we saw pairs, singles, a couple groups of 5 or 6 fish swimming together. Fish free jumping, hitting baits so hard they were hooking themselves...I ended up landed 5 marlin fishing solo, standup with a belt, in about 2 and 1/2 hours...virtually one after another. About 1/2 way through a freak rainstorm hit and I was drenched, slipping around the deck, laughing my a## off at a morning like that...wishing that time I wasn't by myself. Ended up releasing them all in good shape, figuring I'd never see another day like that. Wrong...last year I landed six in one day, in really rough seas about 50 miles from port. Not nearly as much fun as the 5 fish day, took a brutal beating that time from the conditions, but still an epic day. There have been some darn good local "best" days too, but it's hard to beat those trips.

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Last years best day happened just after opener. Unfortunetly we only caught 2 fish and missed one. Or should I say my buddy caught 2 fish and I missed the one of a life time! We where on a lake very near Mille Lacs. We started out throwing raps near in inlet of the lake. Right away my buddy hooks up w/ a BIG fish. I reached down grabbed this monster pike near the gill plate and pulled 43" of Northern pike out of the water. Got our pictures, revived the fish and onb to the next spot. Went to the boulder point and kept casting. Then my buddy hooks into another monster of a fish. Beautiful 6# 3oz. (just over 21") Small Mouth. Wow 2 beautiful fish and I am getting ticked. Then it all happens I get hooked up... the fight begings. Goes on for I don't know how long. Then we see it comming to the top for a jump. Saw the biggest large mouth I have ever seen. Except at Bass Pro Shops! THing was ridiculous; it looked like he ate 2 footballs for breakfast. THen on his 2nd jump he busts loose and I get hit right in the chest w/ the rapala. I scream in horror. My buddy asks if I see the size of that fish... I say yeah I did, time to go home for the weekend, nothing will top that no matter how long we stay out here. We head back to cabin back up and leave. I think I had tears in my eyes for atleast 2 hours on the way home. We always knew it ws a great lake; but, now we know why we see Al Lindner out there as much as we do. He said he knows the next state record bass is in that lake. And that is why I love that lake so much

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About 6 years ago on Rainy Lake on the Canada side. It wasn't just one day though, it was the whole week. My boat alone caught between 400 and 500 walleyes ranging from 14" to 29.5". And I'd say nearly 100 of those fish were between 22" and 26". Unbelievable fishing. Double hook-ups were the norm every day we were out. Can't hardly put that one into words.

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Ours would have to be on the Canadian side also. It was about a few years ago and we had three boats. less then a week of fishing we caught 35 walleye over 27 inches. It was by far the best trip we had.

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A couple of questions for both you guys about Rainy...what month have you done you best up there? We used to go to Sag and camp on the islands, kind of gotten away from that but would like to find another lake to try it on, and Rainy sounds like a blast. There are no motor restrictions there, are there? Lots of rocks, I'm sure, kind of a motor restricter in itself:)

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We go the first week or two in July. Have been for ~25yrs. No motor restrictions on Rainy. There are guys that go break-neck speed. smirk.gif Rocks can be an issue if you don't have a map, but there are some good maps of Rainy out there and they are pretty complete and accurate.

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Thanks basscatcher; very used to navigating by map from Canadian LOTW and Sag. Have you camped on the canadian side of Rainy? I expect we would need crown land camping permits?

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I couldn't comment on camping. We stay at a resort. However, if you have some questions you'd like answered about Canada, you could visit either the Canada forum or the Rainy Lake forum. There are some great people in those forums whom I'm sure could help you out in the camping department.

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The best day I ever had fishing was about 10 years ago. My dad and I were slip bobber fishing with leeches on the lake we have our cabin on and we were catching a few nice sunfish, some bass and an ocassional walleye.

My dad caught a sunfish and while taking the hook out he broke his line right at the hook. His close up vision wasn't that great so I told him to give me his rod and I would re-tie the hook on for him. At that time I noticed my bobber starting to slide under the water. I set the hook and handed him my rod and told him to take over. I had no idea what was on the other end as it didn't feel overly large when I set the hook. My dad battled the fish for 3-4 minutes. I netted the fish, a 29.5 inch walleye that weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. It was the biggest walleye he ever caught in his life. He had a smile on is face for two weeks after that. He ended up releasing the fish after we snapped a bunch of pictures. My dad passed away about 5 years later. It is still one of my favorite memories.

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my daughter (age 6) and I out drifting for walleye in a buddy's boat with him- boat owner is big time walleye guy, yadda yadda yadda...

we got thumped by my kid, who now carries the occasional nickname "walleye magnet".... we even matched bait to hers, and she still caught all the fish~

I may not have caught a stinking thing but I couldn't have asked for more that day.

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Twice...watching my 5 year old daughter catch her first walleye...and then watching her son at the same age catch his first bass...For a dad and now a grandpa, it don't get much better than that.

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The true beauty of fishing is that the best day of fishing is always tomorrow.

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10-15 years ago we were out in yellowstone on opening weekend. we walked back 2 miles to a lake and did okay and hiked back another 4 miles (past a lot of grizzly tracks and one dead elk with a hole in it's stomach) to another lake. We had 1 hour to fish until we had to hike out to get picked up. Two of us caught over 100 rainbows in that one hour. Using rooster tails, if you made more than 5 casts without a hit, you switched colors and bam you had a hit. Phenominal fishing. we went back the next day and it wasn't quite as hot, but still the best location of the trip.

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Similar to Picks we were trout fishing in Wyoming in the Bighorns, we walked for miles down this creek catching brookies in every single pool and eddie, using mepps. Saw some mulies and even a cow moose with her calf....repeated that for 3 days. There have been many other days in the same caliber as those but that one always comes to mind.

I think when my daughter gets old enough to catch her first fish all by herself will be my new best day...

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Last year, right around Memorial Day I took my then fiancee to a local metro lake to bobber fish for some bluegills and crappies. Figured it would be some action for her and get a maybe there'd be a bonus bass mixed in. We were catching a few and as it got closer to sundown I caught a small walleye. Figured it was a bonus and kept fishing. Over the next couple hours my wife proceeds to catch a bunch of nice bass, few more keeper walleyes and tops it off with a 25" walleye that definitly was the biggest fish she'd ever caught. Later on she tells me that after that night "I understood how you get so obsessed with fishing, for days afterwards I was thinking about going fishing" I've definitely had better fishing in terms of catching but knowing she had that same feeling for a little bit made it a great day of fishing.

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I have had two such days. 1st was about 4 yrs ago on Upper Red Lake. My dad had not ice fished since I was small (approx. 35 yrs ago), my mom had never at all. I took them to URL for some crappie action. I drilled them each a hole and before I could drill myself a hole they were catching crappie after crappie. My dad has had both hips replaced and has a hard time getting down to the ice to grab them big slabs, so I spent alot of time unhooking and rebaiting for them both. I thought this was payback for all the times in the boat when I was too small to do it myself. The looks on both of their faces was priceless. I think I only caught 3 fish that whole night, but they caught all the rest to fill-out. The 2nd was last summer when my 2.5 yr old daughter and I were fishing from the dock on Gull Lake near Tenstrike when she caught her first fish. Only a small perch, but to her it was a whale! She got so excited that she threw her rod and reel in the lake, luckily, the Princess rod floats!

I will always remember those two days of fishing!

Fishon!!!!

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To pick one is very tough but I do remember a day up in Canada when I was in the boat all by my lonesome and I was the only boat on this paticular spot on the lake. I was in 20 feet of water and from the minute I lowered my live bait rig until I left that day 9 hours later or more I bet I caught 50 walleyes over 24 inches and another 20 or 30 over 20 inches. The bite was unreal as soon as I got the boat situated and let my line down I caught a walleye. The best part of it was that I went a little deep one drift but I set the hook and it ended up being a 42 inch northern that I did land on 6lb test with no leader and a #8 gamakatsu hook the size of your fingernail. What a fantastic day but the whole week was like that. Over 400 walleyes myself over 22 inches. That was the only northern pike.

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I know I have had some decent days, but I would have to say I haven't had my best day fishing, yet....

that day will be when I can look at others and finally say, "you should've been here yesterday!" grin.gif

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I have had many great days on the water, but my best trip probably was on Upper Red a few winters back because it was the first time my son had witnessed some hot fishing action. A buddy and I and our two sons get to URL before the rest of the crew about an hour before dark on Friday (we had about 15 guys on the trip). We drive out, pick a spot away from the crowds and start drilling. As luck would have it, we picked a spot on top of the crappie mother load! Took a few minutes for the action to start after the setup commotion, but when they came in, that was it! The bottom would rise up to meet the lure WAY before the lure got near the bottom. It was unbelievable! As fast as we could unhook and drop we'd have another one. This went on for almost 3 hours that afternoon/evening! We estimate each father/son team caught and released over 100 of those slabs! I was giggling just as much as my son. Just watching him experience that made my weekend. Sat and Sun were pretty slow, then on Monday we stopped at Winnie for some jumbos on the drive home. We pretty much did a repeat! Met up with some of the crew that had beaten us out there, they were catching a few. We set up about 50 yards away and started hammering the jumbos! We ended up managing two limits of the 11-12” in about an hour before the bite slowed down. Dumb luck both days, but fun to stumble into something like that on occasion. My son is hooked for life after that trip.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
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    • Brianf.
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