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The Best Bad Night Fishing Trip Of All Time
In this reader submitted fishing story, Mike talks about the best bad fishing night he has ever had. After reading it all anglers should keep in mind they should never give up no matter how dire their striaghts on the water. Have a story which you want to share with our Bass Fishing community? If so email us at .
The Best Bad Night Fishing Trip Of All Time
This story is a true account of the best, bad fishing trip I of all time. It begins one May afternoon on Pickwick Lake near Florence AL. For those not familiar with Pickwick Lake, it is a fabulous Small Mouth fishery with lots of rock piles, under water islands, buff walls and many other forms of structure, man made and natural. Due to power generation and water releases from Wilson Dam, about a half a mile upriver from the ramp, the upper end of Pickwick is subject to extreme water variations, from dead calm to very fast, and heavy current.
The evening regarding this story my partner and myself were participating in a local club tournament starting at 7 AM ending 4 PM. During blastoff there was a very heavy current causing my partner and I decide to take a run down river to avoid some of the current and fish a few holes that were somewhat sheltered. This was the beginning of the Bad as we had traveled about 5 miles down river when my 200 HP Yamaha slung one blade off the prop. Luckily I got the boat shut down without any damage to the motor or boat although the prop was shot. Leaving us 5 miles down river with heavy current and only a 65 pound thrust trolling motor to maneuver my 20 foot Bumble Bee back up river against strong current to get back to the ramp, and weigh in. During our slow trip back upriver we were able to fish a few spot’s, and caught one nice Smallmouth about 3 pounds that was promptly deposited into the live well. Knot knowing if we would need all the battery power for the trip back upriver we decided not run the pro air and aerator pumps and watch over the fish for signs distress.
About 10:00 pm the power generators shut off, leaving the water calm and very little current. With the calm water we decided to slow our pace and try to pick up a couple more fish along the way. I stood to make a couple casts to a rock pile and promptly fell head first into the lake. Luckily I hung own to all my gear and had a rain suit in the boat.
After my partner helped me back into the boat and joked me about rules against fishing out of the boat, I changed out of the wet garments and into my rain suite; finally we got back to fishing. Concerned about the fish in the live well I ask my partner to look for signs of distress. He lifted the lid to the live well and the fish jumped out of the live well and completely cleared the boat. I mean it never touched any part of the boat. He must have been doing laps around the live well to jump that far and touch nothing but water, we were astounded at our unfortunate luck. After our only hope for success jumped out of the boat we found ourselves running short on time and fishless. To make it back to the ramp before weigh in we would only have about 15 minutes of fishing time, all the remaining time would have to be spent trolling back to the ramp. I thought of only one spot that might offer anything and if it was dead so were our chances. We trolled to a small underwater rock pile in about 15 feet of water. One side dropped into the old river channel the other end leads up onto shallow water flat. I made a long cast from the river channel side with a black & red Buck tail Jig that I tie myself. I let the jig settle to the bottom raised my rod tip just a bit and felt it tick against a rock.
Turning to my partner I said “man it feels fishy down there”. Raised my rod tip one more time and felt a solid thump. Setting the hook hard with no movement at the other end for an instant I thought rock. Then the rock pulled back and the battle of a lifetime was on. The powerful first run peeled line of my bait caster fast as the fish headed for deep water and almost pulled the rod out of my hand. I told my partner to get the net this is a gorilla. Suddenly the fish started up, I lowered my rod tip in an attempt to keep the fish down but it blast out of the water a good 3 feet. My partner encouraged me to bring it to the net, but the fish felt otherwise and continued stripping line from my reel. It made two more spectacular jumps, and then a run under the boat.
The fish jumped behind me with a great splash and I was sure the run under the boat would end the battle. Somehow I managed to compose myself and led the fish around the front of the boat where he took three short blistering runs beside the boat and as many attempts with the net to finally end the fight. Finally with this big Small Mouth in the bottom of the boat both my partner and myself were both shaking like a leaf with excitement. The pure adrenalin rush made me feel like a kid with his first fish. We had just enough time for a couple more cast I was retying my jig when my partner said “there he is” the fish jumped and from the sound of the splash, I put my gear down and headed for the net.
He had several long runs and a couple of big jumps and led the fish into the net. I hated to leave this kind of action, but had no choice. We arrived at the dock with about one minute to spare. My fish tipped the scales at 6 pounds 15 and ½ ounces, and had spit out about a couple ounces of shad in the live well. My partners fish was over 5 pounds with a total weight over 12 pounds, enough to win the tournament and big fish pot. The moral of this story is even under the worst conditions never give up, fight to the end, it just might pay off Big.
Enthusiast Experience 