Phil from Maine

I have had a lot of good fishing days, but, on this one I didn,t even
catch a fish.About three years agomy next door neighbor ( who was
about 83 ) asked me if I would mind going fishing with him and a friend of his. His friend was a fishing buddy for years. He was sick for quite sometime. I said yes and we took the boat landlock salmon fishing. He was bound and determined thathis friend would catch one.The boat was my next door nieghbor,s and I had asked a few times to let me drive whileso
they could talkoldtimes. After a while with no luck he said I could. I made a sharp swingnext to shore and his friend caught 2 nice landlocks. That was the best and last day they had together in along time as about six months later his friend passed away.And when I talk with my next door nieghbor to this day he will bring up whata great day we had.

bigbuckOO

I have a couple and both are pretty recent, within the past 5 years. The first one would have to be the big 46 pound flathead i caught in 03. I was targeting big cats but never thought i would come across this dude. The river was very high due to recent rains, it was over its bank. I had an idea to hit a creek tributary running into the river after the sun went down. So i went out to my grandpas house and caught about 10 chub minnows from the little creek in back of his house and made it to the river at 9pm. The normally low creek was nothing but a big slow pool of water. I wasnt there 10 minutes and had an 8 pound flathead. About 20 minutes later my wifes sister and her BF show up to sit with us. As soon as they get there my rod just does a real slow steady bend and i pick it up and yank and knew i had a monster fish. I faught the fish for about 15 minutes and when i got it to the bank, my wife and her sister went crazy. It was by far the biggest fish i have ever had the pleasure of catching. I was using a 7 foot medium heavy rod/50 pound braided spiderwire and a circle hook with a chib minnow. We left immediately after catching the fish to show it around. I had initially planned of having the fish stuffed, but later that night changed my mind and let her go. After giving me that thrill i felt like i owed it to the fish to swim again.

The other one would be the big king i caught in lake michigan in 02 from a charter boat. She hit as we were pulling lines becuase of a storm approaching. I faught the fish for nearly 20 minutes before landing it, in about 4 foot chop with rain pouring down. I never thought i was going to land that fish. This one i did have stuffed and it's hanging in my basement. I got one last year off a pier, that would have to rank right there too. It was my first one from shore and took many hours to get the one fish. I would say the 2 fish i am most proud of would be the flathead and then the king i got last year from shore, it wasnt as big as the one in 02, but more work and persistence went into catching and landing it.