Thunder Scout
Member
Who fishes I know you guys do! Lets get some fish tales going I know my old Scout has taken three generations of fishemen to their destination lets get some stories going.
Any fishermen?
- Thread starter Thunder Scout
- Start date
pineneedle
Member
In the summer of 1966, I took an intensive german course because my graduate program required a reading knowledge of german and french. The course was six weeks long. The exit exam was to translate a journal article in ones field of study in an hour. You could take the test whenever you wanted, and if you failed, no problem, continue the course and take it again. I sent my wife and our two kids up to chicago to her parents home so that I could really bear down on this course. I found it pretty easy, so after three weeks I opted to do the translation test. I passed. So there I was, footloose and itching for adventure. I used all my charm on my wife, and reluctantly, she agreed to let me go to Colorado.
I took our dog and a neighborhood kid along. This kid named Danny was crazy for the outdoors, and had never been west. I told him that if he could scratch up $100, it was a go. I had a standard oil credit card, so off we went in my little '63 Scout 80 for five days of mountain ecstasy.
We drove the notorious holy cross city road and camped in one of the cabins in the ghost town. After the struggle up that road, and a good night's rest, I was ready for some fishing. We walked the quarter mile up to french lake (now they call it cleveland lake). It is a gorgeous alpine lake at the base of 13,000 ft. Peaks. In those days it was swarming with big cutthroats. The kid with me lasted about an hour, threw down his rod in disgust, and swore there were no fish in the lake. I told him that we needed a hatch of insects, and when a hatch occurred, the fish would have a feeding frenzy. He didn't believe me, so he started down the trail to our camp in the ghost town. He had a .22 pistol, and I heard him shoot from time to time, so I knew he wasn't rushing back.
Suddenly, there was a hatch of gray mayflies. I tied on a #16 adams special, and immediately was into fish. The trout were beautiful, each one a carbon copy of the last, 16 inches and fat as hogs. I had my limit of ten in about fifteen minutes, and headed back for camp. As it turned out, I got to camp only a few minutes after Danny. When he saw me, he said, "you gave up too, huh?" I said, "yeah, I got sick of taking these damn things off my line." at that, I spilled the contents of my creel on the grass, and his eyes bugged out like a character in a cartoon. I will never forget that look. We are still friends, and we still tell this story every time we get together. Pineneedle
I took our dog and a neighborhood kid along. This kid named Danny was crazy for the outdoors, and had never been west. I told him that if he could scratch up $100, it was a go. I had a standard oil credit card, so off we went in my little '63 Scout 80 for five days of mountain ecstasy.
We drove the notorious holy cross city road and camped in one of the cabins in the ghost town. After the struggle up that road, and a good night's rest, I was ready for some fishing. We walked the quarter mile up to french lake (now they call it cleveland lake). It is a gorgeous alpine lake at the base of 13,000 ft. Peaks. In those days it was swarming with big cutthroats. The kid with me lasted about an hour, threw down his rod in disgust, and swore there were no fish in the lake. I told him that we needed a hatch of insects, and when a hatch occurred, the fish would have a feeding frenzy. He didn't believe me, so he started down the trail to our camp in the ghost town. He had a .22 pistol, and I heard him shoot from time to time, so I knew he wasn't rushing back.
Suddenly, there was a hatch of gray mayflies. I tied on a #16 adams special, and immediately was into fish. The trout were beautiful, each one a carbon copy of the last, 16 inches and fat as hogs. I had my limit of ten in about fifteen minutes, and headed back for camp. As it turned out, I got to camp only a few minutes after Danny. When he saw me, he said, "you gave up too, huh?" I said, "yeah, I got sick of taking these damn things off my line." at that, I spilled the contents of my creel on the grass, and his eyes bugged out like a character in a cartoon. I will never forget that look. We are still friends, and we still tell this story every time we get together. Pineneedle
Sledgehammer
New member
That will be a hard story to top pineneedle. 
I haven't had my Scout done long enough to take it on any fishing trips.
I haven't had my Scout done long enough to take it on any fishing trips.
IHRunner
Member
Nope. Dont think I can top that. My terra takes me to a cousins property probably 5-10 times a year. Decided last summer to take my dog with me. Great pyr mix. The road I take leads to the arkansas river. More importantly my key takes me up to the old xy headgates that were knocked down in the 80's I think and formed an unnatural natural damn. Well the pooch decided to take a swim. Below the headgates is a deeper wide pool. Maybe 75ft across and 6ft deep at the base. I swim there. Pooch swims there. My buddies swim there.
Odd thing is this time it isnt my fishing story.
Dog was playing around down there and I hear the worst noise imaginable. Her yelping. I go flying down there and see her thrashing in the water yelping and growling and crying and just flat out in a fight for her life. Somehow she gets to shore and I see it. A massive catfish has latched onto her tail. I mean truly massive. It was as long as her and probably weighed 40lbs. Shed shake it off and it would attack her tail again. She finally worked it into the shallows and made her move. Managed to bite through its side and get it on the bank where she proceded to shred it. Channel cat are monsters when left alone. But ive never seen a fish attack a large dog in my life.
Wish I had pictures of it but naturally when swiming is involved the cellphone is no where near
some day im gonna head back down there with some 100lb test and see what I can find for grub
Odd thing is this time it isnt my fishing story.
Dog was playing around down there and I hear the worst noise imaginable. Her yelping. I go flying down there and see her thrashing in the water yelping and growling and crying and just flat out in a fight for her life. Somehow she gets to shore and I see it. A massive catfish has latched onto her tail. I mean truly massive. It was as long as her and probably weighed 40lbs. Shed shake it off and it would attack her tail again. She finally worked it into the shallows and made her move. Managed to bite through its side and get it on the bank where she proceded to shred it. Channel cat are monsters when left alone. But ive never seen a fish attack a large dog in my life.
Wish I had pictures of it but naturally when swiming is involved the cellphone is no where near
some day im gonna head back down there with some 100lb test and see what I can find for grubpineneedle
Member
Great catfish story! Here in eastern Missouri, the word is that divers, who have gone down to inspect the navigation dams on the mississippi, have seen catfish that put the fear of god into them. 60 and 80 pounders are not uncommon. This kind of a fish would not settle just for your dog's tail; he would want the whole damn dog.
This next story is, unfortunately, going to sound like my first one, but, so help me it is true. My family and several other families were on a summer four-wheeling, camping, and fishing vacation in Colorado in 1980. We were all in Scout iis. On this particular day we drove up the stony pass road above rio grande reservoir, near creede, co. This long valley, from the reservoir to the summit of the pass, is prime/choice fly-fishing on the headwaters of the rio grande river. We usually camped at a secluded campsite at the foot of timber hill. This site is a level bench above the river, hidden from the road by a thick stand of aspens. However, on this occasion, there was a party already camped there, so we settled for a place back down the road that was nice enough. After I got the tent set up, I grabbed my fly road and headed for the river. As I walked past our old campsite, I came upon a bunch of men sitting around a camp table playing cards and drinking whiskey. One says to me: "where you from?" I answered, "Missouri." he says, "Missouri boy, you better be a good fisherman, 'cause there ain't no fish in that crick. We're from texas, and we know fishing. We have fished that river hard for three days, and we haven't turned a single fish." I responded that I thought that I would, nevertheless, mess around a little bit. I should add that the rio grande is notorious for running hot and cold. I had been skunked several times before fishing it. Anyway, I walked around the bend and out of sight of their camp, and began to fish. It was late in the day, there was a ton of camp work to be done, and so I was not really fishing seriously. I just wanted to wet a line before making supper. So, quite contrary to good practice, I just threw my fly downstream, and dragged it back against the current. Serious fly-fishermen know that this is a terrible technique, although sometimes you might fool an idiot trout this way. On my second cast a fat rainbow slammed the fly. I landed him, cast again, and the same thing. Literally on ten casts, I landed these ten beautiful rainbows. It was like they were waiting in line with their little fishy knives and forks, looking for my fly. Thus, in about fifteen minutes, I was walking back past the texans and their cardgame. The loudest of the bunch decided to heckle me a little. "did you catch your limit, Missouri?" he asked, to much laughter from his comrades. By this time I was almost up to their table. I said, "as a matter of fact I did." I spilled the contents of my creel on their cardtable, and saw the same bug-eyed looks of disbelief. I guarantee, I had the last and the longest laugh.
In this story and the holy cross city story, I am definitely not touting my skill. In both cases, I just happened to be there when god turned on the "dinner is served" sign for the fish. Pineneedle
This next story is, unfortunately, going to sound like my first one, but, so help me it is true. My family and several other families were on a summer four-wheeling, camping, and fishing vacation in Colorado in 1980. We were all in Scout iis. On this particular day we drove up the stony pass road above rio grande reservoir, near creede, co. This long valley, from the reservoir to the summit of the pass, is prime/choice fly-fishing on the headwaters of the rio grande river. We usually camped at a secluded campsite at the foot of timber hill. This site is a level bench above the river, hidden from the road by a thick stand of aspens. However, on this occasion, there was a party already camped there, so we settled for a place back down the road that was nice enough. After I got the tent set up, I grabbed my fly road and headed for the river. As I walked past our old campsite, I came upon a bunch of men sitting around a camp table playing cards and drinking whiskey. One says to me: "where you from?" I answered, "Missouri." he says, "Missouri boy, you better be a good fisherman, 'cause there ain't no fish in that crick. We're from texas, and we know fishing. We have fished that river hard for three days, and we haven't turned a single fish." I responded that I thought that I would, nevertheless, mess around a little bit. I should add that the rio grande is notorious for running hot and cold. I had been skunked several times before fishing it. Anyway, I walked around the bend and out of sight of their camp, and began to fish. It was late in the day, there was a ton of camp work to be done, and so I was not really fishing seriously. I just wanted to wet a line before making supper. So, quite contrary to good practice, I just threw my fly downstream, and dragged it back against the current. Serious fly-fishermen know that this is a terrible technique, although sometimes you might fool an idiot trout this way. On my second cast a fat rainbow slammed the fly. I landed him, cast again, and the same thing. Literally on ten casts, I landed these ten beautiful rainbows. It was like they were waiting in line with their little fishy knives and forks, looking for my fly. Thus, in about fifteen minutes, I was walking back past the texans and their cardgame. The loudest of the bunch decided to heckle me a little. "did you catch your limit, Missouri?" he asked, to much laughter from his comrades. By this time I was almost up to their table. I said, "as a matter of fact I did." I spilled the contents of my creel on their cardtable, and saw the same bug-eyed looks of disbelief. I guarantee, I had the last and the longest laugh.
In this story and the holy cross city story, I am definitely not touting my skill. In both cases, I just happened to be there when god turned on the "dinner is served" sign for the fish. Pineneedle
IHRunner
Member
Its Colorado. Ive fished in places I cant talk about. And ill verify all your stories. Its an act of god some days. I cant fly fish for piss. But I can drop a line amd drink a beer with the best of them. One day hit a trib off of the arkansas. Followes out to some woods and canyons. Went to cast out and my damn cricket fell off. Line hit the water. I pulled it up. And had a perch on the line. Did this 10 times. Each time I had a perch on the line. Crazy buggers must have had suicide on the mind. Well I had em all on a stringer amd whem I pulled it out I had 3 fish missin and a 40lb snappin turtle on the line. Had perch for the pooch and I and cooked up some nice turtle legs in a nice turtle soup bowl. Colorado is the strangest place to fish
pineneedle
Member
O.k. Thunder Scout, it is your thread. How about a story? Pineneedle
Thunder Scout
Member
So one story that kind of stands out is a day when we took the boat up early in the spring to stampede reseviore. Their was still plenty of snow on the sides of the roads at the time.so we decided to go for the big boys that day. We found the schools of kokanee on the fish finder and under them we could see the huge icons that are mackinaw.so we drop are baits j-14 rainbow trout pattern rapalas down on the down riggers about two feet off the botom to get to those macks.the fog is extremley dense out on the water you can only see about 50 feet ahead of you. So all of a sudden the one rod goes off and my brother grabs it and reels down on it sets the hook and says were snagged! So my Dad grabs the rod and the fish finally realizes its hooked my brother yells to him to get the rod back but my Dad insisisted this was his. It actually didint put up a huge fight but I can just see it comin up waitin with the net and it just keeps getin bigger and bigger and I finaly realize this fish is to big for the net. So we are all looking over the side of the boat just praying the hooks stay in.finaly we get it to the surface we know we have one chance at this fish must likely.so I decide my best bet is to grab it by its mouth so my Dad says okay im going to bring it in and I reach in its jaws and just get tore up with all those teeth but I get it in the boat and im bleeding all over and we are celebrating it was great seeing this big old fish flopping around.it probaly was only around 18lbs but thats are personal best for mackinaw. I just have to many great trips with the scouts its really hard to pick the best maybe if I was a poor fishermen one would stand out better than others but im alright with always catching fish and knowing my stuff.another more recent story was going to hell hole we get up their realize we didint take on enough gas or just burned to much towing up the boat but either way we get their with a littel less than a 1/4 of a tank. So we areup for like three days of hardcore fishing and we finally reallize we need to figure something out we arent makin it back to george town if we dont. So luckily their was an older guy named ron he was up their fishing too. So we know we have a 36 gallon tank on our boat dont ask me why they would put such a big tank on a 18ft boat lol but we get a syphen from him and we try for a good hour to get gas out to no succes just alot of dead brain cells but luckily he had an extra ten gallons of gas which I knew we should have got from him the first time so we forced him to tak some money and some beer to repay our debts.so the last day when we go to leave and pack up in the morning their was the sweetest letter thanking us for the beer and the good times we shared with him on the lake and all the money we have gave him but to make this story even beter I caught two fat browns and a fat rainbow that gave me the best fight out of them all along with plenty of quality kokanee up to 18in you can see the browns up on my page...........I will have a great story here in a couple of months we figured out something that we just cant wait to try if we dont come with a monster I will be shocked now if the snow would just melt already!
Here's a story from florida for you guys. I probably shouldn't admit to what I'm getting ready to tell, but what the hell hopefully someone can get a laugh or two.
So my buddy and I head out early one morning in search of trout and redfish. We caught bait and were on the flats before the sun came up, according to the tide charts and weather reports this was going to be one of the best fishing days of the year. My buddy is quite the fisherman, sort of the fish whisper type. He's one of those people regardless of the situation always seems to come back with fish and normally there going to be bigger than yours. So as were leaving the dock that morning he says "did you see where they changed the amount of redfish each person can keep?" I said "I heard they changed the rules up north but I haven't heard anything about the south." he reassured me the rules had changed. The picture I have posted was from that day and was taken at the dock around 11:30 am just to give ya'll an idea of what kind of day we had, it was incredible. We probably caught 40 keeper size trout, 15-20 slot redfish, and couple of snook which are closed here right now.
So this is where the story gets good. While basking in our success we decide it would be good to take pictures before cleaning our catch. We then started cleaning fish off the the side of the boat, all 8 trout were cleaned and the scraps were thrown to the birds, easy clean up right? About this time the game warden pulls up and asks if he May board our vessel to inspect our catch. Of course we obliged, he then asked why we had 4 redfish when the limit is only one per person. This is where my friend pipes up and informs the game warden of the rule change
come to find out I was correct and the rules had only changed in the northern zones of the state not the south. So after the warden informs us that he could write a 500.00 fine cleaning our catch on the boat and another 500.00 fine for feeding the wildlife and a 1000.00 fine for each fish over the bag limit one of the best fishing days of my life quickly turned to the worst. Luckily enough the warden went easy on us. He made one redfish disappear and I got served a court date for misdemeanor rules violation because I was the boat owner.
So it cost me 275.00 fine plus court cost, a trip 3 hour round trip back to that county and I missed half a day of work. Depending how you look at this situation there are two morals to this story.
1. Know the regulations before you go and follow them exactly.
Or
2. Don't take time to clean you catch at the ramp, load the boat and get the hell outta there.
So my buddy and I head out early one morning in search of trout and redfish. We caught bait and were on the flats before the sun came up, according to the tide charts and weather reports this was going to be one of the best fishing days of the year. My buddy is quite the fisherman, sort of the fish whisper type. He's one of those people regardless of the situation always seems to come back with fish and normally there going to be bigger than yours. So as were leaving the dock that morning he says "did you see where they changed the amount of redfish each person can keep?" I said "I heard they changed the rules up north but I haven't heard anything about the south." he reassured me the rules had changed. The picture I have posted was from that day and was taken at the dock around 11:30 am just to give ya'll an idea of what kind of day we had, it was incredible. We probably caught 40 keeper size trout, 15-20 slot redfish, and couple of snook which are closed here right now.
So this is where the story gets good. While basking in our success we decide it would be good to take pictures before cleaning our catch. We then started cleaning fish off the the side of the boat, all 8 trout were cleaned and the scraps were thrown to the birds, easy clean up right? About this time the game warden pulls up and asks if he May board our vessel to inspect our catch. Of course we obliged, he then asked why we had 4 redfish when the limit is only one per person. This is where my friend pipes up and informs the game warden of the rule change
come to find out I was correct and the rules had only changed in the northern zones of the state not the south. So after the warden informs us that he could write a 500.00 fine cleaning our catch on the boat and another 500.00 fine for feeding the wildlife and a 1000.00 fine for each fish over the bag limit one of the best fishing days of my life quickly turned to the worst. Luckily enough the warden went easy on us. He made one redfish disappear and I got served a court date for misdemeanor rules violation because I was the boat owner. So it cost me 275.00 fine plus court cost, a trip 3 hour round trip back to that county and I missed half a day of work. Depending how you look at this situation there are two morals to this story.
1. Know the regulations before you go and follow them exactly.
Or
2. Don't take time to clean you catch at the ramp, load the boat and get the hell outta there.
