We had good feedback for our “Amazing Fishing Stories” series. Some submissions were amazing, some were heartwarming and some were even a little goofy. But most of them were compelling in one way or another. Here are the favorites selected by the content staff here at FLWOutdoors.com. Enjoy, happy holidays and keep on fishing.
– FLWOutdoors.com staff
Catfish caper
by Chris Wilson, Burke, Va.
My experience occurred when I was 12 years old. It was a Saturday during the summer and, like most weekends, I was bugging Mom and Dad to take me fishing. Living in a suburb outside of Washington, D.C., is not ideal for fishermen. There just aren’t that many places to go. However, the Potomac River proved to be an amazing adventure that day.
There was a nice park along the river where there were families and picnic tables. My friend John and I set up our gear near one of the picnic tables, which was about 30 feet from the water. We spent the morning down by the bank casting crankbaits and spinners with minimal luck. It was just about lunchtime when we decided to break for some eats. We each tied on a hook and sinker, baited it with bread and tossed it out as far as we could. We let out 30 extra feet of line and took the rods with us up to the picnic tables to watch them just in case anything hit.
Well, the place where we were fishing was apparently just a mile or two away from Reagan National Airport because a plane flew overhead about every 30 minutes. The sound was extremely loud, so much so that you could not hear someone talking from the other side of the picnic table.
I was chewing on my sandwich when another plane came overhead. A few minutes later, I glanced toward my rod to see if anything was happening. I could have sworn I left it leaning right on the picnic bench, but it was nowhere to be seen. Then I interrogated my fishing buddy, thinking he had played a practical joke and hidden it somewhere. After a couple of minutes of looking around the picnic table, I started to trace the 30 feet back to the river. As I ran down the bank, I saw my rod totally submerged in the water. The reel was lodged in between some rocks. If it weren’t for those rocks, then I wouldn’t have a rod anymore. Initially, I thought that whatever monster fish that had hit my bait must surely long gone by now. I picked up my rod out of the water, and immediately there was an enormous thumping on my line. The fish was still there! It took me about five minutes to reel him in.
It was a Potomac catfish, 6 pounds in weight. To this day, I still imagine what that rod must have looked like being dragged and bumped through 30 feet of dirt and grass, down the bank, finally getting stuck in the rocks (and me sitting right there, unable to hear it). I have since bought a rod-holder that attaches to my waist. If another fish decides to drag my rod into the water, that’s fine. But I’m going in, too.
Previous Amazing Fishing Stories:
“Serpent’s revenge” by Ted Angers
“Christian’s keeper” by Chris Bahl
“Hubba Bubba hawgin'” by Edmond Brown