Sometimes they get away, sometimes they don't

[DZ]

Too many to remember, but Lefty Gomez said it well: "I'd rather be lucky than good!"

One of my luckier catches taken in Newport:
"Once on shore I noticed she was hooked in the mouth with the Redfin, the short leader of the Red Gill dropper I was using had broken off my swivel and was hooked in her tail. And closer examination revealed that my Coastlock snap had opened but the Redfin remained connected."

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by DZ

Too many to remember, but Lefty Gomez said it well: "I'd rather be lucky than good!"

One of my luckier catches taken in Newport:
"Once on shore I noticed she was hooked in the mouth with the Redfin, the short leader of the Red Gill dropper I was using had broken off my swivel and was hooked in her tail. And closer examination revealed that my Coastlock snap had opened but the Redfin remained connected."

We have all had stories like that. I have had a few where once the fish is landed the plug just falls out of the fishes mouth or when the front of the darter is wedged deeper into its mouth than the rear so just the pressure of the tight line is keeping the darter from coming out.

[tattoobob]

So back around 2004 we liked to fish the shad run in the Merrimack river at the lowell dam in the spring, as we were fishing the water outlet near the water treatment plant we saw this huge striper chasing a panfish and inhaled it

So the next afternoon we headed to K-Mart and grabbed a couple of big crankbaits cut the lips off and filed them down smooth, we went back with some stout rods and fresh line

We started throwing in the water outlet and got nothing so we moved to the side of the river and was throwing towards the bottom of the dam when my friend hooked up and the fight was crazy with the flow coming over the dam and and all the large rocks he never landed it but we saw it close to shore before it came off. we never hooked up again that night

The next night we went back and started fishing the same spot when he hooked up again and landed this fat 40+ pound striper. after I cast a few times I hooked up and fought this fish for a good 45 minutes+ not making any head way as soon as I'd get some line back it would run and finally I got it close to shore it was much larger than the 40 he just released then one massive head shake and the lure flies out of its mouth and the fish bolts away, That was it for the night.

the herring were starting to drop back from spawning at the lawrence dam so we moved there I miss fishing that Herring run