Attention writers! Do you have a tale to tell? Get published in On The Water! Send us your original work of fiction and we’ll print our favorite in the March issue. The winner will also receive a brand-new Shimano Saragosa SW spinning reel!
Drama, mystery, comedy, romance, fantasy–as long as fishing plays a role in your story, we’ll consider it.
Stories should not exceed 4,000 words and must be previously unpublished. Email submissions to kevin@onthewater.com by January 31, 2014.
A true tandem kayak fishing trip with my wife ! (A day that went from bad to worse)
Last spring 2013 after 3 bad seasons of Bass fishing we tried our luck inside the mouth of the shinnecock inlet , after about five minutes of fishing with a large chunk of clam ,wam! my light shimano pole bent down into the water ! After a 10 min. Boat ride and a lot of line ripped off ,I slid a huge aprox. 38″ to 40″ stripper into the kayak. Holding it down with my bare legs I yelled to my wife PADDLE towards the shore,the big beast was very tired and not moveing a mussel . After 5 minutes of paddling towards shallow water and still holding the leader with the hook still in his mouth I prepared to lift my legs off him and just as I did he came alive started tumbling while harpooning the back of my legs with his spines and with that , he spit out the hook and like a slippery eel went right over the side and swam away,while I thru a tantrum like a five year old. I had just lost the largest bass I ever cought. After composing myself and dragging out my optimistic attitude I realized I had let him go to catch another day! And as it turned out I had landed a nice 39″ bass off the beach this past July getting back the one that got away.( still the largest striper to date for me ) we’ll you would think that was enough greef for one day , but no day in a kayak would be complete without almost getting run over ( within five! Feet ) by a 30 some odd foot fishing boat being helmed by a bunch of drunks that didn’t even stop to see if we were ok! And for those who are reading this true story and this seems to be a very familiar one thanks for almost KILLING me and my wife that day.
All n all not one of our better days on the water!!!! This is my true story and i am sticking to it lol…….thanks for reading …. Let’s keep the drunks off the water and the fish on the lines!!!( not our lives )
My husband and I went fishing one day in August and it was a nice beautiful day. We weren’t catching any fish. But then the sky began to get very dark and the wind picked up to make it very hard fishing. But, we stayed out there and it started to rain he asked me if I wanted to head in and I told him no that I was ok even though I didn’t have a rain coat. We started fishing again and all of a sudden we started catching fluke like crazy. This went on for about 2 hours. the sun started to show up and the fish bit ended. This is the only time I can remember wanting it to rain while I was out fishing. I hope for this when we are out often as it was my best day fishing of the year. I wish we could fish all year round here, but weather doesn’t allow if and the fish more out for the winter. Thanks for reading and remember fishing isn’t always the best when the weather is .
I was out fishing off westbrook ct in lis seen a storm coming in so i headed to shore before entering the channel to the marina saw a sail boat stuck in the shallows with a full crew I assisted them in trying to unstuck there sail boat but couldn’t due to the outgoing tide so i let them borrow my anchor and brought them to shore at that point it was blowing 30 with 4 5 foot seas after talking with them at the dock they then offered me a job fixing ski lifts and I traveled to Switzerland for three months Austria Germany and all most all 50 states
Not to bad for a day out fishing
It was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, first week of October , and the Albi bight was on. My Brittany spaniel:Duke and I had tied Stella (my17′ Montauk Whaler) to a mooring,near the mouth of Edgartown Harbor . There was fish all around us and Duke was as psyched as me. My G Loomis IMX /Saragosa set up with new braid was safely secured,lying between gunwale and railing, or so I thought.
Duke had on his Elizabethan collar because of his ear issues. He saw the blitz 3 feet away and bolted to the bow, catching my Saragosa with his e. caller,nudging it over board….
45 min. Later after collecting a friend from the Warf Pub in Edg. I was back to that town mooring with scuba equipment ,on STELLA w/Duke and Capt. Jonathan to tell my story,in case I didn’t make it back to the surface. While I was struggling to get my tank on my back, some dude paddled up to me on his kayak and offered assistance. In so many words I told him to get lost.
Well 25 minutes later I did surface,with my rod,real and new PowerPro line. That guy came back in his custom trolling motor powered kayak and said he wished I had let him help. He said he could see my rod on the bottom of the harbor with his sonar and structure finder the entire time. He said he watch me come close to it often but then went the wrong way.He could see every thing with his electronics from his little kayak, including me the rod and every bubble that I exhaled.
It turns out that guy on the kayak owned the kayak company that donated one of his boats/with electronics, to the kayak challenge category of the derby. No better feeling than retrieving your favorite rod from the floor of the harbor!
What a great fishless day, on and under the water! Andy Yager Waitsfield, Vermont
So its supposed to be a made-up fictional story? Or can we submit actual experiences as well?
This a story from the Martha’s Vineyard fishing derby this year. I was fishing the south shore in chilmark with a buddy. We caught a couple bass around 8 o’clock and walked a good 15 minutes to the car and threw them in the cooler. We were about 30 minutes driving from the weigh in so we cruised to edgartown. We grabbed our fish out of the cooler about 45 minutes later and put them on the table. My fish was in the cooler on the bottom with his on top. My bass looked like it was still alive so when I brought it to the filet table the kid was excited to try to revive the fish. He massaged and shot water through its gills with a hose for about 30 minutes. The fish spit some cardboard and other debris out and came to life. The bass did a victory lap and swam away.
Cant wait till spring to rip some lip at the canal
12:15pm October 3, East Beach,Chappaquiddick and my dog. Duke and I have been casting at teeny tuna boils that were just out of reach, with my green deadly dick.. The only other 4WD out that sunny day was a jeep from Main with 3 other Derby fisherman. They two were striking out, trying to finish up the Albys.
We were all casting at the same school that was up top and just out of reach, when a ful grown bluefin tuna blew up and out of the water, only 300 yards of shore! We all saw it. I nearly wet my pants.
So we all ran down the beach about 75 yards and started casting at what we saw just beyond the teeny tuna boil. One of those guys from Maine with a 12 foot rod and great big bait real hooked into something that instantly spooled him. That something was definitely another bluefin because it breached like the first one we saw, and three out of four of us spotted his Kastmaster Luehr,hanging from the giant bluefins jaw. At that point we stop fishing had a couple of PBR’s, un till we all chilled down a bit.
Needless to say it was an unbelievable day, ON THE WATER!
All true excepts he giant blue fin was 1000 yards of east beach, no one hooked up , and they were from Connecticut. Maine just sounded better at the time…
These days I do a lot of saltwater fishing in my kayak but one of my most memorable fishing stories was from a formidable, land locked fish..
I chased a lot of big bass, catfish, and crappie growing up in the south; my previous 20 some odd years of fishing experience left me with a preconceived notion that the pound for pound strongest fighter in freshwater was the smallmouth bass, and that one of the greatest challenges was catching and landing a big smallmouth on ultralight tackle was as good as it gets . That is until that faithful day on 18 mile near Rochester.
Up to this point, I had never fished in waders and scoffed at the idea of fishing small creeks.. the thought was small creek, small fish and I only cared about big, strong fish. To top it off, the idea of potentially fishing in close proximity to dozens of other fishermen in cold, rainy weather didn’t exactly appeal to this southerner.
The planned day was supposed to go something like this.. wake up, spend some time with a buddy fishing, pack up, and get this renowned barbeque (Dinosaur BBQ) in town. In fact, all I really cared about was going to get this BBQ that I’ve heard and read about for so long.. everything else was just a means to an end.
At about 7 am we arrived at the creek, sleepy from a late night, dressed in multiple layers beneath our waders, geared up with these ridiculous 9’6” noodle rods, reels spooled with 6# test line, egg sacs, and bobbers (I remember thinking “seriously, what respectable fisherman uses a bobber?”). My buddy had given me the basic run down but I disregarded most things coming from his mouth unless it mentioned “BBQ”. I should’ve listened.
I waded my way down to a nice looking pool and gave a cast out and took a sip from my coffee.. within moments my bobber was pulled under, and my rod doubled over, jerking the coffee from my hand on to and in to my waders. I looked up to see this creek monster cutting through the water and making a wake like a torpedo in a WW2 movie. Except instead of blowing up a ship, I’m pretty sure this fish’s intention was to blow up my reel! Line started to peel off my 2000 series Shimano Symetre at an alarming rate… UP STREAM at that. The unmistaken BZZZZZZZZZZZZ coming from my reel lasted for what seemed like an eternity and I started a very clumsy chase up stream with hopes of gaining control. As soon as I did, the fish turned and charged towards me at twice the speed! With my heart beating out of my chest and adrenaline on overload, I reeled faster than I’ve ever reeled in hopes of gaining some line. The fish swam right past me and proceeded to rip drag again going down stream. Once again, I followed in pursuit except this time, I slipped and fell soaking half my body in the cold creek water. I gathered myself and these back and forth runs were repeated a few more times before I was able to land the beast.
I had landed my first ever chinook salmon. I didn’t care that my long johns were soaked in coffee and creek water; I was grinning ear to ear and nothing could bring me down. We ended up catching quite a few more big salmon. Despite my cold, wet clothes the exhilaration induced by these fish somehow kept me warm and satiated the rest of the day. In fact, I don’t think BBQ even crossed my mind again.
Ever since that day, I have a new respect for those fish and that fishery. We now make the trip yearly and I look forward to going toe to toe with another big salmon. I’ve also learned to wear my wading belt and not to scoff at creeks!
Oh and by the way, I did finally get some of that BBQ and it was nothing short of amazing!
Going to the canyon out of wickford,weather said seas 3-4.great weather let’s go securing an extra 70 gals. Were off when we get there the seas were angry 8-10 a ,few 14 footer. The pup .pet was sc hooping water v birth filled with foot and a half of water.still the bite was on.we battled all night come first light we headed back t o wickford lord willing sadly .we put 10tuna on the dock 60-90 lbs.we told the story to Paul Bailey of the battle and of how we almost lost it 110 miles out to sea .Paul leaves only to return with a can of tuna fish. Holding the can up he says”boys you go to great lengths to get some of this stuff” headless to say great fishing poor judgment
Thanks for this opportunity guys. I just submitted what I hope will be the winner and I hope you like police fiction. There’s plenty of fishing involved in the tale and although its long (3600) It reads much quicker than that. I hope all criteria are met. Thanks again for the opportunity. I can only imagine how much reading you guys have to do. OTW is a popular site and free Shimanos dont grow on trees. Good Luck to all!
-Steven
Thanks for entering Steven!
Mooncussers of Cape Cod
a band of local scoundrels united to deliberately wreck, then plunder, passing ships. During the darkest hours, especially on wild stormy nights, these land-loving pirates criss-crossed the coast on horseback and planted large decoy lanterns at strategic points. After spotting a ship in distress, the despots grabbed the nearest decoy lantern and began waving it, beckoning the distressed sailors closer to the shore.
Because the moon’s rays reflect and magnify the water’s surface, sailors can see very well on moonlit nights–or even when the moon is only partially full. Therefore, the scoundrels’ decoy lanterns would fool no experienced seaman under these circumstances. As such, when the villians’ trickery did not succeed, they often shouted, “Cuss the moon!” into the moonlit night. Over the years, these plunderers eventually became known as mooncussers.