Last Time You Were Totally Pumped

RCF

RCF

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When were you totally pumped, Hulk Hogan style muscle flexing, could not stop stammering with 4 letter words, shocked and elated at the same time?

I have caught lots of fish, as many of you have.

My fondest memories:

When I caught a large catfish on a fly, totally unexpected, on a local lake.

When I caught a 70 lb. salmon at Rivers Inlet. That was also the last time I got to fish with my Dad.

My first steelhead on the Dose, on bamboo even...
 
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Evan B said:
I'm an emotionless robot. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than visibly showing excitement.
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On the water I'm the total opposite, every bump excites me. "Whoooo" as Rick Flair would say.. Lots of talking to them, probably more noise when a nice one comes off. A look up with an arms out stretched "Thank You" when they do come to the net. 1" to 1#, I like 'em all. Just getting to fish winds me up.
 
Tom Butler said:
On the water I'm the total opposite, every bump excites me. "Whoooo" as Rick Flair would say.. Lots of talking to them, probably more noise when a nice one comes off. A look up with an arms out stretched "Thank You" when they do come to the net. 1" to 1#, I like 'em all. Just getting to fish winds me up.
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For as animated as I can make myself appear in text, people are often surprised at how dull I am in person :ROFLMAO:
 
I almost got a smirk on my face when the first halibut on my boat hit the deck 2wks ago.
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and taking @mcswny for a quick carp scouting sesh the other day, I felt a slight bit of satisfaction watching him pull tight to his first carp hookup.
 
some of them...first King on the swing in tidewater...an XL Brown living in a seam of the river we were camping next to that I spent two days trying to catch before managing to do so...a 10# Cranebow I had to chase with my boat when it bolted from the Cultus channel for the middle of the lake, taking my line and half my backing in a flash...my very first trout on a fly rod in the early 80's, fishing with new acquaintance Dr. Eugene Mendoza at Manzanita Lake, who had lent me a rigged fly rod and coached me from his inshore 8' pram while I wet waded in trunks, later pulling two leeches off my legs...all special moments added to the memory vault.
And isn't that what this is all about....creating as many special moments as possible along the way, hopefully that vault overflowing by the end.
 
Went tarpon fishing for the first time recently. No hookups, but my heart got a good workout just watching about a 150-lb. Beast follow my fly and try to eat it 10 feet off the bow before I panicked and lost her to the dreaded trout set. Saw the gills flare and even felt her starting to suck it in. Maddening, to be sure, but I was pretty jacked for the rest of the morning. Unfortunately, only a couple more good shots at fish after that, and the fish just weren't having it. Might have had something to do with the three huge tiger and bull sharks that showed up on the flat mid-morning. Pretty sure we heard the slashing madness of one of those big tarpon getting the chomp behind a nearby mangrove island. Pretty wild.

If you've never tried it and are in the position to do so, I highly recommend giving tarpon fishing a go. My first trip ended up being a fairly expensive nature expedition, but I got multiple decent shots, and even without any catching, it was an amazing day out there. I plan to try again next year. Maybe by then I will finally learn to keep my cool and STRIP SET... maybe.
 
Shad said:
Went tarpon fishing for the first time recently. No hookups, but my heart got a good workout just watching about a 150-lb. Beast follow my fly and try to eat it 10 feet off the bow before I panicked and lost her to the dreaded trout set. Saw the gills flare and even felt her starting to suck it in. Maddening, to be sure, but I was pretty jacked for the rest of the morning. Unfortunately, only a couple more good shots at fish after that, and the fish just weren't having it. Might have had something to do with the three huge tiger and bull sharks that showed up on the flat mid-morning. Pretty sure we heard the slashing madness of one of those big tarpon getting the chomp behind a nearby mangrove island. Pretty wild.

If you've never tried it and are in the position to do so, I highly recommend giving tarpon fishing a go. My first trip ended up being a fairly expensive nature expedition, but I got multiple decent shots, and even without any catching, it was an amazing day out there. I plan to try again next year. Maybe by then I will finally learn to keep my cool and STRIP SET... maybe.
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Maybe due to my personality as described above... But I've done a half dozen days tarpon fishing, have hooked a few, landed a few... It's just really not my bag. I'm glad I've had the experience, but each time I went out was because I felt like I needed to see what got people so pumped about it. All I could think about was how I legit got more satisfaction out of carp fishing close to home.

If you guys haven't figured it out yet, I'm an odd one.
 
Evan B said:
I almost got a smirk on my face when the first halibut on my boat hit the deck 2wks ago.
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and taking @mcswny for a quick carp scouting sesh the other day, I felt a slight bit of satisfaction watching him pull tight to his first carp hookup.
Click to expand...

Feeling a Carp this past weekend on the end of the line. It was kind of the perfect situation. See fish, cast to fish, fish eats with @Evan B saying "set" at the perfect time. It was almost as if I knew what I was doing. I was pretty pumped even though he came off pretty quickly.
 
Evan B said:
Maybe due to my personality as described above... But I've done a half dozen days tarpon fishing, have hooked a few, landed a few... It's just really not my bag. I'm glad I've had the experience, but each time I went out was because I felt like I needed to see what got people so pumped about it. All I could think about was how I legit got more satisfaction out of carp fishing close to home.

If you guys haven't figured it out yet, I'm an odd one.
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I enjoyed how "chill" the experience was, despite all the fanfare and lore of giant fish. The huge variety of marine critters on the flat was almost as exciting for me as seeing those huge tarpon porpoising.

I was also impressed with how well the guides respected the ethics of the fishery. They take it seriously and try to make sure everyone gets shots at fish. No pick-pocketing. There's an understanding that when a boat is working a pod, nobody else casts for them until that boat is done pursuing them. I couldn't help but reflect on the outright bloodlust that comes with salmon fishing back home...

I question why you went back 5 times if you were so unimpressed, but like you said, to each his own. I will say carp can be quite challenging and rewarding, so I get why you're into them. Golden boners!
 
Shad said:
I enjoyed how "chill" the experience was, despite all the fanfare and lore of giant fish. The huge variety of marine critters on the flat was almost as exciting for me as seeing those huge tarpon porpoising.

I was also impressed with how well the guides respected the ethics of the fishery. They take it seriously and try to make sure everyone gets shots at fish. No pick-pocketing. There's an understanding that when a boat is working a pod, nobody else casts for them until that boat is done pursuing them. I couldn't help but reflect on the outright bloodlust that comes with salmon fishing back home...

I question why you went back 5 times if you were so unimpressed, but like you said, to each his own. I will say carp can be quite challenging and rewarding, so I get why you're into them. Golden boners!
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I didn't take 5 separate trips, I've been out six days on three trips combined. Was in Florida for different reasons each time and went while there.

How "chill" it was isn't how most get to experience it. While most all the guides do as you say as far as eithics, most are very intense, will yell/scream/get pissed at you for missing a shot among other things. A lot of my experience has just been too stressed out thinking I was going to set the guide off again. But beyond that, I think I've learned that when there's "high stakes" like having traveled so far and spent so much money to do something, there's too much pressure for me to feel like I need to not F it up. Vs at home, I can do things at my own pace, screw up and have it matter less than 0, etc etc.
 
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High stakes trips take some getting used to for sure. First time I did anything with a lodge/ guide/air travel/money I was certainly feeling the pressure to have banner days, thinking this might be the chance, etc.
Have not done a lot of that stuff, but after the first time it was like, 'ya know, all I can do is fish, all I can control is my attitude'.
Had some good trips, enjoyed them a lot, some I even caught fish on.
;)
 
Evan B said:
I didn't take 5 separate trips, I've been out six days on three trips combined. Was in Florida for different reasons each time and went while there.

How "chill" it was isn't how most get to experience it. While most all the guides do as you say as far as eithics, most are very intense, will yell/scream/get pissed at you for missing a shot among other things. A lot of my experience has just been too stressed out thinking I was going to set the guide off again. But beyond that, I think I've learned that when there's "high stakes" like having traveled so far and spent so much money to do something, there's too much pressure for me to feel like I need to not F it up. Vs at home, I can do things at my own pace, screw up and have it matter less than 0, etc etc.
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My guide was a good fit for me. Young guy who almost didn't speak unless spoken to and gave me ZERO shit for crackering off my best chance of the day. Just assured me that "shit happens when you're about to hook up with a dream fish" and told me what I could do different next time. Knew his shit, too; looking around, I think I got more shots at fish than most, and he always seemed to know where the fish would turn and which way they would go. Lived in the area his entire life.

But yeah... a guide thar fits your style makes any trip better, and one that doesn't can leave you feeling overcharged and underfed.
 
Just last weekend. hooking and landing a low 40" tiger musky, nearly ripped the rod out of my hand on the eat, gave me no fewer than 3 full jumps, and fought like it thought it was a smallmouth.....even bent out the hook and got out of the net while I was trying get the hook out (mission accomplished) while not keeping it in the net (mission failed)...effing sweet!

Another was just getting my ass kicked by a very large Pargo down in MX....effing sweet!
 
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January 5, 1978. I was on Christmas vacation from Georgetown, and convinced my parents to pay for a trip back home from Portland to DC via Atlanta instead of direct. In Atlanta, I saw the Sex Pistols' first show in the USA. They were great, but shambolic. When they came on stage, I was a pumped as I have ever been in my life. I got on a plane to finish my journey to school the next day. My life has never been the same.
 
One thing I've found...
You always remember the big fish that got away, kicked your ass, and never got the pic of.
But you can still see them in your mind, leaping out of the water or just under the surface high tailing it away from you...
Better than a pic in my view.
:)
 
There is nothing better than having a hands shaking, knees knocking, dry mouth fish encounter. My first Kamloops rainbow hooked while a teenager blew me away. A long time ago I landed a 20 pound Sauk River steelhead buck, I nearly passed out afterward. Anytime hooking into a Puget Sound beach coho or chinook >8 pounds is a huge thrill, mostly because it is rare and much hard work to accomplish. Hunting for "big" searun cutthroat 20" or bigger is a buzz, when it finally happens it is amazing. The first adult migratory tarpon I hooked and broke off on a big jump was awesome! Really big bonefish and triggerfish are super exciting because of the precision needed to feed them the fly and the tricky fight. Meter plus GTs are always a big thrill, it never gets old. I'm getting interested in targeting permit more often for the big challenge/reward. Any new saltwater species I hook gets me pumped.
 
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