I do not have my own story of any huge bite, long runs, of fish that got away. My largest on a fly rod to date is 34", and though I have had some hits that felt big, who knows. But I did witness an exciting event, with an interesting ending.
Went fishing with a friend of mine last year in Maine. We were flyfishing. Anchored 20 yards off some rocks. in about 8 feet of water. The ricks had been productive in the past. Casting our flies up towards the rocks, and into the surrounding holes. Pretty good storm had passed through, and the seas were fairly substantial, but we had gooten into a protected area.
We were picking up the occassional schollie in the high teens low twenties length. My friend all of a sudden had a hit, and yelled it was a large fish (He had witnessed the fish turning and engulfing his fly). The fish then, slowly, and purposefully, pulled about a 150 yards of line off of his reel. It was not a scorching run, it happened very slowly and deliberately, and took about 20-30 seconds (It seemed like forever at the time). It gave a sense of great power, and almost non-chalance about being hooked. My friend was getting deep into his backing, so we decided to pull the anchor and chase the fish. As we brought the boat around, some slack got into the line, and the fish was gone.
Alright, pretty exciting, but the end of the story is what is interesting. Exactly one week later, I am out fishing with this friend again. We had a couple of other anglers with us so my friend and I were captaining two separate boats. My friend called over that he was going to try a different location. I yelled over, "I know where your going, and what you hope to find." He turned, and just flashed a huge grin. I caught up with him about 45 minutes later. He went back to the same location, and one of the guys in his boat pulled out a 37" bass, by far the largest any of us caught on fly last year in Maine. Was it the same fish, probably not, but I like to think it was.
Can't wait for them to get here. Can only tie so many flies, clean my fly lines some many times, and tie up some many leaders.
-John L.