Best day fishing ever

AOTY has really motivated me to fish hard this year,  been fun so far.  Lots of excitement and adventure.  I am soo glad we are out of the winter months-getting off the water and barely being able to walk was getting old quick- and the fishing has been much better now too.  I've logged over 50 days and 300 hrs this year, I realize all I am doing is chasing the high I got 3 years ago on an empty pier in VA when I caught a 40 lb striped bass, it was the best day of my entire life-I mean better than the day I got married best.  I worked HARD for that fish, i was in VA for 4 months for work and had nothing to do on the weekends, so i would drive 2 hrs to the beach and be a fish bum all weekend long, sleep in my car and live off of wind and emotion-and beer.  caught striper madness in the process.  i went on charters and spent hundreds chasing a fish- after the first couple times out Captain Joe Shabbot of the final pursuit took me out for free with him to fish a striper tournament-  we caught fish, lots of them but nothing of any substantial size.  It came down to the very last day I had to be out there, all alone on a long empty pier in the bad part of town in Hampton.  actually a lot of addicts ended up in the same area, but i was probably the only one hooked on fishing ha. The high I got from that fish lasted for hours.

I've met quite a few of you all and I'd have to say you are some of the coolest people I've ever met.   So here is my question, what was your best day if fishing and why?

The next time I go will be the best day fishing ever!

-Allen

Hobuck, two summers ago.  It was my first trip out there.  Ravdakot's first trip too.  We both had new girlfriends that would become our wives, we had a great day of fishing, great fish tacos, and passed out thinking we might try to fish the next day.

Well, we ended up fishing again the next day, just the bros, we left the women on the beach.  We limited out in ~45 minutes after 2 hours of consistent underling hookups.  When the underlings finally stopped biting (2 at a time, with 3-4 other underlings circling the hooked fish) we started absolutely DESTROYING rockfish.  Hell, I even nailed a HUGE vermillion.  It was so epic because all we had was this one shitty stringer (I had lost mine the day before, and one of his that morning lol) and we had to share a stringer.  I'd be like "dude, pull your line up, I have 4 rockfish at my feet and I need the stringer"   He'd set his rod under his leg and start to get the stringer ready, then hook up again.  This went on until I had 6-7 fish under my feet.  A few minutes later he says "hey I think we have to stop"  I was sure we didn't need too, then he tried to pull the stringer out of the water and couldn't.  I had to help him haul them all into his tankwell.  We had 22 or 24 fish, can't remember exactly.  That day was fucking epic, I still grin ear to ear thinking about it.

The next time I go will be the best day fishing ever!

-Allen

I'm with Allen.

   That's a great looking striper Fil. Musta weighed ...what...40+ lbs ?

Mine isn't an action packed story, but it was my first trip on the salt with my kayak celebrating my dads birthday. I caught 6-7 cabezon but couldn't keep any since the season ended about 5 days earlier, but the ocean was calm, the sun was out and I got to hang out with my dad. Hope that our next salt trip will be my next best day of fishing.

Last year w/joe(j-fek)...my first (and second)kayak salmon.He also limited...that buzz lasted a long time!
http://www.northwestkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=8165.0

   That's a great looking striper Fil. Musta weighed ...what...40+ lbs ?

47.5 inches and 39 lbs 12 oz. 

Every day is amazing when you're fishing.  These are a couple of my epic days.

#1 Neah Bay Halibut opener.  80lb halibut.  What a ride.  (Sure wish it counted for AOTY but the mouth was too far open)

#2 Omak Lake catching over 75 Lahontan Cutthroat over two days.

#3 Vedder River about 6 years ago catching many huge white kings and coho.

#4 Fishing Drum and Redfish in 10,000 Islands/Everglades and following a school of several hundred bull reds and a big drum for a couple of hours.

well, i've tryed to put pictures up a few times with no luck - so here's the storie version.  best day fishing ever was my 1st time tuna fishing, 1st time on the ocean, and 1st time crossing the columbia bar.  we were on my buddies 26 foot alum boat, and the bar was a bit sporty for about an hour.  we kept driving west till we got about 35 miles out, and noticed a HUGE swarm of birds to the north of us a few hundred yards.  as we pulled the boat up on it, there must have been 200-300 porpus all aout 3-4 feet long - they practically disapeared once we pulled the boat up.  we spent the rest of the day running drifts with the current through the flock of birds on the water just slaughtering one tuna after the next.  we called it a day once the boat wouldn't store another fish and headed home.  i've been addicted to ocean fishing ever since.

The next time I go will be the best day fishing ever!

-Allen

Bingo.
If you can only remember one "best" day, you are not fishing enough.....

The next time I go will be the best day fishing ever!

-Allen

Bingo.
If you can only remember one "best" day, you are not fishing enough.....

I disagree.  I remember lots of great days,a few epic days. 

There are also just mediocre days, like those days I have chase flounder for AOTY points. 

Then there are bad days, when you catch nothing and/or break and lose expensive stuff, or irreplaceable stuff.

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The next time I go will be the best day fishing ever!

-Allen

Bingo.
If you can only remember one "best" day, you are not fishing enough.....

I disagree.  I remember lots of great days,a few epic days. 

There are also just mediocre days, like those days I have chase flounder for AOTY points. 

Then there are bad days, when you catch nothing and/or break and lose expensive stuff, or irreplaceable stuff.

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I don't recall any bad fishing days, maybe some poor catching days. I fish for fun and to be on the water, any water. I don't use fishing gear that's so expensive that it's going to keep me awake at night if I lose it, and I've lost plenty of it. I've even sunk a couple boats. No "stuff" is irreplaceable to me, it's just stuff. Ten years from now you'll have different stuff. If you want to compete, fishing or otherwise, you win some and you lose some; that's the way it goes.

The greatest thing about Kayak Fishing is that even a poor day fishing is still a great day paddling. No giult or remorse for blowing a hundred bucks on fuel etc.

That being said, my best day fishing had to be in high school my about 5-6 of my friends and I decided to have our own fishing tourney, and my best friend and I teamed up and went down by the dam in this little county park lake and proceeded to catch these 5-10lb catfish, one after another. We must have caught 15-20 a piece. It was awesome!!

Another great day was the day I caught two 5lb peacock bass on the same lure, later that day i caught the biggest peacock of my life that weighed in at 15.5 lbs. Proabably caught 25 peacocks that day along with a huge black piranha, and assorted other amazon beasties.  The adreneline didnt stop flowing all day, and it took days for me to wipe the smile off my face.

More recently I was out in PC ,with a group of friends and we had rented a beach house for the weekend and they weather cooperated so I was out early on Friday to fish in the good weather window. I jokingly told my friends not to bother going to the grocery store because I was bringing back dinner.  So that day I landed a 20lb ling and a 7lb liing and provided baked fish one night and fish taco's the second night for ALL nine of us. Felt so good to back up my joking boast. That and lingcod is delicious so we were all happy people!

I have many many more but those are the days that stick out in my head as the best. Again the best thing about fishing from a kayak or fishing in general is that regardless of your sucess, its just nice to be out there on a calm ocean, and clear lake or a running river. 

Last year I caught and released 2 31" king salmon on the 7 mile offshore paddle to halibut grounds where I caught a nice chicken and then a twin salmon of the same size on the paddle in.

Also last year I got a limit of kings, a halibut, and a nice ling cod.