Fishing in the Central Valley: You always remember that big fish that got away

I don’t think there’s anything more catastrophic for an avid angler — than to lose a big fish.

Unfortunately, I recently had this happen to me and it made me realize just how traumatic and devastating this must be for other anglers too. I know that losing what someone thinks is the biggest fish of their life isn’t the end of the world but for many hard core fishermen, they can see it from there.

Losing what someone feels is a lifetime hookup and the regret that follows can stick with them for life and usually does. It’s the time- after the failure that tends to haunt the angler as he rethinks and relives the moment things fell apart and the victory vanished. It’s a bad dream that can continually pop up in the fisherman’s mind at all kinds of random moments where the whole fight and experience are once again lived out in full living color.

The taste of defeat is tough to get out of your mouth, especially when you’re dead sure that the one that got away was the fish of your dreams. The hard thing about this situation is that losing a huge fish usually happens very fast so doing a postmortem means that the angler runs back through the entire event again and again trying to figure out what went wrong.

Mental Questions such as did you give the fish some slack? or was the line too light play out endlessly fueled by the anglers imagination and re-imagining of what happened. I’ve heard guys a month after losing a big fish tell me they finally remembered what happened. They give me the long edit of what they now believe it was that caused the failure.

The poor guy is still trying to make sense out of what happened to him. Trying to get closure is hard It’s critical for those of us who have never had this happen to us- to listen carefully, patiently and kindly to these folks (even if it’s highly dubious) Remember: They need someone who is willing to hear the whole story without judging them or discounting it as a made up fish story. It’s terrible when you have had a special experience and try to honestly share it but all you get is unbelief.

Yes, Some anglers are more believable than others for sure! However, having someone refuse to believe your story is why many anglers don’t share their honest big fish tales.If you talk to a long time serious angler you’ll probably find out that they are proud of the trophies they caught but it’s the big ones that got away that still torment them deep down inside. It’s the coulda, woulda, shoulda thing that bothers them and the question of “ just how big was it anyway?”

Pondering every facet of the fight, tracing back the loss all tend to drive the feelings of great loss deeper and deeper. I think that just about every long term fisherman has at least one or two lost fish that they’ve wondered about for decades . Somethings we never get over. The other difficulty of losing a big fish is that since you really want and need to share this wonderful/traumatic experience with your close friends and family they usually know you too well. In those situations, you get to tell your version of what happened - once! You can expect close scrutiny and pointed questions that cross examine your motives, integrity and truthfulness.

Try to explain away the anomalies you forgot to include in your first rendition- and your credibility is toast. No second tries allowed. Fish stories come with a preconceived listener bias that the angler is lying. Well, maybe a little at times if he’s a good angler! Losing a big fish is more complex and emotionally challenging than I remembered. Was it worth it trying to explain to another angler friend how incredibly big and powerful the fish was ( that I never saw).

The dead silence I got after my all out attempt at a credible monster fish loss told the tale. It’s safer emotionally to just keep the “sacred” experience to yourself, even if your buddies who were there didn’t see it like you do.

I found that I had to refocus on landing a monster one no one could dispute and then maybe I could get some props. You know what, that doesn’t even work. Don’t let the big ones get away, a picture is better than a story.

And never give up.