do you believe it?

[FarginIcehole]

i hate to wonder if my own dad ever made up a fish story.he tells me a story from many years ago often,of course there are no pictures.while reeling in a ahammer handle pike a very large musky,he often estimates the weight at 60 lbs, grabbed this little pike sideways in its mouth.my dad claims he fought this musky for over a half an hour before finally bringing it to the net.the net slips under the fish,and with head and tail hanging out of the net he gives a mighty lift.the bottom of the net hits the gunnel of the boat,it is an old fabric net that is quickly discovered to be dryrotted. 60 lbs of musky back into the river and my father cracking his skull on the outboard. this happened in 1968 and he says he still has a real difficult time dealing with losing this fish.he is now in poor health and never since has caught a musky.now this musky was never even hooked,it just had this pike sideways.could a fish ever need a meal that bad??    Fargin

[Esox]

I would tend to think it was "based on a true story".  I'm sure time has altered the details a little.  I would not worry about it too much. Just enjoy the time and stories with your dad.

[Redneck]

When I was young and didn,t catch and release I had a northern about 4 lbs on one of those chain stringer when all a sudden the chain was rattling against the boat. I looked down there was the biggest muskie I have every seen with half the northern in his mouth. It was over 50 in. I've caught one that was 47 and this one made that one look small.
Redneck

[fISH2WIN]

Hungry or stubborn it is possible. I was fishing a tournament at Loudon Res in Tennessee a few years ago.  I set the hook on a 3 lb bass that hit a Texas Rigged worm. I quickly threw the fish over the side and as I did it came off landing in the bottom of the boat. I put the fish in the live well and turned to fix my bait only to discover that the hook had never pulled through the worm. That fish was never hooked it just didnt let go. Picture this. A good fish picks up a bait and clamps down on it above the line tie. No matter how hard you set the hook you do not move the hook just the fish. Fish2win

[perchfisher]

When I was young and didn,t catch and release I had a northern about 4 lbs on one of those chain stringer when all a sudden the chain was rattling against the boat. I looked down there was the biggest muskie I have every seen with half the northern in his mouth. It was over 50 in. I've caught one that was 47 and this one made that one look small.
Redneck

one time i pulled up my stringer and there was a giant snapping turtle chomping away at the fish

[Jigwiggler]

I've seen several species of fish hang on to a fish or lure with out ever getting hooked.  Most are lost at boatside when the fish sees the net or boat and lets go.  I saw a musky grab a bass on a guys stringer that was wading and almost pull him over.  The fish hung on almost till he reached shore. 

[kerosenecounty17]

I’ll bet your dad is telling the truth.  Maybe the fish wasn’t 60 pounds, but I’ll bet it was big. 

I had the same thing (nearly) happen to me less than a month ago, twice in a matter of 3 days.  I was fishing for bass on a lake well known for large musky.  Both muskies hit small bass (12" + or -) that I had hooked and was reeling in.  Neither of the muskies was hooked, but both hung on like bulldogs.  The first I fought with for about 5 minutes before he let go.  Actually had him along side the boat 3 times before he just let go and swam away.  Little bro almost had him in the net once.  I would guess he was 50" plus, but it's really hard to tell.  Adrenaline tends to magnify things. 

The second was about 45" (again, guessing).  This one grabbed on and held the bass until he saw the boat.  Then he made a hard run, snapped my line and swam away with the bass still sideways in his mouth. 

I'm not a musky fisherman, but I assume their teeth are similar to pike in that they point backward toward the throat.  Maybe they have a hard time letting go of something deep enough in the mouth?  The teeth might act like the barb of a fishhook and prevent them from letting go easily.  Especially under tension, perhaps?  Don’t know, just taking a guess. 

Anyway, in my opinion, your dad’s telling a fish story, but not a made-up one. 

kero

[ChenBassHead]

Yes, musky teeth are similar to pike teeth, except that muskies have a few much larger canine teeth that are used for holding bigger food.

-Zach

[Mackdaddy21]

Really the story doesn't seem farfetched. I have lost smaller walleyes and bass to trout before, and at times the trout remained hooked, other times he took fish, lure and all. Have heard of pike grabbing smaller trout, pike grabbing smaller pike, trout grabbing smaller pike, bass grabbing small trout, bass or trout grabbing panfish. It happens fairly often.

Tyler

[trapperdirk]

I have had similar experiences with pike and musky so I don't believe it's farfetched in the least . Here are some pics that a lad took on another forum just recently . He fought the fish and took the pics .

[Chucker]

Not at all unusual. 
A 30"+ northern hit walleyes on a stringer last year under my uncle's boat.

And a few years back, I had a 5 pound largemouth consistently striking at 10" bass I had hooked on flies in a farm pond.  I went back up to the house, grabbed a spinning rod with a Rat-L-Trap, and went back down to the pond.  Hooked a runt, and let him play until the larger bass popped him.  The extra 5 hook points over the flies I had been using got the big one back to shore. 

[grumpymoe]

happens alot....a few years ago, i had a couple of guests who wanted to end the day with some northerns....after about 10 hammer handles, one huge northern around 39-40 inches in length, chomped down on this small one....and hung on for about a solid 3-4 minutes....happened to get a great video of this, even while leading it up and down the side of the boat...great action shot similar to what trapper posted...i cant remember how many times this has happened pulling in a nice walleye from deeper water....the big brutes seem to hang around looking for an easy meal.....grump

[Polar]

Sure muskies and northerns will grab a fish on your line. I've seen it happen twice.

[FarginIcehole]

to be honest with you guys i forgot i started this thread.all this input is very cool.i am a believer now!! when i was a kid ,we were on a party boat in florida ,i was bringing a nice kingfish to the gaff and a barracuda absolutely sliced this thing in half.when he came back for the other half the mate gaffed him. Fargin

[slim slinger]

I worked on eagle lake just east of lake of the woods and i would often get pike while catching perch during the day and eyes in the evening off the dock... It was kinda cool watcing big pigs swim around with a 12" + fish sideways in there mouth.
Also left a stringer of perch off the dock came back and there was just the heads of them there floatin around..muskie?pike? who knows...

your fathers story isnt far fetched at all!

slim