Stupidest mistake?

[walleyechaser]

i would have to say mine is losing 2 nice steelhead my buddy caught.  I put them on the stringer but didn't loop the stringer through again like you're supposed to.  the first one stayed on long enough to get hit by the second one which knocked both of them off back into the river.  So much for that steelhead dinner.  They were both really nice fish too.

Then of course back at camp no one believed that we caught any fish.

[scansy]

Getting married and having kids..... I don't fish as much now.

Gotta be careful, the wife is sitting next to me!

[Skipper]

My brother and me were out fishing with buzzbaits for northens one late summer day when he decided to switch to a green one that he had just bought. It still had the tags on it, he said "green is always a killer, youll see".  He was right, one fish after another swelled up on it, but not one got the hook. This struck us as strange because buzz baits usualy hook up real well. After missing at least five fish, he inspected the lure closely and there was a small piece of clear tubing over the point of the hook to prevent people from getting hooked in the store. I still give him flak over that one.

[WANNAKETCHUM]

Well....maybe this won't seem like much of a mistake to most of you, but back in 1985... a friend and I were fishing Seneca lake for a day and when we came back to the dock...I took my fishing vest off and hung it on a dock post while we were loading up. We left and about 50 mi. down the road I realized what I did. We turned around and drove back but to no avail. I went to the park office where we were at to see if anyone had turned anything in and they said no, so I gave them my home address, phone# etc. etc. and they said they would contact me if it was turned in. Well folks... it ain't about the $50.00 or so worth of tackle that bothered me so much... I had 3 yrs. worth of Pa. fishing licenses in a pin-on holder on that vest. No big deal you say... well I replaced that current year's license no problem, but I had been collecting MY states licenses(my own) since I was 16 yrs. old. Whoever got my vest was more than welcome to keep the tackle that was in it...but they had no use for the licenses. To this day...I still collect my licenses but I will never have a complete collection because of some lowlife, dishonest #$#%$#@# that did not turn my vest in to the park office. WK

[Pigshanks]

Leaving a receipt on the counter showing what I actually pay for "Bargin Bin" fishing stuff I always come home with. 

[tucker]

thats not stupid, that suicidal!

[fishinfergy]

Well one day in the middle of may i grabbed my stuff and went to the stream and rounded up some live herring and took them down to the dock.  I put one on live lining it and opened the bail and rested it in someones sailboat straight up so it would go no where.  Well went back up the dock to grab the rest of my stuff and on the way back down, out of the boat my rod went flying threw the air! Gone was a nice st. Croix and shimano Calcutta baitcaster, never to be seen again.  Then i got to let all of the nice live bait go.  That was the worst fishing experience ever.

Ferg

[WOLF1964]

WOULD HAVE TO SAY MINE WAS WHEN I BACK THE BOAT DOWN INTO THE LANCH AND PULLED AWAY TO PARK AND WHEN I CAME BACK THE BOAT WAS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE LAUNCH. FORGOT THE CORK!!!! TONS OF FOLKS WAITING TO GET IN AND OUT AND NOW MY SUNK 14' ALUM WAS SITTING ON THE BOTTOM OF 5 ' OF WATER. DID I FEEL DUMB...!  THANKS TO SOME VERY NICE PEOPLE HELP ME PULL IT OUT AND LET IT DRAIN. LOADED UP AND WENT HOME WITH TAIL BETWEEN MY LEGS...LOL.

[Hood]

I got a few....one i checked my line for chaffe...bit off a few feet, grabbed the end which i thought was the main line on the rod, tied the knot and tossed it over and couldnt figure out why it just sank...actually tied to the cut off chafe line i wanted to get rid of....another time I had a nice stringer of brookies hangin over the side and didnt pull them in the boat before draggin tit back up onto the dock and the stringer got pinched under the boat and snapped off...sank to the bottom in about 5 foW and before i could get a rod and snag it up a snapping turtle came from under the dock and was off with a nice fat meal for itself...what really sucked was there was a PB 2.5 pounder on there, last one was this past winter i was settin tippers for pike with a sounder and set my depth like i wanted but never pulled the sounder and baited with a smelt...for hours i couldnt figure out what happened to the sounder until i went for a round of checkin baits...LOL

[fishnut]

Was striper fishing and caught a blue fish, not thinking I lip grab him OUCH 

I did that with a Bullhead once.  I grabbed him by his back and ended up with a nasty cut on my hand.

When I was little I used to suck my thumb.  When me and my dad went fishing we jigged with smelts.  I took my hand, grabbed a smelt and stuck it on, put my hook down in the water, and continued sucking my thumb...for about 2 seconds...

[Tom Leitz]

How about forgetting gear?

This past winter I got up at 4:30, left the house at 5:00 and arrrived at the Lake at 5:45.

Problem was I forgot the auger!

[crowkiller]

How about forgetting gear?

This past winter I got up at 4:30, left the house at 5:00 and arrrived at the Lake at 5:45.

Problem was I forgot the auger!

ouch 

[OTIS]

How about forgetting gear?

This past winter I got up at 4:30, left the house at 5:00 and arrrived at the Lake at 5:45.

Problem was I forgot the auger!

Been there done that, nothing sucks worse than forgetting gear.  I left my auger in the back of my truck, and walked 2 or three miles with the kids.  Got them settled in and went to drill a hole, DOUGH!  Luckily Walleye1 was there and I got to use his new Nills.  When I got back to the truck, my Laser was gone.  Two days later I had a new Nils.

[beerman]

we had desided to go to another pond and strapped my rod to my 4 wheeler and took off. Well since we were only going a couple hundred yards down the trial i left the rod togther and hanging strait off the back.  the lure i was using got off the guide and snagged a branch. well need less to say i got to the next pond grabbed my rod and there was only like 20 yards of line on it. 

[Reel Wet Ride]

I dropped an anchor overboard with no rope on it. It had rope tied to it, and it was all wound up from storage that winter, problem is about 3' up from the anchor it was broke off and no-one ever fixed it.

When I was younger I broke my foot playing baseball, so I had a cast on my leg. I went fishing and when I got back to the dock I tried to stand up to get out of the boat and fell backwards and snapped all my brand new, (1st day of use) Diawa rods. That was nice.

After bringing a fish to the boat I had my line break. So just like I always do, I removed the lure and tossed it over the side of the boat to keep it from getting tangled or snagging anything....hmmm, wasn't attached to the rod dummy!