Author Topic: What are the odds, really? (Read 5436 times)

BottomDweller · « **on:** Mar 21, 2007, 08:39 AM »

alright, i don't know if any of you have had anything like this happen, and it is definitely in the realm of possibility, but if you think about it, the odds are very, very long.
this is a laker i caught on january 7th, 2007. at the time it weighed approximately 15.5 lbs, and was approximately 33.5 inches long.

look closely at the markings - she has a curved, elongated light spot in the shape of an upside-down U just above her second fin back, on the left side.

just this last sunday, march 18th, 2007, my fishing buddy spudbar pulled this through the ice on the same lake as the first, but on opposite shores.

if you look closely, you'll see that she has the same elongated, upside-down U mark above her second-from-front fin on the left side. i was with him when he caught it, and as soon as i got a glimpse of her through the hole, i said that it was the same fish i pulled up almost two-and-a-half months before, because i recognized another big white blotch of a birthmark on her right side (not pictured). we later checked and she did have a wound in her upper mouth where i hooked her in january.

well, we decided to get her put on the wall, since it is the biggest fish either of us caught through the ice so far this winter.
~

nepa old man · « **Reply #1 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 09:50 AM »

Nice fish, but I must be blind.

BottomDweller · « **Reply #2 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:05 AM »

just look at any marking on one fish that stands out to you as unique, and then look at the picture of the other, and you'll see that there is a corresponding identical mark.

C.C. · « **Reply #3 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:08 AM »

Nice fish guys, if you look at the top of the gill and back about an inch or so just below the lateral line there is another marking thats the same. Just a straight white line about an inch or so long. I would say it's definitly the same fish also. Maybe it's time to switch lakes when you start catching the same fish over and over

JK
Jim

BottomDweller · « **Reply #4 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:11 AM »

it won't happen three times... she's at the taxidermist's now!

SPARKYICE · « **Reply #5 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:16 AM »

wow! way cool! nice fish!

i've caught the same fish (19" pickerel) twice in a day befor, minutes apart.
i know it was the same fish because it had my mepps #3 that it had broken off minutes befor still in it's mouth.
i caught it the second time on a daredevil.
i wish i had that on video to show to peta.
what did you catch her on?

Pail Rider · « **Reply #6 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:23 AM »

Catch and release really works

fshnfool · « **Reply #7 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:34 AM »

that's an awesome later BD....amazing you were with him when he iced it too....

who's keeping it??

BottomDweller · « **Reply #8 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 10:42 AM »

Quote from: fshnfool on Mar 21, 2007, 10:34 AM

who's keeping it??

it's spudbar's fish, but if he ever needs a place to put it, it will be more then welcome at my place!

stumper · « **Reply #9 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 11:19 AM »

You guys went and bought a lotto ticket after that didn't you?

rich81 · « **Reply #10 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 12:47 PM »

amazing

swampbuckster · « **Reply #11 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 12:53 PM »

Pretty Cool!

billditrite · « **Reply #12 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 12:55 PM »

i would find a way to incorporate both pics into the mount...very cool , congrats to both of you!

lotwfisher · « **Reply #13 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 02:19 PM »

Thats awesome....I caught a pike one time on a really small lake with a hook in its side..i removed the hook carefully and released the fish...3 weeks later caught a pike with a huge scar on its side....the guy that i was fishing with the first time was there also and we both were just shocked.

fish_finder · « **Reply #14 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 02:23 PM »

Quote from: C.C. on Mar 21, 2007, 10:08 AM

Nice fish guys, if you look at the top of the gill and back about an inch or so just below the lateral line there is another marking thats the same. Just a straight white line about an inch or so long. I would say it's definitly the same fish also. Maybe it's time to switch lakes when you start catching the same fish over and over JK
Jim

I saw that to..almost sticks out more than the other mark....good job guys just proves that catch an release works, i once caught a big chain pickerel that had a scar on its back, my uncle caught the same fish with the same scare a week later in the same area that i had caught it.

BottomDweller · « **Reply #15 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 02:33 PM »

the lake we caught this laker on is over 1 mile long and about 3/4 mile wide, and is filled to the brim with them, so that just makes it that much harder to believe.

pikemaster789 · « **Reply #16 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 05:47 PM »

thats really cool. Especially a fish of that magnitude. I once caught a bluegill tossed him in the water, watched him swim to a weed and then he turns around comes right back and grabs my bait

Water Wolf · « **Reply #17 on:** Mar 21, 2007, 09:19 PM »

Neat O, I would say that fish was a team effort, nice fish bottomdweller and spudbar, definatly the same fish. 8)

WW

scansy · « **Reply #18 on:** Mar 22, 2007, 08:12 AM »

Similar story - open water. We fly in and fish a lake in Canada every year. One time we were talking about wether or not we catch the same pike/walleye one year to the next. Well, the next year a guy who is involved with wildlife biologists brings up a bunch of tags and we tagged fish. We recorded the length of them, date, location caught. We only caught two repeats, one the following year and one two years after it was tagged. This is a pretty big lake. You could fish around the shorelines for a week without coming back to where you started. Both of the repeats were pike.

Funny thing is that one my dad caught and tagged was the one caught by someone else two years later - and it was 2" shorter than my dad had recorded.

He still hears about that any time we are all together to fish/hunt and it's been close to 10 years since it happened.

vermonner · « **Reply #19 on:** Mar 22, 2007, 12:10 PM »

Similar story deer hunting: October 2005 I take a poke at a "spikehorn" at about 6:00 p.m. with my bow. Miss high. Twice. Really pi$$ed me off, because I knew the mistake I made 1st time. Got over it. 2 weeks later on youth day, my uncle calls me and says "hey, my son shot a deer, and I think it's yours." I say "whaddaya mean it's mine?" He then tells me that when they went to get it after it was shot, both he and his son noticed a "shaved" patch of hair across the top of the spine, about 2 inches long, from deer's right to left which was how it was standing when I took both shots. They saved the hide and we put one of my mechanical broadheads up to it and it matched!!! Turned out to be a small 4 pointer, shot 1/4-1/2 mile from my treestand. I am now known in my camp as the guy who practices hunt and release. A dubious honor indeed.

Lobes · « **Reply #20 on:** Mar 22, 2007, 07:42 PM »

Great story!
That is ice fishing at its finest !!!

NBG

scansy · « **Reply #21 on:** Mar 22, 2007, 08:44 PM »

Hunt and release!

BottomDweller · « **Reply #22 on:** Mar 28, 2007, 02:31 PM »

i'll post pictures when the taxidermist is done. it should be a real good mount. {i shoulda mounted it when i caught it

}

o2rmk800 · « **Reply #23 on:** Mar 29, 2007, 02:17 PM »

i would have mounted it the 1st time also. anyhow was it any bigger the second time around? nice fish can't wait to see finished mount.

steve

SJohn01 · « **Reply #24 on:** Mar 29, 2007, 02:55 PM »

Most definitely the same fish. That's pretty sweet!

BottomDweller · « **Reply #25 on:** Mar 29, 2007, 02:57 PM »

it was probably five or six ounces heavier. but apparently she hadn't been feeding regularly since i caught her up until the time that spud caught her, because she still had a lot of room left in her stomach. with a full stomach and healthier body, i don't doubt that she would have weighed a couple pounds heavier.

pikeslammer · « **Reply #26 on:** Mar 30, 2007, 04:36 PM »

another way you can tell if you look below both eyes theres that white mark i dont know if its just from the camera or what

but anyway very nice fish to the both of you

BottomDweller · « **Reply #27 on:** Apr 04, 2007, 08:55 AM »

also about 2 inches behind her eye is a distinct squiggly white line, looks sort of like a capital "F" with the top line arching up and backward.

fishermanjake · « **Reply #28 on:** Apr 05, 2007, 06:00 PM »

I think the odds are not as high as it seems we only realize it when the fish has a distiguishing mark, My wife and I were fishing and were catching dozens of 28-32 inch pike then releasing them, My buddy calls me up a week later fishing the same area we were fishing and says he has this huge pike to show me. I'm thinking he got one over 20 pounds, he brings it over and it has an identical scar to one of the 30" class I had released last week. I just laghed at him and said that was one of the smaller ones we caught last week.

BottomDweller · « **Reply #29 on:** Sep 26, 2007, 01:55 PM »

i can't believe you caught a bigger fish than me last year spud. this year is mine

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Author Topic: What are the odds, really? (Read 5436 times)