Your best fishing experience?

[DougsGraphics]

The most memorable has to be the time a ring-billed gull grabbed my rapala as I cast it. What a ruckus bringing down a gull all tangled up in my line, and then trying to cut it loose! Also a fond memory of my dad catching a state-record tiger musky and we didn't even have a net in the boat!

 

[RisiganL.]

Catching a 18lb channel catfish at a small pond. I was at my friends house and it was nice outside, so we decided to go to a nearby pond and catch some small sunfish. First cast, and this catfish rips the line off! I literally had to walk around the pond to stop it from completely unspooling my reel! My favorite experience yet. Another time was when I was at the beach. A much heavier setup with 30lb braid and a good saltwater rod. "Something" took my line and I fought it for about 15min (by FAR my longest fight, haven't been fishing very long...). Then I decided to tighten the drag, hoping that it would tire the fish out some more, BAD idea. My line broke and my rod snapped back so fast I hit myself in the face.

 

[Vince G.]

Maybe not best, but funniest:
A friend of mine and I were fishing on the side of a stream in Jacksonville, FL where we were both in college. We were also both VERY financially challenged, and to some degree were fishing for dinner. I hooked a beautiful brown trout and after getting him about 2 feet from the bank, he starts to fight and comes free from my line. My friend, in a slow motion scene from an action movie or something, dives toward the water from about 2 feet behind me and while still in the air, slaps the trout onto the bank of the stream and falls face first into the water. I gave him that trout...he earned it that day!!! LOL