What fishing trip did you take that was a bust?

[Acristickid]

What trip did you take that was a bust?

Stinks when you make the time to go, the expense, the effort.

It’s bad enough when it’s a 3 hour drive and it’s a bust but much worse when it’s a 10 hour drive or more.

Wasn’t planned months in advance, probably a week or two before we left. This was probably 7-8 years ago.

My bust that comes to mind- drove 10 hours to Michigan to try to catch some steelhead. It was after salmon time but as we learned a tad early for steelhead. Little Manistee, Pere Marquette etc.

After 3 days we left a day early to come home- the insult to injury part.

Figuring to get the skunk off we would stop and fish in Erie as we were driving right by. We were just ahead of a snow storm the whole ride and it caught up to us as soon as we got to hotel in Erie.

The snow was coming down sideways. Anyway , the the next morning it was about 20 and windy. We fished 16 mile and I think we caught one fish between us then headed home with tail between legs.

What’s your bust of a trip? Forget your boots, car breakdown, break your leg?

 

[PennKev]

Last years trip to MT started out pretty bad for me. Conditions went from perfect to flooding a few days before we got there, with several rivers/creeks staying flooded for the entire 12 days I was there. Also had rain and hail several times including golf ball sized hail just minutes after we picked up the rental cars. We managed though and caught plenty of fish despite all that.

Aside from that, LITERALLY EVERY camping/fishing trip that I go on in PA results in several days of hard rain.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

I've fished Penns creek in finicky conditions at a time in my life when I had a lot more to learn about fly fishing, and was completely skunked multiple weekends in a row, where I drove about 2-3 hours to get there.

Taught me the importance of fly presentation, and fishing with more stealth. Also am much better at tightline nymphing now, and have been tying a lot of my own flies that I've had great success with, so I think I can drastically improve my catch ratio next time I'm there.

Fortunately, some of the trips I've done "on the fly" without a guide out of state and out of my element (Maine, Wyoming, Colorado, and a few others) with just internet research and a buddy or two tagging along, have turned out to be reasonably successful, given that I went in with low expectations.

 

[timbow]

October, 2018 trip to Baldwin Michigan for streamer eaters. Fished the PM and Manistee for 3 days and moved 5 fish the entire trip. Only fish to hand was a 12" brookie that ate a 7" streamer.

 

[afishinado]

......uuuhhhhh >>>> 2018!!!

This was the worst fishing season I can recall in over 50 years of fishing.

Rivers and streams flows were way too high and often dirty to fish for pretty much the whole season for smallies.

Even the bigger trout streams were way up for a good part of the time. The only silver lining was good fishing in the smaller headwater streams, but everything else was a wash.

Nearly every weekend was raining and many of the trips I had planned I either cancelled or had to go with my Plan B or C.

Can't wait to throw out this years calendar.....Come on 2019!!!

 

[jifigz]

I'm with afishinado on this one. I'm on the longest fishless streak right now since I've started fishing. Combine a busy schedule with often terrible conditions when I'm free and 2018 sucks. Oh, and I took a trip to Erie and fished for 3 days WITHOUT A BITE this year. So yeah, all of 2018.

 

[geebee]

Ive booked three times to go to Pulaski for steel, booked the hotels, bought the NY DEC permit etc and had to cancel three times the day before - two due family deaths and one due a family members serious illness.

I have now got the message.

My biggest bust trip was State College this July - 95 degree heat for three days and i didn't touch a fish on spring creek.

 

[afishinado]

jifigz wrote:
I'm with afishinado on this one. I'm on the longest fishless streak right now since I've started fishing. Combine a busy schedule with often terrible conditions when I'm free and 2018 sucks. Oh, and I took a trip to Erie and fished for 3 days WITHOUT A BITE this year. So yeah, all of 2018.

^ not to even mention the cancellation of your 2nd Annual PAFF Juniata Jam because of the high flow!! It was on my calendar!...I was looking forward to it, big time!

Hopefully next year will be a better year for all types of fishing.

 

[sarce]

I've never had more busts than I have trying to find good pickerel spots. Since they are not a highly regarded species, internet info is sparse. Add in the fact that they live in swampy areas that are hard to fish from shore, and I've been skunked for them more times than I'd like to admit. Minimum 45 minute drive for me to reach areas where they exist - it isn't one specific trip that makes it a bust, but repeatedly going that far to not catch a thing gets old fast.

 

[Tiogadog]

2018 agree.

Left the high water (maybe higher than in PA) of Virginia and drove out to Colorado with the family. My favorite river (the Yampa) was closed due to LOW flows, there was a major wildfire near the Frying Pan, we hiked five miles into a lake in the Flat Tops only discover it was super deep and we had no streamers.

That said, I was fortunate enough to spend three weeks on the road with my wife and two kids. We did manage to catch a bunch of nice Greenback Cutts in RMNP.

Plan is to do it again next summer ...so it must not have been that bad.

 

[CLSports]

Salmon river two years ago, we had 7-8 guys fishing for 3-4 days and between all of us only one steelhead was caught that year. There had been a few down years up there from 2015-2017, so that was a major reason, but we expected more than just 1 fish. That fish was caught near the end of the trip too.

Nearly every time I go to FL and try to fish from a kayak for snook, reds and Tarpon. Hired a guide one year and still got the skunk.

Going to NOLA to fish for Bull Reds in the bayou with a guide. Lots of fish around, but no takers.

Musky trips I've taken to various locations in PA. Always hit or miss . . .

Salt in NJ.

Damn. there are a ton, but the challenge is what keeps me going. I fail quite often, but the only way to get better is to keep on trying. I will never give up no matter how many skunks I take.

 

[MKern]

Once I had a break to fish a new brookie stream and when I got there I had forgot my reel.

 

[RLeep2]

I've had a bunch of dogs.. Then again, I've been around a long time.. Among the worst:

Late 70's, brook trout ponds in the Quebec Laurentians. It was a gift from my Dad and he didn't understand the nature of the fishery, so he set it up for late July. We fished all week for a dozen brookies all under 8". It was the thought that counted..

NW Corner of Algonquin Park, mid-60's. Trolling for lake trout the week of Labor Day. About 6 weeks too early. 5 days, no fish.

Late May 1998 in Quetico PP, Ontario. A smallmouth trip. Beautiful weather for the 2 weeks before the trip, then a day before we were to leave, it snowed 6" on the Gunflint Trail, then stayed in the 30's and 40's for most of our week up there. We had one good night fishing the Hex and a lot of good fellowship, but not many bass.

That's just the Canadian Division... The stateside flops are a much longer list.

 

[Dave_W]

Dang fellas. . . . don't take up FFing for muskies or surf fishing. :roll:

But staying with the thread, I can think of a couple trips to the Keys that didn't produce a thing.

 

[Dave_W]

Ditto Afish.. . .

2018 was the worst.

 

[afishinado]

Dave_W wrote:
Ditto Afish.. . .

2018 was the worst.

^ Yup! Now I have to fish twice as much in 2019 to make up for it!! :-D

 

[MathFish]

My wife and I were in Michigan this summer with her family for a week this July. My wife doesn’t fish, but she decided that the two of us should break away from everyone for a night and go to the North Branch Outing Club (a historical bed and breakfast) in Grayling as a little treat for us. We booked the one night stay 6 months in advance.

It was a 3 hour drive to Grayling from the lake house we were at. The drive up was pretty and we happened to be the only guests at the bed and breakfast. It was a pretty cool place, tons of FFing memorabilia and there was an Orvis shop attached to the B&B. The North Branch of the Ausable was right over the hill from the place and it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. It was a bit too much in the middle of nowhere for my wife...

We got settled in and suited up to fish. The shop worker told me of some holes to fish and we went down to the water. It was a beautiful creek, but in two hours of fishing, I didn’t get even a bump, nor did I even see a fish... we were told to try back after dinner...

We drove into downtown Grayling and stopped at the Old Ausable Fly Shop and got some dinner. The fly shop was awesome. They recommended that we try the “Holy Waters” section of the North Branch of the Ausable. We found the water and fished for two hours there. Again, it was some beautiful water, but no fish!!!

I fished for another hour and a half the next morning, no fish again...

I came to find out that this has been a very bad fishing season on the North Branch. I have been getting emails from the Michigan Fish Commision because I bought my license online. There was an article about a month ago that addressed the extemely low catch rates on that section. The crazy thing is even after a pretty thorough study, it seems like they don’t know what to attribute it to.

It kind of stunk that it was my first fishing trip with my wife too...

 

[PennypackFlyer]

I refuse to go on "Just a fly fishing trip" There is so much more to life than grabbing a trout by the lips and putting it back in the water.

 

[SmoothOperator]

July of 2012... Arrived and set up my camper and got 2 weeks of provisions to start a month of fishing on the Madison River.....Saturday night a bad rainstorm came thru and blew the awning completely off my trailer and also damaged a couple roof vents......Sunday morning I climbed up on the roof of the camper and got a damaged vent off to match up with new ons from town..... Replaced first vent no problem but the windy conditions blew the second vent back down to the ground...When I got on the ladder to go retrieve it the ladder somehow collapsed catching my left leg between two rungs and snapping my leg off ( both bones) right above my ankle...... I landed on my back on the ground and thought " damn that hurt!" ......tried to stand up and saw bones sticking out of my skin and the ends now had grass and dirt clumps in it....... That was at about lunch time and it took till 6:00 pm till a helicopter came and took me to Bozeman..... Over the next week had about 3 or 4 surgeries to clean , screw and pin my leg back together ..... My brother arranged for a rehab. location in Bozeman ( which had a 1 star rating) where I spent the worst week of my life at...... After a week of this sh*t hole I told my wife to arrange a plane ticket to come home to Pa.......I had to have my truck shipped back by car carrier ($ 1,000.00) .....The helicopter ride was $15,000.00 ..... My wife says it was a $150,000.00 vacation...... The memories......priceless......

 

[BrookieChaser]

I took a Spring trip to the Outer Banks one year to catch the reds coming into the bays. I drove all day, after working all night, get there it's 80° and sunny. I eat at a place on the water, there's fish busting in the surf right off the beach as I eat. I wake up the next morning it's 50° and raining and stayed that way my whole trip. I caught a needlefish.

Really, that's any trip I take to the salt, be it NC, DE, MD or VA.

Then there's carp. It's the same outcome as fishing the salt, except without the hot girls and tiki bars.

And lastly, like everyone else, all of 2018. I even drove to Ohio just to have the lakes flood on a carp trip.

Edit: Since I wrote this, SmoothOperator wins the "worst trip award". That sounded like an awful trip.