Strangest Catch?

[Mitch f]

On May 6, 2016 at 8:43 AM, bfishn said:

Back in the '80s I caught (and released) several foot-long Hellbenders on creek shiners. If you'd told me back then how rare they are I'd have argued with you. If you think a greased pig is hard to hold on to, try to remove a hook from a Hellbender's lip.

Caught a few American eels in the Arkansas River. Those too were many years ago. Haven't even seen one in the last 20.

Had a 'gull take a swing and a miss at a free-lined live shad once. Glad he missed.

Caught a huge Hellbender on the Gasconade in the 90's with a crank bait

[dan hufferd]

A bullfrog on a tiny torpedo. He pursued it and ate it, it was crazy to watch. I will leave the wife joke out because it's mothers day, but there is a spouse joke lurking in the question.

[kjackson]

2 hours ago, Ham said:

My Dad caught a owl on a Devil's Horse. You definitely do not want to throw a Devil's Horse around owls. He had to stop fishing it a couple of other times when an owl would fly up and land close by to watch it a little while longer before striking it.

Oh yeah and don't throw a frog around an alligator either. Or a big ole banded water snake.

And for the former West Coasters, I'll add slow-reeling a rockfish around sealions...or seals, for that matter.  

[dtrs5kprs]

My wife likes to throw a full size spook. She's had an ongoing war with herons over that bait for almost 20 years. All the way back to a trip to Pomme. 

She hadn't fished much after kids. Went out on TR to throw spooks at some topwater fish I'd been abusing on a bluff end. Fish were gone, but the birds would not leave her spook alone.

I can walk the same full size, silver flitter spook from the bow, and never have a bird get near it. Has to be her cadence.

[Ham]

35 minutes ago, kjackson said:

And for the former West Coasters, I'll add slow-reeling a rockfish around sealions...or seals, for that matter.  

One of my friends was around Vancouver Island catching salmon.  We reached over the side of the boat to release a salmon and a freaking sea lion snatched it out of his hand at a high velocity. Happened to fast to scare him until he had time to think about it.  

[Al Agnew]

Well, I know I told the story of catching the great horned owl on a Jitterbug not too long ago.  That's probably my most spectacular strange catch.  But over the years I've either caught or had to jerk the lure away from a lot of critters.

Had to jerk a walk the dog topwater away from a great blue heron and a kingfisher.

Caught a cormorant...actually snagged it when it flew into my line in mid-air.

Caught a bat flyfishing at night.  Not fun.

Caught a monstrous dragonfly on a dry fly...it took the fly in mid-air.

Caught a snapping turtle on a topwater lure.

Caught a northern watersnake on the same lure.

Really stupid...purposely snagged a snake that turned out to be a juvenile timber rattler.  Didn't realize it until it dropped in the boat between my feet.

And finally, a couple that I didn't catch but a friend and a relative did...

My brother in law was bowhunting for black bear up north.  They'd hunt over bait in the mornings and then go out on the lake they were camped on during the day to fish.  One of the guys in the group was a teenager, and another was not much older, and they were out in the boat one day and saw a yearling black bear swimming the lake.  The critter wasn't much bigger than a really big raccoon.  Kid-like, the teenager tossed a Daredevil spoon at the bear and snagged it in the back.  Realizing that could be trouble, he cut the line, and the bear swam on across.

A couple days later, my BIL stopped at another camp across the lake to ask them if they had killed any bears.

"Yeah, we got a pretty good one yesterday.  Funny thing...it had a Daredevil spoon stuck in its back!"

Back in the days when I used to fish lower Black River at the Highway 67 bridge for walleye in the winter, a guy I knew was fishing on the other side of the river and snagged something.  It was big and heavy, but it was gradually coming in, so he kept pulling and reeling until he got it to the bank...it was a dead (human) body!  Apparently somebody had murdered this poor guy and tossed him off the bridge.

[dan hufferd]

Al Agnew you just made me feel weird about wading the creek!!!!

[trythisonemv]

Dad caught what he thought was a great smalie. It was pulling and changing direction raising and dropping. Got it to the surface and it was a hub cap.

[Johnsfolly]

I was fishing off of Key West on an overnight charter boat. I had a good bite and set the hook into something heavy. As I was reeling it up there was all kinds of conjecture as to what kind of fish it was. "See how the rod tip pulls ang tugs. Its got to be a black grouper." "AJ's will pull like that as well." "No. It's a big mutton." Anytime someone asked me what it felt like, I said it felt like a rock. It wasn't long before I landed a two foot tall basket sponge and it's rock base. 

[Smalls21]

On 5/7/2016 at 9:02 PM, Johnsfolly said:

 

 

Smalls21 - did you land the pelican? In the Jupiter inlet the pelicans are thick and you have to use heavy weights to the get bait deep enough after you cast to avoid the pelicans. I hooked up on one and it flew off pulling drag. I did get it back onto the pier and broke it off. This bird had at least four or five other lines in its beak. A habitual bait stealer. Also forget about catch and release. The fish don't stand a chance getting back into the water.

 

 

no i did not land it, the dock hand cut the line pretty quickly