Strangest Catch?

[Ham]

4 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

Kjackson - I would love to see a larger picture of that greenling. Awesome looking fish.

Ham - a cutlass fish but you can't catch a gizzard shad .

In Florida you catch just about anything. I was fishing a drainage slough and nearly stepped on an alligator getting down to the waters edge. It swam off and I got to fishing a 3" sluggo. No fish after a couple of casts which was pretty unusual in this ditch. I made another cast and all of a sudden the alligator was back chewing on my bait. I tried to flip the bait out of its mouth which just set the hook into its tongue. The 4 foot long gator came in like a wet towel. I snapped the line as I got it to shore. I didn't choot it as Troy would say.

I was surf fishing with a piece of squid, I had a strike and thought I set the hook and began reeling in the fish. The fish would pull pull pull and then pull pull pull. It was heavy but was a strange fight. I thought I might have a stingray. As I got it into the surf the "fish" turned out to be a sea turtle. Fortunately it wasn't hooked and just spit the bait as it got into the surf. I wasn't looking forward to find a way to unhook this turtle.

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.

In PA both water snakes and bullfrogs love hula poppers. Enough said.

 

OH, I've caught a half dozen Gizzard shad, I just couldn't buy one last year when I had a real good push for species going. I have not caught one yet this year either. Maybe I will get lucky.

[Johnsfolly]

My bad. I've got a sabiki rig with your name on it to try for them once we get to fish together.

[Ham]

I was about 10 when I caught the Cutlass fish. It was about 5 foot long. I was surf fishing so I was in the water with it. I had NO idea what it was, but man did it have a bunch of scary teeth. Iridescent metal rainbow colors. I think I poked him with the rod tip until the jig popped out. I'm 100% certain that I did not grab him to pop the hooks out by hand.

[dtrs5kprs]

Can't believe it took that long for someone to hit the gizzard shad button.

Sabiki rig might just work.

[Quillback]

Used to catch a ratfish every once in a while salmon fishing, very weird looking fish.  Here's a pic I pulled off the web:

 

 

[Quillback]

23 hours ago, Smalls21 said:

caught a pelican once fishing off a pier on anna maria island, i had just tossed a live shrimp close to a piling , pelican picked up the shrimp and took off.

I have a bird story.

About 20 years ago myself and a couple of buddies were fishing for Chinook salmon on a guide trip out of Bamfield BC.  We were trolling anchovies off downriggers.  The guide re-baited one of the lines with an anchovy, dropped it behind the boat, let it go back about 50 feet before clipping the line to the downrigger ball.  Well a seagull grabbed the anchovy before the guide got it clipped to the downrigger ball and the gull got hooked.

The guide just went ahead and dropped the ball down, which hauled the gull underwater, he brought it back up after a minute and reeled in the half-dead and dazed gull.  Made it a lot easier to unhook the gull, but the gull was pretty dazed and just sitting on the water sort of flapping it's wings weakly and we continued to move away from it trolling.

Well a bunch of gulls flew in and started harassing the still dazed would be bait stealer, flying around it, squawking, and diving on it.  All of a sudden an eagle comes swooping in, scattering all the other gulls, and grabs the dazed gull and flies off with it. 

Pretty neat to see, but I did feel sorry for that gull.  His day did not end well.

[Ham]

2 hours ago, dtrs5kprs said:

Can't believe it took that long for someone to hit the gizzard shad button.

 

Not everybody trolls me on the Gizzard shad thing (yet). If not catching a gizzard shad every year is my cross to bear, so be it.

[kjackson]

17 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Kjackson - I would love to see a larger picture of that greenling. Awesome looking fish.

Here you go... The second shot is of its mouth, and the lips really were that blue.  The third shot is another of the weird fish we caught that day. This one appears to be a member of the sculpin/scorpionfish family.  I also caught a dink something that had sky-blue eyes...that was a weird fish. 

 

[Coosa]

Last year I was fishing Ben Branch conservation lake near my home. I was using a 7" white fluke throwing it up next to some cat tails in shallow water. As I was floating down the bank in my kayak there was a big blue heron watching me. I didn't think anything of it because they are there all the time but this particular one started walking toward the fluke as I skipped it close to the surface. Now I'm thinking no way this bird is gonna do this but it continues to get closer so I start to reel in kinda fast. Once I start cranking it in this thing takes one or 2 good wing flaps and strikes at the fluke thankfully missing! I paddle on down about 50 yrds or so and this think just keeps following me. Everytime I cast the bird starts walking towards my bait so I crank it in and move.  After a few short moves and realizing fishing in this spot just isn't going to happen I decide to make a bigger move way on down a few hundred yards.  So after getting down there and fishing for probably 15 or 20 min Ive pretty much forgotten about the bird and went on with my business, when out of nowhere this thing comes from behind me and just dive bombs my fluke pretty much head first straight down into the mossy water! I'm thinking holy **** that just happened!  He didn't try to fly away though, he just stood there trying to swallow it and I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to just cut the line then end up having this big Ole bird wandering around with a big hook  stuck in his mouth or throat attached to 30 yards of 50 lb braid. But on the other hand I wasn't to willing to try to reel  him in and tangle with a bird that has a sword for a beak in my kayak! So I slowly started just tugging at it a bit hoping the Texas rigged fluke didn't hook him. He was not very willing to let the "fish" go but after a min or so I finally got it popped out of his mouth. He wasn't ready to give it up though....he chased that thing all the way back to within probably 20 ft of my yak. I was preparing for battle! Thank God he finally turned around.  Wish I had the gopro on that day! So maybe it doesn't qualify as a strange catch since I didn't actually catch it but it was a heck of an experience anyway that I felt should be shared. Now everytime I go back to that lake, which is quite often, and I see one of those birds, I always have to wonder if it's him. 

[Ham]

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.