Unusual Catches While Fishing?

[Johnsfolly]

5 hours ago, kjackson said:

On that trip I caught a fish I won't even guess at that had really strange blue eyes.

Do you have a photo? I would love to see it. If no photo, what did it look like?

[FishnDave]

Did it look like this?

[Johnsfolly]

3 hours ago, FishnDave said:

Did it look like this?

So do you start the filets at the tail and throw out the torso ?!?

[skeeter]

Late 1950's and I'm out with my Dad and his Sis at LOZ and they are both in their very late 50's and we're in a Rental boat from The Antlers where they liked to stay.  Dad loved to troll so he ties a black & white Lazy Ike on his rod and ties a green-sunfish Pico Perch on Auntie's rod and decides to troll down the middle of the main channel.  

Auntie Anne gets a hit and starts reeling it in, gets' it up to the side of the boat, looks over the side and almost throws the rod & reel into the Lake.  Dad grabbed it from her just in time and hauls a pretty good sized Eel into the boat. 

Auntie thought it was a snake and being born in the far NW Suburbs of St. Louis County in 1899 when all around was woods & fields had experiences with snakes and wanted no part of it. 

When they say Eels are slimey, slippery critters they mean it and I think I recall Dad having to finally step on the Eel to de-hook it. 

[kjackson]

19 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

Do you have a photo? I would love to see it. If no photo, what did it look like?

Sorry, no image of that one. It was only about 10 inches long and looked like the second cousin of a iingcod. The eyes were deeply weird... We did catch a number of strange sculpins (not cabezon). We were fishing on the back side of Kodiak Island as it was too rough to go outside. Saw an orgy of sea otters or whatever that is called when 100 or so get together. We also fished close to a pod of gray whales that were feeding on krill or shrimp or whatever and caught a bunch of Pacific cod but no salmon there.

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, kjackson said:

It was only about 10 inches long and looked like the second cousin of a iingcod. The eyes were deeply weird...

I may try to figure out what you caught. Not expecting much though, but we'll see.

[kjackson]

5 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I may try to figure out what you caught. Not expecting much though, but we'll see.

I bit.  I've not bothered to search for this fish until now, but if you go to page 116 of https://www.afsc.noaa.gov/Publications/AFSC-TM/NOAA-TM-AFSC-293.pdf

you'll find images of a Searcher, Bathymaster signatus.  There also are some juveniles in the cod family that come close and have blue eyes early in life, but I believe the above is it.  Rifling through the pages of that document brought back a lot of memories of fish caught...