Catching the same fish?

[Dutch]

I’m sure we have all caught a fish during the day and thought it was one the we had already caught.  I saw it happen yesterday for sure.  My neighbor and I were on a good jig bite and his line broke right at the boat and a nice spot swam away.

Within a few minutes he caught a spot and started laughing when he went to remove the hook.  He brought it up to me and showed me inside its mouth.  There was his jig and craw.

There was still a lot of debris mostly on corners.  Some of the floaters are large enough to get your attention if you hit them.  The water is still muddy looking but the fish don’t care.  The water temp registered between 78° and 80°.

[Quillback]

I can't recall catching one that broke me off, but I sure have caught some with other peoples broken off stuff.  

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Craziest one that ever happened to me was in 2002. Gramps and I were fishing our family's farm ponds in Rosebud, MO one summer morning. I was throwing a Kastmaster, just to see if it'd work. I hooked into a 3 lb largemouth and fought it right up to the bank. I tried to hoist it onto dry land and the line snapped. Fish turned and swam away.

Gramps says "Don't worry, I'll get your lure back for you." Threw his floating Rapala out where the fish was headed. Twitched it a few times and a bass exploded on it. He got it in and in the mouth was the Kastmaster. 100% true story. I have a picture somewhere of the lure in its mouth. 

[Flysmallie]

My dad and I ran into a couple buddies while fishing Stockton. One was re-tieing. He had just lost a “monster” on a worm. It broke him off. We were just chatting and I tossed a crank bait up on the point and hooked a decent fish. Got it to the boat and it had his worm still hooked in its mouth. The “monster!” was about 4 pounds. 

[FishnDave]

I was in Ontario, Canada fishing. I caught, netted, unhooked, photographed, and released a Northern Pike.  I cast back out.  Caught that same fish again on the very next cast!  I've re-caught Green Sunfish many times, they are aggressive little buggers.

[DavidB]

Many years ago a friend and I were fishing the Negreet Creek area of Toledo Bend, and a really nice fish broke me off and swam away with my red Rebel Super R.  A week later the same friend and I started in that same spot and I hooked a fish on another Super R.  We didn't have a net, and when I got it to the boat it had two Super R's in its mouth, including the one from the week before.  I asked my buddy to grab the fish, and he said "I'm not putting my hand in that thing's mouth," whereupon the fish shook off and swam away with the red Super R again.

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

I broke off a rock crawler one time on a fish and went back a few days later and hooked my rock crawler through its split ring with an identical one, fish was gone but I still have that rock crawler

[tjm]

Well, I thought it was the same one, unusually large small stream small mouth at ~19" and from under the same under the same large rock, 4-5 times per week all summer, three summers in a row. Markings always the same, but a bit larger as time passed. Often at the same time of the evening.

And in a tiny eastern trout brook, small enough and clear enough that you could count the fish, took the only rainbow in one pool three times one day and again a couple days later.

I think the only way to avoid re-catching the same fish is to eat them all, and I'm not much of fish eater, so, I'll just have to take the chance that every fish might be one I've caught before.

[cheesemaster]

I don’t eat fish - buts that why I throw them back so I or someone else can catch it later.

Those are great stories!!

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, FishnDave said:

I've re-caught Green Sunfish many times, they are aggressive little buggers.

I had a buddy lose a large roostertail in our site pond when I worked in FL. He lost it to a big green sunfish and his old line didn't help. I caught that fish two days later on a fluke. I could see the spinner blade sticking out of its mouth.

I caught a 3+ lb bass one time in FL that had ca 15 to 18 inches of 6# or less line trailing from its anus .