After fishing last weekend multiple times I thought I would start this and see what strange items people have caught. While trolling for walleye locally last weekend in which I caught 3 (16", 19 and 19.5" walleye) I hooked into something while trolling about 6 feet off bottom. The rod loaded up and after a battle I dragged a floating crankbait attached to a full rod and reel. After washing them off they definately been in the lake that long. I assume the crankbait was floating up and I hooked the line. I've caught rods jigging before but a first trolling off of bottom. Anybody else have anything strange?
Strangest catch for me was a ling when I was a kid.....about 35 years ago
Had no idea what it was at the time and the thing freaked me out......didn't want to bring it in the boat nor touch it. Though it was some kind of eel at the time.
Made my dad take it off and throw it back in the lake as fast as he could.
Not sure how many ling are caught in this lake but darn it was ugly....give me the heeebies just thinking of it ;D
A few years back, while trolling for walleye, my fishing partner landed a 2 1/2 pound walleye with a single stringer clip through its bottom jaw. The walleye was very active and healthy looking. First time in over 50 years of fishing that either of us had ever seen that.
Jay
About twenty years ago or so I was crappie fishing with one of my hand tied jigs which was tipped with a maggot. I was catching quite a few crappies and bluegills and hadn't checked my 4 lb line all day. Suddenly a bass came out of nowhere and took off with my jig. The bass never slowed down and broke me off. I would have guessed that bass was 2-3 lbs.... at least. The next day I was fishing in the same general area and the same thing happened. When I landed that 14" bass, deep inside it's mouth was a 3" piece of line still attached to my jig which I had lost the day before! That 2-3 lb. bass... at least, had somehow managed to shrink to half it's size!
Over the years, I have snagged many lures, usually while trolling. Just recently I managed to retrieve a nice buzz bait which had about 20 ft. of line wrapped around my trolling motor prop. Another time I felt my lure load up, I thought it was weeds. Those weeds turned out to be a pair of swimming trunks! Those trunks were in good shape. They had a 32" waist so.... not my size. They would get stuck, somewhere around my ankles! If you fish enough, you'll experience crazy stuff. You just never know what's instore for you when you go on your next fishing trip. Homer Circle the legendary bass guru, when asked "when is the best time to go fishing" would always reply... "When it's raining , and when it's not." He lived to be 97 and fished up until his death. We should all be so lucky. So go fishing every chance you get, and enjoy whatever you catch!
C.C.
Strangest catch for me was a snapping turtle when I was quite young camping. I fished this pool in a river every day while I was camping , once or twice a day I would hooks something huge and could never get it up but would it fight until my line broke. I thought it was a big pike or something, after burning through most of my hooks and weights and close to the end of my trip I finally got it up to the surface and it was a HUGE SNAPPING TURTLE!!
Man was I disappointed HAHA!
Lol that turtle story is awesome.
I snagged onto a dead body once when I was about 15...…
We were perch fishing at the North Bay Gov't dock the day before pickerel season was to open.
Back then, the perch season opened a couple weeks before pickerel.
3 men had robbed a Mike's Milk the previous December, they tried to escape over the lake Nipissing ice.
They went through the ice. This was confirmed by the Police dog and his handler.
So here we are fishing and I've hooked into a big one....figured it was a real big pike. Never taking any drag but real slow
to bring forward. My buddy had the net waiting for a fish to appear. It was just after dusk but enough light to see
what we were doing. All of a sudden snap.....! It got away.
The next day we went to school and raced back to "our" spot on the second wharf. Just as we were pulling up in our bicycles
the Chief Commanda was backing up out of her birth for an outing. Back then there was a boat launch adjacent to the first wharf.
As the big ship reversed out causing a backwards wash onto the boat launch, up popped this body.
We were close enough to see my pickerel rig was clearly visible stuck to the body's jacket. Some adults and a dock hand from
the Chief were shooing us back until the cops cordoned off the area.
Can you imagine if I had been successful in bringing that "fish" up the night before? I'm sure we may have quit fishing for awhile.....!
Mattie caught a smallie this year that had a crankbait fully stuck in its gullet; we were going to try and remove it but it was halfway down the chute...and he was still eating!!! I know of at least 4-5 rod/reel set-up that my group have lost over the years sitting on the bottom somewhere. There was a rod/reel set-up under our deck this year that clearly had come from the bottom of the lake; it looked haunted.
Quote from: Ozzy30 on August 13, 2019, 10:32:21 AM
Lol that turtle story is awesome.
Yup! I must have looked like a kid that woke up to find no presents under the tree at Christmas walking back to camp, because I got taken to town for an ice cream HAHAHA!
I hope I never catch a dead body like limacharley.
For me probably the weirdest is a mud puppy. Ice fishing Callandar Bay, Lake Nipising, at night in our overnight bungalow, after plenty of beers, catching that ugly slimy thing and not knowing what it is or wanting to touch it. Then, it starts walking across the floor on 4 legs.
Caught many more of them since, but at the time it sure came across as weird.
I hauled an old boot once, TG there was nothing in it. That story blows me away LC.
Quote from: Jay Thomas on August 12, 2019, 07:41:26 PM
A few years back, while trolling for walleye, my fishing partner landed a 2 1/2 pound walleye with a single stringer clip through its bottom jaw. The walleye was very active and healthy looking. First time in over 50 years of fishing that either of us had ever seen that.
Jay
Jay
If that was Kipawa, That walleye was lost from my boat
Quote from: RHYBAK on August 13, 2019, 01:33:30 PM
Quote from: Jay Thomas on August 12, 2019, 07:41:26 PMA few years back, while trolling for walleye, my fishing partner landed a 2 1/2 pound walleye with a single stringer clip through its bottom jaw. The walleye was very active and healthy looking. First time in over 50 years of fishing that either of us had ever seen that. Jay
Jay
If that was Kipawa, That walleye was lost from my boat
:) :) :)
Jay
Quote from: limacharley on August 13, 2019, 11:05:09 AM
I snagged onto a dead body once when I was about 15...…
We were perch fishing at the North Bay Gov't dock the day before pickerel season was to open.
Back then, the perch season opened a couple weeks before pickerel.
3 men had robbed a Mike's Milk the previous December, they tried to escape over the lake Nipissing ice.
They went through the ice. This was confirmed by the Police dog and his handler.
So here we are fishing and I've hooked into a big one....figured it was a real big pike. Never taking any drag but real slow
to bring forward. My buddy had the net waiting for a fish to appear. It was just after dusk but enough light to see
what we were doing. All of a sudden snap.....! It got away.
The next day we went to school and raced back to "our" spot on the second wharf. Just as we were pulling up in our bicycles
the Chief Commanda was backing up out of her birth for an outing. Back then there was a boat launch adjacent to the first wharf.
As the big ship reversed out causing a backwards wash onto the boat launch, up popped this body.
We were close enough to see my pickerel rig was clearly visible stuck to the body's jacket. Some adults and a dock hand from
the Chief were shooing us back until the cops cordoned off the area.
Can you imagine if I had been successful in bringing that "fish" up the night before? I'm sure we may have quit fishing for awhile.....!
OH MAN!!
The dead body thing is just too trippy. Glad it wasn’t me, I’m not sure how well that would’ve went as a kid.
@GregL story about the snapping turtle triggered a memory of mine as a kid also,I went fishing for northern pike and caught a snapping turtle. ;D
My family was vacationing on a beach on Cape Cod when a sudden wind took a families umbrella into the surf and it was heading to the ocean like a boat. My son who is pretty handy with a rod tossed a lure snagging the umbrella. Took about 5 minutes but he was able to drag the sucker in. NO great white but a pretty cool catch for that day.
Quote from: ziggy6 on August 13, 2019, 09:05:07 PM
My family was vacationing on a beach on Cape Cod when a sudden wind took a families umbrella into the surf and it was heading to the ocean like a boat. My son who is pretty handy with a rod tossed a lure snagging the umbrella. Took about 5 minutes but he was able to drag the sucker in. NO great white but a pretty cool catch for that day.
HAHA! Awesome, I had to do that to canoe once! :)
As kids, my friends and I used to fish Ellicott Creek in Tonawanda for carp and suckers. It was a fun way to spend a day, but on a few occasions we'd hook onto the dreaded "white carp". Seems the creek area was a popular area for couples to have sex and then toss the condoms into the creek. Yuck! Time to cut the line and retie.
C.C., I always love to read your posts. I would buy your book.
For anyone who's ever fished Alwaki, I'm sure they've encountered a pest of a Loon "I've heard, is named Larry".
Last week, my wife and I had a more unusual Larry encounter than normal. His usual is to watch and see if you are catching fish, then swim over and wait for you to throw fish back and eat them. He can down a 14" walleye in under a minute and then be looking for more. When you are not catching, he dives under the boat non-stop and can be seen on the fish finder as the Lochness swimming by. Needless to say, he is beyond a pest and not good for the fishing when dive bombing under your boat.
So, one day last week my wife has a fish on and it appears she has a monster on, peeling line like she just hooked a Marlin. She hands the pole to me, since she felt unsure how to play the apparent extra large fish she just hooked. I reduced the drag fearing a snapped line and up pops the dang Loon with her Walleye in its mouth. I Quickly tighten the drag and yank as hard as I could, which out came the Fish. I then cranked the walleye in as fast as possible and barely got it in the boat before old Lare could grab it again.
Here's where it gets better/worse, I'm unhooking the fish when I here my wife scream. I look and she is in pain shaking her hand and said old Larry bit her as she said she was "shooshing" him away with her hand. He reached up and grabbed her hand with his powerful beak, we assume, thinking she was feeding him a fish as some people in the past must be doing.
He needs to be relocated as he is one giant pest, I'm sure mostly due to people feeding him and creating the monster he has become.
Quote from: Hodgey1 on September 11, 2019, 07:30:41 AM
For anyone who's ever fished Alwaki, I'm sure they've encountered a pest of a Loon "I've heard, is named Larry".
Last week, my wife and I had a more unusual Larry encounter than normal. His usual is to watch and see if you are catching fish, then swim over and wait for you to throw fish back and eat them. He can down a 14" walleye in under a minute and then be looking for more. When you are not catching, he dives under the boat non-stop and can be seen on the fish finder as the Lochness swimming by. Needless to say, he is beyond a pest and not good for the fishing when dive bombing under your boat.
So, one day last week my wife has a fish on and it appears she has a monster on, peeling line like she just hooked a Marlin. She hands the pole to me, since she felt unsure how to play the apparent extra large fish she just hooked. I reduced the drag fearing a snapped line and up pops the dang Loon with her Walleye in its mouth. I Quickly tighten the drag and yank as hard as I could, which out came the Fish. I then cranked the walleye in as fast as possible and barely got it in the boat before old Lare could grab it again.
Here's where it gets better/worse, I'm unhooking the fish when I here my wife scream. I look and she is in pain shaking her hand and said old Larry bit her as she said she was "shooshing" him away with her hand. He reached up and grabbed her hand with his powerful beak, we assume, thinking she was feeding him a fish as some people in the past must be doing.
He needs to be relocated as he is one giant pest, I'm sure mostly due to people feeding him and creating the monster he has become.
Moral of the story is, don't wave your hand in front of the mouth of a hungry wild animal. ;D
Wow, I've never heard of a "tamed" loon. Pretty soon he'll be flying south.
So this loon keeps coming back to Alwaki year after year?
Quote from: limacharley on September 11, 2019, 10:42:41 AM
So this loon keeps coming back to Alwaki year after year?
Hey Lima, I am told his/her 8th year at Alwaki area of the lake.
Also, just to be clear to
all, my wife and I have never treated this Loon as anything other than a wild animal and have never purposefully fed it. I have even hurled my small catches as far away from the boat as I can, in an opposite direction of this beast and he still gets the fish more times than not.
YouTube video of Larry the Loon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBEf7agkMqk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBEf7agkMqk)
HA!!! Larry.... that is funny.
We actually called him Henry - and we have a similar video of him someplace - hanging around the boat and diving under the boat and swimming right up to the boat when you catch a fish and wanting it as a snack! Our interaction with him lasted about 45 minutes while jigging Sunny-side one morning.
I didn't realize he has reached celebrity status!
The legend of Larry/Henry "the loon" has begun...
I have heard him called Louie, Larry, Lawrence, Jerry, and now Henry. I have met him different times on occasion in Kelly Bay and across the lake from there. There was another loon up at Alwaki's outpost cabin this year. He was also starting to carry on like the previous mentioned criminal. Don't know if he is a relative or former cell mate or not. No name or alias other then unknown at the Post Office, poster and picture.
I know that guy up close. I have a great pic of him from about 6 years ago...I'll find it and post it. If throwing the fish back in and him getting it is feeding him, I've seen him do that many times. No way hold fish in your hand and "feed" him. Can't relocate though...they have a very good GPS of their own and they know their spot. They migrate way south in winter...Gulf of Mexico...SE coast of US. Crazy animal...so fascinating.
Not a loon, but twice I have been trolling with someone who caught a seagull. One of those occasions was on Kipawa.
Quote from: kipawa4 on September 12, 2019, 04:26:11 PM
I have heard him called Louie, Larry, Lawrence, Jerry, and now Henry. I have met him different times on occasion in Kelly Bay and across the lake from there. There was another loon up at Alwaki's outpost cabin this year. He was also starting to carry on like the previous mentioned criminal. Don't know if he is a relative or former cell mate or not. No name or alias other then unknown at the Post Office, poster and picture.
Can someone add Kelly bay to the collaborative map?
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1i0q7_FP8SmDyGalN6TGk9qZ1u8gHmX-I&ll=46.92770145972488%2C-78.91424112110366&z=11 (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1i0q7_FP8SmDyGalN6TGk9qZ1u8gHmX-I&ll=46.92770145972488%2C-78.91424112110366&z=11)
or explain where it is and I will add it.
I added it; it's between Sunnyside and Sand Banks. Label isn't appearing for some reason...maybe because it's a new add.
I also noticed some of the 3Seasons faithful have taken the time to add their common 'hot spots'. Awfully generous. :)
Quote from: T-Bone on September 16, 2019, 09:12:36 AM
I added it; it's between Sunnyside and Sand Banks. Label isn't appearing for some reason...maybe because it's a new add.
Kelly's Bay is showing up fine, thanks for adding it!
Quote from: T-Bone on September 16, 2019, 09:12:36 AM
I added it; it's between Sunnyside and Sand Banks. Label isn't appearing for some reason...maybe because it's a new add.
I also noticed some of the 3Seasons faithful have taken the time to add their common 'hot spots'. Awfully generous. :)
Yes, I was not happy seeing those posted ;D ;)
We should not be adding hot spots on the interactive map. Pretty soon the lake will be empty.
I think you will all agree that the map should only be for marking interesting places to visit (Hunter's point church, the canal etc...) or dangerous shoals.
Quote from: limacharley on September 24, 2019, 03:26:07 PM
We should not be adding hot spots on the interactive map. Pretty soon the lake will be empty.
I think you will all agree that the map should only be for marking interesting places to visit (Hunter's point church, the canal etc...) or dangerous shoals.
Thank You for posting that.
I totally agree
I definitely agree.