Weird Catches

[Ozzy30]

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?

[Fly Eagles Fly]

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

[Jay Thomas]

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

[CaptainCrappie]

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.

[GregL]

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!

[Ozzy30]

Lol that turtle story is awesome. 

[limacharley]

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.....!

[T-Bone]

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.

[GregL]

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!

[RoK]

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.

[puckster_guy]

I hauled an old boot once, TG there was nothing in it. That story blows me away LC.

[RHYBAK]

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

[Jay Thomas]

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

Jay

[GregL]

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!!

[Hodgey1]

 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.