Anyone have stories on finding something in the lake while ice fishing?

[Raquettedacker]

A few years ago on an ice out spring fishing /camping trip we found 3 brand new sleds in 8 ft of water..We decided to pull one out.. Hooked an anchor on a ski and towed it with the boat close to shore...  Threw the rope to shore and pulled it up.. Not knowing what to do we left it on the bank and when I got home I made several calls to find out if I could claim it...  DEC said we could be fined for moving it, which would make gas and oil come out...  State Police said we could be arrested if it was reported stolen..
We have actually found five in the past several years...
Here is the one we pulled out...  Brand new Yamaha Nitro....   Registered to  someone in New Jersey....

[legend]

not on ice but, as a young lad in vermont my dad and i were out trolling for lake trout, one of us hooked onto something that turned in to a very old laker rod wood handle and all...huge reel and leadcore line, on the end of the line  was a big rapula. it got hooked in the top eyelet of the rod (1/8th of an inch right or left would have missed) later that day i tied on that rapula lure and it snagged some weeds and came up to the surface....a sea gull dove on it and got hooked, as i was trying to reel it in we were going past a ritzy resort and people were yelling at me to leave the birds alone.

[A man called horse]

Antero res. Tournament, many moons ago. A small town on the ice. Watched three generations with their holes within ten feet of open water near the dam. Kid was watching everything but his pole . Swoop, taken by a big rainbow. Water was clear and you could watch down the hole as the bow swam in the direction of the open water.
Gramps made a glory cast w/ a snagging hook I had. Sure enough snagged the kids line. Retrieved the pole, played the trout. Watched it flop out and onto the ice, and back into the water cutting off the line . That fish would have won the tourney.
Jim

[Luckydog]

Several years ago I snagged an ice fishing rod & reel while working the weeds with a small spoon.  It had been on the bottom for quite a while but I cleaned it up and the reel works just fine.

[POk3s]

Since we’re sharing open water stories I have one.

Trolling for Kokanee with a couple buddies and we have a fish bite. Fought him up to the boat where he made one last run and my buddy had his drag too tight. Snapped him off.

We make a loop, head back through the same location and another fish hits. My other buddy grabs the rod. He’s not sure if he has it or not and when everything gets reeled in, there’s no fish on the end of the line, but on the hook is all the gear we just lost. I just grabbed it, looked at everybody, and we all started laughing.

[Fontona19]

Since we’re sharing open water stories I have one.

Trolling for Kokanee with a couple buddies and we have a fish bite. Fought him up to the boat where he made one last run and my buddy had his drag too tight. Snapped him off.

We make a loop, head back through the same location and another fish hits. My other buddy grabs the rod. He’s not sure if he has it or not and when everything gets reeled in, there’s no fish on the end of the line, but on the hook is all the gear we just lost. I just grabbed it, looked at everybody, and we all started laughing.

I guess that type of thing happens more than we would think. We were fishing Lake Ontario and had a decent Brown on got him to the boat a couple of times ended up getting caught in the downrigger line and snapped us off. A few hours later, and a couple of miles away we hook a fish bring it to the boat the fish has fishing line wrapped in the Lure that's hanging out of his mouth. We pull the fish on board and realize that there's something on the other end of the line that was hanging from the lure. We pull it in and it's another brown trout. We throw it in the boat and realize that has all of our gear hanging out of its mouth and it was the fish that we broke off hours earlier. Insane!

[Chute82]

Was station at Fort Bragg while in the army, when not in the field my best buddy and I would crappie fish every night with cane poles.  One night my float went under and when I lifted up the pole thinking it was a nice crappie, a 4 ft water moccasin ate my minnow.  I beat the snake off every rock and tree before I cut my line. 

[32footsteps]

Caught a dead striper

It’s really too bad that the autocorrect gremlins didn’t jump on this. That would’ve been fan freaking tastic.

Found my brother’s wife...or should I say...she found us. She wasn’t happy at all.

[MinnesotaPike]

I caught one of those telescoping Shakespeare rod combos open water trolling once. Another time I was looking for a spot to ice fish and I saw some trash in an old wheelhouse footprint so I went to go pick it up and when I got closer I saw one of the items they had left behind was a full bottle of Fireball. It was probably the worst booze I've ever had but it was free I guess.

[joefishmore]

Never found much good but somebody found a fishfinder of mine that fell off my sled and last year in North Windham some body picked up a brand new snowmobile spare tire that fell of f the truck

[musky-man]

i havnt found anything too crazy. left over dead suckers that i immediately put a hook and throw down the hole for pike. couple scoops left on the ice. best find would be some ones tip up that they had skipped over while picking up. it was frozen in pretty good and no name on it so i played finders keepers lol

[Jiggerdoodle]

I' m a scavenger and love lots of snow.   Find lots of lures that get dropped in deep snow and some don't get found.  When the thaw starts and the ice becomes bare I head for the spots that have been hot.  Last year found a Garmin hand held gps.  Lots and lots of lures.  Best haul was a small paper bag full of ice flies.  20 brand new flies that never saw the water. 

[Noon]

best find would be some ones tip up that they had skipped over while picking up. it was frozen in pretty good and no name on it so i played finders keepers lol

I say that is more of a payment for cleaning up after other fishermen as compared to finders keepers haha

[topwop]

While ice fishinng I hooked and brought in my friend's combo a laker took in the week before on a jigging rap. 25yrs ago I was float fishing for steelhead and brought in a zippo I had hooked by the  wick guard. Still use that lighter.

[fishonthebrain]

I wasn't ice fishing, but snagged a metal ice scope one summer while fishing from my boat.

[yakfishbill]

caught an unopened can of mystery beer and drank it

[bullpine]

My wife caught some loose line while boat fishing and i pulled in the mess.  attached was a bottom bouncer with a 18 inch walleye that was half way down a 6 pound burbot.  the burbot was good but walleye had been stuck that way awhile.  put mr. burbot out of his misery.

[Mancaveburnett]

Last year I was fishing and I was jigging hard off the bottom. I was in about 25' of water with a jigging rap. I felt something and reeled up a pair of scissors. Then I realized those scissors where mine that I accidentally left on my leg with, out putting them away, and they slid off me into the hole. Whats the odds I would snag into them lol.

[Noon]

Last year I was fishing and I was jigging hard off the bottom. I was in about 25' of water with a jigging rap. I felt something and reeled up a pair of scissors. Then I realized those scissors where mine that I accidentally left on my leg with, out putting them away, and they slid off me into the hole. Whats the odds I would snag into them lol.

Haha that would have to be so confusing when you first saw them

[SHUBA]

Last year I was fishing and I was jigging hard off the bottom. I was in about 25' of water with a jigging rap. I felt something and reeled up a pair of scissors. Then I realized those scissors where mine that I accidentally left on my leg with, out putting them away, and they slid off me into the hole. Whats the odds I would snag into them lol.



last year while setting up in 35ft of water i dropped my glasses down the hole, i was quite miserable due to
the fact i could not see my vex or tie on new lure very well . After calling the wife and figuring the couple hundred bucks for
new ones into the budget , a couple hours had past and i tied on a sonar to call in the eyes well on the very first drop,
when the lure hit bottom i felt someting on ,reeled in slowly only to realize i caught my glasses,,,,,

  WAS MY BEST CATCH OF THE YEAR  LOL

[PoleJerker]

caught an unopened can of mystery beer and drank it

Good and cold so it had to taste good.

[hays47]

While night fishing for crappie on Lake Erie. My friend hooked something that was no crappie. In the excitement I knocked my brand new Coleman lantern into the water. We had to use friends lantern to finish that trip.Plus whatever was hooked by friend broke the line.

Three years  later while ice fishing the same area for walleyes. I hooked on to something . It had a little weight to it. But certainly no fight as when a fish is hooked. As I gently lifted thru the 10 inch hole. Lo and behold there was my lantern. Believe or not it was still LIT.

If some of you will amend your stories. I promise to turn the Coleman off

[Noon]

While night fishing for crappie on Lake Erie. My friend hooked something that was no crappie. In the excitement I knocked my brand new Coleman lantern into the water. We had to use friends lantern to finish that trip.Plus whatever was hooked by friend broke the line.

Three years  later while ice fishing the same area for walleyes. I hooked on to something . It had a little weight to it. But certainly no fight as when a fish is hooked. As I gently lifted thru the 10 inch hole. Lo and behold there was my lantern. Believe or not it was still LIT.

If some of you will amend your stories. I promise to turn the Coleman off

I feel like this story is the foundation for a new cult/religious group.

[POk3s]

I guess that type of thing happens more than we would think. We were fishing Lake Ontario and had a decent Brown on got him to the boat a couple of times ended up getting caught in the downrigger line and snapped us off. A few hours later, and a couple of miles away we hook a fish bring it to the boat the fish has fishing line wrapped in the Lure that's hanging out of his mouth. We pull the fish on board and realize that there's something on the other end of the line that was hanging from the lure. We pull it in and it's another brown trout. We throw it in the boat and realize that has all of our gear hanging out of its mouth and it was the fish that we broke off hours earlier. Insane!

Something to be said about fish that are in the mood to bite I guess!

[cwangell]

It wasn't while I was ice fishing, but the first power auger I ever had I found on the side of the highway.
It was an old strikemaster magnum 3 and after bending the flutes back into shape a bit and sharpening the blade it was good to go.
I used it for 10 or 11 years before it finally died on me. never changed a plug or did anything other than regular sharpening the entire time I had it.