Your most unexpected catch?

[Swift]

Was fishing for Perch in 40' of water and doing rather well when I thought I'd hooked the mother of them all. Ended up being a 18" Bullhead, a couple more good Perch and 15 minutes later a 15" Rock Bass came up the hole. Anybody have anything similar? It was fun on a 1.8lb test tippet.

[TroutFishingBear]

well, this was before we knew how active catfish are here through the ice. We had tipups set out for northerns with 5-6" dead baits. We had a flag and in came a catfish. Had another flag and in came another catfish. Another flag, another catfish... you get the picture.

Also, I was jigging for lakers in 40 fow near an underwater hump. I saw a fish on the bottom and assumed it was a laker. I was surprised when I felt a fairly hard hit. The fish was fighting well too. I brought it up and it was about a 2lb. rainbow trout... go figure

[majormaj]

Everytime I catch a bullhead through the ice is unexpected to me!

[icy mike]

I once had a 4 inch water bettle set off a tip up.  It must have been swimming through the water and ran into the line- it did not hit the bait.  Big Ugly Thing .

Icy Mike

[Blaine]

Got a 12" mud puppy once... I damned near cut the line

[camo_fish]

Got a 12" mud puppy once... I d**ned near cut the line

those are pretty  I cut the line the first time I got one catfishing, and that one was over 12". Took a picture of it and showed people to confirm what it was. 

[NAD42]

a jigged bullhead out of Carter's pond a few years ago.

[hali-man]

I once had a 4 inch water bettle set off a tip up.  It must have been swimming through the water and ran into the line- it did not hit the bait.  Big Ugly Thing .

1. What the hell is a water bettle?
2. If it only hit your line, how did you see it?
3. How big and ugly can a 4" water bettle be?

[bigfish57]

darn ugly and they will bite the hell out of you too!



http://www.eduwebs.org/bugs/giant_water_bug.htm

[icy mike]

Thanks for the pic BP.  Please excuse my previous typo-  I meant to type water beetle.

Icy Mike

[bigredonice]

i caught a 25" laker fishing in 5' of water, about a mile from the nearest water deeper than 10'.  Fishing with a spoon for perch, all of the sudden my vex lights up and fish on!  Was sure it was pike till i fandangled it out of the 4" hole i was using.  Funny thing is, instead of hitting my spoon, he hit my size 16 jig 6" up the line.

By the way, those water beetles REALLY HURT bad when they bite...way worse than a  big helgrammite