Unexpected catch

[Kevin23]

My father caught a swim fin once while trolling for walleyes with bottom bouncers. Funny thing was we thought it was a fish because of the flutter motion it made in the water. I was ready with the net in my hand when it broke the surface. Then I laughed my bum off. I have a picture of it on the other computer.

[sperrin]

The past 3 times i've been out in my shack fishing this little muskrat has popped up a couple of mu holes, just looks arround and goes back down. It scared the hell outta me the first time I was sitting there and this thing starts walking outta the hole. I imagine he has a den near by and comes to visit when he hears noise... haha

Stevo

[geothefisher]

A buddy of mine is really tight with his money.  We were out fishing one evening, trolling in the river, when his rod doubles over.  It took about 2 seconds to realize it was a snag, so I reel up my line and he turns the boat around.  We get back to where the snag is and he can't get it loose.  I told him to cut the line.  He said there was no way he was going to cut the line and lose a $3 lure. (Did I mention that he is CHEAP?)  Next thing I know he is stripping down to his BVD's and dives in.  He comes back up and tells me anchor the boat, his lure is snagged on an OUTBOARD MOTOR!  We ended up salvaging a nice little 6hp Merc!  Oddest thing I have ever seen caught while fishing.

[bigtreeman]

We were out along the Mohawk River in NY when we were kids, not catching much of anything. My younger sister, who was probably about 5 at the time and who is using MY pole and reel, gets bored and sets it down against a concrete wall of a water intake for the water fitration plant, and walks away. The bait is still in the water hanging straight down the wall. I'm on the other side of the intake when I hear the drag on the real just a screaming. I looked just in time to see the rod and reel launch itself into the river and disappear like a torpedo, never to be seen again.  We still tease her about the one that got away Would have liked to have seen what it was because it was moving when it left

[xeon]

I have a good one. Me and my buddy were tossing spoons for salmon, and there were a few seagulls flying by and he tells me specifically "Whatever you do, DO NOT cast at the seaguls", what do you know, 5 seconds later he casts out and this rogue seagul swoops by gets the spoon stuck on its wing. So we were both laughing so hard first of all at how he just told me not to do it. So while hes trying to bring it in, the seagull starts squacking a bit, then out of nowhere, atleast 300 seagulls start circling above as and all start screaming as if someone had just thrown some fries out into the parking lot of mcdonalds. There were so many they were actually blacking out the sun, it was absolutly INSANE! Then something hilarious happend. The gull that was hooked flew up on the bank, broke the line off with its beak, then grabbed the spoon, pulled it out of its own wing and set it on the rock and flew off. Its by far the absolute craziest fishing story I have.

[andercee]

I saw a water beetle come up the hole and back down one time.  I thought that was pretty weird.  I wouldn't know what I would do if I saw a muskrat or worse a beaver come up the hole.  I have heard stories about people having small dogs come up the hole after they fell in at a neighboring fish house.  Probably urban legends though.

[bearbgone]

Last year me and a buddy were fishing in a shack and I got a hold of a monster Slab crappie. I got him to the top of the hole and he came off! I dove to the floor and got wet damn near to my shoulder trying to get him. I said to my buddy that thing had to be 17"! We were having a few beers but it looked that big. About 40 seconds later my buddy nonchalantly says: "hand me the ice scoop" He takes the scoop and flips a big crappie out of his hole. That was my crappie! We laughed are - you know whats off. needless to say the crappie was only 14" but it looked bigger in my hole!?   We were about six feet away from each other.

[RickWakeman]

I have had seagulls pick up dead shiners that were still attached to my pole. The get up about 30 feet then they would drop it.

[lawsonsfishers]

Bearbgone the same thing happened to my dad, but we had a good size lake trout on instead of a crappie. It was the first week of ice fishing on Lake George for us and we had never caught a laker before. The lake trout was being reeled in on a light action pole with 4 pound test on it. We had him hooked on a marmooska jig in about 10'-15' of water because we were after some big Lake George perch.This laketrout must have been big because it was having trouble fitting its girth through an 8 inch hole. The story ends with my dad pulling the lakers head through the hole, with the pole only to have him pop off and shoot back down. While this is happening he throws his body on the ground lunging his arm in after it. He grabbed it, but could not pull it up and it wiggled its way free. It was disappointing, but now we laugh about his frozen arm for the rest of the trip.

[Howie Ketchdem]

Not really an unexpected catch but couldn't resist telling the story.  Last winter I had a large musky come through.  First jig pole I had him snap the line no problem, then goes after the second! Snaps that one, then he must've made a B line straight at my tip up cause that flag went up about 3 mins later.  I ran over to it, went to set the hook and snapped that too which I had set up for walleye.  Every time I tell that story no one believes me but what can you do.  I think I might have given him some pay back this fall when I pulled in a 46" in the same area.  Looks like another 4 weeks and we'll be walking on water here in in northern Wisconsin! 

 I believe it, my buddy and i fishing a local river and some other guys was there fishing aswell. the other guy hooked a nice pike on a fire tiger husky jerk,(soft water) it broke him off instantly my buddy threw a buck tail imediatly after it broke him off, and that pike hit they spinner my buddy landed it and returned the rapala to the guy! the dude could not believe it!

[LastCast69]

some good stories guys! made me laugh.

so last summer me and a buddy were in lake placid fishing for the "lakers" that may or may not exist in there. were fishinabout 90-120' down on a rigger. rod pops out and theres some good weight at the end. play it up real easy and lo and behold its an old soda can! some brand i didnt even recognize, looked real old. and thats was all that was caugth in lake placid. luckily we found some good small ponds for that adk trout experience...

[icefisherman10990]

here there pretty funny

[rikrad1]

I catfish all summer at night in cattaraugus creek. One night with my son my reel goes nuts and I can not bring in what it is. My kid is laughing at me because the flashlight shows a small tree branch. I tell him a tree branch doesn't go upstream. It was a huge beaver. after about 45 minutes fighting this thing I get it to shore. He must of swam into my line. My kid was 22 and in the marines he ran away when I asked him to unhook it. I found a good size stick and he held it down while i unhooked him with pliers. Then the thing sits there for about a half hour before he swam away. the next night a beaver swims right in front of us and sits about 30 feet upstream while it pulls willow branches down and eats, it was not afraid of us. I have hooked a seagull,ducks and a goose so far fishing. all set free without harm.

[Fish-N-Chicks]

Great Story LOL

[TheDL]

My prize catch happened about 8 years ago.I do alot of pike fishing from shore casting smelt and a float works graet around here for big spring pike.After a few hours of non-action and boredom I guess I got a little too comfy in my lawn chair and nodded off.I woke up to the sound of my rod clicking in the rocks and searched the water for my float.YES float is gone...FISH ON!!!   At the exact time i realized my float was gone I watched as my rod took flight.The bobber wasnt down...it was in the air!!!!!! A big ol pelican called my smelt lunch and was flying away.Like a dumbazz I grabbed the rod because i didnt want to lose it and ended up setting the hook in his yap.The fight of my life occured and I managed to get spooled in about 8 seconds before he broke the line.I saved the rod but I dont sleep fishing anymore!!!

that's high-larious.  A buddy of mine did the same thing with a seagull once...wish I could've seen it

[TheDL]

Not an ice fishing story, but a rare occurance for any fishing:

After a fairly slow morning of bass fishing on Dog lake in Kingston, I finally hooked into an average smallie (probably 1-2 lbs) on a crank bait I had let troll out a good 100ft from the boat.  As this was a good fight, and a slow day - I was taking my time bringing him in.  Had him about 30 ft from the boat when the craziest thing happaned - all in about 1.5 seconds - the smallie jumps, throws the hooks and swims away!  The crank bait had barely touched back down the surface of the water when a much bigger small mouth bass hammered the lure!!!  Everyone in the boat was floored, nobody had ever seen that before!  I brought him in, about 4lbs - personal best smallie for me - couldn't believe it! 

[MelroseHawkins]

I'll bet no one has caught a tampon  , yep I sure did, only on the mighty Mississippi. That was the laugh of the day.

Don't tell me it was good in the frying pan!   

[TheDL]

.

[fowl_language]

caught these unexpectedly.

Rhinoceros auklet with a salmon spoon in the strait of jaun de fuca, he was not happy at all. Same trip caught a harbor seal pretty sure it was an accidental snag though they're pretty good at missing lines.
Caught a pacific octopus out there once too, it was funny how fast 4 fisherman will argue about who's getting the spoon back.
Mottled sculpin smaller than my 1/4 oz ball jig somehow through both eyes perfectly at banks lake Washington, tossed him back out for walleye.
Myself...more than i'd like to admit.

Unfortunately non were through the ice though haven't hooked anything unexpected there yet.

[maddogg]

I'll bet no one has caught a tampon  , yep I sure did, only on the mighty Mississippi. That was the laugh of the day.

I bet the Mermaid was more surprised than you were.

[IFF]

I make "Rat" wake baits, decided to take one over to the State Park Reservoir right after ice off and see how it preformed,  Put it on my bait caster rod and seeing how it was pretty heavy had give it a fling, and it went out about a good 100 feet.  As I was reeling it in, admiring its wobble, out of the corner of my eye I see a cormorant making a bee-line right at it. I stopped the retrieve, and the cormorant dives about 10 feet behind it.  I'm thinking oh no it thinks its a live rat, and give it a swing for the sky jerk to get it away from that area.....to late just as I tried, it struck it from under the water.  Needless to say it goes air-born and stripping line like crazy.  Its now flying in circles about 150 feet up.  I gain a little line, and it takes more off the drag.  This goes on for what seemed like 5 minutes.  Along comes a park ranger, walks right up to me and says I cant fly, my toy there and would have to take it to the "Model Air Park".  Dumb founded, I am now just staring at him, he turns and as he is leaving, says you've got 5 minutes or I will have to write you up.....no sooner that he says that, the hook breaks, and away flies the cormorant.  Sure wish I had that on a video LOL.

[WalleyeAdventurer]

Funny stuff for sure.  I've caught at least 3 small minnow sized sculpins on big hooks fishing for catfish and walleye before.  But my funniest story came in the middle of a huge Pink Salmon run at my local town.  The Pink Salmon were running like crazy and I was catching tons on a Kastmaster I had painted with pink glitter nail polish.  One day while I was fishing for Pinks, a family sets up near me and starts fishing.  They all have normal fishing poles except for a little 9 year old girl who has a Walmart barbie pole with a pink Swedish Pimple on.  After about 10 minutes the little girl hooks into a 2.50 lber and flings it up onto the balcony which is about 10 feet above the river.  She does it no sweat and doesn't even start freaking out about her catch.  My jaw just drops and I'm like DANG!  You'd have to see it to believe it 

[pb]

Years ago, I was out fishing with my nephew, who was about 11 at the time.  He was casting with a lot of line hanging off the rod and I warned him that he was going to snag me or himself if he wasn't careful.  I turn away to fish and after I hear him cast a couple of times from the bow of the boat, then there is silence.  I turn to look and see him with his back to me, looking down at his lap.  I asked what was wrong and he turned around with a look of fear and panic on his face and whispers,

"I think I hooked my vagina."

I asked him to repeat himself and he said (seriously) he might have hooked his vagina.  I explained that boys do not have vaginas while I pulled the hook out of the leg of his shorts (he missed his vagina) while trying not to laugh. 

[Reinert]

Years ago, I was out fishing with my nephew, who was about 11 at the time.  He was casting with a lot of line hanging off the rod and I warned him that he was going to snag me or himself if he wasn't careful.  I turn away to fish and after I hear him cast a couple of times from the bow of the boat, then there is silence.  I turn to look and see him with his back to me, looking down at his lap.  I asked what was wrong and he turned around with a look of fear and panic on his face and whispers,

"I think I hooked my vagina."

I asked him to repeat himself and he said (seriously) he might have hooked his vagina.  I explained that boys do not have vaginas while I pulled the hook out of the leg of his shorts (he missed his vagina) while trying not to laugh.

lmao!!!!