Strangest Thing You've Hooked Into?

[BradyS]

What's the strangest/oddest thing you've hooked fishing?

Last year while fishing Valley Creek I hooked into a yellow warbler that was flying by. Needless to say it was odd as he was flying from branch to branch. After 5-6 seconds the hook came free.

I'm sure this type of post has been discussed before but it's always good to update!

 

[salmo]

This year on Valley I actually hopped a crayfish that went almost 4 inches. Bigger than most of the fish I usually catch there.

 

[Rolf]

A cow on my back cast. FWIW I was using a black Wooly Bugger.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

Bats, a few times on Penns at dusk.

Two weeks ago, very early first hook-up during a foggy morning float on the North Branch of the Susky, fishing a weighted streamer in a faster run....a big snapping turtle! It ate the streamer. The hook was on the edge of it's mouth. I got it to the boat, but failed to get a photo (kinda bummed about that). A little slack and the hook came out. No fingers were lost.

 

[ryansheehan]

My thumb.

 

[Tigereye]

a $5 bill swinging wet flies. Didnt practice C&R on that one. Friend said i killed Abe Lincoln. Had to buy the beers that night.

 

[mote1977]

Hooked a pair of whitey tightys in Tionesta Creek once. The weren’t so white anymore though.

 

[jbo8891]

Two years ago while fishing the Lamar River in Yellowstone, I hooked a Japanese tourist with my back cast who got too close while taking pictures. Needless to say he was released unharmed.

 

[Bamboozle]

Take your pick:

…a duck
…a duckling
…a seagull
…bats
…rocks
…a Canada goose
…a bottle
…a sneaker
…a dog
…a turtle
…a fishing rod
…assorted trash
…two beers in a plastic six pack holder (this was an intentional “catch” when I saw them from a bridge)

Maybe the craziest:

…a fly I broke off in a fish AND the fish I broke it off in.

Story: I broke off a soft hackle fly on a dropper in a fish. Ten or so minutes later, I hooked another fish. After getting it close, I discovered it was the same fish I broke off earlier because I could see my tippet dangling from its mouth.

However, when I landed the stupid fish I discovered I actually snagged my broken off fly when I set the hook, not the fish. I recovered both flies and wised up a moron fish.

FWIW – the duck, duckling, bat & turtle all took the fly. The dog & the goose put up the best fight, while the beers were the most satisfying.

 

[krayfish2]

On dries:
My face
Duck
Swallow
Bat

Streamers:
My scalp
A tire
A passing vehicle

Nymphing:
My face
A Redington rain jacket that was wrapped around a rock
White plastic lawn chair that was wrapped around a rock

Caught with bare hand:
6" brown in Logan branch
19" brown trout in WB Delaware (3 witnesses)

 

[RLeep2]

A $50 (I think it was $50, I forget for sure..) promissory note between two Amishmen. It was signed in Atlantic, Pa sometime in 1985 not long before the huge tornado outbreak that May all but wiped the town off the map. I caught it on a #10 white marabou streamer in a Warren County stream 2 days after the storm. It traveled approx. 90 miles by air to get to where I caught it.

 

[sgrim]

Not exactly hooked but two years ago I was fishing a stream near a corporate park and noticed a credit card in the muck at my feet. It was a well weathered corporate Amex that had expired in 1998. I cleaned it off and was amazed to find that it bore the name of a former boss of mine. I called her up and she recalled that she once had her wallet stolen at a nearby bar. It's really weird that 20 years later I would find this thing.

 

[sarce]

Rleep and Sgrim, wow, those are crazy stories. Reminded me of something that I didn't hook, but found last year. There were some crazy floods in Central MD last year and a small stream I frequent had some large gravel deposits on the bank. I noticed some type of card sticking up from the gravel and it turned out to be a laminated business card with a calendar from 1969. I found 3 more scattered through about 100 yards of streamside gravel, with years ranging from 1965-1972.

Must have been dumped somewhere upstream long ago, and all that rain and flood water finally moved them to a new resting place.

 

[Canoetripper]

On a canoe trip on the upper Greenbrier River in West Virginia I snagged my spinner(it is easier to spin fish in a canoe) on some mono line.

While unhooking my spinner, I felt something tugging on the snagged line and pulled it in. It was a river dwelling salamander like a hellbender or mud puppy. It was about 12" in length.

 

[Maurice]

My brothers eyelid with a 4” jitterbug.

A Coleman lantern that was still lit.

A guy I fish with who habitually embellished the size of the fish he catches was waxing over this 28” brown he claimed to have caught in a local creek.

I said that’s nuthin’, once I caught a Coleman lantern that was still lit. He said yer full of it. There’s no way a lantern could stay lit under water. I said well, if you take a half a foot off that brown I’ll put the lantern out.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

My answer again:

The eyelet of a glo bug attached to some fishing line that a rainbow trout passed half way through but was still digesting.

 

[dryflyguy]

While steelhead fishing on an erie trib, I snagged my fly on something underwater.
After a good bit of yanking, I finally got it to break loose.
And reeled in a tree branch, that was just loaded with broken off flies.
Over two dozen, if I recall correctly.
Had to clear out a couple of compartments in my fly boxes to put them in

 

[purplewoolly]

DFG, sounds like vanquished the fly fishing equivalent of Charlie Brown’s kite eating tree.
Mine was a half grown duck in Quittie Park that jumped off bank and ate my beetle. It immediately started squawking and mama jumped in flailing her wings at the invisible attacker. I don’t remember if the hook came out or mamma broke the tippet but I was happy not having to unhook it in front of the family at the nearby picnic table.i

 

[atticus]

I intentionally caught a dead body as it floated past me while fishing the inlet at Ocean City Md. He had drowned three days earlier. I figured I should try to recover the body which I did.

 

[joebamboo]

Two snakes. Caught a walleye at Pymatuning. My hook caught the loop in a snelled hook that was in the walleyes mouth.