what is your strangest catch to date?

[JWsmalls]

greenghost wrote:

JWsmalls wrote:
Sturgeon on the Caney Fork in Tennessee

Now THAT is very cool. Did you catch it on a fly?

I did. It was on a rust/orange Carp Crack variant.

 

[724flyfishing]

A soft shelled turtle once while spin fishing with bait. Two legal walleyes in the middle of a junk, state stocked, trout stream. They were miles from the river it dumps into and it's not a very big or deep stream at all. Maybe 15' wide or less in places, and mostly ankle deep with a couple holes around bridges, etc. That had me a little confused.

 

[foxfire]

Once caught a smallmouth in a classic brookie stream tributary miles, and I mean miles, from where it dumps. It had to be planted, right?!?!?!?

 

[Acristickid]

Probably a toad fish.




I always thought to myself I wouldn't be surprised if I came across a body some day.

 

[puner84]

this is turning out to be a nice thread. I would love to catch a sturgeon one day, but I would never target one.

 

[puner84]

where did you catch that little guy, he is cool looking. I also feel the same every time I fish the river

 

[dryflyguy]

I've caught quite a few bats while fishing at dusk - although not lately. Can't even recall seeing any recently.

But an odd catch that really stands out for me happened while steelhead fishing on an erie trib 10 - 12 years ago now.
I got snagged. And after fiddling around with it for awhile, finally got it to break free. And when I got it in, my fly was hooked on a small stick that had at least 2 dozen flies attached to it.
An instant restocking of my fly boxes

 

[Acristickid]

Sarasota FL. I was fishing for snook off a bridge fender under some lights. Probably using a shrimp pattern. I didn't know what it was - fish idiot ID'ed it.

DFG- good one. Ha!

 

[FiveWeight]

Goosefish and a Mola Mola off of Cape Cod. An Owl one night top water fishing on a lake in New Hampshire fishing in a wooded cove during a full moon. A few bats and a sparrow or two on Pine Creek right at Cedar Run at just about nightfall. The birds are kinda fun. Its almost like fly'n a powered kite! Well the Owl did tear me up while trying to unsnare him in the boat. Oh, and a bovine #62 on a back cast at Snavely's Mill on Hammer Creek. Caught her right in the ear with my last Adams dry!

 

[PocketWater]

Trey wrote:
A chunk of what I assume to be scalp with some very coarse, curly, black hair stuck to it. Thought I was snagged throwing rattletraps off of the Cleveland shoreline for walleyes at night. Finally pulled free and that is what I reeled in.

So...you hooked a dead body?????

 

[Millsertime]

Paddlefish. I've caught lots of these on the Mighty Mo by accident. This one was actually taken legally. Snagging is legal during the season.

 

[sarce]

I also caught a toadfish once. Ate a crazy Charlie near some riprap. Was terrified of those jaws, got the fly back and used my foot to shove it off the wall back into the water.

Other strange things- a shirt and a starfish.

Yesterday a small turtle was trying to eat my foam hopper at a local pond.

 

[Trey]

PocketWater wrote:

Trey wrote:
A chunk of what I assume to be scalp with some very coarse, curly, black hair stuck to it. Thought I was snagged throwing rattletraps off of the Cleveland shoreline for walleyes at night. Finally pulled free and that is what I reeled in.

So...you hooked a dead body?????

That is what I am guessing all these years later.

 

[phiendWMD]

I caught a largemouth bass in Cold Run this summer. I thought that was pretty strange.

When I was younger I was a bit of a hooligan. I was casting at a goose one day, never expecting to actually hit it. Then I hit it. DOH. It took off and broke my 4 or 6 lb/test immediately.

 

[PocketWater]

Trey wrote:

PocketWater wrote:

Trey wrote:
A chunk of what I assume to be scalp with some very coarse, curly, black hair stuck to it. Thought I was snagged throwing rattletraps off of the Cleveland shoreline for walleyes at night. Finally pulled free and that is what I reeled in.

So...you hooked a dead body?????

That is what I am guessing all these years later.

hahaha....WOW. Did you call the cops?

 

[Trey]

No way, I was like 13 in not the best part of Cleveland at night. I got out of there ASAP.

 

[CaptainHook]

I was evening/night fishing off the fantail of a salvage and rescue ship in the Caribbean. Mostly, we were catching snapper - some days grouper. This one evening I thought I had a large grouper which turned out to be an octopus. I recall it as being very angry. We had a cook who hung out with us and would cook up our catch. He took it away and cooked it for hours. We had it for breakfast. Wasn't bad.

 

[pcray1231]

Bat - Allegheny River night fishin for walleye. "Hit" on the cast, hooked itself, drowned. When I pulled it up in the dark I thought it was a leaf and grabbed it. Ewwww.

Gull - crabbing in outer banks. No hook, just snatched my chicken neck from the shallow bay. The chicken neck was attached to a hand line. He fought hard for a while, but I didn't land him.

Heron - Tulpehocken Creek. Hooked a trout, heron grabbed the trout during the fight and tried to fly off with it. Didn't land him either. He took drag like crazy and went about 50 yards then dropped the fish. Did land the fish, though I'm not sure if it survived the ordeal or not. It had some injuries but did swim off.

Beaver - swam across my line and got tangled up. Didn't know he was there till my rod bent over, followed by him surfacing and tail slapping. Then he went under and the drag just took off. After gaining composure I grabbed the line and he snapped off quickly (it was 4 lb test on a spinning rod).

Water snake - multiple times. One of the downsides of fishin minnies like I used to do. I think I'll just cut the line....

Golden Retriever - fisherman's paradise. Oops.

My brother's hand - we were kids. Luckily had wire cutters with us.

The heron and the golden were on a fly rod, the rest spinning gear before I made the switch. I've caught plenty of toadfish, but didn't see them as abnormal. Everyone catches them in the salt from the beach or deepfishing over wrecks.

 

[wildtrout2]

This wild tiger is my strangest catch so far, because I caught it in a stream that I've only ever caught brookies in. I've never seen a brown in this stream, or herd of anyone seeing or catching one. I've fished this stream a good number of times since 2009.

 

[boychick]

A painted turtle that took a night crawler when I sued to bait fish. Other than that, I caught a rainbow in mid-June on a warm water stream near Cleveland, it was very odd to find that fish there. I also caught a small chain pickerel on a small mouth stream. I fish that stream often and have never seen or heard of chain pickerel being in there.