Accidental Catches

[bartdude186]

12 pound catfish on a weightless fluke, a drum with its eyes gone on a paca craw, and when i was 12 my cousin and I caught the same crappie....at the same time. He ate both baits within a couple of seconds, i'll have to dig up that pic lol.

[macmichael]

I was fishing a pond while on a pig  hunting trip in Texas. My buddy hooked a very very big large mouth. He would reel it in and then the fish would take drag. This went on back and forth for about 5 minutes. Finally when he got the fish to the bank, it was a big fish. A large mouth bass. What was so unusual is the fact that the bass had a10 to 12 inch crappie in it's mouth folded over. When Brian tried to land him, the bass just released the crappe.  Yepper.it was never hooked, just hungry.

[starcraft1]

I'm the "keeper of rods" I've caught 2, both on Clear lake. 1 while flipping tules, the other pitching a dock. The 2nd one had the brightest green line I've ever seen. Discovered it belonged to a couple of guys night fishing and fell asleep. Looked to us as 1 to many bottles of wine, they were all over the dock!

[DILLY07]

I was out fishing on the Mississippi River and flipping a baby bass senko worm into the tree laydowns.  I hooked a turtle snapper. I was like dinner time. 

[bassguytom]

I caught a commorant under water on a lipless crankbait last year. I saw him pretty far away and he swam a long way under water to hit my lure. That was kind of strange.

[flyingmonkie]

An aluminum stringer full of rotting trout. 

Aluminum folding lawn chair.

A brown pelican.

First one is a good one - that takes the cake so far.

[Djman72]

Caught a boot once. Also, a fully intact bike when I was 10 fishing with some neighborhood kids. We dried it off and one of us rode it home and used it for a year.

Huffy street racer for the win.

[Yumf2]

I was fishing with my dad once and he pulled up an ugly stick with a diawa spinning real on it. Haha I'll never forget how confused he seemed when he finally saw it

[FD.]

Plastic fish trap with 3 catfish in it on Lake Istokpoga during a tourney.

Fouled hooked in the back a 15 lb catfish in about 20 ft of water.  It took about 30 min to finally get him to the surface.

4' Longnose Gar on a rattle trap.  Got him alongside and cut the line.

[Pz3]

oh if we start talking about randomness I got plenty of that since I use to fish bottom religiously....

 

Car Tires, Bikes, Boots, Shoes, license plates, rods and reels, christmas trees, rims, speakers, chairs, condoms.... the crap in the bottom of some lakes/rivers/ocean gets rediculous sometimes.

[Janderson45]

Hmmm well I've got a few.  

 

Not original but I hooked a goose once by accident, it was in flight and seemed to dive bomb after my crankbait.  The goose took off in a fit of rage and before it could spool me I cut the line.  Still feel awful as I'm sure treble hooks and ~30 yards of fishing line made the rest of that birds life miserable.  

 

Used to catch red slider turtles on night crawlers all the time when I was younger, unfortunately I gut hooked my fair share as I was a young kid bobber fishing and didn't know any better.  Also caught a snapper or two in my time.  

 

Again not really unique, but just about every time I catch a catfish I'm pretty shocked.  I've never targeted them and only caught a handful in my life (I don't think they're that plentiful around here).  Needless to say I hesitate to touch them every time I hook one just because of an irrational fear that some spikes are going to come flying out and impale my unsuspecting hand.  

 

Weirdest one I've got was a river rat or muskrat.  Hooked it in the side I presume as I was ripping a lipless crank through some weeds.... didn't land the "rat" but had him hooked for about 30 seconds and I have never seen such a commotion on the water.  That thing had to have scared off every fish within a 500 yard radius with the way it was thrashing and flopping around on the surface of the water.  Got my crank back though! 

[Tuckahoe Joe]

Hooked a beaver on my hula popper.  Made the cast and then this beaver pops up right between me and the lure and starts swimming toward my line resting on the water.  He swims into it, keeps going, and pulls the popper into the side of his neck.  Fought him for about 3 minutes and was about to cut the line but by the time I got to my knife he had gotten himself off.  Made me happy that I didn't have to lose my lure but felt pretty bad for the beaver cuz I'm sure that the trebles hurt like hell.

 

I also recall a time when I was probably no more than 8 or 9 years old.  I was crabbing with my dad.  We had a 1000 foot trout line with chicken necks tied ever 3 feet or so.  My dad was dipping and all of a sudden up comes this snapping turtle on one of the chicken necks.  So my dad just takes the dip net and flips it into the boat.  The shell on this thing was the same diameter of our bushel baskets.  Seen bigger turtles since then but for an 8 year old kid, that thing was huge.

[rippin-lips]

A beaver while catfishing at night. Was casted out in front of a culvert that ran under the road to the other side of the reservior. I guess he swam through and got tangled/hooked. I thought I had the fish of a lifetime on. Once I got it reeled up and saw what it was, I just opened my bail and cut the line.

[flyingmonkie]

Plastic fish trap with 3 catfish in it on Lake Istokpoga during a tourney.

Fouled hooked in the back a 15 lb catfish in about 20 ft of water.  It took about 30 min to finally get him to the surface.

4' Longnose Gar on a rattle trap.  Got him alongside and cut the line.

 

Were the catfish still alive???

[mnbassman23]

Up here it's somewhat normal but I've caught numerous muskies, bowfin, snapping turtles, and walleyes.  

 

The only "odd" catch i've seen was a pelican. My buddy and I were fishing for bass from shore around a dam and this hillbilly looking guy comes by us and starts casting a daredevil. He hooks a pelican (on the leg) and starts mumbling cuss words or something of that nature. The bird is trying to fly away and he is pulling like a mofo with his drag screaming out. I felt bad for the bird but given the situation my buddy and I were cracking up. Then he proceeds to say, "Ima gonna pull him ta shore and one of you two unhook em, that ther's my lucky daredevil." I told him he was F'in nuts if he thinks i'm grabbing that pelican and he can get his own daredevil. Eventually his line broke and he left shortly afterwards. 

[SirSnookalot]

I've had many unusual and accidental catches, from trumpet fish to snagging a manatee and a manta ray, but 1 stands out for me above all others.  I caught permit from shore in a place where there are no permit, caught it on a bucktail, crabs are the usual bait for them.  I had to run this fish down on foot nearly 300 yds (I paced it off later) to avoid being spooled, and it wasn't a big one either.  This fish is in my all time top 10 list of favorites, there is just nothing like a permit that I have ever caught.

[Bluebasser86]

I watched this pig T bone my S waver last summer.

I've caught catfish on everything imaginable, including buzzbaits, hollow body frog, jerkbaits, cranks, traps, every kind of plastic and jigs, even flyfishing. By far my most memorable would be one I caught with my dad last year fishing for walleye with a Gulp minnow on a jighead. It wasn't the bait it ate, it was the coloration of the fish. It's actually a blue cat, even though it would be tough to tell in the picture. 

This one on a jig is a close second.

Hopping a jigging spoon, they aren't even supposed to be where I was at!

This little gal slammed my A rig I was heaving on Beaver Lake last spring.

A dinosaur that slammed a 6" Mattlures trout, really thought I had a state record largemouth until it jumped.

A Milford Lake, KS Goldeye. They look like a little tarpon with teeth!

[Wbeadlescomb]

There's some fine eating in that picture even the gar

[Bluebasser86]

There's some fine eating in that picture even the gar

Every single one was returned immediately after their photo shoots, even the gar   The baby paddlefish was well short of the legal length limit and way out of season as well.

[deadadrift89]

Hungup on someones fishing line went over and started to cut it then noticed a rod reel(KVD and Berkley Lighting)on other end. Took it home cleaned up reel and one of the best i got now. Rod going to trade-in at BPS friday.

Worse thing i ever caught was a goose. Threw lure out and line got pushed over by wind right on top of it. NEVER will i cast anywhere near another bird!!!

[iabass8]

I caught a beaver in a pad field. it must have been hiding on the backside of a log because I didn't even see it until it went all superman on my frog. I did not win that battle.

[Jay Ell Gee]

I was bank fishing one afternoon after college classes and while tossing a grass pig on a swimbait hook down the shorelines, the lure came to a screeching halt.

 

I swung for the fences but my lure only barely moved. I was certain that something big (catfish, turtle) had clamped down on it, so I locked down my drag and started wrenching on it. It felt like something came "unstuck" and I drug a dead weight all the way back to shore.

 

I had to use my pliers to get my hook back. Crazy thing is, it was a 4/0 Gammy keel weighted hook, very heavy gauge, and it was still ruined.

 

Can you imagine the reflexes a mussel must have to clamp down on a bait like this?

 

[z7master167]

I was striper fishing at the locks one day and i was using a drop shot and i got hung up. Well i was pullin and my buddy asked "hey what you got?" And i said the plug. Well it came loose and i still had something and when i pulled it in i swear i had a bathroom sink plug on my line, i had it hooked in the ring perfectly.

Wouldnt have believed it if it had not happened to me..

[Basswhippa]

I was on a pier in Panama City Beach and hung into a wonderful Spanish mackerel.  All of the sudden a I had the ultimate topwater hit..   As I was reeling it, a dolphin came up and grabbed it running about 20 mph. LOL.   In order to not have my 5500C3 full of 10 pound line spooled, I just held my thumb on the spool so the line would break immediately.   I didn't want 300 pounds of mono floating in the ocean.  The dolphin knew what he/she was doing I am sure.  They are very smart.   Picked around my "gotcha plug" and had itself a good breakfast.

[Munkin]

Just about every freshwater fish in the state but I don't count those as unusual.

Objects:

Volleyball net, about 4 rods, buzzbait, metal stringer with a small dead channel cat, shopping cart, bike, and my favorite a 3 section folding lawn chair that I thought was the state record.

Living things:

Fishing the Big Piney in MO I caught a painted water snake on a gulp worm. Hooked a beaver on a crankbait and it was not happy at all! Luckily the bait came free after a minute or two. Snapping turtles while pitching creature baits, they are a pain to unhook. Craziest was an owl that swopped down and grabbed a jitterbug while night fishing a small pond.

Allen