Tell Us The Odd, Strange, Or Weird Way You Have Landed A Bass

[T-Rick]

As a new(er) angler and someone who is in their first season of using a baitcaster, I've twice landed a bass this year while clearing out a backlash (birds nest, professional/non-professional overrun).  I couldn't believe it but two times now I have landed a fish while cleaning up my mess.  I was fishing with a senko on both occasions and my lesson learned is to slow down while fishing.

 

So, my question is:  Share with us the odd, weird, or strange ways you have landed a bass.

 

-T-Rick

[Slade House]

3 weeks ago I was fishing this concrete rebar / sunken log spot for an hour. I thought I had gotten hung up so I yanked it to confirm , only to feel a fish instead. Reeled in my catch to see that I had hooked a 4-2 through its back by its dorsal fin. I was suprised and also kind of mad like "wait you have been down there this whole time and you didn't bite?!"

[Catch and Grease]

One night while it was pitch black outside I backlashed my bantam 100 so I cut the line and was just gonna grab another reel, while I was pulling in the line from the water I hooked a bass with my paddletail worm and drug him in with my hands... Good one too! Probably like 2lbs

[Felix77]

I don't know how strange this was for anyone but it was a shock to me.

 

I was fishing the Mohawk River when I was struck hard by a 2+lb SMB.  It fought me all the way to the boat.  I swung it in and grabbed it.  As soon as I grabbed it her mouth opened and the tube was nowhere near hooking her.  She was holding it by the lead part with zero hook in her.  I mean it came out straight as an arrow.

 

My boater was witness to it and the both of us could not believe how strong they held on to the bait.

 

Lucky to even get her in.  LOL

[ChrisAW]

The bass in my avatar ran under the boat while I was reaching for the net, I wasnt paying attention and she ended up pinning my rod against the side of the boat and it ended up snapping. Well after it broke, I was going to handline the fish in, but she surfaced on the other side of the boat. So still holding the rod on one side, I netted her on the other. I just sat there for a moment in shock that I actually got her, as both the people I had with me were just staring at me as well. It was quite the experience.

[Coherence]

I skipped a horny toad off the water to hard once and it bounced up over a low lying tree limb and back into the water, as I was trying to get the frog unhooked from the limb a bass came and obliterated the frog that was hanging about 3 inches out of the water. Fish was kind enough to break the branch for me when it fell back into the water and started to swim away so I was able to reel him in afterwards. 

[Catch and Grease]

I skipped a horny toad off the water to hard once and it bounced up over a low lying tree limb and back into the water, as I was trying to get the frog unhooked from the limb a bass came and obliterated the frog that was hanging about 3 inches out of the water. Fish was kind enough to break the branch for me when it fell back into the water and started to swim away so I was able to reel him in afterwards.

This has happened to me alot, if I throw my bait over a branch on the very edge I'll make sure to dunk it in the water a couple times haha

[BiteFiend]

On occasion I end up setting the hook too hard when I'm flipping and pitching and fish become airborn in skinny water. This past spring I was pitching bluegill beds that were about 2 feet deep and a bass hit my jig pretty close to the boat. I felt a bite, set the hook, and next thing I know I have this dink bass flying at me and I caught it one handed against my stomach. I was pretty proud of my reflexes but I should probably calm down on my hook sets.

[J Francho]

I think my favorite is when I set the hook, fish jumps, and gets caught in a tree. Game over.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

2 lb bass on 8" muskie bait w/ wire leader. He choked it too.

[Jason Short]

I once caught a bass.

[richg99]

OK...I know many will NOT believe this story..but it is true.

About ten years ago, I bought a Glow in the dark She Dog. We use them often when fishing salt water flats.

I have access to an 8 acre lake. It is full of one and two pound LM Texas bass. These bass are underfed and dumb. They bite easily.

I threw the large She Dog 12 times. I caught 13 small bass. Yep, the last cast hooked a double. I stopped fishing to tell my wife the story.

I NEVER caught another fish on that lure.

OK, you don't have to believe it..but it did happen

richg99

[Josh Smith]

I was kinda' proud of myself.  I recently read Tom Mann's Think Like a Fish.

 

In it, he described how he got bass to jump into his boat.

 

This last fishing trip I went on, I was fishing some heavy tree cover from the bank.  A largish bass blew up my Jelly Worm and began to dive under a fallen limb.

 

I didn't have time to play it out, so I got it to turn and using that technique, got it to jump onto shore.  It was really pretty cool.

 

It's not a method to be relied upon and Mann never used it for more than a stunt on his show from what I gather, but in the case of this last bass, it worked.

 

Regards,

 

Josh

[Driftb]

Not a bass, but a trout story.  I hope that is OK.  I was rowing, and My friend Tom was casting a fly to a trout. The fish took the fly and jumped twice, then ran straight downstream.  The fish was ripping line off Tom's reel as it went.  I saw it jump again as it continued downstream, this time maybe fifty feet out.  Tom's rod was bent double and it didn't look like he was going to stop the fish from running out his backing, with his light leader.  All of the sudden, I saw a nice  rainbow all of 19 inches,  jump into the boat, behind Tom, whose rod was still pointing downstream, but that fish came back up and jumped into the other side of the boat from Tom, who had about the most confused expression on his face I have ever seen.  I was laughing so hard I couldn't talk to tell him what happened.

[Nelson Wormefeller]

One time I went through 50 nightcrawlers without landing a fish. Once the nightcrawlers were all gone, I wacky rigged a 3" mini senko and caught a Largemouth on the first cast.

[Weld's Largemouth]

Down in south florida I was fishing a KVD square bill and suddenly as I'm burning it my line screams and my reel lets drag out like crazy. I feel a contast tug tug, uncommon of a largemouth, I thought I had hooked into a massive Mayan cichlid. As I reel it in a see a bass, then as I land it I see a second one just as big also hooked on my crankbait. Each bass had a treble hook it's mouth and one weighed 3lb and the other was 2.75 lb . It was crazy haha. Silly buggers

[Scott F]

Last summer while fishing from my personal pontoon, I hooked a pike on a topwater. There aren't many pike in this river so I wasn't using a wire leader. I reeled him in right up next to me, when he jumped and cut my line. He didn't know he was free yet and laid there right between my legs in the water for about half a second so I reached down and grabbed him by the back of the head allowing me to get my bait back.

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

This one is actually my daughter's. About a year ago my daughter who was 6 at the time and I were on my old canoe. She was still using a spin caster button push. She had a Powerbait minnow on there. She reeled in to cast again and once the lure cleared the water by about 6 inches, a 3 pound bass smashed it. She lifted the rod as she was getting used to hooksets and landed it.

[bmlum415]

While flipping I had reeled in and when the bait left the water I had a 4lber jump out and smash it.

[richg99]

This thread sure tells us why fishing is so much fun. Thanks for starting it. richg99

[Bankbeater]

Years ago we were fishing for cat in a shallow clear pond.  Basically sight fishing because you could see all of the bottom except out toward the middle where it got deeper.  I was using dough bait and I cast out maybe 15 feet.  After a couple of minutes I see this cat coming toward the bait and I get ready for a bite.  Well then there is this big splash right over my bait and I think that the cat has hooked itself.  I reel it in and there is a bass on my line about a foot long.  I have heard of other species hitting bass lures, but that was the first time I ever had a bass hit cat bait.

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

Drifting a tube in current in the Upper Delaware, the line moves, I set the hook and have a battle with what feels like a much larger that usual smallmouth. When I finnally get it close enough I lip it and see that is maybe 2# When I lift it up out of the water taking tension off the line the tube falls to the ground. The line had wrapped around his pectoral fin. He was never hooked at all. 

[T-Rick]

I'm loving all the responses.  Keep them coming.  Great stories!

[missouribigbass]

Recently I wrapped a wildeye shad around a submerged tree branch the branch was out of the water. As I was popping it trying to get it lose It was bouncing off the water a 3lb bass inhaled it. Was an interesting catch.

[pbrussell]

Was doing some pond hopping with a buddy one evening. I made a cast and he told me he broke off in that area a few days prior. When I had finished my retrieve, I noticed I had brought some line in with me. I started to bring in the line with my hands, when the other end of the line started swimming off. I brought in a fish that had my buddies jig in its mouth from when he broke off a few days ago.