The Most Amazing Thing You've Ever Caught That Wasn't A Fish!

[greggt4736]

My older brother caught a pair of Oakleys and he sent them back to Oakley. Oakley replaced the sunglasses and he gave them to me. A friend caught a boat anchor. He gave it to me to use on my jon boat it didn't have an anchor at the time. All in all the bottom of local waters have been pretty good to me. Pulled up an extremely large old tree trunk all the way to the boat when I was much younger. Haven't been able to reel in an entire tree trunk without the line breaking since then.

[ww2farmer]

A pair of underwear..............I am pretty sure they were not mine, I have always come home from the lake with the same underwear on that I had on when I got there. Other memorable non-fish catches were a flip-flop that I swore was a fish, it put up a hell of a fight, and a rain coat...........a rain coat I lost a week earlier when I took it off after the rain stopped, but a gust of wind blew it off the back deck of the boat, and I never noticed it was gone. I caught it  about 2 miles up the lake from where I noticed it was missing, if it could only talk. I took it home, cleaned it up, and still use it to this day.

[LunkerFisher]

I've never caught anything else spectacular, but I can't resist posing this:

[MI.Kayaker]

Shimano Stella + St. Croix LTB when I was clueless about fishing (before BR)

[slonezp]

On ‎3‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 0:41 PM, RHuff said:

Was fishing a private pond in GA once at night from the bank. It was so dark I couldn't hardly see my hand in front of my face. Was throwing a big midnight special spinnerbait. Thing felt funny as I was reeling it. Reeled it in and saw a big clump of grass on it. Grabbed the lure to pick the grass off and the dang grass latched onto my hand and started screetching. I started hollering and shaking my hand up and down and flung the grass down only to see it flutter away. That clump of grass was a freaking bat. Gave me the creeps for a year after that while fishing at night. Gave me goosebumps typing this. 

We catch bats all the time in Sturgeon Bay. Especially in the early spring and late fall. We don't actually hook them but they have a way of tangling themselves up in the fishing lines.

I've caught a broom, my own flipping rod that got kicked into the lake, someone else's combo, turtles, mud puppies, a one legged pelican, a dead loon, miscellaneous boat accessories, probably some other stuff as well 

[scaleface]

11 hours ago, slonezp said:

We catch bats all the time in Sturgeon Bay. Especially in the early spring and late fall. We don't actually hook them but they have a way of tangling themselves up in the fishing lines.

I've caught a broom, my own flipping rod that got kicked into the lake, someone else's combo, turtles, mud puppies, a one legged pelican, a dead loon, miscellaneous boat accessories, probably some other stuff as well 

Ive had  bats hit my line when night fishing for catfish . I set the hook on a catfish shortly after one hit my line and it snapped a few feet from the rod tip. I swear, that bat bit my line .

[MainelyBASS]

I had been throwing a red eye shad (red craw) and it broke off an hour into the trip. 2 hours later at the other end of the lake I set the hook on what I thought was a fish, but it was someone elses fishing line who had caught bottom and broke off. The lure came free and I was able to reel in the whole mess and on the end of the line it was the same exact color red eye shad, only with rusted off hooks and split rings.

[N Florida Mike]

Sorry,I keep remembering more stuff.One day When I was a teen,I caught around 20 bream and had them on a stringer in the water tied to a oar hole in the boat.As I was rowing off I saw the stringer come untied and all the fish sinking out of sight.I jumped in and walked around for awhile and couldn't find them.The water being only chest deep.So about a year or so later I snagged the stringer with 20 or so fish heads on it...My favorite one though I told on a different thread a couple months ago. My wife asked me what I wanted for fathers day one year and I told her a new baitcaster combo.She unexpectedly took the kids fishing one day and she hooked a baitcaster combo and gave it to me for father's day .True story.

[Tracker22]

There you are fishing your favorite lure when suddenly you feel the bite. You start reeling frantically. It runs to the left! You switch back and it runs to the right! Now your really excited! You get it near the boat, only to find out it was a stick.

Come on, you know you've done it!

[Bluebasser86]

I lost my last silver blue back Xcaliber XR50 while I was bank fishing one day. Next day I was in the boat fishing a chrome black back XR50 and got snagged on the same spot. Pulled a little and it popped loose but felt like I was dragging part of the snag with me. Reeled it in and saw this.

[Subaqua Adinterim]

About 25 years ago, when I worked in Florida for a year, I accidentally hooked into a manitee when I was fishing in one of the canals near Cape Canaveral. I was really overmatched for that hookup,using only 10# test. Reeled in as much line as possible and then cut it off. 

Then on one of those party boats that go out of Port Canaveral, I hooked into something that felt like a refrigerator.  The crew on the boat was really excited thinking I hooked into a huge grouper.  After strenously reeling for quite a while, it surfaced behind the boat - a giant sea turtle.  Very disappointing.  Another endangered species that I had to cut the line on.

My earliest fishing memory of was with my father, some cousins and uncles from the bank of the Mohawk River under a bridge, near Utica.  I think I was about 5 years old. No one caught a fish, however, my uncle pulled in a record.  Literally caught a record, a large LP record.  Whenever I see an article about an angler catching a record (referring to a fish of course), I think about that dirty plastic record being dragged from the water under the bridge and laugh.

 

[mwh33]

No pics, but I have caught a snapping turtle, an alligator, a water snake, a pair of jorts, and a couple of broken rods. I also found a pair of Ray-Bans wading while fishing for trout and redfish.

[herbu]

On 3/24/2016 at 8:13 PM, Bassguytom said:

My son caught a women's high heel shoe... thought there might be a body down there... call that part of the lake dead ladies corner

I'm guessing it might be more appropriate to call it, "Happy Ladies Corner".  I can see a woman, feet in the air, flailing about, throws a shoe.  In other words, I would fish that area regularly.

[Ski]

Cormorant,

Darn thing tried knocking an eye out when I grabbed it to remove fishing line.

[bigbill]

Turtles lots of turtles big and small. The fishing can be tough when the turtles are around.

[Insanity]

A trench coat tied up in a bundle. The bundle contained almost two complete sets of clothing and two pairs of shoes. Each stuff with rows of snap on sockets. To weight the hole thing down. And the icing on the cake to bank money bags.  Empty of corse. 

 

[Junebugman]

Was fishing the spring walleye bite from shore on the missisipee river near mpls mn  you know how to spell it!!! Well I reeled in a condom 2.5 inches around by 14 inches long!!! Use your imagination what that belonged to! Lol

[kickerfish1]

38 minutes ago, Junebugman said:

Was fishing the spring walleye bite from shore on the missisipee river near mpls mn  you know how to spell it!!! Well I reeled in a condom 2.5 inches around by 14 inches long!!! Use your imagination what that belonged to! Lol

Sounds like Bigfoot got some!

[awohlwend]

When I was younger a buddy and I were fishing our home lake in Central Iowa. Fishing a steep drop with deep diving crankbaits in the summer. My buddy in the back of the boat claims he has a fish but pulls a HUGE thong into the boat. Cut it off over the water with a pair of scissors so he wouldn't have to touch it. Not before we took a picture. The spot we were fishing was not more than 100 yards away from the beach area of the lake. Wonder what the lady left the beach looking like if her thong wasn't on?

[Fishing Rhino]

You didn't specify caught with a hook. 

Lobstering:  I've caught a sail for a Hinckly thirty five foot sailboat that wrapped around our ground line.  Must have been washed overboard.  A couple of weeks later, I caught the bag for the sail.  Countless anchors.  Sea turtles and basking sharks. 

In the fall we fished areas that the party boats from Montauk Point and Point Judith fish for cod.  We called them porcupine boats since all the rods hanging off the sides of the boats looked like quills.  When they drifted across our ground line many would get snagged.  We'd come up with all manner of diamond jigs, sinkers in all shapes and sizes.  One year, we filled a five gallon bucket with bank sinkers.

We also pulled up parts of boats that had sunk years before.

Fishing is like a box of chocolates.  You never know what you're going to get.

[IowaHusker28]

So after everyone replying and me not catching anything that strange you will not believe what I pulled out of the local skunk river yesterday. 

Someone has to be upset they lost this. 

[warrior1]

a floating high end fish finder, which works.  Tried everything I could do to locate the owner, but no go, so it's getting mounted as soon as all the stuff comes to do it.

[Turkey sandwich]

I've caught a ton of tackle, socks, and probably some weirder stuff over the years.  The most terrifying was catfish fishing muddy ponds and thinking I hooked either a new state record channel cat or 20+lb carp.  What was it? The biggest, angriest snapping turtle I've ever seen. The visual of me trying to deal with it was ridiculous.  I was knee deep in mud, had a knife or pliers in one hand to deal with the line, and a baseball bat sized branch in my other hand to keep it at distance while I went to work getting out/freeing the hook.  

 

And then there was the time we were fishing for carp with treble hooks covered in dough balls and a squirrel took off with one, hooked itself, and lashed itself to an oak tree.  That was real weird and a huge mess.

[Captain America]

When I was little, I was worm fishing for trout. The wind blew my cast behind me and I reeled in a robin for a good 20 yards...

[You_Only_Live_Once_Fishing]

When i was five i would always want to catch minnows with a bait trap. I woke up one summer morning, ran down to the lake and checked my trap. as i was bringing it in, i saw a HUGE doggie with a collar on it. when it turned around, i realized that it was a 450 pound black bear (confirmed by my neighbor who is an avid hunter). I ran away screaming.

 

also caught a kids fishing pole 100 yard offshore in a private pond