Strange things that have happened while bass fishing.

[Cgolf]

I have had many. 

 

The eriest is having musky stick their head up out of the water enough to swim around and eyeball you. 

 

Coolest was hearing a noise behind me and turning around to see an eagle swoop down and grab a perch off the water near the boat, it was louder than you would think with its wings putting on the breaks. 

 

Funniest was watching a turtle try to go up a small spillway to move up the river only to continue to wash back down. The crazy part was watching him, it actually looked like he was having fun and gave up trying to move on and was just enjoying the ride. 

 

The I almost had to run home for a new pair of shorts moment. I was fishing on a very foggy morning around dawn from shore where I could see out 10 feet max on the river. Well as the fog was lifting a bit and I casted to a spot I had already casted to many times I saw what looked at first like a person standing in the river. Scared the snot out of me, but turned out to be a Blue Heron. I was very lucky that day that I didn't hit the Heron with one of my casts. 

[Last_Cast]

Was fishing with my buddy and something nudged our boat really really hard. 

We checked around us to see what was going on, but everything was clear..

Still wonder what it was

[spencer12]

Nothing too bad.  Here's a few:

 

I saw my buddy catch a water moccasin on a junebug senko.

 

Caught a 3.5 foot alligator on a topwater frog. 

 

I set the hook on a machine gun bite and lost my worm, I figured it was a bream.  About 5 minutes later (Same buddy as above) caught a bass with my worm still in its mouth.

 

Fishing in a small 100 acre lake in south ga in about 17 foot of water in the summer, I kept seeing something come up to the surface and making a hissing or sucking noise.  I thought it  was a turtle but then I saw what looked like a lamprey or something similiar come up grab some air and go back down.  ( I still have no idea what it was)

 

I used to fish the Suwannee River with my grandparents as a kid for panfish (They were very serious panfisherman), and I'm honestly certain my grandparents both caught state record red breast sunfish or "Redbellies" as we called them. This was before I knew about records.  I watched them pull many of those little basketballs from that river, I miss that.

 

I was fishing another lake that I had fished with my father as a kid.  I hadn't been in close to a decade.  So I decided to go one Monday morning.  I arrive at daylight and I have the place to myself.  Apparently the lake was taken over by hydrilla unbeknownst to me.  So as it's cracking day I'm puddling along, dredging through hydrilla that is lodging up my trolling motor ( I'm in a 14ft jon boat)  I'm sticking my hands in the water pulling it out, and splashing about.  As the sun starts peering up about 50 yards in front of me staring at me is about a 10ft alligator.  Alligators do not bother me at all, but this one made me nervous.  If he wanted to get me out of the boat he could have.

 

[jimf]

Like most everyone I've had my share.  I caught a bat, but that was fly fishing for trout, and that's actually not that uncommon. 

 

One time I really got the heebie-jeebies - I was fishing a river at night and hooked into what I'm pretty sure was an eel, and it was huge - 3-4' maybe.  It was dark with just a little bit of lighting so I can't be sure.  At first I thought it was a carp I foul hooked, it was heavy but didn't fight all that much.   I probably had it 20 feet from me when it finally came up and rolled the surface and in the dark river it looked something straight out of a horror movie.   I fought it for another minute and saw it come up again to the surface and cut the line.  I'm not ashamed of it either.   I had convenient place to beach it, I wasn't sure what it was or if it could bite me or spear or lord knows what, so just enough of this and let them go.

 

[wdp]

33 minutes ago, jimf said:

Like most everyone I've had my share.  I caught a bat, but that was fly fishing for trout, and that's actually not that uncommon.

 

Whoa whoa whoa! You caught a bat, and that's not uncommon? ?

[RMax]

My first ever fish on a fly rod got ripped off of the hook by 5 pound largemouth

 

One time, I was in Chippewa Falls sitting in the cabin we were staying in and saw a big bald eagle swoop down and grab a fish. It started to fly up and was immediately dragged back down into the water. It must have grabbed onto a giant pike, because for the next few minutes, it couldn't get off the water surface until it went around the corner nod dragged whatever it was into the reeds on shore.

[jimf]

4 hours ago, wdp said:

Whoa whoa whoa! You caught a bat, and that's not uncommon? ?

 

It's not unheard of that's for sure.   I also caught a bird once in the same manner.   The evening hatch will bring out the bats right at dusk, they are eating the same things the fish are it's just they are picking them out of the air instead of eating them as they have stumbled or fallen into the water.    When  you cast you throw the fly backwards and then forward at least once, maybe two or three times as you work line out so that fly is in the air for a bit.   It's a weird feeling as the rod loads up all normal like, and then you start forward and the weight thing is just all messed up.   Think of that sensation of picking up an empty can of beer when you think it's full, reverse that and x100 and that gives you an idea of what it feels like.  

[jimf]

The bat, the eel, and the other thing that happened which had a Rmax story kind of theme.   Took a boy scout troop fishing/camping trip on private property, guy had two nice spring gin clear ponds with nice bass and bluegill.   Kids caught on pretty quick that bluegill could become bait if you weren't in a hurry to reel them in, and one kid had a really nice bass - 5 lbs easy - attack the bluegill on his line.  Had the fish(es) both near shore when they both broke off.    Nighttime settles in, kids are doing the campfire thing so I decide to get a little fishing of my own in.   Using a fly rod cast a big deer hair popper and I hook up with a big one, reel him in, and it was the same darn fish with that bluegill stuck still in it's gullet.   Kids just loved it, they all have a story just like this that they can write about in a thread just like this. 

 

I have a story about a topless sunbather too, but I'll keep that for later.  

[nameiztaken]

On 1/3/2017 at 6:13 PM, Snipe Hunter said:

Somewhere around 1980, I was with my fishing buddy John and we hiked (sneaked) into a private pond in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Ca. It was either spring, winter or fall because it doesn't rain in the summer there. A heavy cloud cover rolled into the area and just sat there. It was dark and misty and getting darker. I had just bought a boron spinning rod and this was the first time using it. Anyway, I had what I thought was a muscle spasm run up my right arm and I heard a beep. It happened a few times. Then I switched the rod to my left hand and it happened to my left arm but no beep.

 

It got even darker when my friend John said he saw what looked like an electrical arc at the tip of the rod. So I watched. Then I saw it too. I don't exactly know what was happening but the cloud was discharging current and using my new boron rod and me as a lightening rod. I had a digital watch on and it would beep when I got shocked. I don't understand it and most folks wouldn't believe it but it was a strange thing that happened while fishing. John always used a glass Fenwick rod and he wasn't getting shocked.

"Only in Santa Cruz!" haha

On 1/4/2017 at 8:25 PM, Mosster47 said:

I've had all kinds of birds take my anchovies off my line salmon fishing, so that's not too weird. I accidentally hooked a pelican in mid-air casting a 14ft surf rod. That was interesting.

 

I've seen a few Ospreys dive to their death. They would go down for a planter in a shallow area. Our reservoirs had a really dark green grass that would totally cover the bottom on flats. They would free fall down at what would have to be close to terminal velocity into a couple feet of water. 

 

The oddest thing I've seen was we were back in the river section of a local mountain reservoir and they had clear cut that year all the way down to the water, but it was summer and it was low so there was about a 20ft cut bank. It's the middle of summer and dead calm. We hear something crashing though the forest and these four deer come running out of the tree line. Three go up and across the unit, the fourth one goes down and just flies off that cut bank into the water at full speed. I've seen deer swim a bunch of times, but this thing looked like a stunt man going into the water.

 

 

Haha! Those danged ospreys had it coming!

[clark9312]

A couple weekends ago I was just beating the bank and pulled up on a guy and girl..... I looked at my father in law and he said "are they doing what I think there're doing?" I couldn't help but to bust out laughing! They heard me and it embarrassed them. They pull their pants up real fast and just layed on that big rock starring up at the sky. I was having a hard time not laughing. 

[scaleface]

On 1/3/2017 at 8:13 PM, Snipe Hunter said:

Somewhere around 1980, I was with my fishing buddy John and we hiked (sneaked) into a private pond in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Ca. It was either spring, winter or fall because it doesn't rain in the summer there. A heavy cloud cover rolled into the area and just sat there. It was dark and misty and getting darker. I had just bought a boron spinning rod and this was the first time using it. Anyway, I had what I thought was a muscle spasm run up my right arm and I heard a beep. It happened a few times. Then I switched the rod to my left hand and it happened to my left arm but no beep.

 

It got even darker when my friend John said he saw what looked like an electrical arc at the tip of the rod. So I watched. Then I saw it too. I don't exactly know what was happening but the cloud was discharging current and using my new boron rod and me as a lightening rod. I had a digital watch on and it would beep when I got shocked. I don't understand it and most folks wouldn't believe it but it was a strange thing that happened while fishing. John always used a glass Fenwick rod and he wasn't getting shocked.

 

Something similar happened to me . I was fishing a quarter ounce jig . After making a cast and letting the lure settle the line was in an arc shape up in the air . There was a storm coming but still  miles away . I reeled in and headed back .

[jimf]

The lightening stories really scare me.   I'm usually one of the first off the water when bad weather comes in.  The most dangerous lightening risk is often before you see any lightening or rain, right at the front of the storm.   

 

The deer story where one went flying off of the bank would have been cool to see.   Ever accidently sneak up on a bedding deer and not know it until you practically stepped on.    That's a good test for the ol' ticker.   I thought I was going to have a heart attack when thing jumped up and decided to bolt.  

 

Snakes .. never caught one but I had a Fox Water Snake just fly past me when I was wading in the river and I swear it went right under my arm.  I didn't care for that much either.     

 

[dnj21]

Caught a Sea Gull as a teenager trolling in my canoe with a diving plug.  Had NO idea of what I was going to do with it, fortunately it came off right before boatside.  He was NOT happy.

Wife caught a snake once before we met, had some teenagers come unhook it for her.  Fishing with her nephews, they thought it was awesome.

I have had snakes try to get in the boat, snagged fishing poles, watched Eagles pick up trout close to the boat and all sorts of interesting sights.  

My best stories are from duck hunting though, wandering around the marsh in the dark.  A Blue Heron spooked when you dont know its there sounds EXACTLY like something Stephen King would dream up....  

[SneakyPete]

https://weather.com/sports-recreation/video/angler-snags-bass-with-fish-in-its-mouth

 

THIS IS AMAZING

[Mark Albert]

got a funny story from fishing down in Kissimmee FL. It was early morning, got my first line in the water. When my son pulls on my shirt jumping up and down saying"daddy I thought cats don't like water" so I turn to see what he's so excited about. And he's running after an otter ?

[BigmouthForever23]

One time I was fishing topwater with a zara spook. I had a hit and as I landed the fish, to my amazement it wasn't a bass, or even a pike...it was a catfish.

[Jtrout]

Just had a osprey dive next to me and flew away with a 12 in palomino trout.