What is your craziest fishing story?

[CountryboyinDC]

I'm glad I'm not named Mike.  That name seems to attract alligators.

[Randy Price]

I'm sure this happens often but several years ago a friend and I were late season musky fishing on Lost Lake in St. Germain, WI using sucker minnows.  His bobber went under and he set the hook and told me to grab the net.  He thought he had hooked into a large walleye but as he got it closer to the boat he realized it was a large musky.  Now he had two nets and I originally grabbed the smaller when he thought it was a large walleye.  He looked at the net I had and told me to grab the big one.  I netted a mid 40's musky and we brought it into the boat for CPR.  Funny thing is after getting it into the boat we realize what happened.  A 18" pike had attacked the sucker minnow and while it was struggling getting brought to the surface the large musky attacked the pike and wouldn't let go.  Great memory.

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, JohnFromLisbon said:

 

 

Wow... That's just. Whoa. That's some intrusive thought material right there. It's probably one of my biggest, like... Irrational fears.

It was a little spooky but surely someone was glad I found him 

 

@MGF, I have to wrestle distemper raccoons all the time at work and I was cracking up reading your story! I went 12 rounds with one inside a boat factory on top of a paint booth not long ago. Formidable adversaries, those ******* things 

[Bankbeater]

When I was about 13 we went fishing on a pond that was about 1/2 mile back in the woods.  As I'm walking the bank I step on something I thought was a stick until I felt it moving.  I looked down and discovered that I was standing on a snake.  My throat was sore for a few days after that scream I let out.

[MGF]

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

It was a little spooky but surely someone was glad I found him 

 

@MGF, I have to wrestle distemper raccoons all the time at work and I was cracking up reading your story! I went 12 rounds with one inside a boat factory on top of a paint booth not long ago. Formidable adversaries, those ******* things 

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?

[TnRiver46]

Just now, MGF said:

If you don't mind me asking, what kind of work do you do?

Animal damage control 

[MGF]

5 hours ago, Randy Price said:

I'm sure this happens often but several years ago a friend and I were late season musky fishing on Lost Lake in St. Germain, WI using sucker minnows.  His bobber went under and he set the hook and told me to grab the net.  He thought he had hooked into a large walleye but as he got it closer to the boat he realized it was a large musky.  Now he had two nets and I originally grabbed the smaller when he thought it was a large walleye.  He looked at the net I had and told me to grab the big one.  I netted a mid 40's musky and we brought it into the boat for CPR.  Funny thing is after getting it into the boat we realize what happened.  A 18" pike had attacked the sucker minnow and while it was struggling getting brought to the surface the large musky attacked the pike and wouldn't let go.  Great memory.

Good one.

 

When we were kids my sister hooked a fish on her cane pole. My dad told her to pull it in...she said she couldn't. She struggled with it for a moment and then a nice musky exploded out of the water with the bluegill in it's mouth.

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Animal damage control 

Cool!

[BrianMDTX]

Two things come to mind. The first was I was fishing Piney Run Reservoir in MD in my buddy’s canoe when we came upon a beaver that wanted us GONE. It swam fast towards the canoe looking like a torpedo from a U-boat until it rammed us hard. After two or three strikes we started paddling. It followed us quite a ways before it gave up. 
 

When a teen, I was fishing off of a large rock outcropping at Loch Raven Reservoir (also in MD). Some lure I had just bought got snagged just under the surface in the rocks, so I lowered myself head-first to try and retrieve it. When my face was about 4” from the water, I looked at the rock and saw the biggest freaking spider I’ve ever seen about 2” from my face. I believe it was a fishing spider. All I could see were those glistening eyes and those fangs. Needless to say, I forgot all about that lure. Instead, I needed new underwear lol. 

[Munkin]

1 hour ago, BrianMDTX said:

Two things come to mind. The first was I was fishing Piney Run Reservoir in MD in my buddy’s canoe when we came upon a beaver that wanted us GONE. It swam fast towards the canoe looking like a torpedo from a U-boat until it rammed us hard. After two or three strikes we started paddling. It followed us quite a ways before it gave up. 
 

When a teen, I was fishing off of a large rock outcropping at Loch Raven Reservoir (also in MD). Some lure I had just bought got snagged just under the surface in the rocks, so I lowered myself head-first to try and retrieve it. When my face was about 4” from the water, I looked at the rock and saw the biggest freaking spider I’ve ever seen about 2” from my face. I believe it was a fishing spider. All I could see were those glistening eyes and those fangs. Needless to say, I forgot all about that lure. Instead, I needed new underwear lol. 

 

Why the move to Texas?

 

Allen

[BrianMDTX]

12 minutes ago, Munkin said:

 

Why the move to Texas?

 

Allen

I was given a great job offer at IAH that eliminated paying state income tax, no shoveling snow and the climate is better for my wife’s MS. And while my deer hunting has suffered (due to a lack of close private land that I’m used to), let’s just say that my bass fishing went from Pre-K to Johns Hopkins. I’ve caught more 3+ lb green bass in 6 months than I did in my life back in MD. And got a carry permit in less than 5 months after moving. I would be older than Moses was before that ever happened in Maryland. But, I do miss the seafood (Chesapeake blue crabs) and the smell of soil vs. crawfish and pine needles lol. 

[Koz]

This happened about 5 years ago when my son was only 10 years old. I was fishing on a defunct golf course on what would have been an elevated green that was shored up with railroad ties down to the lagoon. That wood was rotted in places, and it was about 4 feet from the green down to the water.

 

I had cast pretty far out into the lagoon and hooked into a bass decent enough to put up a fight. And of course, where I fish there's always an alligator or two around and the one in this lagoon is 7 or 8 feet long. I see him making a bee line for my bass, and now the race is on. Can I get this thing reeled in to the safety of my elevated position before the gator gets the bass.

 

My son sees what is going on and yells, "I'll get the net!" But he's only 10 years old and maybe 5 feet tall so he can't reach down to net the fish. So now he lies down across the grass and the crumbling wood, reaching the net down to the water as both the bass and the gator close in. I'm afraid the wood will give way and he'll go tumbling into the water so I'm stepping on his back, hoping to keep him pinned while I'm still reeling in.

 

As I'm getting the bass to the edge ready to pull it up the gator comes roaring in so my son decides to smack the gator in the head with the net. Dumb move on his part. So I transfer the rod to my left hand above the reel and lift the bass up while my right hand grabs the waist of my son's pants and I pull him up and out of the way of the angry gator as well.

 

I managed to save the bass ( just under 5 pounds) and my son, but ended up busting the top of my rod in all of the ruckus.

 

I've got plenty of other stories about gators including being stalked and being chased around the bank, and another one where my son is not paying attention to the gator "hydrofoil" speeding at him, but I think this one is my most memorable.

[roadwarrior]

I don't like that story.

The situation sounds waaaay too dangerous to be worried about

a fish. If the gator was a dog I would be just as concerned.

 

[Munkin]

Fishing with a friend in High School out of a 10ft john boat. Hooked a beaver with a crankbait and it was mad! Buddy says bring him in the boat and he will hit it with the paddle. Hell no I said as this thing was huge and really mad. Luckily the crank came off somehow because I had no idea what I was going to do.

 

Allen

[papajoe222]

I'll start by explaining the type of craft I was fishing from which will explain why this story is both scary and crazy.  Forty years ago my craft of choice was a 'belly boat.' Basically a truck tire innertube with straps wrapped around it to form a seat. There are an abundance of strip pits in the area and it was easy to transport form one pit to another. To move around I had fashioned a pair of kick fins that would 'propel' me forward as opposed to backward using swim fins.

The scary part is the fact that the area is infested with cottonmouths, so I would normally have avoided it during the dog days of summer, but I really needed a fishing fix, so I headed out. As the day got hotter, the activity level of all creatures increased, but all I noticed was my good fortune with the fish. 

While reeling a feisty two pound bass, I noticed what I thought was an acorn floating toward me with the wind current.  When it got around 50ft, from me I realized what it was, spun around and attempted to 'paddle' as fast as I could away from that satan spawn, all the while hanging on to the rod with the fish attached.........  Snake closing fast.  All I actually accomplished was getting that innertube to rock back and forth without much headway. 

I gave up trying, spun around to face my nemesis, only to discover............it was a stick.!           I swear that fish was laughing so hard when I went to lip it, I was tempted to not let it go, but I did and it jumped out of the water just to laugh at me one more time before swimming off.

[Scott W]

I have caught one fish on a Huddleston, it is my PB, 9.14 LB from Clear Lake.  It was a good day  

[Big Hands]

I was fishing at a little armpit of a suburban reservoir called the Santa Ana River Lakes (it's actually three small lakes). Between two of the lakes, there are a few giant pipes that let water flow between the two bodies of water with a concrete bridge above pipes with a handrail that parallels the shoreline. Anglers attach rod holders to the handrail. There were several rod holders attached to the rail that day and anglers set up chairs nearby and chew the fat with each other as they wait for the stocked trout to inhale their gobs of Powerbait. 

 

The anglers were so engrossed in conversation that they failed notice that one of the rods shot out of the rod holder and went into the water with a pretty good splash. So I hollered over at the group and said, "Hey, a fish just took off with someone's rod."

 

One of the men looked over at the rod holders and back at me and said, "Hey, where's my rod?"

 

I said, "I just told you that a fish just took off with it."

 

He looks kinda confused, and eventually goes back to shooting the bull with the others. Half an hour later, the rod at one end of the handrail goes full-bendo, and then the rod next to it doubles over, and then the next one, and so on until all five rods are bent completely over. The anglers scurry over and they all fight the fish together for a bit. One suggests that the deepest hook should get the fish and they all agree that that is how an owner of the fish can be fairly determined. 

 

They finally all work together and land a studly five pound rainbow trout, but when they are looking to see who has the deepest hook, they end up counting six lines exiting the mouth of the healthy trout. Sure they soon find that the line leads back out into the water. They eventually pull the line in and discover the rod and reel is the one that disappeared a little while earlier. They all then agreed that the guy that had his rod temporarily hijacked should keep the fish, and went back to swilling suds. Good times.

[The Bassman]

Several years ago I was wading a local creek catching a few mediocre smallies on a buzzbait. Had just released one and looked up to see an owl coming straight at me. Without thinking I swung my rod at him and wrapped my lure around his leg. I opened my bail and of all things he landed in the creek and started swimming to the other side by flapping his wings. I had to do something so I reeled him in. (He wasn't very large.) He landed about ten feet away from me on the gravel bar where I was standing. Didn't know what to do and just cut the line a couple of feet from him. I still feel bad about it. Instead of flying off he went back in the creek and swam to the other side, got out and walked into a brush pile not to be seen again. I've been buzzed by owls and even a great blue heron when fishing topwaters before but I've got to admit this sounds made up when even I read it.

[MGF]

13 hours ago, The Bassman said:

Several years ago I was wading a local creek catching a few mediocre smallies on a buzzbait. Had just released one and looked up to see an owl coming straight at me. Without thinking I swung my rod at him and wrapped my lure around his leg. I opened my bail and of all things he landed in the creek and started swimming to the other side by flapping his wings. I had to do something so I reeled him in. (He wasn't very large.) He landed about ten feet away from me on the gravel bar where I was standing. Didn't know what to do and just cut the line a couple of feet from him. I still feel bad about it. Instead of flying off he went back in the creek and swam to the other side, got out and walked into a brush pile not to be seen again. I've been buzzed by owls and even a great blue heron when fishing topwaters before but I've got to admit this sounds made up when even I read it.

It's not fishing but I was hit in the head by an owl one late and very cold night when I was trying to call in a fox or coyote with a hurt rabbit call.

 

I didn't see it coming. It was about 2 am and I was all bundled up because of the extreme cold. I hunkered down next to a raised railroad track...nobody around for miles. All of a sudden I was hit in the head from behind.

 

It was a bright night and I got a glimpse of the bird as he flew away.

[Guitarfish]

I made my first cast at 6 something in the morning toward a splash I heard right after pulling away from the dock in my BassHunter. 

 

Hooked up an 18" schoolie striper.  Followed three schools around the shallow end of the lake until 12:30 when my arms got too tired to pull anymore in.  The last chunky keeper I gave to an old timer sitting anchored, baitfishing.  I fished around and around him all day.  He never moved.  I was throwing Spro hair jigs.

[Dminor9]

Took my youngest daughter fishing for the first time with a guide friend of mine on Lake Travis Texas. She had never fished before, so we set her up with a Zebco Spin Cast and a crank bait. We had just dropped the boat in the water and were maybe 10 feet off the shore and my guide friend instructed my daughter how to cast. She made her first cast and bammm! A major hit and it took her a good 10 minutes to land the fish. We were all expecting a nice bass, but were really surprised when we netted a 4 foot alligator gar! My daughter's only comment was, "Did I do good?" She was afraid to hold the gar up for pictures, so my guide friend held it with needle nose pliers with my daughter standing next to it. It was almost as big as she was. That was a memorable fishing trip for sure. 

[Jaderose]

Went back into a small inlet stream in the little lake I fish one day to see if anything was biting and eat lunch in my bass raider.  Stream narrows down pretty good.  There is a downed tree that has fallen over  that acts like a natural bridge.  It's obvious that wildlife uses it as such.  I was sitting there quietly having a bite when a juvenile coyote popped out of the underbrush to go across the "bridge".  He didn't see me.  Couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 feet away.  He got about halfway across when I said, "Hi, Buddy".  Then he became a cartoon!  Jumped straight up into the air and was running in place until he came back down and took off like he'd been shot.  I still giggle about it when I'm back there.

[Jaderose]

Another that I hesitate to tell but it did happen and was completely innocent so here goes......I was at a local reservoir one day a few years ago and was back in a small cove catching dinks on the opposite side of the lake as the boat ramp and public use area when I saw some folks pull up and get out stand up paddle boards and paddle away from shore.  Didn't think anything about until I heard "Hi".  I looked up to see a man and a quite lovely woman at the entrance to the cove standing on their paddle boards buck naked.  I said "Hi" back and the woman said "Lovely day, ain't it?"  Me:  "Uhm...yeah it is".  Woman:  "Catching anything?"  Me:  "Few little ones"  Woman:  "Have a great day!"  Me:  "Thank you.  You too!"  and then they paddled away.  I saw them paddle around for a bit, put their suits back on before going to shore, and leave.

[livin2fish]

1 hour ago, Jaderose said:

"Hi".  I looked up to see a man and a quite lovely woman at the entrance to the cove standing on their paddle boards buck naked.

^^^Can't top this!  Did catch a Mallard drake with a spinning rod and a blade bait.  Fishing from a neighbor's dock and being rather bored my line passed over a duck just as it swam out from under the dock.  Being startled it tried to fly and became tangled in my line.  The more it flailed around the more entangled it became.  Needless to say it was making a lot of racket.  It became so tangled in my line that I was able to drag it to the edge of the dock where I reached down and grabbed it by the neck and hoisted it carefully up.  Turns out, the lure wasn't even stuck in the duck.  It took a lot of cutting of line to free the duck, but that accomplished, he swam away.  As he was swimming away he was calling me a lot of bad things in duck language.  Rightfully so.  I was just happy he was unhurt. 

[Johnbt]

Time: about 30 years ago.

Place: a 30-acre pond on a 9-hole golf course in a little town in eastern VA

 

We were fishing minnows out of my mentor's 1648. I hooked into a nice bass before lunch, but the line broke off above the bobber. We were about 75 yards north of the clubhouse dock.

 

After lunch - a couple of hotdogs from the clubhouse - we headed south from the dock to an elevated train track/embankment. There were two bushes on the whole thing and my buddy said, "Is that a bobber under the left bush?"

 

He threw a minnow over there and caught a 7.5-pounder and I got my bobber and hook back.

[MGF]

4 hours ago, livin2fish said:

^^^Can't top this!  Did catch a Mallard drake with a spinning rod and a blade bait.  Fishing from a neighbor's dock and being rather bored my line passed over a duck just as it swam out from under the dock.  Being startled it tried to fly and became tangled in my line.  The more it flailed around the more entangled it became.  Needless to say it was making a lot of racket.  It became so tangled in my line that I was able to drag it to the edge of the dock where I reached down and grabbed it by the neck and hoisted it carefully up.  Turns out, the lure wasn't even stuck in the duck.  It took a lot of cutting of line to free the duck, but that accomplished, he swam away.  As he was swimming away he was calling me a lot of bad things in duck language.  Rightfully so.  I was just happy he was unhurt. 

When I was a kid I caught a goose while carp fishing. I was clowning around teasing the geese with the baited hook and I got a bite.

 

I also caught a dog for my wife. The neighbor had a little puppy that she was leaving home alone outside for days at a time with no food or water. We fed and watered him. He started hanging around. After a day of catfishing with my son I had left a rod standing in the corner of the garage. I guess there was some dried up chicken liver still on the hook.

 

I was working outside and heard something rattling around in the garage. I found that little puppy dragging my rod around with the line disappearing gown his throat. $1500 and a night at the vet school later the neighbor decided that we should keep the dog. She sure didn't offer to help pay the bill.

 

I wish I had kept a picture of the x-ray. You could clearly see the hook. That big old catfish hook looked almost as big as the puppy.

 

My wife named him Marvin...as in "Starving Marvin".