Wildest catch

[MinDoFmejiA]

What is the weirdest thing you have reeled in? Weather it's an invasive species, a tree-pounder or even a rare catch, I would love to see it! So far mine is this kids rod and reel, I snaged onto a line and decided to bring in what I could before it snapped. Turns out it was still attached to the rod!

[GreenPig]

Redhorse on a spoon

[T-Billy]

I caught this four pounder bare handed. It was barely alive after being mauled by a muskie.

[Captain Phil]

3 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I caught this four pounder bare handed. It was barely alive after being mauled by a muskie.

Could have been an otter. 

[casts_by_fly]

How about a double up on invertebrates?  This lake has tons of snails (confirmed on UW camera) and Crankbaits scraping the rocks will find them. I guess I scraped the right rock and got a mussel too. Snail legally hooked in the meat. 

[Jig Man]

I don’t have a pic but did catch a lawn chair on a jig.

[thediscochef]

I caught a tree branch that turned out to be a 7lb bass

[T-Billy]

1 hour ago, Captain Phil said:

Could have been an otter. 

Nah. This lake has roughly one of these per acre. 

Never seen an otter there.

[Bird]

I snagged a dock with a Spinnerbait once and while shaking it in an attempt to free it, inticed a family dog to the scene.

 

The dog grabbed it and took off leaving me with the fight of my life.

My fishing partner wasn't much help, laying on the floor of boat drowning in laughter.

Managed to get to shore with pliers in hand and made friends with this pooch.

 

It was a perfect upper lip hook set but was able to free the bait with surprising ease.

Never took the time to pose for a pic.

[scaleface]

One afternoon while fishing jigging spoons on the end of a boat ramp I caught a rod-n-reel. dip-net and two . wrist watches .

[The Bassman]

1 hour ago, Jig Man said:

I don’t have a pic but did catch a lawn chair on a jig.

 Fishing personality from the past Jerry McKinnis once "fought" a lawn chair on Dale Hollow while fishing with Billy Westmoreland. Given the late 60's lake reputation he was certain that he was tied to a world record smallmouth.

[Alex from GA]

An old boot.  Still have it.

[the reel ess]

Snapping turtle, twice, under the same tree, on two separate trips. I was certain I had hooked the monster of the lake, the 10+ I've always dreamt of. Just an average sized snapping turtle. 

I've had to snatch a topwater away from an owl a couple of times and a frog from a snake that was sizing it up.

1 hour ago, scaleface said:

One afternoon while fishing jigging spoons on the end of a boat ramp I caught a rod-n-reel. dip-net and two . wrist watches .

My ex-monster in law "accidentally" threw a Zebco combo so far off the dock once that it was irretrievable. I caught it a few years later with a deep diver.

[WIGuide]

A boot; a redhorse on a square bill; a rock...and I actually mean catching the rock not getting hung up, somehow the bait got stuck in a small crack and I reeled it in; a 15 lb. anchor; had a Northern Pike that jumped into the boat chasing my spinnerbait when I pulled it out of the water; I've lassoed a few northerns when they hit the weight on a texas rig and the line and hook tangled pulling the line tight behind the gills and over it's head ; caught a few fish of the toothy variety while reeling in other fish a few of those got hooked and one just hung on until I got it in the net...I've got a pretty long list of oddballs.

 

Probably the craziest one though that to this day I still can't believe actually happened, was fishing a lake I hadn't been on before, and was idling out of a bay and noticed a line of cribs on my side imaging. One of them had an absolute ton of baitfish around it so I stopped, made a cast, and felt a little tick so I reeled down and wailed on what I thought was going to be a good one. Instead, there was nearly no resistance so I immediately thought a northern grabbed it and cut me off. As I was reeling my "slack" up there was a little resistance and my line was moving much like when you get a leaf on a crankbait. If my hands weren't on my rod and reel I would have been scratching my head. When I got my bait in, this is what I found.

How It didn't pull out is when I set the hook is beyond me. Definitely couldn't do that again if I tried. 

[scaleface]

23 minutes ago, WIGuide said:

a 15 lb. anchor

I caught an anchor too . Took a long time to get it in .

[Bankbeater]

I didn't hook this motor, I just ran across it fishing the coontail.  One time at a different lake I did run across a sunken baby carriage, but I didn't touch that.

[WIGuide]

30 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I caught an anchor too . Took a long time to get it in .

It took me a bit as well, when I finally pulled it up it was covered in so much nasty muck, I set it on my trolling motor bracket to drip/dry off before I put it in the boat. Went about 100 yards down the bank and the guy I was fishing with set the hook wiggling the boat just enough to dump the anchor back overboard...

[N Florida Mike]

I’ve hooked a 6 -7 foot Gator, a duckling, and a trot line while fishing a crankbait in a night tournament. Thoughts of a lake record and tournament win were foremost as I fought the trot line up to the surface at boatside. Probably the most disappointed Ive ever been while fishing  when I saw what it was… I probably hooked some other stuff but don’t remember at the moment…

My friend hooked a cowboy boot on his  first cast ever bass fishing . He was so heartbroken when he pulled it up and it wasn’t a bass. ?

My aunt caught a 50 year old baitcasting reel and rod while fishing off a dock.

My wife caught a newer baitcasting combo the day before father’s day one year. Guess what I had asked for , and what I got ? …?

[Susky River Rat]

I caught a flannel jacket trolling for musky. Fish wise I caught a pure striper pretty far up the susky. It either came from raystown lake or the Chesapeake. Each would be a feat in its own. I’ve also snagged snapped off fishing line with live flatheads on them. The more you fish the crazier stuff you see/catch.

[Columbia Craw]

Seagull, a seven foot wolf eel.

[Bankc]

The weirdest for me was this 11lb. drum.  What was so strange is that the lake I caught it in wasn't supposed to have drums in it.  And it's not connected to any rivers or streams, so the only fish in it were put there by people.  I've talked to a lot of people at that lake, and no one has ever heard of anyone catching a drum there before.  I gotta tell you, when I first hooked it, I thought it was the biggest bass of my life!  Or at least a fat catfish!  Nope.  Just a nasty gaspergou.

 

 

I've lso caught a turtle and a crab in the Gulf.  Though, the crab just got tangled on my line, so I don't know if that counts.

[Bluebasser86]

Fishing the 2,600 acre power plant lake with my oldest son in about 14' of water while he was playing with his trout net my dad had gotten him. I guess he wanted to see if it would float (it didn't). 

 

Fast forward 2 months later, I'm fishing a 6XD on the same bank and thought I'd snagged a branch, but it turned out to be his now slightly slimy net that I'd dredged up off the bottom. He didn't learn his lesson though as he lost it again doing the exact same thing the next year.

[A-Jay]

Caught me a Zebco !

A-Jay

[Blue Raider Bob]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:01 AM, T-Billy said:

Nah. This lake has roughly one of these per acre. 

Never seen an otter there.

Dang!!!!

That monster could eat everything I caught last year!

On 1/11/2023 at 8:23 AM, Bird said:

I snagged a dock with a Spinnerbait once and while shaking it in an attempt to free it, inticed a family dog to the scene.

 

The dog grabbed it and took off leaving me with the fight of my life.

My fishing partner wasn't much help, laying on the floor of boat drowning in laughter.

Managed to get to shore with pliers in hand and made friends with this pooch.

 

It was a perfect upper lip hook set but was able to free the bait with surprising ease.

Never took the time to pose for a pic.

Wish you would have had a GoPro!

then we all could have been on the floor drowning in laughter!

19 hours ago, Bankbeater said:

I didn't hook this motor, I just ran across it fishing the coontail.  One time at a different lake I did run across a sunken baby carriage, but I didn't touch that.

That might be Alex's motor?

[Tony Christian]

Foul hooked the stern angler in the ear.