this could be anything. interesting fish that you were not expecting. animals other than fish. objects. whatever you think is worthy of mentioning.

i'll start.

mudpuppy and painted turtle. caught a rock once. not sure how that worked, but i did. also caught a painted turtle on a johnson silver minnow. that one still has me wondering. i almost caught an eagle once. i no longer throw topwater when eagles are around. had a big heron chase my topwater as well.

my favorite was out on lake poygan with my friend wade. i snagged a line, and proceeded to pull it in. it was heavy line, and i could feel a rod and reel coming my way. i was getting excited that i may have had a sweet setup in my future. lots of line out. i finally got it in. well, i was the proud owner of a "batman" rod and reel combo. i had to laugh even though i was disappointed. i wonder what the story on the other end could have been?

-ben

I have caught numerous ducks while fishing in a duck pond using egg pattern flies to mimic bread which is the fishes main diet.

I have caught a Green sea turtle, several nice rods, crab pots, tons of rays, a muskrat, a Kingfisher and a sea duck. All I can think of right now!

I caught a barred owl on a hula popper one evening in upstate New York. I am still not sure who was more surprised, me or the owl! I watched the owl drop out of a tree and snag the lure and take off across the lake. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Luckily it eventually dropped the lure after taking out a lot of line. Interestingly, the resident bass in the lake were not taken in by my many efforts at catching them that evening.

this is a short-lived thread, but this may take the prize. that's awesome. i'll vote for the kingfisher as a second.

-ben

While fy casting, I once caught a bat( Myotis?) up at high mountain lake in the Sierra-Nevadas of California, it hit on my back cast, appeared to be "fair hooked", but maybe it was snagged-in the mouth? I have had them dart near the fly many times, but only rarely do they get hooked up fortunately.

I have regrettably hooked several gulls, pelicans, cormorants, blue sharks multiple times on the same day, some 30-40 lb. Humboldt squid (those things are really weird...other-worldly?), numerous crabs, once a lobster, a very large mantis shrimp, twice I have snagged a line, and I could feel something on it, so I cut my terminal tackle, tied a blood knot to the "new" line, and brought in nice salmon that had broken some other anglers line earlier. A few times while salmon trolling I caught/snagged sea pens, starfish of several types, sea cucumbers, a hagfish (!), etc. One time I caught a bonito, the live bait hook looped around the line, and created a noose, and it closed on the caudal peduncle (narrow area in front of the tail) and I landed it, unhooked, tail first. I witnessed the same thing when a guy landed an albacore with the noose around the tail trick.

I have heard tales of commercial trawlers (draggers) catching all manner of things in the net, including antique Asian opium pipes, world War II junk including mines and torpedoes, 55 gallon drums filled with concrete and probably nuclear waste, an old shot gun, etc.

i remember hearing a bunch of years back that some charter on michigan pulled up a live sparrow missile.

-ben

I snagged a sea cucumber in maine once. I know they aren't that rare or special, but the first time I caught a northern puffer in virginia, I was pretty surprised. I had no idea that they lived there.

That makes me remember about when a dragonfly came and grabbed my dry fly. I pulled him in and unhooked him and then he flew away. He was apparently unscathed.

Great topic, Ben.

I’ve caught/hooked numerous birds, Including a Barred owl on a big Creeper while fishing Muskies after dark in northern WI.

A few years ago on an island off the Pacific coast of Panama, I was sneaking along the bank of a tiny "river" about the size of your typical Brook trout creek while looking in all the shaded areas and slack water for Snook. The water was only about three feet deep at most in the holes accompanying most bends, but the fish were tough to see because the water was dark. I was being careful and quiet…like you would on a small trout stream. Anyway, I found a couple that were finning side by side and backed away to get a better angle on them. I made the cast just upstream and beyond them and began bringing a white ZOOM super fluke on an intercept. All was going good and both fish raced to the bait and pounded it, but I somehow managed to not hook either. As they regrouped and began chasing again, a flash appeared from over head and one of those big green Kingfishers that resemble our Belted K’s here in the states, plunged into the water and didn’t miss. I reeled it in, unhooked it and sent it on its way. It spooked the fish so I went up stream to find fresh ones. At the next bend, I found a single, backed away for a better angle (the light was such that I couldn’t see them until I was a little upstream) and made the cast. Same results…bite, whiff, Kingfisher plunges from the canopy and gets hooked. I reel in and release the 2nd K-bird of the day and continue upstream again. At the next fish I get in position and look up into the trees BEFOREHAND and the coast looks clear so I make the cast. Yep, bite, whiff, aerial assault! K #3. It was beginning to seem futile and after K #4, I realized every bend had a bird so I reeled in, walked back downstream to where my ATV was parked and left.

Tim

I snagged a bryozoan colony once. I had no idea what it was at the time.

Sounds like everyone has a great bird story, and I have a whopper that combines several others, but I promise it's true. I used to live on a great bass lake here in Washington, so I did a lot of fishing right off the bank in my front yard. One afternoon there was a group of mallard ducks out front and one particular cast of a plastic worm texas rigged caught their attention and they all swarmed over to it and started ducking (no pun intended) after it thinking I'd thrown them bread or something. Anyways, one of them managed to get its foot hooked and the thing freaked out and took off. I opened the bail and started looking for a knife to cut the line since the 17 lb spiderwire line was not going to break for a duck. In the end the duck flew about 100 yards or so out and the spool ran out and when the line went tight, it snapped the duck out of the sky back to the lake with a loud splash. This all happened in less than 10 seconds, I laughed, but still needed to cut the line... I grabbed some nail clippers from my tackle box and just as I looked up, I saw a second, bigger splash in the same area. A bald eagle had swooped down and hit the duck and was proceeding to lift out of the water with it, still attached to my line. I got lucky that the eagle flew towards me instead of away because I managed to cut the line before testing whether I could pull an adult bald eagle with an adult duck in its talons out of the sky.

I also once caught a log and one I pulled it to the surface, it had 4 or 5 other lures from fishermen who were less fortunate with weaker line. I had an otter take a trout off of my line.

These things are so bizarre, I worked as a boat patrolman on a large California imoundment, and people often would report "jellyfish" in the lake, apparently a motile phase of the bryozoans life cycle. I often had to dive in the lake, and recover sunk vessels, radios etc., and I was amazed how common the Bryozoans were under docks and at certain levels of the rocks within the lake, but hidden from view and consciousness. These apparently common colonial creatures seem little known, and I found information on them sort of obscure and not easily accessed relative to more "popular" species. Thanks for posting, that is indeed a bizarre and worthy subject for strange catches. You are typical in not knowing what it was the first time you saw it, they seem "off the radar" for many of us. Have you ever seen the free swimming motile "jelly fish" phase? What state were you in when you saw them?

Interesting post, I think I will do some reading on them rather than what I should be doing...Vic

http://www.wright.edu/~tim.wood/bryozoans.html

Be ready next time you have a Bryozoan on the line...this succinct article not available when I looked a decade ago, a great example of what is good about the internet, and here is a college professor really "into them". Despite the many wonderful attributes of Bryozoan colonies, they are sort of clannish and stay to themselves, and they are listless fighters on hook and line... But they are very capable of illiciting a freak out response when bikini clad tourists encounter them for the first time at a boat dock, ramp, etc.

I once caught a western grebe on a crankbait. A couple a years ago I caught a dead trout on a kastmaster. I've hooked a number of bullfrogs on various things, and hooked giant salamander larvae several times.
My buddy once caught himself with a saltwater plug and I got the pleasure of digging the huge trebble hook out of his head with my pliers

I once cought a young couple procreating in a mustang and once caught someone doing something inapropriate in a bathroom, but I'll leave it at that


-nightdriver

I once caught a live Olive shell (a kind of marine snail).

ill say what i think was a sculpin.

hahaha what a great topic! I've caught pelicans, seagulls and a duckling once. I've caught 2 pull up traps (for crabs) and god knows how many crab pots. I did once catch a flannel while surf-casting, was a little embarrassing because it drew in quite the crowd which thought I had a rather large fish. I've also caught a surprising number of rocks

My strangest fish catch was a 26" Bowfin caught while cattin' late at night. I had read about them in books, but had never seen one before. I was about to grab the lower jaw when I realized it wasn't a catfish in my net. That could have been a painful lesson.

I caught a pelican in Florida after I brought in a small pinfish. It grabbed the fish right out of my hand including most of my forearm. With someones help, I was able to remove the hook though...probably the most chaotic 5 minutes of my life. I hate hooking anything but fish!

what a snagfish!!!!

You started another good one, Ben. I need to peek in here more often.

All these are great. Keep them coming.

The weirdest thing I caught was a Chevy.
I was stalking snook and baby tarpon in SW Florida in roadside canals in winter.
Fishing an 8 wt flyrod I made a back cast just as some tourists were driving by at about 60. Their antenna caught the fly, and in the seconds It took me to react to grabbing the line, the reel was spinning at ludicrous speed, the spool was nearing the end of the backing, and the drag burned up.




Birds:
tomharten

I believe this, Tom; not a fishing experience, but in two different locations in Florida river swamps, I’ve watched as a big Barred Owl would swoop down and grab tiny tree frogs off the road and eat them.


AOs Eagle story.



Another bird story:
My wife and I were fishing a spot where you could catch dozens and dozens of panfish (as well as an occasional small bass) on small artificial on an ultra-light spinning rod. All, save one, were released unharmed.

One unfortunate sunfish did manage to swallow a huge grasshopper plug, and there was no hope of saving it. I dispatched the fish, freed the plug, and tried to throw the fish in nearby bushes where there were tons of fresh raccoon tracks. The fish fell short of the bushes about 15 feet away from us.

A red-shouldered hawk swooped into a tree above us and was eyeing the fish and us. I grabbed the camera and captured this weak shot after it made its move and was flying away.

I told my wife, who is a birder, "that was the rare red-shouldered osprey!"

Ribbon fish are just plain weird! Caught this one on a live greenie while fishing for kingfish. This one was about 3 feet long and didn't hardly put up any fight.

Holy crap! That is one cool fish!!!:shock:

Let's see...


Birds:

A duckling on a dry fly - trout fishing with a size 18 black gnat or something similarly small I didn't worry about the ducks swimming about (it's supposed to look like a bug from below, right?) and was still trying to spot where my fly had landed on the surface when an odd squealing noise starting and something started to pull off line ever so slowly...

A herring gull hooked in the wing mid air at the end of a 50 meter cast...

A coot.


Other non piscine vertebrates:

Bullfrog & spotted turtle.


Weirdest object:

A bag full of silverplate flatware. The bag was obviously the part of the loot from some burglary that couldn't be fenced and was thrown into the water from the bridge above.

I did a lot of fishing at the time and on this particular day for the first time in weeks I had gone to another spot than the neighbourhood lake. When I got home the main story on the news was that of the, at the time, biggest heist in Danish history earlier in the day. The thieves had gotten away with the equivalent of some 9 million dollars in cash but were caught just a few hours later. The money, however, was not found. The thieves said they had packed them in a sports bag and hidden this down by the lake where I went fishing every other day. If this was the day I was to catch a loot fishing, it seems it was the wrong day for me to try a new spot

The money has never been found.

Here's a short one about money that WAS found.

When I was a kid, on rainy days, my Dad would drop me off at the dam on the Plover river that created McDill pond in Stevens Point Wisconsin. He'd pick me up at dark. I fished smallmouth bass below the structure and would sometimes catch giant bluegills, the occasional Northern pike and lots of Mud Puppies. (The Mud puppies were by hand.)

One rainy morning I was there by myself and was catching some good fish when my lure snagged on something and I reeled it in. It was a page of laminated coins. Cool. So I began looking around and across the water from me in an eddy, I see what I believe to be more pages so I crossed the Dam, walked down the rip rap and confirm my suspicions. there are a few more "pages" on coins and they are all silver and old. A little while later I find a couple more. So I've got maybe 8 pages and set them aside and continue fishing. When my Dad picks me up I show him and he's curious...nobody throws out a coin collection, right? We hang on to them (and this is where my memory fades) I believe(?) he saw in the newspaper that the big house on top of the hill above the dam had been broken into...I'm not sure of this, however. Anyway, Dad drives me to the place, I knock on the door and a lady opens it. I say: "I found these below the dam and think they may belong to you?" (I had all these grand ideas of maybe getting a small reward.) In any event, she took them from me and closed the door. I heard it lock behind her and that was that.

So much for all good deeds going rewarded.

Tim

Nice story, rude lady

I, of course (along with everyone else) held an eye open for the sports bag the following weeks, didn't find it, did find a huge Crocodile Dundee style hunting knife.

... mind you, this is a lake inside Copenhagen city limits, not a hunting ground

Random things I have caught thus far.

3 seagulls..one on top water whilst fishing for smallmouth in Oregon, the other two from surf casting with live bait...I personally enjoy hooking into the occasional seagull...it's like fishing and flying a kite at the same time

A large Muskrat...yes a musk rat. Managed to drag an old REBEL deep 6 crankbait over it's back, put up an interesting fight for sure.... unhooking it was not a fun experience.

6 turtles in a day while fishing with live shiners under slip floats for bass. Two western pond turtles and 2 red eared sliders..poor guys, I felt bad about these...hard to unhook turtles.

Bullfrogs... easy hook ups out here on plastics, once had one actually hit a boober floating on the surface..it was too dumb to let go and I was able to reel him

Harbor Seal... This is probably my most memorable random hook-up(giggity)... I was fishing with my little brother and ex gf . We were at a local beach/intertidal area surf fishing off the rocks for whatever we could get to bite. Usually Cabezone, Surfperch, Rock Cod, and very rarely Lingcod. It was literally on my first cast...I had been soaking a piece of squid on a high low rig for about 5 mins next to a rock out crop that was way out there. All the sudden I get a little *Dink *Dink *Dink on the line...figured maybe a little surf perch was playing with my bait. Seconds later that *Dink *Dink turns into a few really strong tugs..I felt steady pressure. I set the hook and FISH ON! The fish was decent sized and was taking line here and there, it surfaced, thrashing around and I could see it was a decent sized Lingcod. Stoked! my first legal sized Ling and a pretty blue one at that...As I watched my fish struggle and thrash, about 20ft out I saw a large dark shadow appear and cover my Lingcod... this large shadow started to become clearer and I recognized it's grey, speckled, lardy outline... Damn Harbor Seal had spotted my lingcod and figured it would snatch an easy meal. The seal peeled out tons of line, at least 300 ft on the first run, and I fought hard with my 10ft bait casting set up with 75lb braid .. a stream of uncontrollable cursing and yelling leaving me the entire time.I was pissed! The seal surfaced briefly in front of us and it had somehow managed to hook itself on the corner of it's front flipper...my girlfriend brought my attention to a crowd of tourists who started yelling and snapping pictures and cursing at me in foreign languages from the bluffs above. I yanked solidly on the seal trying to free my line as I knew this sea mut would spool me if it got moving again. With every yank it barked and howled like someone was kicking a Basset Hound relentlessly out at sea..it was horrible..it just floated there looking at me and howling. It eventually spooled me.. and I didn't bring more line with me, so after the 2hr drive there, fishing/fighting seal for 15 mins it was time to head home. To this day I cringe when I hear seals barking, I am not fond of their ways.

I once fought a sand filled rubber glove caught in a incoming tide, it must have floated past in the current...I swear I had a fish on...reeled up a blue dish glove...Zach Lim was a witness to this.

Good idead for a thread

I too have done many rocks. Never have been able to find their mouths?

River trolling for salmon in Calif and had line/lure drag sandbar only to pull in with numerous clams clamped to line and hooks.

My favorite:
Friend and I were fishing a small lake, joking about the lake having a monster (think Loch Ness). Decide to check bait so reel in. All of a sudden something grabs the line. Manage to bring it up and to our shock I've hooked the lake monster in it's tail. We both stare in shock and disbelief especially since we were just joking about this very thing. Then the laughter starts, I'd managed to hook a large toy godzilla from our lake! When we finished for the day we proceeded to the lake store to inform them that the lake was safe once more.

Probably not the weirdest thing ever but the back story was just too good to ever forget.

I swear this is true, and believe I've told this story before. My younger brother Russ Bass got married and they spent their honeymoon at Big Bear Lake, in the SB mts (Ca)
While boat fishing, my brother's wife Mary, went to cast a lure... and put a barb of the treble hook through my brother's lower lip. They had to go to the emergency room to have it removed, and doctors were coming from all over the Hsp, to see the guy named Bass, with a big hook in his lip. I think it became a competition to see who could talk him the longest and keep a straight face...

I pulled in a rod & reel once... that were better than the one's I was using... jim

Beyond the basics (seagulls, pelicans, RES, snapping turtle (on a fly rod no less), bullfrogs, boots, etc.), the strangest thing I ever caught was striped bass. Why you ask?

Well that's because I never actually hooked it.

I was probably 12 or 13 at the time and spent a week every summer pier fishing with my cousin near his home in Delaware. We'd mainly catch small stuff with the occasional flounder or weakfish breaking up the monotony. One afternoon though my rod and the rod belonging to the angler next to me both doubled over. After a few minutes, it became apparent we were both battling the same fish. After a few moments, we managed to maneuver the fish into some ones pier net and agreed as it was being hauled up that whichever one of us had actually hooked it (assuming the other was simply snagged) would keep it.

Admiring our combined catch on the pier (~22" striper), we noticed somthing odd. The line leading out of the fish's mouth did not belong to either of us. Instead, both of our hooks were tangled approximately 12" from the fish's mouth in the loop of a broken leader. Neither of us had actually managed to hook the fish. It had simply haphazardly swam into our lines towing behind a snapped leader from a previous battle. As the fish was undersized anyway, there was no fight over which one of us would be taking it home. Pictures were simply taken (long lost since then) and it was released with all three leaders removed.

Chris

Not mine but sure is interesting. Wonder if it really is a salp, didn't know they had so much structure and were individuals as that appears to be. Anyone know for sure?



From: http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/22/salpa-maggiore-amazing-translucent-salp-fish-catch-stuns-fisherman-4272606/

Sure, turtles and birds, but to me the most interesting was a small sturgeon in the Wisconsin River.

Octopi and lobsters a few times, and a couple of kayaks and paddleboards. My favorite though was a simple calico bass: it was caught by two people at the same time! I hooked it, and while fighting it got foul hooked in the back on another angler's line. That one was no fun to untangle!

I caught a Nutria on a trout rig in Oregon. A rock with a hole in the middle of it surf fishing.

Should have kept it for bait.
http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=6254

I caught a Florida spiny lobster on a fly one night while dreging for snook at on of the local bridges. It was hook so close to the mouth it made me wonder...

Another time doing the same thing at the same bridge and caught a Moray eel. It was definitely hooked in the mouth. I grabbed it behind the head to unhook it. Big mistake (but I didn't get bit.)

Tim

similar to grabbing a lawyer behind the head?

-ben

Guess mine are similar to most...
one of the first things I ever hooked, of any kind, was a robin. I was five, Dad cast out a worm for me into a flowing stream and never noticed the current drag it downstream to shore where a foraging robin picked it up. Not a pretty site, I remember lots of panicked flapping and blood.

Surf fishing I hooked one tern which got off after awhile and one herring gull which wrapped itself tight in my line with plug hooked in face. I landed him, popped out the plug and cut him free. Pretty sure he was OK. I was a bloody mess and had a large puncture in my waders.

A few turtles, dragging bass bugs across the lily pads have hooked numerous bull frogs and one watersnake.

At extremely crowded, shoulder to shoulder trout pond, landed a rainbow hooked by myself and my neighbor at the same time. Before we figured out what was happening, we were fighting each other, rod to rod, with the fish stuck in between.

Have landed a huge lobster on bluefish bait from the outflow of a powerplant inside Boston Harbor. Very tempted to keep it but the industrial setting encouraged visions of glowing third eyes and virulent virus.

Flyfishing for flounder I often hook mussels, I mean really hooked, in the "mouth". The fly is dragged so close to the bottom, it gets between the open shells of the mussels which clamp shut on the fly hard enough to be dragged to the surface. Feels like a hit, always set the hook.

Landed half a striper on my flyrod one time in RI. The front half measured 18 inches [couldn't resist measuring] so it was a decent fish. The large cresent bite mark left no doubt what happened to the other half. Was a long, spooky wade back to shore in the pitch dark...

Some great fishing stories in this thread.

I've caught dozens of tumbleweeds while fishing the California Aqueduct. I've also caught about 30 African Clawed Frogs in Lake Elizabeth, CA. On one memorable outing, I was running a deep diver along a steep lake shore. I felt a "tug" and set my hook. My rod doubled over, and I thought I hooked a really big fish. The more I reeled, the greater the resistance got. If I stopped realing, the line felt limp. I was trying to figure out why the fish wasn't fighting like a normal fish, and I was really perplexed. It took me about 30 seconds to real up my catch, it was an open umbrella, and I had snagged the handle with a treble hook.

that story belongs in "crazy times".

-ben

Nerodia erythrogaster while bottom fishing with large shiners.

catching basses and perches on an empty hook

Wow! I've seen saltwater fishers catch trout and such on empty hooks using schools of prey around the line as bait. As for me, not yet at your level, salt or fresh water.

I had been fishing at a mountain lake and walked back to camp, leaning my pole against a tree with the spinner still attached (hooked around an eye). A few minutes later I heard a wild jangling, turned and saw a chipmunk hanging from my pole. The treble hook got him in three places. I wrapped a shirt around my hand and grabbed him to unhook him. He ran away after I got all three hooks out of him, but it was a pretty nasty injury. I felt bad for it.

back in my 'stoner' days a fellow stoner and I, to amuse other stoners, would hook a lure to my belt and I would go running down the street, jumping and wriggling while my friend tried to reel me in, while shouting "I got a big Bass'... (my last name is Bass)

I didn't personally catch this, but on a party boat one time I watched the girl next to me reel in a big orange sea anemone attached to a brick.

There's a few. Below is a brown pelican. I was fishing in Lake Placid, Everglades City. I was cleaning redfish and threw the heads and guts into the lake where a flock of pelicans were waiting. This was at a cleaning station were the birds were used to this.

I had a couple of rods out at the side of me. A bird grabbed a piece of fish head and took off, it somehow managed to fly into my fishing line and was brought down into the water. It's friend came to try and steal the fish from it and managed to get tangled in my line and pulled the hook into it's wing.

It was unhooked safely and flew off...



Just ten miles up the road I was fishing in one of the canals. I had an orange and yellow float with bait underneath. I saw a dark shape move towards it through my polarised glasses and realised a 6' gator had just eaten my float. It thrashed it's head around and got the small hook caught in its mouth. I tightened the line which resulted in the gator with its head out of the water moving very gingerly. I wiggled the line and it came free.

This actually really annoyed me because it showed me that people have obviously been feeding gators here as it obviously thought the float was food.

I've also caught a sea snail in 10,000 Islands national park and live oysters. The latter tasted good.

The strangest fish I've ever caught was on a party boat sailing out of Islamorada. It was a remora. The skipper stuck it temporarily to the roof of the boat to show the other anglers what a remora was. Not very ethical in my book, but at least he educated a few people that day.

Haha I was stocking a touchtank by freediving in the Puget Sound. Usually those big Metridium anemones are attached to pieces of driftwood or other debris like old tires...you have to yank on one and hope it is on something small enough for you to surface with. I grabbed one that was about a foot tall and wiggled it out of the sediment-it was attached to a big torchlight that must have fallen off the dock during a drunken crabbing session eons ago.

I'm getting cold just reading those words!

What is a torchlight, is that a kind of flashlight? Did it still work?