Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Strange catches

I cough a strang gizzmo last summer, I posted a picture.

Trolling at night for walleye, I caught a Rapala fillet knife, my hook caught the belt loop of the sheath, and on another night, I hooked, and landed, a pair of blue jeans. This was way back in 1984.

More recently, I snagged a rod/reel in the rod guide. Cleaned them up and they work fine.

My wife caught a sea gull, on a Rapala. The bird picked up the lure and when my wife pulled on the rod, the bird dropped the Rapala, but it hooked a leg. That was an unhappy bird, by the time I got it released.

They dove here for mussels in the river. Had a place that bought them about 50 miles south. They used them for buttons and what was left was ground and seeded into oysters to make pearls. Talk about a hard dangerous job for no money.
To sell them you had to boil the mussels and clean the meat out of them. A 55 gallon drum full was 20 bucks last time I heard a.price. I have seen people diving for them. 2 guys and a big wide John boat. Automotive air compressor. Garden hose to an ancient diving helmet. Imagine breathing the air out of an oiled air compressor. Guy in the water picking them up and filling a metal basket. Lifting them into the boat with a home made crane. They were filling the boat up but between the whole operation they had to be making below minimum wage.

Had a guy on the crew, he and his dad went to Florida fishing. His dad got sick over the side losing his dentures.
When they docked that afternoon people were weighing cleaning and photo fish. Someone held up dentures out of tuna.
Just amazing.

Great stuff- I hooked another line in the water with my hook thru the swivel that was attached to a 30lb salmon. My fishing buddy had just lost the fish up river. We landed and tagged it.

Yes. Over 50+ years of angling I've hooked into 3 beaver. Two on trout gear were off in short order. I was almost into the leader with one on steelhead gear and wondering just how one might put the grab on him when it came unhooked.

Several ducks and coot across the years.

I just had one this morning. Snagged a crankbait off the bottom of a pond that still had a cheapazz Zebco combo attached to the other end of the line 🤣

Many years ago I was fishing a small coastal lake in Oregon with my dad. We heard the lake had Kokanee so we were trolling with Ford Fenders and worms. Hooks were size 8 bait holders with about half a worm threaded on the hook, maybe 18” behind the flashers.
I had a hell of a strike that darn near defeated the pos Zebco but a few minutes later my dad netted a 4 lb largemouth bass. For those of you who don’t know, that a very respectable bass for Oregon.





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Snapping turtles, bullfrogs and a muskrat. Caught my best dog ( a dear treeing feist )on back casts using a fly rod , TWICE. heck of a fight and got bite each time. Crabs in ocean and my buddy on the neck with a jitter bug when we were kids , messing around.

I thought about my strange catches over the past 65 years while fishing last week.

Had a young sea lion grab a crankbait near San Pedro Island in Mexico. He tore off at full speed, lost most of my line.

Was trolling along on way back from Tortuga island in Sea of Cortez. Suddenly the reel started singing! By the time we turned the boat around and gave chase the thing had stripped off half the line, 150 yds. We chased it for 45 minutes gradually gaining line. It wouldn't stop or turn. Finally got the boat close and discovered the lure had caught the very tip of the tail of a gigantic 10 foot basking shark! We had used up some time and it was getting close to sunset, so I cut the line and left the area.

Like others I caught a few birds. A blue footed booby and a western grebe.

Not sure if these qualify as strange catches or not:

Lost a floating rapala to a largemouth bass and caught the bass several hours later and got the lure back. (10 acre pond)

Was flyfishing Honoeye lake in NY in front of where my grandfather's cottage used to be. Caught a small sunfish on a popper. Stripped it in quickly and a 4 lb largemouth grabbed the fish! The sunfish fell off the hook and the popper hooked the bass which I landed.

Hard to say what's on the bottom of many lakes.

Think it is a freshwater lamprey. Was pretty beat up.