Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Unusual catches while fishing?

I've been passionate about fishing for about 45 years now. I was just thinking about some of the oddball things that I've been a part of while fishing and thought it'd make for an interesting thread. What are some of the unusual things you've hooked when fishing--those that you weren't necessarily targeting or expecting to catch?

For me, freshwater:

An enormous snapping turtle with a shell about 30" across. I'd say it went better than 80 lbs. I was fishing for LMB in a small backwater MA pond with shiners. Thought I was snagged, as I couldn't budge the line. I decided to break it off by walking backwards, and with that, the line started coming in, but very slowly. Dead weight, no fight. After I got it started in, I was able to pump and reel it slowly in. About 30' from the bank, saw that I'd caught the proverbial car tire. At 15' feet off the bank and getting into a couple feet of water, I saw the old car tire sprout two front feet about as big as my hands. As soon as it was shallow enough to touch bottom, it dug it's claws in the mud and began thrashing aggressively. Had a buddy hold the rod and I went around the back of the thing and hoisted it up by the shell, which was covered in all kinds of aquatic vegetation. I plopped it on land and it started hissing and being generally uncooperative. I cut the line and sent him on his way. Spoke to an marine bio some years later and described the turtle and he said that it was likely more than 100 years old.

Fooling around fishing for panfish, hooked one and was just fooling with him when a large northern pike came up out of nowhere and ate him whole. Busted me off shortly after.

Salt water:

Hooked, fought and landed a shortfin mako almost 11 feet snout to fork. Bottomed out the 500 lb scale right away. With rough dimensions looked at a table and the estimate for the fish was 742 lbs. Fighting that fish showed me why some call the mako the most powerful fighting fish in the world. Never before or since seen any fish every damned inch of 20' and probably more in the air doing backwards somersaults. That was off of Jupiter, FL. We were fishing for king mackerel and the like when that beast jumped on a goggle eye on the surface.

Striped bass fishing off of Monomoy at Chatham, Cape Cod, bouncing metal jigs in rips. Set the hook on something and pulled in a 2+ pound lobster hooked through the crusher claw.

Trolling squid bars south of Martha's Vineyard for tuna and unintentionally hooked a humpback whale. The fight didn't last long but it sure had us all a-giggle.

Fishing for blues and bass out of Barnstable with TN Ken and Jimmy H, and Ken lays his expensive rod and reel down, with the plug hanging over the side dragging in the water while he was grabbing a drink or something. Yep, fish jumps on plug and over the side his outfit goes. Maybe $1000 setup gone in a flash. We're in a channel with moving water about 25'-30' so didn't even bother to try snagging for it. TN Ken is mighty displeased, but we continue to fish. Hours later, on the way back in, now dark but we're still fishing. Kenny sets the hook on something. It's a decent striped bass. Weird though, we see as he lips the bass that it has another line wrapped around the one his fish is hooked onto. Want to guess what was at the end of *that* line? Yep, old TN Ken's rod, reel and the OTHER bass that pulled it overboard hours earlier. What are the chances?

A buddy of mine seems to be the king of all kinds of bizarre things hooked, to include a dead girl's body in Boston harbor and a huge bottlenose dolphin that he hooked on a mackerel while tuna fishing. Said that thing was 800-1000 pounds and ten feet long and fought like a demon. As the story was related to me by him and a witness, the crew were able to get it to the boat after an hour or so where they cut the line close to the hook. They said that the thing stayed around the boat a bit after they cut the line. They both swore it was saying 'thank you'. I of course offered that it was more likely saying 'F you', but then I wasn't there.

There are others, but I'd like to hear/see what other weird stuff folks have hauled up from below.

I snagged and landed a large snapping turtle which I hooked underneath his shell somehow. I have no idea how I got him in, I was fishing from shore.

I also snagged a muskrat that wasn't very happy to see me.

While casting a Dardevle in a backwater of the Little Sioux at Linn Grove, I naturally spun up a backlash on an old direct-drive casting reel (steel rod as well). While I was untangling it, the lure settled to the bottom. When I got things straightened out and reeled in, there was a very dead, mud-encrusted carp carcass attached to the treble. It was snagged right outside the mouth.

My buddy caught a bat on his fly rod. We were watching the trout below Camp Sherman bridge on the Metolius. Was dusk. His fly was dangling off the rod over the water. Next thing a bat was bouncing off it. Few good slaps on the ground and the flurry of WTFs(!) was over.

I caught a Pico Chico by the rear treble hook while casting a Mepp’s #3 for bass one afternoon.

I snagged a 200lb sea turtle one time from a pier. I fought it for a while and didn't know what it was until it wore out and came to the surface near the pier. I wasn't happy. My Dad caught a water snake on a fly rod once.

Ha, been there. Not the Metolius but the McCloud. Good times

Caught a barn swallow on a small spinner bait. He plucked it out of the air mid-cast.

Tube sock full of rocks while trolling for walleye.

I caught a hellbender in E Tn one time. About 18 inches long.

A buddy had his salt water rig pulled overboard in about 300 feet of water one time. Thought it was gone forever until someone else brought a fish to the top that had A line running through it’s mouth. Pulled the line and brought the lost rod to the top and the fish was still on the other end!

Most guys fishing surface plugs on Cape Cod or Long Island Sound have likely caught or just missed catching a diving gull. It’s a great airborne battle.

Bob

Caught a bird one time while trolling for salmon in Puget Sound on a "hoochie" with the down rigger ball set at 70ft deep. Best guess is that it was Marbled Murrelet, yep it drowned. Oops!

My lifelong fishing buddy caught me, by the ear, with a tiny Torpedo, casting for bass in a small boat.
Caught a renegade hornpout that must have said to itself “I’m done with bottom feeding” and came up to hit my arbogast hula popper.
Caught a loon on a Sutton trolling spoon and lead core trolling Rangely in ME.
Caught a pelican trolling off the keys.
Caught a large mouth that was pooping out fishing line. A broken back Rapala I had lost about a week before was at the end of this line. About 30’ feet of it. I can’t get my mind around around that either so will not attempt to.
Guy I know hooked into a dead girls hair, smelt fishing, the Piscataqua in Dover area.
Know another guy that caught a S&W 60 ice jigging. NH.
All I got.

Know a guy that had a brand new Casio G shock watch. He was fishing off our platform and broke the strap and it fell overboard. Couple of weeks later someone caught an amberjack and it had his watch in it's gut.

Last year caught the largest crawdad I have ever seen while trout fishing. Fought hard enough I was sure I had a fish on.

Nothing very large or too unusual in Idaho waters.

My brother and I did have a seagull pick up our bait from the surface of the snake river one day. He was pretty funny flying around at the end of 150 yds of 6 lb Stren. We eventually reeled him in and cut the line.

I had a nice trout break off against the dam face in a high altitude Idaho reservoir. We ran back down to the dam face the next day and I caught that same fish with my green 6# Trilene still hanging from the bright red hook in his mouth.

And not so unusual but a surprise to me. On my first salt water experience, fishing for black bass (rockfish) on a reef a couple miles off the Oregon Coast. We were on a 24 foot charter with twin Honda 200s. I had caught four of five black bass, and a nice cabezon. Then the rod got very heavy, and I was grateful for the 30# mono. When I got it up from the 250 foot bottom, I had a ling cod at almost 36 inches.

That is still the largest fish in my life. although there was no actual fight, simply drag it up from the bottom. I preferred it to catching or eating salmon.

Caught a seagull on the wing on a topwater plug in VA. Damn thing grabbed the plug when I cast it out and got a treble hook in the beak. Bit the hell out of me when I was trying to unhook it.

Snagged a big cottonmouth once. Put that on my list of things to never do twice. That was one pissed off snake.

I caught an expensive pair of sunglasses while banging crankbaits of the bottom one time at a nearby lake.

As a kid I caught a sculpin.
Weird fish.
Didnt know wtf it was, maybe an exotic dumped.
Learned 20 yrs later it was a native critter.

Snapping turtle and seagull.

As far as seagull, it was an epic battle to the very end. But I got my hook back. I was 13 years old and didn’t have many hooks to spare or money to buy more.

Had watersnakes latch onto fish when reeling in.
Overload my ultralight damn near.