Dena

Hello fellow fishermen,
I recently went fishing at a lake near my home that I fish often from the bank. I was fishing for bass casting a lure. I cast out my line waiting for it to hit the water when I realized that my line was still spooling out. It had landed on the back of a duck that flew by when I casted out. I shouted out to my boyfriend I've caught a duck. I gave my. Line a good yank pulling the duck down to the water. I was reeling in my line hoping that I hadn't lost my lure in the ducks back. When a man fishing from a boat about15 feet off shore that had seen the whole things yells out now that's what you call foul fishing. U never know what you might catch!

Hunterbill Loc: Toomsboro, ga

Yes! When the fish don’t bite, I go magnet fishing around the boat ramps, you never know what you will catch!!! And you get to see what others are fishing with!! All bass folks are using the same stuff!!!! Try it, you will love it. Just a thought.

TexDanm Loc: East Texas

I've caught a crane, a cormorant, and two fishing rods and reels. The crane flew in and grabbed a little bass that I had hooked. He was jumping and splashing and the crane caught him and took off. We had a bit of an aerial battle. The crane finally spit it out when I got it to the boat.

The cormorant grabbed a perch on a shallow trotline. It was alive and well but hooked in the side and pissed off. It took two of us to subdue it and unhook it. It was night time and we thought it was a catfish tugging on the line. When we got to it that bird went wild and my first sight of it was when its head and long neck popped up and tried to peck me. Scared me half to death.

Over the years I have managed to catch two rods and reels one had and ABU 6000 and the other was a Walmart ABU bass casting rod and reel that someone was using to fish for catfish. If your reel doesn't have a clicker when you are catfishing don't just set it down. Catfishing, because you fish on the bottom makes it a lot more likely that you may catch a rod and reel by its line. In both cases, I was in a very popular fishing spot.

FixorFish Loc: SW Oregon

My first observed encounter with a really large swimbait was my buddy Harold purchasing a 12" long articulated rainbow trout, w/3 trebles for what I consider an idiotic price for a single lure...$29.99! I was giving him grief about the expensive acquisition and how he's never going to catch anything with such a huge lure, so of course, we had to make a wager on his success or failure. Since we lived together at the time, and had a huge property (1 1/2 acres) that we kept mowed and trimmed, the bet was - the winner got a month off of yard duty.
Harold proceeded to rig up the huge thing....on his salmon rig !
We were at a lake known for 30" rainbows on occasion, so I guess it was feasible he could catch one, just not likely. I told him to put more weight than he had on, to get it deep,....he scoffed at that advice, and proceeded to let out line on our troll down the "trough" of the lake, where we assumed the biggies were. I got bit, so I'm reeling in my little planter, when Harold starts cursing and yelling. I figured I was somehow? tangled with him in my retrieval...not even close ! I look back to see Harold fighting to retrieve his spendy lure....from an OSPREY , 40 feet UP !! Lost my fish, 'cause I was laughing so hard. The battle went on for a whole minute, maybe two at best, and finally the bird let go. Harold got his lure back... shredded !
We compromised on the wager, and resumed our task-division at home.
He did "catch" something with the lure, my bad.. for wording the wager as " you won't get anything to take that". 15 yrs+ later, we still laugh, to the point of hurt, over that incident, and the lure still hangs in his shop. Took ten years for him to admit my advice to "keep it deep" was a sound idea ! Days like that are what make fishin' and buddies such a perfect fit for a truly blessed life, huh ?

bozokarl Loc: south central Pa

I was fishing a floating plastic cricket along a bunch of lily pads and caught a bullfrog. Another time I caught a snapping turtle on a plastic frog.

TexDanm Loc: East Texas

I caught a big bullfrog on a flyrod one time. I thought he was going to tear my rod up. Frogs are STRONG!!!

J.R. Sloan Loc: Inland Northwest (WA, OR, ID)

Monterey Bay has periodic visits by "Bonita", small tuna (up to maybe 15 lbs or so), that follow sardine schools (or similar) up and down the Pacific coast. Warned that "nothing fights like a Bonita", I joined the throngs chasing the gulls over the baitfish, and many of us caught nice tuna on herring trolling rigs.

But there's always a jack___ in every crowd. This guy had a 20-to-22-foot skiff with a 50-horse outboard he was speeding to run afoul of all the rest of the fleet as he "skip-trolled" his baits, causing all sorts of mayhem and angry shouts from nearby fishing boats. Justice, however, was sweet.

Suddenly he was at his unbreakable-steel-wire-line trolling rig, his engine roaring but out of gear so he could play a "monster" fish. The hooked and submerged beast literally pulled his boat backwards during the fight, to the delight of the crowd watching him try to land a huge sea lion that had also been busy chasing tuna and baitfish that day. We laughed and laughed at the plight of the wise guy who knew better than all of us about how to fish for Bonita, when the beast surfaced behind his boat.

Later that same day, I had run out of herring, but had still a single frozen squid to troll in the hope of another tuna. But squid doesn't troll the same way herring does, and this one skimmed the surface, right into the attention--and mouth--of one of the pelicans chasing scraps of baitfish above the school. Before I could react, I'd hooked the bird, first in the beak, and then as it struggled, at the edge of one wing. Like the guy Harold in an earlier post, I now had an aerial battle with a critter armed with a beak as sharp as, and about as long as, a sword. If there had been a camera anywhere in sight, I'm sure I'd have been in the paper next day, trying to extricate both myself and this bird from yards of monofilament and two sharp hooks. Ultimately, I got him untangled, unhooked and released, just as he pooped in my boat and spread his wings to cruise away.

You never know what you might catch in a day of fishing.

ShortorderCook62 Loc: Grand Junction, Colorado

About 60 years ago(yes I'm old) my brother and I were fishin' my G-pa's farm pond. We had caught a plate sized bluegill that took us all over the pond before landing her. Then we hooked somethin' BIG. It was a large snapping turtle. We got him to the bank, stuck a broom handle from the bed of an old '48 Chevy pickup in front which he immediately clamped on to and thru him in the bed. Took him to a neighbor who made soup out of him. Exciting for a 14 year old on a Zebco 33.

TexasNatv

Up until 3 months ago I went a whole year not catching one single fish! However, I didn't necessarily get skunked. I caught a pair of bikini bottoms, on 4 different occasions I managed to catch a Rat-L Trap, I caught a very nice casting net, I caught a straw floppy sunhat ( those are frickin heavy when wet LOL), and the most bizarre one made me think I had really caught a big one....I couldn't believe my eyes when I finally got it to surface. It was an orange traffic cone!
Once I had to get a little creative when a gust of wind caught my line mid cast and blew my Whopper Plopper into tree branches where it became stuck. I put a lure on my line that I didn't mind if I happened to lose it and carefully walked on and over huge slippery tree roots and cast my line to my Whopper Plopper and successfully "caught" it! No way I was losing a $10 lure! 😂🤣😂

FixorFish Loc: SW Oregon

It's a shame your "neighbors" have so little regard for the waterways.... the fish that ARE there must be frightened by ANYTHING thrown their way !!

Hunterbill Loc: Toomsboro, ga

You will very surprised what you catch by magnet fishing!!!

GlennMc928 Loc: Tualatin OR

I have cought large frogs on you guessed it a top water frog in my local pond and one bird while fishing top water for strippers but my best catch was a 90 lb thrust motorguide that I cought by way of a magnet while looking for my sons spinning reel and it worked to.

mikeypikey

Caught my own ear one time while casting on a windy day. Fishing alone...hard to extricate when you can't see it. Pretty careful caster since then....