Thought I would start a tread where we could share bizarre and wacky fishing stories.
I'll go first.

When I was around 17 me and some buddies went night fishing for catfish on the river bank. I had set out three rods. We fished on up until way past mid night drinking and carrying on. No wonder we didn’t have much luck. One by one we started passing out. I crashed in the driver seat of my pickup. That morning I was the first to wake up. I got out of my truck and while releaving myself I realized I had left all three of my rods baited and in the water. Not expecting anything I walked over to where my rods where and noticed that one was missing and one was lying on the ground. So I’m like damn-it I lost one of my rods. Pissed, I picked up the one laying on the ground and started reeling it in and noticed a little drag. I got it reeled in and to my surprise there it was, my lost rod, hooked threw one of the line eyes. So I’m happy now, I grabbed that rod and started reeling it in and on the other end was a 4lb flathead. I was jumping up and down trying to wake everyone up to tell them what had happened but no one would believe me. But I’m here to tell ya it’s the truth.

Heres another one.
While fishing off the bank of a good size lake in KY. I caught a nice rod and reel combo. Man I was happy and surprised, its not every day you catch a fishing rod. A few minutes later this guy comes over and started telling us that his boat had sunk about 30' out from where we where fishing and told me that that was his rod and reel. I just couldn't bring myself to believe him even tho he got fighting mad. Anyways I left that day with a nice rod and reel and a few good fish.

Heres another one.
While fishing off the bank of a good size lake in KY. I caught a nice rod and reel combo. Man I was happy and surprised, its not every day you catch a fishing rod. A few minutes later this guy comes over and started telling us that his boat had sunk about 30' out from where we where fishing and told me that that was his rod and reel. I just couldn't bring myself to believe him even tho he got fighting mad. Anyways I left that day with a nice rod and reel and a few good fish.

Ha Ha !! Finders Keepers !!

About a month ago me and a couple guys were fishing in a small creek and a beaver swam down to where we were. It climbed up on the bank on the other side of the creek about twenty feet from us, completely unaware that we were even there. It sat down like a human and started cleaning itself off. We tossed a couple small rocks into the water in front of it and when it looked at us it just gave us this creepy stare. My friend waved at it to break the awkwardness between the four of us and the damn thing waved back! At this point we were all dying laughing because it's not every day that a beaver waves at you. After a minute of us watching the beaver clean himself off more he looked back at us and started clapping his hands. It looked like a little kid. No joke. He then got up and went back to swimming like nothing happened. Beavers are creepy.

^^ LMAO creepy beavers HAHAHAHAH. they always slapped their tails on the water when i was fishing too close to them.

i lost a pole jiggin for salmon then i ended up using another jig to hook my actual line n got me pole back! Then i was trrolling for stripped bass when my pole hit something it then flew of the boat the tied on a jig and caught my lure then reeled in my pole ! I lost a 25lb salmon out of a net !!!

This thread kinda smells fishy....


:mocking:

I was doing some fishing on Wheeler Lake with my brother. We were just below Wheeler Dam and were having some great luck with the smallmouth that day. Another guy in a boat comes roaring up in our "space" and just locks it down and starts fishing. I mean not more than 15 yards from our boat! My brother yelled at him and the guy said "it's a free country sir. I can fish wherever I like". Apparently this guy didn't feel the rule of 50 yards between boats applied to him. My brother was friggin' steamed and he is not somebody you want to piss off. I anxiously awaited to see what would happen next. I was surprised when he just calmly sat at the front of the boat watching the other prick and not saying a word. He reaches into the side well where he kept his rods and pulls out another one. On the end is this big honkin' crankbait with 2 large treble hooks on it. The guy in the other boat is tossing his line in the exact same spot we were fishing in and just enjoying himself thoroughly thinking he has really ruined our spot. Well on his next cast, my brother launches that crankbait right over his line, reels it in as fast as he can until it snags his line and he sets the hook with everything he had. All you could see was this huge birdnest of fishing line spill out of the guy's reel. I absolutely nearly pissed myself laughing to the point of nearly falling out of the boat. The guy fumbled with the reel a minute or two but apparently my bro knotted it up really well. My brother just reaches up and snips his line then yells over to the guy "you're welcome". The guy reels in the rest of his line by hand, not even acknowledging us and trolls another 100 yards or so down the dam to find a new spot.

I'm thinking he learned a valuable lesson that day. Respect the space! :D

To add one more story, I lived on a lake growing up and did a lot of wade-fishing almost daily in the summers. There was a slough about 3/4 of a mile from my house that had a spring that fed it and it was a hotspot for largemouth. One day I was fishing and landed a 6 pounder. At the time, the biggest fish I had ever caught. I never carried a stringer or anyway to keep the fish I caught but I was determined I was going to show this one off or nobody would believe me so I lipped it and started trudging my way back to my house. Stayed in the lake almost the entire way keeping it in the water so it wouldn't die. Made it to the nearest bank from my house which still left me with about 200 yards to go over land. I got out of the water, dropped my gear and went running for my house with the lunker in hand. Got to my house, weighed it and showed it to my parents. Being just one fish, I wasn't planning to keep it because I knew we couldn't afford to mount it at the time. So after showing it off I turned and made a mad dash for the lake again. Jumped back in and for the next 30 minutes I worked it back and forth in the water and actually was able to revive it and let it swim off.

Catch and release.......nice!!
Heres a couple more for you.

On the first day of my first fishing trip to Canada, I had just hooked a walleye (about 12") and I was reeling it in, when about 5 foot from the boat, a Northern latched onto the walleye and I ended up catching both fish!! Thanks to the handy dandy net.

On the last day of our trip I caught a 15 lb Northern Pike and wanted to bring it back to have it mounted but I decided to let it go. When I first hooked it, I thought I hooked a stump. I told my father-in-law to go back so I could get unsnagged when I felt it move...whoa! what a feeling.

^^ I bet that was exciting.^^ Some old guy was telling me a similar story. He said they where crappie fishing and as he was reeling one in a large Rock fish came up and snatched it as he was about to pull it out of the water. Thats what its all about, getting the blood pumping. I don't think there is anything other than wheeling that gets my heart pounding as much a fishing. And its a lot cheaper, lol.

Many years ago (I think I was about 6 years old) my parents and I were fishing in the coastal marshes on the Louisiana/Mississippi state line. My dad had rigged my line first, and then his, casting his bait and setting his pole just leaning against the gunwale of the boat while he rigged up my mom's line. All of sudden, his pole leaps out of the boat, and we're all just staring at it when something hits my line and nearly pulls me out of my seat on the front of the boat (remember, I was 6; it wouldn't have taken much). My dad runs to the front of the boat and grabs my rod and reel out of my hand and begins fighting what ever I had hooked. Eventually he managed to pull his rod out of the water. We think that whatever pulled it out of the boat dragged it past my line and my hook slid down the line until it hooked the bail on his reel. My dad fought this fish (we never got a good look at it, but he believes it was a big yellowfin or bluefin tuna) for over half an hour. We had to pull up the anchor and chase it with the boat to keep it from stripping all the line off the reel a couple of times, with my dad pouring water on the reel to keep it from smoking. Eventually, my dad got his thumb jammed in the reel while he was using it as a brake on the spool, and we had to cut the line. I was terrified. I didn't get back in a boat for almost a year, LOL.

Great stories.

Years ago I spent a good part of my summers out near the end of Long Island NY in Amagansett. It was great back then, very un-crowded and on a week day, early morning just before dawn you could go to the ocean side beach and have it to yourself. I’d go there to surf cast a few times a week and once in a while pull in a Fluke, Black or Bluefish out of the surf.

One morning I had been out there for about an hour, the sun was just coming up and the surf was pounding, F’n beautiful. There was one other guy on the beach about 200 yards away also surfcasting and enjoying the morning. In the distance I noticed a dense flock of seagulls heading up the beach, heading east just beyond the breakers. They were moving fast and as they got closer I could see that they were following a school of Bluefish that was chasing and feeding on a school of Bunker. As chunks of Bunker came out of the water during the feeding frenzy the gulls were snatching them up.

I was using a plug on a swivel but quickly changed to a steel leader and a Hopkins Jig. The jig is basically a long hammered hunk of shinny steel heavy enough to get out beyond the break water with a treble hook. I started tossing and retrieving my set up in front of the churning water that was just about upon me.

For those of you that my not know, Bluefish are a great game fish, large with tons of fight. The only thing more fun to pull out of the surf is a Striped Bass (something of only heard of because sadly, in all my years of fishing it is an experience I have yet to enjoy).

Any-who, when the school of Blues drew parallel one of the behemoths hit. When a Blue hits they don’t F around, they are ravenous so I knew I had him good. With 30lb test and with a steel leader I wasn’t worried about line failure so I just tightened up the drag cranked him in. He was a big fish that battled hard, jumping out of the surf a few times, it was a great fight.

You do not put your fingers near the mouth of a Blue if you want to keep them all so I always have needle nose pliers with me when there is a chance I might have to unhook one. I got him on the beach, got him off the rig and as I tossed him inland I noticed the one other guy on the beach was struggling with a Blue of his own. The school was still moving quickly east so I ran around the other angler and tossed my lure Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more. I don’t think the lure even hit the water before it was swallowed up. As I reeled this Blue my new fishing partner ran around me and hooked another. We did this back and forth a few more times before the school outran us. We both had a smoke while walking back to get our buckets and then picked our harvest up off the beach. I had five and he had seven, hey he was younger and faster plus five was even too much for me. I gave 3 away to some locals and grilled up the two I had left that afternoon.

That was the best day fishing in my life. Unfortunately that beach has been almost fished out and is gone forever, the rich have built it up and folks are on it 24/7.

That sounds awesome Tom! I've been fortunate enough to catch a striper (transplants to control shad in our lakes) and they are a fun battle to have. While fishing for largemouth on light tackle, I landed one that I fought for about 20 minutes before it snapped my line.

http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu40/peeweesewell7/fishy.jpg

This is honestly probably the biggest fish I have ever caught. I have never really gone fishing much before this summer. I just felt like showing it off lol this thread is the first thing I thought of after I caught it.