Most Unusal Things You Have Brought Up With Hook & Line

[Deleted User]

While we are waiting for rain and the fishing to heat up it's a good time for these fishing related interest threads. I have brought up a few unusual things on the ends of my fishing lines over the years and I will tell about one (or 2) on here, and would love to here about others. ..... Back in the early 70's in my first driftboat, fishing for winter steelhead on the Nestucca R., we were anchored and driftfishing fast riffles. This was early on and I wasn't quite an expert yet at what all fish feel like. Well my oakie drifter stopped for a second and like I read I set the hook quick and hard. The 'fish' took off with the current and begun to spiral somewhat like the coho had done when I fished out in the ocean with Dad. We didn't want to lose this nice anchor spot that was too hard to row back up to so I played my catch up to the boat. Took awhile to; didn't want to horse it in and lose it. It never stopped spiraling. I then proudly landed my first round nosed curve bottomed steelshovelhead. My buddies got a good laugh at me, but it fought a better fight than you are probably thinking. Now here's the kicker. This happened again to me on another river a few years latter. Of course I knew the difference between a shovelhead and steelhead better by then http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif. I've got to be the only guy in history to land 2 shovelheads? I think so. And who throws old broken shovels out in the river anyway?

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Know Fish or Shovel Fish. - RT

[fish_on]

Did ya have them mounted?

[Deleted User]

I was fishing catch and release (in the garbage that is), besides they were too rusty Dusty. ...Ah, I mean Dustin. http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by RT (edited 11-05-2000).]

[Gone Fishin]

This season at Tillamook Bay one of my clients set the hook spinner fishing by the "sheeps corral", turned out to be a flounder! Hooked in the mouth! (a legal catch that was released). Several years ago while trolling near the "ghost hole" a client reeled in a boot! An actual rubber boot just like the cartoons! That was comedy! (we kept that one and released it later in the day in the circular "boot holder" next to the marina).

[Salmonator]

Last year I had a client in the front of the boat casting blue fox's for steelies on the Santiam. After claiming he had a "strike" he reeled in a four inch long freshwater clam, legally hooked in the mouth. He decided to release it after some careful reviving.
Also, several years back my wife and I were casting topwater rapala's off of Newports south jetty at night for blacks, when she reeled in a perfectly good baseball style yacht club hat. Empty, thank goodness...

[_LIPPEE]

In the fall of 1999 trolling for chinook in
nehalem bay, just above 101 bridge. I was fishing with sea lice and his father, when sea lice's father thought something was wrong with his line. he started to crank on the reel, when he retrieved all the line in on the hook was legal sized male crab. We kinda looked at each other with amazmentlaughed and threw it back in the river.

[Moleman]

I was fishing along the Picket Fence pulling a flatfish. Reeled in a one-piece pole with reel....and the spinner still attached. (still using it)

[Chaps]

Bottom fishing off Depoe Bay a number of years ago, hooked and started retrieving what felt like a decent fish. After about 5 cranks on the reel the fish suddenly got MUCH heavier. Got it all up to the top and I've got an 8 lb Ling on the jig and a 24 lb Ling hanging on to the smaller fish by its head. I dunno, that might be common but surprised the heck out of me. Netted 'em both.

[Deleted User]

Several years ago my wife and I were camping on the west side of San Juan Island just south of Snug Harbor (across Haro Straight from Victoria BC). We had tried salmon fishing the previous day from my jetsled but didn't hook any, partly because seine netters were working the area for sockeye and it was a little early for silvers. So the next day we tried bottom fishing in about 200' of water trying to get lings/cabezon/rockcod. I reeled in the stangest looking fish I'd ever seen, including what I've seen in aquariums! It was about 20" long and generally perch shaped, but it had huge opaque eyes, strange fins, and it's large scales looked like some kind of shandelier (sp? all glitery and different colors; like a huge tropical fish). The most bizzar thing though was it had a periscope looking thing that came out of the top of it's head, extending up and down. Weird! And I didn't have bronchitis at the time either, if ya know what I mean. I've been told since that it was a rare fish up in Puget area waters, and the 'periscope' was for attracting smaller fishes in close by curiosity so they could eat them. I released it. Too pretty and unusual to conk. - RT

[bait boy]

Last week while fishing on the N.F. Lewis river There was a guy standing next to me that was getting frustrated by his new reel. He could not make it stop backlashing and since he was using spiderwire he had a real tough time getting the backlash out. sooo after the 10th time he got so mad he threw his reel in the water. (he was really mad)
a couple of hours later one of the folks fishing in the hole snagged up un something and thought it might be a jack or a bunch of leaves and when she got it in she had that reel on the end of her line.

Rick

[Grant Scheele]

Twice in the same season in 1988 fishing the S. Santiam below Foster Res I snagged someone elses broken off line. While trying to pull the line in to throw it in the garbage I realized that there was a live Steelhead on the other end. Neither fought real hard as they were tired from pulling around a 100+ feet of line.

[FISHRUS]

http://smilecwm.tripod.com/asian2/pmail2.gif Was fishing the Green river in Washington with my brother for steelhead. I thought that I hooked into one, but to my shock http://smilecwm.tripod.com/cwm/eek2.gif I hooked into a soft sided tacklebag. Well I tossed out my line again...hoping for a steelhead. Again I hooked into something... http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net/rolling_eyes.gif .To my surprise this time I got a fenwick rod and reel...wow. Then my brother
said let's go before you bring up the fisherman's body that goes with the stuff I got. Didn't get any fish that day, but I got
a bunch of equipment for fishing! http://smilecwm.tripod.com/net/ukliam2.gif

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

I may post several times to this thread as my memory serves me.

Fishing in one of our 13 ponds back home, we had a 6ft alligator that I called Kermit Hunter. He was a rascally guy. I was with my younger brother one time in the canoe and hooked a nice sized bass. Well I didn't realize just how nice the bass was until the canoe started creating wake. Finally after wrestling my so called fish around logs and stumps, I finally get it to the boat. Well I am looking eye to eye at a grinning alligator. Needless to say, I never got to see how big my fish was, and Kermit Hunter got a nice headache from my oar. Several times in other ponds, I have pulled up an alligator, and one time for sure, I pulled up Bertha...a nice 10ft alligator that isn't friendly at all. I was actually fishing for her when I saw her though. Put on a nice topwater lure, Heddon's Torpedo, and twitched it by her frantically. She took the lure and then the fight was on. After fighting with her for an hour, I slacked my line so she could toss the lure. All in all, a grand memory.

[Tanner]

Hey RT does bringing it up with your anchor count? If so I got a story for you. My best fishing buddy (back in his guide days). was fishing for sturgeon under the Steel Bridge on the Willamette. He had two clients with him and I think they had two keepers in the boat. They decided to pull anchor and head out. They started pulling the anchor by hand to discover it was extremely heavy. Well, they kept heave hoing away at the anchor rope and when the anchor was about 10 ft from the surface, they noticed a terrible smell. Well, they kept pulling and the smell got worse. Pretty soon one of them looked over the bow of the sled to see what was going on. To his surprise, there was a dead body attached to his anchor. The anchor had actually dug into the guy's ribs right below his armpit so as he was being hoisted up his head was tilted back as if he was looking up at the sky. They dropped the anchor back down about 15 ft and called the police on the cell phone. They figured the guy had been in the river at least a couple of months, so you can imagine what he looked like. I was watching the news that night and saw a story about "Fisherman pulls dead body out of the Willamette". They showed a small amount of footage taken at the Fire Station dock and there on film was the front half of what looked like my buddy's sled. So I immediately got on the phone and called his house. He answered and I said, " Hey was that", that is as far as I got. He said" Yeah that was my boat you just saw on the news. To this day he does not sturgeon fish anywhere near any of the bridges on the Willamette or Columbia. SORRY IF I GROSSED ANYONE OUT.

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There's No Nookie Like Chinookie

[jawbreaker]

Wow Tanner! That would be something I hope I never reel in! YIKES!

However, in 1992 I was fishing off the Barview jetty in February for Lings. I had caught and released several small ones. I was plunking anchovies on a mooching rig when
the cowbell on my surf rod was going CRAZY!
I jumped out of the truck in the pouring down
rain and set the hook hard.....I could tell this was no ordinary Ling. I tightened down the drag a little because the weight of this beast was really testing my Daiwa 450H. After about a minute I could see the sillouette of a fish that was at least SIX FEET LONG!! Upon closer inspection I realized that there was something very unfish-like about this. My first clue was probably when I was pulling it up to the rocks and the fin came out of the water......
The fin was ATTACHED TO A DIVER!! Thats right!! I hooked into a 6' diver who was spear fishing along the jetty. Boy was he ****** (thrashing all over the place). Luckily the hook got him right in the fin so he wasn't hurt.....But at least he was alive!
YIKES!! http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[MoJet Driver]

One word: Condom
Status: Spawned out
Ultimately: Released by cutting the leader so it could swim away with dignity (at least from my boat).

[Drachir]

I was fishing the Clackamas a number of years ago. We were backtroling sand shrimp in the Smith hole, and I became snagged. I pulled and pulled and began to gain ground on what ever I hooked into. After 2-3 minutes up to the surface came my rig tangled up in the handle of a old beat up weed-whacker, extension cord and all. It looked pretty bad, but the extension cord is hanging in my garage.

[This message has been edited by Drachir (edited 11-06-2000).]

[bathtub bob]

Fishing the cowlitz several years ago i took a scout pack 4 kids pulling plugs on the cowlitz the day after turkey day one of the youth had a hind turkey leg for lunch when he was done with it went in the river just before we took out down river about 2miles one of the boys said i have someting go figure a turkey leg!!!!

[Dances]

about 3 or 4 years back I was out on a charter boat in cali. and we were fishin for rock cod when my buddies fishin pole came flyin out of the holder . it landed in the water and started to sink then my pole started to get take downs will as you can probably imagin I had hooked his rod and we reeled it in with fish on the end of both our rods http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Deleted User]

This has turned out to be a great thread! Boots, clams, poles, ling on ling, a weedwhacker?!?, and even a couple gators http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/shocked.gif . MoJet - ROTFLMAO! Jawbreaker, that's a good one, and your body was alive http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif. ... As for the Cowlitz, are you sure that wasn't an emu leg? They are plentiful around that neck 'o the woods. ... My Dad was out on an ocean charter out of Illwaco back in the 60's in what must have been an El Nino warm warm summer. A guy on board hooked into a huge heavy fish that wasn't fighting all that well and he tugged in a good sized hammerhead shark. That's a rare one! When I had my sled out of Depot Bay for salmon one summer my friend Chris Sessions reeled in about a 6' blue shark that sawed off the herring leader while we were debating keeping it; I guess those aren't that rare in our waters though, but how many hit trolled herring? - RT

[Grant Scheele]

I can remember being snagged on the bottom when I was about 9 years old, fishing outside of Newport for bottom fish. When I finally got loose I reeled in a small rock with many natural holes in it. The rock hit the bottom of the boat and while everyone was laughing at me a baby octopus crawled out and scared the crap out of the adults. I had to be the one to grab it and throw it back into the ocean.

[This message has been edited by O.Mykiss (edited 11-06-2000).]

[letsfish]

I can think of a few things that got hooked and were a surprised:
>My brother hooked a bat (Mammalian not Louisville Slugger genre).I suppose this is not that uncommon as I have had the "winged beasties" dive bomb my fly on more than a few occasions.
>I hooked a steelhead one December that put a sorry excuse for a fight.I found out why.....Besides being a puny 2-3 pounds max,the poor thing had two other complete sets of drift gear in his mouth(With lead weights!).My admiration for this fish suddenly grew as I realized he must have been fighting quite well considering the handicap.He was relieved of his burden and released.I hope he kept his mouth shut for a while.
>This summer, while fishing the John Day a bit up from where it joins the backwaters of the dammed up Columbia(lake umatilla,I gazed down into a pool of smallmouth.Frustrated that all I had been catching was relatively small fish I switched over to fly gear to while away the time.After letting the fly and line sink deep I began to retrieve and something decent was on!The water was clear and I soon could tell it was no bass, as the fish disappeared into the depths I figured it must have been a carp but a moment later revealed that I had caught a channel cat.Though we targeted channel cat we never caught any with bait on that trip.

[Jennie@ifish]

Bill. I would have to say Bill.
Jen

[BillH]

As a much younger person -- about 50 years ago-- I was already intense on fishing. Myself and a few of the neighborhood kids had discovered that the nearby pond along the highway in the Lake Oswego golf course contained bluegills, crappies, and catfish. After being kicked out a few times for fishing in the middle of the fairway, we found that we were less disturbed by irate golfers just before dark. On one such summer evening we were gleefully hooking one small fish after another when I hooked something that didn't pop out of the water flopping easily onto the neatly cropped grass as I was expecting. My flimsy casting rod bent over sharply and a large dark back appeared at the surface. An ugly head appeared and I dragged onto the bank a very upset and elderly critter ----about four pounds of pond turtle! We finally mustered the courage to unhook him and put him in the wicker creel. For lack of a pond or swamp at home, he was returned to his longtime home a few days later. You just never know what you may pull up from a shallow muddy pond!

[HOGTIDE]

I was fishing the Wilson for salmon a few years back. Working the stretch below Mills bridge(behind the guide shop)with sandshrimp, I felt a nice solid tug and responded with a firm hookset. Up the opposite bank ran a squeeling, scolding otter with a hook in his mouth. Assuming he'd tear me up if I yarded him in to unbutton him, I took up the slack line and cut the rig off. Kinda made me hesitant to set the hook the rest of that day.

[Steelheader69]

Well, where should I start? Around 20 years ago I was fishing with my Dad on the Puyallup River. As he was letting his plunking rig settle, the rod buckled over. He set the hook, yet there was tension but movement. As my Dad's pyramid weight broke the surface, we could see on his leader a sixpack of Pepsi (the old style with the two pop lids on them). They were ice cold and tasted great.

I've also been on the Chehalis River, just at the mouth of the Satsop. A guy fishing next to me rod just buckled over. As the "fish" broke water, it kept going higher, and higher, and higher. Come to find out a seagull had found his bait delicious and nabbed it while underwater. He actually fought the stupid bird until he got most of his gear back.

Now, myself. I was out in Puget Sound last year mooching for salmon. We were just drifting past the point when my rod buckled over. I started reeling up, and was getting one helluva fight. The "fish" kept circling the boat. I kept slowly winching this fish up. I was keeping tension on the "fish" and kept running around the boat to follow it's movement. Finally, I made near the surface, I could see my banana weight. Below my weight I found my fish, a 10 lb rock. I had hooked it by a barnacle attached to it. With all the crosscurrents under the boat it made the rock circle my boat.

That's about it for me. No dead people.

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You haven't lived til you've rowed a cataraft. Friends don't let friends run Outcasts.

[Chaps]

I've always gotten a big kick out of reeling in immature little gamefish of all types that for some reason have decided that they are gonna try to eat some big old jig that's twice their size.

. . . this talk about bodies . . . yeah, found a floater once . . . came to find out later the guy had fallen off a sail boat in high seas 3 weeks previous. Was told by the coasties when they came out to get him that they were expecting the call anytime . . . apparently thats about how long it takes for those that go in without life vests to pop back up.

[This message has been edited by Mugwump (edited 11-06-2000).]

[Salmonator]

10 years ago I was on a bottom fish charter out of newport. We were fishing a near reef with whole herring for lings in about 60 feet of water. We had just drifted over a reef and was in the process of reeling in all the rigs to move to another spot when I got nailed by something big, as in halibut or big shark big. At this point all the other rods were in and everybody had crawled into the cabin as it had started sleeting and snowing while I was out battling that monster. After 10 minutes of freezing my arse off and getting nowhere, the beast made one real good run about 50 yards away from the boat and tailwalked... all 400 fat sealion lbs of him. Thumbed the spool and broke him off in disgust. I went from charter stud to laughing stock of the boat real quick.

One last story... A buddy of mine was trolling in his rubber raft at Marion lake when he got hit by a big fish and it pulled his pole out and into the drink. Two days later I was bank fishing near the outlet (over a hundred yards away from where the pole went in) and sure enough, snagged his mainline and retrieved the pole whilst dragging some green matukas across the bottom, but the fish was gone. Joe

[aye fsh]

My dear ol' Dad has managed to hook a strange item or two over the years. Unfortunately for him very few happen to have scales!
* When I was a young lad of 14 my dad, my younger brother and I were fishing Paulina lake. Now my brother is kind of a walking disaster and when he got his first bite of the day over the side goes the rod! Dad calmly gets out a great big treble hook and sends her down to the bottom (which is about 200). after about 15 minutes of us kids laughing while he's "fishing" away he hollars "Got it!" and proceeds to drag in the lost outfit.
* One of our trips to the snake below brownlee found us without a net. As we were discussing how nice it would be to be able to NET a fish, shore 'nuf, Dad catches a nice little trout sized net, all shiny and new looking!
* THE funniest thing i ever saw Dad catch was out salmon fishing out of depot bay. this was back when the silvers were all thick from or-aqua and we were hooking up left and right, everyone except dad of course. All of a sudden his rod goes down real hard and the fight is on. He starts pumping away on what he is convinced is a monster chinook. The whole time he's going on about how hard this thing is fighting and what a hog he has on and how we should be ashamed of how we'd been catching all those silver smolt when there's big fish like the one he has on to catch. After about twenty minutes of arm wrenching workout we finally get to view his prize, a plastic bag about the size of a yugo! That one's been good for about 25 years of ribbing thus far and I see no end to it in the near future.
Always an adventure when Dad's along! http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

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ayefsh,there4ayeam

[happybrew]

I had given my son a small tackle box with gear for his birthday, and he was very proud of it. One day we were trout fishing with bobbers and eggs, and he hooked one, but his line broke above the bobber. Boy was he mad! He ran up and down the shoreline following that bobber everywhere, yelling at the fish to give him his bobber back! After a little while, his brother's bobber goes down, and he reels it in. Turns out the line trailing from the fish caught on the other fishing line, and his little brother reeled in the bobber and the fish. Of course, being kids, and being brothers constantly in competition with each other, they proceeded to argue the rest of the day over who's fish it was.

When I was a teenager, I would often ocean fish in California for bonita and mackerel. Several times I would hook a large bonita, and be reeling it in, when suddenly the reel would start screaming with line going out! It would reach the end, then SNAP! I never did see what it was that was getting my fish. Probably a seal or a shark. Occasionally, we would think we were hung up on the bottom, and after pulling, and pulling, it would come up off the bottom, then take off like a bat out of hell, and we'd eventually bring in a bat ray. Ugliest fish you could imagine. But very good to eat.

happybrew

[Steve]

Well there are a lot of good stories, so here is my best 2, first trolling lower Nehalem Bay I got a heavy pull, upon landing my catch was a 14" Oyster, the locals say that it was part of an experiment that died out about 30 years ago....the water was too cold for them to reproduce...cause a bit of a stir on the dock at Jetty Fisheries... the second was a trip to Bouy 11 Illwaco I snagged a rope at dead low tide that had been hit with a prop, well we pulled it up into the boat a commercial trap with 50+ large male crabs, it had been in the water a long time as the crabs haad been canabilizing each other no small crabs, females, just a lot of bits and pieces of shell....kept 48 and had to chuck the rest....also limited on silvers that day..

[BillH]

I was fishing in the summer of oh, say 87 at the largest spruce tree area on the Necanicum for cutts.
I had one on, a dandy, and it wrapped around a branch, and I broke off.
Next eve, I came back, hooked something just wild! It went every which way!
When I finally got it in, it was two cutts! The one I caught and lost last night, still with hook in mouth, line and weight wrapped around and attached to a new one I caught!
Released them both unharmed!! Strange that they would both be OK, But they seemed to be!
J

[dummy]

in nevada my uncle charly reeled in a decomposed arm. it was hard to handle the smell because we had to take it back with us so the cyotes wouldnt get it. turned out to be no body though just the arm i guess some casted their arm off. we have never been even with in 20 miles of that pond since. yuk

[wildwild]

As a child I was fishing one night with my dad on Santa Rosa island, Pensacola Florida. We were fishing for big bull Reds in the surf. My pole starts jumping all over the place in the pole holder and I reel in a huge black faced Gull. He had been flying by and gotten tangled in the line that was up in the air over my rod.
Dad let me keep him for two days as a pet but the noise got to be too much so he made me let him go. I still haven't forgiven him.
Dennis

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

I will be 53 miles north of Pensacola on Monday. I haven't forgotten that gull either. Tasted like chicken http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

I knocked a duck out once while casting down at the Cowlitz, but he wasn't on the end of my line, so I guess I didnt' bring him up. Don't worry phish_on, the duck fluttered and then was fine. http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/smile.gif Peace man.

[buzzerbaby]

One day in the mid 80's I was fishing for steelhead and hooked up with a small 10 inch trout, only difference was it had been hooked before and I hooked the swivel, the strange part was the swivel was coming out of his south side and the hook and corkie was in his mouth with the leader running through his insides.

[wildwild]

Hey_Ya'll
I am jealous. This is a great time of year to be there too. The flounder and Reds are in the pass. Weather is too cool for many people to get out. All of the tourists are gone and the Noo See ums are dead...
I'll be there soon myself..I hope.
Dennis

[THE REEL HEY_YALL]

Cold front moving in. Just in time for me to kill something creeping in the woods. And no, Osprey and RT, it won't be the law trying to find my stills http://www.ifish.net/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[dummy]

i got another one. me and my dad, grandpa and my grandma were fishing the sac for stripers with hole herring. my dads pole made a mad dash for the river and he said its the big one get the video cam. so grandpa got the cam and started filming the fight the fish was going everyware till it just few out of the water and kept flying it was a gull that took the bait. we were laughing and saying that this will win the americas funniest home videos with my dads broken dream fling around and him all ****** off cut his line. when we got the bird loose my grandma anounced the cap was on the hole time. rats

[Paranoid]

Last fall while trolling out of Illwaco hooked into a huge king...biggest king ever...too big! Turned out to be a foul hooked giant sunfish. Must have been 400 lbs. Seven feet long, four feet deep, and two feet thick. Strange critter indeed!