Last week a Kingfisher took a dive at my Johnson Silver Minnow. I had to reel like mad to make sure I didn’t get a Johnson’s Flying Minnow. Too bad I didn’t have a movie camera on me.
Today the bait-munching pike that ate my crankbait opened up the snap and got away with the crankbait while I fumbled with needlenose pliers. The pike should be able to shake or scrape it loose because it was on the outside of its mouth.
More fun fishing stories?
Yes
I had a duck take a fly one time and he was hooked for a short period of time. He went this way and that, tried to take off, but judicious use of the rod’s flex kept him down on the water. Just when I thought I’d have to break off the leader he released himself. None the worse for wear.
Last week while running a spinner along a weedline a huge bass rocketed out and pounced on it. This was easily the largest fish I’ve had on all summer. He does a couple of leaps then heads back for the weeds. I tried to horse him a little and he responds with a couple of head shakes and pops off. That sends my spinner shooting back at me like the space shuttle blasting off at the Kennedy Space Center. I just have time to turn my head before the spinner buries itself in me. It went right in the meaty part of my ear, where most folks wear an earring. Fortunately, it was a single hook spinner and debarbing it and sliding it back out wasn’t a major surgical procedure.
me too
I have had birds dive at my lure (Roostertail)twice over the years. I remember when I was a kid my grandfather hooked a big turtle on a minnow (cut the line) so I am very aware of turtles in the area I’m fishing. Also, I have had water snakes go for a nightcrawler as I reeled it in. That was about two weeks ago when I was fishing below shoreline mulberry bushes. Either the snakes were eating berries or little fish were (and the snakes were after them), but with the commotion I figured there might be something big in there looking for the little fish or eating berries. Later, of course, I cruised up there and got some of the berries for personal use.
Caught a
duck once with a crank bait. Just as I was casting with my spinning rod, three ducks took off and went right over my head. The last one got hooked and my line started to fly off the spool with an open bail. I closed the bail and snap back on the rod. The duck was pulled out of the sky and he hit a bush behind me. it didn’t seem any worse for wear because the lure pulled out and the duck resumed his flight. I’m sure it’ll never happen again.
It stinks
I have had that happen, it stinks! When I was around 13 I hooked a duck, it could have been avoided, fortunately he made it. I have had various bullfrogs, birds, and turtles go for my lures/bait. Also, I remember many a day where a seagull lands on the baitboard when no one is looking for a free meal.
I can also remember flyfishing in high winds and giving myself a few extra earring holes. My all time favorite though was when I was nailing herring all day long on Moriches bay, and I went to set the hook hard and nailed a little guy, he flew out of the water and smacked me right on the forehead. I never thought my Pop would stop laughing, it was really funny.
Last year…
Dad and I were fishiing along the Gulf Coast. As he prepared to cast about half a dozen brown pelicans came soaring over us, about 20’ off the water. Sure enough, one of them dipped down and grabbed dad’s bait in mid air. Caught it fair and square. Didn’t even foul hook it.
Was quite tasty when served in a gumbo.
JKJKJK… Dad reeled him in, we put a towel over his eyes, took the hook out and released him. It’s absolutley amazing how light those big ole birds are. It was the size of a beagle and weighed as much as a chiuahaha, er… uh… chuihaha… er… uh… screw it… little bitty dog.
Strange stuff when fishing with my dad
Once in September when the blackbirds were flocking, I was fishing with a surface lure as a big flock of blackbirds and grackles flew overhead. A single grackle dropped out of the flock in a curving dive, like a fighter plane dropping out of formation to line up on a ground target. It hovered over the lure for a few seconds, and then continued on its way.
On another little pond while fishing with my dad many years ago, a largmouth bass jumped out of the water to catch my dad’s lure in mid-air. It was a perfect catch - the lure went right into the fish’s open mouth.
When I was a little kid, the only time our family ever ate frog legs was when my dad came home from a fishing trip with a whole mess of bullfrogs. He caught them all on a Johnson Silver Minnow scittered over the lily pads. Apparently the frogs would go splashing over the water at high speed to chase the lures down. Bullfrogs seem to be very scarce nowadays, so I doubt I’ll ever have the chance to duplicate that one.
Gulls in sauce piquant
A friend and I were flyfishing near the Chandeleur Islands when he wrapped a gull’s wing on the backcast.
Another time I wish I had my movie camera with me, with the gull pecking him while he was trying to untangle him.
couple
In the BWCA I made a cast at a log with a crankbait and it turned out to be a 20 pound snapper. He was fun to get off the hook.
Took a kid I was babysitting fishing one day. He caught a duck and as I was trying to get it off the line a big carp took my bait and pulled my rod into the water. The duck came off and I dove in after the rod since it was new. Fought the fish in 4 feet of water with a ton of people just looking at me.
Took a friend of my younger brother fishing in a local pond in my canoe. I was fly fishing. A bluegill hit the dry fly. When I set the hook the little guy flew up out of the water and up the leg of Sean’s shorts. Sean stood up and started screaming"Fish in my pants! Fish in my pants!" He turned to hand me the ultralight he was using so he could get the fish. He dropped it right in the water when the fish put up its spines and stuck his thy.
Also actually almost caught a squirrel. I cast rather poorly up into a tree. When I started jerking to get the spinnerbait out the squirrel at the end of the branch came charging over to see what was going on. I got it out before he got there. But it was a loke for a long time that I squirrel fish on purpose.
Squirrel fishing…
…maybe you should share this with Barge over on the “advice” board–it appears he is pretty mad at a screen-chewing squirrel right now!
Gulls
Most of time it’s the gulls in the surf when you’re throwing a popper or robert’s ranger.
They can be quite persistant and will pick it up a couple of times before they quit.
And what a PIA they are to get unhooked!
As a kid…
I was practicing in the backyard with a wooden plug that had the hooks removed.
A red-headed woodpecker swooped down, landed next to the plug and started pecking at it. Lil peckerhead!
No, really… he was.
Seaguall
I was casting from a boat of the St. Lawrence River when a seaguall took my bait! I was hoping for a muskie, not a seagull. We had to follow it to shore, remove the bait, and then set the bird free. Yes, the seaguall bit us!
Caught self in Buttocks!
I was around eight years old, and fishing the Santee Lakes in San Diego area. I had a huge multi-hooked, jointed wooden plug on from my step-fathers tackle box. (Probably a Muskie Lure, since he was from Michigan)
I spot a large bass cruising the opposite shoreline (25 feet away) in about 3 feet of water, whip that bad boy back to cast in front of the bass, and cast with all my might.
Unfortunately, two things happened at the same time…One the plug got caught in the seat of my jeans, and two, the bail closed.
What made it even worst, was I had to walk almost two miles home to have my step father remove the hook, he cut the shank and pushed the whole thing through…
I still cringe in pain at the thought of that…And my taunting brother who witnessed the whole debacle.
YotF
Caught a Bat Once…
I was topwater fishing in my kayak at night. The topwater lure took an unusually long extra moment to hit the water. When it hit, there was a splash, so I set the hook. Then my lure took off out of the water about 3 feet.
I realized I had hooked a bat! I took my kevlar coated musky glove out and tried to get the hooks out of its wings (which are made of skin, so it was MUCH harder than you think). The thing was screeching, clawing and biting me the whole time I was working to free it. I really felt sorry for him and knew he wouldn’t fly again (and I still couldn’t get the thing unhooked) so I took it to the water to just drown it and put it out of it’s misery - but I couldn’t bring myself to kill something like that. So I finally got the hooks out and let it go. I seriously doubt it flew again, but I hold out hope in my mind.
Those Bats
I wasn’t fishing at the time but was launching my kayak on the Colorado River at Moab one day, about 3pm in the afternoon and a bat landed on my stomach, sure its a great landing site but a bat in the middle of the afternoon ?
Brian
Gator
A number of years ago, when I was in the Navy and staioned at NAS Cecil Field, I cast a Big-O lure under a bush and when I tease’d it out a gator about 3 feet long followed it out. I was setting there thinking he can’t be dumb enough to hit that thing, but he did. I just sat there waiting and directly he open his mouth and my lure floated out. Another time in the same area I was using a ding-a-ling worm 12" black and a huge bull frog swallowed the worm.
more gulls
We were trolling downwind on a windy day, probably too fast, so our lures came to the surface. I noticed that a pair of gulls were pacing us back a hundred feet when I figured out they were over our lures. I grabbed my rod and started cranking in my lure and told my buddy to do the same. Before he got his in, one gull grabbed it and got tangled in the line. we ended up motoring to the gull and untangling it. Afterwards, it flew off with no apparent injury, but I still remember my buddy holding the gull by it’s neck while I got the line unwrapped from it’s wing. That was one mad gull.
more gulls
We were trolling downwind on a windy day, probably too fast, so our lures came to the surface. I noticed that a pair of gulls were pacing us back a hundred feet when I figured out they were over our lures. I grabbed my rod and started cranking in my lure and told my buddy to do the same. Before he got his in, one gull grabbed it and got tangled in the line. we ended up motoring to the gull and untangling it. Afterwards, it flew off with no apparent injury, but I still remember my buddy holding the gull by it’s neck while I got the line unwrapped from it’s wing. That was one mad gull.
2 days ago
I was throwing a buzz bait in a local river when a berred owl came down and tried to grab it. I let the lure sink and it hovered over the spot waiting for it to surface. It flew back into the trees so I made another cast and it came out again. I got a picture that time. I put the rod up and decided to paddle on up stream to avoid catching the owl. It was in a tree not 8 feet from me just looking at me. Very cool encounter.