Ever catch the wrong critter?

[optichamp]

Today toward the south end of Frank's Tract I'm tucked up in the tules, and toss out a RI Swamp Donkey frog. I let it sit awhile, then get excited to see something swimming toward it - then a grey and brown head lifts out of the water - a youngish muskrat. I yank the frog clear out of there before the rat decides to grab it. I figure the last thing I need would be a muskrat hooked on the lure. I've seen this guy twice in the same area, and both times he's shown no real fear of me.

Ever catch some unexpected critter?

[Steve45]

Yeah, I was fishing a spot off of San Joquin river a couple of weekends ago with my nephew and felt what I thought to be a tap so I set it hard and the fight was on but to my surprise it wasn't a bass but a turtle and it caught it in the web of foot, well we got it on the boat removed the hook took a picture and set it back in to the water.

[whazup]

My dad made a cast while dunking bait for Stripers, and a Seagull snatched it out of the air and quickly snapped the line. He also "caught" a rattlesnake on a Rooster Tail at Tiger Creek reservoir. This time my dad cut the line.

[Jeff Jewell]

Got a new rod and real, spooled it up, was wondering how it cast so I tied a grub on and fired into the neighbors yard.... CAught there cat yep 8 lb Tabby on 6lb Maxima.... Well she put up a good fight right there in the middle of the street.... But here's the problem, Do I reel her in and get scratched to hell? Do I break it off, Leaving the hook in her? Bad choice, Don't want to hurt her and I'm the only fool on the block who plays with fishing tackle in the front yard, so I'd be busted...CAll the wife to help, She's a vet tech so she could help but she'd be throwing me in the doghouse for sure...
Then the hook straightens out and she get's away.... Got lucky there.. that's one I was glad to lose....

[whazup]

One of my favorite pastimes when camping is to tie (no hook of course) a peanut on to ultralite tackle and "fish" for squirrels. They fight like a 5 lb bass. Kids love it...

[BassManDan]

It's terrible, but fortunately I was not the one who did it.

My friend when ocean fishing out at Bodega, would pinch down the barb on a hook, thread on a Cheeto and toss it out to the seagulls! He'd let em take off with is and then yank them out of the sky, very cruel , but funny as $%!+

[DeltaBound]

Got a new rod and real, spooled it up, was wondering how it cast so I tied a grub on and fired into the neighbors yard.... CAught there cat yep 8 lb Tabby on 6lb Maxima.... Well she put up a good fight right there in the middle of the street.... But here's the problem, Do I reel her in and get scratched to hell? Do I break it off, Leaving the hook in her? Bad choice, Don't want to hurt her and I'm the only fool on the block who plays with fishing tackle in the front yard, so I'd be busted...CAll the wife to help, She's a vet tech so she could help but she'd be throwing me in the doghouse for sure...
Then the hook straightens out and she get's away.... Got lucky there.. that's one I was glad to lose....

WOW, that was indeed your lucky day

[Lugnut]

My partner hooked a muskrat (or something of that nature) at Clear Lake last year. We were cruising along the tules and he was throwing a Chatterbait, when WHAM!!!!! he gets slammed and sets on this thing. A couple seconds later it comes up with a whole pack of them (three or four). All of them screaming some god awful sounds. He is standing there going what do I do (he had been slaying on that damn Chatterbait and didn't want to lose it)? Then the thing goes underwater and his reel starts screaming as we watched the tules thrashing about, once it was about 50 yards up the bank....POW his line busted. Pretty funny to watch, but kind of felt bad for the critter. I guess they are right, those damn Chatterbaits will can catch everything...lol

[Greg_Cornish]

I had a night heron pick up my senko b4 i could react. It went partway down his throat. Instead of jerking him out of water i applied steady pressure and it slide out of his throat unharmed. It didn't even come out of the plastic. Had a near miss with an osprey and a wake bait 2 months ago.

[SethB]

I once had to remove a slammer from an ospreys foot. Pretty crazy experience to say the least. I had the birds head coverd with a sweet shirt and in a ten foot boat with my girlfriend and a 5 year old. Out of the four of us Im not sure who was more scared. The hook pretty much fell off and the bird was release with out hurting any one and unharmed. Those birds are bigger than they look .
Another time I'm rock fishing in the harbor in about 30' of water and hook what felt like a good one after a short fight my line takes off for the surface. Next thing you know I got this bird flopping around on the surface squaking like crazy. Just so happens a guided bird watching tour is about 100 yds. away and watching it all . The hook went in its beek and out the top of its head. I cut the line and this bird flops around for a while and ends up flying off with about 20' of line trailing behind. kinda doubt that that bird was alright. I felt pretty bad.

[BIG DADDY BLUE RANGER]

Aside from a few miscellaneous fish that I caught by accident including a catfish that ate a popper (I never would have beleived that)... I've hooked (an had to unhook) a Sea Gull (mean buggers)which sucked... I had a cute calico cat jump off a ramp at Clear Lake and grab my brush hog in the air as I pitched over a dock,, she immdiately turned, burried the hook in her mouth and broke me off... I can still her that poor little guy crying. Then as i was going to tell the resident I saw a sign posted on the dock that read fishermen please be carefull with your hooks, we have cats... what an *** I felt like... Another time I had an otter swim under water and grab my rat-l-trap... which was on braid... I love those little guys, that really sucked.. after hissing and pissing under a dock for a few minutes it just came unbuttoned and swam away.. I'm still not sure where/how it got hook or if it had just been tangled in the line... So my PETA memebership has been permanently banned

[Mike R]

I was fishing the BASS Federation Nationals at Lake Toho in Florida and went to one of my big fish areas which had a lot of lily pads. I was throwing a Snagproof Frog in some sparse lily pads when the lily pads moved and I had a boil on the frog.....Then nothing. I reeled the frog back in fired of another cast and as soon as the frog hit the water I see two reptilian eyes next to one of the lily pads. Before I can get my frog out of there a three foot alligator grabs my frog!!!!! I set the hook and drug that gator to the boat. The hook of the frog was in the very tip of the snout and this thing was spinning and hissing at my observer and I. I wanted my frog back and was wondering how I was going to accomplish the feat when my observer said "bring it in the boat, thats how we do it down here all the time!!!" I informed HIM that I was from California and I wasn't going to have that thing anywhere NEAR me!!!! I was finally able to shake the frog out of its snout and get back to fishing!!!!

[froteur]

turtle, duck, and a tern-like bird. my son almost had an osprey on a hudd but yanked it back in time.

[Steve]

While living in the south, it was very common to have alligators attack lures, especially topwaters. Never did hook one. Ive caught see birds while mooching for salmon in 60 foot of water! I had a mink at Clear Lake that, for over half hour, kept trying to eat my trixie shad that was smothered in smelly jelly. I instigated that one though, the mink was hanging in a hole in a dock so I would pitch it on the dock and watch him run out and grab it then duck back in the hole. And it was always fun catching huge soft shelled turtles at 3 am while catfishing. Just last night I had either a black crowned night heron or a barn owl (couldnt see it real well) fly off with my wake bait jr. That was a new one for me. And when the bass arent biting on the Delta screwing around with the bullfrogs on frogs always seems like a great way to entertain myself.

The oddest, and by far the best battle, was at Clear Lake. I was skipping a trixie shad under overhanging trees. On one cast I skipped so hard that the bait landed two feet up a steep bank behind the trees. In a flash, I very large apparently feral cat came from nowhere and ate it. Well, I wanted that trixie shad back and I had 65 pound braid that said I was getting it back. For every 3 feet that cat gained up that bank, I would pull it back one foot. This cat was tough, and I mean it would not let go. It was scratching and clawing up that bank something fierce. There were sticks and dust flying everywhere. Just when I would gain momentum, he would take it back. He finally made it to the lip of the bank when my trixie finally flew out of its mouth. The battle lasted a minute. Just for the record I never pulled or yanked hard enough to set the hook, I just wanted my bait back.

[Bassinlee]

Today in the delta was weird. Caught probably 20-25 bass, along with 2 little stripers, 2 bluegills, a carp, 5 clams (WTF?) and had to snatch my worm away from a turtle that I thought was going after my roboworm. I threw a Kastmaster for a while today, and caught something underwater that pulled like a freight train, but I never saw it, before it came loose . You never heard such cussin!
One time I caught a bat while night fishing in the McCloud arm. Sucker hit it just before it hit the water. Thought I had a little spotted bass, all that thrashing on the surface of the water. Reeled it in, swung it over the gunnel, then enthusiastically swung it the hell back over the gunnel into the water . Better believe I cut THAT line. Then started the motor and got a quarter mile away before retying and fishing again.

-Bassinlee

[JustinD]

I have either caught or been chased by the following: birds, turtles, frogs, muskrat, squawfish, Sac. river pike, carp, rats, crawdads, snakes, catfish, and strippers. My buddy once hooked a big bird then proceeded to fight the thing like a fish as it flew off. It was funny until we looked at eachother and realized someone had to frre it. I had to grab it and take the hook out. The thing was pissed and was trying like a SOB to claw my eyes out.

[JRock]

A friend of mine hooked into a sea lion while fishing the delta. He was spooled in a matter of seconds, it was an awesome sight to say the least.

[The Lone Angler]

I caught, rather snagged a 3 foot cottonmouth with a jitterbug in Oklahoma. I wanted it for my classroom. Problem was, I had no gun to dispatch the critter, my cousin wouldn't let me bring it in the boat. I carefully broke his neck with an oar up against a log.........Interestingly, I had seen another cottonmouth in a creek on several occasions. On this day, it was sunning inself on a flat in an inch of water. My buddy catches a bigmouth perch on a beetle spin. I took it from him and lobbed the fish at the snake. The fish landed perfectly on the coiled snake, the snake reacted by grabbing the fish and ate it right there in front of me. I've been facinated by these snakes ever since.

[optichamp]

I have either caught or been chased by the following: birds, turtles, frogs, muskrat, squawfish, Sac. river pike, carp, rats, crawdads, snakes, catfish, and strippers.

I'm not sure I'd want to catch a stripper, but being chased by one might be pretty entertaining.

[Greg_Cornish]

My cousin and I were fishing Hula Poppers in MN. His suddenly disappeared. He set the hook. We fought it for 30 minutes. Finally this HUGE head pops up. A 20 LB snapping turtle is staring at us. He hadn't been hooked the whole time, he was just stubbornly hanging on. He hissed and fired the plug right back at us and submerged. My cousin fell over laughing.