Unusual carches....

[Fishtails]

When I was a little kid (6-9) growing up in Florida, we lived in the middle of an orange grove and I'd fish the big lake behind our house everyday. I'd catch bass and keep them in the bathtub till my dad got home to clean them. We were really poor so we ate fish alot!!

Every once in awhile, a cottonmouth snake would swim by close to shore, so I'd take a big shiner, put it on my hook, and stun it by slamming it on the ground a couple times. I fished with a cane pole, so I'd hold it out and let the shiner float on top of the water.......the snake would eat it every time!! Then, I'd take the hooked snake and go screaming to the house like it was an accident Since they are deadly poisonous, one of the dad's would come out and kill it for me.

[Just Fishin']

Years ago while casting plugs in Long Island Sound during a blue fish blitz I had a seagull grab a plug as it hit the water. 20 minutes later we threw a coat over the thing at the stern of the boat. It felt like we were wrangling an airplane. Fighting something up in the air was pretty wild.

[Erbyjoe]

Back about 15 years ago I was fishing a water reservoir(that I wasn't supposed to) :shock: in a little bass buggy casting top water baits on a summer night I hooked on to a 12 inch bass it jumped twice then all of the sudden It felt like it was snagged so I went to see if I could retrieve my lure and or fish. I could see the fish and the lure just under the water so I reach down to my elbow to grab it. Just as I was going to touch the lure this snapping turtle about the size of TEXAS comes up out of the water with the bass in it's mouth and scared the living crap out of me never in my wildest dreams did I think that the bass was being eaten by a turtle I just figured it was caught on a tree or something. To this day I double check what is under the boat when I stick my hand in to get a snagged lure.

[GAMBLER]

I caught a seagull in front of the Monroe County Sherrifs on Irondequoit Bay 2 years ago. The stupid thing took my minnow as it hit the water. I have also caught 1/2 a dozen gulls trolling for browns in the spring on stickbaits.

[big easy]

I've caught a few seagulls,one in the fall on the Oswego river,and a couple off the beaches in Rhode Island.

What i remember most about them was that when i tried to hold em,they were incredibly warm,oh yea,and really pissd off.

The best catch was when we were fising the watch hill beach in Rhode Island in early november for stripers.

We had surf rods in sand spikes baited with mackerel and bunker on the bottom.

All of a sudden my buddies reel starts screaming,and before he can get to it,the whole thing, rod,reel,gets pulled into the surf and out into the ocean.

We just stood there in amazement,and then all of a sudden we see this seal come up out of the water with mono line in his mouth.

He dove under and we never saw him again.My buddie was not very happy after losing a nice surf rod and reel to a Seal.

Well around four hours later,after many casts,and fresh bait changes,we decided to head home.All of a sudden,we hear his dad who's a hundred yards away from us, yelling that he thinks he's got a fish.Well he's fighting this fish for a bit,and then says "crap,i think i lost him,but maybe i hooked a skate because he's not fighting anymore.

Well sure enough he lost the whatever it was,but reeled in a nice Surf rod and reel.Yup it was the one the seal took.the hook was in one of the rod guides.A one in a million shot.

[rustyrat]

Well I've caught my assortment of birds, mudpuppys, and junk. But my personal best was while grouper fishing in Fl last year. I had caught about 60, 20 lb grouper and I told the captain I was ready to try for a Goliath (one over 100 lbs). Now mind you we have to catch these fish using no drag cacuse if you let the fish run, they will go into the limestone caves and break you off. (This goes for the 20lbers too and the fight is incredible) So he rigs me up with a huge bait and i let her down to the bottom. About 20 min later I'm getting hit good. There is no hook set here just reel. So when I thought he had it good, I start reeling and wham fish on! I am hanging on for dear life let me tell you and I am slowly gaining on the fish. 40 min later still no sign of color and I'm soaked to the bone with sweat and my arms a burning like no king ever did to me.

Finally the over 100 lb brute comes to the surface!

BUMMER! still cool though! Sucessfully released!

RR

[Swamp Fox]

As a teenager on Keuka Lake, fishing with some buddies from shore, we were using live frogs for bait, for Bass. We started messing around and not paying attention, until one of the drags started screaming. A school of ducks swam by our baits and one of them swallowed one of our frogs. We reeled it in but had to cut the line. Don't know what became of the duck, but I'll bet it left frogs alone after that.

[LongLine]

1 - Off Charlotte, caught a wallet with a couple hundred bucks & no ID in it.......1st time fishing ever paid off $ for me.

2 - Off Long Pond, caught a rod & reel with the biggest/ugliest bomber you could imagine, still attached.

3 - Trolling Port Bay, caught a steer's skull - horns intact.

Tom B.

(LongLine)

[Gray Fox]

Sunday afternoon while ice fishing a swamp pond, we had a flag. As we approached the spool was spinning out of control, no matter waht we did we could not seem to gain any line, after about a 40 min fight what a suprise we had in store for ourselves. After seeing a dark flash pass below the hole a few times the thoughts were "Man that pickerel is goin on the wall!!!" It was about that time that we learned that it was indeed no pickerel but what turned out to be around a 15-20 pound river otter. He came through the hole hissing like no other and trying to bite anything he could. After a while of the otter coming thoruhg the hole and hissing and returning below the ice to fight some more we finally realized that he was hooked in the hind foot. After quite some time we managed to pull the otter through the hole backward and pull the hook out. That is probably our most unusual catch.