Well That Was A First...

[Big Skyz]

I was out fishing last Saturday evening. I had just landed this really pretty male rainbow in all his spawning color glory. Just a couple of casts later my ultra light rod doubled over and I thought I'd hooked Moby Dick or something. Suddenly the water erupted and up came a muskrat. I'd hooked the poor little bugger right near the end of his tail. We had an epic battle for about 10 minutes on my ultra light until he finally got tired enough I was able to bring him to shore. I cautiously reached down with my forceps, grabbed the hooked and gave it a quick jerk. Fortunately the hooked popped right out, and I was glad the muskrat didn't spin around and try to bite me. The second he was free he jumped right back in the water, swam about 5 feet and dove into a hole in the bank that I hadn't noticed before. I actually felt a little bad as that couldn't have felt that good. However if you are a muskrat and you are going to get hooked, I suppose the tail is the best place. I had seen him swimming around while I was fishing and he had come fairly close a few times. I really hadn't paid that much attention to him as I was concentrating on fishing. Somehow he had slipped in unnoticed until my jig hook met his tail. The only other really odd thing I've ever hooked by accident is I once snagged a large dragon fly right out of the air. I'd like to say it was on purpose but it wasn't. I reeled it in, put it more securely on the hook and cast him back out. In less than a minute I caught a catfish on that dragon fly. I guess it just wasn't that bugs day.

[Thumper]

Haven't you learned by now? If you don't post pics, it never happened!

I was out fishing for tuna one day and as I cast my line out, a pelican grabbed it. You talk about a frigging BATTLE!

Cool looking fish. I've never seen them in their spawning colors like that. Interesting.

[BarryBobPosthole]

I hooked a beaver once and that lasted about five seconds. Also had a kingfisher dive straight down underwater and grabbed my Kinami Flash. Not once but on two consecutive casts. The first time he actually picked it up and flew with it a few feet.

BKB

[Big Skyz]

I was more concerned about getting the hook out and not getting bit, than I was about getting a photo.

I can only imagine what a handful a pelican or a beaver would be. I was with a guy fishing one time when he caught a muskrat by the foot and he reeled it right in without any fuss. He popped the hook out and the rat just swam away like it was no big deal. A couple hours later the same guy snagged a painted turtle by one of its feet. We assumed it would be no big deal but that turtle was ticked. I didn't even know painted turtles could be aggressive. He didn't come in easy and once in the boat he was out for blood and payback. We were hopping all over the boat trying to avoid him taking a piece out of us. It took us a while to get the hook removed and the turtle back in the water. I'm just glad it wasn't a snapping turtle. We both decided that day that turtles were best left alone while fishing.

[DeputyDog]

I grew up on an 800 acre lake and couldn't count the number of turtles I've caught that way.

I hooked a Mallard hen through the tongue once when she grabbed the cricket I was using as bait for bluegill. I ended up reeling her after quite a struggle. We were visiting family friends in Iowa and they had several ducks on their farm. We took that duck back to the farm with us, clipped the wings and that duck became a farm duck.

[quercus alba]

Toss a plastic worm upon the bank or on a lily pad by a big bullfrog and he'll jump all over it. Pulls hard but not long

[BarryBobPosthole]

Icaught a big ass bull frog once when he hit my bobber. Granted, it was a small bobberbut he wouldn't let go of it until I grabbed him.

BKB

[Big Skyz]

I was hoping a cool story or two would come out of this thread. I have not been disappointed.

[Chicken Dinner]

I had an osprey grab a hickory shad I was fighting and try to fly off with it. After about 30 seconds or so he let go. But, boy was he pissed when I let that shad go. (Closed season for us humans.) I used to have a picture of the shad with the talon marks across it's back. One morning I had a big old owl swoop down on a white buzz bait I was fishing. He got almost right on top o fit before he flared and flew off. I'm not sure whether he figured out the buzz bait wasn't edible or it was just getting too close to the boat.

[BarryBobPosthole]

what is this hickory shad you speak of?

BKB

[Chicken Dinner]

Not sure what you're asking. Kind of like an American shad.

http://www.chesapeakebay.net/fieldgu...r/hickory_shad

[BarryBobPosthole]

I guess I've never thought of fishing for a shad. They are mostly considered bait here. But mostly what we have is threadfin, which are a lot smaller than your variety.

Youcan almost walk across bait balls of shad in the fall here on our reservoirs. The fish and the comorants love it. Adn the white pelicans that come down from the great north get here just in time for the feast too.


BKB

[Big Skyz]

BBP, I'd never heard of a hickory shad either.

[Chicken Dinner]

I gotcha. The Hickory and American Shad are way different (and bigger!) than the bait fish you're thinking about. In colonial days their spawning runs were legendary and they were major food sources for native Americans and colonial settlers. They fight and jump like you wouldn't believe and are often referred to as mini-tarpon. As for eating, they're very boney, but the roe is considered a delicacy. When I was a kid I remember the old folks mixing it in with their scrambled eggs. Of course, they did the same thing with pigs brains...

[quercus alba]

Here's your story. Many moons ago I took an April vacation strictly for bass fishing. High winds drove us off the lake so we decided to bank fish a pond instead. When we got there some kids were fishing and had several mutts running around. One of the dogs kept wanting to rear up on me and play so I popped him with the end of the casting rod. Apparently when you pop it hard enough it'll pull the hook thru a tequila sunrise worm. As luck would have it, I hook the mutt on the inside of the thigh. I let go of the rod to keep from embedding the hook any deeper but the dog headed home as hard as he could go with my casting rod and reel. I lit out after the dog and managed to get my knife out while sprinting which is no mean feat in itself. I finally got between the dog and the end of the line and slashed it. The dog never slowed down.

That isn't the end of the story tho, I jogged back to the pond and jumped a shallow ditch but landed in a dry cow track and rolled my ankle breaking a bone in the top of my foot and tearing up some ligaments in my ankle. Spent the rest of my vacation in a chair with my foot propped up. To this day I still have trouble with that ankle

[Captain]

Do not any of y'all remember the abuse I took from Buckrub when I posted here about going Shad fishing several years ago? I love the shad run up the river here and Hammerhead and I for many years would wade the river and catch them.
Bucky got on me once when I posted a picture here of them saying it was dumb to fish for trash fish. But I can tell you they are GREAT fun to hook up on. They are real fighters.
Getting back to Big Sky's story I had an owl come down and get my Herring while fishing for Stripers once and fought him while before he dropped the line, I actually hooked a beaver once on a tiny torpedo once and had him on for about 8 seconds until he broke the line.
We use to catch bullfrogs on a 4" rubber worm regularly. Some days we would get tons of them. But that was not an accident. We were actually fishing for them.
A buddy and I were fishing once and catching bass hand over fist, literally about every cast, we were using a small spinner bait with a minnow body instead of a skirt. I had a fish on and right beside the boat, he jumped and shook off the lure and as he was going back into the water my buddy was bringing in his lure and was within 4 or 5 feet of the side of them boat. When the fish hit the water we both watch as he charged and hit my buddies lure and he pulled him in the boat.

[Big Skyz]

QA, interesting story but what a sucky day!

Captain I wish I knew what turned the bass on like that. If we could figure out how to make them bite like that nearly every time we went out, we'd never have to work another day the rest of our lives.

[HideHunter]

For sheer "size" - I win. I hooked about an 800 pound heifer on a #10 Woolly Worm (back cast). Not much to do but point the rod, hold the reel and let the leader part. It was in my buddy's pasture so I stopped and told him.. He said it didn't count because I foul-hooked her.

[Bwana]

Back in high school I bought myself a fancy new fishing outfit that I was mighty proud of. One night while attempting to catch a lunker along comes a beaver. I decided to show how well I could cast so proceeded to sail my jig to a point slightly in front of the beaver's offside. My thinking was that once the line settled on the beaver it would spook & slap it's tail for our amusement. The line nicely settles across the beaver but no tail-slap follows. Instead the beaver dives, feels the sting from my hook, and then proceeds to get out of Dodge which causes the line to quick commence to peeling off of my spool! I frantically tried to get the jackknife out of my pocket so I could cut the line before the beaver pulled the whole thing into the river but I am here to tell you that doing so was no easy task. Luckily the line broke before the beaver spooled me but I had to quit fishing as there wasn't enough line left on the reel to make even half of a cast.

Lesson learned.

[LJ3]

Don't screw with beavers!

Wait... that didn't really sound right. Something definitely wrong there.