Crazy Fishing Stories

[EEBS]

I once was fishing Dumbell lake near Isabella for some tigers. If anyone fishes the lake they no that in the far corner of the lake there is a jug floating and you do not go inside that jug on your way to the back bay. Well, I thought it was just a reef in the middle out there. I cruised inside the jug a couple times which is beyond me how I didn't hit anything with my uncles 15hp johnson that we borrowed. The last time I went through I was throttle open and I hit the bottom so hard the motor popped off of the boat and begun spiralling out of control. So there I am one-arming a spinning motor, which to mention is still throttle wide, while my brother and friend are laughing. Finally, one of them helped me and I managed to keep the motor from sinking. Barely a scratch on the motor!!

Needless to say, I didnt go inside the jug again.

[Tullibee]

EEBS,

No tigers in Dumbell. They are legitimate muskies, although most in there are the Shoepack strain which don't get very big. There are also a few leech lake strain fish in there too.

[EEBS]

If that is the case, I stand corrected

[yukon]

once while fishing muskies on dumbell a buddy and I were casting towards shore. There was a great blue heron standing in the water with woods up tight behind him. My buddy says keep moving towards him with the trolling motor. the heron got nervous but couldn't fly into the woods because they were so thick. My buddy leaps out of the boat, chases the heron onto shore grabs him by the bill and the body. Brought him to the boat where we looked at him for a while and let him go. Oh and I have been up on the rocks pretty hard on dumbell also.

[FishOn!]

So...what was the point of grabbing a heron like that??? Sounds like a pretty ignorant thing to do.

[Northlander]

Ya not anything a nature respecting individual would do. IMO.

[Nate McVey]

Your buddy grabbed a heron by the bill and brought it to the boat so you could look at it? Isn't that what they make cameras for?

[andrew chadwick]

sounds like a good way to loose an eye.

In the keys they have egrets that are very dangerous, I have actualy heard stories of them killing children. Weather or not thats true I dont know. I'll be in islamorada chasing bones and tarpon in a week though, I could find out for sure and report back.

[b1gf1sh1]

it's too bad a good intentioned thread got wiped out by a bad deed. poor little bird. i think that is illegal. not sure but i think that behavior falls under the heading ... terrorizing or otherwise causeing harm to wildlife... anyway, for a crazy ''fishing story''. i'm jigging in about 12 feet of water and get about a 12'' walleye on and in from the side this northern about ten pounds whacks it and the walleye goes free and the northern shoots off with the jig in it's mouth. makes a pretty good run and snaps my 6 pound test. well i have my second rod(st croix river it's legal) over the side with a crappie minnow under a slip rig. as im tying my new jig on , smiling about what just happened, my bobber goes under so i grab my rod and set the hook, the fish shoots off like a rocket. yep.. you guessed it. i get it up to the boat and theres the same northern returning my jig he just stole. i got my jig, thanked him, gave him a few well timed jibes, and let him go.

[PikePatroller]

I was fishing in the BWCA in late august and every once in a while paddling i would feel a tug or a bump on my canoe. I had 15 inch walleye on a stringer that was getting towed behind me. I started to keep a close eye on the stringer when all of a sudden i looked down into the water to see a 20 pound plus northern pike raising up with his intention of stealing my lunch. I frantically tried to untie the stringer and bring it in the boat but by that point he was goin hog WILD on the walleye. I tried poking him with the paddle but he would not let go. Needless to say he shreded the walleye and submereged with part of the walleye in its jaws. A couple minutes later i see part of the walleye that the pike must of spit out floating like 50 yards from me so i start to paddle over to it to salvage what i could for lunch when a very large eagle swoops out of nowhere and pick up the walleye fly away. This was my first solo trip so it definately was pretty crazy. After this all happened i sat in the canoe for awhile reflecting on what just happened. I thought that i coulda just netted the pike but that woulda done nothing but hurt the pike so im glad i didnt. Walleyes are sought out by more than just anglers in the BWCA!

Another wierd story happened only hundred feet from the previous story a the following year. A 33 inch pike keep trying to hit my big orange sucker minnow bobber. It was very strange. I thought i was seeing things or had one too many barley soda's but it was really happening. I jerked the minnow a couple times to try to get him to see it and he finally did. I landed him after shortley after that. C/R

[upnorth]

 Quote:

I thought that i coulda just netted the pike but that woulda done nothing but hurt the pike so im glad i didnt. Walleyes are sought out by more than just anglers in the BWCA!

I don't think you would have wanted to be wrestling a completely fresh 20+ pike in a canoe, things would have been a little nuts for a while

["another IT GUY"]

fished the Jump in WI a few years ago. Caught a 2lb smallie. Reeling it onto shore out of nowhere a huge musky grabs a hold of it. I start to tug the smallie, the musky doesn't let go. I tug some more and my line snaps. He had the smallie in its jaws close to shore for about 5 mins. Finally he let go of the smallie. The musky disappeared while the smallie was trying to catch its breath close to shore. The musky comes back and starts charging at the smallie and hitting the rocks finally grabs him and takes off. What a sight! first time ever seeing that monster charging at his prey hitting the rocks like nothing happened chasing it back and forth.

Also fished the Flambeau a long time. Had a 3ft fiberglass rod with a zebco classic reel (screw on real seat). This little rod has landed some huge fish! Well had a gob of crawlers next to the wall. Something starts tugging. I set the hook. Turned out to be a 40min fight on 8lb test. Slowly but surely pulled out a 5ft sturgeon. In the end the drag was gone the reel was junk, the reel seat was busted. No more red and white fiberglass rod! The sturg was c&r'd. That was a blast!!!

I'll never forget that little rod, it was picked up at a liquidator store in northern WI.

[finn-land]

 Originally Posted By: Tullibee

EEBS,

No tigers in Dumbell. They are legitimate muskies, although most in there are the Shoepack strain which don't get very big. There are also a few leech lake strain fish in there too.

they kind of hurt the lake with the shoepacks.the fisheries went in there and tried to net most of the shoepacks back out,they replanted them in homestead and some in harris.leach lake strain were the originals in there.there was a good balance of muskie and walleye for a good number of years.according to fisheries guy i know walleye #'s were the lowest they have ever recorded last summer.just thought i would throw that in,not downing muskies by any mean,just writing what i know.

[hanso612]

I caught a northern in the BWCA that swam through a tin can. When I caught the fish all that was left of the can was the rim-now imbedded deeply around the pike behind the gills. Hans.

[finnbay]

I was fishing on Crooked Lake in third current one summer. After almost an hour in that area, we noticed a heck of a commotion along a flat-faced rock outcrop on the south side of the narrows. The noise caught our attention and by the time we looked, all was calm. Five minutes later it happened again - and again - and again. Curiosity finally got the best of us and we paddled over to have a look-see. Sure enough, a couple of minutes after we got close, several dozen minnows broke the surface of the water like little flying fish, hitting the rock face and falling back laying on their side or belly up. Upwards of twenty smallies were there to slurp them from the surface in what looked like a piranha feeding frenzy. For over an hour we watched this continue over and over and could only conclude that the bass were herding the minnow to this spot intentionally to take advantage of 'em!

[Uncle Paul]

I was up on Basswood about 10 years ago and my wife caught a 15" walleye. As she got it up to the boat, a 10-12 lb northern grabbed on to it. She played it for about a minute before the line broke and the northern swam away with our lunch.

That's a typical story until what happened next.

We drifted out of the area as I retied her line and then went back to catch some more. On our first pass over the same spot she caught her 15" walleye. All chewed up and with her spinner still hooked in it's mouth.

She did catch a 32" northern about an hour later in the same spot. Can't say that was the same one but the walleye definitely was.

[Berky]

Much like a few of the other stories in here ine has to do with Dumbell also. Was in there one night right after a front had gone through. Well the temp really dropped off about 15-20 degrees as we were packing up. With in 5 minutes the fog rolled in and we couldn't even see our bobbers 10ft away. So, it got dark also and we had no Spotlight, luckily my buddy was up there with one. And even then it took us almost 2 hours to get off the lake. I think we went past the landing 2-3 times before we found it because of the way that it is kinda tucked behind a small point. If we were more than 15-20ft off the shore you couldn't see anything as to where you were.

[EEBS]

I worked at a resort for 7 years as a dock boy for Pehrson's Lodge on Vermilion and one summer there was a guy who took out his kids fishing. They took out our brand new Lund Tyee 100 horse Yahama. When they came back many hours later, they were coming in really slow. I asked them about their fishing and what not and the Dad was just irrate. He said they went fishing and when they tried to come back the boat would only go 5-10 miles an hour. He ended up boating about 5 miles at this rate. This guy was steaming, I told him I would look at it and let him know, of course he said that wasnt good enough and wanted this and that for free. I went over the boat and the motor looked fine and everything until I realized the dude had the anchor down the whole time...............SNAP!

[chunkytrout]

Many years ago when I still lived in the metro, I went out on Bald Eagle for some muskie fishing. I was in my little 14' with a casting deck and it was a really hot day so I "suckered up" with a big ol bobber and took my seat on the deck to catch some rays. I dozed off at one point and when I awoke the bobber was gone. My bail was open and line was slowly spooling out so I put a little tension on the free spool brake. The bobber appeared on the edge of a weedbed maybe 20 feet from the boat. I waited for what seemed like a half hour and took in a little slack. Down went the bobber again and it surfaced again a little closer to the boat. Then it started heading out for deeper water so I opened the bail one more time and watched as my bobber torpedoed away. Finally I set the hook and the fight was on. Those of you who've fished this lake know it's a crowded one. Next thing you know I had an audience closing in. The "fight" was basically this fish dragging me around for about ten minutes and I thought I had my first REAL muskie on the line. I WAS STOKED!!! As the battle began to swing my way, some guys in another boat started hollering if I had a net which I did. I hollered back if they had a camera, which they didn't. Then came the big moment of the landing of my first big muskie. It was a perfect net. As I hoisted my prize into the air, laughter came from all around me. I looked in complete disgust and horror at the netted fish on my deck. It was a HUGE UGLY SNARLING dogfish! One guy told me it was the biggest he'd ever seen. I cut the line and released the beast back into the depths. I never fished Bald Eagle again.

[chaffmj]

Chunky if that happened to me I would move up to Ely and hide too!

[chunkytrout]

The laughing and the snarling haunt my dreams to this day.

[MuskyBrian]

LOL @ the guy driving in with the anchor down, thats awesome!

One Time I was fishing Red lake in NW Ontario. We were fishing lakers in a group of about 10 boats on a 50-60 foot reef. Well all of a sudden I feel a strike on my Chub, set the hook and fish on. At the same time, a boat about 20-25 yds from us sets the hook, double header right?? Well after about 20 mins of making no progress on the fish, it becomes apparent that myself and the other angler in the other boat are fighting the same fish. We sat there and argued for over 10 mins over which one is fighting the fish and which one just has caught the other guys line. I am convinced this guy is wrong, 10 mins of arguing later he finally agrees to let me fight the fish and he opens his bail, insisting he was right still. Fish finally comes to the surface...30" Laker with MY hook in its mouth and his hook on my sinker...I was right

[EEBS]

One time my Mom caught a seagull. Had to bring it onto the pontoon and untangle it. A few days later an osprey swooped down and got caught in her line and it was trying to fly away "flying in place" and it finally got loose, dont know what we would have done with an osprey.

Oh and not fishing related but funny none the less, the first time at a casino I filled a money bucket up with Pepsi and walked around drinking it until my friend told me I was disgusting.