Strangest thing that happened to you while fishing?

[cheektowaga]

Many years ago on a Zimmerman area lake where my grandma had a cabin my cousin and I were fishing from the canoe. I was in the front but when we arrived at a fishing spot I'd usually turn so we could face and chat and smoke ciggies away from our parents. I was doing this, my spinnerbait out of the water about 18 inches ( and near his head because I was facing him) and about a 2 pound northern jumps out of the water and latches onto my spinner. I'm so good I didn't even have to cast to catch fish!

[genegodawa]

Not anything real strange, but some things that just don't happen on land in the suburbs of Chi-town that make our trips memorable:

1. Watching loons swim around the boat under the water chasing perch.

2. Catching a turtle bigger than a dinner plate and trying to get the hook out. Lucky I was using a pair of needle-nose pliers because I didn't know his neck could stretch so far toward my hand.

3. Drifting across a bay, motor back across, turn the boat and cut the motor to drift again only to face a water snake swimming right at the boat. Had to fight him off with an oar which he struck at with his fangs. Went right in for lunch after that.

4. Feeding small perch that were anesthitized (sp) by being thrown against the cowl of the motor to seagulls and trying to see just how close to the boat they would come for their meal.

5. Watching an osprey swoop down and snatch a fish out of the water about 100' away - on a day when we couldn't catch anything.

6. Staying out all the way across the lake in a major downpour and lightning storm for about 45 minutes late in the day - and having the DNR come check us right after the storm when there was nobody else on the water-and I'm thinking why in the world they chose just then to patrol the water.
We were drenched to the bone.

7. Having a motor taken from our hiding place in the portage area bushes only to get back to the resort and find that a "good samaritan" turned it back in to our resort. Lucky they had the resort name stenciled onto the motor cover.

8. Breaking a shear pin on my 9.2HP about a 45 min boat ride from the resort-but being lucky enough that day to be running duals and then using the other motor to make it all the way back.

9. My freind "punted" a perch like you would a football, and got one of its spines stuck like a sliver. Another friend had to come over and cut it out of his foot. That's why we use the motor cover nowadays to anesthitize them.

10. Fishing a new lake that had a long channel of reeds leading out from the boat launch. Then not being able to find the opening back to the launch in the dark so I had to get out and walk the boat behind me along the shallows until I found the opening-took over a half an hour. For a little while I thought I would be sleeping on the lake that night.

11. On one of our earliest camping trips, we left food out on the picnic table. We thought it was ok since it was wrapped in "heavy-duty" aluminum foil - but that didn't stop the raccoons. Next night we left out burgers and brats spinkled with a heavy dose of pepper but I don't think that scared them away from human-food.

12. The first time I launched my rowboat I forgot to take the strap off the back until I was already backing into the water. Duh!!

13. The retrieval of a previously lost lure, or a rod lost overboard and conversely

14. watching my rod go overboard as we drifted through a mess of weeds-man, oh man it zipped over the side of the boat so fast. I was heartbroken. But that was just my first sacrifice to the fish gods.

15. Pullng up to a sand bar on a very hot day in May when we weren't catching anything and going skinny-dipping to cool off-then fishing for perch naked as a jaybird.

16. Having 2 guys run into our cabin at night completely out of breath, slam the door behind them and have them tell us they were just chased by a bear - and we said "yeah right", until the next morning when everyone in camp was talking about the bear tracks all around the resort.

17. Being stopped for a DNR roadblock and being in almost total compliance for once in my life but it was easy that time since fishing was so bad that week.

18. Catching so many Rock Bass and not knowing the limit was only 30 - we ate alot of rock bass that week.

[Dan Thiem]

genegodawa-

I'm not trying to come off as rude, but what have you got against perch?

[Swamprat72]

I wonder how "sporstmen" get a bad name.

[genegodawa]

Knew that post would get somebody's dander up.

Some of these things were done many, many years ago BEFORE we matured a little. And probably before some of you were born. And most were not actually done very often anyway. I would not argue for the validity of any of them. I was just reporting some of the "strange" things that have happened while fishing.

It wasn't the perch we were against, it was the seagulls we wanted to feed. We were just trying to help nature out a little. But those perch can be little bait-stealers can't they?

Ye without sin....

[Dan Thiem]

gene-

Good point, I guess I wont be casting any stones.

Sorry!

[Lake Alice]

You still have no excuse for eating all those rock bass.

[SC Dave]

Night fishing for Crappie with two 12 year old boys...one mine one the neighbor kid. The neighbor kid sets his pole down for a drink of Coke and it gets pulled over the side...gone. We grab a new line tie a daredevil on and start dragging it through the water to at least snag the line. Worked 25 min and couldn't get it. Neighbor kid was depressed, it was his fathers rod. We set him up with one of our extras and continued fishing. I get a bite and reel in a med catfish as I take my hook from his mouth, I see another hook in the other side of his mouth. Took it out and pulled up our lost rod. Probably should have played the Lottery in the way home.
SC Dave

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[IFallsRon]

genegodawa, do you have room in your boat for me and my cooler?

It wasn't unusual for guys I fished with to have a hockey stick in the boat. I've seen fish abuse that would make a person cry.

I can't top genegodawa but once we were up in Canada with the canoe. We hit a rock and one of the blades on the prop broke off. 30 miles with half a prop isn't good. The canoe twisted and vibrated like it was gonna pop rivets.

[genegodawa]

Dan,
I completely understand the tone of your posting. Your question was valid. No need to be sorry. Hope my tone wasn't taken badly by you.

Lake Alice,
By the way, how many Rockies over our limit were we? One or One hundred? I just wondered whether you assumed it was a very big number because I say we ate alot of rockies. How many is alot?

You are right though...no excuse. We should have known the limit before keeping them even if we ended up only 1 over. What if I told you that because we are such great "sportsmen", we did not keep any the next year just to make up for our mistake? What do you think-would that put me back on the "good" sportsmen list?

Gene

PS The excuse for eating them: So they would not go to waste!

[united jigsticker]

Getting turned into the DNR for CATCH & RELEASING TOO MANY FISH!

The guy was upset that the DNR thought it was a crank call.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[genegodawa]

Ifalls,

Hockey is my favorite TV show, but I can't imagine why you would need a stick in the boat????? Waiting for a freeze-up?

Anyway, glad you understand my friends and I AND I will always have room in the boat for another fisherman-so long as he brings his own cooler (AND LICENSE) and doesn't try to imitate my wife - you know, nagging about every little thing like how many rock bass I eat etc.
Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk...

Talk to you later,

Gene

[Lake Alice]

gene, the more rock bass you keep and eat the better as far as I'm concerned, then maybe there won't be so many to harass me while fishing for eyes. I was just poking fun at your choice of fish for the table--I couldn't even tell you what the limit is for rock bass.

LA

[genegodawa]

LA,

I let Swamprat get my dander up a little too much and I read too much into your post obviously. My mistake. I should have known that an attorney would not make an unsubstantiated accusation.

Guess you don't eat Rockies. No doubt walleye and perch and crappie are my 3 favorites, but I always say there is no such thing as a bad tasting fish, just that some taste better than others. (About the only one I would not eat is Carp-can never get over the old wives tale of my youth). I even had Sushi once, but once I read about tapeworms from uncooked fish I wouldn't do that again.

Gene

PS We did keep more Rockies the next year, but less than our limit because we were much more selective. But we ate alot of walleye the next year.

[Lake Alice]

Try an eelpout backstrap if you have not. Excellent eating.

tight lines

LA

[rangerguy]

A couple of years ago a buddy and I were musky fishing on a pretty clear lake in ontario. He was reeling in a glow bulldog when a 47-49" musky comes out of nowhere and completely misses the bait and dissappears. He keeps really the bait in and the fish comes screaming in from the other side and misses the bait again. My buddy goes into a figure-8 and the fish is now 2" from the tail of the bait when it all of a sudden stops, tunrns his head and grabs a hold of his rod tip and starts to violently shake it. This lasted about three seconds until the line breaks and the bulldawg starts to sink to the bottom. The musky saw it sinking out of the corner of its eye and makes a bee-line straight down to the bait. We dont know if he ate it because were fishing fairly deep and couldnt see the bottom but that was a very strange thing to have happen.

[The Grebe]

This did'nt happen to me while I was fishing, but it did happen to me while I was messing around with my fishing stuff on the tailgate of the truck the other day, when the wind was blowing about 40 miles an hour!

I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and I half fast looked over and there was something comming across the asphalt, right at me! I thought it might be a rabid skunk or something and I gave a mighty kick at it!

It was only then that I realized it was nothing more then a Tumbleweave!

For those of you that don't know what a Tumbleweave is, it is a relative of the Tumbleweed, only it's a good sized hank of fake hair that gets blown off someones head.

It gets all tangled up in a bunch and the wind rolls it along the street. sometimes at a pretty good clip. The twisted mass of hair resembles a derranged animal of some kind and is deserving of a good kick!

Reminds me of the time a guys rug flew off in a wind storm, in the Walmart parking lot and I thought I was being attacked by a flying squirrel!

[MuleSkinner]

A few weeks ago, I was fishing alone on Rice Lake by Paynesville. Full moon, so thought I would try the nite bite. Were a few other boats out too, but they were smarter than me and bugged out (no bite). It was such a beautiful night, decided to motor to the bay the landing is in, where the river runs in and out, and give it one last shot. By then, a low fog had formed at the river, plus some major burning somewhere added smoke into the fog. It was great. I had good trail on my GPS, so I thought I knew exactly where I was.

I pulled up, set down trolling motor, and was going to try jigging. I worked toward the river inlet/outlet. Then I saw this shape in the fog. Looked like a muskrat mound. But I had been there in daylight, and knew there was no mound there. Did the rascals work that fast? Then I thought, maybe a Pelican, cuz they like that area. But the shape was way too dark. Then, for 2 seconds, I thought, could there possibly be bears this far south? Anyway, I yelled out something to scare it into moving. No movement. Then I shined my flashlight on it. Too foggy to see. Was going to get out my spotlight, when I had a weird thought, even though I was the only boat, maybe someone had fallen out? So I yelled, is anyone there? Then the person responded.

I asked him if he was catching anything. He said, “Not yet”. I could tell he wanted to enjoy solitude. And he started casting up a storm. So I trolled well clear, and just slow trolled into the landing with the electric. I would guess the guy was in a tube. And he may have ended up catching crappies/walleyes. But because I was not expecting another person, I sure had a minute of chills.

[Blaze]

Grebe - I grew up with a step-dad that wore a rug and you're story cracked me up. LMAO! I could just picture it happening to him...

Tumbleweave...you're killin' me!