Once while freshwater fishing for bass, I caught a huge snapping turtle on a hunchback rebel.

I target 50-70lb stripers all the time but can't seem to break the 40lb mark.

5 gal.bucket.I've also had the misfortune of catching a "whitefish".

bath mat

I caught a fleece coat once. It fought really well though :hihi:


Not the only time you've been fleeced..........:wall:

bath mat
that was to funny story

My wonderful wife. Met her on the Cliff Walk while I was casting. Best catch of my life.

DZ

lobster(chef was there) and mult. horseshoe crabs. funny thing was i was jigging and i hooked them right where their mouth looked to be...

Got a small lobster one very dark night on a plug after picking out a backlash and pulling free of the bottom. I thought it was a weed and grabbed it to yank it off the plug. Nearly fell off my rock.

Fishing from the Andy-Lynn a number of years ago on a company outing hooked 10-10 oz. sinkers all knotted together while jigging. Thought I'd won the pool for sure.

Someone elses fishing rod. Looked like it had been in the water for 10years but the mono still looked brand new. Under the barnacles was what had been a nice Shimano Thunnis (sp) so some poor fool was bummed out big time

Lyme disease. No fun.

chick lobbie while chunking macks

at MBLHD harbor,

not much of a fight and GREAT bait!!!

While drifting for fluke on Mashnee Flats I hooked a bluefish frame in the mouth. Could not figure out what kind of beast I had hooked as it was coming up to the boat!

theres a fairly popular spot in town that i wont fish anymore due to the fact that.. i managed to pull up.. something. (n my most favorite plug of all time..ofcourse.. it was definitely clothing. came up as one piece. whether or not it was a jump suit i cant say. i was to worried about getting my favorite plug back. i dunno how i even managed to get it to the surface. (10lb mono) as it was filled with.. what i hope was silt. all the while i was having flash backs of ever friday the 13th movie i had ever seen. i dehooked and let it go back to the depths.

seriously freaked me out.. shall never fish there again. cause i know it still lurks there, waiting.

Two years ago I fought and landed a sleeping bag. No body. :eek5:

I was carp fishing with a friend once and landed not one, but three snapping turtles simutaneously on a dough ball. Female was on the hook and there were two males on her back competing for a "ride". At first look through the murky water, I thought I had a large stump, what with all the limbs and such. When the limbs started moving, it got really interesting, as I thought I'd hooked a new species of aquatic animal. The boys bailed out when I dragged her on shore, my friend and I spent the next half hour trying to safely (for the turtle AND ourselves) remove the hook from the side of her neck. After a half hour of hissing, tackling, and prodding, I popped the hook out and got her back in the water, all my fingers intact!

At the same body of water in an earlier year as a kid, I was again fishing for carp. I'd heard from another friend that they will occasionally grab topwater lures if presented slowly enough.(!) I saw a big fish tailing in the water and (eager to test the theory) cast a jitterbug at it. Twitched it by the fish, and it grabbed the jitterbug. The fish put its head down and swam back and forth steadily for a good few minutes until reaching the brush line near the shore, when it jumped. To my surprise it was a Largemouth Bass of 6.5 lbs instead! In addition to the tailing, the fish never jumped, shook its head, or did any Bass like behavior before that. I was sure I'd hooked a carp! Nice surprise with what was one of the bigger Bass of my life at that point!

Many years ago. I was fishing Narrow River with the first conventional levelwind I ever had, middle of the night, dropping tide and I hooked up. 10 or 15 minutes later I landed a very large contactors trash bag half filled with sand. The outgoing current made the fight feel like the biggest fish I ever hooked..

I hooked a Christmas tree while fishing the tip of the sand bar in Chatham. When the rod bent over, I thought I had a chance at the world record.

:hidin:I went fishing with a buddy who gave me a lesson. He caught several nice keepers while all I caught was a buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........:cheers:

Conger eel...nasty creatures.

A snapping turtle catfishing on Lake Martin in Alabama on rotten shrimp. It was a beast. We were in a canoe in the middle of the night fishing waist deep water on an expansive flat. The rod doubled over and I set the hook. Several minutes later. My cousin reached for the leader before we could see the beast (of course assuming it was a nice channel cat) and out comes a huge snapping turtle with its mouth wide open!! My cousing nearly lost some fingers. We called it a night after that.

When I was much younger I was fishing Lake Champlain I left a crawfish out for the night. In the morning I reel in the line to find a 3.5 ft long eel on the end. Yuk :yak6:

Was squidding fishing at goat island this may. I guy I was with forgot his lantern, but we kept fishing. After about 15mins i thought he had caught a brick or something. He actually caught a lantern. It must not have been in there long cause we dried it off, and fired it up. Didn't catch any squid, but you cant win em all.

Fishing Jamaica Pond back in the mid 70's, I came across a body that someone had dumped in the water. I think I broke some kind of rowing -speed record atfer that. I do remember actually rowing the boat UP ONTO THE DOCK.

After that, I haven't had anything really surprising, although yesterday I was fishing up in NH at my brothers place (off a remote cove, off a small bay on Winni) and was having a great time catching black crappie on a fly rod. I also caught a few emerald shiners that were schooling in this particluar cove. On one cast where I caught a shiner, as I brought it in to shore, I noticed a 4 lb largemouth closing in for the kill. I proceeded to "play" with this bass as it would repeatedly attack and try to inhale this 7 inch shiner. If I could have added a trailer hook to the flyline, I would have had this beauty in no time.
It's one reason I have learned to appreciate live-lining bait when possible.

I have a friend that caught a toilet seat jigging off Race Point, that was a surprise!!

A huge seagull on a popper. I thought I was going to be Jack Hannah and calm the thing down and gently remove the hook. Unfortunately for him, Rodan decided to try to attack me and got the line cut off about 2 feet from the hook. I almost fell oveboard while trying to keep the bird out of the boat and remove the plug. I'll never again throw plugs at rock piles that have birds sitting on them.

"Rodan"

LOL!

Picked up an eagle depth finder, cable and transducer off the bottom of Junior lake in Springfield, ME two years ago after ice out.

A long time ago in Florida I was catching largemouth with a buddy. He kept a small 2 lb bass (he kept most fish). Later when we were heading in we realized the nylon cord stringer had fallen off the boat...gone. The next day at the boat launch there is a 4 foot water snake writhing on land with a large bulge and a nylon stringer hanging out of its mouth. I cut the stringer at its mouth. I hope it was okay.