Ever been fishing, only to catch something else

[Brian L]

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!