What are the odds? Lets hear your story...

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Lets hear those crazy stories from fishing that just leave you saying "What are the odds?!"

One that comes to mind for me, back trolling lindy rigs on the St. Croix one spring when I get a "bite", set the hook, "Got one!" "Feels alright, might be a keeper" I say. Then "Nah...well maybe... well, I dont know." Get it up to the boat and find I had snagged a bulldawg right through the line tie with my lindy rig hook. What are the odds that on the whole river I pull my little hook right into the line tie of that lure?

[Pherris]

Was fishing a tournemrnt and had casted my Senko out to dead stick it. Was looking to the cooler for a water and my partner said "hey looks like got a bite" I looked to the back deck and watched in horror as my brand new Yamamoto rod with a brand new Stradic moved across the back deck and into the drink before I could get to it. I was upset but ther was nothing I could do. We were in about 15 feet of water with a lot of weeds so no chance of going in after it. We continued to fish the area and about 30 minutes later my partner said " I got a bite get the net" I did and watched as he set the hook. He was reeling in and you could tell he definitely had a fish on. As he got it closer to the boat the tip of rod stated to come out of the water. Yes sure enough it was my rod and on my line was a 2 lb bass. I can't tell you how happy I was but also in a bit of disbelief as I had mentally accepted the loss. Did not win the tourney but was probably just as happy as if I had.

Next story:

Same partner but just pleasure fishing on a metro lake. I was trying a new bait and got a bite and st the hook. Must have been a bad knot because when I set the hook the fish was on for a few seconds and then gone. Immediatly knew I had broken off. I said to my partner"that was a huge fish" ( younknowthe ones that get away are always the biggest lol) anyway we continued to fish and a few minutes later he caught a smaller fish and after he removed his hook he said het you know that huge fish you broke off on? Well her it is and showed me that my bait was in the Fishes throat. We had a good laugh.

Good Fishing!,

[RiverFish]

I was probably around 10-12 years old when this story happened. I was spring fishing crappies on a rock pile, Dad had a crappie on so I went to net the fish, well some how the net ended up in the water and lost forever.

Later that year in the fall my Dad, a good friend, and I were fishing crappies on that same rock pile. Of course my Dad brings up the story of the lost net... About an hour later my buddy hooks into something big, I'm thinking a big walleye, it was staying down. Well you guessed it, up comes that net. To the day when we get on that rock pile, that story comes up.

[SpecialK]

When I was a kid ice fishing for the first time I got bored and set down the pole and started playing around and checking on everyone else. I turned around to see my pole going down the hole. Needless to say my father was not happy with me.

A few minutes later my bobber popped up in another hole. I grabbed the bobber and then hand lined my pole and the little sunfish who took it back up thru the hole.

[eyebjim]

This summer I was fishing lake michigan for king salmon and rainbows. We had caught about half of our fish on the one leadcore rod I had with. We were trolling along when all of a sudden the lead core reel started screaming. I ran for the it to get my thumb on the reel before all the line went out and just as I did I watched the line hit the end and go right out the tip of the rod. Gone. I was bummed since this was our best setup and we had another day to fish without any leadcore. Well it was on a planerboard so I thought maybe I can catch up to it. I had 5 other lines out so I turned as quickly as I could without tangling every other line. We then started looking for the planerboard and caught a glimpse of it. We got up to it and it would take off. This happened a few times till we finally caught the planer board. We then pulled in the loose end of the line and fed it back thru the rod guides and into the reel. Denny then reeled in the fish. It was 12.5 lb King Salmon which just happened to be the largest of the trip.

[leech~~]

What are the odds that I would get a hook deep in my right hand night trolling and when I got to the hospital the nurse comes in to the waiting room and asked if I am Steve with the hook in the right hand or Steve with the hook in the left hand!

HTG there were two of us named Steve out trolling that got hooks in opposite hands on the same night!

[Deitz Dittrich]

glad I am not named steve or night troll.. 8-)

[Antero]

I kicked my rod overboard on Moose Lake in Wisconsin in about 12 ft of dark rootbeer colored water. The next day I put a jig in the top guide eye and reeled her in.

Many, many yrs ago my dad left his rod with a minnow on it on his pier when he went into lunch, came out later and the rod was gone. Later that nite he found said rod down the shore with a small muskie attached.

[mainbutter]

A story relayed to me by a halibut charter captain, very similar to Pherris' story, here's the sequence of events:

-Customer new to fishing hooks halibut

-In his excitement, he drops the rod

-Embarrassment ensues

-With great generosity, the captain lets the guest fish with another rod and reel

-Guest hooks another halibut

-During the fight, the 2nd fish gets tangled in the line from the first fish+rod

-Guest catches one halibut, a rod, and a second halibut all at once

-Laughter ensues, all is well

[basssmasher*]

I was river fishing as a kid with crawlers when I cast out with the last piece of worm I had, I set the pole in the y stick and proceeded to go back in the woods to look for more worms. having found 3 more I went back to discover my rod gone.. I was heartbroken, that fall I went to the same spot to throw a spoon when I thoight I hooked a treebranch.. To my surprise it was my lost rod and reel, the trebel hook on the spoon caught one of the eyelets on the lost rod.. never again did I ever walk away from my rod as a kid! lol

[mainbutter]

Last crazy thing to happen to me:

Below the Peltier dam, I had my canoe out. There was a bobber floating a little ways below the dam. I figured I'd rid the lake of some trash.

I then began what turned into a 15 minute ordeal of chasing a bullhead hooked to a line attached to the bobber but not to a rod. I eventually rescued the bullhead, released it, and rid the lake of some trash.

Just imagine my surprise when the bobber starts to swim away from me, goes underwater for two minutes, and pops up thirty feet away! I was impressed with the strength of the bullhead. It reminded me of the barrel scene from Jaws.

[DTro]

Out with a couple of buddies one evening and we get to out spot a few miles down river. One of the guys says he can't find his phone. He set it on the inboard housing while he was loading his gear.

We searched the boat and chalked it up to sliding off and falling in the river.

Fished all night, loaded the boat up, pulled to the top of the hill and there was his phone half on and half off the swim platform on the transom.

[ANYFISH2]

I was probably 13-14 years old and would go and fish the river (Miss) by my house each day over summer. I was standing on my favorite boulder in the river and was casting a spinner rig to a leaning willow tree when I hook the biggest Smallmouth I had seen to that point. After a short fight my line breaks, along with my heart. I wade back to my tackle box and find a small mepps and tie it on. Wade back to my boulder and on the first cast I hook into another big smallmouth, fish jumps multiple times and diggs hard but I get her this time. To my suprise, I see my mepps but no fish, I still feel the fish though. I reel the mepps to the rod tip and to my suprise, I hooked the tiny swivel of my original spinner rig and caught the fish I had just lost one cast earlier.

She measured 19.5" and 4.5lbs before being realsed back.

[JBMasterAngler]

Last year we were ice fishing at lake of the woods, and not even 10 minutes into the trip, my 3 year old daughter dropped my rod down the hole. I tried for awhile to snag it. Early the next morning my rattle reel goes off in the opposite hole, I start reeling in what I think is a sturgeon! Turned out to be about an 11 inch sauger. There was a mess of line everywhere, among the mess I noticed the gold lindy jig that was on the pole that went down the hole the day before. So I started pulling in line and up comes my pole!

Also last year, I was trolling a crank along the bottom on hungry jack lake. I got stuck and broke my line. I hung out for a few minutes, hoping the lure would float back up. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later I found it floating about 20 or 30 yards from the scene of the crime. I start approaching the lure and out of nowhere (in 20 ft of water) a bass swims up and grabs my crank bait! I hadn't caught anything up to that point, and then all of a sudden a bass wants to slam the bait? But once again, about 5 minutes later, the crankbait came floating back to the surface.

[BobT]

Two years ago on one of our annual trips to the Lac Seul area, I had hooked what I thought was a stick or other snag. When I got my hood to the boat I found a line and my first thought was to release it back into the lake but my conservation side said, "No. Just bring the line in and throw it in the trash later." When I did I found a nice Okuma spinning real and fishing rod. The rod wasn't the best but I sure do like the real. It is like brand new and talk about smooth operation. Never heard of this brand before. It couldn't have been in the water too long but there was nobody in sight.

[frogtosser]

I was ice fishing for crappies over 40 ft of water when the bobber went down, reeling it in it fought hard and i thought I had a monster. I get it to the hole and it about a 2 pound pike, with a line attached to it, as I pull the line up I got someone elses jigstick attached to that pike, from where I dont know.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

This is a longer story, but I can make it short. In 08 or 09, I went to the spearing GTG at a south metro lake. Never speared before and me and a buddy tried our best to open a hole. Well Bass N spear was nice enough to loan me his ice saw, sure enough my first pull through the ice it slides through my gloves and we watch it sink thru the newly created hole, down down down. Well, I am frustrated at myself, and know that BNS is probably wanting to kick my tail pretty good, especially once I hear the price of this ice saw.

My friend and I set up his portable over our hole, once our eyes adjust we can see that ice saw sticking up in the silt. It seemed like 8 feet at the most down, and trust me, many a thought passed thru my head to strip down and make a dive to try and get it. My friend and I tried everything we could, we had tie down straps and tried to make a loop around the saw to pull it up, didn't work, threw down a lure to try and hook it, no luck. That day there was also some sort of diving club that had opened up a spot and were diving. We talked about walking over and asking if they would come and dive down and grab it.

So, we were at the F it level, were going to ask the divers, thought lets fish a bit, but my patience was worn and I wanted to try and get this saw. We hooked a lure onto a tie down strap, sent it down and let it just kind of float on top of, or near to, the ice saw. We slowly started to try and jig it and felt some weight! Slowly, slowly, we managed to pull the ice saw up and retrieved it. Here one of the hooks on the daredevil hooked onto the small chain where the handle meets the saw, barely!! I'm telling you the hook was diameter was larger then the opening in the chain link, but that's where it hooked in.

Relief and an ice saw back to Bass N Spear! My life was spared

[OnAFly]

Mainbutter - I've tried to catch that bobber twice! I guess you wer a little sneakier than me

BTW was that you out there about a week ago in a red canoe? I was the guy flyfishing out of the green solo. If you see me out there, stop and say hi.

[bassfshin24]

I was crappie fishing with a 1in tube as a kid and hooked into something big. It ended up being a carp and I had foul hooked it right in the p00p shoot. I thought to myself, how and the h3LL did this small lure happen to hook into something like that haha. My brother and I were laughing for quite awhile after that.

Was ice fishing a couple years ago in 40ft of water. Was catching some nice suspended crappies. My brother and law's handle on his reel somehow came loss and popped off and went down his hole. He was not a happy camper as the setup was new. He was getting a new setup rigged up and his bobber went down so he started pulling the line up and he said he had a fish on. Ended up being his reel handle got caught on the line about 30ft down.

[BLACKJACK]

A few years ago I was ice fishing up on the Red with my brother, he catches a nice northern and decides he is going to butcher it for pickling, hes getting all set up on a rickety card table, newspaper, fillet knife, bucket, when all of a sudden the fish flops, his nice fillet knife goes bouncing onto the floor and down his hole. Gee whiz!!! About 45 minutes later, hes done cleaning the fish with a borrowed knife, getting back to fishing, he looks down his hole, and about halfway down, his 10 inch knife is sticking into the side of the 8 inch hole, handle resting against the other side of the hole. I reached down and retrieved it for him - now he calls his knife Lazarus.

[luckydog25]

About 10 years ago I was heading up to Vermillion for the fishing opener. I stopped in hinkley to grab some soda, snacks, ect. It was dark out and I was in a huge rush so I just tossed it all under the box cover and took off. I had to stop one more time to drop off my wife on the way up also. I get to the pike bay lodge and the boys are playing some cards and I want to buy in, but can't find my wallet anywhere. Turns out I set it on the rear bumper when I stopped in hinkley. Still can't believe it stayed there!

[MN BassFisher]

Not too cool of a story but it was definitely a moment that I said "what are the odds"? I was fishing a little 60 acre lake my buddies grandparents live on. We fished it a ton when I was in HS and it was FULL of Pike but I had never seen one over 2lbs at that time (times have changed and now there are some nice ones and some nice bass too). Well apparently my friend had caught a 10lb Pike out of this lake the summer before. He was telling the story with a bunch of details and goes "this is right about where I caught her last year" and literally 5 seconds later gets a strike and before he sets the hook says "there she is!!!". Well he gets it to the boat and this Pike went just under 11lbs and the odds are that it was probably the same fish. It's a moment I still laugh about.

[Hoffer]

I go to Canada fishing with my buddies every Fall.

We usually take an evening or 2 to fish with dead bait under bobbers in this area we call "the cut". Its fun to do but you have to park the boat behind you and then crawl up a series of rocks and then walk a little more over to where you can cast.

You usually try to bring some extra tackle and bait a long because its kind of a hassle to go back to the boat. So, we are all set up and my buddy hooks a Northern. We get him close to the rocks where we can net it and the line breaks. We didnt bring any tackle and he didnt feel like going back to the boat. So he just kicked back and was going chill. So, no more than 5 minutes later my bobber goes down. I net a 6 pound Nort and am looking down the throat to get my hook out when I see a 2nd steel leader hanging there. Long story short, we work that steel leader and hook out too - and it is my buddies. He reties and a few minutes later we are both fishing again. This is a big channel...between 2 very large bodies of water. Lots of water and lots of fish to catch - and we catch this same Nort within 5 minutes and it still has the hook and steel leader in its mouth but wants more

[ozzie]

I watched my buddy drop his phone down the hole over 30 ft of water and we watched it going down the water column on his vex when all the sudden his line starts getting heavy...sure enough the clip on the phone somehow got caught on his line on its way down and my buddy got his phone back but a little wet......what r the odds?

[KidMoe]

Three of us were ice fishing a small lake in the early spring and catching all the 5 -6 inch sunfish we wanted. We were the only people on the lake and it was getting close to dusk. When I threw back yet another sunfish I see outta the corner of my eye something come back up the hole. Once i looked it was an unopened beer can!!

I know it's hard to believe but there were three of us there that saw it.