Accidental Catch Stories??

[Dan Thiem]

Ok here's mine...

Standing on the river on rip-rap rocks casting a Big Rapala for northerns. I want to see how my baits running so I decide to just drag it along shore to watch and see if its's trailing good and WHAM (say it like Boomhower) "Dang 'ol Muskie purt near pulled my pole right out my hands"

It wasn't a very big one but it sure was by accident.

[M.T. Bucket]

I grew up in Illinois where trotlines are perfectly legal. When I was younger, I went to check my small trotline when I found a very, very unhappy Great Blue Heron. I'm sure few of you can appreciate the skill required to remove a 2/0 hook from the foot of a snapping heron (they are BIG!), but it ain't easy!

Other accidental catches:

Caught a nice musky on a #2 Black Fury while fishing smallies at the mouth of a little creek in Illinois.

A (former) fishing partner of mine caught my scalp with 2 barbs of the treble on his Mepps. Required needle-nose surgery. Um, not cool.

[hanson]

Well, it wasn't me, but I witnessed one heck of an accidental catch tonight.

Check out the Metro Forum at this thread- Medicine Lake dogfight

There's a couple good stories in there now.

[slick814]

Last June I was fishing on a small metro lake. Had the morning off, so I went to a lake close to work so I could maximize my time. Thinking I'd hook a few bucketmouths, I started casting a black spinnerbait.

I caught 2 bass, no real size, but fun, when I notice that I might be able to reach the edge of the weedbed I was fishing if I casted far enough. I tossed the lure out there, started my retreive, when BAM, something hit it HARD... went to set the hook and nothing.. and I mean NOTHING.. no spinner, just line. I was using 8# Iron Silk, and hadn't had anything break it off at that point, so I thought, "Hmmm.. must've hit a log or something".

Thinking I had broken the line, I tied on a small spoon and casted to the same spot again.. Started reeling, and BOOM!...fish on!!!!

My heart jumped, making me think I had latched onto the Mack Daddy Bass of the lake. I was reeling it in, when this thing jumped out of the water and did a tail dance on that water. I knew then that it was no bass, but something toothier and slimier.

After 3 or 4 runs and another jump or two, the fish was finally tired enough to bring to the dock I was on. My first ever MUSKIE!!!

Sure enough, when I got it out of the water (which was fun with no net), there was my spinner, hooked in the opposite corner of the fish's mouth!. I got the hooks free and measured him quickly, only to find that one of the biggest fish I had caught that summer was 38".. too small to be a keeper. (Not that I would've anyway, but still)

I can honestly tell you that it was the most fun I'd had catching a fish in quite a while. I got a huge thrill from the fight, and can't tell you how much fun it is to catch one on light line & a medium action spinning rod. I had to smile as he swam away, and I promied I'd be back in a couple years when he was big enough for pictures & a nice graphite mount.

[riverrat56]

Ice fishing Red lake this winter, last morning in the sleeper before we left, fish were biting pretty good, caught about 10 crappies and some of those "rough fish" walleyes, all of a sudden the bite just stops for about 15 mins. I Look over to my other hole, bobber is slowly sinking down the hole, reel up slack, set the hook, nothing there, while im rebaiting my line, the other line went down about an inch then stoped. Same as last time, reel up the slack, set the hook, the differnce was that this time the drag started squeling. So i tell everyone in the house i got a northern on and to get the other lines up.

On the first run he almost spooled me, then i turned his head and got him almost up to the hole, second run he took out as much line as the first, this time when i got him to the hole, his head turned and started to come up. The problem was i only had a 6 inch hole and he wouldn't fit with out a pull or 2. Since I only had 4lb line on someone else had to reach there hand down the hole, right when they touched that fish on the nose he took off like a freight train. 3rd run i got him back into the hole again, my buddy got him by the gill plate, halfway out the hole, the fish spun and he dropped him. So im thinking no way am i going to land this fish. Finally on the 4th run i got him up the hole and a differnt buddy suceeded in grabbing him.

36" northern, just shy of 13 pounds

[Anthony]

Alright, I'll post one. It wasn't accidental and it wasn't me, but worth telling the story. My Father-in-law had a place on the Horse-shoe chain down near St. Cloud and he loved fishing carp during the summer.

Not just any carp though, he knew where to find the pigs.

He uses an ultra-light with 4lb test on it and a huge gob of crawlers. Got to be careful casting it so you don't break the line. Then we sit back, crack open a cold one and wait.

After a while, the line slowly starts to peel off the reel

click...click...click Wait a little longer

click...click...click OK now

Rear back on the rod and set the hook.

click...click...click.

The fish doesn't even know it's hooked. Just keeps swimming along gnawing on the crawlers.

After a while we slowly put enough tug on the line to work it back toward the bank and it finally sees us sitting there.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Peels out a pile of line and we start all over.

After doing this a few times and the fish is just about as tired as the old man is, it hangs out with us near the bank.

How the heck do you land 15 pounds of muscle on 4 pound test.

No worries, we came prepared and start poking holes in it with .22 longs.

Takes about 10 shots to finally get it to roll over and we grab it and haul it on shore.

The neighbor up the hill hears the shots and comes down to join us. The guy will eat absolutely anything and wants the Carp, which is exactly what we were up to.

Nothing wasted, fantastic memory.

Been almost 20 years since I've been able to do that, but would love to man the pole next time myself.

[Tonka Boy]

Quote:

---

Your buddy probably wouldn't give you a hard time if you wouldn't have kept the panties and still have them in your top dresser drawer.

Funny story!

Corey Bechtold

---

Good one Corey!! I set myself up for that one. LOL

[Green&Gold]

This was a first for me but those who are familiar with the St. Louis river know it happens more than one might think:

I was fishing about 2 weeks after opener in the Devil's Elbow area just above Arrowhead Pier and the Bong bridge. I was trolling a crawler harness for walleyes using your typical medium light walleye rig and 6 lb test line. For about the 20th time I felt tension on my line and set into about an 18" walleye. As I was reeling my keeper in, it all of the sudden felt like it hit a brick wall. My first thought was that she got caught up on a log or something on the bottom. No matter what I did, I couldn't budge it. After tugging on her for awhile, I glanced at the shore and realized we had been pulled quite a ways off the channel and into about 5 ft of water. Then I knew whatever I had on my line was a living creature. For the next 10 minutes, I saw monstrous swells in the water every once in a while as I was able to make some headway, but the stained river water would not let me get a glimpse of what I was battling. It seemed like this beast did not even know she was hooked. She never took runs, rather just methodically swam around in the 4 to 5 ft of weedy water. Finally after about 20 minutes I caught a glimpse of what looked to be a monster muskie with my 18" walleye T-Boned in her chops. For the last five minutes before we got her in the boat, I watched in amazement as she turned that fish in her mouth and swallowed the whole thing. With my father-in-law's help, we landed her, snapped some pictures, and watched her swim away. She was all of 52". Biggest muskie I ever caught, which is kind of ironic, because I muskie fish quite regularly and the closest I've come to this is 46". That's my accidental catch story of which I don't regret a bit.

Oh and BTW: No, I didn't get my walleye back. I guess that muskie caught something too that day. JH

[Tonka Boy]

That reminds me of another Green and gold...

I was up in Canada walleye fishing with my dad. He had just hooked into a 18" eye and was bringing it in. Normally I would just grab it, but for some reason I grabbed the net. Just as I went to scoop it up, this 34" pike goes airborne and lands in the net. He put the clamp on that poor eye so we did have to keep it. The pike went back after a quick photo.

I sure am glad I grabbed the net for this fish!! It's pretty common to have pike hit other fish up there, but I've never had one jump into the net before.

[PERCHJR]

Hey guys, good topic. Try this one, I was fishing Waubay Lake with my 2 cousin's last fall for walleyes and perch. We were doing great on both species, we were just jigging on the bottom and drifting with the wind, with a crappie rig following behind. The next time my bobber went down I grabbed the rod and set the hook expecting a perch or a walleye, well to my surprise it was a 15" walleye and a 2.6lb smallie on the same crappie rig, now that is one different fight, with the walleye trying to stay down on the bottom and the smallie trying to put on a jumping show!!! After a few minutes they both gave up the fight and came to the boat but it wasn't over yet, imagine trying to get both of them in the net, now that was interesting also, but we finally got them in and of course we had no camera for proof, isn't that always the deal. Well thats my story and I am sticking to it!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[Keith_MN]

I and a couple of my brothers make an annual trip up to NW Manitoba each year to fish for the big northerns. My younger brother is a fanatic about using spoons ("iron" as we call it) to fish for northerns. But the northerns were having nothing to do with the "iron". So in pure desperation he hooks on a big red and white suick. We're working around a point in a shallow bay when it's "FISH ON!!". My brother knows its a nice fish, but as it turns out its not a northern....its a 28" master angler walleye (on a 12" suick).

And that was only the half of it. Earlier in the week on the way up to the lake we had stopped in Winnipeg to fish the Red River where my brother landed a 35.5" master angler channel cat.

And then to top it all off, on the afore mentioned 12" red and white suick, my brother caught a 41" northern.

Three master angler fish in one week. I never bring up the topic of fishing with my brother anymore as I don't think I will ever be able to top that.

[MNmikew]

Another from the BWCA. My wife and I were catching 13-16" walleyes as fast as we could cast, was great time. Caught another one and was was reeling it in as we did numerous times that day. Suddenly it got real heavy for some reason. I kept reeling thinking weeds though we were on a rock pile. I get the fish near the boat and I can only see the head. I take a closer look and see the biggest northern I've ever seen has it in its jaws, only thing sticking out was head and tail. Quick hit the bail and wondered how the heck I was going to get the thing in, it was half as long as our canoe it seemed. I fought it for awhile but he finally let go of the walleye. Bite marks on walleye measured 5 inches across. This was 7 years ago and I still have flashbacks about it.

[wall eyell be]

Bobber fishing for perch before walleye opener. Bobber goes down fast . . . and keeps going. I set the hook and it reeled in easily; like a 6" perch would. But the bobber had gone down way too fast for a small perch.

Well I wasn't expecting . . hadn't even crossed my mind that it could possibly be . . . a 9" muskie !

[B@ssmaster]

My story involves my Dad and uncle, but no fish. It takes place back quite a few years back when my siblings and I were kids. Nice summer night, full moon, no wind, owl hooting in the distance, kids are asleep, so they decide to go out and do some top water bassin'. My uncle is slinging a frog colored Jitterbug, Dad’s throwing a Hula Popper. The way they tell the story is they were just minding their own business, enjoying the evening catching a bass once in a while, listening to the soft gurgle of the Jitterbug and the hollow pop of a Hula Popper when all of a sudden they hear a sound like wings, then a splash. Next, my uncle's line starts screaming off his reel. At this point there is no correlation in his mind between the odd sound and the strike, so he sets the hook like a good fisherman. He soon realizes that his line is not disappearing into the water, but up into the air. About that time a rather loud screeching sound begins above them. That's when it gets interesting. He starts reeling in his catch when my dad notices in the gloom above them that there is a fairly large Great Horned Owl circling the boat, and it ain't happy. Dad describing a view silhouetted in the moonlight of an owl circling above my uncle with his rod bent skyward is one of my favorite stories. Dad says all he remembers after that is yelling "Quit reeling it in!" and then cutting the line. There was no way he was going to deal with a ticked off owl with those talons and a beak. Next morning we (the kids) find the parts of the lure bitten in half near the dock, the heavy hooks horribly twisted. They said the owl screeched all night long, no doubt in pain from the hooks being torn out of it’s talons. We have no idea if the owl suffered any permanent damage, but since both halves of the lure were recovered, we were hopeful that it didn't. This occured back in the 70's but we still occasionally refer to my uncle as the "Big Game Fisherman".

[Rookie_4_Ever]

OK- I've read all of the posts, and I think I might have the weirdest one yet.

Me, my brother and my father took out the ol cabin cruiser out on mille lacs. We were sick of always fishing for walleyes under slip bobbers (like we have on that lake for over 20 years) and convince the old man to borrow a couple of rods from Terry (Terrys Boat Harbor) and get some HUGE suckers and bobbers and toss them boys out near the weeds.

The only bite we got was on my brothers line and the bobber went down hard and he had a dam of a time getting the thing near the boat. So picture this: a huge, but oddly shaped object swimming under the surface right next to the boat. Me n Mitch are pumped to catch a big ole pike on Mille Lacs (our first in over 2 decades) and this thing swims closer and is obviously going to break the surface.

What happened next scared the living dump out of all of us. You know that chills feeling you get when you see a big shape loom within sight? Multiply that by 10 and you get a general pandemonium.

Five feet from us in the water, what seems to be the biggest (Contact US Regarding This Word) bird I've ever seem breaks the water with a squak and starts flopping around. I (Contact US Regarding This Word) near dropped the net in the lake.

And it's....Bird On!

My brother had hooked this thing in the wing and you name it and it was fighting, in the air (as best as it could manage) and under water. It would dive and my pop would start chasin it with the bayliner. Mitch was on the bow with me and the net as well and I'm yelling "right, left" to my dad as we chased this thing around Mille Lacs for lik half an hour.

The plan was to land it, get the hook out and do a little C&R.

Well we finally gave up and cut the line on the most surprising catch of our lives. Probably a good thing too, that thing just might have kicked the dump out of us if we did get it on the boat.

I still don't know what kind of bird it was, but it was kind of loon shaped and a white grey color.

Any ideas?

[Rookie_4_Ever]

One more quick one-

On Lake Nokomis last night was a huge on water canoe and kayak demo. So my brother takes his nephew out in a canoe and they start scouting around the lake. We see them stick on one spot on the north side of the lake. I grab a demo kayak and paddle over there, he's chasing around an elusive bobber that had snapped off of some one's line.

Every time the bobber came up, he would paddle over to it and it would go down again. Friggin hilarious!

Well this went on for like an hour, me and my girl go back there and my girlfriend grabs the bobber on one try and pulls up a bullhead.

Look Ma, no pole!

[Bubbadust]

I have 2 stories:

1) When I was about 12, I was out in the boat with my father and 17 year old brother. I was casting and brought the rod back for a nice long cast, but halfway through the casting motion, the lure snagged on something. I gave it a couple of quick yanks and then got knocked off my seat with a punch to the shoulder from behind. I had hooked my brother's arm good and he decided that hitting me was a better option than yelling. We had to cut the hook and back it out.

2) I was down in Florida about 3 years ago casting in a canal. I arched a cast up nice and high to get some distance and I waited several seconds for the lure to land, but it didn't. I finally looked up to see my line still pointing up and followed it to a seagull flying overhead! I could see the lure dangling several feet down, but it was getting closer to the bird the further he flew. I just braced myself for the hookset, but luckily it dropped off back into the water without hurting the bird.

[PERCHJR]

Hey guys just thought of another weird deal!! I was fishing for walleyes from shore a few springs ago, I was casting a jig and minnow and had another rod just sitting on the bottom of the lake with just a minnow also!! Well soon I had a bite on the rod sitting on the bottom so I grabbed it and set the hook and nothing out of the ordinary happen right away, because I was catching a few 14"-15" walleyes so that is what I expected to be biting! But of course that wasn't what was biting, I am still not sure what it was on the other end because I never did see it!! The fight lastest at least 15 minutes and still no fish, then I suppose another 10 minutes went by and finally there it was a HUGE 12" walleye??? Well of course all the people fishing along the shore thought I was a total (Contact US Regarding This Word), because I couldn't get the monster in, but as soon as I landed the little fella the blood just started running out of him just behind his gills and then, they all understood why it fought so hard and for so long. Like I said before I never did see the fish that had him in its jaws but I can only imagine how big it was!!!

GOOD LUCK AND GOOD FISHING!!!

[Riverratpete]

Sounds like an immature Loon, I've had them things chase for of my minnows up to the boat then I can remember, freaks me out everytime I see that thing come streaking through the water.

[Kab Dreamin]

I was fishing with a friend one day and hooked what I thought was a huge fish. I would get it up off the bottom and then it would head back down. I tightened up the drag and started to gain some ground on it. We were fishing in a pack of boats so everyone was watching me fight this "fish". I kept reeling and pretty soon saw my sinker. My buddy put the net in the water and was ready to go for it. I lifted up and looked down only to see that I had hooked a flat rock in a crevice running down the middle of the face. As it would come through the water, it would wobble back and forth and felt like a fish fighting. Anyway, knowing that everyone was watching, my so-called friend netted the rock and held it up high for all of the other boats to see. Needless to say, there was a little bit of laughter at my expense. He had a net with a built in scale and the rock went a little over 10 lbs. Being the sportsman that I am, I turned it loose.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Up fishing the Rainy River this weekend at 4 mile bay... we watched a guy fight a fish for at least 10 mins... Turned out he had snagged another boats ancher rope. I tell you what, his buddies in the boat were all on the floor laughing... I have to admit we may have laughed a little as well...

[MNBIGBEAR]

Took my 8 year old nephew fishing last summer for walleyes. He couldnt quite get the hang of a lindy rig so I decided to troll some raps and see if we could pick something up that way. I was holding his rod for him and it wasnt long when an 8 or 10" smallie hit. I handed the rod to him and he started fighting it and started complaining how he couldnt pull it in. I was joking around with him and started giving him some greif for that telling him he'd better toughen up a little bit. I looked behind the boat and here a mid 40's muskie latched onto his smallmouth. I started giving him some instructions then and sure enough he got it boatside after about 10 min and in the net. It finally let go of the smallmouth when I picked it up. It was his second fish he ever caught and turned out to be a 46" musky! I think I have fishing partner for many years to come

[196thDLR]

A few years ago a friend and I were fishing on Swan Lake near Pengilly in the Fall. We were fishing in the area known as Elephant Rock. { The rock is no longer there. The person who bought the property said the rock blocked his view of the lake and had it removed.} To continue, we were drifting West to East in 14' of water with jig and minnow combo's. Long-lining the jig and minnow was the the pattern we hit on. Something tapped my line and I set the hook; the battle was on!! Battling whatever it was seemed like 15 or 20 minutes, but in reality could not have been more than two or three. Swan used to have a very nice population of big toothy critters, so naturally that is what I thought I had. WRONG!! A Loon surfaced about fifty feet from the boat, which is certainly not unusual for Swan. What is unusual, is hooking one. Well, now what do you do? I cut the line, the loon flew away, did it live? I have no clue, but what I do now is to pull my bait from the water if there is a loon in my immediate vicinity. I have often wondered about that loon.

[GenzisGod]

Well, here goes. While this story doesn't involve some monster fish on the line, it is about an accidental catch. Back in the 70's, my older brother, myself and my grandpa were casting from the bank up on the Roseau River. We had been catching some hammer handles and one walleye. The spot on shore that we were fishing was kind of crowded and my brother decided to move downstream about 100' and fish from a clearing on the bank. All of sudden he let out a whoop and when we looked over, we saw a huge northern jumping in the air. As we watched, it jumped again and we watched his line snap. We had the only tackle box with us so he came over to tie on another hook. He asked grandpa which hook he thought would be the best, and my grandpa reached in and pulled out an old beat up "lazy ike". I told him that thing looked like junk and he informed me that the reason it was so beat up was the number of fish he caught with it. He tied it on my brother's hook and told him that whatever bit this thing, wouldn't be able to go of this hook. So off my brother went in search of the big one that got away. It wasn't 5 minutes when he let out another cry. We looked out into the river but didn't see anything. We looked at my brother and he was holding his rod over his head with both hands. I figured it must have been a monster again. All of sudden he turned toward us and came at a fast walk toward us. I though this was weird as he was still holding his rod over his head with both hands and the rod was bent pretty good. Only when he got closer did I notice what was up. He had really wound up for the big cast and when he let it fly, the "lazy ike" had come up and hooked him right in the "Tool Bag". He now had to walk 100' through the brush with this hook firmly embedded. He came up to grandpa with tears in his eyes and told him what had happened. I fell to the ground laughing at the sight of my older brother. Not a nice thing to do, but I couldn't help myself. Grandpa was a little more understanding. Once he got my brother calmed down, he reached over and pulled his plier from the tackle box. Upon seeing this, my eyes overflowed with tears as I knew what was coming next. While it was the funniest thing I had saw in my young life to this point, I will admit that I also held my breath as he cut each hook off. Thinking the worse part was now over, I almost passed out when he hooked the barb of each hook and gently pulled the hook through my brothers "pin cushion". When the operation was complete we gathered up everything and headed back to the farm. To this day I outfish my brother every time out, as he only uses barbless hooks. I am glad to say that my brother has had kids since this day and everything turned out fine for him!

[Ice9]

OK, that was the best post I've read in a while.

ice