What's the strangest thing you ever caught ?

[high desert]

Caught an eel off a jetty while salmon fishing. I know people eat them, but I just reached down and cut my line.

 

[oldschool45]

Not mine but I actually saw them happen.
Banana River Bridge near India Atlantic Florida; we’d cast net finger mullet then wait for the fish to run and cast into the fray hoping to catch whatever was causing the run.
Pelican’t. Pelican’t has been my name for Pelicans since I saw one dumb bird try to pick up the aforementioned baited finger mullets. The bird got about 25’ down range and 4’ of air before the rod’s owner decided to grab his rig. Pelican can't make it in to the air. The bird made out better then if he'd gotten away.
Wild dolphin, again a finger mullet but he was dangling it 4’ out of the water waiting to cast. All of the sudden Flipper comes out of the water and grabs the mullet. We didn’t land this one but there was a fight.
Mine
+2 on the Bats casting night crawlers out at Dust here in Kentucky. The bats caught them mid cast.
2 bass on the same lure same cast

 

[Old CW4]

Mid 1970s. Fishing at night for catfish in the Colorado River near Grand Junction, CO at one end of an old and unused railroad bridge. One of my rods bent double and started whipping real good. I thought 'catfish and a nice one.' I horsed it in and onto the bank. It was weird, I mean W-E-I-R-D! About two feet long with a flat eel-like body and a big round head at least six inches in diameter. It looked like a gigantic tadpole more than anything else and weighed at least ten pounds. I wish I'd kept it and had some expert identify it but I didn't. It was just too bizarre and gruesome to mess with so I cut my line right at the hook and let whatever it was go on it's way. I described it to several local 'experts' but none of them had a clue.

 

[barrabas74]

I didnt ever catch anything really cool but I was with my father on a boat in the Chesapeake when as he casted his line a seagull took the bait and hooked itself. He had to real the bird and in unhook the poor thing. Probably the craziest catch I have seen.

 

[jdm61]

A pelican and two stingrays in the same afternoon while trying to catch tarpon in Key West harbor.
The strangest thing that I have seen someone "catch" had to be a 30 ft whale shark that decided to come up to the surface in Mexico just as we were passing over at close to 30 knots. NOT a pretty sight. Our mate had to go under the boat and remove huge chunks of flesh from the running gear and check for damage with all of that blood in the water.
The funniest strange catch is the legendary bucketfish of the Gulf Stream. This elusive creature is normally hooked and fought by the newbie on your boat that has fallen asleep in the fighting chair. This rare fish is closely related to the Pacific 5 gallon paint bucket tied to the leader of a 30 lbs trolling rod and trolled at 3-4 knots.

 

[Mack]

A pelican and two stingrays in the same afternoon while trying to catch tarpon in Key West harbor.
The strangest thing that I have seen someone "catch" had to be a 30 ft whale shark that decided to come up to the surface in Mexico just as we were passing over at close to 30 knots. NOT a pretty sight. Our mate had to go under the boat and remove huge chunks of flesh from the running gear and check for damage with all of that blood in the water.
The funniest strange catch is the legendary bucketfish of the Gulf Stream. This elusive creature is normally hooked and fought by the newbie on your boat that has fallen asleep in the fighting chair. This rare fish is closely related to the Pacific 5 gallon paint bucket tied to the leader of a 30 lbs trolling rod and trolled at 3-4 knots.

I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of Bucket Fish caught this year. Thanks for the tip.

 

[tonym]

Mid 1970s. Fishing at night for catfish in the Colorado River near Grand Junction, CO at one end of an old and unused railroad bridge. One of my rods bent double and started whipping real good. I thought 'catfish and a nice one.' I horsed it in and onto the bank. It was weird, I mean W-E-I-R-D! About two feet long with a flat eel-like body and a big round head at least six inches in diameter. It looked like a gigantic tadpole more than anything else and weighed at least ten pounds. I wish I'd kept it and had some expert identify it but I didn't. It was just too bizarre and gruesome to mess with so I cut my line right at the hook and let whatever it was go on it's way. I described it to several local 'experts' but none of them had a clue.

Was it this?

http://www.fishin.com/articles/snakehead/snakehead.jpg

 

[SuzukiGS750EZ]

Hooked a small crawfish in the leg using a dardevle i believe it was. What are the odds?

 

[Grampa]

I caught a golden retriever while surf fishing. Catch and release!

Years ago, I saw a guy who hooked, but did not land, a gray whale!

 

[rth548]

I caught a 12 pound bowfin while bass fishing once upon a time. Was throwing a spinnerbait in dingy water, never saw the fish until I got the net under it. Kind of wished that I hadn't once I had it in the boat LOL.

 

[Old CW4]

tonym, Nope, sorry. This 'thing' I hooked had a flat body. As I remember about 1.5 inches thick looking down on it and four to five inches wide looing at it from the side. The overall look was a weird fleshy ball head with this 'streamer body' behind it. The tail was a two to three inch long 'V' slit at the rear. Thanks for the comeback and pic.
BTW, I was NOT drinking that night, I really did see and briefly handle the crazy thing.

 

[cddogfan1]

Caught a owl one evening bass fishing with a zara spook. He swooped down and grabed it on the treble hook. It was on then. Wrapped him up in a jacket to contain him while my buddy took the hook out.

 

[dipbait]

Caught a owl one evening bass fishing with a zara spook. He swooped down and grabed it on the treble hook. It was on then. Wrapped him up in a jacket to contain him while my buddy took the hook out.

Thats a strange catch.

 

[bcornelis]

A few years back I caught a bald eagle on the fish I was reeling in, thank God it broke off. About two years ago I caught a whisky Jack while ice fishing (I had put my rod down for a second and had the mealworm still on the hook). I had to reel in the bird to release it. I might have a picture of the second incident if I can find it.

 

[shike]

A duck, yes a duck, a mallard to be exact. I was bass fishing and threw a cast and this #%^&*# duck flew right into the crank bait and caught him on a wing. No fish will ever strip your reel that fast Luckily when he got to the end, the hook came off and he just kept on flying like nothing happened.

 

[Chris Pierce]

I've caught a few good sized crabs on frozen anchovy. While usually they'll just hang onto the hook as you reel them up I had one manage to get the hook in his weird tiny little mouth. I've also caught a bunch of starfish. Nothing is as disappointing as seeing a bend in your rod and then reeling in what feels like a bag of rocks. No fight at all.

 

[dipbait]

Cousin and I were fishing jigs and pigs 30 foot deep on Table Rock Lake . We both have good hands and can pretty much tell what is going on down there. His jig felt a little heavier than normal and he reeled it in nice and slow. He brought in a large crawfish. I was mightily impressed. The crawdad had bright orange pinchers. We added orange pork frogs to our jigs and slayed the bass after that.

 

[dipbait]

I was at the Mississippi river one day and one of our mentally handicapped residents was casting and retrieving a large magnet in the river. I asked him if he caught anything. He replied that he had caught a bird cage.

 

[roughedges]

I was at the Mississippi river one day and one of our mentally handicapped residents was casting and retrieving a large magnet in the river. I asked him if he caught anything. He replied that he had caught a bird cage.

That reminds me of a story. I used to have my family's first telephone, wood cabinet and crank and a little horn to speak into. My uncle Glenn came down one time and I found him tearing it apart to get at the electromagnet inside. When I asked him what the heck he was doing, he told me all about how you can hook it up to a car battery, throw it overboard and trawl around with it behind and just scoop up all the dazed fish. He was wanting to use it in his catfish pond because I guess throwing out fish pellets and baiting hooks with hot dogs wasn't easy enough.

Not a strange catch but a strange way to catch for sure.

 

[Atlas Knife Company]

Alligator! My 8 year old, Atlas, caught this giant beast. I have video as well, but its too big to upload. Couldn't land him though, then again, we didn't really want to.

Once when fishing in under the bridge in Albert Lea, MN, Atlas cast too high and lost his lure to a passing semi truck. It yanked the line off at 70 miles per hour. I've never seen 200 yards of line disappear so quickly!