Yeah. Catchin’ the fish is the goal. Sometimes the goal is not achieved. It is not unusual to “catch” something that is not a fish. A branch, some bit of junk, etc. I caught a not-huge plastic bag. That was filled with what I can only assume were soiled, taped back up into a ball, diapers, because that is what I am sure I saw. The bag had a few holes, but was positively bloated and disgusting. I was fishing from shore, and the bag ripped and let loose as I tried to bring it in. How effing disgusting. I had no phone. Nobody is gonna believe it anyway.
Ha! I got 2. I have caught the stereotypical shoe/boot before. Happened once as a kid. The more recent not-a-fish was recently. My sister got a charter for her son’s birthday and invited us along. We were trolling the edge off Ft Lauderdale with planers and a couple surface baits. One of the planers goes off and starts peeling line. Captain puts one of the kids on the rod to start reeling. They can’t because this thing is taking drag. Slow and steady. Captain slows the boat and the kids start gaining line…..slowly. They reel, and reel, and reel. The whole time everyone is guessing what it could be. I mean it took a ton of line initially. And now just felt heavy. Even the young captain commented he had no clue and had never seen anything like this before. Kids were excited but at the same time tired and frustrated from all the reeling. Meanwhile I’m thinking this is the weirdest “fish” I’ve ever seen. All that power initially and now dead weight. Not a single run since. Well to wrap it up after about 30-40 min of reeling and hearing the kids whining that this was too hard it was a boat. Yeah, we hooked a boat, or line or something. And reeled on that thing like it was a world record tuna🤣
When I used to work on the offshore boats (high school and the first year or two of college), one of the gags some of the mates would play (high speed trolling and meat trolling) was to tie a 5 gallon bucket to one of the 50 wides and when no one was looking, toss it into the drink.
Reel starts screaming and the angler gets quite the work out.
This was only done on non-paying people- when captains buddies were on the boat or we were commercial fishing and had a blow-hard on board… but it always resulted in laughter for everyone but the angler.
I am older now, so probably not as funny now… but back then I used to laugh until my sides hurt.
Pulled up what looked like a 9.9hp outboard with my anchor one time in 40 feet of water, that was a good workout. It was completely encrusted in barnacles and must have weighed over 100 pounds
Years ago I was bait fishing near the USS Lexington, the former training aircraft carrier stationed at NAS Pensacola. I hooked something heavy on light tackle and slowly winched it to the surface. It was a brass fire hose fitting with a short piece of ship fire hose attached. That’s what I hooked. Took it to a local scrap yard and received enough money for the brass that it paid for gas for a few later trips.
Man we’ve hooked plenty of birds over the years. Mainly gulls but a few pelicans. We have hooked 2 turtles as well. My dad hooked one recently off a marker in Choko and we were hoping it was a big cobia. My BIL caught one while wading a sandbar in pine island. We have a cool pic with it that I tell him don’t share publicly since I don’t want problems. But we had to hold it to get a safe release the line wrapped around its front fin.
The one that takes the cake is my uncle hooked a manatee once and fought it to the boat. We kept trying to get it close so we could cut the line without leaving too much excess. I think it got tangled on one of the fins. Crazy experience!
Hooked a guys wallet on a sinking line in Callaway (near Panama City Beach). Turned out he was missing/presumed dead. No cash in it. Figured whoever tossed it in the drink got that. Sobering thought.
I think I’ve shared this story here, so I’ll spare the details, snagged a line that had a gator on the other end. Pulled up what I figured would be an old crab pot, or anchor, nope..a Damn poached Alligator.
Hooked a cormorant once, that was another interesting catch and release.
Also hooked a manatee (in the gulf) and for anybody that doesn’t think them dudes can move, I got news for you. Them guys are fast!! Thankfully the hooked pulled and the “fight” was only a few seconds, but that was easily my biggest non fish ever….i had landed em..
Did a lot of summer time bass fishing at night with my dad, throwing Tiny Torpedo top waters. Felt like I had hooked some weeds. Upon closer inspection it was a bat!
Man just triggered another memory. I shared this on the other site but one time my dad and I were fishing north bay for trout and the sun was going down. Dad gets a huge hit and goes slack. He brought in an eyeball the size of a golf ball! Must have been a tarpon or giant cuda.
Briefly hooked a dolphin when he ate a nice trout I was fighting. Reel screamed for a few seconds until he felt some tension and he jumped and did an acrobatic flip that threw my lure. I was pissed.
They used to have a fishing catwalk on the Rickenbacker Causeway; we’d load up on the smacks off there with pilchards we’d catch with rings. Had a pelican grab my bait once and get hooked. Unhooking it unharmed, without getting eaten alive, was a real challenge. Another time I snagged a passing car by accident. That bad boy spooled me quick…….. Lent a whole new meaning to “smoked my drag”.
Ha! Reminds me of a time I hooked a jet ski! Well, I didn’t hook him, the a$$hole picked up my line I was trolling and spooled me. Then came back to cuss us out for his mistake. This is why I hate jet skiers…
Me and two buddies were in the Bolivian Amazon. One of our other buddies could not make it, but we had a hat from his company. I had this great idea while traveling there we should put the hat on a Caiman and get a picture for him.
First day, first spot, I am throwing a popper and cast to a stump. Or what I think was a stump.
Nope, it was a Caiman. It was actually pretty tame and never ran, it just hissed and went to the shore.
