Strangest thing you ever snagged?

[Bill Krejca]

If you think about it, just one person fishing a body of water for a day, either casting or trolling, covers a mighty large amount of territory, so to me it isn't too surprising that so many items are retrieved along the way. I have dragged it several poles, and an occasional bait which had been snagged on the bottom.

Perhaps somewhat unusual was an old green net finish Dardevle spoon which I found on shore in a portage-in lake trout lake. The spoon was just laying on the shore - why? Perhaps a fish was once attached, it floated to shore and the fish was consumed? Also found a floater Rebel crank bait laying on a rock in another portage-to lake. I figured this one was thrown by a hooked fish, after breaking the line, and the wind carried it up onto the rock. I pulled a floating bait in on O'Sullivan Lake which had a small piece of lip, I'd guess pike, attached.

Bill

[last chance]

was fishing the headwaters of the east fork down on dale hollow and hooked a like new zebco 1 and rod. got back to east port dock and was told some others guys was up there when the water was up and turned the boat over. lost all the tackle and rods and reels.

but the best one was while fishing a bridge down in ft pierce fl i hooked and reeled in a bicycle.


was fishing Manistee lake in Michigan and reeled in a very old bow. wish now i had had it checked out to see if it had any value.

[andreindy]

Originally Posted by Bill Krejca

If you think about it, just one person fishing a body of water for a day, either casting or trolling, covers a mighty large amount of territory, so to me it isn't too surprising that so many items are retrieved along the way. I have dragged it several poles, and an occasional bait which had been snagged on the bottom.

Perhaps somewhat unusual was an old green net finish Dardevle spoon which I found on shore in a portage-in lake trout lake. The spoon was just laying on the shore - why? Perhaps a fish was once attached, it floated to shore and the fish was consumed? Also found a floater Rebel crank bait laying on a rock in another portage-to lake. I figured this one was thrown by a hooked fish, after breaking the line, and the wind carried it up onto the rock. I pulled a floating bait in on O'Sullivan Lake which had a small piece of lip, I'd guess pike, attached.

Bill

Bill is probably right. Fisherman, particularly walleye fisherman, can cover a great deal of bottom dragging area. Odds are that SOMEDAY, whatever is down there WILL get snagged.

As a kid I remember a very popular dam in the downtown part of the city. Water was always like coffee...you could only see a few inches down. Folks from all walks of society would flog that water. And all of them, I know, would lose plugs to snags. Uncommonly so. Years later, on a local chat forum reminiscing about the place and the unbelievable snag rate, a salty old-er fisherman made a confession to me in a PM...he had intentionally dropped some heavy chain fencing in strategic places. He would then go in and harvest the baits...lots of antique lures he said..."their grandpa's lures" is what he called them. I always wondered how the Fishing Gods were going to deal with that guy.

[Doublelung76]

A sturgeon in a lake in Ontario while walleye jigging,lake was part of Ottawa river system.i thought I had a huge northern until it surfaced,quick pic and release,about a 30lb'er

[NARDA 1]

Was fishing on Eagle Lake in Vermilion Bay jigging for walleye using a Lindy Rig with a tail hooked minnow. I felt the hit and set the hook and immediately thought I lost the fish. I reeled in to check my bait and found this lip hooked on my Lindy Rig! I figured a feeding walleye hit my bait and when I set the hook I hooked the small perch that was already in it's mouth.

[andreindy]

Originally Posted by Doublelung76

A sturgeon in a lake in Ontario while walleye jigging,lake was part of Ottawa river system.i thought I had a huge northern until it surfaced,quick pic and release,about a 30lb'er

On that note, I vividly remember snagging my first snapping turtle as a pretty young kid. My kid brain remembers it as ENORMOUS. Probably really wasn't. Lots of whooping and hollering when it got to shore. 2nd piece to that memory was I with a best childhood friend Tony when it happened. Tony's gone now, took some wrong turns later and took his own life. Good friend then.

[GBS]

And, the small perch tale reminded me - fishing Reed Lake in Manitoba. No live bait, using preserved fatheads on a jig. Felt the "tap" and set the hook, but no joy. Reeled in to check the bait. Yep, minnow was still there, hooked through the nose.

WAIT! IT WIGGLED! Dead minnow was gone, replaced by one the exact same size, except it was some kind of native "stickleback" type, with sharp pointy fins. I released it. Figured something that "pointy" would never catch a fish....

[Wall-i-Lama]

Last summer on LOTW, we were slow trolling for lake trout with rigs in 90 to 95 foot of water. The rig consisted of aluminum keel (homemade), 12oz ball sinker, 6 foot leader and spoons. Snagged something that feels like a small fish, but without the head wabble.

Got everything to the top, only to see a 6" doctors spoon (half silver, half blue) hooked to the end of my lure, Swedish pimple laker taker. I told my wife, "free tackle, I used to have one like that!" She replied, I'm sure a lot of people have one like that.

I pulled up the leader, the the aluminum keel (homemade) and finally, the 12 oz weight that was painted lime green. When we saw the weight we realized instantly, it was our rig as all my weights are lime green and hers are pink.

We had to think about it for awhile, but realized we lost that rig 4 years earlier!

Yep, we lost and then we found our own rig, in LOTW deep water. What are the odds?

Retired the lure, and its hanging on my wall.

[yoopertrout]

I was float tubing for largemouth with my wife. She was spin fishing, I was fly fishing. She hooked a bass, the knot slipped and she lost her lure. I few minutes later, my fly hooked one of the hooks on her lure and I landed the bass and gave her her lure back.

[maddogg]

Originally Posted by fishsammich

My brother snagged a couple times while fishing at the **** for walleye last spring......he kept snagging in the same spot so I told him not to just keep cutting the line but bring the snag up and get rid of it. He finally did. It was a boat anchor line, complete with an anchor and tons of hooks, lures, etc......ironically, he lost an anchor of mine years earlier so I kept the anchor he snagged, so now he just owes me a good anchor rope yet.

Did you reset it for the following year?