Strangest Bycatch

Caught a channel cat on a big ol bucktail while chasing muksies this morning. I’ve caught a channel through the ice a few years ago as well on a 3lb panfish setup. What’s your wildest bycatch?

I caught a 16 inch Rainbow trout just after midnight with a chicken liver on the bottom of a lake with a max depth of 11 feet. Trout are not listed as present in this body of water. I felt bad because he swallowed it and couldn’t be released.

I was in a tournament on Mille Lacs. Take off was out of isle. Made it up to closest rock pile in some really rough water. It got worse trying to troll crank baits we were surging at 7mph.
Wasn’t going to work. We went back into the bay to maybe find a walleye or two in the weeds as we knew not many fish were going to be caught that day.
After an hour of pitching bobbers.
Bobber down get the net. This is a good one. Oh man it feels really good. Scoop em scoop em.
Ah crap it’s a dogfish.

A pair of women’s underwear on a wing dam. They were purple with green polka dots.

Pool 4 in the main channel. i caught a 16″ brown trout on a hair jig and shiner. Pool 2 i reeled up a green tube sock.

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Matt Moen wrote:

A pair of women’s underwear on a wing dam. They were purple with green polka dots.

Were they keeper size?

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Nothing super strange for me, just the usual suspects while targeting other species (suckers, carp, catfish, muskies, etc)

But there was one fish that completely tricked me one time…

We were fishing at Isle Royale a handful of years ago when the outside board took off SCREAMING!!!! The fastest and hardest hit I’d ever seen!

The only fish in freshwater that can burn off 300+’ of drag like that is a BIG King

It was crazy exciting, especially since kings there typically average 5-10lbs, that’s if you’re even lucky enough to catch one.

It had everyone in the boat jacked up. We’d gain 50′ and lose 100’…Gain 75′ and then it’d burn us for 125′.

After a 20 minute battle, something didn’t seem quite right. The fish quit running, but it was really hard to crank in.

Turns out it was a big Steelhead….hooked PERFECTLY in the BUTTHOLE

It was able to run as hard as any steelhead could, because it was able to swim perfectly straight away from the boat. When it gave up the fight, it sorta folded in half which made it feel like 50 pounds lol

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In the late 1970s, on the Mississippi River upstream of wabasha just before you enter Lake Pepin, we were trolling rap was and my dad set the hook on what felt like a walleye.

We both turned around to look just in time to see the fish go airborne with that beautiful arch. We looked at each other like what the hell has gotten into the walleyes today?

He got it to the net and it was a nice rainbow trout of about three and a half pounds. Weird. I don’t think you’ll be getting too many of those out of the Mississippi on a given day.

jigging for crappie with an ultra lite set up and a darn good sized carp took the jig!!! one heck of a fight!!!

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

In the late 1970s, on the Mississippi River upstream of wabasha just before you enter Lake Pepin, we were trolling rap was and my dad set the hook on what felt like a walleye.

We both turned around to look just in time to see the fish go airborne with that beautiful arch. We looked at each other like what the hell has gotten into the walleyes today?

He got it to the net and it was a nice rainbow trout of about three and a half pounds. Weird. I don’t think you’ll be getting too many of those out of the Mississippi on a given day.

My PB Brown Trout is from that same general area, on a #5 blue craw jointed flicker Shad in May. It was right on the channel edge. Measured 23”. I think it was in 2018 or 2019. I’ve caught some others by the Rush River meandering out into Lake Pepin, but none ever in that area, and never again either

Matt Moen wrote:

A pair of women’s underwear on a wing dam. They were purple with green polka dots.

It was a crazy night but I would like my panties back.

Fishing steelhead on a local stream. Felt some pressure so set the hook. Fish is running all over the hole and staying down. Finally got the right angle and the “fish” came up easily. Hooked a full can of Mountain Dew right by the pull tab.

Fishing Devils Lake with my son, he hooks something that feels odd. Pulls in an 8 foot section of barbed wire. Strange lake.

Trolling Salmon off door county. Rigger was set down 75-80 or something like that in about 100’ of water. Rod tripped, fight ensued, and an 8 lb drum came up! That was a weird one to me!

Another time on the rainy – snagged anpiece of braid – and there was something on the other end. Hand lined in an upper 50’s sturgeon that had been snagged in the adipose fin and spooled some other guy earlier in thw day who happened to be anchored next to us when i pulled it in. We had a good laugh over that one.

I caught an old bone that a guy identified as a horse femur. It was pool 2 on Patrick’s wingdam.

Pulled in an empty weighted down champagne bottle w a note inside. Had several different pieces of metal with a weird message written, really goofy and never made much sense.

While casting a crankbait on Vermilion I pulled up a trolling rod with a Shimano Tekota 300LC. That was a good catch. Somebody else had a bad day.

A chestnut lamprey. Nasty squirmy little bugger.

On Pool 4 we have picked up two brown trout pulling cranks, and a mud puppy on a jig. All I heard when the mud puppy came up was “what the F*&^ is that”

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My buddy caught a massive beaver right in the tail on the Rainy one spring. Thought it was a huge sturgeon for a bit, and then were like wtf do we do now? It’s not coming in the boat, that’s for sure! Thankfully it shook the hook with a huge paddle splash on the surface right by the boat.

munchy wrote:

I don’t dare guess on this one but what exactly are we looking at here?

About a 3-4′ gator on a small pond at my in-laws retirement park near Sebring, Florida.
Was casting a frog Jitterbug from shore and half way back it just stopped. Thought I’d hooked a stick and gave a quick jerk and it was in the back of the gator who must have been just below the surface.
Luckily it got off after about a 20 second fight but for a moment I was really wondering what I was gonna do if it got all the way to shore.

Caught an american flag one time on pool 4 , thought I had a 30 incher.

When we were kids my dad and I are were fishing on Cherry Creek reservoir near Denver. He hooks something big and had a fight on his hands. Other boats are watching him fight this “fish” wondering what it is.

Turned out it was a half gallon milk jug filled with rocks.

B-man wrote:

Turns out it was a big Steelhead….hooked PERFECTLY in the BUTTHOLE jester

It was able to run as hard as any steelhead could, because it was able to swim perfectly straight away from the boat. When it gave up the fight, it sorta folded in half which made it feel like 50 pounds lol

Someone we were with hooked a big lake trout in the tail jigging in 110ft and about died getting it up. World record was out of that lake for a long time, seemed like that would be the next one

I caught the rotting carcass of a pelican once in the river. I thought I had snagged a huge carp or something because it would hit the current and the wings made it drift weird. It was mostly skeleton and still not as gross as the lamprey.

We were pulling cranks pre fishing for the pool 2 gtg contest. My first “fish” was a condom.
DT

Had a family friend catch a loon many years ago on long lake on the Detroit Chain. Naturally, he was illegally pulling a 3″ perch on a lindy rig when he caught it. He brought it back to the resort to ask the owner for help and the only help he received was a “Get that thing the f*** away from here!”