ever get those moments where you catch a fish without the intent to catch one?

i remember last summer i was fishing on a bridge, and i had just bought a new spoon and i wanted to test it out. I dropped my spoon in the water and bam, a big ass LMB comes out of nowhere and takes it as soon as i dropped the lure in the water.

I was once fishing in a pond that my friend's uncle owned. I was standing on the shore opposite of a pier that extended straight into the water and made a really bad cast with my Texas rigged worm. It went over the pier and into the water on the other side, but the line wrapped around one of the poles anchoring the dock. I couldn't dislodge it, and I pulled the line several times hoping that it would come free on its own. I guess that worm must have yo-yoed enticingly while I was trying to jerk the line free---because when I walked all the way around the pond (cursing the enitre way) to untangle it by hand, there was a nice largemouth on the end of it.

One day I just tied on new a deep diving crank bait and put it into the water to check out the action and a 1/4 lb walleye hit it.  It wasn't much bigger than the lure!

i was crappie fishing with live minnows a year or 2 ago and was getting a wind knot out of my line while my minnow was barley dangling in the water by a rock and a 3lb LM swallowed minnow,hook,sinker and a foot of line lol. Scared the heck out of me, don't normally get blow ups close enough to splash you!

Yeah it happens often. I've caught a few big cat fish after skipping a jig under boat docks...who knew

Was fishing for pike/lmb in some small creeks that run into Lake Michigan well before the trout were supposed to run. I threw a spoon out and something smashed it, thought it was a massive pike. First jump I saw the silver sparkle of those magnificant fish and my heart started racing. Less than a minute later, the fish jumped again, spit the hook, and flipped me the bird.

 

Still an awesome time though.

I live in NYS so accidental Northern Pike catches are a common occurrence. Fun, but such a pain to get the hooks out and keep the fish from hurting itself or you.

Several times I have caught channel cat using a crankbait.

I was wading in The Great Miami and my line wrapped around the end of my pole so I handed to my partner and he untangled it while I held the line and rod. As I was holding the line in the water a 3# smallmouth slammed my Panther Martin. Biggest fish I caught all day.

Few days ago I caught a warmouth in a spot that I only pulled largemouth out of and I have seen bluegill and some baitfish.

The warmouth was pretty big I have only seen one other in my life that my buddy from Orange Park caught. I caught it on a black w/ blue flake 6" senko. I didn't know what it was at first and then googled it after it fell off the hook and back into the water. Had some amazing colors to it

Yeah so today me and my buddy were having a bass fishing tournament and it early we were tied 2 bass to 2 bass. We were right by each other and I was using a 2 inch matzuo crankbait and I hooked up on a yellow perch in about 8 ft of water ten feet from the boat. It was about 8 inches long and not even a pound and it attacked a decent sized crankbait.

I was fishing ponds with a friend last fall when I spotted some monster grass carp cruising the surface. I had a S Waver 168 that I jokingly cast in front of the lead fish and told my buddy to watch to see what they'd do. We were both stunned when a huge carp we didn't see shot off the bottom and T-boned my bait. No idea what it weighed but it's the biggest grass carp I've ever caught.

One trip down to Lake Baccarac, I had just tied on a Swarming Hornet/Live magic shad and when we got to the boat, I wanted to show he guides how i looked in the water.  Just in between the beached boats, and a Tilapia hit it.  Made the best laugh for all of us!

 

Jeff