23 hours ago, MO_TightLines said:

The two that really stand out for me are:

 

#1 - I was fishing a Chatterbait on Lake of the Ozarks and had a Drum hit it. I couldn’t even believe his mouth held up for me to get him to the boat.

Drum love bladed jigs. Can't tell you how many I've caught on them. The worse ones are during tournaments because they smash them just like a big bass 

 

I had about a 10lb bright orange koi to the boat today and lost it, actually pretty disappointed about losing it. 

This happened to me just a couple months ago.  I was fishing the Clinton River, one of my local steelhead and brown trout holes far upstream of Lake St Clair.  There's a dam about half way up the river, and I was floating wax worms upstream of the dam.  I saw my float go down, set the hook, and thought I had a nice steelhead until I got a visual.  The water was a little murky and once I had a visual, saw what looked like a hammer handle.  Once I got it to shore, it ended up being a 20" musky.  I have no idea how it got to the other side of the dam, as the steelhead have a hard enough time getting over it, but it was pretty surprising to say the least.  

I joined the snapping turtle club today. I knew it was big, and alive, but it definitely didn't feel like a fish. As it got to the side of my yak the hook came loose, I think from his front foot. We were both lucky.

 

Couple of years ago I was night fishing with a jitterbug and an owl tried to take it but I was lucky enough to see it coming and pulled it away. 

I caught a belted kingfisher on a topwater last year. Was able to release him safely. A few of them showed up at my local lake over the past couple years. They're way too aggressive towards topwater baits and don't seem to have as discerning of an eye as a seagull.