I have group of friends that they are 70 years old plus and they just do bait and wait fishing. They fish for carp, catfish and trout in the seasons.

I do fish with this guys once or twice a week, unless it is cold and rainy which they dont like to go out. Anyways to make story short I always will have a rod for bait and wait with them and other one I do bass fish, One day I was with them at a lake that they said they stocked trout and as always I put one rod with night crawlers and I fish for bass, God knows I fished for solid five hours and try everything I know of and I didn't catch anything, My friends catch one or two trout during that time. I wanted to set and eat and get back to fishing and by that time my stand rod got bite and I set the hook and try to get the fish and I was feeling it is a catfish, To my surprise it was my PB small mouth ?. On Carolina rig with night crawler, Unbelievable!

I was fishing all day and nothing and this rod catches my PB smallie(I don't know if it counts as PB or not). Just wanted to share it with you guys, If you have surprising catch please Share your story as well. 

My dad caught a 23" walleye on a bluegill head suspended under a bobber we were floating over submerged grass for channel cats. I caught a 6.5lb largemouth at the same lake on a weightless chunk of bluegill, also targeting channel cats along the deeper edges of the grass.  

 

I caught a 2-3lb bass on a half a frozen bluegill I set out to try to catch snapping turtles. It never hit bottom, line just took off as the frozen solid half a gill fluttered to the bottom with a big treble hook buried in it. 

Last Spring I was fishing for smallies on the Upper Potomac with a Heddon Torpedo.  I’d already caught a couple, when something took the lure about a foot from the bank and headed straight toward deeper water.  Instead of the characteristic explosion on the surface like the smallies, this strike sounded like someone had slapped the water with their paddle.  When I finally got it to my yak,  I wasn’t sure what I had.  I had to Google it to confirm I had just caught a 23” muskie.  Not only was it the first muskie  I had ever caught, it was the first I had ever seen.   

Two years ago was when I started fishing again after a 25+ hiatus. We moved to Texas and there is a decent-sized pond in my community. All my rigs were 40 years old or older. I cleaned and lubed the reels, spooled on some new line and went fishing. 
 

I was always a live bait angler so I was fishing with nightcrawlers. One rig was a Cabela’s UL spinning rod with a Shakespeare 2052 reel. 
 

I had an Eagle Claw snelled #6 baitkeeper hook with 1/2 a nightcrawler under a bobber looking for bluegills. I casted it out and it landed about 5’-6’ farther than I wanted. I cranked the handle to close the bail and reeled it in a bit. The bobber jiggled once and went under. I set the hook and the rod bent almost in half. I knew it was something big, but wasn’t sure what (there are some big cats in this pond). Fought the fish for minutes before I landed it. It was a LMB between 6 and 7 lbs (estimated due to no scale). 
 

That’s the day I started upgrading all my gear and started fishing with lures lol. This was my PB by over 4-5 lbs. 

Fishing some sunken concrete pipe at a local pond. Caught a few Bass and this hit. Brian.

11 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Two years ago was when I started fishing again after a 25+ hiatus. We moved to Texas and there is a decent-sized pond in my community. All my rigs were 40 years old or older. I cleaned and lubed the reels, spooled on some new line and went fishing. 
 

I was always a live bait angler so I was fishing with nightcrawlers. One rig was a Cabela’s UL spinning rod with a Shakespeare 2052 reel. 
 

I had an Eagle Claw snelled #6 baitkeeper hook with 1/2 a nightcrawler under a bobber looking for bluegills. I casted it out and it landed about 5’-6’ farther than I wanted. I cranked the handle to close the bail and reeled it in a bit. The bobber jiggled once and went under. I set the hook and the rod bent almost in half. I knew it was something big, but wasn’t sure what (there are some big cats in this pond). Fought the fish for minutes before I landed it. It was a LMB between 6 and 7 lbs (estimated due to no scale). 
 

That’s the day I started upgrading all my gear and started fishing with lures lol. This was my PB by over 4-5 lbs. 

 

4 hours ago, a1712 said:

Fishing some sunken concrete pipe at a local pond. Caught a few Bass and this hit. Brian.

WOW

Was bank fishing stripers at the Delta one night using cut anchovies with a buddy. I hooked the biggest catfish I've ever hooked. Buddy went to net him - it was right against the shore and had my light shining on him, and he did a barrel roll and got loose.

 

Okay let's go for cats!

 

Casted again and caught another heavy fish! Took awhile to get it to shore, and it was a huge tree branch. Landed it though!