My friend caught a cowboy boot once. I can still see the disappointment on his face when it broke the water. His first cast ever while bass fishing. I told him to throw back over and catch the other one.  😆
 

On 12/27/2025 at 10:51 PM, scaleface said:

Do those Spunk Shads come in a clam pack?

I caught a heron one day. Joker swooped down outta a tree and snatched my hollow bodied SPRO frog before I knew what was happening. 😂 Luckily I came to my senses in about 3 seconds & snatched it back and was thankful a hook hadn’t buried in his foot. Next cast that sucker tried to swoop down & snatch my frog again. After that, I moved on. 😂

 

2nd weirdest was while fishing with my Dad as a pre-teen. Back in those days I fished minnows under a cork with a Zebco 33. One evening at dusk, I had a bite & set the hook. When I pulled the catch up on the gravel bank it was about a 4 ft water moccasin. I dropped that rod & backed up in a hurry. 😂 Luckily, it unhooked itself & went back in the water. 

Caught a small gator on a frog and a 4 or 5' hooked in the back on a worm.

You want weird, for me this was one of the weirdest.  I made a long cast across a deep canal in the Everglades with a trick worm and heavy braid.  After letting it sink in 30 feet of water I felt a little resistance and set the hook hard.  All of a sudden it started taking a long run to the right I kept the pressure on and it took another run in the opposite direction.  I thought I hooked a gator, the I loosened the drag and it dove.  Every time I gained ground it ran right or left but not straight back at the boat.  As it finally got close I could see a giant piece of limestone shaped like a flying saucer that had to weight 15 pounds.  My partner and I laughed for 20 minutes at the ridicules excitement caused by the long runs and changes in angles this object took on the way to the boat!  I was for sure looking at a personal best through most of the fight!   It ended up worth the laughter it brought as the highlight of the day!😆

A Bullfrog and a Cottonmouth.

44 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

A Bullfrog and a Cottonmouth.

I once caught a cottonmouth on a 3 treble jerk bait. All 9 points in the skin past the barb within 1 second..

I ( sort of ) caught a barred owl once. I had set out a bait and went in the house to eat. When I went back out , my line was slack. I reeled and reeled, and it was on my left property line in a big bush that’s in and out of the water. I couldn’t reach whatever it was from the bank , so I paddled the JB around and began getting the line tight. As it got tight, I realized the line was up high  in the bush. As I shown the light up in there something moved. I moved a piece of the bush out of the way, and was shocked to see an owl staring at me. For a second I thought he might attack me with that hooked beak and sharp talons, but he had enough slack to hop up higher. I could never tell if he was hooked or if the line was wrapped around him. I thought about netting him, but realized that would be a catastrophe.

so I decided to cut the line as close to him as I dared, and that went well.

I went back to check on him the next morning, but he was gone….

 

2 hours ago, Smirak said:

I once caught a cottonmouth on a 3 treble jerk bait. All 9 points in the skin past the barb within 1 second..

....within 1 second, what?  You have some huge cottonmouths in Al..

6 hours ago, Smirak said:

I once caught a cottonmouth on a 3 treble jerk bait. All 9 points in the skin past the barb within 1 second..

I too have caught a snake in the Everglades and refuse to bring it in the boat.  Not a fun experence, I just kiss the frog goodbye!

5 hours ago, Tackleholic said:

....within 1 second, what?  You have some huge cottonmouths in Al..

This was actually a Mississippi grown water moccasin. I was about 11/12 and thought it would be a good idea to throw at the snake and try to catch it. In hindsight, that wasn’t a good idea. We did “land him” and actually tried to unhook everything. His body was wrapped in such a way that a stick held his head down. Yanked one table out and he got ticked. We just let it go after that…

A couple ducks,  big water snake, Snapping turtle, and a soft shell turtle. When and if you hook a soft shell turtle in the back paw, be ready for a fight.

2 hours ago, GreenPig said:

A couple ducks,  big water snake, Snapping turtle, and a soft shell turtle. When and if you hook a soft shell turtle in the back paw, be ready for a fight.

I’ve hooked dozens of turtles while bream or catfishing. Most commonly soft shells.

3 hours ago, GreenPig said:

A couple ducks,  big water snake, Snapping turtle, and a soft shell turtle. When and if you hook a soft shell turtle in the back paw, be ready for a fight.

Those Soft Shells have long necks, they will getcha';  I speak from experience.

The weirdest catch I've ever had was a female mallard duck. I was walking the bank and was scared half to death by a duck flopping around. I had figured it was injured since it wouldn't fly away. I noticed a bright yellow blob on its back, and by the time I could tell what it was, it had already run into the water. It had someones lost walking bait pinning its wing and foot together. I knew I had to help it, but it swam to the middle of the pond. About half an hour later a noticed that it was on the opposite bank. I slowly snuck behind the dam over to it and hid behind a tree right by the shore. I raced down to it before its knew what was happening, grabbed it and carefully removed the hooks. During the removal she was extremely calm and let me help. After the hooks were out, I let her go, and she flew off. I felt like a freaking hero.

On 1/6/2026 at 2:44 PM, geo g said:

You want weird, for me this was one of the weirdest.  I made a long cast across a deep canal in the Everglades with a trick worm and heavy braid.  After letting it sink in 30 feet of water I felt a little resistance and set the hook hard.  All of a sudden it started taking a long run to the right I kept the pressure on and it took another run in the opposite direction.  I thought I hooked a gator, the I loosened the drag and it dove.  Every time I gained ground it ran right or left but not straight back at the boat.  As it finally got close I could see a giant piece of limestone shaped like a flying saucer that had to weight 15 pounds.  My partner and I laughed for 20 minutes at the ridicules excitement caused by the long runs and changes in angles this object took on the way to the boat!  I was for sure looking at a personal best through most of the fight!   It ended up worth the laughter it brought as the highlight of the day!😆

I caught about a 10" piece of shale one time on a crankbaits. I was swimming a crankbaits along a shore one time when it got heavy.

I was reeling it in as it swam back and forth just as you described. Finally got it up to the boat and just as it came into view, they flat piece of shale slipped off the lip of the crankbaits and sunk back into the lake. The lip of the crankbaits had caught on the rock and it flipped up and caught water like a wakeboard.

I was also watching a video one time where someone snagged a dead walleye that had been filleted and tossed back in the lake for the turtles. He even hooked it in the mouth. The look on his face when he pulled the carcass out of the water and it still had the fillet skins still attached at the tail.

The video started as he was pulling in the line and by the look of confusion and disgust on his face, the video HAD to be real.

4 hours ago, Flukeflicker said:

I felt like a freaking hero.

You were.