my most embarising mistake is when i couldnt figure out how to use a baitcaster so i would pull the rod back and as i brought it forward to cast i would push the button to release the spool and i couldnt figure out why i couldnt get it to go anywhere >

some other things ive seen is my friend just reeling in a plastic worm fast, same friend putting split shot in a spinner bait, and my grandpa just reeling a chugbug across the surface

The classic spinning rod upside down

This gets me every time.  I can't resist chuckling when I seriously see people trying to catch fish doing this.

What really chafes my line is when hollywood depicts a supposed veteran fisherman holding a spinning outfit with the reel on top. I can understand why a novice might mistakenly do this but doesn't anyone on a hollywood set know how to fish? Are they trying to depict fishermen as dumb? Or are they all a bunch of PETA freaks? Maybe all of the above.

Anyway, I once watched someone cast a Mepps lure and let it sink to the bottom and leave it there. Before we went out he claimed he knew how to fish. Perhaps live bait but obviously not artificials.

my worst mistake, not watching what i was doing because a CUTE girl was walking down the pier, i whiped back the rod, snapped forward intending to impress her with a really long cast, and heard a nasty metal chunking sound...... my rod came forward just fine, but my favorite spinner bait went sailing off into the sunset... taunting me with a nice little polp as it hit the water, i just pretened i was letting the lure sink until she walked off..... iu blushed, i never blush....

most common one i see at my local lake..... weekend warriors who dont have a clue what theyre doing open up a new rod & reel set from walmart, cast a bobber and crawler into the lillypads and then curse up a storm when they cant get it unstuck....  then the one I always here them say is, "this line is junk, what a rip off, it can't even pull my hook outta those lilly pads...... what a rip off..."

I just smile and nod....

(I ussually end up in a pair of jean and boots a week later collecting free bobbers, hooks, wire leaders, you name it from my favorite highpressure shore side pad bed...... Its a gold mine!)                                  to my credit tho, I often times donate that gear to kids who have subpar equipment, or whos dads wont even help them hook their bait so they sit there and cry and frown.

Could I have my Shrek bobber back?

 How about the split shot rig with a floating air fry on it.

                                -searoach

i was at the neuse fishing and hunting store in north carolina with my dad. right when we walked in the front door there were a few barrels of rods on sale, well my dad needed a new rod so he walked over and picked one out for his small spinning reel. he bought it and on our next fishing trip he put onh his spinning reel and what do you know it is a baitcasting rod, i thought that was really funny ;D ;D ;D

I second what Little_Stephen said about the CUTE girls. It always happens to me at lakes. Like this weekend, there was SMOKIN HOT girls runnin around, all day. There was these couple that kept followin me though. I would loose concentration and get hung in a bush or somethin like that, but other than that, it was awesome. I did get to talk to a few though, cause, ya know, chicks dig boys on nice boats. Thats what she said anyhow. I better quit before I get carried away.

One that i see kids do alot is tie on a spinnerbait where the blades are attached to.So when they are reeling it in it goes backwards.

I'll never forget the first cast I ever attempted with a baitcaster - I was probably 10ish. I just got back from K-Mart with my dad who was nice enough to buy me a 20 or 30 dollar combo that came pre-rigged with blue mono. I thought the reel looked cool, and I figured out how to free spool it. Seems easy enough right? I tied on a big DOA swimbait and was gonna fish one of Miami's freshwater canals for "trout". First cast I hauled back and let her rip...imagine the biggest birds nest you can imagine and me, having no clue how to untangle it. Needless to say I didn't use that rod for the rest of the day  ;D Funny thing is, now I know that there are big peacocks in that area, and if I knew how to fish that bait I could have caught a nice peacock.

Well it seems the classics are universal !

We also have the upside-down spinning reels here, and other stuff you mentioned.

There used to be a bilboard ad in the subway for an insurance company depicting a "fisherman" with the upside-down spinning reel mounted on a baitcasting rod. Man, this little trigger gotta hurt your hand  ;D

I , for one, had a pleasant encounter on the shore of a lake. So I was shore-fishing and casting a Flashminnow. That one guy came up and watched me.... After like 30 seconds, he told me : "Oh you're fishing with rapalas" (here everything that has trebble hooks IS a rapala  : ... people don't understand that Rapala is just a brand, not a generic name) to which I answered that I was fishing with artificials not Rapalas.

I eventually caught a few fish in from of him and that's when he decided to give me the best piece of advice ever.

"you should put little maggots on the each point of the hooks. That would attract the baitfish, which would then attract the bigger fish and the bigger fish should be able to distinguish your "RAPALA" amongst the real bait fish and attack it."

That was the dumbest piece of advice (fishing related) that I was ever given. And of course I (politely) told the old guy that he had no idea what he was talking about, and of course he took it bad and I gained a few curse words.

As for funny newbie fishing stuff, once on a beach in south-western France I saw a guy trying to cast Fly-Fishing style with a surf-casting outfit. I think we will have to credit Mr Redford and his movie "And a River runs through it" for that one.