My fishing buddy lost his boat anchor...2 weeks later we were on a different lake and I snagged a rope...pulled it up and it was attached to a better anchor than he'd lost. Keep hoping some day I'll snag a cooler full of beer.

Those were some great stories.  I call myself an amateur writer--I hope you guys won't mind if I embellish your stories some day.

A hissing river Snapping Turtle with a shell that was about 18" front to back. I couldn't remove the hook. It was hooked twice in the neck with a Husky Jerk. That thing was ANGRY and very scary. I was 13 or 14 and wading in knee deep water, far from any solid shoreline. It was flailing and it clawed a small hole in my waders. I cut the line and wished the turtle luck.

A hissing river Snapping Turtle with a shell that was about 18" front to back. I couldn't remove the hook. It was hooked twice in the neck with a Husky Jerk. That thing was ANGRY and very scary. I was 13 or 14 and wading in knee deep water, far from any solid shoreline. It was flailing and it clawed a small hole in my waders. I cut the line and wished the turtle luck.

yeah those big turtles are nasty. saving a lure is not worth losing a finger or two. i would of cut my line pretty much right away. me and my bro-in-law were fishing off a dock one night at a lake using night crawlers and live bluegills for catfish and this one turtle kept tormenting us. we caught him like seven times on both baits. he was a good fight though, poor guy had hooks all in him by the end of the night. it was hilarious at times but got old. "i got a big one, get the net" only to pull up a turtle lol

I once hooked a seal lion off the pier at Catalina Island had to break the line (freaked me out). It got stuck in his body he didn't eat the bait. and a new  jar of salmon eggs trout fishing with a castmaster.

I remember hooking an "axe handle" pike once that hit my Johnson Silver Minnow so hard that it flew out it's gill plate and was hanging outside the fish when along came a 35" pike that grabbed the dink and my spoon - landed both fish, and fortunately, the CO was watching the whole thing from the beginning so I didn't get ticketed.

Redline What kind of fish is that and where and when did you catch it? Good God man that thing is scary!

That looks like one of those things that Larry Dahlberg and his buddy Cesar catch in Suriname.

I caught about a 5 inch bass on a big zara spook.  As I was reeling it in just as it got over a drop-off near the boat in deep water a giant mouth of teeth flashed up out of the abyss like an ICBM and swallowed the bass and the spook.  Managed to get the 45" nothern pike in before it chewed thru the spook as it was cross ways in his mouth.   I felt bad for the fate of that poor little bass.   

Also caught a big bull frog once on a spinnerbait.

I once landed a $10 bill in the Colorado River that was on a clump of moss in 20 feet of water.

Redline What kind of fish is that and where and when did you catch it? Good God man that thing is scary!

That looks like one of those things that Larry Dahlberg and his buddy Cesar catch in Suriname.

It's a dogfish. Caught during one of my trips to the Rio ***** in Brazil.   Related to the fish that my pal Larry and Cesare catch in Suriname.

a 2x4

A white bass with a leech stuck to the side.  Has anyone ever caught an eel I've heard of these being caught before?

When I was about 11 or 12 we used to go to the catfish paylakes in the summer.  I had a stringer of about 8 that came untied and off into the lake.  About 3 hours later, my line takes off and attached to my hook is the stringer that I had lost hours earlier.  Crazy but true

There was an eel caught in the Kankakee River a few years ago...almost 3 feet long!

On a trip to Minnesota, a friend of mines kid accidentally caught a beaver...man they had their hands full with a ticked off beaver, LOL

i caught a bank deposit bag out of the river last year, nothing in it >

Has anyone ever caught an eel I've heard of these being caught before?

I caught an American Brown Eel when i was about 13,  was fishing for catfish...34" long and fought pretty good

up in the boundary waters I caught a pair of old womens sunglasses straight out the the 50's they had the little wings on the corners and everything just like something elton john would wear.

A buddy of mine, and I were fishing around dusk, and bats were "buzzing the tower". He decided to reel his lure to the tip of his rod to shoo them away when he snagged a bat !!!! He had to wait a couple hours for it to die before he removed it.

Last year I hooked a military field jacket 

snagged this with a rattletrap in the ouachita river

Nice paddlefish  around here you would have cut your line as soon as you knew what ya had. 

they're legal here. can keep 2 as long as they're under 30 inches

A few years back I caught a largemouth with a 12" rusty spear right through its mid section . I unhooked him and he swam away like any other bass...... Wild

I caught an eel in the Ohio River several years ago. It was about 30 inches long and I don't have any idea what kind it was.

wow those are some interesting stories