Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
Fishing a small stream in UT on opening day I had quite a surprise. This particular stream opens at 6 am on the first Sat of July and if you don't have your place staked out by 5:45 you're waiting til later in the day. We got lucky and snuck into a spot that most folks don't know about. I was taking 14-15 inch rainbows and cutts on almost every cast. Moved into little beaver pond and started casting to an overhanging ledge the was covered in brown weedy grass. After casting several times to the spot and surprisingly not getting a hit, I cast too far and snagged the grass. I tried to pull my humpy free when the grass started to swim away. :shock: Turns out that "grassy ledge" was a beaver! No wonder I hadn't had any hits there, he had already eaten and spooked all the fish!
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
I was working at an Orvis grand opening, giving casting intros. They had us in the parking lot and yes, I got caught on the door of a Mercedes Benz. Believe you me I was running and screaming to get that lady to stop before that hi dollar rod got turned into recyclable material.
Last week my fishing buddy was landing a small bluegill in a local creek when a pair of ducks rushed over. Before he could act there was a duck with tippet down its gullet. Fortunately the fly came loose and the duck got away with a meal.
_________________
RRhyne56
http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com
http://robinsrumination.blogspot.com
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
Radioflyer--
At least one watersnake I know of will take a streamer pattern. At least he took it once. He wasn't the least bit amused by the situation either, I can tell you.
Frogs, obviously, and I pretty regularly fish for house cats. Before you call PETA on me, I do cut the point off of a deer hair mouse. Then I go out to the local park and cast to the strays that live there. It gives me a way to practice accuracy with my heavy rods and gives them something to chase other than the local songbirds. I've had whole pods of them chasing my fly at once 8) .
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluegill222
Radioflyer--
At least one watersnake I know of will take a streamer pattern. At least he took it once. He wasn't the least bit amused by the situation either, I can tell you.
Frogs, obviously, and I pretty regularly fish for house cats. Before you call PETA on me, I do cut the point off of a deer hair mouse. Then I go out to the local park and cast to the strays that live there. It gives me a way to practice accuracy with my heavy rods and gives them something to chase other than the local songbirds. I've had whole pods of them chasing my fly at once 8) .
Now I'll bet that is a sight to see! Just don't let them get hold of the line :lol:
_________________
RRhyne56
http://www.robinscustomleadersandflies.com
http://robinsrumination.blogspot.com
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
Had a hen mallard fly into my forward false cast as I was "air drying" a fly. She was screaming up river and as you might imagine, got hooked and snapped the leader without missing a beat. Fortunately I saw what was coming (even though I couldn't do anything to stop it) and pointed the rod at the bird so I wouldn't damage it.
Joe
P.S. Somebody at the Michigan Fish-In should post their "unusual catch."
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
Several years ago I was at my nephew's house in South Carolina fishing in one of the lakes behing his house. Caught a young alligator-about 24 inches- on a popping bug. It just came up and latched on to it and the fight was on.
But the real alligator story is something else. Son and I were in the same area fishing in a salt water shrimp pond that contained 40-50 inch drum. He was in the front of the canoe using his 9wt and I was in the rear using a spinning rod with a jig and green grub (I know, this is a travesty and a no-no to be saying this on this board). I hooked what I assumed to be one of the big drum and after a fairly long fight got it close to the canoe. Son reached out and grabbed the line to bring it up to unhook it and when he pulled it up a rather large alligator surfaced with his jaws open. Scared the crap out of him, to say the least. He fell backwards into the canoe and almost turned us over. I didn't try to get my jig back on that one. Just broke him off and let him go on his merry way. We still laught about that incident now but at the time it wasn't too funny. LOL
George
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
George,
What a great memory for you and your son! :lol:
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
I've really only caught bats...and a few fish here and there. One bat I caught on the back end of a false cast with a dry. At first I thought I had snagged a bush, but then I had a lot of slack, then no slack, then all slack, then no slack, then OMIGOSH. Bats freak me out, and I didn't want to deal with getting close enough to snip my tippet, so I just slowed my cast like I was throwing a nymph or popper chuck and duck style. Somehow it threw the fly. Like I said, bats freak me out so I considered it a bad omen and still snipped my tippet and let my fly go downstream. I'm not sure why I considered a fly that had been in a bat's mouth any less desirable than a fly that had been in a fish's mouth. A bite's a bite, right?
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
While living in Chicago, I often fished the spring creeks of the Driftless Area in SW Wisconsin. The Wisconsin DNR, Trout Unlimited, and other organizations and done lots of improvements along those streams and often negotiated access agreements with the local landowners, many of them dairy farmers. Most of the time, the cattle ignored the fly-fishers, but I did have one instance where a curious cow walked into my backcast and was hooked on the Comparadun I was casting. Fortunately, I was able to grab the line and break the leader, saving my little bamboo rod from a horrible end.
Re: unusual animals/amphibians/strange things caught on fly tack
bass fishing w/ deer hair bug on local river, swamp buck rabbit swan in front of boat and i foolishly cast over him and snagged his fur. fast and furious fight, never have made anyone believe me, rabbit escaped unharmed for long swim to nearest island