Weird Encounters

[Langer]

I dont have all the details but my cousin who lives down in Texas was out fishing on Saturday (lucky guy), as he was fishing he noticed something floating in the water. Upon closer examination it was determined that it was a dead body!  So he called it in, and the Police department told him to stay with the body while they traveled out there to retrieve it. Once the police showed up they asked my cousin if he minded if they put the body in his boat to return to the launch!!  I think he kindly turned down the offer!!

So lets hear 'em: What is the weirdest/strangest thing you've encountered while out on the water fishing?

[McCarter]

I have seen dogs floating in LSC.  A poodle to be exact.

I also seen a black squirrel with no arms.  It was floating around about 1 mile or more from shore.  Wierd part was, my buddy seen it too and we werent even in the same boat.  But he mentioned it later once we got together for lunch.

I have seen dead deer caught up in laydowns on the pier marquette river while salmon fishing.

A dead cat in Kent Lake.  I think it was a cat.  It didnt have any fur left, and it was kinda face down in the shallows.  Coulda been anything really.  Might have been a alien.  It was kinda greyish.

Certain areas of Erie and the Detroit river have large populations of 'freshwater squid'.  For anyone who doesnt know what a freshwater squid is, they are made of latex and sometimes they are ribbed.  Nuff said.

See plenty of nudity as well.  St Clair is an interesting place for that.

McCarter himself

[Genie]

There was a floating dead cow at the NBAA classic on Old Hickory in Tennessee a few years back.  It made a neat sound when your jig would bounce off ...

[Berkley]

Early spring one year there was a dead deer in a laydown and everytime I would fish it i would catch a few bass off it. I called it the carcus hole. To this day I havent been able to repeat the patteren???

One of my Buddies had a duck jump in his boat during a tournament and it wouldnt leave. He would shoo it off it and it would come right back to the boat and jumped in.. Even came into weigh in with the duck in his boat...

[Cheetam]

Aside from dead things (swans, goose, beaver, and squid in the River) the oddest thing was seeing a red tree squirrel swimming out in the middle of some tiny lake near Clear Lake Req Area.  It was so completely out of place I couldn't stop laughing.  Once we circled him in the boat a couple times, it became apparent that he was in no mood to be dealing with us, so we let him be.  Up until that point in time, I never once wondered if a squirrel could swim (or would want to swim)...now I know.

[fowlmouth]

Found a nice zodiac about 10 years ago in lake michigan, no numbers or anything. Dead seagull on Sanford, had a shad rap in its bill and one of his legs.
Down in Florida we find some really weird stuff in the gulf stream; refrigerators , water heaters, Cubans, etc...

[thedude]

almost ran over a deer in a boat with family friends when i was a kid on hamlin lake..... it was swimming across the narrows.

i've had osprey fly off with my giant shiner (hook, line & bobber in tow) while fishing for the big boys down on the st. johns river in florida.

my buddy was prefishing a tourney in his boat that he had in his inlaws barn all week.... found 6 kittens under the front deck.

found an innertube and cooler full of ice and 2 cases of beer hung up in a laydown on my buddies lake when were 17.... best day of fishing i can't remember.....

on muskegon lake during an FOM tourney i was test driving a donated kistler helium Med.  spinning rod... tossing a finesse jig on the drop i noticed my line slack a lot sooner than it should have been...reeled up felt the fish and laid into what had to be a 15lb salmon or walleye.... fought the fish for about 10 minutes and decided that i was just wasting time so i started hogging it up... finally felt my line break loose... but the jig came back up... with a deep diving husky jerk attached to it.

[djkimmel]

That sounds like the 'giant catfish' I hooked in the downtown Grand once... only it got off and I snagged into a bucket half full of mud... one of the best fights I have ever had. Every time that bucket... er, catfish would pull out into the current, she'd start stripping out line like a pit bull stealin' a shepherd's tug toy... ah, good times.

[rufus]

There was a floating dead cow at the NBAA classic on Old Hickory in Tennessee a few years back.  It made a neat sound when your jig would bounce off ...

Hey Genie, I think we saw that same cow! I was fishing that tourney also. My father-in-law was in the back of the boat and he kept throwing his worm beside it hoping a big catfish was laying under it. I had to put the trolling motor on high so he didn't hook it. That cow was stuck in some wood a little ways upriver from the steamplant just outside a weedy cut.
Anyways, about 12 years ago a couple of friends were fishing a Branch County Bass Assassins tourney on the Detroit River. They were drifting a section of river on the east side of Grosseille when they hooked into what they thought was a sturgeon. They could get it coming towards them, but when it got out into the current they had to run it down with the boat. When they finally got "it" to the boat it turned out to be a man with a gunshot wound to the head. Not having a cell phone they tied a rope around the guy and tied him to a bouy and went in to call the police. They then led them out to the body. They said it was the Coast Guard who went out with them. They ended up giving statements on what happened and that was basically the end of it. The Coast Guard told them that this was not an uncommon occurrence on the River.
Oh and I caught one of those "squids" on a spinnerbait a couple years ago just north of Elizabeth Park. Due to the cost of the spinnerbait, I used my needlenose to remove the little bugger. Those suckers swell up just like a balloon when they hit the current  .
Now that I have grossed everyone out, God Bless and Good Fishin'!

[thedude]

That sounds like the 'giant catfish' I hooked in the downtown Grand once... only it got off and I snagged into a bucket half full of mud... one of the best fights I have ever had. Every time that bucket... er, catfish would pull out into the current, she'd start stripping out line like a pit bull stealin' a shepherd's tug toy... ah, good times.

lol... had that happen many a times.... usually a bucket or a garbage bag... one time even snagged someone's lost stringer on the tippecanoe with 3 cats and 2 smallies on it... all fish were released.

in this case though.. was definitley a fish... no current and it would rip out 20 yds of line on a big run.... maybe a giant carp or a gar too... who knows...i'd rather say it was that 15lb walleye they caught outta there last fall .

[Cy]

I think I told this story already, but my buddy Jon and I almost hit a deer swimming across the Grand River last summer after dark.  We missed it by about 2 or 3 feet.

I've had a swimming squirrel, see my boat and think what a great spot for a break.  I promtly changed his mind.

Jon and I saw an Amish guy trying to pull his boat of the water with his horse, while his other horse and buggy were double parked at the ramp parking lot.  I wish I would have had a camera.

Cy

[bshaner]

That has to be one tired horse pulling that boat around the lake!

B

[Cy]

Your right B and I forgot to mention they were water skiing behind the boat the horse was pulling! 

Ya know, you forget to add one key word and the entire story changes.  I meant to say the horse was pulling his boat out of the water.

[outdoorkid]

the weirdest thing ive eer seen is between a ground hog trying to swim to one of the islands in kent lake and turning around to come back half way their. and the other one was i was fishing in florida for bass and i was using a superfluke and i caught a seagull. luckly he came off when he got to the rod>

[dashaver63]

The weirdest and later, one of the funniest, encounters that I've ever had goes like this. At one of our state events down here in Ohio, I was fishing as a non-boater. I met my boating partner at the morning meeting and he helped me with my stuff to his boat. We talked about the day's strategy for a little bit and when it was time to put his boat in the water, he handed me the key's. It was one of those real dark August mornings at 5:00am. Without thinking about it I jumped into his truck and started it up. Well he forgot to tell his wife was sleeping in the truck. She screamed, I screamed, and dove out of the truck not knowing exactly what I did or what was going on. and all my boater could say was "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you..."

[yukonjack2]

Aside from the proverbial dead animal and /or bird that grabs a bait, the weirdest stuff for me happened at KY lake.  One year the water was like 15 ft over summer pool, and we had to launch from the parking lot and tie up to the light poles.   After literally loading the boat with 4 lbers flipping picnic table and swingsets, we almost ran into an ice machine and sofa bobing down stream.

On another note - the US had 7 poisonous snakes, and KY has 5 of them.  Not being the master of identification, all of em are big mean brown biting snakes - and extremely aggressive.  We were there no more than 15 min and I hung a spinnerbait in a tree.  Upon trolling in to retreive it, a snake fell from the tree into the boat.  Not near enough room in the boat for both of us exactly - the boats crashing into the bank on HI, and I an almost on the motor cover looking for the culprit that was now out of sight - never did know where he went .  It took the better part of 4 hours to get comfy again up in the front of the boat, nonethe less with an understanding partner flinging baits up front on occasion.  Found a 4 ft skin in my side compartment 3 mo later looking for something - scary he was in there the whole time.

Also saw a similar snake on the bank with a 5lb catfish swallowed up to the side fins - both were having a tough time of it at that point.

Jack

[OUTLAW]

I seen 2 guys do what you don't want to see done. That was a bad day on the water!