One off fishing occurences, tell me your tales.

[gumb01]

Hello all, I was fishing the Baffle 2 weeks ago with a good mate and a very puzzling and very unusual event took place, that i thought deserved a little more attention. We were bait fishing with yabbys and strip baits, and after 15 mins of no action decided to have a bite to eat. My line was still in the water and while making a sandwich, my rod doubled over in a second and then returned to the straight position almost instantly. I quickly grabbed for my rod, and at the same second, my mates rod went off also. We both had a hook up, during the fights we were very aware of how close that our lines were togethor, trying to avoid a tangle the whole time. Before long we could see that the lines were in the same direction and we had agreed that we had a tangle. After a few seconds of winding 1 fish emerged, a 62cm flathead, so one of us didnt catch a fish, right? Wrong, after netting the fish we realised that the fish had both of our hooks in its mouth, True story. Ive been fishing for the best part of 30 years and this is a first for me, let me know of your classic one off fishing stories, and lets keep em honest hey, cheers

[sharkymark2]

Lucky guys. I had 2 lines to 1 catfish eel :(.

[fivefishes]

Gumbo,

Same deal. Me and a mate were close offshore Cairns and having a ball, 1 x 7kg Cobia, 2 or 3 big Trevally and some "submarines" aptly named cause they just keep going. My mate hooks up to a nice fish and 5 seconds later i'm on. No real surprise a couple of trevally moving through, this'll be fun. Low and behold 5 min later lines are close together and under the boat is a nice big gold spot Trev bout 8kg. Yeah 1 gold spot trev not 2. When we landed it bingo 2 hooks both in it's mouth. You hear about it occasionally but it's pretty cool when it happens to you.

Matt

[jerson]

Beach fishing with my father at Stumers Creek, both with hook ups, when we landed it we had a shovel nose shark, fathers hook in its mouth, my hook through his swivel.
Fished beside a guy at boiling pot, he landed a bream, it had a hook in its mouth, this guys hook was through the eye of the hook in its mouth.
Honest.

[disorderly]

Similar story for me as well.
I was fishing out of a mates boat a few years back and as well as handlining for trout he had a floating pilly on a rod and I also threw out a floater just on a big handline.
The handline started spinning rather quickly and then his rod bent over a couple of seconds later and we realised that we were onto some good fish.
After getting in each others way a bit we finally saw a spanish mackeral surface 15-20 metres out and it became apparent that we were fighting the same fish.
We put him on the scales and he went 18kg.

[Noelm]

sort of same thing, but I was once spinning for small Tuna schooling in vast numbers, I had a cast and got an almost instant hit, it seemed like a good fish as it fought much harder than the others we had caught, when I got it/them to the Boat, neither had been hooked, but both had been "tied" by the tail, the fish (both of them) must have been zipping about and hit the line or something, and "tied" a half hitch around their tails, would have been better if the lure being dragged around had have caught one as well huh!

[bdowdy]

my story doesnt have double catches but a mate was eel fishing and threw his chunk of meat out( had afew beers) and next thing the line gets abig tug, big splash, good fight, pulls up a FOX yep thats right he had thrown his line over to the other bank and the fox had taken the bait and was pulled threw the creek, WASNT VERY HAPPY....LOL..LOL cheers bdowdy ..brett

[Noelm]

hehehe bdowdy, that's about as funny as it gets I reckon!!

[Little grey men]

Funny stuff Bdowdy, especially after a few beers. You'd think you were seeing things. Chuck it back in and see if you can catch a dingo;D

[BGG]

I've posted this before but I reckon it's worth a rerun-

Many, many moons ago, the boss & I were fishing Yellow Patch for Flatties. We were fishing in water only inches deep, using light surf rods, 8lb mono to a small swivel to a 30lb mono trace and finally a freshly caught small mullet on a 4/0. We were doing pretty well when the boss hooked a really solid fish. In the excitement she got busted off but was back in the action soon after. We'd caught more than enough and decided to have a last cast. Sure enough, she hooked up again. After a very patient fight, I went down to the waters edge to grab the trace and drag a 6 pounder up the beach.
Here's the weird bit. There were 2 complete traces, both my work. Her hook was through the eye of the swivel of the first trace she had lost.
Yes, I bought several lottery tickets but I still work for a living.

[eagle1]

few years back i hooked a scuba diver of a beach in sydney,thought i had the fish of me dreams, i was fighting him for about ten minutes not knowing what i had hooked, i dragged him in to shallow water and he appeared, thought he was giving me a wave so i kept the fight goin, then he stuck one of his flippers in the air on one leg and i pulled him straight over, then i worked out what i was fightin, he wasnt happy i can tell ya, he cut the line and gave me the fingers and went back under, the misses and kids were laughing and i told them again how good a fisher person is i, i can catch anything
cheers

[Little grey men]

pretty good on the chew those scuba divers, if you can get them on ice quick enough. The old ones can be a bit tough tho.

[eagle1]

he wasnt very happy about a little bream hook in his flipper, he would'v been pissed of if i gaffed him

[JEWIENEWIE]

Was fishing lake Toolirook in victoria when it had water in it off the jetty. The little kid next to me tells his dad that the rod leaning against the rail was gettin bites. I did not see anything so thought he was talking it up. A few seconds later the whole rod goes over the edge. The dad had three rods out at the time. He picked up the one which was closest to the one that went over and reeled it in to see if he could jag it. He spent the next hour casting and retrieving it in the hope he could jag it and get it bak with no luck. He was pretty pissed off by this stage so he started to pack up to leave, he walked over the the third rod which was obout 10 metres away and started to real it in when he felt a bit of weight on the end. His eyes lit up when on the end of the third rod was the rod that went over and then he nearly shit himself when he wound in the rod that went over to find that there was a beatiful trout on the end!
Jewie

[Dirtysanchez]

Years ago I took a mate out who was dead keen on trolling HBs in a river in NSW.. he was also dead keen on Beam and cola cans.. Anyway, I was keen to head in for a feed, he said OK, but do you mind if I troll on the way in ? OK I says.. Half way in, ZZZZZZ.. I'm on he cries.. so I hit neutral and wait, while he pumps and winds..
I notice the boat is slowly going backwards.. but say nothing.. eventually he's on top of the beast and it isn't giving much.
I wrapped the leader onto the back bollard much to his horror and hit reverse, and up comes a huge sand anchor, a bit big for my boat, but pretty damn handy to have in those faster currents ;D
All in all, a sweet deal for me.. He was grumbling about how stretched his line was and how he would have to respool
LoL all the way to the ramp

[Noelm]

I just remembered another mildly funny incident, my Wife and I where spinning for Flathead while on Holidays at Caloundra, we were just across the Passage form the Boat hire guy at Golden Beach, she had just cast out when a sailboard zipped by at about 20knots, the plastic snagged the Board somehow, and she was hot footing along the sandbar to stop getting spooled, then she stepped into a hole and fell @rse over, dropped the reel in the sand but grabbed it again before it followed the Sailboard, she just grabbed the spool in the end and snapped it off!

[JawstheOriginal]

my story doesnt have double catches but a mate was eel fishing and threw his chunk of meat out( had afew beers) and next thing the line gets abig tug, big splash, good fight, pulls up a FOX yep thats right he had thrown his line over to the other bank and the fox had taken the bait and was pulled threw the creek, WASNT VERY HAPPY....LOL..LOL cheers bdowdy ..brett

"A dingo ate my ba...it!";D

[ryansrods]

me and a mate chasin ajew one night i hjooked a decent fish and was doin battle whe me mate hooked up too right beside me looked like his was a pretty decent fish too we decided wed gaff my fish first got him to me feet and noticed both our lines angling done to the one fish thought me mates line got tangled around him anyway gaffed him whilst pulling him clear of the water my mate imfgorms me hes lost his fish only to discuver i had hooked the fish in the mouth and somehow my mates hook is dangling out the rear end of the fish (hows that for arsey) the fish only weighed 8kg felt alot bigger cause we were draggin him in sidways whilst playing tug of war wit each other

[ryansrods]

one more thing i was fishin for groper this day wit me best mateand my better half i got a good blue about 10kg i was puttin him in my shopulder bag still over shoulder when he decided to give one more kick and smacked me in the nose with his wrist knoked me on my backside and gave me 2 black eyes the worst thing was my mises and mate were right in front of me so needless to say i am reminded very frequantly of the event

[hoodunnit]

Fishing of the the Urangan jetty a few years back, Tony get,s a run on his brand new Alvey that he,s matched up to to the oldest rod he owns.He flicks it into gear and the rod snaps off at the butt with the new new Alvey going for a swim.Old mate Rex is fishing beside him, get,s a run and and lands himself a new leverdrag Alvey reel ,no fish but !! I,ll remember this night forever,I got spooled on a Penn 50 w with 24 kilo line.

[tailorboi99]

Great strory boys keep em' going!

Cheers Tom

[robersl]

Fishing at donny brook after whiting had a big run ,set the hook proceeded to wind the line in and figured it was a big ray but i was wrong it was 2 big rays one had hold of the hooked one;s flap ended up cracking my good rod

shane

[Maggot1]

Yeah same story . A mate and i caught a 69 lb cobia . Both of us draged him to the boat in under 10 mins . better than fighting it for 30 - 40 mins on one line.!

[Ocean Sport]

About 7 years ago was fishing in the torres straits when i caught a nice red throat. As i was fighting the sweety a shark got him but the sweetlip stayed atached to the line. So the shark was hooked and i was playing him while the sweetlip with the line through him was splashing on the surface and bugger me a 15 kg spaniard smashes the redthroat so for about 3 secs i had 3 fish on 1 hook.
Those where the days.

[Nicko]

Here's a good one.
When I was in about grade 7 I went on a trip to Wynnum with my next door neighbor and his parents. We had something to eat, walked around and ended up out on the jetty.
My mate and I were just fooling around and then I found an old dry squished prawn on the jetty which got me thinking, 'I should make a fishing line'. So I scavenged around the jetty and soon found a rusty hook, an old fishing line, I wrapped up a small rock with the fishing line as a sinker and used a bundaburg ginger beer ring pull on the rig too to attract because it is yellow as most people will know. Finally I put the old dry prawn on the rusty hook, threw it into the water and within about 30seconds BAM, FISH On!
I ended up pulling in a 30cm bream, so random and being a kid it was magical, definitely a highlight of my existence in this world. My mates dad being a fisho had an esky in the 4wd and so we just bought some ice and there we go :)

So now whenever I see fishing hot shots buying all the pro gear and freshest baits and what not, I think back to this story.

[Crisp Bee]

Sunrise one morning south of Woody Head in the surf, my m8 cast out and as his pilly was sinking a Tern crashed into it, then started to fly off with pilly and gang hook.
As the tern took off it became a bit tangled in the line and crashed into the water.
It struggled into the air again and a huge sea eagle swooped on it and flew off with the tern and the pilly and the line. When the line pulled tight the eagle let go, and the tern crashed back into the water. Eventually the tern got free and flew off like it was drunk. :o

[baitwaster]

A couple of mates and I were in a tinny in the Darling river at Bourke. We had set lines out and went up the river to check them. Found a shag had eaten one of the baits and was sitting on the bank with half a bait and the barb of a hook hanging out of its gob.

Everey time we motored up near it to get it off, the thing put on such a turn, we couldn't get near it. We parked the tinnie on the bank and the bird was flapping like mad as we tried to approach it, when Sharky noticed some ducks flying up the river, all our attention then turned to the ducks and Jimbo fired both barrels and dropped one. We all turned back to the shag and it got such a fright from the shottie, that it had fallen onto it's back, upside down with it's head in the drink and it's legs in the air.

I thought it was dead from fright, so I casually picked it up and took the bait out of it's mouth, it then woke up, bit me on the hand, and flew off making a hell of a racket but seemingly O.K.

I scored a bleeding hand.
Set lines scored carp.
Shag scored 1 human and half a bait.
Jimbo scored 1 duck.

Everyone was OK in the end, except the duck, it was delicious.

[Red Bull]

Excellent stories there, some pretty incredible happenings.

Nothing particularly exciting from me, but on one of our trips up to the Whitsundays, my brother and I were fishing for mackerel out of a small tinnie, and in order to catch our live baits, we deployed an 8-hook bait jig which we found to be good at catching fusiliers.

The bait jig would go to the bottom, tap tap, then as I wound up the hooked fusiliers, they kept getting chopped in half in the way up. We knew this was the work of spaniards, but couldn't get a full bait to the surface. In hindsight, we probably should have just wafted a half fusilier down there, but didn't think of that at the time due to the excitement. :)

The bait jig kept getting snipped shorter and shorter, so by the end of that little session, the jig had been reduced to just 2 hooks. By this time, it was almost dark, and we had to get back to base. The session that day ended in no spaniards caught.

Anyway, the next afternoon in the same spot, we managed to get a full baitfish to the boat early on, so out went the the whole fusilier, and within about 10 seconds, my old red Abu 7000 was growling in protest as the fusilier was decimated. The below fish was the result.

However, the interesting thing was that this captured mackerel had a string of bait jig hooks pinned in it's side and under it's belly, so had obviously been (one of?) the culprits the previous day.

Cheers
RB

[Winf]

Fishing with a mate of mine and he lands a small (about 6 inches long) Grunter. Funny thing was that the hook was hanging free out to the side with the leader somehow managing to do a half hitch around its lips. Only time I've seen a lasooed fish.

Winf

[Tezza@Tannum]

Fishing Donnybrook for Whiting years ago, got bitten by a March Fly, put it on the hook & caught the biggest Whitting i've ever caught.
Tezza

[Sea-Dog]

Was sitting on the old fishboard wharf in Bundy many moons ago with a handline in the water. Handline starts spinning around, dancing all over the place.

I pulled it in. Fair weight, but no fight.......

I pulled up a 5 Kg rock. :-[

I must have pulled the hook from the fish's mouth, and straight into an oyster shell on the rock that the fish happened to be passing at the time.

The rock was released unharmed.

[Fishin_Dan]

Was out fishing with Vic1 one day a few years ago. Jigging up some livies, and he mentioned that the rod seemed really heavy. Pulled up a legal sized Estuary Cod on the bait jig! Was only JUST hooked in the lip....

Quick gaff shot, and into the esky it went.

[Haji-Baba]

Fishing for cod one day with live bait and pulled up my heavy line to check the bait. Bare hook, but in the process had pulled up my mates big line over the opposite side of the boat.

Have a bit of fun hereI thinks, so took up the slack gave his line an almighty pull and when he grabbed it I kept pulling hard until his wife caught on and gave the game away.

Ok. joke over, but when he eventually took up the slack he did have a big cod on
and we had to take it in turns to land him.

Big fish probably in the vicinity of 60-80 lbs. so we let him go.

The interesting thing is, I am convinced that fishing with live bait (mullet) that they swim into a hidy hole on the bottom and when we move the line a good cod often takes the bait straight away.

This has happened too many times to be just heresay.

I might add I have fished for cod particularly for about 50 years.

Never keep them under about 6 lbs or over 25-30lbs.

Have Fun Haji-Baba

[Kayak1]

Mates lad had hooked a largish barra on his new birthday lure but unfortunately lost it (barra and lure still attached) when the leader chaffed through. Shortly after a guy fishing on a the sand bank some 50 mtrs away at right angles to the lad has his rod bend over to a good fish. You guessed it, same barra. The guy has snagged the lure's treble hook and landed the barra. Decent enough of him to give the lure back, but the barra went straight into the esky and he took off....closed season. Very unlucky barra.

Cheers,
Steve.

[mitch92]

fishing fair few km offshore and i hooked something big. couldnt move it, only using smallish gear, but could feel it swimming. bloke next to me in the boat is pulling and going crazy with his rod trying to get somthing in. next minute my line has snapped, though when he pulls in the fish it is an 8Kg red emperor and his hook wasnt in the fish. his line had tangled around mine, snapping it, but being tangled in a knot strong enough for him to raise the fish.

[dogsbody]

My brother and a friend were on wail rock on straddie and they were into something good so they thought. One would gain line the other would lose line. After a few minutes they realized they were hooked to each other and the line was wrapped around some cunji. LMFAO.



Dave.

[Oh Gee]

Today out off Caloundra, Fishing in 60 feet of water, 3.0 hook with flesh on it for bait, Catching undersize Red Emperior (just under), Snapper (just under to), Tuskfish, Brown Bommers, etc I pulled up a 20cm Whiting. Must have been lost.

[sandbankmagnet]

Yellow patch at Moreton. Fishing a deep close in gutter with a sharp bank and getting good tailor. Watched my mate cast a pillie out as a shag grabbed it just before the water. Watching the shag get pulled in through the surf and the break was a little disheartening but luckily enough it got off just before shore.

Then watched another mate with a few under his belt go to cast and take one step too many into the gutter. From 1 foot of water to 4 in one step. With waders. Priceless.

God I love that place.

[greenbeest]

After about an 3/4 hour getting yabbies we headed out the front of Burrum Heads past the last marker. We drifted for a bit trying our luck then we saw about 3 groups of birds working the surface.
We chased after one group of them when we saw which ones were working the surface for baitfish. We kept casting out a silver lure hoping to hook up something. Col hooked up what looked like a mackerel but the hook did not set in its mouth and it lived to fight another day.
I had a go and hooked something. As I was reeling it in my eggbeater reel decided to seperate from my rod.
It took a team effort to land the fish with me holding the rod and Col winding it in. When the fish came up to the surface we both saw it was a huge longtail tuna. It didn't put up much of a fight maybe because of where it was hooked had disorientated it.
Col yelled "Quick, get the net" I netted the fish and when it was in the boat we both saw how lucky it was to have landed it.
It was hooked in the eye!
It started shaking and blood was going everywhere.
I got it into the esky and closed the lid.
We kept chasing the birds around for a bit longer but no more success.

[bundylundy]

Fishing the Arty reef at Hervey Bay a few years back, I hooked up on a ganged pilchard. I started fighting the fish and the line started angling towards the boat anchored beside us where an another fisherman was also fighting a fish. It turned out we had both hooked the same fish, a rather large dusky flathead. To end the stalemate, I let out my line so the other angler could land the fish. I made the comment that we should go 50/50 in the fish, but was replied with a chuckle and a retort that possession was 9/10 of the law. On seeing the size of the fish landed, I then commented that it was probably over the 70cm mark and would have to be released any way. The other angler measured the flathead and found it was over the legal limit and reluctantly released it back in the water. It was the best fish we saw all morning.

[madmix]

Well its been a while since I posted here, having nearly given the game away.
But have been bitten by the bug again.
Must say I am surprised at the number of double hookups, but also
managed this with my boss and a 4ft queenfish (1981 the gulf).
So now for the story, and I promise that despite the reputation for
embellishment that us fishos have aquired over the years, every word
is true (unfortunately).
Fishing off the Territory coast, motored into position, cut motor and
dropped anchor. Now as the anchor rope was running through my hand
I felt two distinct thumps on the anchor and then the runout of rope
stopped, I knew that enough rope had not been fed out to reach the
bottom, now somewhat pussled but assuming had hit some obstruction,
I took hold of the rope with both hands and gave it a reef. Now I don't
know what was going on below, but my anchor took off with such a jolt
that I was pulled off balance with my left hand ending up in the anchor well
where it was immediately entangled by flying coils of rope. now while
trying to free my left hand I am left hanging onto the rope with my right
hand and with all my might trying to get the rope around the bollard to
relieve the pressure on my left hand which is now a distorted fist shape
but as the rope continues to burn through through my right fingers there
is a pop and my left thumb soars about ten ft overboard but at the same time
I have managed to pull myself free. Now diving back inside the cab to stop
the bleeding I find that my left middle finger is also missing while the index
finger is just black. Now I dont know what was on the end of that anchor
but when it came to the end of the rope it hit with a jolt sufficient to knock
two men off their feet and continued to pull the 16ft fibreglass H/cab at
such a rate as to create a trail of white water until the rope was cut.
Now I know there are going to be plenty of doubters, but I have the hand,
medical records and an eye witness. I have heard of sharks being tangled
in anchor ropes by the tail, but have only heard of one similar incident off
Hervey Bay, where the bollard was actually pulled from the bow.
cheers Mick

[coucho]

ouch Mick thats gotta wreck your day.
trolling for spaniards off woody head on a really jiggly new years day arvo hungover as an my mate hooks up. he played the fish I sunk the gaff first swipe and on board comes a 12 Kg spaniard went to release the lure and it wasn't in the fishes mouth any more. went to put the lure back over and start trolling again and it was no longer attached to the rod.
other time I was decky on a charter boat we had twelve passangers and somehow one of them managed to hook a humpback whale when it swam through under the boat calls of play him wayno and you got him beat rang out between side splitting laugfter and wayno yelling cut the fn line as his drag payed out more and more line but noone would until he was spooled.
third thing that happened we were fishing for spotties again at woody and we get a triple hook up I got one rod my old boy has the other and the third one breaks a plastic holder dissappears over the side. couple of hours later we go to pull up the anchor and head for home and here is all this line wrapped around the rope pulled it up one way here is the rod we lost pulled it in the other here is a 10 Kg spanyard stone dead.

[lonestar]

Yesterday I went chasing banana prawns for the first time ever. I had heard there was a run on and wanted to have a go. Finding there were upwards of 9 boats castnetting close together in an area not larger than someone's suburban backyard I decided to move away from the fracas. A couple of minutes later and all alone I chanced upon some prawns still on the surface while slowly motoring along and let off a quick cast.
The first cast netted some prawns and I was stoked as I had never done this before. Imagine my horror as I viewed in slow motion my second cast spreading out then plopping my favorite ugly stik into the water along with a $160 Daiwa reel - Urrghhh!!!

[SgBFish]

There was a photo in one of the mags a while ago that had a bream with the freakiest hook-up. The bloke had hooked the eye of another rusty hook that was embedded in the fish’s mouth.

But it doesn’t end there was also another even rustier hook on the other side of its mount.

I hope he let it go as that fish deserved a break.

[Vickypoint]

Years ago I was fishing at Mooloolaba in the river with the kids fishing rod. A cheap and nasty holiday purchase. I hooked onto a good sized Trevally over 2kgs and it put up a hell of a fight. Midway through the skermish the reel decided to fall apart. I tried to contol the fish as I tightened the reel back together.

Mean while a small crowd had gathered to watch the events taking place. A few young boys decided it was a good time to help me land the fish when I had it near the sand of the shoreline. One of the boys grabbed the line and the fish decided this was as good a time as any to escape and he hit the toe faster than Alfie scoring a try against the Blues in Origin.

The story does not end there.

A short time later after a good laugh about the incident. I thought this will give me something to talk about at Barbies for a few years.

I then saw this young teenager walking past with a very familiar looking fish on the end of a hand spear. I asked him where he was spearing the fish and he replied he was about 100 meters down towards the river mouth when he seen this Trevally floundering in the water and he took and easy shot. Poor bloody thing was exhausted.

At least he had a nice meal.

;D

[jimreevescairns]

Castnetting for bait in creek off Trinity Inlet today - only about 6 feet of water under some branches.
Felt something big in the net after 1 cast which was feeling REALLY BIG by the time got the net to the side of the boat - nearly crapped myself to see not 1 but 3 large fish in the net !!!

1 barramundi - 54 cm, 1 jack 44cm and a catfish 55cm !!! - needed landing net to get em in.

Threw the barra and catfish back .

.. the jack had about 20cm of mono hanging out of it's butt which when tugged gently pulled a 5'0 hook out which must have made it right through it's guts and was just about to be passed out I imagine.

Just eaten the jack - beautiful :D

Jim

[Benno1]

we had made the hard slog (1/2 metre swell with 4 knot winds) out to Masthead Reef to do some bottom bashing...did quite well...brought home a decent feed of stripeys...hussar and a few nice trout...our daughter (7) was fishing (she calls it fishing we call it waving the rod around)...she had been kept interested in her rod by all the little pickers at her bait..."MUUUUUM...im winding it in"...ok babe be careful...wind it in fast ok...yeees mum...she lent forward just a smidge to move past the bait board at the back of the boat...and as she did so...she ended up catching a mutton bird that was flying past in her line!!!...caught him on his long flight feathers...id never have beleived it if i hadnt seen it!!!...she was terribly upset...thinking she'd hurt the dear bird...i reeled him in a bit...untangled the poor sod (got a nip on the finger for thanks)...off he flew...great day was had by all :P
(Mrs Benno1)

[dodgyone]

Mate of mine hooked a Marlin on a Craxy Deep while trolling for Macks. Single strand wire did a loop around its bill and hooked back through the split ring. Wasnt hooked at all in the end.

Saw another one where there was 2 fish on one hook.

[red rock cod]

Saw a bloke hook a surfer off the Kirra groyne some years ago. A lot of screaming and shouting. I think his fellow surfers thought a shark had grabbed him. Catching 1 flathead on two lines. Happened in a fishing comp in Rocky once. Both anglers shared the points for the fish.

[butnosplash]

gotta add one here for sure.

doing a bit of trolling with a newby one day. Got two lines running out the back, gave him the rules so I could keep the boat running over the designated hotspots. Well ol mate fires up with the "IM ON" cry....I shut down , and look back to find him not wanting to go near the rod in question.,,,,, I look back and theres a HUGE sea eagle flapping madly and after trying to outgun the old Merc/Savage combo.... He's a bit worse for wear... I get the boat back beside him....this thing had a wingspan of about 1.5 mtrs and BIG nasty sharp bits..Im a bit of a lover of mother nature , so I ask mate for his shirt ( he caught it after all lol) He looks at me all stupid and asks what im going to do....I said, this could be a trip for some stitches I reckon!!!! well the shirt goes over featherd friends head....and would nt you believe it ,,,,the bastard wasnt even hooked, all he had to do was let go!!!!! now thats stubborn.. Managed to wriggle it of him...we set sail....he rolled over in good nick and watched us disappear with his dinner!!!!! hahahaha

[crabbie]

When I was a teenager half a century ago I did a lot of beach fishing south of Sydney. Typical gear was about a 12' surf rod with overhead reel. Ocassionly I would catch a seagull as it chased the bait while in the air. One day I caught 2 with the one cast The gulls were rather cranky on the beach as I tried to untangle and not very cooperative !
crabbie

[Cammy]

hahaha butnosplash.

I well i should say my mate has has the same sorta luck.

Ok shorncliffe pier nice sunny afternoon, not getting many bites, ppl all around us. These geniuses decided they would chuck out some Burley, and what do ya no there burley was like 2kg of frozen mince!. Anyway they chucked it in the water and it was floating around for a bit until it came over to our lines, then a gull spots the mince floating and comes down for a snack, this gull had a couple of swipes before he went and got his friends, so then he comes back with like 30-40 frikin gulls and there above us,,swooping down thru our lines to get the mince that was defrosting. Well we ended up catching only 2 of the suckers and another guy caught one also, they were all tangled up and some were bleeding from the line cutting into them. And people were saying just cut the line, i was said thats just plain cruel and since it was tangled around there legs and wings it might drown, so me caring for everything wound the bird in covered its head up untangled the poor things.

Another time fishing out at NPD the same mate caught a bird aswell, he also caught one at whitepatch up at bribie.

Cam

[Cammy]

Another time was when we went fiishing at Lake Eucumbene for trout with mum sis and my best mate. We had the rods lined up on the bank with bells on them and we were all sitting up near the camp fire, suddenly my sises rod goes off ringing like crazy then we heard a splash then the ringing stopped, we went over and the rod was gone :(. 20 mins later mum hook onto a fish she reels it in and on her fish there was some line wrapped around its tail and that line lead to my sisters fish that was exhausted, so then we wound the line up form my sisters fish and got her rod back! we couldnt beleive our eyes!

Cam

[sparkyice]

when i was a kid, i hooked a large pickeral (kind of like a freshwater barracuda) and fought it to the shore, where he got tangled in some old boards and broke off.
i was upset, losing my only mepps aglia and one of the biggest fish i had ever hooked.
i tied on a daredevil, and just a few minutes later hooked up again.
as i got the fish to shore, i could see something odd about his mouth, when i landed him -being careful to avoid the boards- i found my mepps in his mouth, two of the hooks pinning one side of his jaws together.

he must have been hungry!!

[sparkyice]

i have no idea who this is, a freind sent them to me. i think its in canada somewhere.

[theVan]

I think I have told this story before but here goes

I was having a fish on the Kingfisher Jetty at Fraser and decided as the tide came in I should put out some live herring . I was rewarded with a nice 47cm Flattie on my first live bait in the water. I had the flattie at jetty and was contemplating walking it up onto the beach when a bloody tern swept down for the live bait dangleing from the trace just above the fish. Naturally the stupid thing got tangled around my line and as it struggled twisted its wing pretty bad.
The only thing for it was to try and lift both together onto the jetty. Well if this wasn’t a great opportunity to win funniest home video. As I pulled the whole menagerie up from the water , the tangled bird goes one way , the flattie goes the other, with me and fishing rod flaying arms wildly like I was swatting a swarm of bees. While I was able to cut the line and the squarking bird did eventually fly free, it took all my self control not to kick it to the moon!
But hey …. I got the fish!

[Nicko]

When I was 9yrs old I went with my neighbour and his folks to wynnum to have a swim and just muck around. Anyway, we walked up to the end of the jetty and I found some random discarded items on the jetty, set it up and came out with a 25cm bream in the first cast...

Old fishing line
Old rusty hook
Shriveled dried prawn
A small rock that i tied up with the fishing line by looping around heaps of times
an old yellow bundy ginger beer ring pull for "attraction"

that was my rig haha, it's one of my fondest memories in life...

[iricangi]

Was checking crab pots off a bridge, mate pulling 1 in saw somthing being taken out with the tide and "captured" it with the crab pot.

Ended up being a dead dog, bloated and rotting...

Funny thing was it got wedged in the crab pot so i had to use my hands to get it out :/

[DEANO68]

gidday gumo, fishin out of maloolabah 30 odd mtrs i hooked somthin , bitten off just up from the hook dunno what....1/2 hour later mate pulls in a 50cm cod..thank you, my circle hook still with bit o squid and 30mm of leader attached to the side of his gob.. back in the tackle box..thanks..

[pirate2540]

spent 4 hrs using plastics chasing flatties one arvo, with out catching anything decent, picked up my 2 crab pots on the way home only to find 1 had 2 crabs and the other had a 64cm flatty. we had a nice feed.

[SandStorm]

Fishing in the lake Entrance NSW the wife caught an octopus it was clutching a VB bottle lol no kidding

[maztez]

Living in Darwin around the early 70's,We had a company house in Casuarina Drive and just across the road was what I termed "MY ROCK".
The set up was great ,there was a fish trap at the end of the rock giving about a 2 metre passage for fish to pass thru or turn seaward into the trap .
Many a night was spent there after castnetting poddy mullet and setting 2 x 100 lb handlines.
One night there with a mate and us tucking into the vegies and beef ( VB)bigtime I said to me mate Fred how we hadn't had a run for quite a while .
Investigating with the torch ,we couldn't see any water ........ the bloody tide had gone out and our poddys were high and dry and DEAD.
We didn't care it was a good night ,good company and good drinking territory style .
cheers Terry

[Just_chips]

Whilst fishing aboard a mixed charter on Laguna Cat out of Noosa about 10 years ago, one of the other punters on board ( a Greek tourist ) left his rod with line in water unattended leaning against the back of the boat after the skipper called lunch for the day. When the Skipper saw his rod at the back of the boat the way the guy had left it he told him in no uncertain terms to place it a little more sensibly either in one of the many holders or to get the line up. No sooner had he said this and the tip of the rod buckled over and the whole combo flew into the drink at a million miles an hour....GONE :o . Well the skipper let fly at this guy and let him know how many dollars he was up for when we returned etc for lost gear. About an hour later another of the tourists ( a little Japanese guy) on the boat hooked a decent fish which ended up being a red emperor around 8kg, the fish was gaffed and dragged aboard and there were handshakes and high fives alround. But wait a minute this fish had another line hanging out of it's gob, the deckie started pulling the line up and said there was some weight on it and eventually pulled in the rod that was lost over the side at lunch time, more handshakes and high fives;D . Then the Greek bloke started claiming that because he had hooked the fish first it should be his, but the little Japanese guy would have none of this and they ended up in quite a heated argument in which neither of them spoke a word of english just lots of gesturing towards rods and fish. Eventually the deckie just grabbed the fish and took the fillets off and handed one to each of the punters to settle a pretty silly argument.

I hope it comes across in print as funny as it was on the day. Certainly one of the stranger things I've seen whilst out fishing.

Kev

[rockfisho]

Fishing down the beach one time with my granddad. The fishing was a bit slow that day, we caught a few dart. But more to the point, we were catching lots of those small sand stingrays. we were getting rather annoyed. Then my granddad pulled in a big sting ray. It was pregnant. and while he was dehooking it, it gave birth to 7 babies. No joke!! So we threw them all back to annoy someone else. A new record for us, most fish ever caught on one hook ahahah.

cheer

Owen