07-22-2005, 04:07 AM
I have had a few nutty "catches" over the years, probably due to questionable competence in going after what I intended to catch.
1. Birds; coot and pied billed grebe, all safely released.
2. reptiles and amphibians; toad (on a dry fly) and soft shelled turtles. Unfortunately, the turtle incidents happened more than once on the Overton arm of Lake Mead . These nasty critters have an affinity for cut bait and sometimes got to my offerings before the stripers or channel cats did. They generally could be released with no problem, but they would try to bite you at every opportunity, so you had to extend the neck to get the hook out.
3. Inanimate object; my most memorable was in the Upper Provo. I was nymph fishing and snagged up. It was in shallow enough water that I waded out to free myself up and noticed it was some sort of wheel. I freed it up from the bottom and lo and behold, it was one of those old time automotive wheels with wooden spokes from the 20's and 30's. It was a but rusty, but still in fair condition. My folks have it in their yard for decoration.
4. Beaver; (sort-of). I was fishing an alpine lake with a fly and bubble set-up. A beaver swam by, between me and the bubble I was retrieving. He didn't realize he had made contact, and started towing the fly/bubble in the direction he was swimming. Then a fish hit the fly. The sudden line tension scared the poor beaver to death and he slapped his tail in the water and dove. Both the beaver and my rig were none the worse for wear.
5. Finally, one time, a bird got me. I was fishing with a fly and bubble in an alpine lake at dusk. I had seen a Great Horned owl in the distance but didn't think anything of it. I was making my "last cast" of the evening, when I got a tremendous "splashy "hit". The line peeled off my reel as my drag screamed. The problem was that the line trajectory was up! The owl apparently thought that my bubble was a muskrat and seized it. He peeled off about 50 yds. of line before realizing that he didn't have a meal and let go of the bubble. (sorry, I have posted this one before, but it seemed to fit the thread)
Good luck this weekend.
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