Strangest/funniest capture on rod and line

[Brandon Khoo]

I thought I'd start a thread on this after reading of Peter Lowe hooking a dugong.
What's the strangest/funniest capture you've had on rod and reel (while fishing)?

I actually haven't had anything that spectacular; just the usual oddities that you get if you fish long enough like pelicans, turtles, boats, people  , etc

[Peter Lowe]

Thanks Brandon, Yes the Dugong was a classic, but over the years  another strange catch include a Sea Eagle that picked up my rat king I hooked on a popper then proceeded to fly off  -only to get tangled up - did you know they can pull 5kg of drag easliy; have you seen the size of their beak up close    Luckliy I always have a big towel on board to untangle and release him, I have great respect for those handlers of the big birds - man they can bite - not to mention the grip with their tallons  not recommended at all.......

[Greg Burt]

 A few years ago we were jigging and bottom fishing outside Caloundra Wide, SEQ. While doing our usual drift with a 'chute' we noticed some Humpback Whales cruising a fair way off from us but not close enough to concentrate any thought to them, but about 10-15minutes later one swam under the boat to a bit of shock to some of the crew who hadn't experienced it before. Then another surfaced at the area that we had drifted over ,and ran straight into a 30lb floater rig and hooked up. We didn't think he had felt it because he just moved along [as Whales do] taking line quite fast until I clamped the spool and busted off, the Whale then sounded and then came up about 20-30 behind the boat, paused, made a deep rumble noise, then left the area completely.
No, I wasn't waiting for him to jump!
Yes, I think he growled!
Are Whales thick Skinned

[Jon Li]

Guys ,

During the trolling days in the 70s we hooked this " fish " which fight in zig-zaging all the way , using 30 lbs. mono we couldn't do anything but engaged it to fight without backing and after a half an hour or so of pumping , the exhausted angler ( not me ) came up with 3 pcs. of long bamboo sticks tied together , the speculation on what fish it was started from big bull mahi-mahi to wahoo and then to marlin until around the last 20m or so when it finally broke choppy surface and showed it was not a fish at all . Nobody dared to say a word though as the angler is one of the richest man in Indonesia and we were guests on his then brand new Bertram 54  but recalling the ordeal , it was quite amusing .

Jon .

[Brandon Khoo]

you should have hung on, Bun. That would have had to be a world record!! 

[Aerospace]

Quite a few years back when I was a kid, My brotherand I snuck into the bird sanctuary down the road from my parents house in South Africa. I was using a small bass outfit to try and catch some big bream I had seen there from time to time. I was using one of those red and white floats with some earthworms, when along came this white duck. It saw the float (it was upside down as white side up) and went straight for it thinking it was a piece of bread! I tried to yank it out of the way, and in doing so managed to foul-hook the duck in the chest!! The sting of the hook sent the duck crazy, and it went tearing off across the dam peeling line of my little shimano ax2000 like mad!!! My brother managed to run to the other side of the dam, and catch the duck when it got tangled in the reeds. we spent the next 10 minutes untangling the line and avoiding the understandably pissed off duck's snapping bill! Needless to say we felt terrible about having harrassed this duck, so never snuck back in there again, although i have day-dreamed about those bream a few times since......

[Andrew Woodley-Page]

I s'pose everyone's hooked an albatros.....if only they were as easy to score on the golf course......

A very uneventful surf session a while ago produced a cray and then an octapus in successive casts, in fact, I think the occy was first, I put a tenticle on for bait and caught the cray...... I figured that if the 'victims' were happily walking around in the open, that I had 3 chances of catching a mulloway.

Andrew

[Chris Young]

A couple of years ago while jigging off Tweed coast 3-4 guys on the boat got they're lines crossed up, so while the decky sorted them out I just kept bouncing the jig near the bottom, I hooked what I thought was the bottom but It slowly came free, after a minute or so I had this giant cuttlefish near the surface, well the ink that came out of this thing would have covered a couple of footy fields , prob weighed 20kg+ and about 7 foot long, the strange thing was that it was the same colour as the jig 

[Brandon Khoo]

Chris -did you keep it the cuttlefish? I know they grow huge but I've never seen one bigger than about 6-7kg which I thought was massive already. I did see one in a DVD a while back (some kingfish one, I think) where there was a monster cuttlefish but I don't think it was as big as the one you caught!

[Chris Young]

Yes we did keep it , we had a japanese guy on board using electric reels & stuff, he couldn't speak much english but he got very excited at the sight of sooooo much calamari, i kind of regret the decision but it didn't go to waste, I have a pic somewhere ,I just have to find it