Unintended Catches

[Paul Arden]

Not bad, Gary!! D Start at the top and work your way down!

I’ve also hooked a few crocodiles. I’ve thrown at two intentionally to see what the reaction would be, both ate, but of course I didn’t set the hook and they spat it. However at night with poppers there is no way to avoid them.

I remember fishing with Ronan at night in the Northern Territory. We kept losing flies. So we turned on our headlamps and everywhere we looked we could see crocodile eyes watching us. We took the boat back to camp shortly after this!

When I was about 13 I managed to land the fly in my mouth while false casting. It sat on my tongue and I was quite surprised by this. Fortunately it didn’t embed. For years after this I made sure I shut my mouth while casting.

Hooked a few sailing boats. That never ends well...

Cheers, Paul

[Michal Duzynski]

Ciao
Chatruse Clouser is eeally good for everything
Chasing Flathead yesterday on a mudy flats and there you go, nice Mud Crab.
...
as my daughter loves all living creatures I had to drive back and let it go, otherwise it would be crying evening

cheers
mike

[askel]

Besides usual targets like myself and other people and anything behind me a pelican and a stingray although I haven't landed either.

The pelican dived from above and when it got back to a surface it didn't feel the "fish" in its bill bag so it just flew away with my fly.

The stingray was not even trying to fight back and I thought I hooked a piece of sea-grass or something like that. I realized that the line is not coming straight towards me but rather kind of at 45 degree angle. Water was clear and just about 3 ft deep and I saw it. I guess it didn't feel much as it just swam away once it noticed me.

[Paul Arden]

I’ve never hooked a pelican Getting quite exotic now!

I’ve hooked a few stingrays in Australia. When I was playing one the rod tip came off. It was a four piece and of course it ran all the way down the line to the fly. That was a very complicated fight - I remember for a long time avoiding its tail while trying to reinsert the sections together - by attempting to poke the rod back into the tip section. Of course that didn’t work Fortunately in the end the fly worked loose and I got my rod tip back, otherwise I’d still be there now.

I have a mate who got stung by one of those. Quite painful according to his long description!

Cheers, Paul

[Viking Lars]

A bat.
A bull (that was bad).
A horse (that wasn't so bad until I told the farmer/owner).
An outboard propeller (that was bad too).
Several ducks (well, at least two :-).
Aaaand myself on a few occassions too... Never hooked a fishing mate, Paul!!!

Lars

[petevicar]

I have hooked:
Pelicans (lots), Terns, Seagulls, Cormorants, Turtles, Sting Rays, Eagle rays, Manta rays, Cayman, Crocs, Alligators, Crabs, all sorts of fish that took my fly in front of the fish I was trying to catch.

[askel]

Pelicans seem to be pretty common catch of the day in Caribbean. I only seduced one because it was probably the only time when I was lucky enough to cast to a school of bait fish that was targeted by many predators including pelicans

Local fishermen, including myself, believe or consider pelicans as souls of dead fishermen

[Jason King]

I was casting at the park last year and on my backcast somehow my leader wrapped around a Gallah mid flight.....so there I was with a great bend in my 6wt and a bird flying at about 30 ft in the air.
There were people everywhere walking Dogs etc all looking at me while I was trying to figure out how I was going to get the angry bird off my line.
Just as I thought it was going to start taking line it nose dived to earth and let out a massive shriek.....luckily it came loose and flew off......seemingly unharmed.
Funny no-one at the park sung out “got one yet” after that lol.

Jason.

[Zhongxiang]

An UK pipefish caught on HT10. Actually it managed to tangle itself onto my leader.