Whats the strangest thing you've pulled out of the water?

Had a right strange month, not caught a lot of fish, but pulled up a car tyre, an old suitcase and a fully erected fishing umbrella.
Anyone ever dragged anything weird up from the depths?

i fished a local canal, and pulled a kids deckchair out, next cast an empty cd case then later same day landed somthing that looked like an old shirt

I've hauled out a bivvy/tent thank god for 50lb power pro

i pulled out a red and white traffic barrier once on a boat at the time hooked on to it with a big jerkbait , jesus it nearly killed me getting it in.

I had no idea what the umbrella was, i'll be honest, for a while i thought i was playing a lump. It must of been knocking on the bottom, it felt like something was on. I even drew a crowd, which was fairly embarrasing.

petestanley wrote:Had a right strange month, not caught a lot of fish, but pulled up a car tyre, an old suitcase and a fully erected fishing umbrella.
Anyone ever dragged anything weird up from the depths?

our phil actually pulled a pike out once

This is my strangest catch.

i hauled a des o'connor record out once, toughest thing iv had to play !!

An Otter! alive and well, went after my swimbait today. I don't know if this is normal practice but it was chasing or playing with my lure when it got itself foul hooked.
heres the excerpt from my blog entry for today.

"" Thats when my "friend" the Otter arrrived. Initially I chose to ignore it (as one does) but this one was unafraid, unphased by my presence. I continued fishing- as did the otter. It was getting rather embarrassing, the otter was catching alot more than me, occaisionally sitting in the water a few feet away munching Perch. The otter slipped under again and I got a knock, a short pluck... then again.... a thought flashed across my mind....NO surely the otter wasn't hitting the lure. This was ridiculous, or was it. I looked around for the otter but it was still under....then BANG! the animal surfaced with the bloody lure caught in its back!! Good God! I'd foul hooked an f***ing otter. Immediately I had visions of wrestling a snapping creature on the bank. I had 50lb braid and a heavy duty homemade trace on so I was good to go! I did not fear that I'd be broken off, the impliciations of an otter swimming around with a four piece swim bait in its back were beyond my imagination.
The animal went down taking some line off the reel, everthing was under control for the moment, when it came back up it realised it was still caught and decided to head straight for the far bank like a bullet! The rod went into a massive bend, the braid ripped off the reel. I was now sure it was all going to snap, the animal hit the bank and at that moment the hook tore from its skin. The lure, under the force of the bend in the rod was catapulted straight back at me, hitting me in the leg, lodging itself in my waders! "That was close", I thought to myself as the otter scrambled for its life up the bank and disappeared.
At this point I thought it was a far safer option to get the deadbaits back out, have a brew and calm the nerves. Order had been restored, I was sipping coffee when low and behold the brazen otter resurfaced almost at my feet! I threw it a dead roach (one of Neville's best) which it gratefully accepted.
I packed up the gear and headed home for a cuppa.""

This is the offending animal



Full story at http://riverbarrowpiker.blogspot.ie/2012/11/hard-lines-ottergate-scandal.html

i'd say you had a lucky escape with that otter!! i cant think of anything worse than trying to wrestle it in and unhook it, i would imagine it would have resulted in a trip to A&E!

Great story, and fantastic pictures too. I'm amazed that the creature was so unafraid of you, all the otters I see scarper as soon as they spot me.
The other week I chatted to a guy who had caught an otter a couple of days before. He had managed to get the hooks out without being bitten but he said it was a real tussle on the bank.

LOL Eric I would imagine everything runs away from you

I once pulled a bag of dead kittens out on the end of my spinner, once I realised what they actually were in the bag I threw the bag into the bushes and then threw up myself.

An otter! Jesus, i'd have shit myself. I was casting a spinner once, when i lost track of it on the cast, i couldn't figure out what had happened to it as is hadn't landed, when line started stripping off my reel. Turns out a bloody goose flew over my head on my cast and had to play the thing out of the sky and across the pond, much to the amusement of my mate who'd watched the entire thing. He had to net it and hold it whilst i braved the pecking and unwrapped my gear from its legs.

Many years ago my father caught a seagull whilst wet fly fishing on Lough Mask..... the bird was nipping at the flies on the surface, was all very funny until it got hooked. We got it sorted and kept our fingers intact.

Otters - a different kettle of fish (so to speak) altogether! But all incidents aside, the last 3 times in a row that I've been out, at 3 different swims each located miles apart I've spotted otters and they're really starting to mess up the swim- not good. At this stage I'd be happy to catch a trolly or a tyre.

Sorry to hear about the kittens. A very unfortunate find.

Roly wrote:Many years ago my father caught a seagull whilst wet fly fishing on Lough Mask..... the bird was nipping at the flies on the surface, was all very funny until it got hooked. We got it sorted and kept our fingers intact.

Otters - a different kettle of fish (so to speak) altogether! But all incidents aside, the last 3 times in a row that I've been out, at 3 different swims each located miles apart I've spotted otters and they're really starting to mess up the swim- not good. At this stage I'd be happy to catch a trolly or a tyre.

Sorry to hear about the kittens. A very unfortunate find.

yes me to its a cat--trastrophy that is.............

I was so distraught I was on "Moggy" don to calm me down.

Was a teenager at the time but I didnt cry just puked in the bushes lol

A mink on the river Wyre, thank god it dropped the bait before i had to try and un hook it.

Quite a few odd things over the years including:-
A ford escort door mk2 model
Sawn off shotgun (my mate a few weeks later had a pistol) ah er maybe it was the other way around now im thinking about it I had the pistol on peg 110 and he had the shotgun on 158
A dolls head about the size of a childs head that did freak me a little for a moment
Cormorant
A casio watch still working.

The dolls head would of freaked me out!!

Had a few runs off cormorants at Lomond a few times. That's one way to test your baitrunner for sure and make sure you've plenty of line cos it's gonna peel off like your line is tied to a car. It's funny once...

Hoisted in a shopping trolley and up a dam wall, from deep silt using 50lb Cortland Spectron. Pretty good line I feel....lol

Caught cats in bags, dogs wrapped in tape, shoes, bikes, a mannequin (which wasn't funny till I knew what it really was), socks, all kinds of sanitary towels and tampons. Lots of stuff.