Another one just for fun.....

Have you ever caught a fish in an area you never expected to? What kind of fish and where was it.

How about in the air? I pulled my cut plug herring about a foot out of the water when a silver jumped up and grabbed it. I landed and bonked him. Stupid silver.

There should be some good answers coming from all the folks on the board for this one...

-largemouth bass in Bellingham Bay
-humpy in Lk. Sammamish
-sockeye in Sauk River
-a few summer-run chums, in August, in a Puget Sound stream
-mackerel off Pier 57 (there are a few around each El Nino year, I've just never caught them here)

There're a few to start.

Fish on...

Todd.

Some lady caught a 12" pirahna in a Seattle area lake recently.

About 8 years ago, I caught a shad at the mouth of the Toutle and the Cowlitz. Has anyone else ever seen or caught a shad in, or on the Cowlitz?

Cowlitzfisherman
Is the taste of the bait worth the sting of the hook????

I caught a rainbow trout about 16 inches long in Lake Washington two years ago, and the poor guy had a plastic ring from a six pac jammed up against his dorsal fin. I quickly removed it with my side-cutters and released him. As he swam away,
I'am sure I could hear him say "aaaah that feels good"

Cigar

My buddy caught a huge star fish while we were trolling for salmon off of Redondo.

how about a Sturgeon while trolling in Drano lake. What the heck is he doing at 25 feet.

1) 25lb. striper at the mouth of the klamath /requa, while fishin for Kings

2)"Chromed out" winterrun on the sky Oct 15th, still chasin silvers.

3)Steelhead in lake Sammy, pop gear and worm.

4)I saw a toad summerrun steelie (40")caught in the wind R.

5)Sharks that kept eating our bonita in Grand Cayman.

I was surprised, to take a total of 6 Sockeye, in 9 days of fishing on the coast, during early and late july of this year. ON THE HOH RVER... 2 in the upper special regs area, and 4 in the lower river. I was happy to BONK my knee while I put them back in the river unharmend. Maybe some Sol Duc fish had a few to many fish cocktails and took a wrong turn on the way Home.. I am a 100% CNR guy so i dont know if i could of kept them if i wanted? Anyone know the answer???

Flounder 11 miles from the salt in the Chehalis near Montesano. Following week, friend caught one also. Whale in same area of river, although I didn't hook it. Five inch hatchery steelies in Spanaway Lake. Don't know how they got in there. State record catfish in 28 feet of water bobber fishing with four foot leader. I will have to think for others.

There is a run of sockeye that returns to a little spring fed swamp backed up by the road near it's end in the park - can't remember the name of the creek but it has a little rock fishway on it and I've seen several adult sockeye in it in the fall.

Sometimes you expect to catch a fish so much that you catch one anyway, even though there is no way you should. Like the time I was in high school, had just built my first steelhead flyrod and took it out the first of June to the upper Kalama, which had just that year been designated fly fishing only water (yep, I'm that old ). In the first pool early in the morning I promptly hooked and landed a summer steelhead - the first one I actually landed on purpose. Fished the rest of the morning then went down to the #2 hatchery for some info. The told me not to bother to fish above the hatchery, where I had just come from, as they only had passed one summer run steelhead over the wier so far that year!

Another time ages ago, 1974 actually, when the Quinault was open year round and bull trout were known as dolly varden and were pests to be eliminated, I was fishing in early April for them with another new rod I had built, this one a 3 weight flyrod made of graphite, the first rod I had made from this at the time new, space age, and expensive material. I was loading up on dollies at the mouth of Alder Creek - they hit a skunk fly with gusto as it looked just like the dark little sockeye fry that were migrating from the clear stream into the glacially turbid Quinault, when a monster steelhead floated up and inhaled my fly. With this new, light, and expensive rod that I was afraid to put any pressure on I was sure that fish was a goner when it roared off into the river jumping all the way, but after running all my line and most of my backing off it decided to swim back up into the creek. It repeated this about 10 times and finally wore itself out and I was able to beach it. This turned out to be no old boot of a winter run but was instead a chrome bright 10 pound summer run, nearly too immature for me to tell what sex it was. That sold me on graphite - I not only didn't blow the rod up but I still have that little jewel today.

I think I remember a story of a barracuda caught in the Duwamish river.
Or the time they found a 500 lb dead sturgeon floating in Lake Washington.
This year while sockeye fishing Lk WA the 1st fish of the day was a 5 lb cutthroat.
It went for the bare hooks & when it was in the net I looked at it & said
wait a minute this this isn't a sockeye, it has spots on it. Gammie was confused
when we had 5 fish in the box.

This was a near miss and I'm glad I didn't hook it. I was fishing the Carbon for Steelhead last winter, and I just happened to catch sight of a deer swimming through the slot I was in. I was able to get my gear reeled in before I snagged it. Probably woulda been a heck of a fight, but I'd rather not experience that.

I was fishing this small pond, it is actually a air shaft for a old coal mine that has filled up with water. It is probably about 200 feet by 150 feet. Depth I dont know, but one time I put on a lot of weight let out at least 100 feet and still didnt hit bottom standing on the shore. It has a creek running into it and the outlet is only 10 feet away. Well back to the story, it is loaded with wild cutthroat trout. I had just hooked a little 8 inch cutt and was reeling him in when all of a sudden splash, Here comes a mink he jumped off the bank and swam directly torwards my fish and grabbed it and then swam back on the bank about 4 feet from me. I decided to get the fish back and was in a tug of war I didnt want him eating my hook and being really stuck on their so I would give a couple of tugs no luck. At this point I decided to poke him with the end of the fishin pole. Well not a good idea either they make one hell of a scary noise when they get pissed thinking I was going to steal his meal. I am lookin at him and he is eating as fast as he can he was about 2 feet long and wasnt going to move until he was done eating. I ended backing up a couple more feet and reeling down on the line and give it one more jerk as hard as I could. Out came the hook I was happy, luckily he hadnt ate the head yet. He still had his fish he was happy, I watched for about 2 minutes until he finished. He jumped back in swam across and then disappeared in the brush on the other side.

When I was a kid fishing some local sloughs for panfish I snagged up on weeds and tried to pull it loose. It came loose and shot up the bank snagging a cow in the @ss. I tried to pull it loose and that cow took off like a bullet. That reel was screaming.....of course I had to break off.

It would have been tough filleting out a cow with my little pocket knife....would have been tasty though.

Wow! some great posts! Anyone else have some? Let's hear some more.

We landed and released an 8' sturgeon on the lower Rogue fishing for springers about three years ago.
We were only fishing in about 6 feet of water.. he slammed a gold cv7 blade with a couple red beads if anyone wants to target them there..

It was a shock/disapointment to see this thing break the surface for the first time.. we were thinking/hoping for a 50#+ springer.. oh well it was a fun 30 minutes.

About 15 years ago I was fishing right before light on the Nestucca tidewater near Woods bridge.

It was my first time fishing the area so my partner instructed me to cast near the boat dock as the Fall Chinook like to hide under them.

The dock was a mere silhouette, so my depth perception must have been off because my first cast landed on the dock with a clunk.

Well, a dark shape came out from under an over turned little boat that was sitting on the dock and the next thing I know line is just flat peeling off of my reel.

My partner says, "Ya got one?!!" and I say, "I DON'T KNOW, BUT MY LINE IS GOING UP THAT WALKWAY TOWARDS THAT HOUSE!"

We rowed to shore and followed the line up the walkway.

The line then went under the neighbors fence, then over the next neighbors fence, then under that neigbors stilted house then to the front door of that home.

It was an odd situation to knock on the door and have to wake up the owner to ask then to hold their cat while we plucked a treble hook from it's leg.

Yes, a catfish in the Nestucca tidewater.