Crazy/Unbelievable Fishing Stories

[E.T.]

There is something about our inner childhood fascination and curiosity of the unknown which makes "old fisherman's tales" so alluring, and I believe that same inner curiosity is at least partially responsible for why we continuously drop a line into the depths, wondering what we will pull up.

Being fisher-people, collectively, we spend a considerable amount of time out in the wilderness and incredible remote places, and sometimes experience rare/incredible things during the many hours we spend soaking our lines in the water.

I wanted to know what are some of the most crazy fishing stories you have. I'm talking about things that you have to witness in order to believe; being spooled by giants, sea monster sightings, big catches being bitten in half by something larger, even supernatural occurrences…

 

I'll start off with a story of my own. Up in Cowan Creek you can hire dinghy's which is what I did with my dad and little brother. A couple years ago, towards the afternoon, we were anchored somewhere about 25m from the bank along some inaccessible-by-land bush area. I was on the left side of the boat, my dad on the right and my brother was fishing off the front. We were dropping paternoster rigs down under us when all of a sudden, something giant swam under the boat and got snagged by all 3 lines at once. Take note that because my dad and I were facing opposite directions, plus the length of our rods going out from the sides, the creature under the boat would have been at least 3m wide.

Well to cut this story short, 3 rods rigged for flatties were no match for whatever swam into our lines which appeared to be travelling at a cruising pace, not panicked at all about the lines that hooked into it. We were very new to fishing at the time (I think I was 13) and had no idea what to do but watch in awe as it emptied out our reels.

 

I am excited to hear what incredible stories you guys have to share, especially from the veterans who have been at this sport for many years.

[PaddyT]

ill think of some stories later but i think i can solve your mystery- caught Cowan a couple of years back (released unharmed)

[E.T.]

7 minutes ago, PaddyT said:

ill think of some stories later but i think i can solve your mystery- caught Cowan a couple of years back (released unharmed)

Woah! What fish is that? Black Spotted Rock Cod?

I was actually thinking my mystery giant was a big ray. It's the only thing I can think of that is wide enough to get snagged on all the lines. Either that or its the Hawkesbury River Monster haha!!

[noelm]

How about this, it's not spooky or anything like that, just a "how did I do that" kind of thing. My mate and I were livebaiting for Kingfish at a spot that holds lots of Yellowtail, the method was to anchor up, catch a bait, put it out on the big gear and continue fishing for bait, I caught a Yellowtail in a minute or two, hooked it on the big rod and fed it out, set the drag and ratchet, and threw the bait line back out, a minute later, I had another Yellowtail on, and pulled it in to find it was the one with my hook in it! somehow the hooked Yakka was still hungry, and took the bait (again) it got taken by a big King about 15 minutes later, so its days were definately up.

Edited July 11, 2019 by noelm

[GoingFishing]

One of the very few times I tried soft plastics fishing I "hooked" onto something that was putting up a weird flappy weight. 

2 minutes later I pulled up a $50 note on my soft plastic. Never forget that day !

Edited July 11, 2019 by GoingFishing

[E.T.]

45 minutes ago, noelm said:

How about this, it's not spooky or anything like that, just a "how did I do that" kind of thing. My mate and I were livebaiting for Kingfish at a spot that holds lots of Yellowtail, the method was to anchor up, catch a bait, put it out on the big gear and continue fishing for bait, I caught a Yellowtail in a minute or two, hooked it on the big rod and fed it out, set the drag and ratchet, and threw the bait line back out, a minute later, I had another Yellowtail on, and pulled it in to find it was the one with my hook in it! somehow the hooked Yakka was still hungry, and took the bait (again) it got taken by a big King about 15 minutes later, so its days were definately up.

Oh man. That yellowtail is not a smart one 😂

[E.T.]

10 minutes ago, GoingFishing said:

One of the very few times I tried soft plastics fishing I "hooked" onto something that was putting up a weird flappy weight. 

2 minutes later I pulled up a $50 note on my soft plastic. Never forget that day !

Woah! Did you spend it or did you keep it as a memorabilia? That's pretty lucky

[dirvin21]

I once hooked an octopus that was living in a schooner glass someone had chucked in the creek

[wazatherfisherman]

For Spooky- I have caught the same Luderick as the other guy fishing with me on 2 occasions, both times in the same spot. First one, my float was probably about 12 inches under when Frank T's started going down- we were only drifting about 2 feet from each other and the fish swallowed both baits. Second time -same story different fisho- Wayne Taylor (who used to work with "Joe The Gadget Man" for older readers) and I were fishing the same "L" shaped crack at White Rock (Bradley's Head) only about a month later and same thing happened. 

Have seen the same scenario with Luderick before, (not with me as angler though) with other fisho's, but not twice in same spot, fishing 'still' water

 

[kingie chaser]

19 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

One of the very few times I tried soft plastics fishing I "hooked" onto something that was putting up a weird flappy weight. 

2 minutes later I pulled up a $50 note on my soft plastic. Never forget that day !

 

19 hours ago, E.T. said:

Woah! Did you spend it or did you keep it as a memorabilia? That's pretty lucky

Went out & bought himself a nice fish dinner 🤪🤣

Edited July 12, 2019 by kingie chaser

[GoingFishing]

1 hour ago, kingie chaser said:

 

Went out & bough himself a nice fish dinner 🤪🤣

Petrol on the way home actually.....Very underwhelming haha

On another occasion I had a 60cm+ flatty follow a smaller say 15cm flatty that I had just hooked all the way up to the surface in 30m of water, only to swallow it whole infront of my eyes. Very nice unexpected catch !

[BabyShark]

A crazy story, the thought of catching octopus still makes me shudder....

Two summers ago I pulled up a big octopus that had smashed the crabs that were in the crab pot. I decided to take the octopus for dinner in lieu of blue swimmers. And since my parents were visiting (they ran a restaurant for 30years) I thought octopus should be on the menu.

Well, the octopus had other ideas. It would have had an arm span close to 1m, I wondered how it got in the trap but it soon let me know it wanted out. I was in a kayak, pot sitting on the nose and it's tentacles were at me. I started hitting it with the paddle and it suctioned onto the paddle. I was screaming as I was sure it was trying to attack me. Got the paddle free off it's suckers and amazingly without tipping the kayak or losing the trap, got back to shore where my kids and mother in law were watching in fits of laughter. A bit shaken by the ordeal and not trusting this slippery sucker, managed to plop it into a bucket with lid on top and tied two plastic bags around it. Drove home and sat the bucket at the backdoor. A short time later, mum put her hand up to start prepping dinner. With knife in hand ready (after me telling her about my ordeal), she untied the bags, lifted the lid "it's not in here!". We frantically started looking everywhere. Checked the car, not there. I had images in my mind that the octopus had escaped in my mother in laws house as that was the only other place I left the bucket unattended while getting the kids in the car! But it somehow got passed the dog, got under the gate and started heading down the driveway, walked about 15-20m. I guess it was heading in the direction of the beach. I learnt that octopus truly are escape artists and will never take an octopus for dinner again!

[Rah]

30 minutes ago, BabySharkDooDooDoo said:

A crazy story, the thought of catching octopus still makes me shudder....

Two summers ago I pulled up a big octopus that had smashed the crabs that were in the crab pot. I decided to take the octopus for dinner in lieu of blue swimmers. And since my parents were visiting (they ran a restaurant for 30years) I thought octopus should be on the menu.

Well, the octopus had other ideas. It would have had an arm span close to 1m, I wondered how it got in the trap but it soon let me know it wanted out. I was in a kayak, pot sitting on the nose and it's tentacles were at me. I started hitting it with the paddle and it suctioned onto the paddle. I was screaming as I was sure it was trying to attack me. Got the paddle free off it's suckers and amazingly without tipping the kayak or losing the trap, got back to shore where my kids and mother in law were watching in fits of laughter. A bit shaken by the ordeal and not trusting this slippery sucker, managed to plop it into a bucket with lid on top and tied two plastic bags around it. Drove home and sat the bucket at the backdoor. A short time later, mum put her hand up to start prepping dinner. With knife in hand ready (after me telling her about my ordeal), she untied the bags, lifted the lid "it's not in here!". We frantically started looking everywhere. Checked the car, not there. I had images in my mind that the octopus had escaped in my mother in laws house as that was the only other place I left the bucket unattended while getting the kids in the car! But it somehow got passed the dog, got under the gate and started heading down the driveway, walked about 15-20m. I guess it was heading in the direction of the beach. I learnt that octopus truly are escape artists and will never take an octopus for dinner again!

Love it.. Did you figure out how it got out?

 

 

[BabyShark]

1 hour ago, Rah said:

Love it.. Did you figure out how it got out?

 

 

Rah, apparently octopus can squeeze out of any space as long as their tooth can fit through as their body just squishes....incredible (but gross!) creatures!

[wazatherfisherman]

Got an occi while fishing Sow and Pigs one night and it got hold of the side of the boat, had just started 'trialling' Mustad 34007 Stainless gangs (expensive at the time) and not wanting to lose them to the occi, boat mate Kenny said "cut your line off and wrap it around the rod holder- it'll get the hooks out itself and you won't lose 'em'- good idea Kenny, except continued catching fish for another hour or two, forgetting about occi completely.

Left the 'Pigs' and planed the boat back to Rose Bay ramp in the wee hours. Lined the boat up on the trailer and cranked the winch until boat about 2/3 on the trailer, before realising the 'thing' between boat and roller was actually the occi. Let boat back off enough for occi to be free and it fell onto the ramp, still had ganged hook firmly grasped by a leg- it was no longer hooked but 'clung' onto the hooks until free and just started crawling for the water.

We'd just basically driven the boat a few km's on it, then wound up the heavy boat with it stuck between boat and roller and it simply crawled away, seemingly unscathed- tough buggers eh

[savit]

Shame to admit  -  I got spooled by octopus once 😂. 

I was trolling baits under the Spit on a kayak  with a rod in a back rod holder. Somehow both Alvey reel drag and alarm became disengaged (after the recent service) and I noticed something stopped the kayak without pulling it and an empty spool only when I passed marina. Instead of slow winding and paddling in the busy traffic area  I decided just to pull the heavy line and leave it on a kayak .  When I got under the bridge - the 'snag' gave up and appeared to be a few kg octopus on  snelled hooks. I paddled to beach and started to wind the line back on a reel. By the time I got to the hooks - the octopus has self released and took the bait as well.  

 

[noelm]

I got "spooled" towing the boat home on the trailer, one rod was left in the rod holder with some line dangling off it, somehow snagged a low hanging tree and proceeded to remove all the line, I bet the drag got hot at around 60kph after a few hundred metres of line.

[frankS]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

I got "spooled" towing the boat home on the trailer, one rod was left in the rod holder with some line dangling off it, somehow snagged a low hanging tree and proceeded to remove all the line, I bet the drag got hot at around 60kph after a few hundred metres of line.

Almost ashamed to admit it but I have done that trick more then once.

Frank

[E.T.]

23 hours ago, BabySharkDooDooDoo said:

A crazy story, the thought of catching octopus still makes me shudder....

Two summers ago I pulled up a big octopus that had smashed the crabs that were in the crab pot. I decided to take the octopus for dinner in lieu of blue swimmers. And since my parents were visiting (they ran a restaurant for 30years) I thought octopus should be on the menu.

Well, the octopus had other ideas. It would have had an arm span close to 1m, I wondered how it got in the trap but it soon let me know it wanted out. I was in a kayak, pot sitting on the nose and it's tentacles were at me. I started hitting it with the paddle and it suctioned onto the paddle. I was screaming as I was sure it was trying to attack me. Got the paddle free off it's suckers and amazingly without tipping the kayak or losing the trap, got back to shore where my kids and mother in law were watching in fits of laughter. A bit shaken by the ordeal and not trusting this slippery sucker, managed to plop it into a bucket with lid on top and tied two plastic bags around it. Drove home and sat the bucket at the backdoor. A short time later, mum put her hand up to start prepping dinner. With knife in hand ready (after me telling her about my ordeal), she untied the bags, lifted the lid "it's not in here!". We frantically started looking everywhere. Checked the car, not there. I had images in my mind that the octopus had escaped in my mother in laws house as that was the only other place I left the bucket unattended while getting the kids in the car! But it somehow got passed the dog, got under the gate and started heading down the driveway, walked about 15-20m. I guess it was heading in the direction of the beach. I learnt that octopus truly are escape artists and will never take an octopus for dinner again!

Damn. I heard Octopus are really smart animals but this is like next level stuff haha. But on the other hand, I have caught octopus by just dangling a sinker in front of their face and they grab on and refuse to let go. I guess their intelligence varies between individuals.

[PaddyT]

21 hours ago, noelm said:

I got "spooled" towing the boat home on the trailer, one rod was left in the rod holder with some line dangling off it, somehow snagged a low hanging tree and proceeded to remove all the line, I bet the drag got hot at around 60kph after a few hundred metres of line.

Yep done that- last time i left a rod vertical in the boat , lay em all down now

[tyrone07]

Not me but my grandpa many moons ago, was fishing out of Wooli one morning in his little 4.5 meter tinny out near Solitary Islands. The way he describes the story is he had just caught a kingfish on a handline and bled it straight away before he threw it in the boat. There was a boat fishing near by with a bloke waving at him frantically. My grandpa thought the bloke was nuts so continued fishing. He then lent over the side of the boat to wash his hands and there was an eye which he said was the size of an ash tray. He had a look over the other side and there was another eye on the other side. Turns out the bloke waving was indicating there was a large great white shark that was at least 4.5 meters had been attracted to my grandpas boat by the kingie and had come up underneath the boat. Grandpa then says he turned the boat on and flawed it without even pulling in the anchor which luckily hold as he prob would have been thrown into the water. 

[rickmarlin62]

Many years ago i was fishing in newie harbour  i decided to change spots so put rods down and started the old johno85  took off up the harbour  someting caught my attention out the corner of my eye   it was my sand anchor about 60 ft up in the air   chain and all   i was doin bout 25 knots and had forgot to pull anchor in    lucky there was no other boats around

[E.T.]

7 hours ago, tyrone07 said:

Not me but my grandpa many moons ago, was fishing out of Wooli one morning in his little 4.5 meter tinny out near Solitary Islands. The way he describes the story is he had just caught a kingfish on a handline and bled it straight away before he threw it in the boat. There was a boat fishing near by with a bloke waving at him frantically. My grandpa thought the bloke was nuts so continued fishing. He then lent over the side of the boat to wash his hands and there was an eye which he said was the size of an ash tray. He had a look over the other side and there was another eye on the other side. Turns out the bloke waving was indicating there was a large great white shark that was at least 4.5 meters had been attracted to my grandpas boat by the kingie and had come up underneath the boat. Grandpa then says he turned the boat on and flawed it without even pulling in the anchor which luckily hold as he prob would have been thrown into the water. 

This is probably the most intense story I've ever heard. If I was in that situation I would be fixated on the shark and be unable to move haha

[campr]

I was fishing oyster leases at Pt Stevens in early 80s and was busted off on oysters by a big bream.  Fished same spot next day and landed a nice bream just over a kilo.  Amazingly I hadnt hooked it but my hook had gone through the eye of the swivel of the rig I lost the day before.  Still wouldn't believe this if I hadn'tseen it.   Ron 

[Jiggy]

I was fishing off Towradgi many years ago in about 12m of water. I looked at the sounder and told my dad a big school of fish is under us and turned away to drop a lure into them. He looked at the screen and said no there is a big fish under us.

I looked at the screen, a hummingbird wide eye, and on it was etched the perfect great white shark image. Mouth, fins, tail; just like someone had sketched it by hand. I looked over the side and a huge shadow was going under us. I had a 4.3 metre predator tri hull and it was bigger. I swam under us and kept going towards the beach.

About a year later in, almost the same spot, I was trolling for bonito when the sounder showed a big blip then drew on it a perfect shark tail. Same beastie I reckon.

Cheers

Rob