Unintentional catches and foul hooking

Me and my lad went out to my local lakes last night for a few hours after school, i set the lad going on a float then set up my small feeder on a quiver tip.

Bearing in mind we we on the small heavily stocked lake its a bit like fishing in a barrel which was good for the 8yo. Now after managing to hook a small common in the tail i also twice got a fish on while my rod was on the rest reeled in without me realising there was still a bit of corn on the hook and dangling just below the surface right in front of my peg, while at the time i was on the next peg sorting the lad out. The second one was a half decent fish and near had the rod in!!

What surprises have you pulled out the water?

I caught a perch when I was a lad, I ws trying to get the float to sit right and set the shots, the perch took the bare hook and no bait had been put either. I have managed on several occasions to catch 2 trout at once when fishing a leader with droppers.

My old mate Ted Eccleston a respected canal midlands matchman swore blind that while fishing the Shroppy Canal he hooked something big against the far bank cover on the pole , after a short struggle the line broke and a bright green iguana type reptile climbed out of the water and ran up the embankment , I took this with a pinch of salt until 25 years later in Devon I brought a large terrapin to the surface at a local pond.

We used to catch cichlids on "The Hotties" behind Pilkingtons glass works on the St Helens Canal ---The water was that warm that in winter you'd be sitting in the middle of a big cloud of steam ........

And then there was this story of a trip Graham and I did to France -- Here's Grahams report of what happened .........

Unusual Catch
One night at Domaine Des Isles in France I was roused from a particularly enjoyable dream by an absolute screamer of a run. I ran to the rod and could swear I saw steam coming off the spool it was spinning so fast. As I lifted into it Eddie loomed out of the darkness with landing in hand ready to do the honours.
It didn't feel like a heavy fish, not like the 30lb-plus fish that inhabit the water, and certainly not one of the 40's or 50's. This one was too fast. The biggies go off on slow but very powerful runs and then sandbag the rod in short bursts. This one half-kited, half run, to my left, towards one of the many channels at DDI. So I leaned into it more and forced it to kite right into my own bank about 50yds away. Better that than down the channel where I would have been sure to lose it.
I bent the rod into it and slowly but surely began to gain line as it tried to dig into the bank. 'Is it a good fish?' Ed asked.
'I don't think so', I replied. 'It feels strange. Could be a small cat, or a big grassie. I just don't know what to think.'
And that sense of the unknown was multiplied a thousand fold when whatever it was started to climb up the bush to my left as I was trying to pull it from under! Bear in mind it was pitch dark and we couldn't actually see what was going on.
I increased the bend in the rod and dropped 'it' back into the water. And soon after a weed-covered object was scooped into the landing net and lowered onto the unhooking mat, whereupon it freed itself from the weed and proceeded to run round the landing net mesh like whirling dervish.
'It's a giant rat!' Said Ed.
I shone the torch on it, holding the landing net at arm's length and said, 'No, it's a bloody baby coypu.'
And so it was, hooked in the back leg just in the flesh, the boilie still intact. 'Unhook it then', said Ed.
'You can go and take a flying **** as well', I said. 'That 'giant rat' will have your hand off in one bite. They chew through trees with those teeth, you know.' So while it lay quiet I sneaked a pair of scissors through the mesh of the net and snipped the line close to the hook. It was a micro-barb hook and it would be rid of it in no time. The landing net was dropped in the water and it swam off pretty quickly.That definitely rated as my most unusual catch!

I once caught a Rudd on a bare hook whilst seeing if my float was nicely dotted down.

My old man told me a story of how he was fishing the GUC years ago, went to cast out but the float just kept on going for miles further than the attempted short cast, he even admitted to being a little scared at this weird occurrence when he closed the bail arm and reeled in showing he'd hooked a dragonfly on the cast which just continued to fly off into the sunset. Odds on that happening?

Not as long as you'd think, especially if your Pa was wont to pause with the bait dangling behind him before casting; those big dragonflies have amazing eyesight, and anything hovering and wriggling is likely to get attacked. I've often seen them checking out my bait as I prepared to swing it to hand, though I've never quite managed to get one to bite!

I expect we've all caught a trout on a bare hook? Some buzzers are little more than that anyway.

I recently caught a 4lb. tench that put up one hell of a fight on a bare hook....just like Stick Float, I was tackling up at the time.


It gives one hope about just how many species might be caught with a fly rod .... far more than just game fish. I would dearly like to target roach and rudd purposely with a fly rod and a handful of buzzers and there is a pond near me with some of the most difficult crucians I know .... but they take emergers with gusto all evening long !

I have caught the following British species on the fly rod, unfortunately in the majority of cases whilst fishing for trout, therefore I can claim no credit for their captures.

Roach, rudd, bream, dace, chub, perch, pike, carp, tench, bleak, and bullhead.

i once foul hooked a 31 pound mirror carp in the tail, this was after a strike from a take, i can only think that the 31 was in the area when i had the take from possibly another fish,it took me twenty minutes to land the fish which took me all over the lake,pity it doesnt count though

This has not happened to me for a while but I have had some belting Swan Mussels following sail away bites on the float.

Caught swan mussel feeder fishing with maggots and also had a tufty duck.

Fished Penine Trout fishery years ago, all the anglers were lined up around one corner of the fishery, all using lures. Turned out they were trying to foul hook the doubles. Saw several with lures across their backs.

Wobbly Face (As Per Ed) said:

Caught swan mussel feeder fishing with maggots and also had a tufty duck.

Fished Penine Trout fishery years ago, all the anglers were lined up around one corner of the fishery, all using lures. Turned out they were trying to foul hook the doubles. Saw several with lures across their backs.

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disgusting,should have been foulhooked in their b******s with trebles

I once foul hooked a nuclear sub ,put it straight back swam off ok

Cakey said:

I once foul hooked a nuclear sub ,put it straight back swam off ok

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well.................did you not weigh it first FFS

This happened to me during a public coaching session in Essex.

The Fishing Coach :: Truth is stranger than fiction :: September :: 2009

First time in nearly fifty years of fishing.

Years ago I was on a 24 hrs sesh Carp fishing, at 3.30am had a slow but steady take, hooked the fish and after a strong but strange fight landed a Pike of 17+! Hooked in the mouth, It had taken my fishmeal hookbait gluged in fish oil!

An old friend of my Ian Brown once had a take from a Carp and after a long fight landed the Carp at over 30+!

Now the strange part! As Ian went to unhook the Carp, He saw that his hook was not in the Carps mouth, but another rig was! His hook had infact gone through the eye of the swivel on the other hooklink!

Unhooked and returned! What are the odds of that ever happening again???