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The Wide and Wonderful World of the Weird and Wacky

2K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  Bob Pink 
#1 ·
I made this post almost a year ago but thought I would dredge it back up to see if long time members missed it the first time or if our new members have a tale to tell.

If you have followed this sport for any significant amount of time I can’t imagine how you could get away without having had some kind of weird and wacky experience. I’ve had a number involving things like my dog and a tree stump, bears, bats, hawks, eagles, and porquipines. Please take a moment and think about your experiences and share one of your wackiest with the forum. My favorite goes as follows:

My strangest flyfishing experience took place four years ago on the Crooked River outside Prineville OR. The Crooked is a marvelous tailwater fishery and as a bonus it is about a half hour from some of the best sport rock climbing in America. Each May I take a few days for a combo rock climbing/fishing trip and it is a great combination I highly recommend.

The sun had set and the light was fading fast as I waded across some flat water just above a beautiful riffle. About half way across I noticed the fish were starting to rise and when I reached the bank it had turned into the closest thing trout get to a blitz. Dinner and camp would have to wait and though I could barely see I began casting a midge pattern to the myriad of swirls in front of me. It was a bit frustrating competing with all the naturals but I managed to fool a couple. As I released what would be the last fish of the day my fishing partner Walt walked up the high bank behind me and told me he was heading in to cook dinner. “One more cast and I’ll join you” I said as I made a few false casts. I laid the line out but before the fly hit the water a bat swooped down and snatched my fly. As I mentioned, it was pretty dark and I didn’t notice this event until my leader and fly line started levitating. I stripped in the line until I had the bat doing circles ten feet over my head and Walt was rolling on the ground in hysterics. Soon the bat grew tired and fluttered ungracefully to the water and I still had no idea what to do about this creature of the night at the end of my line. After a few moments I figured the hook was so small that I couldn’t have hooked it too badly so I gave the rod a quick snap and popped the hook out. The bat flopped in the water a bit then rose up and flew into the night. The only thing that could have made the experience wackier was if a nice big rainbow had decided the bat looked like dinner.

So that’s my Twilight Zone flyfishing episode. Let’s hear yours.
 
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#2 ·
Gregg, I got this book for Xmas titled somthing like: "The Wildest Fish Stories". There are stories in there like a guy in Alaska fighting a huge salmonfor 36 hours etc. Crazy stories. Anyway I'm scanning through the table of contents and low and behold chapter 21 or so is "Bat on a Fly". Pretty much the same event as yours. I thought of you immediately.
The author also says he is working on another volume and if you have any terrific stories you could mail them in and he actually comes out and investigates them personnally.
Given that, the ultimate story I think I've ever heard is the one Sully tells about BLue fishing at the PI jetty.
The one about a fileted bluefish.....Sully you gotta tell it. No fiction here and it could definately make the book.

TerryW
 
#3 ·
OK Terry but it's much better live.

It's the early 80's and we are fishing the fall run of bruiser bluefish blitzes. No wonder there were no stripers around these saltwater Piranhas averaged 36-40" and had attitudes to match their size. I wish I had a video of one of these fish screaming over the incoming wakes and becoming airborne while engulfing a 3oz. surface plug whole.

Well anyway the old group of regulars are at the South jetty of PI hammering this school of blues while the bait is commiting suicide on the beach. A couple of the meat guys fillet a few and toss the still live carcasses back into the water. After a while the tide goes dead and the action dies with it. Then most of the crew picks a seat on the rocks to rest.

Off to our left just up river this kid about nine or ten who has been casting his heart out hooks up. His father comes running down from the rocks takes the rod away from the kid and starts hootin & hollerin that he's got one on. We all start BOOing the guy off the stage and tell him to give the rod back to the kid. NAH, He's going to reel this keeper in all by himself so he doesn't lose it.

Well you've probably guessed it he reels in a filleted bluefish. With about 25 guys laughing so hard at him we headed home with tears in our eyes.
 
#6 ·
Sully's story reminded me of the same kind of thing . I do remember the 80's when it was all blue fish... Before the Chatham break it seemed that Hardings beach was chock full of big blue fish, a lot of racers in the 30 inch plus size in the spring and fat ones in the summer and fall. I used to bait fish with the kids when they were young with chunk bait and stake three surf rods and always catch them which set the foundation for my kids. I'd keep a fly rod with me but with the kids I really never used it. Anyway, this guy is fishing near me and comes by to remind me to make sure my drag is loose in case of a hit. He is telling me this and out of the corner of my eye.. all of a sudden his rod shoots out of the sand stake so fast it would have killed someone... It was like a rocket, literally a blur, so much so I had to check the stake to make sure I was sure of what I percieved. As he is continues to talk, I am holding my self in, then I said to him "Didn't you come down here with a rod", He says yes, turning and pointing to the location. He says.. "where's my rod!!!!".. I just said to him that he would find it at low tide if he was lucky and he confessed that he was so concerned with giving advice that he must have forgotten to lossen his own drag .
 
#7 ·
I was fishing the Canal late around 3:00 AM with another guy (can't remember if it was my Bro or my friend Steve). But it was the late 80's a year or two after the striper regs. We had been fishing for quite a while without any luck, but the fishing had been good & we had plenty of bait, so we decided to fish through the next slack. It was FAC & Foggey, there was no traffic noise, it was spookey quite. The lights from the Service road and the Sagamore Bridge were dimmed by the fog & you could maybe see 100 or so yards. I heard a faint humm & thought maybe a Semi was coming down the Senic Highway, but the sound just stayed kind of constant for several minutes, but slowly got a little less faint. This went on for a while & my fishing partner & I look at each other & commented on that strange sound. A little more time went by & we heard the sound of a wake slapping on the rocks & commented what's causing that? Then out of the fog a black Siluette emerged; it was a submarine, definately running on batteries (or Nuke), the tower & part of the hull were exposed. It was very quite & pushed a fairly small wake. I don't know anything about subs, like what "class" it was, but it seemed huge in the night fog & it was a very strange sight to see.
 
#8 ·
Two stories from the same trip.
Back in the 80's my dad's cousin used to keep his boat (54' Hatteras) down in Ft Lauderdale for the winter. Every couple of years I'd crew on it either on the trip down there for the winter or back to the cape in the spring. Tough duty....Shure!
Scene #1
Running off the northern Florida coast, cruising at 25kts I'm up on the bridge just livin' large. About 25 yds off the starboard bow I see 4 semi-submerged objects in the water. Large rectangles, wrapped in plastic about half the size of a hay bale. Throttle back to take a closer look and MY WORD!, I bet that's POT! My dad's cousin comes up on the bridge to see what's up, takes one look in the water and say's "Don't even think about it!". I put the hammer down and off we go. No more than a hour later I'm still on the bridge, and I get this funny feeling like I'm being watched. Scan the horizon ahead, abeam, nothing. Turn around in my chair and there's a USCG patrol chopper about 200 feet behind the boat about 50 feet off the water. That thing was as quiet as a wisper comapered to the engine noise of the boat. Soon as they see me turn around they hail us to shut it down so we can be boarded. Never found out if they were staking those bales all along but sure got my attention quickly!

Scene #2
On the homeward leg, Long Island Sound heading past Groton. I'm back on the bridge and scanning for traffic, notice what looks like a lighthouse or stationary nav structure off towards the Conn. shoreline. 10 minues later I notice that lighthouse is gaining on us. It's a sub heading out for seatrials from the GD facility in Groton. It's a good 4 miles away from us and behind. Passes us like we were treading water. I watched that sail ( I think that's the correct term for the upper stucture on a sub? ) pass off our bow with a mile to spare and it looked huge from that distance! I was told later that they really aren't fast until they get fully submerged........
 
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