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3. And then I hooked the friggin bat, Page 2

YES! I often fish a particular stretch right at dark (and ocassionally a bit after), as it seems the bigger trout often feed there best around this time. On 07/01/2007 I caught a BAT on my back-cast. The thing was "freaking out" and flying around me like a tornado. Other bats seemed drawn to the commotion and it felt as though the bats were everywhere. I hate bats and out of sheer panic, I threw the pole away from me and into the water. Well, the line was wrapped around me and you can imagine what happened next. The bat was immediately sucked tight against me and pinned to the left side of my upper chest. It was squealing like mad and it's fluttering wings were striking me in the neck. I'm a bit emabarassed to say, but I was screaming like a school girl. As a I tore at the line and jumped all about in the dark river, I can only imagine what the 2 gentleman fishing just below me were thinking. Suddenly the little devil was gone (I had broken him off). I quickly recovered my rod and left the river. I've fished around them at dark many times in the past and even had a couple strike my rod, however, I've never before actually hooked one.
Sincerely Yours,
Daytime Fisherman

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing that story--it's hilarious! I'm sure all of the others who've had batty encounters will empathize (when they stop laughing). :) :) :)

Geez, two bat hookings in Cortland and Moravia in one week... the bats in the area must be conspiring. It looks like I got out of Ithaca just in time!

So after a recent outing on a smallmouth river I'm forced to ask where do snapping turtles fall on the spectrum?
Granted it didn't take an insect imitation but it did eat a floating minnow type fly and I'm counting it as landed by the "dangerous critter" standard of cutting the leader within 12" of the fly.
JW

John, I forgot to mention the duck that flew into my line and almost jerked a hook in my hand that evening we fished sulphurs on Falling Spring. Another dangerous critter by my standards, but thankfully not one that presented the dilemma of to land or not to land.

By the way, Trusgt, that's one of the funniest fishing stories I've ever read. I laughed out loud.

As a kid I was fishing with my grandfather when we hooked a small snapping turtle (probably 12 inches long). My grandfather was from the old school and didn't practice much catch-and-release (his favorite saying was, "The smallest ones are the best eatin'). He grabbed that snapping turtle and cut its head off with a jackknife, probably intending to eat the thing, or at least intending to recover his bait-fishing rig. But the turtle had other plans, inasmuch as a headless creature can have plans: The headless body of the turtle nonchalantly walked back into the water and swam away.

-Shawn

John,
I've also found that snapping turtles can have a fascination for floating bass flies. On a tiny local pond that seems to have nearly as many snapping turtles as bass, I learned that if I didn't keep my popper moving quickly from the time it touched down, the snappers would stalk it and eat it. The turtle that taught me this lesson was about a ten pounder. My tippet was strong enough to bring it to shore, but the hook straightened just enough to release the beast as I tried to drag it onto the bank. I was happy to recover my popper so easily, but this disappointed a fellow who was watching. He asked if I'd let him keep the next turtle I caught. I said "sure" just to placate him, but I had no intention to do either thing. Fortunately, the bass responded well to a fast-moving popper for the rest of that evening.

Shawn,
I've seen gutted fish swim, but I didn't know that headless snapping turtles could walk. If we could breed a race of headless snappers, perhaps I'd have a solution for the days when the bass in that little pond prefer a slow-moving bug.

Oh man, bats....

Lots of stories there... nice thread.
Late one night i was in my pontoon boat on the yough. (yes, i got busted by the park and payed dearly, won't do it again, I promise). But the Iso hatch was that good. the bats were thick. I caught one on my back cast and swatted him down. he flew up and hit me in my back. I had scratches and drew blood. don't think he nipped me, but scratched me. After getting busted by the park, they advised me to go get checked out. I went home, and wife made me go to the emergency room for rabies shots.

so I'm good for a couple more years. They don't scare me cause if you don't screw with them, they are so good with radar and flying, they won't hit you and definitely don't want to land on you.

As a kid i've caught canadian goose, mallards, lots of seagulls- I grew up on lake erie and we used ot fish minnows for smallies after school. On the cast, seagulls would eat and fly away with a spool of 6 pound test. I hated those things! Cedar waxwings on the savage river in MD. have not hooked any, but had them do the fly by and lift it in the air but drop it. nice birds.

Oh, and one extremely POed water snake- ate a bass bug, yes ate it. hooked right in the corner of his jaw like a fish! that was an interesting release.

A buddy mine caught a water snake on a hare's ear nymph once.

Davez, Mcjames, I'm just noticing your posts recently and assume you're new. Welcome to the forum, and thanks for your posts.

yes Louis new here and thrilled to have found this site. What a wealth of information. I grew up in PA (Media-- Delaware Co) and have fished a fair amount in Pine Creek Valley. I recently moved to Westchester Co New York and I am looking forward to exploring the catskill streams and Pocono streams.

Another strange snapping turtle story:

About 10 years ago I was working as a counselor at a summer camp. The camp was held in New Jersey on the grounds of a German mission to the U.S. that was run by very conservative and pious Germans. They had a few bass ponds there, and I used to fish them frequently. The pastor of the church there saw me fishing sometimes on his evening stroll around the place, and eventually he began flyfishing. Summer ended and I left the camp, but still kept in touch with the camp director, a close friend of mine. One day he calls me and relates that it was becoming rare for his pastor to give a sermon in which he did not use some sort of flyfishing illustration to make a point. He then recounted the pastor's most recent illustration.

One of the ponds on the site had a few HUGE snapping turtles, and the pastor had apparently witnessed them having sex one day while he was fishing. Moved by the experience, he described the occurrence, in great detail I'm told, in his sermon the following week. Germans tend to be a bit on the inhibited side when it comes to physical display of affection, of course, but imagine the awkwardness felt by the large contingent of elderly women present who had sworn themselves to a life of virginity in devotion to God.

My friend the camp director continued to update me on the decline of his pastor's service until the pastor retired, just a year after becoming a flyfisherman. My friend to this day blames me for driving the pastor from his life's calling in favor of the idolatrous Way of the Flyfisherman. I just hope his soul is not lost for eternity on my account. God is, after all, gracious, and partial to fishermen, I'm told.

-Shawn

OK if you want weird and not necessarily on fly tackle I'll through a Holstein Steer in the mix. I was fishing a lake with some pasture land that came right down to the waters edge.
It was our custom to start around midnight and fish untill 5:30 or so as the really big largemouth and stripers would come up onto the shallow flat at night and terrorize frogs and baitfish. On the night in question there was a new moon and it was obviously very dark. I misjudged the distance to the bank (not uncommon) when I jerked my plug back the was a very indignant "mooooooooo" and my line proceeded to fly off the reel.
A few days later I got to the farm and let the farmer know what had happened. He went inside and came out with a cheshire grin and handed me the plug in question.
JW

Is a steer considered landed as soon as you hook him? If so, you might have set some kind of test record for bovine. You should have asked to have the animal weighed. I'm assuming, of course, that he was fair-hooked...

-Shawn

Hey, this thread has gone places I never dreamed of when I started it, and has taken on an air of competition, much to my reading fun. Now, I dare anyone to top JW's steer story.

Louis, do trucks and boats qualify?

Absolutely not. Living organisms only. Though you are tempting me. What the hell, let's hear it, but if it doesn't moo, it at least had better honk.

Nothing terribly dramatic: an obnoxious boater on Skaneateles Lake ran over my line leading to a brief reel-smoking run, and my backcast hooked a truck while fishing from a bridge as a youth (similar result).

I understand that fly fishers at a specific canal in Miami regularly have the opportunity to hook vehicles casting for peacock bass. That does sound like a good way to absolutley melt a drag.

Louis,
The idea of a fly angler hooking a vehicle that is casting for peacock bass has got to top the list in mental images.

Gonzo,
The steer was most definatly NOT fair hooked, however picture a 6" jitterbug haning from the neck of a very irate steer.

Does getting knocked silly by a fishing partners back cast count for any thing? To this day I will not stand in the boat to fish with my Dad.