When halibut fishing, you can catch a wide variety of odd looking fish, but this sea pen my sister caught a few years ago was definitely one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/251489601
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/251489601
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In West Texas, snagged an entire stringer of various Carps. Thinking they broke free from an angler’s catch.
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Are you limiting it to living organisms, or do you include snagging trash as well?
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Non-living items count, too.
Softshell turtles seem to be frequent catches on rivers in my area (SW US) although I’ve never caught one. But I have found carcasses of these turtles which were killed by the anglers. Not really strange but unfortunate.
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I went fishing once, but caught nothing, so my answer is probably some cool microorganisms in the water clinging to my empty hook.
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Also working on a prawn trawler on the Great Barrier Reef. Similar exposure to awesome species, e.g. sea snakes dangling from the net and whipping around the deck. Baby hammerheads, etc.
This was COMMERCIAL fishing . . . but still fishing.
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Mentioning Australia reminds me: I caught a huge stingray just fishing off the boat when we were docked. It was so big that I had to get a fellow deckhand to help me drag it into the boat to unhook it. I think rays hang around fishing ports and scavenge fish scraps off the bottom of the bay.
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In Alaska, we have skates which are similar to rays. They can grow to be very big and are very hard to reel in.
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Went gar fishing in Houston, TX. Snagged a entire deer carcass. Not fun
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Wait, why are they killed??
Suspicion they are eating all the fish or they are afraid to take the turtle off the hook, presumably.
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In the 1980s I worked with a fishing co-op in Chobe District, Botswana to help develop what was a seasonal, traditional fishery into a reliable income stream in remote communities. One of our projects involved selling dried catfish to the UN Food Program. At the time, the longterm flooding and receding cycle in the system was receding, leaving many small, isolated lagoons in the floodplain with fish in them. As the lagoons dried out, many of the fish were eaten by predators but a fair number of them died in the mud and became part of the soil. Local folks had always made use of these lagoons for subsistence fishing so it was a simple step to shift the focus onto abundant Clarias catfish that had not previously been a major part of the fishery.
On one occasion, a group of us were setting a net in a medium sized, deepish lagoon when one of the guys jumped into the air shouting (Kwena! Kwena!) while driving his fishing spear into the water. Kwena means crocodile so everybody started heading for shore until the fishing spear came up with a very large catfish (Clarias gariepinus , for those who might care) on it. Everybody laughed and made fun of the guy who called the alarm, we finished setting the net and we went home.
The next day we went to pull the net. What was left of it was still partially entangled with the 4 metre long Nile croc who was sitting on the shore regarding us.
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I mean, they eat the fish, sure… but I have doubts not to the point the water is deprived of fish. And afraid of unhooking them?? Then don’t fish? Turtles are to be expected.
smh they don’t deserve to die
i dont think an otter stealing and running off with the lure i was using counts as catching it
not exactly strange, but i have snagged a snapping turtle, and once caught a goldfish in one pond and a huge koi in another
edit- also ig its a bit odd that i caught two bass nearly 2 feet long in water only a foot deep- and that creek stayed like that from the start to the waterfall, didnt know there was anything besides little minnow things and bluegill
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When I was a kid shorecasting in Ka’a’awa, Hawaii, I caught an entire reef and the top part of my rod came off. Thankfully my dad was able to wade in and fix it.
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