Things you've seen while fishing that nobody would believe

Let's hear 'em.

Father-in-law and I saw a boa / python in Richland chambers that was in the top of a bush that went into the water and I swear, it took 35 seconds for that mofo to unravel. Snake had to have been 15'-18' feet long.

We both saw a giant alligator snapping turtle in the back of Birch at Fork that was beyond belief. I think a few people on this board have now seen that one over the years and that makes me look not as crazy when I think about that day and how big that turtle was.

What have ya'll seen?

Sink Hole in the back of Williams??

Water spout-- alligator with a deer carcass wrapped around it's head.- Rattle snake- Deer- Coyote- lots of idiots---are a few that come to mind.

We saw this dinosaur of a snapping turtle up in Garrett Creek near Secret Cove one spring. The thing had to be 4 feet in diameter! It came up right next to the boat and looked around then went back under. As it swam it hit a tree about 6" in diameter and the tree shook like a car just bumped into it.

I took my wife up to Ray Bob midweek about 20 years ago to hit some sandbass action. Not too many people on the lake that day. We had put in at the marina but were up on the east Fork fishing and were headed in when we made the turn around the main point down near the dam. Saw a boat with what appeared to be no one in it. As I got near I slowed down a little to see if someone was in trouble. All of a sudden two heads popped up! They were gettin busy right out in the middle of the lake!! LOL. My wife couldn't believe it! Had I been by myself this may have turned into one of those Penthouse "this never happens to me" stories!

I'll catch it. I have no choice.

Turtles love me.

Big as a car? What does that mean? I gotta use visegrips to pull the hook while it's trying to bite my fingers off?


........


The only crazy thing I've seen are gar that are the size of sharks in the movies. Gigantic. Sometimes I wonder about boat stories to where people think that hit a tree stump with the lower unit. With nobody giving any thought to if it was some Mac-Daddy gar.

Sasquatch, unicorn, leprechauns, lochness monster and a black panther.

Not a lake but way down south on the Kennedy Ranch shoreline. A Jaguarundi.

Similarly, brother and I watched some type of boa / python swim across a cove toward us and into the edge of the reeds at Fairfield, went over close to get a look probably around 12’ long. Not a native whatever it was.

My dad and I were out fishing at Ray Bob back in Spring Creek we had 2 of the little 1 man plastic boats and just working around the cove. My dad had a rod over side trying to get cat fish, well he wasn't paying attention and over the side it went.. about 20min later I am work my way over to the same spot trying my luck for some bass using a Texas rig, I feel a bump and a fish take off with it start reeling and it felt super strange I get the fish up and was like "HAY he has a hook and some line in his mouth" pull the hooks out and start pulling in the line that was in his mouth.... you can guess what happened pops rig was attached to the other end and we got a solid 4lbs cat out of the deal.

Fishing Grapevine Lake last year I saw a diamondback water snake that had to be every bit of 5ft long never seen one that big till that day.

Fishing at Ray Hubbard once, I saw a water snake swimming with a catfish in it's mouth. The catfish must have been close to a foot long, and the snake was swimming with it's head what seemed to be a foot out of the water. Never seen anything like that before.

Lake Livingston, spring time, mid 80's when I was a teenager. Buddy of mine and I had a camp set up near palmetto creek and had set some trot lines out with live perch just before dark. About midnight, we go to check them in our 16 foot jon boat with a massive 12 volt 30 lb thrust troll motor ( It got on plane real fast) As I reach down beside the stump to grab the first line and lift it, my buddy shines the Q Beam down the line and the first 4 to 5 hooks was like something out of a horror film. Every hook I saw down that ray of Q Beam light had a 2-4 foot snake on it. Second line, same thing! Those lines never got touched again.

Lmao. Horror film!

I’d have done the same thing!! Hell I prolly would’ve left that night never to even return to that area.

On Choke several years ago a huge doe was getting an early morning drink of water when a massive size gator decided to have breakfast. That big azz gator grabbed that doe right off the bank and the very short fight was on. That gator thrashed and chomped on that doe like it was his last meal. The sound of breaking bones and watching how much power that gator had was impressive. That was quite a show for us that morning. The gator was approximately fifteen feet long, no match for the doe.

In the early 90's I was fishing in Smith Creek (Monticello) I saw 3 big Dogs walking over the bridge, but noticed they had weird looking long tails. So I decided to pull out my binoculars and see them better, focusing in I got a good look. They were not Dogs they were Cougars (not the middle age female human kind either).

How about a guy running a tin boat as fast as it would go (25 MPH) to the back of Flat Creek on Lake Palestine without ever hitting a stump. I was amazed.

I am pretty believable (that was the joke in my post) but I saw the Columbia Space Shuttle coming apart from a public ramp on Cedar Creek.
I did not know what it was at the time but on the way home the radio was talking about it so it was a believable story.

On the lake that day, almost half the way up the lake around the golf course I looked up while fishing a brushpile and saw an F16 coming directly at me at no more than 200 feet high. As he got closer he turned over on his side and I guess that was to look at something he saw in the water. I could clearly see him as he went over.

Had an eagle fly out of a tree and right over me one early morning on Waxahachie Lake. It was smaller than the few I have seen farther north. I was in the kayak and everything was silent. Scared the daylights out of me how loud it came out of there. Never knew they came this far south.

shoooot.... D Wims can run his gatortrax on pad all the way back , and it's a big boat. Dillon Lee can do it, too. Im too scared to try it.

Saw a dead whitetail buck in the shallow water on the back side of goat island on Athens one day.

5 bass in my livewell.

Saw a large 3 humped snake looking creature about the size of a 2 Clydesdales surface about 50-75 yards from me on Lake Toho, at dawn, roughly 20 years ago.
Gone before I could take a photo. No BS, not high either, etc.

Here's a list of what I can remember...

1) Rolled into a cove where a couple was getting intimate. Dude looks up, she doesn't as her mouth is full, he gives me a thumbs up, as I hook a 3 off the point. AHAHAHAHAH
2) Snake ball on the rip rap with over 30 snakes intertwined...actually have the picture to back it up
3) Casting when a storm is popping off down the lake, your line floats and never hits the water (Some have seen this, some have not)
4) Caught a 6 point buck on a Bandit 200, buck was dead as you can guess

I have seen a few bass boats run all the way to the back of flat and it’s pretty wild! My dad and I saw someone in a skeeter run right past us all the way to the back in the dark one morning. I saw several do it this year in the Brandon Belt tournament too and even saw one guy run so far back I couldn’t see him when he shut down.

Some idiot came outa Birch Creek and went straight across to Vals bout 15 yrs ago. Never hit nothin. Was for sure we were gonna have to go pick him up. Couldn't believe it. Huge softshell turtle came up beside the boat in Wolfe Creek. Never saw a Turley that big and prolly never will

The weirdest thing that I’ve ever had happen to me was in October of ’22 on Lake Tyler.

My buddy and I were flipping an outer grass line going into a creek and out of nowhere this massive bang sound goes off and we kind of flinch really fast. We had no idea what was going on. Well, there is a bald eagle and two osprey above us squawking like mad and I figured one of them dropped something. Well I go back and look at the footage on the GoPro and the eagle had a turtle and the osprey wanted it so they were fighting over it and the eagle dropped the turtle from like 40-50ft up and the turtle landed on a sheet-metal type dock roof. It was pretty crazy.

Have seen that giant turtle in birch about 6 years ago, its head was so big we thought it was a stump until we got right up on it and it went down. Dad still talks about that dinosaur.

Have seen so much stuff. Top 2 craziest, a mid sized yacht crashed on the bank at lake grapevine in early 2000's and was still running full steam. Don't even think we had a phone, went to twin points marina to turn it in. Turns out the guy was hanging on to a no wake buoy a few coves down. Helicopters and all showed up. Marina manager said.. You boys sure did cause a hill of beans, can still hear it

Few years back up in a certain canal on eagle mountain, in a sketchy area a meth head goes running into his shanty screaming and screaming. Well a few min later you hear sirens. Full squad of sheriffs show up watch them all get AR's and come after.... ME LMAO, kid you not had wife with me too. He told them a boat pulled up and 5 men got off with rifles and were coming after him. One sheriff asked if i was armed. I looked him right in the face showed him my flipping stick and said well i have been known to be pretty deadly with this thing. Everyone got a great laugh and mr meth got arrested.

A dead goat caught on t-rigged worm on Bastrop.

Also on Bastrop, buddy was fishing alone and heard underbrush rustling. Looked up and had to rub his eyes. Llama staring at him.

Both instances were in the Boy Scout camp.

brother and I were sitting in the back of a creek many years ago, when a big buck came crashing through the brush and jumped in the lake right in front of us maybe 10 yards away...he was sideways to us and didn't seem to care we were there...then the blood started gushing out low and behind the shoulder - someone had stuck it with an arrow, we watched it bleed out, it started to stagger and plop right in the water, was amazing...we yelled up into the woods for a bit "hey your deer is down here in the water"... we kept on fish'n for a few hours, came back and deer was still there, we yelled a few more times - nothing, gutted it and washed out the cavity in the lake and into the boat it went...can't let good back straps go to waste I always say...

1. Saw a bobcat pounce out of the reeds and catch a coot on Fayette County.

2. Saw a feeding white pelican come up with a coot in its bill on Fayette near the discharge. The coot eventually kicked free and left in a hurry.

3. My son and I witnessed a huge alligator eat a smaller (maybe six or seven footer) alligator on Choke. I have video of this one. It was an incredible site I’m not likely to ever see again.

Out on Toho one morning and hear a bunch of thrashing, come around the corner and an alligator has a gar and he's beating the heck out of it. He sees us and takes off... Of few minutes later we watch him crawl up on a weed bed and finish him off... A few years later while fishing Lake Cumberland a loon come up with a bluegill and proceeds to beat it senseless on the surface... After a couple of minutes he turns it head first and swallows... I've seen the ball of snakes also... And had Bald Eagle fly over me so close I could feel the the pressure off his wings before I saw him... Just a couple of weeks ago I had a C-130 fly over me while running down the river, maybe 300 feet off the water... Dan

Back in the early 70's on Caddo Lake, my Dad and I were loading up our boat when a boat came in to the ramp and gassed it. The front of the boat hit one of the big channel markers and stoped the boat in its tracks. Their baby flew out of the mothers arms and over the pole right into the water. The dad jumped in and retrieved the baby, thankfully they had a life preserver on it. Dad jut shook his head and said damn drunks.

Was fishing a tournament back a few years ago on Pines and when we arrived for the weigh in, there were a couple of teenagers chest deep on the ramp going at it. A bunch of boats didn't bother them at all and we just tried to ignore them till she started moaning really loud. The got a standing ovation, some hand clapping and cat calls.

a bobcat sitting in the middle of the road as I pulled up to the elm fork below ray roberts, at 1pm. We stared at each other for a few seconds and it slowly walked off. Got a nice longnose that day.

a UFO over Pond Creek at Ray Bob this April, around 5pm. Silver sphere that made strange movements and then zipped straight up and out of view. I've never seen anything move that fast.

an eastern european man at the Isle du Bois boat ramp launching a pretty big cabin cruiser, when the boat began sliding off the trailer with the crank screaming. guy guns it backwards and launches the boat into the water at speed and manages to avoid both courtesy docks.

fish and myself in the same picture

Was out at Joe Pool fishing one of the Wednesday evening tournaments. The lake was flooded and we were up pitching in some shallows, fishing flooded trees and bushes. Then about 5' from the motor a freaking Bobcat fell out of one of the trees and then it started trying to come toward the boat.... after some screaming it went toward the shore. Scared the sh!t out of me for a sec.

A huge fat Water Moccasin fell out of a tree into our boat on Toledo Bend. I was about 10 so it was about 1966 when the lake was first filling up. My Dad snatched it right behind the head and tossed it out of the boat. He said "you gotta be quicker than the snake"

Thats some Chuck Norris Stuff right there!!

We were at Fork the same day. Heard a super loud boom then minutes later two huge splashes in Little Caney up by Hideaway Harbour. Had no idea what it was till we saw it on TV at the trolling motor repair shop.

Retired grass grower

I would believe you if you told me that you saw Bigfoot riding across the lake on Lochness Monster with a leprechaun on his shoulder before I believed someone DIDN'T hit a stump in Flat Creek. One of the very best fishing holes and the very worst fishing holes in the USA!

Feb. 2022 saw 3 UFO's fly over Broken Bow Lake south to north making sudden movements cutting in front of one another.

After Hurricane Alicia large uprooted oak tree with a root ball big as swimming pool, pit full of at least couple hundred snakes, 2 very large ones in middle, had to be all of their offspring.

Diver surfaced at a golf course pond when we were night fishing, saw his head, freaked me out then he came walking out with a bag of balls. Always wondered why the 2x we got caught they kept asking if we were getting balls, we were just fishing,

Big 12pt buck swim across a small creek and crawl up a muddy flat face on the other side of bank every bit of 15ft high like it was nothing.

Heard a loud buzz fishing Spring Creek back in 90s, bee swarm that literally blacked out the sky about 20ft above me. I just laid down. Still fish that creek but you cant get to that spot anymore.

Fishing PK on east side of state park and found dead buck in water with goat wire fencing wrapped up in his horns, apparently drowned. the park rangers put the wire around young trees at camp ground to keep the bucks from scraping their velvet off and he got it tangled up in his horns and was swimming across cove and go hung up in cedar tree in the water. Nice size deer.

!998, Sam Rayburn, I was fishing about midway back in Caney creek. About 50 yards ahead I see a nice looking middle age woman walk down to the edge of the water with a 5 gallon bucket. I keep fishing along and she definitely sees me and my buddy in a 20' red metalflake boat. she calmly strips down butt azz nekkid walks out into the water about mid calf deep, takes a wash rag and bar of Ivory soap outta the bucket, sits down on said bucket and proceeds to wash up. By this time we're maybe 20 yards away, she looks up, smiles and asks "yall doing any good" and continues washing up. Zero embarrassment whatsoever. My face was probably redder than hers.

I was fishing Falcon Lake one afternoon and a watched a shore fisherman finish his beer and actually throw the empty can into the bed of his truck instead of tossing it on the bank! True story.

On Choke about 10 years ago we were on our way back to the ramp and I saw what I thought was a log floating on the surface, but something about it didn't look right. It was close to the route I was taking in so I slowed down and headed towards it. When I got close it turned out to be two huge catfish stuck together. The bigger one was probably pushing 40-50 lbs and the smaller one it tried to eat was about 20 lbs. I thought they were dead so I poked the larger one with the net. They both starting thrashing around and dove down out of sight. We waited about 20 minutes but it was getting dark and we never saw them again. When we got to the ramp a couple of guys in a jon boat were loading up. When I told them about it they said several of their trot lines had large catfish on them that had eaten the smaller ones and got stuck.

On Fayette about 20 years ago we were coming out of the back of a cove that was filled with coots. As we started trolling out of the area the coots moved back in close to shore where they had been feeding. A few minutes later all he$$ broke loose and all we saw was feathers flying and coots scattering. A few weeks later near the same spot we saw a very well fed bobcat patrolling the shoreline.

I forgot one. At Whitney, there's a part of County Road 1630 located within Walling Bend park. There are a few dirt road paths that lead to twin coves on the way to the south ramp. I drove my Civic down one of those dirt paths one time to reach the coves with a buddy. Upon opening the car doors, we saw many piles of bones, mostly deer bones, and a fresh deer leg from the knee down. Across the cove from us was the largest flock of vultures I have ever seen, at least 30. Total silence, no birds or insects chirping, and a distinct feeling of being watched. Vultures not moving at all. I don't know what was making the piles of bones but we left after I caught a few bass. Wouldn't have stayed alone there probably but the fishing was good that day

I saw a big alligator in the back of Williams that was huge but that is a long ways from Birch.

I saw a big alligator in the back of Williams that was huge but that is a long ways from Birch.
I saw the Columbia Shuttle on Fayette County that fateful day. I thought it was a meteor.

I was fishing a couple weeks ago and found a prop suck in the top of a stump. Shaft from the gear case was still in it and the prop was solid in the tree.

I was fishing below Inks lake one summer afternoon. Fishing was great as they were discharging water.
I heard the sound of young people screaming and then the sound of something heavy made out of metal skipping/dragging along concrete/rocks. I look up and I see a pontoon boat full of teenagers hitting the spillway and then turning at a 45 degree angle. Thankfully, it stopped just like you see in the movies sort of seesawing teetering with the front third of the toon over the spillway. Then I see the kiddos all jump or step off the boat in a panic and run along the spillway to safety.

[quote=
a UFO over Pond Creek at Ray Bob this April, around 5pm. Silver sphere that made strange movements and then zipped straight up and out of view. I've never seen anything move that fast.
[/quote]

I saw the same thing on Lake Tyler. Was running out of a cove to the main lake. Looked up and saw what looked like a silver ball. It moved out in front of me and then turned into the next cove where I happened to live. I expected when I rounded the turn to see the sphere moving up and away from the lake. But when I got there the orb was long gone and nowhere to be seen. And I'm not sure I even believe in UFOs.

Night fishing Palestine in the 70's Heard something running through the woods got light out an saw an armidillo jump into the water. We sat there a few minutes and wondered what made it jump into the water A moment later it surfaced in the shallow water and ran into the woods on other side of the cove

On Tyler fishing a point with a carolina rig made a cast at same time a crane was flying by ............ crane flew into the cast and had weight wrapped around neck. the adventure really begain when I had to UN-wrap the crane from my carolina rig while holding the beak of the crane.

in the late 70's saw a big stick near the bridge on Hawkins the saw the shell of a HUGE turtle Have had many tell me they have seen this HUGE turtle also.
wild bill

Fishing BPS series (Grapevine) years ago when Scott Gordon ran em. We got there
Really early and ran to the back of Twin coves to see a light (boat). Wondering
How anyone got there sooner as we got there as early as possible.
As the sun comes up we noticed its not a bass boat. As the sun got up higher
It was two chick's just hanging out . I mean hanging all the way out!!! They both had no
Bras on (possibly naked) and didn't care we were back there. I have a witness. LOL


Till this day my buddy calls BS.

I have seen that turtle in the back of Hawkins. Dang thing nearly scared the heck out of me when I looked down and that thing looked as big as the deck I was standing on. Have seen the gator back there too.

My dad and I were out fishing at Ray Bob back in Spring Creek we had 2 of the little 1 man plastic boats and just working around the cove. My dad had a rod over side trying to get cat fish, well he wasn't paying attention and over the side it went.. about 20min later I am work my way over to the same spot trying my luck for some bass using a Texas rig, I feel a bump and a fish take off with it start reeling and it felt super strange I get the fish up and was like "HAY he has a hook and some line in his mouth" pull the hooks out and start pulling in the line that was in his mouth.... you can guess what happened pops rig was attached to the other end and we got a solid 4lbs cat out of the deal.

Fishing Grapevine Lake last year I saw a diamondback water snake that had to be every bit of 5ft long never seen one that big till that day.

I know I saw a UFO but I think it is just that: unidentifiable, in nature, purpose, origin or otherwise. Any assumption of what it could be is just a guess

Me catching more than 2 fish at one spot...

Had a guy hook a giant crappie in 40 foot, he was overly excited and reeled it in as fast as he could. Came off after a few cranks. I told him it was huge and slow down…maybe 10 minutes later the fish belly up a few foot from the boat. Netted her- Air bladder was hanging out of her throat. Can’t recall what she weighed but it was over 2.5

Broke off a jig I hand tied on hook set. About a week later and a half mile a way I caught a fish with my jig in the roof of her mouth and a few inches of my braid hanging out of her mouth. What are the odds.

This pic was glade early spring—

I saw this on Eagle Mountain a few years ago.

I found one just like that at Fairfield a few years ago

Buddy of mine had a family & friends group that used to go to Texoma most weekends. They went together and bought a parasail. They would start on shore of the islands and the guys would fluff it up and take off in the boat. He told me he was way up high and off to the side of the boat and saw a couple on the back deck of another boat. I’ll spare the details….well I’ll spare the details.

I witnessed a wake boat being loaded up away from the boat ramp. Back the boat up, park the truck and went out to have a good time. I knew they existed. I hold it right up there with a Sasquatch sighting.

…while playing classical music.

15 yrs ago practicing for a tournament on cedar creek. It was during the week on cold Feb day. Water temps in low 50's.
Right at dusk i was idling out of the back of a small cove.
This cove had huge expensive houses and docks in it. At the mouth was a no wake buoy. I was facing west and the sun going down over the horizon and was making it hard to see.
I was about 50 yards from the no wake buoy. I was fixing to punch it and get back to the ramp before it got dark.
I mean I was the only boat on the lake.
A still small voice told me don't do it! Out of the corner of my eye i see something just to the left of my bow that looks like a duck or something on the water.
As i got closer i see a women treading water headed towards the bank. Just her head sticking out of the water.
She waves at me as i stare at her stupefied as i go by.
I watch her craw up a ladder on her dock and she has a wet suit on. She went for a evening swim i guess? If i would have run over that lady i would still be in jail and had nightmares the rest of my life.

As a teen in the 90’s I was canoeing up a small creek off the main lake. Saw a grey ball spinning in the water. As I got closer, I realized they were snakes. They started separating and a few swam towards me. I turned around and paddled my butt off as I watched one of them follow me for a few dozen yards. When I got back home I told my parents, and they had no idea what it was. Took me a few days to find someone who could finally tell me it was a cottonmouth mating ball.

About a year later, fishing the same creek, I decided to land the canoe so I could jump off and take a leak. About a foot off the bank I hit something hard that suddenly exploded and thrashed around. Whatever it was, it was about half the length of the canoe. The thrashing damn near tipped me over. I jumped onto shore and ran the whole way home. Came back with a 20ga and it was long gone. Luckily the canoe was right where I left it. I don’t think I ever went back to that creek again.

We lived on the lake, and the weather could get rough. One winter we were hanging out inside the cabin when I casually looked out towards the water. The wind was howling and there’s were 6 foot waves. I saw a small speck of white that caught my eye. Pulled out the binoculars and saw it was a small capsized sailboat. We fired up the jetski and I went to investigate. About 200 yards from the boat I found a guy floating in his life jacket. Picked him up and headed back to the dock. He said his wife was still out there, so I went back to look for her. I searched around where I found him, but didn’t see anything so I went towards the capsized boat. There she was, hanging on to the side. Got her to shore and went back to tow the boat in. The mast got stuck in the sand a couple of yards from the pier, so I just tied a long rope to it and wrapped the other end around the leg of the pier.
My parents had been tending to them and getting them dried out and warmed up. They were thankful, but awfully concerned about the boat. We couldn’t understand why they weren’t overly concerned with their own health. They kept asking about how secure the boat was. We started to get the feeling these were some sketchy people. We dropped them off at their cabin and they thanked us again.
Next morning the water was smooth as glass and the boat was gone. The rope was neatly coiled on the deck of the pier. We always wondered what the heck was inside that boat that was so important.

Some very interesting post. Awesome thread.

That gave me the willies...

I was fishing pelican harbor, miami, early one morning and police show up on shore... they start putting up the yellow crime scene tape along shore line Ive just covered and tell me to leave.

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/miami-police-go-fishing-for-body-parts/1839160/

the current had taken those bags miles from where they had originally been dumped... head, arms, legs.

Sounds like an episode of Dexter. LOL

That reminds me of the day my little brother and I were fishing off the bank at Ray Hubbard where Main St now goes into the lake just south of Hwy 66. We walked down the bank into a little slough and noticed a horrible stench. The grass was very tall between us and the water so we decided to go elsewhere. About an hour later we rode our mini-bike home to get a sandwich.

We returned to the area about an hour later and there were cop cars & fire trucks everywhere. The police had the area barricaded off. Later we saw on the news they had found a young girl floating in that slough that had been missing for weeks. I think her last name was Shaw.

I swear... I was posting on another fishing forum back then... pics of police divers showing up, crime scene tape, three weeks in a row the places I fished there were bodies found...murdered, drowned, chopped up.. I got the nickname Dexter on that website. The only thing I could think was that the places in densely populated areas to put bodies in the water were the same places you could launch a kayak.

Probably not hard to believe nowadays but fornication, they were some pro exhibitionist

This is a great thread. There was one on 2Cool for a while that was unusual things seen when out hunting that had some great ones too. It went on for couple of years. Billy Sandifers Ghost at Marker 37 story on there, one of the best I ever read.

Was new to fishing Ft Lauderdale area from a kayak but knew there was a power plant discharge canal that was connected to the Intracoastal Waterway... knew there had to be lots of snook and tarpon that would be stacked up there in colder months... On one of the coldest days of the year I made the two mile paddle in search of it... about 5 acre area of mangroves and calm water... could hear snook popping all around... paddled further on up and realized it wasnt snook popping, but manatees grabbing leaves from mangroves and snapping the limbs..

There were manatees everywhere... counted over 70 of them with noses out of water and could see many more in this one deeper pool... couldnt cast as they formed an almost solid mass underwater.. wind was pushing me further into them and water was getting shallower.. couldnt paddle as they were right under the kayak.. had a couple that were almost nibbling on my kayak... I then see one that is so much larger than any manatee Ive ever seen and it freaked me out... stuck paddle in the water to get the hell out of there and it set off a manatee stampede... I swear every one of them spooked and there was the most intense rocking I had ever experienced... I was holding on trying to keep from gettting turned over.. the whole area became one big pool of messed up water...as I was leaving the tour boat was bringing all their paying clients to see the manatees. I got out of there fast as they werent going to see squat.

didnt have any pics of thrashing but imagine what just a few manatees can do.

While spending a week tent camping and fishing on Lake Raven (Huntsville State Park) I witnessed a gator take a doe. Pretty grisly......pretty quick. Back in the 80s.......reckon the gators are still there.

Everytime I tell my story on here people tell me that I didn't really see what I saw. Kind of like the last election.

So I will just keep it to my self

Aw, c'mon.

Well I was fishing fork back around ‘97 with my 12 year old nephew and we were graphing the point just north of oak ridge. I told my nephew I don’t remember there being a stump right there. As we got closer I told him that stump has eyes. I remembered seeing a fire dept boat about a mile away and didn’t think anything of it til I found the body. So we went and found the rescue boat and led them to the spot. They said they found his boat the day before and he was alone. Very sad day I will never forget.

We were night fishing Fairfield and I have night blindness and occasionally cast on the bank without knowing. One of those times i felt a hit on big fliptail worm and set the hook. It was a racoon, I fought it a while until my buddy shined spotlight on it, I cut the line after that.

Was on Hubbard at the dam on a day when there was a 20 to 30mph S wind. I started hearing faint sound of someone yelling "help". As far as I knew there was no one else on the lake so I thought it was kids on the bank, but I kept hearing it. I start up engine and cruised across the lake and spotted a guy treading water with a torn up old ski belt on, he was so tired he couldn't speak. He had been on a jet ski and fell off and the wind blew it away before he could catch it. He laid on back deck for 20 minutes before he could function again. I took him to his jet ski, and he got on and took off.

did it pull drag?

That is horrible

Last paragraph reminds me of a time when I went out to fish in early January. I live on Lake Tyler so I just cruised across to the other side of the lake. It had been very cold but this day it had warmed up nicely. As I crossed the lake I spotted two people paddling in a canoe. It was also beginning to get windy. I stopped, put the trolling motor down and heard a noise. I could see the canoe back on the other side of the lake. I casted and started the retrieve and heard noise again. I looked back at the canoe and couldn't see it. I strapped the rods, pulled up the Ultrex and cruised to the other side. A twenty something old female and her teenage cousin were in the water, without life vests holding on to the canoe. I pulled up to them and both moved toward me. I told the guy to go back and hold on to the canoe. I pulled her up on the boat. I then pulled him up. I grabbed the canoe which was mostly submerged and held onto it as I idled back to where they came from. (I didn't want to go back and try to salvage the canoe). I pulled into a small cove from where they came from. I managed to get them and the canoe to the bank. Their aunt came out and asked what the hell? I told her I had just saved her kin's lives. And I told them to never try to canoe in January, with no life vests in cold water. They were also in short sleeves.

Son in law was in town for the holidays and we wanted to get out in the boat. We were at Roberts and launched at Buck Creek. I think the water temp was 49 degrees that day. We idled out to the channel and there was a guy on a paddle board, it was a very small board at that, like one of those mini surf boards. He was on one knee and had shorts on.

The water wasn't slick to say the least, there was a good chop. We kept idling past him as to keep from throwing him off his board. We got close enough to see he had some sort of military tattoos and what not. Dude was just paddling along without a care in the world, like he knew there wasn't a chance he'd fall in. I guess he made it to his destination.

Nothing crazy like some of y'all but:

- I was about 10 years old, fishing with my dad and a neighbor kid that was about 15. We were in the Swift Creek area of the Alabama River. Cottonmouths were common but it seemed like there were way more than normal and they were swimming much close than usual. The neighbor kid said he knew a trick to make them go away. Just smack them on the head with your pole and they will go away. A decent-sized one swims toward the boat and he smacks it down the length of its body. Before he can get his rod picked back up, the snake had already coiled around it and looked like he was about to come down it towards him. He immediately launched the pole with the snake into the water. We got out of that slough after that. His dad wasn't happy with him when he told him he lost one of his poles.

- I was on the back deck of my dad's Bullet when I saw a cottonmouth fall out of a tree onto the front deck. Thank God Dad saw it fall also. He snatched that sucker up by the tail and slung him all the way to the bank. I heard it smack the bank and Dad had the trolling motor pulled up and the motor cranked before I could get into my seat. He got that Bullet planed out and never let up all the way to the ramp. We went to the house after that one.

- I wasn't there, but my dad saved a fawn that was trying to cross the river alone. It was only half way across. It was exhausted and struggling to keep its head up. He swung around and scooped it up. His fishing partner had to wrap it in a towel so he could hold it still. They scanned the banks for a while looking for its mama but they never saw her. He took it home and bottle-fed it for a couple of days then took it to some lady that had a small rescue. He has a picture of it setting in his lap in the boat after they got home. I will try and find it.

- Had a bald eagle fly out of a tree I was going by and swoop over me early one morning in the kayak. It was a very still, quiet morning. I about fell out of the kayak I jumped so bad.

- Saw a snake swim around the front of my kayak and away from me carrying a small fish in its mouth. I hate snakes and for whatever reason, seeing that made me wanna throw up.

I was on Lake Fork fishing a club tournament when the Columbia Space Shuttle blew up. Heard a pretty loud bang, looked up but all I could see was smoke. Like others have said later I learned what happened.

Was fishing Lake Lewisville in the cove where the water intake is. Fished around a small point and as I got to the other side of the point, there was a ski boat with the guy standing on the swim deck and his topless girlfriend/wife on her knees in front of him. He just waved and his significant other stopped what she was doing to smile and wave at us before going back to what she was doing.

Lake Ray Roberts while fishing a club tournament. Trolled over to fish a rocky shoreline and as we got closer, we heard a woman in the throes of passion. We looked up the rock face and was a woman with leg lags up and some guy on top of her. I don't think the saw us as they never stopped.

Not fishing but diving up at Isle Royle we saw a moose swimming across Lake Superior going to the island. Had to have been at least a five-mile swim.

One spring I pulled into a cove on Lake Lavon and noticed in the back of the cove the water was boiling with activity. As I got closer, I saw it was a ball of snakes. Don't know what kind of snakes, just a lot of them. I had my 5 year old daughter with me so we left the cove.

This past December I was on Conroe looking for one of those winter giants out in deep water. My old HDS12 gen 2 popped out this picture here. Thinking about it now, I’m not sure why I didn’t waypoint that spot (I didn’t think much of it). I sent the picture to a few buddies jokingly saying that I “found a body”. They all replied believing that I did and asked if I reported it. Fishing day was over and I was on my way home and I kept thinking about it. I ended up calling the local game warden and sent him the picture. I gave him waypoints very close to the area where this picture was taken. There were no missing people reports or recent drownings in the area so he didn’t think much of it either. He had a crew search the area but nothing was ever found. I still think about what that may be down there.

That gave me the willies too!!

Was fishing the Saluda River in SC with my uncle in his old jon boat. We pulled off into a tributary and came upon a pontoon boat with a camera crew, they were filming an old early 80s porno. My uncle said "if that don't beat all." turned the boat right around and we left but I watched as long as my teen eyes had a view. One of the non-porn star guys on the boat waved as we left. I waved back not knowing what else to do.

X1

Either that's 2 large fish dancing around...or it's a body as suspected. Talk about eerie!

1. Found a body from a capsized boat on Sabine lake in 2008. 3 people drowned out of the 5 or 6 on a 16ft aluminum.

2. Found a car on SI and watched it get pulled out after reporting it. It had been reported stolen 7 years earlier and dumped at the end of a boat ramp. I've launched and loaded over that car probably 500 times.

3. Watched a gator grag a bird 3 different times. Talk about making some noise.

4. Found a coot on Conroe once that kept going under and back up. But like it was a human drowning. Caught it in a net and figured out a turtle had grabbed the coots leg. Guess that coot was going to be dinner.

5. Had a racoon grab a frog I skipped under some overhanging trees once. I realized it wasn't a fish when it started climbing UP the tree. Never saw it till after it let go off frog and then chased it out towards the boat.

6. Watched a boat run up on top of the Sabine jetties on high tide. Guy missed the boat cut by about 10 feet.

On Coletto Creek several years ago I swear I saw a wolf chase a small group of does across a pasture. It was way bigger than a coyote, alone, and a light grayish/white color with longer legs than a yote. Coulda been a wild dog with some husky or wolf in it I suppose.

On a different trip to the same lake, me and a buddy were fishing near the bridge, it was probably 40F outside and drizzly so we were bundled up a bit. We had our backs to the bridge when we both heard some muffled screams, looked at each other and turned around. There was an SUV full of young women driving across the bridge with a shirtless girl hanging out of every window including the sun roof screaming and shaking at us. We kinda chuckled and waved and went back to fishing. About 5 minutes later we heard a honk and turned and here they come again from the other direction. Other than a few dinks the only thing we caught that day was a good eye full!

Fishing Richland chambers back years ago and when idling out of Grape creek heading to the main lake with a slight chop on the water we saw blue flying fish that launch out of the water and fly about maybe say 10' the land back in the water. Saw them several times with a few different people. Not just one or two but 20-30.

the thing seemed to be replicating itself

found this 60 ft worm 2 miles off miaimi beach floating on the surface ... miami marine biologists never figured out what it was.

A river at home in Louisiana night fishing, trolled up on a Satanic worship service.

was loading up at ramp on Athens when a guy decides to intentionally drive his car into water... then takes off all his clothes and swims off into the darkness.



I paddled out to see if anyone else was in car as it slowly drifted into deeper water and sank.

Someone called police, they go looking for him on the other side from ramp, no luck finding him .. guy comes swimming back a half hour later.





wrecker pulls car out of water .. never heard anything more about it.. obviously the guy was a nut case..

In almost 80 years of fishing I've hooked a variety of creatures besides fish....owls,snakes,turtles and..... a coon....
True story and I've got a witness to prove it....back in mid 90's my no boater and I were practicing day before a BFL tourney on Millers Ferry (south Alabama)...we were in the backwaters off the main river, fishing some flooded grass with spinnerbaits....I had rolled the hook down on mine so I wouldn't hook any fish that I might want to come back and fish for in the tourney...looked up ahead of us and there was this half grown coon wading around in the shallow grass,I assume he was looking for crawfish...
coon wasn't paying any attention to us and I threw my spinnerbait probably 8-10 ft. from him to see what his reaction would be...I thought he would probably run off but the opposite happened and he made a mad dash over trying to grab the bait...I jerked it away from him and shouldn't have thrown near him again but I did....the spinnerbait landed a little too close and he pounced on it quicker than I could jerk it away...
give anything if I could have had a video of what happened next....this coon has got my spinnerbait in his mouth and is backing up with all four feet and I'm pulling back as hard as I can with 20lb line...this coon is stripping drag and going backwards for 10-12 ft when apparently he bit through the line..when the line broke,he stopped, took the spinnerbait out of his mouth and held it with both paws and started eating the skirt and worm trailer just like he was eating an ear of corn...he ate the worm first them would take bites of the skirt and when he try to pull the strands of rubber off they would break and slap him in the face,he'd shake his head and take another bite...took him a couple minutes to finish then he sniffed the bait couple times,threw it down and ambled off down the bank...
never did pay any attention to us...tried to go get what was left of my spinnerbait but it was too shallow and boggy to get close enough to retrieve it...

Two years ago I saw an orange koi swimming in the cove at McCowan vallley Park on Whitney. It was around 2 ft long. I don't understand how such a vividly colored fish could survive that long.

Raburn in the 1990's fishing with a friend. He was slow rolling a blade, sets the hook and fight is on. Then a Cormorant flies out of the water with the spinner bait in mouth. Fight was on!

Years ago when me and Mark Perry used to fish alot together we were at Lake Worth fishing working a section of bank

There was an older two story house, we heard loud noise like a sack of flour was being dropped, next thing we see was some kid about age 4 come out the window on the first floor and landed on the front porch.

Just plain wierd and crazy.

came across this deceased alligator in Flamingo, Everglades 20 years ago.. it hadnt been dead very long... something took its tail.. not far from the crocodile breeding grounds.

I had an egret swoop down to get my frog at Athens, and a 4 pounder took the frog, a split second before the bird got it.

Egret would been more exciting.

My buddy and I were fishing near tree stand on rayburn one summer and what appeared to be a huge chunk of muddy garbage floating by but then it started swimming away from us in opposite direction of the wind. I got closer and it turned out to the largest alligator snapping turtle I've ever seen. The shell has to be 4 and half feet across. My buddy and I just stared for a while at the dino. The it slowly made its way deeper and disappeared. It was enormous. My memory wants to say it was around 5 and half feet to 6 feet long. Had an entire ecosystem on its shell so no telling how old it was.

While fishing in a creek on Lake Houston during a weeknight tournament I saw a man (probably) late 20's scale up the side of his house and get on the roof while a woman was yelling at him. She then came around the corner of the house with a baseball bat screaming at him to get down. He would not come down from the roof so she started beating the [censored] out of his truck with the bat. He was still on the roof scared to come down when we left that area. She had a strong swing.

In the late 80's I was fishing the back of Bell Creek on Lake Conroe and heard two females arguing about a bathing suit and who owned it. As I came around the corner of the little cove one of them said "F" it and stripped it off right there on the dock. She finally saw me, got red faced, walk across the street and went into a mobile home. The other one stood there with the bikini in her hand, shrugged her shoulders, smiled and followed her to the trailer. First time I had seen a "landing" strip and decided I liked them.

this is more of a "feel good" story than catching/seeing something strange...

..several years ago was fishing a Redman(BFL) tourney on Lake Sinclair(Ga.)..was fishing around docks and came up on one with couple little boys bream fishing off it..
one was probably 6 years old and other one couple years older........did the usual "catching anything" greeting and both of them started telling me about a giant catfish had pulled their fishing rod out of the holder and swam off the night before and it was the older boys brand new rod and reel....both of the boys were kinda dejected over losing the rod and we told them we were sorry and continued fishing down the bank...
probably about two docks down,I saw a bobber in water at edge of a boat house with no rods on nearby docks...just on a hunch,I raised the bobber up with my rod tip and pulled the bobber to the boat and pulled in the line....no giant catfish but there was a brand new rod and push button reel....
I turned around and headed back where the boys were on the dock....as I got with within earshot I told them I had found a rod and reel that I might sell cheap...the older boy asked how much and I replied probably a dollar would be enough....older boy told the younger one to run up to the house and get a "dollar from Daddy"...and younger started to the house and I told him to hold on a minute til they saw the rod because it might not be worth a dollar....I can tell you,it was worth a hundred dollars to see the look on their faces when they saw the rod lying on my deck,recognized it as theirs and both of them trying to tell me at same time that was the rod the catfish had swam away with...I told them that if that was their rod,I just couldn't charge them anything......and it was worth another hundred dollars to have seen them running up to the cabin hollering out to their Dad they had got their rod back.......

We saw 3 guys and a sex doll in a boat one time!

The worst part about it they all had a big smile.

Brady Lake back in the early 90’s….

Fishing in the back a creek in about 7-8’ of water just off the ramp, bridge and parking lot. There’s a baby bag, diapers, baby bottles and other misc trash floating on top of the water.

I look down and can barely see the roof of a submerged car. Call 911, sheriffs guys, city police, a wrecker, and ambulance show up 15-20 minutes later.

Long story short, no bodies, it was stolen and dumped the night before.

Loved that lake.

Yeah, tell it...
and remember,

There was that time a guy dumped a wake boat at the Lewisville boat ramp around 11:00AM. People everywhere. A guy and girl in the boat start... Wait a minute, it Lewisville, you'd believe anything.

Me and my son and my dad were fishing Fork probably 7-8 years ago. My son wanted to go hit the far end of E 515 for crappie and as I was scanning my way down the bridge I saw a guy in the water there on the far end. He got out of the water butt naked and cranked on that thing right there under the bridge! We were still a good ways off thankfully so I got turned around before my kid figured out what he was doing. My kid thought he was scratching his balls so I left it at that. He’s probably married to that chick that mowed the grass naked. He finished I assume and walked back up to the road and was gone. Wood county people.

I don’t think I’ve fished that bridge since!!

* I was a kid, probably 1970-ish, and we had a mobile home at 429 Marina on Twok. Saw my aunt's minnow get taken by a mallard and when she tried to get it away from him, the fight was on. Mallard vs cane pole looked a living whirly-gig flying circles above her and she's screaming for help. My dad made me call her Aunt Ducky and I did until she passed.

* My wife and I were fishing Ray Hubbard one night, pulling catfish off riprap over by the former Marina Del Ray. I decided to run a Rat-L-Trap for a few passes under the security lights on the jetty. I heard a splash behind me and instinctually spun, flipped the trap at the splash ring and got resistance on the first pull. I gave it healthy hook-set and WHAMMO... treble hook to the back-side of a nutria! I couldn't gain any ground on him and he made it to the rip-rap where my line broke. For the next hour that we stayed and fished, we could track his movements on land listening to the Rat-L-Trap just doing its thing.

* I was night fishing on Lavon about 3 years ago and a boat approached, pulled right up next to my pontoon, grabbed a hold of it and killed his motor. I had my hand on my sidearm when one of the two guys asks "You a cop?"
"No".
"You got any weed?"
"I do not."
"Sorry I bothered you." - fired his motor and slowly pulled away.

I don't night fish alone anymore.

that's kinda funny but scary also. I night fishn lavon last week. By myself

The sheer number of scenarios that ran through my head in that short amount of time was kray-zee... thankfully, none of them came true but I was ready...