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Posts: 3793
| Ok, what are some strange things you saw on the water?
Mine are
1) a bear swimming across Bull Shoals at midnight in southern Missouri
2) a huge Fox Snake swimming across a lake in the Yoop - it was about 5' long and was swimming with its head out of the water like a periscope but this gal's periscope was about 16" tall all the way from one shore to the other.
3) a loon trying to scare me away from it's shoreline nest. The loon was flashing by about a foot under the surface of the water next to my boat. I never knew how dang fast a loon can swim under the water, they are quick as heck.
4) Around 2000 at a M1 Outing, Al Warner in the front of my little boat fishing Buck Lake (off Cass Lake) wearing wet canvas tennis shoes with no laces or socks on a COLD day in high wind. I mean cold, wind chill was prol around 20*. We were casing to the windblown shoreline, I could no longer feel my fingers or face, and he caught a fat 44" on his favorite Ernie. That guy can fish in the cold. |
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Posts: 152
| 2 men in a runabout , one of them being serviced. Wish I could unsee that. |
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Posts: 59
| 1. I was casting a glider near some docks when a dog I didn't see jumped into the water and started swimming toward my bait. My glider was bright orange, and the water very clear so no doubt the dog could see it. Reeled in the glider super fast so I wouldn't accidentally hook the poor fella.
2. I've had loons follow small baits back to the boat.
3. I was casting in 8-10 feet of water over a weed bed with clear bottom (no rocks or trees) when i felt the trolling motor hit something. When I looked down to see what it was I saw a massive 2 foot wide snapping turtle staring back at me! I've seen some big turtles, but that one was easily the biggest of them all.
4. Fishing with my brother when he caught a pike with a VERY fresh wound from a bigger toothy critter. Within the next few casts I caught a 44 inch muskie with a jaw width the would have likely matched the wound on my brother's pike.
5. (Not muskie fishing) I was casting a buzzbait over the top of a shallow weed bed when I saw two wakes from small pike on either side of the bait. As the pike got closer to the boat both of them jumped out of the water over the buzzbait completely missing it. Why they both decided to jump at the same time right over the bait instead of trying to get a mouthful confuses me to this day. |
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Posts: 3793
| Ha, Rob's post reminds me of another. Not muskie fishing but installing my pier just after ice out in SW MI. I see some commotion in the water at the shoreline just down the beach so I wade over to take a look. I come in slow and quiet and see this.....
A pack of small bass, like 4-5"ers, have trapped a school of shiners against the 4" deep "bluff" on the shore. The little bass are spread like submarines holding the minnows against the shore. Firm sand bottom, water gin clear. As I'm watching there's a small splash and then another. I look closer and I see that 2 small pike, like 4" each, have landed in the school of minnows and both pike have a minnow sideways in their mouths. As I'm trying to understand what I'm looking at another little pike jumps out of that water, over the bass, into the minnows and grabs a shiner. I look closer and see that there are a number of little pike staged just outside the little bass. They are taking turns jumping over the bass into the minnows!
What an amazing thing to see. |
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Posts: 2240
Location: SE, WI. |
Back in the early 90’s, Minaki, heard a big crack, then thump. Happened to be a bear that fell out of a tree....after branch broke....he climbed back up! Another time we’re driving through rough rock narrows....saw what we thought was an eagles wing span in the water. As we got close, it ended up being a 900+ lb moose swimming across. -Up in Canada , saw a commotion near shore, so we slid in to take a look. Saw 2 Snappers, probably 30 lbers. 1 had a mouthful of the others neck, and seemed to have the other roped and tied. We started to run video of the 2. Watched them make out, then decided to leave them alone after about 20 minutes of video. We were talking about sending the video to National Geographic. -back in the 90’s had a Tuffy esox. Was finishing a figure 8. As I pulled bait out of the water, a 36” er decided to jump in the boat. After about a minute of trashing my equipment, I released her. Questioned the catch, but still registered it in the MI. Lunge log:) - I seem to dislike birds. Was retrieving one of my flaptails, saw a huge wake coming. Next thing you know, I look up and see a Blue Heron flying towards me about 15-20’ above the surface. A big whoosh and say goodbye to mr. musky, as that 6 foot wing span spooked my Prize:( -Was fishing a WMT tourney up on Big St... raised a nice musky that we went back on. 9 out of 10 casts we had follows....unfortunately they we’re Loons....got the Hell out of there... - Was casting a creeper here in Se. WI. After dark. Saw a shadow, then next thing you know, my line started floating upward. I believe it was an Owl that just grabbed my lure. Luckily it dropped it;( Did I say, I hate birds;( -The early years the pmtt came out....between the Fox chain, and lakes in SE. WI. , had 4 different boats with multiple Women in them, seem to want to show me their Cow Bells. Yes, drop their tops. Not sure what was in the water that year, but kinda liked it;) Think that was the year of the Double 10;) Couple years ago was up in Canada late October. Was finishing up the day as I decided to troll a series of reefs. I just finished 3 reefs as I started towards a 4 th. A Green Warrior boat comes out from in back of an Island and was heading towards, probably the same reef I was getting ready to fish. When I pulled up to this series, I saw No boats. The Green Warrior starts screaming at Me....what the hell R you doing.....I gladly left the hot head alone....and went to one of my Last Spots. Wife proceeded to Land a 52”x25”....40 lber...I’d just like to thank the RICHARD who started to scream obscenities at us! Maybe just a small slice of Justice! JD 
Edited by jdsplasher 4/17/2021 8:02 PM
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | A dead pig in a bay, no pig farms anywhere near. A catfish follow and eat a heckhound over feel water on a bright sunny day. Water moccasin trying to get in my boat. A 30" bowfin eats a cowgirl two go rounds on a figure 8. I saved a blind 17 year old 3 legged dog named Lucky on the chippewa flowage. Cliche and totally true.
Edited by ToddM 4/18/2021 12:20 AM
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| Have seen a number of these, bear, deer swimming. Giant snappers mating, so big they looked like the alligator snappers they have in the south. Family of otters came up around the boat and hissed at us. Guess we were in their fishing spot.
I also have issues with birds. Several hot follows by loons, to the point if I see one on the surface, I move at least 200 yards away before casting again. But, the bird interactions that worry me the most are diving at top waters. Have had sea gulls, an osprey and an eagle all swoop in. Fortunately I have had time to jerk it away and keep it moving. All were on a walk the dog type lure being worked slowly, erratically. Seldom see osprey on our chain and it came in from well up in the sky. Love watching them fish, would hate to see one injured. |
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | I was fishing heidecke lake one day and had a smallmouth jump in the back of my boat. In the next 15 minutes two more tried and bounced off the side.
Edited by ToddM 4/18/2021 9:52 AM
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Posts: 1212
Location: E. Tenn | A lot of the aforementioned... loons chasing lures, otters checking out the boat, deer swimming across the lake, eagles plucking hammer handles out of the water right off the stern. Watched a helluva dogfight between a pair of eagles and an osprey who decided to steal their dinner right out of the nest. Props to the osprey, who held on to his prize while battling, letting go only when he got clipped by one. He bailed into a small clearing, got his act together, and went on his way. |
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Posts: 267
Location: Central Pennsylvania | Only have a few
1) A 15" yellow bullhead attempt to eat my Sucker colored Mini medusa
2) Giant beach ball size carp
3) Tiger lazy following a sucker color phantom and me not seeing it because high, muddy water. The fish then "porpused" and basically gave me the finger hah. |
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Posts: 51
| An old lady in panic screaming at something right on shore of what seemed to be her back yard, on a giant weedbed I was fishing on... Asked if I could be of any help, she said her small dog went swimming and never came back... I have a theory of what happened but didnt share it with her at the time... |
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Posts: 319
| I’ve seen a few bears and numerous deer swimming. Got close enough to a couple swimming bears to see the ticks on their ears! Almost hit a doe one dark night heading back to the cabin. Watched a pair of otters mating in the WI River one early spring afternoon.
Saw something swimming that looked weird and it ended up being a squirrel! Got close enough to it that it climbed up on the motor and got into the boat! Ran into a side storage compartment and we couldn’t get it out. Went back to the cabin and got a big heavy towel and reached in and grabbed it and tossed it on the dock. The squirrel jumped out of the towel in mid air and slammed its head into the dock and died! We tried.....
Many times at Powerton lake in central IL I had smallies jump into my Tuffy Maurader. Took a neighbor out one day and I told him not to be surprised if we have a fish or two jump in the boat. He thought I was BSing him. That day we had a dozen smallies jump in the boat including the biggest fish of the day at 19”. When the wind blew into the shore fish would get real shallow in the rocks and I would position the boat close to shore so we could cast parallel to shore keeping our baits in the strike zone the entire retrieve. The fish would spook and jump in the air and over the low sides of the Tuffy right into the boat!!!
One musky opening weekend a few years ago I saw a fawn bedded down in the WI River! It didn’t appear to be hurt or anything but it was just curled up laying there in the water looking at me and I just left it alone. I’ve seen many other fawns laying on the islands on the River. The old smart does know where to take their young to bed to keep them away from all the predators.
One time while anchored on the River along the shore walleye fishing, my nephew and I heard birds in the brush just chirping and going nuts! Pretty soon we saw something moving in the brush and it was a bobcat! When it saw us it turned back into the woods and was gone. The birds were scolding it just like they do with any regular cat. Pretty neat to watch!
Watched a pair of loons one time catching crawfish and feeding them to their baby. We didn’t know at the time it was crawfish but I took some pics and blew them up back at the cabin and you could clearly see the crawfish in their beaks.
A couple times I’ve heard a huge splash behind me. Turned around only to see an osprey come up out of the water. Most of the time they were unsuccessful.
Saw a bald Eagle make a few dive bomb attempts on a loon on its nest trying to get at the baby but the loon didn’t budge. The eagle then flew off a little, dove & grabbed a northern and flew back and ate it in a dead tree close by.
Even when the fishing sucks it’s pretty neat to be out there on the water watching what Mother Nature has to offer.
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Posts: 59
| This just came to mind:
At a gas station filling up before heading onto Mille Lacs when this big lifted pickup pulls up with music blaring. When the pickup pulls into a parking spot i'm expecting a guy in his 20's or 30's to get out and do whatever he needed to do. To my surprise, a little old lady hobbles out, and is the only one in the vehicle. |
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Posts: 1262
Location: Stevens Point, Wi. | Watched an eagle trail a goose and bring it down about 100 yards from shore. Took the eagle about 1/2 hour to flap-swim the goose to shore with several rest periods on shore. Then it was a well deserved dinner. |
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| This was not while musky fishing but while canoeing with my wife, so some ducks flapping and quacking like crazy on the opposite shore. Paddled over found the problem. Someone had been crappie fishing and tossed a bobber, sinker and hook baited with a minnow into the bog brush along shore. Rather than come into shallow water, they snapped the line. A half grown mallard had reached up for the minnow and got a hook through it's bill. Stuck to the bush. The hen was having a fit, but when we paddled close she herded the rest away. I grabbed it behind the head and unhooked it. Apparently their bills are very soft when young. Put it back in the water and after a couple minutes of catching it's breath, paddled off to join the others. Found two other similar rigs in the brush in the immediate area. Jerked them off the brush and tossed in the canoe.
It was a lesson for me, always retrieve baited hooks, even it means scaring off some fish. |
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Posts: 3793
| Good on you, 8.
Sad loon story....I was renting a cabin on a small lake in the Yoop. I was there from March till May. Ice out saw a new family of loons, two babies. Watched them almost every afternoon (because I didn't know anybody thereabouts and so sat on my porch target shooting with a pellet gun). One day the loons were going nuts, howling and carrying on. With only one baby in tow. Spoke with an old-timer neighbor who said a pair of eagle hunt the lake every spring and probably grabbed the baby. Or a big snapper. Two days later I get home from work and the two adult loons were cruising the shoreline again making a huge racket but very different...one loon was swimming fast forward while HOWLING and the other was swimming underwater, also moving forward as fast as the other, just popped up to quickly howl and then back down. Spoke with my neighbor again and he said he saw an eagle take the last baby that morning. Eight hours later and the loons were still circling the shoreline, looking for their baby.
Another lake, years later, my house on a hill in late spring on a super windy day. I look out and see a big puddle of coots in the whitecaps. A "puddle" means a raptor is harassing the coots, they get into one big crowd and each try to not be the one that gets separated (and so isolated) from the bunch. Interesting that the puddle moves along quickly, straight into the wind, each bird trying to both stay close and leave another behind. Sure enough, an eagle is divebombing the coots. After a few passes, also sure enough, a single coot has been separated from the bunch. He's the target, now. The eagle drops down from way high a couple times and each time the coot dives at just the last second. I can hear the eagle screeching in frustration as it holds just over the whitecaps, its wings are slapping the wavetops. Saw this happen for a good 5 minutes. Then, I saw something I hope to never forget. The eagle rose again, way way high and dove like a missile, but not toward the coot. The eagle made a 90* turn at the wavetops and blasted with the wind for about 30 yards until it rolled over and grabbed that coot. It was awesome, the eagle holding the coot rolled along the wavetops for about 10 yards, huge spray of water, then they stopped. With a huge commotion the eagle rose back into the air, the wind lifting it straight up, holding tight to that #*^@ coot. Most amazing.
Whenever it's an eagle vs a coot I'm rooting for the eagle. Likewise, whenever it's a cougar vs a guy on a $2,000 mountain bike I'm rooting for the cougar.
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Posts: 34
| Not really weird but Float planes landing, and the buck that ran into the water in front of our cabin and swam across this big part of Two Sisters all the way to a point. |
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Posts: 32811
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I was guiding on a weekday on Pelican back about 40 years ago, and decided to fish Musky Bay. It was a calm, sunny July day, and was in the low 80's. About halfway across the bay was a big aluminum runabout drifting with apparently no one inside. As we worked across the bay we went by about 20' away, and when we got even with the boat, saw to our surprise two young ladies in the cockpit seats sunbathing in the buff other than sunglasses, seemingly dead asleep. We moved on by never making a sound and saw them eventually swimsuited back up driving the boat back to the lift on shore.
My client and I had debates for years as to if they were really asleep. He was in his 50s at the time and it was, apparently, quite an event for him. |
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Posts: 2240
Location: SE, WI. | sworrall - 4/19/2021 5:19 PM I was guiding on a weekday on Pelican back about 40 years ago, and decided to fish Musky Bay. It was a calm, sunny July day, and was in the low 80's. About halfway across the bay was a big aluminum runabout drifting with apparently no one inside. As we worked across the bay we went by about 20' away, and when we got even with the boat, saw to our surprise two young ladies in the cockpit seats sunbathing in the buff other than sunglasses, seemingly dead asleep. We moved on by never making a sound and saw them eventually swimsuited back up driving the boat back to the lift on shore. My client and I had debates for years as to if they were really asleep. He was in his 50s at the time and it was, apparently, quite an event for him. I bet they were peeking through those shades....trolling for a 9” Bobbie bait ;)
Edited by jdsplasher 4/19/2021 6:50 PM
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Posts: 8732
| Fishing a remote Canadian shield lake one afternoon when we heard a commotion in the tall reeds on shore. We moved closer to get a better look when the splashing didn't stop after a while. It was an eagle that had managed to grab a ?????. We watched for about 15 minutes. Whatever it had, it was too heavy to fly away with, but it was determined to try. I'm thinking muskie, because about a week earlier I saw one swoop down, grab a walleye that had to be close to 30" and fly up into the trees without even getting its feathers wet.
Had a great horned owl take a liking to a jackpot one evening. As cool as that was, we were on a heck of a topwater bite at the time, and this stupid owl wouldn't let up. We finally gave up when I asked my buddy if he had ever seen a great horned owl up close and personal and whether he wanted to try unhooking one.
Seen a moose swimming between two islands up on Eagle. I had no idea they could swim! That same week we drove past a juvenile eagle who had been sitting on the same rock for days. We finally decided it must be injured or abandoned. "Yeah. There's a lady in town who rehabilitates injured wildlife. If he's still there when we come back we gotta do something." Sure enough, to my horror, he (she?) was still there later on. My buddy says "okay Jeff. When we get close enough I'll throw my coat over him and you jump out and grab him!" I'm envisioning everything that can go wrong trying to wrestle with a p.o.ed eagle, but we couldn't just leave him there. I've done this with various saltwater birds that got inadvertently hooked, but never an eagle. 30 feet away, 20 feet away, son of a good guy. As we get closer and closer, the reality sinks in of how big this thing really is. And it's not taking its eyes off me. We're 20 miles from camp. Am I gonna have to bear hug this thing for the whole ride? And THEN WHAT? Just as my buddy throws his coat, said eagle flies off up into a tree. I guess he wasn't injured?
About the funniest one was fishing up in Michigan. My wife says: "I just saw a beaver!" "Right next to the boat!" ME: "It was probably a muskrat. Or maybe an otter... Lotsa otters in these parts." WIFE: "I'm telling you it was a beaver, and it was right behind my lure!" ME: "Well first of all they're bigger than you think. Second of all, I've never heard of a beaver getting that close to a boat without hissing and slapping it's tail on the water and stuff. They don't like people that much. Pretty #*^@ mean they are. At least the few I've encountered. Maybe it was Bucky beaver. You're not high or something are you?" Sure as #*#* with that comment, a beaver surfaces right next to the boat right in front of me.
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Posts: 3793
| Hooray! What great stories. Steve, you could make a book out of this #*#*. |
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Posts: 246
| Seen a bunch of bears and deer swimming but the best was a bunch of years ago my dad let's out a loud "agghhhgghh" from the back of the boat and starts trying to stand up in my little 14fter. We were drifting walleye almost in the middle of the lake and soaking wet squirrel decided to climb up the 9.9 that was tilted up right behind his seat. Apparently it got within inches before he realized it. I was almost in tears when I realized what was happening. I bust on him about his reaction a bunch.
A really weird time was 3 people, 2 women and a man, hopped out of a car by the launch of a short dirt launch on a small muskie lake and two of them strip, while the other one goes off into the woods a bit. They are swimming around when they go back to the car. He's standing up next to the car and well, things were happening. Finally, he gets back in and the other woman gets back in and they drive away. A local cop happened to come by hours later while I was loading my trailer and she looked at me like I was crazy while I was describing what happened. Never seen it before and haven't seen that since.
Edited by zombietrolling 4/19/2021 7:06 PM
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| Esox, your eagle probably had just eaten too much. We had a seasonal cabin where we built our retirement home. One year I came up in early April to work on the bathroom.
Ate breakfast around 7 AM and noticed two mature eagles on the ice. Lake was still frozen for the most part but the channel was open and the eagles were right on the edge, just standing there. Put the binocs on them and they were motionless. Couple hours later I took a break for water. Still there. When I looked around 11 AM they were finally gone.
Couple years later a guy from federal Fish and Wildlife talked to our lake assoc. He was responsible for federally protected raptors in northern MN and WI. I asked him about this odd behavior. He just laughed and said they probably had eaten a large winter killed fish or something similar. He stated that every year he fielded dozens of calls about eagles just sitting along the shore, etc. First question, were they eating when you first noticed? Eagles apparently will eat so much at one sitting that they can't fly. They are one big bowel movement away from flight. |
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Posts: 191
| Some years back we were fishing a small lake in NE Wis. in October when I noticed a Bluebill (duck) would only dive when we got close. Soon realized it was tangled in a wad of discarded mono we were able to net it and cut him free.
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Not long after that we were fishing a large lake during some pretty rough weather in Northern Wisconsin and seemed to have the lake to ourselves. Surprised when an expensive cooler came floating by us driven by the strong winds. Fished out the cooler and later that day enjoyed a couple of the free brews. We carried the cooler back to the resort and asked if anyone knew the owners of the lost cooler. Resort owner advised us the owner wouldn't be needing his cooler any more. Older gentleman in a little rental boat capsized and drowned earlier that day. Pretty sad and I felt like a jerk for drinking his beer. |
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Posts: 13
| Sudszee - 4/17/2021 2:32 PM
2 men in a runabout , one of them being serviced. Wish I could unsee that.
Amen to that. |
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | yev14 - 4/20/2021 8:52 AM
Sudszee - 4/17/2021 2:32 PM
2 men in a runabout , one of them being serviced. Wish I could unsee that.
Amen to that.
If you catch a musky on that lure I'll.... |
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Posts: 455
| Watched a mid fifties swim with his head completely out of the water for about 20 yards wagging his head back and forth and almost completely verticle. Looked like a spade shovel moving side to side, had eyes the size of a coke can. We marked it on the GPS and let things settle down a bit. Come back to it, and buddy I'm with ends up hooking it on a spinner bait for about 10 seconds only to have it shake off. Talk about disappointment.
Lighting storm approaching, we stop at a resort on the water and ask them is we can shelter in place till the storm passes. He tells us sure just go wait it out in boat house if you want. Get boat in the boat house and are riding the storm out when we here pop pop, BOOM. Sparks fly out of the electrical outlets as we sit there. #*^@ Boat House got struck by lighting while we were sitting in it. How Lucky, God Blessed. |
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Posts: 1023
| I was musky fishing by a point with some islands near it. Saw a group of snakes try to cross the water from the point to the islands. First two made it. Last two did not. Maybe muskies got 'em. Maybe bass or pike, who knows. But those two were blown up! And...of course, nothing sniffed my walk the dog topwater bait.
I was fishing a large shallow weed flat. Very marshish. Heard some horrific screeching in the cattails. Above the noise was a bald eagle. That eagle was swooping down and attaching something. I feel like it was a crane being attacked, but I could be wrong. But something was catching holy heck from that eagle.
Was fishing some piers up north with a friend. Told him this was a good shore and he proceeded to put his bucktail on a pier. I trolled up there and told him to get up here quick. Under the dock was an upper 30's musky. And when he saw it, it devoured a blue gill right in front of us. He missed that fish by inches.
Finally, while up north we were fishing a remote point in a lake. No houses around. All of a sudden, we hear some commotion in the woods. Two girls (maybe 20 years old) come running out of the woods, strip down to nothing and jump in the lake. We were about 40 yards away, and they didn't see us. So we hung out there and enjoyed the show. Then they saw us and quickly got out of the water and back into the woods. That spot is now called Naked Chicks Point. |
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Posts: 1973
| Seen SO many crazy things...here was one of my favorites, too lazy to type so cut and paste a post from many moons ago -ha!:
Posted 6/28/2005 9:25 PM (#152103)
Subject: Fish Story
Online
Went and hit the water by myself for a couple of hours this am - It was a pretty slow morning for Lotw - I had caught a dink 30" and saw a couple of mid thirty inch fish - the bald eagles are flying around and I am loving life......Went around a rock point and a pretty drake merganser slips off the rock a paddles out in front of me ------- it gets 70 yards away from me a BAM!!! A SKI is trying to eat it!!! The force of the strike broke one wing but the bird is flappin its one good wing and running to shore to beat he!! ---- HMMMM....... Lets put the shallowraider away for a few cast and grab a topraider!!!! Hit high on the trolling motor and got closer to the "warzone" Third cast......plop plop plop plop- BAM!!! 46 inches of a an angry muskie....too cool!
Edited by IAJustin 4/20/2021 12:14 PM
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Posts: 32811
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | jdsplasher - 4/19/2021 6:31 PM
sworrall - 4/19/2021 5:19 PM I was guiding on a weekday on Pelican back about 40 years ago, and decided to fish Musky Bay. It was a calm, sunny July day, and was in the low 80's. About halfway across the bay was a big aluminum runabout drifting with apparently no one inside. As we worked across the bay we went by about 20' away, and when we got even with the boat, saw to our surprise two young ladies in the cockpit seats sunbathing in the buff other than sunglasses, seemingly dead asleep. We moved on by never making a sound and saw them eventually swimsuited back up driving the boat back to the lift on shore. My client and I had debates for years as to if they were really asleep. He was in his 50s at the time and it was, apparently, quite an event for him. I bet they were peeking through those shades....trolling for a 9” Bobbie bait ;)
They were safe in that case, none like that in my boat...:) |
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Posts: 32811
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | We had a few encounters on the Goon a while back. Were in a bay we call the Hawg Pen when we were suddenly attacked by a swarm of black flies like nothing I had ever seen. Immediately after that began, a really impressive bull moose crashed out of the woods completely enveloped in a cloud of flies, ignored us and walked out in the water until nearly totally submerged.
A while later, after finally losing the flies by running a half-mile with the motor, we saw what we thought was a black bear swimming across the lake, and went over to take a look. It was a wolf, and was not happy we were following.
The next morning we were casting around a back bay point that had a small cabin right on the water accessible only by boat. As we came around the point, the couple who owned the cabin was in lounge chairs sunbathing. They were looking for an all-over tan and just waved as we went by. Some people around the Goon back then seemed to be pretty nonchalant about wearing clothes. One old fella along the North shore seemed to like to take a bath while standing knee-deep in the water when Sue was out fishing with me. Looked right at us as we went by, and not only one time, either. Those who know what that water looked like back then would question anyone 'bathing' in it for motive.
Once coming around the back side of Andersen Island, Keith spotted a fox on the shore obviously distressed. We went in close, and a cormorant had gotten tangled in a walleye spinner, and the fox had gone for it. Ended up with a hook in the paw and was royally peed off. Keith managed to get the hook out without getting bit, and off went the fox without even a thanks. The comorant didn't make it.
Then there was crazy old man bay. He had wooden mushrooms of all sizes (BIG) along a path from the house to the lake, which I think was symbolic. Every single time we'd fish that bay, he would take 15 minutes to laboriously trek 100 feet down the walkway to begin screaming at us in German, with a grumbled 'hoook eeen my laaig' mixed in. Every time.
Was up fishing with friends, and we were doing really well on big pike in a bay up in Larson. A couple of ladies in a cabin would come down and swear at us like sailors, yelling to go fish Eagle. That Friday, before we left, we took a group polaroid and thumb tacked it to the dock with a 'We will miss you!' note attached. They sold the cabin that Fall. |
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Posts: 267
| Yep, I've seen bears and deer swimming. But the weirdest thing was a squirrel swimming across the river I was fishing. And I've seen it twice! Also had an osprey that wouldn't leave my fishing partner's topwater alone. |
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Posts: 157
Location: West Central WI | Up on LOTW and rounded a corner. Saw a big commotion on the water where a duck was being dragged while flapping his/her wings in shallow water. It managed to break free and tried to get to this small island about 10' away and it was hit again by an obvious muskie. Broke free a second time and made it to shore, although pretty ruffled and limping. We tried every day but never did catch that fish although we did have a nice blow-up. That spot is still in my GPS and is forever known as "Lucky Duck" |
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Posts: 3793
| Late June fishing LOTW out of Kenora. The sunset mosquitos are unbelievable. When they came up it sounded like a train in the distance. We're wearing rain suits, boots, Playtex gloves and head nets. Duct tape to seal the seams. Plus hosed down with deet. One time I took off my gloves, sprayed my hands and a moment later looked to see my wedding ring was covered with skeeters, they were sucking blood from under the metal. Close your hand in front of you face and open it to see 100 squished blood suckers. Clouds of skeeters. African Queen level #*#*, "Oh Rosy!"
So, about an 2 hours before serious skeeter time we see a convoy of yellow school busses roll into what turned out to be a girl/boy scout camp. The hundred or two kids bail out, we hear happy laughter, they are so excited to have arrived. Busses unload and leave. We hear the older scouts directing the kids to hurry and set tents but the kids are not moving very fast. Then the skeeters start coming up, the deep drone in the distance. Next thing we hear is the kids starting to scream, they are being eaten alive and there's nowhere for them to hide, the busses are gone. It was crazy and I don't know how it turned out because we had to book it back to camp.
The year before a guy in our camp got lost/stranded out by himself in his little boat after dark. He spent the night in the water, his 14' boat tied to shore and him hanging off the transom with just his face and an arm out of the water.
I hate skeeters. |
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Posts: 540
Location: deephaven mn | Fishing Vermillion in the chapter challenge, fishing the big reef in Daisy Bay.the one with 5 hazard bouyies on it and two rock stuctures sticking out of the water. I hear this hollering behnd me. I look back and there is a pontoon boat with four guys, They mooning us while one guy driving. I try to ignore them. They keep coming closer and are hollering "hey city boys check this out" they keep going and hollering. Wham they drive the boat up on to the rock reef that sticks out of the water. Loud crash, and they all fall on top of each other. I'm still laughing ten years latter. LOL!
I now call this spot four moon reef!
Edited by kap 4/20/2021 5:46 PM
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Posts: 8732
| This wasn't strange, but...
Fishing down near Osbourne bay on Eagle. For those of you not familiar: Stained water, LOTS OF STUFF to hit...
We're maybe 300 yards away from three guys in a 621 Ranger and they're running wide open. I look at my buddy and I say "wow. That takes a lotta balls. Not too many brains though, eh?" He looks up, back down and then jerks his head up again and he says: "oh ****! They're on the wrong side of that reef!!! They're gonna run right over the top of..."
Before he can finish his sentence, *WHAM!!* And then silence. Even from that far away the sound made my heart skip a beat. Okay, everybody's still in the boat. It doesn't look like anybody got hurt. We watch as the driver and passengers make their way back to the motor. The fact that they spent a good minute just standing there looking tells us all we need to know. They drop the trolling motor and beach the boat on the closest island. "All right. Let's fish out the spot and go get 'em. Not like they're going anywhere..." We turned around for a minute to make a couple casts and when we looked back they were on their way. Kickers are a good investment... |
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Posts: 1973
| Stupid things we've seen boaters do could be an entirely new topic I'm sure...Similar to Kap I saw two ladies completely high center a pontoon on Vermilion...to the point the prop was out of the water...I assume they thought I was waving frantically because they knew they were too close to where I was trying to fish....Felt bad went over and I tried to help, but there was nothing I was going to be able to do this boat was basically completely out of the water.. the cell phone call to their husbands didn't sound too pleasant  |
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Posts: 54
| On the Chip we saw the biggest snapping turtle. The shell was about 3 feet in diameter, the head about the size of two grapefruits , had to be older than dirt.
Back in another bay, just going in with the trolling motor, there's a bench on the far side with 2 teenagers getting it on. They finally realized we were there, he was not to happy he wasn't finished and she was putting her clothes back on!!! |
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Location: MN | A drunk waving at me as he ran over a trolling board going about 40. Headlock and board almost hit a lady in the head in the back of his boat.
A pike over 40 feet of water coming up to the boat mouth open with nothing in front of it and face planting the side of my boat trying to eat a ghost fish.
Saw some aliens night fishing at about 4 am. They seemed friendly. |
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Location: Vilas | On the Western Arm of Eagle in 1998....one big 30" wave came rolling ..... no boats around... no little waves before the wave or after.
1980ish, fishing Butternut Lake in Price county....was after dark and 2 disks hovered over the island, produced no sounds... a few dim lights on the bottom of each disk... didnt see them fly in, they were just there, hovered for about 7-8 minutes then they just disappeared |
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | I've seen rogue waves in the middle of LSC before. Boat wake type waves I think sometimes they collect and multiply. I seen a yacht a mile out from me once on lake Michigan bow to the sky and when his wake got to me while salmon trolling became 3 giant waves very close about 5ft high and had to really peddle them with boards out. I also don't think I've been on the big lake from Burnham or North Point and not several party balloons in the water.
Edited by ToddM 4/21/2021 9:30 PM
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Posts: 3136
| I saw bigfoot along the shore in a northern Minnesota lake!!! Then when I looked closer it was only Tony Grant,,, |
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Posts: 71
| Was fishing Lake Independence and saw an unmanned, runaway jet ski doing about 30mph go shooting onto shore, finally stopping about 25 feet up a hill. Luckily it found an area that wasn't developed. |
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Posts: 36
| In Canada like 2016, we had a Lynx swim across the lake like 1/2 mile in length. We video taped the entire thing. When we got too close for his comfort, he would face toward the boat. Then we would get further away. We certainly did not want that creature in the boat. When the lynx made it to shore it just sat there for a couple of minutes catching it's breath. It was a pretty large cat and really impressive to see. I had never seen one in the wild before. On our way back to camp that same evening we almost hit a buck swimming in the middle of the lake. Since there were no hazards we got almost on top of the deer before we saw him. We could see the fear in his eyes as he was trying to get away from our boat bearing down on him. That was a really cool evening and I don't think we even caught any muskies.
In N Wis I watched a bald eagle grab a seagull in mid flight and kill it. There were 2 eagles and a lone seagull following behind. The flew right over the top of us. The seagull was actually wanting a fish one of the eagles had. The eagle without the fish grabbed the seagull with it's talons and then let go. The seagull dropped in to the water like 60 yards from us. And it was dead when we got to it. Pretty crazy to see. Maybe crazier to see one seagull trying to get a fish from 2 eagles however? |
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Posts: 343
| Went out before light to try to hit it right for topwater bite. Drove past the turnoff, spotted an animal crossing the road just ahead. Looked closer and realized it was a mountain lion headed toward the part of the lake I was headed to to wade fish. Lots of brush and trees along that section of shoreline, decided to wait till after sunup to head into the water as I didn't want to become lion-chow. Foul-hooked a river otter one time, they are very ornery and not something you'd want on the end of your line, (but they fight very hard). Lucked out as it came loose before I had to deal with trying to unhook it. Had a bunch of barn swallows chasing a bug hatch where I was casting, on one cast a swallow chased my crankbait from behind as it headed through the air and grabbed it before it hit the water. Luckily it shook off, very impressed with the birds speed. |
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Posts: 1220
| Lots of the same stuff plus I saw a couple guys who ran out of gas and tried to ow there boat with a landing net. Gave them a tow to the gas station and when we got there my thanked us throw us a couple bucks and said "we did not fell like rowing"
Not a stick of wood in the boat . (paddle ECT) |
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Posts: 34
| I posted this on 4/17/2004.....
Out on the Fox Chain today I saw the #*^@dest thing. No not water skiers or jet ski's but an Audi out in the water. Up to about the top of the front tires. Now I guess that isn't so strange, but the only way the Audi could get to the water was to go through about 40 feet of grass, in between two trees (just wide enough apart for the car to get through) off a 5 foot retaining wall and through about 10 feet of "beach". The women driving the car (and yes it was a women because as we were viewing the car the tow truck showed up and the driver told us) tore off both side mirrors not to mention a ton of front end damage. Went and fished for a while and caught nothing. Went back to see the car, still there (just up the shore line from the Sand Bar on Marie by the channel to Bluff) but no tow truck. It will be interesting to see how they get it out.
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Posts: 377
| Two examples come to mind. Fishing at night usually after midnight have definitely seen UFOs on several occaisons. Second one involved fishing a shoreline around 6:00 in the morning. 2 elderly couples well over 65 walk down to the water, strip naked and go swimming. Did this on most mornings the week we were fishing. Reminded me of the movie Coccoon. |
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Posts: 103
| One early morning I was out fishing, super calm quiet day out. I was hearing this strange quiet sorta chomping noise in the bushes. I wasn't sure what the heck it was. Next thing you know, a big poplar tree comes crashing down about 50 yards up the shoreline from me. Busy beaver chomping down trees. Was pretty cool to see.
Another time I was guiding some kids in my boat at the lodge I worked at. We were fishing in a bay for pike. I saw something surface a cast length away from us and told them to cast over to whatever that was. Well, we didn't get any bites, so I slowly was moving closer, and saw it surface again. We got closer and closer, until right beside the boat was a massive pike with a huge whitefish in it's jaws struggling for life. And right under that pike, was an even longer pike that looked like she was waiting to steal that fish. It was so cool to see. We couldn't entice them to bite anything, they were quite preoccupied with their catch. So we just followed them around for about 5 minutes and watched as the bigger fish kept trying to slide up beside the other one, and steal that whitefish. Eventually both of them just slid down into the depths, I always wondered who ended up with the meal. |
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | I was fishing teal lake in Hayward for the first time. Stayed at a resort on the southeast corner of the lake. It was the last weekend for the resort before it was sold to a private owner. A another couple came to the resort as well. Casting after dark we started down that shoreline, as we went by the resort we could hear "oh #*#*" "oh #*#*" "oh #*#*". I kept a spotlight in that boat my dad wall all to happy to shine it under the swim platform to see them huddled naked under it hiding. Had to tell my dad to turn the light off. We never did see them the rest of the weekend, we were all spared that awkward moment.
At another resort on teal I was going back out for the afternoon/evening after going into town in the middle of the day. Swimming around the dock was a young couple with their daughter. All over the inside of my boat was handful globs of wet sand, one of them landed right in my Shimano reel. When I confronted them they completely ignored me like I wasn't there. They were gone by the time we got back from fishing.
Edited by ToddM 4/24/2021 10:11 AM
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Posts: 2240
Location: SE, WI. | ToddM - 4/24/2021 10:04 AM I was fishing teal lake in Hayward for the first time. Stayed at a resort on the southeast corner of the lake. It was the last weekend for the resort before it was sold to a private owner. A another couple came to the resort as well. Casting after dark we started down that shoreline, as we went by the resort we could hear "oh #*#*" "oh #*#*" "oh #*#*". I kept a spotlight in that boat my dad wall all to happy to shine it under the swim platform to see them huddled naked under it hiding. Had to tell my dad to turn the light off. We never did see them the rest of the weekend, we were all spared that awkward moment. At another resort on teal I was going back out for the afternoon/evening after going into town in the middle of the day. Swimming around the dock was a young couple with their daughter. All over the inside of my boat was handful globs of wet sand, one of them landed right in my Shimano reel. When I confronted them they completely ignored me like I wasn't there. They were gone by the time we got back from fishing. Todd; Now U Know why they call it the Big OH ;)
Edited by jdsplasher 4/24/2021 12:16 PM
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Posts: 2240
Location: SE, WI. | My dad And uncle took me on my first fishing trip to Pelican when I was 7. We stayed at the old Hitching post in mud bay. We fished for all species. We would fish perch with crab tails, and red worms. We went in for dinner. After finishing , went back out for the evening bite. Started to approach the pier as there was a Raccoon in our boat eating our live crabs. Dad threw his tiparillo cigar at the rascal. Coon picked up the cigar in his mouth, and ran under our cabin....sheesh. Didn’t sleep all night in fear the cabin would start on Fire;) True story! JD
Edited by jdsplasher 4/24/2021 3:58 PM
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Posts: 33
| Last year, a kit fox standing on a dock watching me fish |
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Location: Neapolitan Chain Of Lakes | First off..... Sudszee I wish I could unread that. Second, I understand and have a love/hate relationship with birds. I'm motoring to a spot and a handful of geese are flying overhead and as I admired their ability to fly and wondered about the possibilities if I could fly I felt a bean bag hit my foot. "What the %$#^?" I looked down and saw that the "green beanbag" destroyed my brand new kicks and obliterated my boat carpet. At that moment I hated geese. So later that day I'm trolling to another spot and going over an unmarked submerged rock pile that is 30 yards from shore. As I approached I see a goose directly over the rock pile gronking loudly and swimming as hard as possible but not going anywhere? I literally drove within a few feet of the angry goose flapping insanely and I was thinking "Ya know you have some gigantic goose stones to take a bomb dump on me from height and then defend an unknown rock pile from me ya turd!" As I slow rolled by I saw and realized that the "unknown" rock pile had an accumulation of baits wedged in the rock pile below and all that broken line from untold amounts of lures had ensnared the poor guy and he wasn't going anywhere. This is the part where half are thinking yea that serves him right and the other half are wondering if I did the right thing. I chose the latter and after pulling out my Buck knife slowly motored back to the struggling goose. As a side note, a mother and her young child were on shore watching this and I believe they were discussing what a man with a big knife was going to do to a gronking, flailing, angry goose tethered to something under water. I had no idea the cost and how wet one gets while cutting free a freaking out goose at close range! As the goose swam away to his awaiting gaggle further down the lake I swear he looked back at me as if to say "Thanks". As the mother pulled her hand from covering her child's eyes realizing the goose was saved rather than murdered (Joking of course) I realized how drenched I was and that all was well and in order once again on the lake. As I sat there thinking if taking my shirt off to dry would scare people I thought I should call my girl as she would be happy about this story and would score me some points with her. At that moment I realized somewhere in the midst of that battle my phone (Which was on the bench seat) somehow ended up in the lake. Dejected, I decided it was time to call it a day as I was pretty sure luck and fate had waved bye bye a long time ago. At least good luck! As I slowly motored back to the dock DEEP in thought I threw out a bait and promptly caught a 49 3/4" beauty pushing 40 pounds. Losing your phone setting a goose free = $400. Forgetting about everything because you caught a very nice musky = PRICELESS |
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Posts: 20183
Location: oswego, il | We booked a nylon rope today and on the other end was a 10lb Buffalo. Kept the rope which was very nice and fresh, released the fish.
Edited by ToddM 4/30/2021 6:17 PM
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Posts: 1126
Location: Minnesota. | Prolly shouldn't admit this out loud as it doesn't totally fit the topic but, I was in a jovial mood. Was in my Pro V, on plane with a buddy and my son on Lac Suel, early 90's. We were traveling between some islands and saw a few guys on an island having lunch (???).
Motored by and well - you know how sound is out on the water - above the motor noise I yelled to my son.."Wow, wonder if those guys saw that big ol' bear with her cubs in back of that bush!!!!" 11 seconds later all those boys were in their boat and blasting away from shore! Hilarious...
When we stopped to fish a few miles later my 10 yr. old looked at me told me I was a bit of a di..."Richard"... doing something like that. My buddy just smiled.
First time I think I've told that in nearly 3 decades.
On Vermilion 2 yrs ago we spotted a dog way out in the open water and figured he was in danger. He approached an island after we trolled up nearby to help him, which he didn't take to and kept swimming. He couldn't make it up the slippery rocks and seemed to struggle a lot. I was going to net him with my musky net but he kept at some distance when we got close. Nearing the island his owner whipped out another stick and off away from the island he went.
Poor critter. The guy just said he's okay as they were playing. Still think I should've questioned that...
Edited by Jeremy 5/2/2021 2:17 PM
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Posts: 116
| saw big cow stuck on a narrow patch of land not more than 2-3 feet, "trapped" between a steep rocky cliff and the wide river. so concerned I called the Police non-emergency number who said somewhat patronizingly "sir, I'm sure if the cow found a way to get down there it will get back fine". Guess I sounded to them like a city slicker in the country, one who never saw a cow stuck between a cliff and the river. |
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Strangest thing you saw while muskie fishing?