A rare species you've caught?

[JonnyReb]

Got to thinking about something that happened to me 30 some years ago and just wanted to tell the story, hope others join in with oddball species you've caught..

In the early 1980's i was not quite a teenager and so therefore unemcumbered and my greatest joy in the world was to fish.

I had 3 options open to me, a tiny creek which contained only tiny Bream, a local pond with all manner of bluegills and bass..or a fair sized creek with often muddy waters and a number of interesting native critters in it, mud turtles, catfish, brim and bass ...plus some other animals both encountered and not.

I fished the larger natural creek one summer almost exclusively. I was 10 or 11 maybe, and caught lots of native sunfish...pumpkinseeds and longears...bluegills..they seeming all coexisted in this place. Caught some catfish...bullheads and yellow? cats, all were quite small although i lost a few bigger ones who broke my line, i don't know what they were.

One summer afternoon i walked the full 6 miles up to where the creek forked..this is what is now known as Mcalpine creek in Charlotte N.C.
There was\is a small creek that runs into the bigger body of water but it forms a slough that runs 30 feet or so up into the woods before relying on a tiny creek to feed it. I now realize that fish running upstream to spawn would end up either in this slough or hitting the first of two or 3 concrete bridges with pipes laid for water transfer..the fish coming upstream as they had for thousands of years were obstructed for the first time in history by the recently laid bridges.

I cast up into the slough, using a live worm and my 404 zebco. My bobber set still for a minute or two, then went under in the shallow and still water. I reared back and enjoyed a fierce battle for maybe 20 seconds..i kept seeing gold colors flash in the water. Shortly thereafter i reeled in a most curious creature. Was a long fish maybe 2 feet in length. I'd never caught a fish so big. Was silvery gold in color, with bright red fins. I honestly thought it was a goldfish..i'd seen them when i was 6 or 7 in lake ontario N.Y. in huge schools...i just thought it was a funny shaped, skinny goldfish. I released the fish, and in the age of polaroid cameras...of course never had the capacity to document the fish. I told my Mom, Dad and friends but no one really thought much of it.

Got to looking online recently and found my fish. It was a "Carolina Redhorse", a native sucker that was thought to have gone extinct in the mid 1900's. In 1985 someone caught one...it was realized to still be around. A few more recent studies have found the fish in GA, and the carolinas...4 or 5 have been caught purposely..who know how many caught otherwise and tossed back or eaten.

I caught mine in 1980 or 81'..i coulda been the guy(kid) who re established the fishes existence to science ...darn it. Was a great memory though and after 30 some years i just wanted to mention it. So just curious...what oddball critters have you guys caught while fishing? J.

[leeggen]

Was in Fl. fishing some of the canals running in reidential areas, caught several funny looking fish. Just enjoyed the fight and man did they have some serious teeth. Got a pic and ask the gamewarden what it was and he took my pic so he could show it to the biologist. Later he told me they didn't know what it was, but I finnaly found out a couple yrs later it was snakeheads. The game dept was trying to keep the fish quiet so the public would not panic. Kids swam in the same waters. I beleave he was BSing me as to not knowing. The biggest one I caught weighd inat 4 pounds,24in. long, and i don't remember the girth.
CD

[NoAngel]

I caught a decent woman who doesn't lie to me.

An exceedingly rare species unheard of nowadays.

[Omega]

In the mid 80s, I was stationed at Ft Bragg, NC living in Spring Lake. There was a small pond close to the house where I would catch all the southern species of fish. One day I hooked into a fish that fought me for a bit, when I pulled it in I could not id it. It took awhile to id but it turned out to be a Grindle, or Bowfin. I tried to clean it that day but it basically disenagrated so let the turtles have it.

[JonnyReb]

I came across the coon scavenged skeleton of a bowfin in the S.C. swamps last year..was like "what is THAT"?? quite a prehistoric looking creature and i can only hope to catch one someday.

NoAngel...best wishes and good luck with that :kidding;

Leeggan, we have snake fish caught right here in the catawba river near my house, seems the things are everywhere. I don't swim there much anymore...

[w5pv]

Bowfins are fun to catch and can be tackle busters.I have saw some that could go up to 10 lbs.They like the slower moving waters in bayous and sloughs.They are not very good table fare unless you cook them on a cypress board then throw the fish away and burn the board and then go buy some catfish.The black folks around here cook and eat them but they will also eat a opossum but I have never been that hungry not saying I won't just have not been that hungry

[Nicholas]

Grinnels (bowfins) can survive in the mud in the bottom of a dried up stream or pond. If you want to eat one, clean it and cook in immediately after catching. Otherwise the flesh deteriorates to a cottony texture. They are a blast on a rod and reel or on a bouncy limb line. I think they are valued for making caviar from the eggs, too.

[Tatume]

A friend of mine, Jack Musick, caught a coelacanth, which until 1938 were thought to have been extinct since the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 million years ago, the period of the dinosaurs). Jack was doing deep water fisheries research for Virginia Institute of Marine Science.

[Point-Man]

Alligator Gar aren`t that rare but they can be hard to catch. My son and I would tie a piece of cotton to our line. It would hang in there teeth and they couldn`t spit it out. Worked on small gar, a big one would just break your line. Great time spent with a loved one.

[MT Gianni]

I have caught more than a few Bull Trout and a pallid sturgeon, both are an endangered species. All of those get released while still in the water. Buffalo Gar in the Missouri River can be like reeling in a bag of concrete but are not that rare.

[Tom W.]

I've caught some big bowfins while bass fishing. They will tear up a heavy jig like it was a light wire crappie hook.

I was surprised to see sturgeons jumping out of the water where the Suwannee and the Santa Fe river join, and these creatures have resulted in death and injury to people. They landed close enough to our boat to thoroughly soak me. I did catch a Suwannee bass that I had to return to the water, and my buddy caught a flounder. Mind you this is 70 miles inland from the mouth of the river.

[johnson1942]

up in lake cut foot sioux a couple of years ago my daughter caught a ling. it was hard to get into the boat and looked dangerous so we released it. man did it fight and was very strong. was told later it would have been very good to eat. if we ever get another one it will be eaten. i cant imagine getting a 30 pound one as a 5 pounder was really a fight.

[farmerjim]

Choupique in Louisiana is a Bowfin or Grinnel in other states.

[OnHoPr]

I caught a decent woman who doesn't lie to me.

An exceedingly rare species unheard of nowadays.

Which country were you visiting or stationed at?

up in lake cut foot sioux a couple of years ago my daughter caught a ling. it was hard to get into the boat and looked dangerous so we released it. man did it fight and was very strong. was told later it would have been very good to eat. if we ever get another one it will be eaten. i cant imagine getting a 30 pound one as a 5 pounder was really a fight.

Ugly as He[[, but a nice thick boneless tenderloin all the way back to the tail. Cut up into decent size chunks and boil quick or better steam quick till done a few minutes like a poached egg. Get the melted butter and dip, that is why they call it poor man's lobster, or at least pretty close to it. Maybe a little paprika or curry or one of the new fangled seafood spices on it for a new age kick.

I have caught a few rarer freshwater species and a few still eluded me, but in the waters I fished I have been able to catch a couple warmouth bass.

[Beerd]

up in lake cut foot sioux a couple of years ago my daughter caught a ling. it was hard to get into the boat and looked dangerous so we released it. man did it fight and was very strong. was told later it would have been very good to eat. if we ever get another one it will be eaten. i cant imagine getting a 30 pound one as a 5 pounder was really a fight.

I read this somewhere describing a freshwater ling, "If your wife catches a fish, reels it in, screams and throws throws the whole outfit overboard, that is a ling."
..

[johnson1942]

beerd, you got that right and im the one who brought it over in to the boat because my daughter said it was too strong for her. im the one who almost lost it, i thought the thing would try to eat us. the man who owned the resort we were staying at said they were very good to eat. later i saw on the internet they get to 30 pounds. ours was about 5. that was big enough for me. one early summer just before we got their someone caught a 50 pound muskie in 3 ft of water on the west end of the dock. cant even think how big that is. something that big followed my sons lure back to the boat, i never saw it but my son said, it was a monster dad. he claims it wasnt a muskie but i have no way of telling. we havent fished for a couple of years but i think next summer if the money is right we are going to spend a week on leech lake on the north end. tremendous huge pan fish their. got the fever again.

[Boaz]

All good story's !

[M-Tecs]

Eelpout and ling are one and the same.

http://www.eelpoutfestival.com/

http://fishingminnesota.com/fishinfo69.html

[OnHoPr]

They are also called lawyer's here in MI.

[tmanbuckhunter]

If you could call this rare. Had some big sharks latching onto cut skipjack all day and breaking off my 50lb mono, so I decided to put on the only steel leader I brought with me to the hotel. First thing that hit it... that is my luck though.