A rare\odd species you've caught?
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.