Some of the Craziest Catches While Fishing

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One of the best parts of fishing is oftentimes the things that happen on the water that you didn’t expect. Seeing some cool wildlife, crazy weather patterns, catching an unexpected or big fish, and of course the oddball things you sometimes catch that you least expect.

Recently, stories about weird catches have circulated like the one about 3 lobster fishermen in Maine who saved a deer that had swam 5 miles offshore as well as a story about an angler from Indiana who caught a live grenade.

To shine a light on other unconventional catches that have taken place in lakes, coastlines, and rivers across the world, Fishbrain, the largest social media network and app just for anglers, asked its 9 million users to submit details of the strangest things they’ve ever caught while fishing.

Crazy Catches

With hundreds of anglers sharing tales and images of their strangest catches, here are just a few highlights:

Moose Munoz from Oregon caught a pair of glasses he lost the year before
Lori Vellutini from Louisiana hooked a pair of underwear
Benny from Australia caught a magazine of bullets with two missing
Colton Dollison from Texas caught an unopened can of Vienna sausages
Chris Schultz from Canada caught a decapitated tuna head—with the body ripped off by an orca
Ben Neeley from Michigan hooked a set of car keys
G.D. from USA caught a bag of fish and cow parts
Mustapha Abdulwahab from Australia caught a coffee machine
Mike Wittmer from California caught a dragonfly
Carter Swenson from the USA caught a skateboard
Daniel Joo from the USA reeled in a still working watch
Travis Vidaurri from Texas caught a giant American bullfrog
Daniel Sloan from the USA caught a huge snapping turtle

“From historic artifacts to potential new life forms, it seems as though everything under the sun has ended up on somebody’s line—apart from the legendary ‘one that got away’,” said Johan Attby, CEO and Founder of Fishbrain.

“You can never tell what lies beneath the murky depths. The allure of fishing is the sense of the unknown; you may set out hoping to catch a salmon and end up with a seven-foot sturgeon – or even a skateboard! However, there is a worrying trend of discarding waste into our waterways, and this is something Fishbrain actively encourages anglers to address through its work with conversation groups.”

Check out a bunch more crazy catches below, and if you’ve got a crazier one, we want to see and hear it!

About Fishbrain

Fishbrain is the world’s most popular mobile app and social network for people who love fishing. Depended upon by more than seven million people across the globe, the free-to-use app helps create the best possible fishing experience by providing everyone – whether beginner or pro – with the tools, insights, and support to fully enjoy the world’s most popular hobby.

The app’s interactive map helps anglers find hot new fishing spots and see what other people are catching, with what bait and specifically where. With other features like Fish Species Recognition, marine mapping (provided by C-MAP), forecasts, bait recommendations and more, Fishbrain has become one of the most valuable and rewarding tools in a fisherman’s tackle box.

Fishbrain values responsible fishing, supporting a catch and release approach and the sustainable harvest of fish species, as well as the tracking of rare and endangered species through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Wildlife Commission.