[RickyO]

I was bottom fishing off Nortons Pt. with two friends last week when a very strange thing happened to me. We were fishing in shallow water with limited results so we decided to move out to the channel in deep water. As I said there were only three of us on board. We were fishing for a few minutes when I noticed what appeared to be a forth line in the water directly behind the motor. I quickly realized that we had picked up a stray line in the prop. I lifted the motor and was able to grab the line and began to unravel it from the prop. As I was removing the line I was wrapping it around my free hand to make sure we got it off both the prop and whatever was still left on the line that was trailing the boat. After several dozen wraps the line straightened out and abruptly began to go in the opposite direction. I suddently realized that there was more then broken line on the business end of the line there was a rather large fish. After several frantic minutes of using my arm as a pole and my hand as a reel I was able to bring the fish to the boat and get it into our net. Fortunately for me the fish was rather tired after water skiing behind our boat on our trip to the deeper water.Low and behold we had landed a 36" Striped Bass.
After removing the hook and sinker that was still attached to the fish we revived him and released him to swim another day.
Has this ever happened to anyone ?

 

[seaslug44]

Great story.

This is a good example of how important it is to use hooks that will quickly rust.

 

[rastamon]

Or you ran too close to someone with a fish on and cut his line

 

[RickyO]

Not the Case

It actually was two weeks ago on Saturday Morning as we all know by now conditions were not the best any boat. We were virtually fishing alone there wasn't a boat within a mile of our position making that senario an impossible one.

 

[HungryJack]

Had a similar experience

I have caught a striped bass that was attached to a hook and about 100 feet of line, my hook and bait tangled the line and I reeled in the fish.

Actually has happened twice to me.
Both times bass and they were about 15 lbs each.

Catching one with the outdrive/prop is definately more unique.

Just for those curious readers, yes I released the 2 bass, felt sorry for them, figured they deserved a second chance.

 

[wader]

Very similar incident happened 2 years ago when I was slinging eels into the Nissequoge from shore. The hook that was in the eel - grabbed a barrell swivel (went into the eyelet of it). When I got it to shore - the swivel was attached to a leader & a bass was attached to the hook on the leader.

Fish was extremely thin & barely alive. Probably in that condition for sometime. Let him go.

On a related topic...........
3 years ago I was again slinging eels into the river. This time I was floating them with a bobber attached to the line above the snap swivel. The hook caught bottom - couldn't get it off. Was forced to cut the line & re-rig. Went back to floating my next eel & could see the bobber from the "grounded eel" floating in a stationary position about 20 feet from me. A few minutes later - I look over at the bobber & it's moving up-river against the current - rather quickly. A bass must have taken the eel & was swimming off with the bobber & the rest of my line trailing out of his mouth. Be interesting to see the look on the angler's face that hooks that bass.

 

[gottog]

I was fishing from a pier last year and got hung up...manged to break free of whatever was down there and proceeded to reel in another line that was lost with a dead striper on it...must have ben down there for lil while as it was heavily decayed and a short to boot.

Seem many lines get caught and people reel it in with rods at the end...once it was a nice rod n reel setup with a big fluke at the end. I don't have that kind of luck though.

 

[620408]

Not a Fish

First time I took my son Fluke fishing on a part boat he dropped the brand new rod and reel I had purchased for him overboard. The mates rigged him up a rod and reel from their boat and got him back fishing, on the very next drift he yelled "DaD I've got something big on my line", you guessed it he reeled in the pole he had dropped overboard. Now that is a "Lucky" fisherman

 

[newyorkcityman]

IVE SEEN SEVERAL "LOST" FISH

i often fish a rocky shore area (14th-23rd st on the east river in manhattan) where school stripers and snags are very common (i use a circle hook to reduce mortality, and a breakoff sinker loop so my fish wont be lost after being hooked) and twice i have snagged short (16-18") bass that were already dead and were hooked to a leader attached to a sinker and broken line. more people should do what they can to avoid this.
btw, once i reeled in a 22" striper that bit hard, then came up like dead weight. in fact he was dead. what killed him? he was liphooked, and there was no fight, just the bite, was this a case of a fish heart attack or high cholesterol? anyone ever have that happen to them?