[newyorkcityman]

i just got back from a long w/e in puerto rico fishing the reefs with jtzannes. we also booked a tarpon charter in san juan lagoon. here are the odd results: we slow trolled live threadfin shad on 20-30lb outfits for tarpon in the bay in view of dolphins, sea turtles, manatees, manta rays, rolling tarpon and the baccardi rum factory. after a biteoff from a big cuda and we caught 2 cuda, a pelican dive bombed a bait and was hooked and released. unusual, but not unheard of.
then, 5 min later. one of jtzannes' rods goes off, then one of mine goes off. both rods bend and drag pulls out. both start to go in the same direction at the same speed. both of our reels are pulling identical drag, slow, steady, unstoppable. the guide and his assistant look at us with confused looks and say "i dont know what that is?, jacks, maybe?" not a good sign. we dont know if we have one fish with both lines or 2 fish on tangled lines. we chases our fish down in the boat and haul vertically with all we can. our lines are going to the same place at different angles. finally, slowly rising to just below the surface only a foot from the small bay boat is a MANATEE WITH TWO 2' REMORAS ON ITS BACK! each remora had a line coming out of its mouth! the manatee looked right at us and just sunk from sight leaving a huge upwelling. we all felt bad and the spools were thumbed and lines popped immediately.
the rest of the charter was slow, but fish oriented at least. i jumped a 15lb tarpon and jtzannes had a missed tarpon bite and another cuda. no more real exitement, ut the guides kept talking about how unique and strange it was. we later found out we were lucky to see one as there are only 200 in Puerto Rico

anyone ever hear of such a weird catch? any strange catch stories to share

 

[618128]

I caught a beating once.

(This post edited by Capt J on 02/05/2003)

 

[newyorkcityman]

sounds likell. fishing for another?

 

[Hunt n' Fish]

Nothing spectacular that I can think of righ now.

The only thing that comes to mind was a comorant that took my smelt while I was shore fishing for lake trout on Lake Champlain. It spooled me before I realized I even had a bite and then flew off with a hundred yards of line trailing behind it.

 

[Hipshot]

Wasn't a strange catch, but was fishing on one of the NYC water shed streams when some movement in the water caught my eye in about 6" of water there was a 3ft. long snake with the front half of a 12" trout in his mouth. The funny part of it was the snake was doing far better fishing than I was!
Hipshot

 

[thefishingfreak]

i caught my cat once

i had my fly rod leaning on the corner of the room one night and when i woke up in the morning the rod was knocked over on the floor and on the other side of the room
all the fly line was off the reel so i followed it around the house to the end of the line geuss whats missing?
the fly-made of quail feathers, cats love feathers. finaly found the cat and sure enough a purrfect hook set right through the corner of the mouth
now what .how to release the cat{fish?}
got the bolt cutters and cut the barb off
she's free to fight another day

 

[621146]

Catch

I CAUGHT MAKO MATT LOOKING AT WEDDING RINGS AT THE MALL.

 

[618563]

see the new york reports section under sifisherman's post