That "Big Catch" Isn't Always a Prize

Consider, for example, the retired couple I was reading about who one day were fishing Santee Cooper Reservoir, a lake known for its large bass, super huge catfish, and striped bass. Aside from the gators, the catfish are the largest of them all.

It's not uncommon to see folks with catfish greater than 40 pounds, and some boast catfish twice that size. What this means is that, from time to time, you just may hook into one of these whiskered monsters. And when you're rigged for bass, it can be a real problem landing a fish like that.

On a particularly quiet day, this couple was just drifting down a creek channel, making casts and not having a lot of success. All of a sudden, the wife hollered that she had a fish on and called for the net. The husband immediately put down his rod, got the net, and headed to the rear of the boat where she was engaged in a battle with something big.

Said the husband, "The rod tip was jumping all over the place. Her effort to move whatever was hooked up was futile and was only overworking the drag as she reeled for all she was worth. Then, however, I noticed we were drifting with the current, and it made me think that she might not have a fish after all.

"As the wife tired, she asked me to take her rod and land this monster. I took her rod and swapped places with her on the back deck and soon realized that, instead of a fish, she had hooked one of those infamous Santee stumps.

"We both started laughing as I freed her rattletrap. Although it was a bit of a disappointment and a slight embarrassment for the wife, it was exciting and the source of many stories with our friends.

"I since have let her know that anyone who fishes has done battle with a stump, thinking they had just hooked Moby Dick."

After reading this account, I started digging around the Internet and found some other examples of "big catches" I would share here.

Fishing writer Andy Whitcomb interviewed several pro bass anglers, including Casey Ashley, Mark Menendez, Alton Jones, and Mike Iaconelli. Ashley related that he has caught beer cans that "fool you until you see them." Menendez once caught a pair of roller skates with the laces tied. Jones landed the frame of a grandfather clock, which weighed 30 pounds. And Iaconelli caught a sex toy. He also related that he once lost a flotation device that he hooked a year later with a crankbait.

Whitcomb himself even made a strange catch one day while fishing a lake in North Dakota. He was dragging a crawler harness across the bottom for trout or walleye and reeled in an animal skull.

Also read about a Texas angler who thought he had hooked a monster catfish while drift fishing on Lake Conroe. Turns out, though, he had hooked a submerged 50-gallon barrel, which he managed to pull up from 40 feet of water.

Meanwhile, an Indiana angler was fishing a bass tournament on Kentucky Lake when he hooked what turned out to be an aluminum lawn chair. "Fought it for a long time before realizing what I had," he said afterward.

I suggest that Jim Nabors' TV role as "Gomer Pyle, USMC," had it right every time he belted out that familiar phrase: "Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"