Whats the craziest thing that has happened to you while catfishing?  

My wife and I were late night fishing for striper on Smith Mountain Lake in VA. I was using a large rebel silver minnow deep diver. Suddenly I got more than I bargained for. It took me about 15 minutes to get whatever it was to the surface. It was the biggest catfish I ever caught, about 30 lbs. I managed to get him up next to the boat. I wanted to pull him into the boat but all I had was a pair of pliers. I grabbed the pliers and proceeded to grab it by the upper jaw to pull it in. The lure was still in his mouth. When I clamped down on his mouth he let it be known in no uncertain terms that he did not like that. With one mighty swish of his tail he pulled away from my grip and actually broke the lure in half. There I sat with a pair of pliers in my hand and an expensive broken lure hanging from my rod. Oh well, I guess he wanted to get away more than I wanted to get him in the boat. I heard later that he could have been a citation because of his size. I always thought catfish were scavengers and rarely went for lures.

I was fishing in a river near my house. I was at the mouth of the river, right where it empties out into the bay. Literally, the river was on one side of the road, and the bay is on the other side, so you can catch a bluegill and a shark right from the same spot. I have seen it done.

Anyway, I was fishing from shore right near the bridge that goes over the road. I had taken my shoes off and waded out a little to cast, and I had my rod holders set up right in the edge of the water, about knee-deep. This meant that I actually had to go out in the water a little to grab the rod, but with all the vegetation along the shoreline, it was hard to cast from shore, so this was working pretty well. I would go out and get the rod, then back up to shore with it when I needed to reel it in, as it was only a few steps out to where I had the holders set. So, I hooked this fish, which turned out to be a catfish, but when I hooked it I had no clue what I had on the line. I didn't weigh him, but I am guessing he was about 4 pounds. I was using a little heavier gear than I would normally have used for catfish, because I knew the possibility of catching a big redfish or shard where I was fishing as well. So, anyway, I am reeling this fish in and he is putting up a pretty good fight, even on the heavier gear. He goes up into this little patch of sea grass or something, and I can't get him to come out from the angle I am pulling him from, so I decide to walk out into the water and see if I can pull him back out toward the middle a little, then work him back to shore. The current wasn't bad, so I waded out a little further than the rod-holders. I was now in water up to my waist. I was doing OK, then I tripped on a rock under the water and cut my foot open, and started stumbling around trying to catch my balance in the current. It was no use...I went down pretty hard. I actually went completely under water, losing a damn nice hat in the process. When I fell, the hand I was holding the rod in hit the rocks under the water and cut my hand open, but I still had a solid grip on the rod, which was still being pulled on by the fish. I got back to my feet. I was bleeding from my hand, and I knew my foot was bleeding too, but I didn't know how bad. At any rate, I was still alive though bleeding and hurting, and I still had the rod and the fish. After looking over my shoulder and seeing my hat floating away with no way for me to retrieve it, I decided to get back in the fight. It was then that I realized I had a bit of an issue with the reel. It was in working order and functional, except the HANDLE on the crank was broken! It had hit the rocks when I fell and was broken off about an inch below where it screwed into the body of the reel, so I had very little to hold on to while trying to reel this fish in, but between turning the crank the best I could, and backing up to the shoreline trying to drag my bloody self out of the water, I managed to get the fish up on dry land. I am proud to announce that he made it to dinner that night if you know what I mean...LOL

It would seem like this fight with this fish went on forever, but all this really took place in a matter of minutes. It was really probably only about 3-4 minutes from the time I hooked the fish until I got him on land and got him in the cooler, but it felt like a lot longer. The fight was going well until I tripped, then things started happening really fast. The time from the point where I tripped to when I got the fish on land was probably only about 60-90 seconds, but it felt like an eternity...

The craziest thing that happend to me while catfishing was that I caught a fairly new baitcaster rod, reel and all. It even had line and bait on it. I can't throw a baitcaster worth a darn so I gave it to my son.