Funniest one I've ever seen, was in a guide boat just about 20' from where we were anchored on the Chehalis. You have to anchor in a certain spot, because when the tide changes you want to be able to cast into some structure to catch the silvers. Problem was, the silvers were bypassing the slot, and were in the main channel. Since none of us wanted to power up, since eventually the fish would come in, we were trying to get our gear out into the main channel. Problem was, we all were coming up short. This guide (or shall I say his clients) were tossing blue boxes tipped with rubber worms. As his client hit the seem (about 10 yards short of where it had to be) a seagull landed and grabbed the worm. It flew out into the channel, then dropped the spinner. It had barely hit the water when a silver came up and slashed at the spinner just as it started to sink. First fish on for the day. Rest of us were a bit short of where we needed to be (was early in the AM anyways, still plenty of time for the fish to move in).

One that does come to mind really leads to the "Don't neglect the water at your feet" rule when fishing steelhead. Snagged a tree on my backcast. Thought I had room, but was wrong. Luckily, it came free, but landed about 20' out in front of me from the recoil. As I was about to reel in, the line dipped. I stripped as fast as I could, and sure enough a summerrun had nailed my fly as it was dangling there.

 

Maybe that is what I have to do to catch anything. Act like I don't know what I'm doing. Hell,I don't have to act to look like that.

Jim

 

First fish I ever caught on a fly was by accident. I had built my own 6 weight rod and was fishing down around Wilson Creek in the canyon. There were fishing rising all over the place and I was using a Royal Wulff. I was walking from one spot to another dragging the fly and line behind me when, all of a sudden, fish on. It was about a 6 inch rainbow, but I was on the board.

 

I am willing to bet that most caught fish are happy accidents for surprized anglers anywhere.

 

My friend was getting ready to put some roe on his hook for his first cast of the day into a pool on the Sold Duc last fall, when he had the empty hook dangling in the water, a bright coho came up and took the hook. Too bad the fish came loose before he could land it, cause it was his only bite for the day. NOW, he thinks its funny, back then.......
Lesson learned: Don't fish with roe !

 

Was on the Methow a couple of years ago with my two sons. One of them tangled his line. We were standing in the river trying to figure the mess out and the fly was skating on the surface about 10' below us. Suddenly the skating fly got heavier...a small rainbow (optimistically 6") had taken the bug!

 

I was wading in the Yak in a place where the flow was kicking my butt. I was trying to wade back to shore when I lost my balance and fell in. I drifted a few feet before I could get my footing again.When I got up my line was a mess and as I was reeling it in when I noticed my line was a lot heavier. Just then I nice rainbow jumped from the end of my line. I reeled him in took his picture. As I was releasing him I droped my camera in the water and watched him and my camera dissapear down the Yak. The guy on the other side of the river thought that I was quite the fishing clown. :clown:

 

I was at Dry Falls at right at dark. I pulled over to put more air in my tube, threw my rod up on the rocks, without reeling in my leech I was dragging around. Whilst blowing, my rod starts skating across the rocks. I grabbed it before it headed for the depths. Up come a brown on it. :thumb:

 

Sometime roughly a decade ago I was on the Yak in early Nov.. It was very cold, around 7 degrees and I been had workin' the rockgarden but couldn't get anything to move. As I head upstream to cross at the lower end of the Beavertail I stopped where the gravel bar drops off for one last try before crossing to the road. Of course I was working it so slow it felt like bait fishin. Finally my patience wore out. I turn and started upsteam and after a few steps my line was heavy and I figure "well I'm losing my fly as a finale". As I pulled on it I realize I was gaining some and finally came to the conclusion SOMETHING was on the other end? It certain had some weight, but not much wiggle. Ended up a 19 3/4" fish and was the most numb fish I ever have caught. Probably the most disappointing fight too, the temps had really plummeted in the previous 24 hours. I should have felt lucky in hindsight.

I see it more or less like Triggs in that we may be out there fishing with great intent but we still have more incidental catches then most realize....or are willing to admit I sort of look at it like if your not fishing for a fish you see there is some degree of incident involved. Otherwise I'm just trying to use good technique in likely water which amounts to an attempt to increase the odds it would seem :hmmm:

 

I was fishing in lake washington with a dodger and red hooks and "accidentally" caught a bunch of Sockeye. I was going for cutthroat but couldnt keep the salmon off the line.

 

My first summer steelie was quite a bit by accident. I was on the Green with a buddy and had just changed to a chocolate colored wooley. I had let my line drift down river as we stood and talked about fishing. (Since the first 3 hours was a bust.) He was telling me how his goal that year was to finally catch a steelie on fly. (Mind you I had only been seriously fly fishing for about a year at that time.) I started to reel in my line when I felt it stop. I thought for sure I was snagged on the bottom like I had been several times that day. I tugged a bit more, then started walking toward the snag. All of sudden the line started coming up to me. Finally brought it in and had a nice steelie on. It was in it's spawning colors.. after a little knee knocking. I set it free.

 

I always drag my fly behind me when crossing the river or moving from spots due to this "accidental" catch rate being higher than my normal catch rate. :thumb:

Best one I have seen was back in the rapala days. My brothers snoopy pole had a worm and bobber on it, fish took it and pulled the entire pole into the lake. The fish jumped and my dad cast between the fish and the boat, retrieving like a mad man....he snagged the line from the pole that was now sinking to the bottom of the lake, and reeled the pole and fish in. Not quite an accidental catch but along the same lines.

 

A buddy and myself was fishing LK Washington from the dock under the I-90 bridge. He had set his pole down and we were talking and shooting the sheet. When he turned around it was gone. Since we had only been there a short time he told me to keep fishing. A boat came through trolling and hooked in to a nice Cutthroat. We were kidding to the boat owner that was very close to the dock at the time that if the fish was hooked to a pole it was ours. The boat got in the nice fish and sure enough it had another hook and line in its mouth. The boat owner pulled in the rod and brought my fishing buddy back his pole and we both fished the rest of the day. To bad the only other fish either of us caught that day was a Carp.

 

The best is to play it off like you meant to catch the fish. :rofl:

 

Casting a fly at Coffeepot Lake many years ago. Family is originally from Davenport, and have many fond memories of days with Grandfather, uncles, cousins etc. Anyway, fish are rising near shore. Yup, tried to cast there and caught a branch overhanging the water, and it wrapped around several times leaving the fly dangling above the water. Yup again, a fish managed to jump up and get hooked. It’s my story, and I'm sticking to it....
Ronbow

 

While fishing for Bull Trout in central Oregon, a friend of mine broke off a nice fish. Later that day I "hooked" and landed a nice 6 pounder. Upon closer inspection, my fly had hooked up under the hackle wraps of my friends fly, still lodged in the corner of the fishes mouth. I think the fish was happy to be caught and have the original fly removed.

 

Several years ago I was at Homestead Lake with my young daughter fishing powerbait (before the lake was changed to selective rules - and she's a flyfisher now!). I called her to help me clean a couple rainbows we had kept, so she set the rod down on the basalt ledge above the lake and came down by me. A moment later, the rod disappears into the depths of the lake followed a short time later by a fish jumping like crazy about 40 feet out from shore. I promptly took my rod and put on the largest spinner I had, cast it out in the vicinity of the fish, and reeled in her rod on the first cast. I handed the rod to my daughter and she reeled in a nice 15" rainbow!

 

The best accidental catch for me had to be on the upper Davidson River in NC. A buddy of mine and I were hiking up this canyon.. way back there. There was a narrow section of the canyon where the water channeled into very fast pocket water... almost a falls, but not quite. While we were rock hopping and climbing up this pocket water, I suppose I was dapping every pool we went by, because somewhere along the line I had a 2" fish take the fly. When we got to the top, I let out line letting the current load it, and went to cast. The additional weight was not expected and the line flew high, wrapping around a thick branch about 10 times. what was left was a 2" fish dangling like a perfect ornament. Funny as hell.

~B

 

I accidentally caugt a 20" bow while pike fishing

 

Last spring I was fishing the Little D for cutts. I was fishing a dry fly stimulator with a nymph dropper. I had landed a cutt of about 10" on the dry fly & was in the process of unhooking him when another cutt of about 6" hit my dropper. What makes it so funny (now, not then) is the timing of it all. I had my forceps securely on the dry fly hook, had rotated it upside down, and released the 1st fish. At the exact second I released my forceps, the little guy decides to strike the nymph, securely piercing my dropper hook through his upper lip. Cause & effect...the force of smaller fish hooking himself was apparently plenty of force to slide my #12 stimulator securely into my finger. So there I was, the upper hook in my finger and a cutthroat slashing away vigorously at the lower hook a couple feet away. While cursing the 6" cutt, his mother, and his mother's mother...I frantically tried to grab at the very active piece of 2lb test maxima between the two hooks -with the forceps in my hand, trying not to drop them in the water. I finally did get my hand tangled around the line, but only managed to drive the hook deeper into my finger because I apparently grabbed my line too agressively. Fortunately for me, I pinch my barbs & I finally got the hook freed from my finger. The lil' guy was still flailing away on my dropper as I dropped the now tangled birdsnest of my line in the shallow water. I got him pulled-in and released him...although I was very tempted to do much crueler things than just release him. But, I figured he probably wasn't having too much fun out of this ordeal either, so I eased him back into the water. The tangles and knots in my line were now too far gone for my eroded patience, so I cut off the whole leader and tied on a new one. After all that I had to sit down on a log to chill out for a few minutes & nurse my boo-boo. I finally did manage to laugh at myself. I still remember that exact spot to this day.

 

I was fishing a local fly fishing only lake one evening last year. I was casting a dry near the lilly pads and reeds that line the edge. It was all most dark and there was a lot of activity near the shore line. Fish were surfacing all around. Well I saw a the water swirl in the area that i thought my fly was in so I set the hook. What a dissapointment, it wasn't a brown that I know are in the lake or any other fish. I had hooked a muskrat.

lastcall

 

Fished the Yak about 10 years ago. Hooked a 13" rainbow late in the day shortly before the takeout at Ringer, but he broke off when he wrapped around the anchor line. We continued to fish the area for another 30 minutes or so until it became dark. So we drifted the last 100 yards or so to the takeout. As we were breaking down the raft, we saw something flashing around in the water near the back of the raft. Turns out the trout never got the 2 feet of 5X tippet unwrapped from the anchor line when he brokr off upstream!

 

I was fishing the Gardner River in Yellowstone last year, and my dry fly got pulled under right as it passed by a blouder which it than got snagged on. So I tried a couple of roll cast so dislodge my fly, lucky for me I wasn't successful at this, because my fly line started moving and I ended up bringing a nice 15" bow to hand.

 

Okay, here's one. After an long Alaska season a guide friend and I went on a little road trip from Boulder to Navaho Dam, NM and the San Juan. We camped out on the bluffs, caught up on our sleep, and fished there for a week. The fishing was stupidly fun, also just plain stupid.

One day we are sitting together on the river banks, feet dangling in the water, taking a break for lunch and fish stories. A rainbow swims up to my boot and starts taking small bugs off of the felt of my submerged boot. I picked up the last two feet of my tippett by hand and dropped a little midge into the water and let it fall down onto my boot felt. The trout watched all of that and then swam right over and plucked the fly off of my boot and swam away with it, and I set the hook with my fingertips.

The fish just disappointedly sulked back over toward my feet and let me release him there without a fight.

 

I had just started flyfishing (back in the early 70's) and some friends and I had hike in the the Jewel basin area of Montana (near Whitefish). We were young and inexperienced and ended up getting soaked our first night. Early the next morning we were drying out our clothes on a huge rock that slanted down into a little basin lake , maybe 40 feet wide by 100 feet long. I tried a few casts but I kept hanging up and banging my backcast on the rock behind me. I gave up and reeled in with just the tip of my leader hanging out of my tiptop guide (maybe 18"). I was nearly asleep when I huge Cutthroat (easily 4-5 pounds) came out of the water and inhaled my fly . I jumped for my Rod and set the hook, but only had him on for a second or two. When he popped off, I retrieved my fly and discovered that most of the bend had been snapped off, probably on the rocks. I damn near cried as I had never even hoped to someday catch a fish that big on a fly. But being an optimist I tied another fly on and proceeded beat the water in that little alpine pond to a lather. No luck. Disgusted I reeled in again set my pole back down and tried to fall back to sleep. Sure enough about 20 minutes later the same damn fish (there couldn't have been two that big in that little seep) slammed my fly again- same spot! This time though I had him solid and proceeded to land a beautiful westlope cutthroat about 22 inches long and as thick as a football. Needless to same my time spent fishing with anything but flies was limited thereafter- and I always check my hooks after every hang up :ray1: