Lost a $150 bait caster combo over the side of my boat just below Guntersville Dam in the swift water back about 1990. Drug for it with weighted treble hooks and on the 2nd pass I hooked it, brought it up and took my ass home. I done used up ALL my luck for the day!

Found a mermaid one night while floundering.

Too many to count but here is a couple:
1. This spring just before the beaches closed I was pompano fishing. Get a hit and fight a pompano double to the beach. My bottom hook had caught the swivel on someone's broken off rig and the pompano were on that rig. Bait up the same rod and cast back out. Get a hit and reel in a 26 inch redfish. My bottom hook had hooked the top hook of someone's broken off rig. Same person's rig in both catches.
2. A buddy and I were fishing a bass tournament on the Escambia River. I cast a buzzbait into the mouth of a tiny ditch and a 4 pounder jumps on it. My buddy drops his rod and grabs the net. We get her in the boat and are high fiving when we hear a big splash behind the boat. My buddies rod almost gets pulled over but he grabs it and reels in a 5 pounder. He was fishing a crankbait and it had just floated out behind the boat where the 5 pounder ate it. We won that tournament with a giant bag of fish.

Was stipe fishing below Guntersville dam years ago. Sat the hook and was fighting what I thought was a big stripe. Turned out to be a Zebco 33. As I was getting my jig off the rod I felt a tug. Grabbed the 33 set up and reeled in a 5lb catfish.

I lost a brand new baitcaster combo ($300) one evening fishing in Browns creek, line snapped and jerked out of my hand fishing a spinnerbait.. Tried to snag it for a week. Gave up on it. Then watching bassmaster live feed, I saw an angler catch it. Their words were something like “ I bet that made someone a little sad”, yep, sure did.
My brother caught a boat anchor when we were fishing the big bass splash one year, heaviest thing we caught all weekend and it still sits on his desk.

I’ve had the same thing happen to me on Yates Lake. I assumed it was methane gas releasing but the leaf mat that came up would’ve knocked the hell out of my boat if I had been there. I don’t know if my motor vibrations caused it or what, but it was eerie

I was under the Warrenton Causeway bridge and saw the creek run backwards Sunday afternoon. Not just a little. It was ripping. I’m told it does this from time to time when the reservoir “back fills.” I’ve seen it before but never this strong.

Was at idle speed in Dad's bass boat just about back to the launch at Bates Lake. Opened up front dry storage to get something and turned my back for a second. A mullet landed in perfectly and shot through the small opening to the hull. Dad didn't really believe me at first. After 2 days in his garage in August, he believed me.

We had an oxbow lake on our club land off the Alabama river. We fished out of a 10-12 ft aluminum boat. I had a grinnel/bowfin jump in the boat and on another occasion had a keeper bull bream jump in there(this was really shocking as I rarely, if ever see bream jump).

Big tournament this weekend you interested?

A guy I fish with had this exact same thing to happen 2 weeks ago. On the end was about a 3lb channel cat on there.

In the late seventies I was bottom fishing with my uncle about fifteen miles South of Camp Hellen. We were wearing out the grouper that morning fishing some of our wreaks and some of my uncles commercial fishing partner spots. We had noticed a big boat a few hundred yards away but didn’t pay it much attention until it kept getting close to us. It got within a few yards and the boat captain got on the loud speaker and said that they wanted to talk to us and asked permission to dock up beside us. My uncle said it was fine but was hesitant because we didn’t have any idea who they were and what they wanted. We knew we didn’t have anything they wanted because we were fishing out of a 19’ Glassmaster bare bones closed bow and they were in a Bertram yacht that looked to be around forty feet.

The captain came out of the cabin and told my uncle that they had been watching us and this was his new boat and was wanting to do some bottom fishing but was new to fishing the area. He asked if we would be interested in fishing with them and he would be glad to pay us. I’m like damn! So the next morning we met him at his boat at Captain Anderson’s and went out bottom fishing for about fifteen hours. We fished the numbers he bought and did really well. Plus the boat was the nicest thing that I’ve ever seen or been in. We continued fishing with him on his boat until the fall of that year. The man was a member of the Candler family out of Atlanta. Family name famous for the coke cola company and real estate.

The baitcaster story is a good one. I have caught a boat anchor as well. Still have it and I know who's it was. I put it to use one day, and a guy i fish with sometimes ask me where I got it. He said he had lost that very anchor a year earlier. He told me to keep it.

I had an argument with a guy one time that told me that was impossable!

This happened in the TN river several weeks ago when I was fishing around scottsboro. It was pulling strong towards nickajack dam, then a few hours later started flowing back down to Guntersville.

I've seen the backfill before.


Saw a mola (sunfish) while snapper fishing in the Gulf maybe 40ish (or more) miles out. Big, cool.

Had a tarpon jump into the skiff with us in Boca Grande. Boat looked like a mafia hit with blood and slime before the guide tossed it out.

Fishing in the cove at Star Point on Guntersville one day and it's deadass slick calm, not a breeze or ripple. Water looked like glass. I looked up and there's waves maybe 4-5 inches tall and 30-40 feet wide rolling along, maybe a dozen of them. And then it stopped and was calm again.

On Reelfoot one morning we were running cruising through one of the cutoffs and popped out to see a fair-haired lass lying on the front deck getting a suntan on her feet while an ol' boy was bringing the thunder. He glanced at us, never checked up and we just waved and went on.

In Canada back in 1996 four of us went on an 8-day paddle-camp trip. One day out fishing we saw the other guys. One of them lost a Zara Spook to a nice northern that broke the line. About 90 minutes or so later I caught the same fish on a Spook in the same area with his Spook still in its mouth. Got a photo and the fish wiggled, I dropped it and it broke my line - and swam away with a Spook in each side of its mouth.

Was 13 or 14 yrs old at our farm in TN, fishing off a pond pier with my cousin. I was using a small rod with a crappie jig on it, fishing for bream and small bass. I was standing on the pier talking to my cousin, just holding the rod in my hand with the bait out of the water between casts. The crappie jig was probably 12-18" out of the water just hanging there. out of nowhere, a bass (maybe 1.5 - 2 lbs) jumped up out of the water and grabbed the jig. nearly jerked the rod out of my hand b/c I wasn't even really paying attention to it when it happened.

Snagged a 30 pound Cobia with a #2 hook and 30 pound mono and landed it.

Caught a 28 pound catfish on a deep diving crankbait. He flat out swallowed it.

Lost 2 rods in one day at Dream Lake Lodge ( when Paul Bracknell was running it years ago). Set the hook and the fish pulled back so hard my rod went goodbye and never saw them again. Caught 7 fish over 7 pounds that day. 2 over 8 and one that I almost netted but got away went well over 10.

I caught a catfish on an Alabama rig last fall. The white bass were about 10 feet deep off the Warrenton Causeway. You had to count it down to be in em. The 10-12 lb cat hit at 7.

Ya'll are gonna call me a liar but, that's ok. Several years ago one January back in a deserted slough on Guntersville, I had been fishing most of the morning and had caught nothing other than 1 little dink. As I got way back in the slough I noticed a squirrel climbing out an overhanging limb to try to get to a white oak acorn that was laying on a stump just an inch or two above the surface of the water. I know most the White oak acorns had been long gone where I hunted, so I just stopped fishing and watched for a few minutes. After hanging over it for a moment or two the squirrel finally dropped down onto the stump and grabbed the acorn. About the time he grabbed it all heck broke loose. A huge bass exploded on the surface, knocked the squirrel off of the stump with his tail and then circled around and inhaled the squirrel before it could climb back on the stump. The giant bass then disappeared back below the surface. I sat there bewildered for just a moment and then as I was pulling off the bass appeared again rolled it's huge head sideways and spit the acorn back up on the stump.

I'm not gonna call you a liar, just a goober that tells worn out old jokes !