JD’s Top 8 Bizarre Fishing Catches
Spend enough time on the water and you’ll see some cool and crazy stuff. The past 20 years of guiding have certainly provided me with an endless supply of interesting things — and some of my favorites are when we catch something totally unexpected.
Take the above skull for example. When we pulled this out of the river (on Halloween Day no less!), we were freaking out. I mean — what in the holy heck could it be? Well, when I flipped it over, I saw “Made in China” written on the underside. Mystery solved!
We sure had some fun showing it to other drift boats as we floated by them. Then, at the end of the day, I chucked it back into the river for somebody else to find!
I wish I had photographed all the kooky non-target species my customers have caught over the years but sometimes I’m just too busy running the boat, netting fish and untangling lines to grab a camera. Digging through the archives, however, I found a handful of shots of that are pretty fun. Here are some of my favorites…
Why wives don’t believe that we are actually going fishing
While side-drifting for steelhead one winter’s day on the American River, my client caught a black bra. You can only imagine the lively conversation such a catch started!
Being an enterprising young fella at the time, I of course snapped the pic and kept it in a safe place — just in case I needed it for blackmail purposes down the road. :)
All Mixed Up!
In California’s Central Valley, Chinook salmon and striper runs often overlap. It’s not all that uncommon to catch kings on striper offerings like crankbaits, minnows, jigging spoons…and swimbaits like this one:
But oddly enough, it doesn’t happen the other way around quite as often. I typically catch a few stripers on eggs each fall but you’d think they’d be all over a sardine wrapped plug. I mean, what’s not to like? A wobbling plug looks like a fish — and with a wrap — it smells like one too, but I just don’t hook all that many bass that way for some reason…
Sucker for a MagLip
Speaking of salmon plugs, I usually catch more suckers in a season on them than stripers. Weird, huh? I’m still not quite sure what suckerfish are thinking when they attack a big wiggling banana.
Perhaps it’s the scent of sardine that gets them riled up — or, in this case, maybe it’s just proof positive that everything’s a sucker for a MagLip!
Pre-Filleted
My buddy Khevin and I were fishing the Trinity River one afternoon off the bank at a popular drift boat take-out spot. He set the hook on a “weird bite” and came up with this unique salmon species: The Pre-Filleted King.
Foul hooked in the tail, Khevin opted to release the fish despite the fact that it looks like there may have been more meat still on the carcass than the angler who cleaned it went home with!
Mystery Meat
Boondoggin’ eggs for kings on the Sacramento River one August, I had two clients simultaneously snag this unidentifiable hunk of meat. Before I cut the line (heck no I didn’t touch it!), we took a close look at the thing trying to figure out what the heck the backstory was on it.
Clearly the leg bone had been sawed off, which led to a very macabre conversation about folks like Jimmy Hoffa, Freddy and Jason. I’m sure there was perfectly good explanation for why the hideous chunk of flesh was in the river…but we couldn’t think of it.
FlatFish Catfish
Well, you’ve got to admire this little guy’s desire! I remember the client asking me why such a small fish would go after a lure that is about its same size. I told him that down there, in the depths, anything you can swallow is one less thing that can gobble you up!
A better question is what’s a catfish doing going for a FlatFish? Well, cats are much more predatory than a lot of folks give them credit for. Now, I’m not so sure that this little guy was actually going for the plug, however. My guess is that the sardine was what he was after.
Getting Jiggy for Sturgeon
Catching a sturgeon while targeting stripers is not at all newsworthy. On the California Delta, anglers routinely catch both species on baits like sardines, pile worms and shad.
I’ve caught plenty of them on accident while salmon fishing with eggs — and even sardine-wrapped plugs. While spooning for stripers like we were doing on this day, I’ve accidentally foul-hooked a few too. But this little fella is the one and only sturgeon I’ve had on the boat that ate a jigging spoon. I suppose it makes sense because they are known to eat live fish like herring and salmon smolt, but I’d hate to try to make a living catching sturgeon on artificials!
Topwater Shark Fishing: OMG!!!
This is so rad!
How To: Pink Worm & Diver for Steelhead
Backtrolling plastic worms behind divers is a deadly steelhead technique — yet not many folks fish them this way.
Of course, the fact that steelhead like plastic worms is about as revolutionary these days as saying Jimi Hendrix was an amazing guitarist. Or that Jennifer Lawrence is hot. Not exactly big news, right? But, the use of plastic “garden hackle” is most often associated with float or drift fishing.
This time around, I’m going to (re)introduce you to an old classic that is a genuine steelhead smoker!
What makes the diver & worm rig so effective is you can put your plastic bait, with pinpoint accuracy, into runs that would be hard to reach otherwise. Also, the bait stays right down in the zone the whole time so the fish have a good chance to see it. At first, you may think that a worm traveling downstream, tail first, at a slow rate of speed, wouldn’t have much meal appeal to a steelhead, but it actually has a nice subtle action that the fish seem to really like.
Technique
Running the diver and worm show is a lot like pulling plugs. I’ll have the clients run them back about 40 to 60 feet behind the boat and then I’ll slowly back down a fishy-looking run. While some pluggers slowly sweep side-to-side as they backtroll, I like to keep the worms moving in a straight line down river. I’ll let the boat slip downstream at about half the speed of the current.
Rather than hand-holding them, it’s best if you put the rods into holders to keep you from reacting too quickly when you get a strike. Speaking of bites, there are three main styles you may get while fishing plastic in this fashion. The first is a peck-peck-peck style of grab, which can be a smolt, cutthroat or other small fish…BUT…I’ve had plenty of big fish take a worm that way too. So, don’t take any bites for granted!
The second (and more common) type of grab you’re likely to get goes like this: One solid thump…a pause…and then the rod doubles over. And then there’s the third (my personal favorite): the suicidal steelhead slam. Out of nowhere, the rod tip slams down hard and pumps wildly as a steelhead makes for the horizon.
The Rig
I like to run a threaded worm on a 4- to 5-foot leader made from 12-to 15-pound mono. Now, you can go with a three way swivel between the mainline and the leader, with a dropper line for your diver off the other eye — or run a sliding dropper rig. One reason to go with the 3-way instead of a sliding dropper is because worms can get snagged when you’re backtrolling them. If your diver’s on a slider, the worm can be snagged but the diver will keep working downstream and you may not notice it until the lure is somewhere way upstream of you. The downside to a fixed dropper is that you can sometimes get the diver caught up in the net — when this happens, the fish usually uses that leverage to break free.
In either case, I usually tie a 6- to 18-inch dropper for the diver (go longer in slower water and shorter when fishing the fast stuff) and finish it off with a duo lock plug snap.
Speaking of divers, I like the clear/black bill or flat black Brad’s Bait Divers.
Worms
There are countless worm varieties out there and all of them will catch steelhead. My favorites are Mad River Manufacturing’s Steelhead Worms but the BnR Tackle Holey Worms are cool too. The amount of colors and sizes of worms out there is pretty mind boggling. To keep it simple, start with this basic rule of thumb: Smaller and darker worms tend to work best in low, clear water and larger, more poppy colors are best in big, off-color water. There are tons of exceptions to that concept, but it’s a good place to begin. One thing I will say is big, wild bucks will often crush a hot pink 6-inch worm in any water condition!
Hooks
Octopus style hooks work well with worms fished behind divers. The size varies, depending on the worm but I generally go with No. 2 to 2/0. I’ve also experimented quite a bit with light wire circle hooks with this method. They really hold fish — provided you can fight the temptation to set the hook when you git bit, A circle hook needs a little time to work its magic — when the rod tip is in the water and line is screaming off the reel, go ahead and pick up the rod. At that point, the fish should be solidly hooked and you can start cranking. Once these hooks hit paydirt, you’ll almost always have the fish hooked deep in the corner of the jaw. And another bonus is steelhead rarely swallow circle hooks, so it’s easy to release them.
I really got into there diver & worm thing heavily back in the late 1990’s. Here’s an old school pic of some of my dudes from 2009 with an early diver rig steelie.
Regardless of the hook style you use, run a small bead or sequin between the bait and the eye of the hook to keep it from getting sucked into the worm.
Drift Bobbers
When running the diver and pink worm rig, I like a drift bobber ahead of the worm to keep it up off the bottom. A simple round Corkie, Hard Fish Pill or Cheater will work fine, and when I need a little more movement, Wobble Glos can be the ticket. The best-ever bobber, however, is the Big Poly Stik Minnow, which looks kinda like a long, stretched out Spin-N-Glo. Stik Minnows fit the profile of the worm, yet give it some sweet action. They’re deadly — and, unfortunately, difficult to find these days.
Rods & Reels
Rods for this technique need to have a soft tip but plenty of power in the lower half. The flexibility in the tip allows the fish to take the bait without feeling much resistance and the bottom end punch will help you stop a rampaging steelhead that’s hell bent on going back to the sea. Conventional reels with solid drag systems are a must and you can fill them with mono or braid — that’s mostly a matter of personal preference.
