One lucky catch

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If you fish or boat - sooner or later you see something really hard to believe. Over the years , I've seen my share but today is hard for me to believe. If I did not have a witness to back it up - I'd swear I dreamed it.

Fellow TFer Big E ( Evans ) was with me this morning off #87 marker about 8:30 am. It was choppy from south so we set rods out with the wind. Got first line over on the planer while Evans set out a boat rod. I set second rod off the planer and got third one in the water. I fed line off the second reel and snapped the clip to planer tow line of third rod. Pulling line off each while Evans got the next lures ready. Not sure how but the line off the reel snagged my sunglasses and flipped them out about 15 feet. I wear prescriptions but they were older pair. That sucked but we continued to set the lines.

Once the six lines were out - we trolled east / west and looked for fish. Got one off the board - nice 35 incher. Saw some thing odd near the marker - looked like a piece of a metal lawn chair. Dodged it luckily - then had an awesome hit off the boat rod. This beast pulled drag but got away. We worked the area - keeping an eye out for that odd debri. Farthest planer rod got hit and we reeled in a nice 38 1/2 incher. Had to slow the boat a hair as this fish really fought hard. Rotated rods out and continued our east / west trolling pattern. Had to cut a hard turn as a sailboat tacked a little too close. Funny seeing the board speed up due to hard turn.

We pulled lines about 2:00 - but held out hope for one last fish. Reeling in the second to last - I saw it had picked up a twig. Damn , no wonder it did not catch any fish - I cussed my laziness in checking the lures.

Evans jumped towards back of the motor well and I saw why. The thing I thought was a twig was really my lost sunglasses. Evans managed to grab them as they were only hanging against the three way swivel. We both shook our heads - not believing what we saw or our good luck in Evans grabbing them.

We tried to figure out how they stayed on the line for over 5 hours , in turns and various speeds. Even now , I still am shaking my head about it.

Back at the ramp - we recreated how they were on the line.





































Like I said - even with a witness ( sober I might add ) - I still am amazed. Just when you think you've seen it all - something crazy happens.

[Spot77]

That's really cool, and I'm glad you got your glasses back.

I've had a few strange things happen over the years. Last year I was trolling with Mike in some relatively shallow area and snagged someone's braid.

well it wasn't someone else's....it was mine from a few weeks earlier. Pulled it all in and still had the lure attached that had gotten hung up.....perfectly intact.

Years ago I was freshwater fishing and I saw my buddy on a different boat lose a fish as it snapped his line. About an hour later I had moved my boat over into the spot he was fishing and got a bite. Reeled in the same Pickerel that had snapped his line, and retrieved HIS lure which was still firmly embedded in the fish's mouth.


Took a charter out of Chesapeake Beach about 10 years ago and we were trolling along nicely catching good amounts of Stripers, Blue and Spanish Mac. The next thing we reeled up was a nice trolling combo that another charter captain had lost a week or two earlier. Our captain radio'd the other captain and he was quite happy to get it back.


Oh....and that mantatee that was found in the bay a couple of years ago? We're pretty sure we had that hooked at one point too.