# Best surprise fish?



## J-Dad (Aug 30, 2015)

I wanted to practice casting from my kayak this summer, so snuck it into a tiny, tiny office park pond near the house. Was surprised but tickled to catch this bass. Drove by there this morning, and it made me wonder - what's the best fish you've caught from the most unlikely spot? I'm sure you guys have some good ones ...


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

Best surprise: a 40" snook all the way up in Cedar Key on my trout stick
Weirdest surprise: a 8" Nassau grouper at the boat ramp on Skidaway Island in Savannah.


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## Megalops (Oct 23, 2011)

I went to school in Davie, FL and used to flyfish the canals with a 6 weight. Biggest surprise was a 5lb oscar.

Biggest surprise in my skiff - took my son out and I was netting bait. There were scales all through the water column, a lot of action etc and out of nowhere a huge bull shark swam underneath the skiff. There are some really big sharks in Tampa Bay.


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## grovesnatcher (Sep 25, 2007)

View attachment 4338
Someone put this in my snook spot about 10 yrs ago. 13lbs of flat muscle


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## Megalops (Oct 23, 2011)

Man oh man!! Lol, they make em extra large on the east coast.


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## J-Dad (Aug 30, 2015)

grovesnatcher said:


> View attachment 4338
> Someone put this in my snook spot about 10 yrs ago. 13lbs of flat muscle


That's a full-grown flounder !


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## andrewwa (May 27, 2016)

I don't live down south, but a banded rudderfish (a type of amberjack) in New York.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Where we fish (the interior and gulf coast of the 'Glades) the water's dark so you aren't going to find any bonefish but every now and then you will encounter a permit - some of them quite big... On two occasions now while bouncing small jigs along shorelines for snook one of my anglers has hooked up on something just a bit bigger and it's always a surprise. The first time, some years ago a husband in the bow and the wife in the stern hit the lottery... I was releasing a four or five pound snook for the husband on a small jig when the wife said she'd also hooked up - then whatever it was tried to spool her... The result, 20 minutes later, a 22 lb permit on 10lb spin and a small jig. That fish bit in the darkest of waters in less than three feet of water next to some downed trees - then went screaming down the shoreline before racing out into deeper water... Who knew?

The second time it happened was in even more unlikely circumstances some years later when a young man, again working a small jig, hooked up in quite cold water (for a warm water specie like a permit...) in one of the many river mouths draining the 'Glades. At first the fish didn't take off but acted like a big ray, moving slowly... Then, just as we got it closer to the skiff it took off and nearly spooled my angler (250 yards of 10lb mono...). Quite a while later we had a permit of 33 pounds at the boat - in 67 degree water.... A definite surprise on my end...

There are lots of permit along the Gulf coast of the 'Glades but we normally only find them out on wrecks at least ten miles offshore... What those two big fish were doing is a mystery - but one I like and hope to repeat some day....


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

not quite on topic but..... off of pavilion key marker had a nice tarpon hit a piece of dead shrimp on the bottom and shoot up and out to wave good-bye..total shock


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## EasternGlow (Nov 6, 2015)

Mine is definitely a 44" snook that was laid up on a mangrove point in 16" of water. Was fishing for trout out of the kayak and he hit a mirrolure top pup on a stradic 2500 with 20 lb. leader... the hit sounded like a bomb went off


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## Cliff (Oct 13, 2016)

A few years ago I was catching a slew of trout off an oyster bar in about 3 feet of water. As I lifted one of the fish out of the water a medium size hammerhead came 3 feet out of the water and took the fish. After damn near crapping my pants I had the best 5 seconds of a screaming run on my 9 wt.


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## grovesnatcher (Sep 25, 2007)

Awesome snook! I had a big snook like that crush a seblie plug on a oyster bar in Sebastian. My Dad was wading off the sandbar and saw her jumping he came running and almost fell on the oysters he was so excited. I reached down to pick her up and the plug fell out off her mouth and she swam off giving me the tail!


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## EasternGlow (Nov 6, 2015)

Grovesnatcher I get that big time. I've lost other fish that way. As awesome as pictures are for huge fish, in my mind the memory of how awesome that moment is trumps everything. And it's even better you were with your pops.


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## grovesnatcher (Sep 25, 2007)

Yes agree I love fishing with my dad. That snook you got there is a hog! Do you fish in brevard?


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

I caught this eel in St Augustine the other day. I have never seen or heard of one being caught like this. I let her go it fight another day.


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## EasternGlow (Nov 6, 2015)

Not regularly, but this fish was caught a couple miles north of the inlet.


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## el9surf (Dec 23, 2008)

I caught a bonefish inside Sebastian inlet about 10 years ago drifting shrimp. I have the picture somewhere. Will post if I can find it.

Also caught a Spanish Mack on a mirror lure outside the inlet. Nothing unusual till I got it boat side and a big smoker king came and cut it in half a foot from the side of the boat. I left the head floating there with the plug half way exposed knowing he was probably coming back around. Sure enough the king came back a few seconds later and took the head along with the plug. In less than 10 seconds I could see bare spool in my reel. I ended up breaking off trying to palm the side of the spool as a last ditch effort to stop the line dump. That fish was really big, I stood no chance. Still an awesome memory.

Last unexpected memory was in Costa Rica fishing off a panga we launched from the beach. Wife was fighting a yellowfin and had it about 20 ft under the boat. Water was crystal blue perfect visibility and watching the yellowfin fight was like looking in an aquarium. Two 2 massive blue marlin showed up and started attacking the fish we had on. They were all lit up and probably pushing 400 lb each. That was a Nat Geo moment and something I won't ever forget. No luck hooking the marlin, but we did get a torn up yellowfin boated and a lifelong memory of something most people will never see. Fresh yellow fin sashimi later that day to top it off.


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

most memorable observations....
1. helped push a whale shark off Pigeon key(?) flat...the old UM research center off the old seven mile bridge in marathon-1981 or 82

2. off boynton inlet about 1/2 mile off the beach and we saw a "stick" in the water next to a board that was going in circles in about 40ft of water... eased up-drifted to it and saw a blue marlin pushing the board w/ it's dorsal fin trying to get a "peanut" dolphin away from the board that the peanut was hugging for dear life...marlin swam away when we got to close
1984 ish

3. watched a guy fighting a sailfish from a jon boat just inside of the end of the lake worth pier in early eighties


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## fishicaltherapist (Mar 9, 2013)

Fishing an OLD depression on Anna Maria many years ago, using a Love's tandem lure to catch a couple of quick Trout for dinner. No Trout but, caught a 38" Snook, released for future baby making !!


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## bananabob (Jun 3, 2015)

el9surf reminded me of one of my early trolling trips out of Port Canaveral around 1997 in my 20ft SeaCraft. Only took me twenty years to paint it. It was about thirty feet away when it exploded out of the water. Then swam right under my boat after I put it in neutral. My buddy said it looked to around 500lbs compared to one he saw weighed in at a tournament. Nothing comes close to that surprise for me.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

I caught a 30" gag grouper several miles inland fishing for snook in south Texas last February. It was quite a fight on my trout rod.


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## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

Imagine being a midwestern transplant and trying to figure out saltwater fishing on your own. Everything was a surprise. Someone at a bait shop told us to use sparkle beetles tipped with shrimp under popping corks to catch redfish. We had no idea what a redfish was, but we did as we were told and caught a bunch of ugly, not red, fish with sharp, pointy teeth and a bunch of striped, not red, fish with big cow teeth. At the dock, we asked whether they were redfish. The old guy laughed and told us those were flounder and sheepshead. He showed us a redfish and we went on our way. The next time we went out, everyone but me finally started to catch redfish behind a little weir. I was itching to get in on the action and finally hooked something that fought like hell. My hopes were crushed when I pulled this small, evil looking, bat-winged fish out of the water. We later found out it was a toadfish, but when you are fresh of the wagon from Kansas, it might as well been a baby sea monster.

Nate


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## fjmaverick (Sep 18, 2015)

Pulled a fat 36" snook up off a rock pile about 3 miles offshore


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

fjmaverick said:


> Pulled a fat 36" snook up off a rock pile about 3 miles offshore


That's where a lot of female snook stag up before they run inland to spawn.


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## crboggs (Mar 30, 2015)

Was on the SUP waaaaaaay back in some tight backwaters throwing a #6 black/purple gurgler on my 6wt while prospecting for baby tarpon. Saw a bit of movement in a deeper eddy and slung the gurgler into the zone, stripped it twice, and a big snook erupted on it. 

I managed to land her on 12# tippet and she measured right at 30" before sliding back into the water.

Sometimes elephants do eat peanuts...


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

I've had too many surprise fish .... to write about and bore you with! Nevertheless... the memories are still etched to the inside of my skull... All good and will keep me company long until I become old and senile! 

However, it's those out of the ordinary odd fish and monsters that surprised me (more like shocked me and again, too many to mention), battled with, and shanked me, that haunt my quiet thoughts! Do I claim defeat?? No! It keeps me going and searching for them again, waiting until the next time they show back up!


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## Str8-Six (Jul 6, 2015)

View attachment 5519
Best catch: Was drifting live shrimp on outgoing tide in a trout spot while anchored up. I was using 6lb mono with 12lb leader and 1/0 circle. Got hit by something and set up. Realized right away it wasn't a trout and the fish almost dumped my 2500 reel. Had to tie life jacket to anchor line and chase down the fish. After a 40 min fight I reeled this Red in. Measured about 37" and 27lbs on boca grip.


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## windblows (May 21, 2014)

Around there in the St. John's, you always have a shot at a big bull like that. Cool shot.

For me, it was when I was about 5 trout fishing some grass flats for trout in the Pensacola area with my dad. He hooked what he thought was a jack crevalle on a gold spoon and let me reel it in. Turned out to be a 3+ pound pompano, and the first that I had ever seen. Still remember it vividly and it happened 30+ years ago.


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## Barbs_deep (Jul 4, 2010)

Caught a permit on a black death tarpon fly on a size 1/0 hook. Casted at a string of tarpon in about 6-8 ft of water and had no luck. Fly sank after the string passed by and started stripping it in when a perm came up from depth and smoked it. 

This was after I spent a whole day permit fishing with permit flies and no luck....


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## Pole Position (Apr 3, 2016)

Almost embarrassed to tell this.....we were nearing the end of the 1st day of a mackeral tournament that so far had proven unfruitful---nothing but a few snake kings to show for our efforts. We had been in the beer pretty good and had begun feasting on a bucket of chicken when a fish hit on a downrigger, and all of us were too lazy to mess w/ it. During its run , the fish wrapped around both downriggers plus the line was wrapped in the engine while slow-trolling. Because I was nearest and had finished my last bite, I finally grabbed the rod and began untangling the mess---took almost 4-5 minutes to resolve but somehow got everything untangled w/o getting cut off. I horsed the fish to the boat as I was certain it was another small fish: welp, at about the same time I first saw the fish and it saw the boat, it ran like a bat outta hell against an initially overly tight drag. To make a long story short, we finally gaffed the fish, which was another cluster considering the sobriety of the crew, and ended up w/ a 40 plus pound fish to win 2nd place / @ 15K despite doing everything imaginable to lose the fish. And I always remember this fish whenever I lose one despite doing nothing wrong: karma, as they say , can be a bitch.


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## WhiteDog70810 (May 6, 2008)

Pole Position said:


> Almost embarrassed to tell this.....we were nearing the end of the 1st day of a mackeral tournament that so far had proven unfruitful---nothing but a few snake kings to show for our efforts. We had been in the beer pretty good and had begun feasting on a bucket of chicken when a fish hit on a downrigger, and all of us were too lazy to mess w/ it. During its run , the fish wrapped around both downriggers plus the line was wrapped in the engine while slow-trolling. Because I was nearest and had finished my last bite, I finally grabbed the rod and began untangling the mess---took almost 4-5 minutes to resolve but somehow got everything untangled w/o getting cut off. I horsed the fish to the boat as I was certain it was another small fish: welp, at about the same time I first saw the fish and it saw the boat, it ran like a bat outta hell against an initially overly tight drag. To make a long story short, we finally gaffed the fish, which was another cluster considering the sobriety of the crew, and ended up w/ a 40 plus pound fish to win 2nd place / @ 15K despite doing everything imaginable to lose the fish. And I always remember this fish whenever I lose one despite doing nothing wrong: karma, as they say , can be a bitch.


No story worth telling starts until something goes wrong.

Nate


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

When I was a kid I was fishing a trout stream in PA with salmon eggs. On 1 drift I got a big hit and caught a 20" Brown Trout...huge for this stream. When I netted the fish I saw that the trout had another hook in it's jaw and the point of my hook had gone thru the eye of the hook in the trouts mouth....like threading a needle - crazy.

On another trip we were trolling for Stripers using small lipped plugs when the lightest rod goes off and bends to the point where we can't get it out of the rod holder. After an hour of fighting what we think is the largest Striper ever and getting no where, a huge Mola Mola appears below our boat - easily 5' across it's back. Not wanting to lose our $15 plug, my buddy jumps overboard and straddles the back of this beast and gets the plug back out of its nose...it was foul hooked. A biologist later told me that the fish was probably 1200 lbs.


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## Fish-N-Fool (Jan 10, 2017)




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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

crboggs said:


> Saw a bit of movement in a deeper eddy and slung the gurgler into the zone, stripped it twice, and a big snook erupted on it.
> 
> I managed to land her on 12# tippet and she measured right at 30" before sliding back into the water.
> 
> Sometimes elephants do eat peanuts...


Chris, I've caught more snook on crappie size jigs and flies small enough for bluegills, than you could ever imagine! That's the truth! 

They might be too full to eat a hamburger, but there's always room for a couple of potato chips!


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

WhiteDog70810 said:


> No story worth telling starts until something goes wrong.
> 
> Nate


Nate, I have too many of those to tell. Something always goes wrong on the ones I lose.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

We were fishing in a river for trout with very small light rods. Then a 10 lb. Brown took my plug. Landed and released 
Then we were Striper fishing, using big green backs for bait, then caught a catfish about 4 lb.


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## Reelluvin (Jul 3, 2015)

Last summer in our TW we were fishing near a wreck in about 60' of water. I noticed a wave of bait fish jumping out of the water. I told my son to watch the rods we had just started trolling, when sure enough wham! Fish on. It was a freaking 7' sailfish! Which wouldn't be too big a deal on the east coast of Florida but we were north of Tampa on the west coast. Not a usual catch that shallow. We got her to the boat and safely released her to fight another day. The coolest thing was my son, his wife, and their friends were visiting from Dallas so they had a great memory to take home.


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## tailwalk (Nov 20, 2016)

View attachment 6218
This is the first tarpon I ever caught on a fly. It's my favorite 'surprise' fish because I basically had no expectations of catching anything that day. I had just gotten my kayak and took it out in the glades to get a feel for it. I had also just started tying flies so I was excited to try one out. Spent the morning and afternoon cruising around, exploring, and fishing here and there. About an hour before sunset I was drifting along feeling somewhat defeated and cast at a shoreline. For all intents and purposes I had written the day off as a practice run. Three or four strips into the retrieve I felt the strike and strip set. A second later this little dude was airborne and I almost fell off the kayak as I realized what it was. POON! I'm pretty sure I yelled loud enough to scare the alligators!  My dad showed me that spot, and got me into fly fishing. The next time I saw him I told him the story and gave him the fly.


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