STRANGE CATCHES and FINDS !

 One of the perils of fishing is getting snagged and losing a nice lure but sometimes it brings  fortune instead of deprivation. Old boots and tires don't hold a candle to the strange things that have come up on the end of my fishing line!

 To put a little twist on a now familiar phrase let me say that ... "You never know WHAT will be on the end of your line!"

 Hiding below the surface of many lakes and rivers are stumps, logs and old tree branches. Since they are preferred hiding places for the fish they too are the prime targets for anglers to cast their lures. Most of the time the only thing to do when your lure impales itself to one of these is to pull until your line snaps. This results in the unintentional decorating of said submerged feature with your favorite lure. In just a few years some of the more attractive sub-aquatic fish haunts starting looking like a trimmed Christmas Tree. As time moves on Mother Nature eventually wears down what was originally solidly anchored. Every now and then a snagged branch will break off and reward me with another lure. So over the years lets just say I have been in the right place at the right time and the planets were aligned in my favor for this phenomenon.

Years ago, while fishing for Walleye at Marsh Creek Lake, I was drifting slowly over an old road bed and  pulled up one of those collapsible wire fish baskets used for holding your catch. Inside the wire basket, still kicking, were three sunfish and a crappie! Can you say.. "FREE FISH FRY"!

 One spring day on the Schuylkill River, near Black Rock Dam, I was lucky enough to catch a nice Musky. What made it even better is that in the mouth of this fish was another lure that had broken off from some not so fortunate angler.

 Just last year I was casting for Largemouth Bass up on Lake Nockamixon. Numerous "flips" into the thick weeds would end up with a "Wad 'O Weeds" on my hook rather than a fish. Well as luck would have it here comes a rather large ball of algae but I also noticed a length of fishing line within the tangled mass. Experience with this situation told me that a reward may be at the end of the other line. Sure enough a steady pulling of the line resulted in a nice six and half foot, medium action graphite fishing rod with reel. Showing no signs that it had been under water for long I cleaned it up and added it to my collection. This was one of four that I have brought up from their watery grave in my many years of fishing.

 In this same category I should mention a few items found while wadding shore lines. 

Yankee Dam, also know as Vincent Dam, on the Schuylkill near Linfield, was one of my favorite places for fishing. In the years prior to the dams removal you could walk out on the structure due to the water being diverted through a large break on the Chester County side. In it's better days the river flowed evenly over the dam and occasionally a non-attentive boater would be sweep over and capsized. This of course resulted in loss of whatever was in the boat. Well this one day my eye caught sight of what I recognized to be the handle of a tackle box buried in sand and mud where the water once churned.  After an hour of digging I was able to free the prize. This was a large tackle box packed full of lures, hooks, sinkers, knifes and other goodies. A fishing license destroyed by time was also in with the other stuff and was of no use in identifying the owner. 

Even more astounding ... Wading in three feet of water at Marsh Creek a bright sparkle caught my eye. With a little kicking around I was able to uncover and retrieve a antique silver teapot. Picture is for illustration only but it did resemble the one pictured. Having no use for this in my humble home I eventually sold it for $375.00. This was back in 1995. Can you beat that?

 Every time Lady Luck comes my way with these things I can't help but wonder.... Who, What, How, When. I got the "Where" part figured out!

What have you found?

Thanks for reading   "One Cast ... One Fish !"