


February 19, 2009
Cermele: Fish Eat Weird Stuff
By Joe Cermele

Pop quiz. Guide Lonnie Osterholm has during his career caught a lake trout on which of the following: a socket wrench, Batman action figure, or Kit-Kat bar? Give up? The answer is a Batman action figure. As the story goes, Osterholm told a client he could catch a laker on anything, so he was handed the Batman and asked to produce. They even put some cash on it. "I rigged it on a hook, dropped it to the bottom and a fish slammed it," said Osterholm. "I got it to the boat and won $1,000. Then I dropped Batman down again and the second strike was so hard it broke the line."
I know all this because Osterholm is one of a ton of guides I interviewed for story on lures in the March issue of F&S. I asked most of these guys what the most bizarre thing they ever caught their target species on happened to be. The answers were great. Jeff Sundin once used a strip of black garbage bag to imitate a leech. A walleye nailed it. Striper guide Gene Quigley hooked into a bass on a cigarette filter, which won him a $20 bet. During a cold New Year's Day trout outing, Ernie Calandrelli tossed out a leftover cocktail shrimp from the prior night's party and bagged a fat steelhead. Though it wasn't his personal catch, guide Bobby Liedberg told me about seeing muskies caught on certain, well, uhh, "adult" toys.
While my old G.I. Joe collection will not soon become part of my tackle collection, I have successfully used orange Play-Doh to catch some big flounder. I've also tied scud flies with pink heating insulation and shag carpet fibers. The trout gulped them up with delight. So what's the weirdest, wildest, or wackiest bait or lure you've ever hooked up on?
JC
Comments (30)
Play doh was the origional power bait- I saw it all over when I was a kid.
A couple of years ago I met a guy on Henry's Fork that was hooking cutthroat on cigarette but imitating fly. Maybe Idaho fishermen toss enough butts to make cutthroat nicotine addicts. Weekends in summer can bring on a Marlboro hatch.
I once saw a good size bass holding under a log while looking for perch. I didn't have any bass bait with me. I pulled a supple cat-tail shoot and put it on a bait holder and tossed on the fish's nose. He inhaled it. But, my ultralight tackle wasn't strong e ough to pull him from the log- he wrapped up and broke off.
Used cinnamon flavored Trident once on the Kasiloff in Alaska and pounded the steelhead. Oh and Charlie everybody in Idaho is not a litter bug.
Makes you wonder why some of these bass lures are so expensive. Do they look as good to the fish as they do to us?
In Canada I watched my dad catch numerous walleye on a jig and tail tipped with rasins that were soaked in Captain Morgan.
thats pretty weird
Catfish are notorious for eating wierd stuff. I have caught them on Cheese Puff's and a cigarette butt sprayed with WD-40.
Play dough catches some big salmon and steeles around here on lake Micigan, and I have used every materieal for flys i can find, rope insides, cigarette butts (That fly KILLED smallies) pen parts, wires from small eletronics, plastic wrap, cast net mesh, and even parts of gatoraid bottles, if you can shape it and learn how to tie it in, you can fish it.
silsby,
Strange I've caught them on cheese puffs too, the balls.
Does that Play dough stay on the hook? I can see how the smell would attract fish, I still love it.
hey silsbyj wd40???? think about pollution idiot
Jim, Play-Doh dissolves pretty fast, but it stays on well enough for a while. Idduckhntr, did you chew the Trident and make a ball out of it? Wonder if it just looked like an egg or the cinnamon smell really had something to do with it.
chewed it for about 30 seconds. works good when drifting shrimp for dollys.
Bream on a dandelion.
When you an find a high concentration of bream in an area, you can catch them on some weird stuff. I've caught them on canned corn, gum, lint, and a bare hook. They will eat anything.
I caught walleye off of dry flies in Northern Manitoba in the middle of the day.
AWWW man, why use all of this fancy weird stuff? I go old school get a worm hook it on an catch fish.
Nate
Rig a dime, throw it around wooden structure. Bass love shiny things. Use a light hook so the dime flutters nicely.
This post is awesome, it is pretty neat to hear all the different things anglers have used to fool fish. Although, it makes fishing sound a little too easy! One day a buddy and I were tearing the mackerel up, and he said he could catch one with nothing but a hook, and sure enough he did. The story that really hit home though, was the cocktail shrimp. I too have done the samething and it does work!
I once caught a fish on one of the early Kaufmann stimulators that I tried to tie. Let me tell you, no one has taken a fish on ANYTHING stranger than that concoction!
I have caught bass and crappie on old windchime pieces,I attached a single hook with a swivel and made a simple lure that caught several fish.
I have also caught catfish on chewed bubble gum, juicy fruit flavor, it was a channel cat in the 5lb range.
It's amazing what fish will eat and what they will go after
I caught a 15 inch brook trout on a strawberry in northern maine
i've caught sunfish by twitching small twigs on the surface, its amazing what some fish will strike at
Thanks, Wayne, for leading me to this site. Great learning stuff.
i must tell you, play-doh smells good, but I know from experience that it doesn't taste good at all
i caught a big bream on a part of burrito in lake lanier
i got a 3 pound large mouth on a chicken wing bone off a dock a few years back
cut up a piece of sponge and dipped it in barbacue and got catfish, works pretty good but comes off fast
i was fly fishing with my dad and he walked into my back cast and my hook caught his croakies of his sunglasses. before i could reel it back in to take them off the water exploded! a 3 lb bass that broke the line but it was crazy!
When I was in the Autralian outback (training with the Aussie Army) rigged a bent safety pin on a piece of string. Tied it to a small pole cut from the bank. Baited up with C ration cheese and caught a black fish that looked kind of like a huge Florida Warmouth. cooked over an open fire he was absolutely delicious!
When i was fishing with a bunch of fish i ran out of worms everyone was diggin em up but i had some cheese sticks so i used chunks of that and slaughtered them they kept askin what i was usin i just said same as you and another time i rigged up pieces from a coke can!
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I once caught a fish on one of the early Kaufmann stimulators that I tried to tie. Let me tell you, no one has taken a fish on ANYTHING stranger than that concoction!
When i was fishing with a bunch of fish i ran out of worms everyone was diggin em up but i had some cheese sticks so i used chunks of that and slaughtered them they kept askin what i was usin i just said same as you and another time i rigged up pieces from a coke can!
Play doh was the origional power bait- I saw it all over when I was a kid.
A couple of years ago I met a guy on Henry's Fork that was hooking cutthroat on cigarette but imitating fly. Maybe Idaho fishermen toss enough butts to make cutthroat nicotine addicts. Weekends in summer can bring on a Marlboro hatch.
I once saw a good size bass holding under a log while looking for perch. I didn't have any bass bait with me. I pulled a supple cat-tail shoot and put it on a bait holder and tossed on the fish's nose. He inhaled it. But, my ultralight tackle wasn't strong e ough to pull him from the log- he wrapped up and broke off.
Used cinnamon flavored Trident once on the Kasiloff in Alaska and pounded the steelhead. Oh and Charlie everybody in Idaho is not a litter bug.
Makes you wonder why some of these bass lures are so expensive. Do they look as good to the fish as they do to us?
In Canada I watched my dad catch numerous walleye on a jig and tail tipped with rasins that were soaked in Captain Morgan.
thats pretty weird
Play dough catches some big salmon and steeles around here on lake Micigan, and I have used every materieal for flys i can find, rope insides, cigarette butts (That fly KILLED smallies) pen parts, wires from small eletronics, plastic wrap, cast net mesh, and even parts of gatoraid bottles, if you can shape it and learn how to tie it in, you can fish it.
silsby,
Strange I've caught them on cheese puffs too, the balls.
Does that Play dough stay on the hook? I can see how the smell would attract fish, I still love it.
hey silsbyj wd40???? think about pollution idiot
Jim, Play-Doh dissolves pretty fast, but it stays on well enough for a while. Idduckhntr, did you chew the Trident and make a ball out of it? Wonder if it just looked like an egg or the cinnamon smell really had something to do with it.
chewed it for about 30 seconds. works good when drifting shrimp for dollys.
Bream on a dandelion.
When you an find a high concentration of bream in an area, you can catch them on some weird stuff. I've caught them on canned corn, gum, lint, and a bare hook. They will eat anything.
I caught walleye off of dry flies in Northern Manitoba in the middle of the day.
AWWW man, why use all of this fancy weird stuff? I go old school get a worm hook it on an catch fish.
Nate
This post is awesome, it is pretty neat to hear all the different things anglers have used to fool fish. Although, it makes fishing sound a little too easy! One day a buddy and I were tearing the mackerel up, and he said he could catch one with nothing but a hook, and sure enough he did. The story that really hit home though, was the cocktail shrimp. I too have done the samething and it does work!
I have caught bass and crappie on old windchime pieces,I attached a single hook with a swivel and made a simple lure that caught several fish.
I have also caught catfish on chewed bubble gum, juicy fruit flavor, it was a channel cat in the 5lb range.
It's amazing what fish will eat and what they will go after
I caught a 15 inch brook trout on a strawberry in northern maine
i've caught sunfish by twitching small twigs on the surface, its amazing what some fish will strike at
Thanks, Wayne, for leading me to this site. Great learning stuff.
i must tell you, play-doh smells good, but I know from experience that it doesn't taste good at all
i caught a big bream on a part of burrito in lake lanier
i got a 3 pound large mouth on a chicken wing bone off a dock a few years back
cut up a piece of sponge and dipped it in barbacue and got catfish, works pretty good but comes off fast
i was fly fishing with my dad and he walked into my back cast and my hook caught his croakies of his sunglasses. before i could reel it back in to take them off the water exploded! a 3 lb bass that broke the line but it was crazy!
When I was in the Autralian outback (training with the Aussie Army) rigged a bent safety pin on a piece of string. Tied it to a small pole cut from the bank. Baited up with C ration cheese and caught a black fish that looked kind of like a huge Florida Warmouth. cooked over an open fire he was absolutely delicious!
Rig a dime, throw it around wooden structure. Bass love shiny things. Use a light hook so the dime flutters nicely.
Catfish are notorious for eating wierd stuff. I have caught them on Cheese Puff's and a cigarette butt sprayed with WD-40.
Post a Comment