Hi Guys just popped up in my mind and was wondering what are some of the weirdest inhabitants in your local lakes that you have seen? Snapping turtles? Eels? Oscars? Arowana? I ve had tilapias...Arowana...giant bright orange Kois...and a guy even told me he saw a long eel like fish about 6 foot long cruising in my local lake...

The wierdest thing i've seen is a 3 pound bass that tried to swallow a 2 pound bass. The fish both died like that and washed up on shore. Pretty mean bass!

calicokid

Once at buena vista lake I saw a huge blue catfish eat a duckling right in back of it's mother. Another time at the aquaduct a mouse was getting a mid-night drink and I tried to hook it for bait without touching it because of diseases and such. It got scared and started swimming across and sure enough what must have been a striper crushed him. Another time at the catfish derby at legg lake a guy caught what he thought was the biggest cat in the lake but it turned out to be a two and a half foot soft-shell turtle.
keep fishin'

I didn't personally see it...but quite a few years ago there was a alligator caught at San Vicente on a Zara Spook.

Well Lets see, I've seen Albino Catfish, Oscars, Koi, and I did hear about the Aligator at San V as well. I have also heard of some aligators in the Delta and even one at Mead a while back. But, I would have to say the weirdes thing would be the parana they caught out of Otay about 5 years or so ago. That and the rumor of a Peacock bass being caught out of Dixon would have to be the strangest things I Have seen in SD. All of these creatures must have been pets at one time and the owners just decided to let them go locally.


Another weird thing was the 3 1/2 lb bass that jumped into my boat in the last night tournament at Otay. Just as we were setting our rods down to move to another spot, we heard a noise and there was a fish flopping on the deck of my boat. At first we thought it was out of our liewell, since we had one in there allready. But my partner grabbed that fish and when I reached in the livewell, our fish was still in there. I guess you could say we were on them so good that they were jumping in the boat :)

Cam

By far, the weirdest thing I've seen in a lake is a strange looking brown object that floated by my boat at the last tournament. Not only did this thing have a strange look to it, but it was steaming as it lazily floated by us.

Dude,

It must have been the last Casitas tourney! Was it approx. 12" in length X 3" diameter? Yep, i couldn't wait till the weigh inx( so i proceeded to do the unthinkable...sorry!:)

Naw really, i haven't really seen anything out of the ordinary at our local lakes, but, maybe 12 or so years ago i was surf fishing close to Ensenada and on my first cast i hooked a fresh Maxi Pad w/a super fresh red streak down the center! I should have known with that sickening stench in the air...their raw sewage dumps straight into the ocean!!! Needless to say i didn't keep anything that i caught.

Oh Yeah!!!!!!!!! I remember this one time, my ghetto park lake n snagged a 3ft garter snake that wuz swimming by me!!!!!!!!!!!! Didn't have any brown babies with it though!!!!!!!!!

ive heard that in one of the local lake here where i live that there was a pacu, and a red belly perranha caught, from a trusted informant. who knows, when people get tired of there pets they just throw them any where, thats stupid, F's up the cycle. might as well, flush them or just pick up another hobby!!!!

I've saw tons of weird things in lakes around. As teenagers we fished Green Valley Lake, and my buddy caught some dirty underwear. At Jenks Lake, I caught a basketfull of decomposing fish! WHEW DID THAT STINK!

I've heard of weird catches out of some of the bigger lakes like Perris, Silverwood and Big Bear as well, with Big Bear having the stories about the Alligators.

Tight Lines,
Jason Huckeba

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http://www.SoCalFishing.net

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Weirdest, or at least the funniest thing I saw was EDK fall out of my boat while trying to net a fish. I've seen an arrowana at Perris, a giant turtle that had to have been 2-foot across, also at perris and all kinds of other crazy stuff that probably just seemed like it was routine. The best though is when I use to do a lot of spooning at Success. This is one of those lakes that gets a lot of drunk white trash in rental house boats so the bottom is a junkyard. I can remember pulling up a lawn chair, which I kept by the way, an eight foot wide bamboo window shade, one of them roll up models. Enough shoes and underwear to make Al Bundy proud not to mention I was spooning the lake the day after this dude drowned, and in the same area when my line went tight and.....just kidding.

Must of been another edk!!!!!! I wonder how big that fish was!!!!!!!! Had to have been a big one to fall in for!!!!!!!!!! I still have nightmares about that one!!!!!!!!!

When I was in 6th or 7th grade, someone planted two very large pirhannas in Alice Keck park in Santa Barbara. This is about a 1 acre pond downtown. Of course the first thing that came to mind when we heard about this was that we ought to go and fish for it. My buddy Christos and I walked about 10 blocks to get over there to fish for them only to get booted off by the city parks people who were also fishing for them! Dang guys stole all the fun. We did see the pirhannas swim by once but the city parks guys didn't get them. Some other kids went the next morning early and caught them. So I never did get me a pirhanna :( At least we tried :)

I saw two muskrats about 6 years ago at lower Castaic swiming under one of the docks.

-Shane

How big do those muskrats get anyway? A few months ago I saw something crossing Lopez that was as big as an otter or beaver. I don't think we have anything like that around here though.

Something weirder than that was when I was float tubing the same lake and saw a bear cruising the shoreline. There was a guy in a bass boat next to me and he says "I bet you're hoping that thing doesn't swim eh". Just then this bear hops in the water and starts swimming across the cove. It freaked me out at first, but then I moved closer to it when I realized it really didn't care about me. I wish I had my camera with me at the time.

And this one time, at band camp...Oops, wrong message board. I've seen muskrats up to the size of a normal cat before while out on the water. I haven't seen any bear though (thankfully). That's one for the memory bank. I did have a bobcat take about five years off my life though. Fishing Casitas, kind up tight to the bank and there were some mallards just being mallards when "Wham, crash, splash" this bobcat blasted out of the bank cover, right into the waters edge and snagged himself a quacker. I about jumped out of the boat it freaked me out so bad for a second. I had about a six foot long snake decide he didn't like the delta water anymore and wanted to kick it on the back of my boat. Sum bitch wouldn't leave either. got himself all wrapped up in the steering cables so we had to just keep fishing till he decided he didn't like the grease anymore. And yes, we stayed in the front of the boat. I even had a Canadian goose try to inform me in an unpleasant goosey manner that I was too close to his nest. Damn thing was flying three feet off the boat hissing and trying to land, but my trusty flippin' stick kept him at bay long enough to get the trolling motor on high. Funny part is I was warned by a friend about him a few days before. Oh them rascally critters and their affinity for bass fisherman.

The muskrats I saw were half the size of a cat

-Shane

Up here in the San Bernardino mountains at Jenks Lake they always have bear problems late in the season. There is on bear they call Old Red, which has been coming back for about 6 years now, but it's sorta normal there, with the bears, coyotes, and deer around.

Tight Lines,
Jason Huckeba

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http://www.SoCalFishing.net

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some guy caught a pirhana out of a lake near my house. NUTS!!!



joe

when I was in college back in Missouri I was fishing one night at our local lake near campus and saw this muskrat(also half the size of a cat) cruising the surface slowly...swaying its tail behind it...Thats the good thing about fishing at night...the Moon outlines every silhouette on the waters surface....
One thing that is burned in my mind was when I back in Malaysia last year fishing a local lake and at about 7feet away from the bank I saw at least 20 to 25 peacock bass weighing at least 3 pounds each crusing...I still couldnt believe it....I gently pitched a wobbling spoon-ignored...I threw in a Yo-Zuri pins minnow...got ignored...all I saw was this school of brightly colored fish swimming away...on the same day I also saw a 6ft monitor lizard swimming with its head and neck above water...like loch ness monster...
I caught many exotic fish species on last year's trip back to Malaysia...here are some photos...theres one colorful one with blue markings is sold here in aquarium stores for over $150...Flowerhorn fish...
I have yet to catch a giant snakehead...too elusive...

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I was fishing at Los Banos Creek Res. and I saw two foxes hunting rabbits. One of the foxes would chase right behind the bunny and the other would circle wide around and wait for his buddy to push the rabbit into him. It was a pretty cool thing to watch.

you all are gonna think this is quite different from the topic....but i was just in Utah and a guy in front of me slammed on his brakes to keep from hitting some deer. so he was stopped waiting for two deer to cross while all of the sudden a deer from the trees runs full speed into the side of the mans truck...it fell over and was stunned but got up and ran away. we looked at his car laughing our asses off and found a lot of damage. wow that was nothing like the other stories but it had me laughing.

Save a wave, Ride a surfer.

Wasent too wierd but it sure scared the piss out of me,literaly.I was night pluggin at Silverwood and went to take a wizz by some bushes and right as i was done i hear a rustle in the bushes turn the light towards it and all hell broke lose.The loudest cat scraem i have ever heard,and then loud crashing as this large cat took off.I dident get a solid look at it but i think it was a puma,mountain lion.The sound of it takingoff was too loud to be a bobcat,though i have seen those there in the day before.No bears yet!And that blood chilling scream,i will never forget.I had the shakes for the rest of the night,but kept on chuckin.

Dude, you have no idea how lucky you were. If it were a mountain lion, which it very well could have been, it could have taken you down in a heartbeat. Thankfully you didn't run otherwise it might have been another story. My roommate told me a story once on an elk hunt a few years ago he was being tracked by a mountain lion which got within 10 yards, thankfully a few rounds with the handgun ran him off. Man I would have hated to be in your shoes at that moment. Make me glad I night fish in my boat. At casitas I hear all kinds of critters rustling around in the bank brush line. Damn, now I am going to be thinking about your mountain lion the next time I heard something go bump on the bank.

Hooksetter, it sounds to me like you're a little mouse or something! From all your stories it sounds like you jump at the slightest vibrations. I'll make sure my Spinnerbaits are the low vibration one's when i cast near your mug at night. You'd better limit your fishing excursions to the Irvine kiddy pond between the hours of 11:00 am - 5:00 pm. A bad boy lookin fool like you i would expect to make jerky out of them animals!LOL:P

You know Jeff the Import, for someone all gitty about wanting me to take you out sightin', you sure are doing a good job of deleting your credits. I kill things that don't see it coming, legally of course. If you ever get the brass sinkers to come on out to the country, (if you're not afraid to get your sneakers dirty) I'll whip ya up some good Elk sausage. By the way, recognition of fear is the dividing line between survival and death. Hey, you doing the next FOCL since EDK decided to get all domestic on us and stuff? Call me and let's hook up. I'll take you the castaic night zoo area and see just how forged your oatmeal wrapped in a leaf butt really is. :-)

BMC, HELL NO! Castaic has too many Deer at night...their eye's scare the crap out of me. I'm doing Piru Sat. night, i've never encountered any bumps or growls, just big Bass busting on Trout at night. I think i'm doing Castaic w/my buddy Brendon but i'll do the August one if you want. I'll call you soon but in the mean time i'll float you some day passes for Irvine or Laguna Niguel.lol

Yeah im pretty sure it was a big cat,it was my first lion incounter and i will be happy if it is my last.I wasent by myself but my partner was far away and wouldent have heard my screams for help.And i think it may have been stalkin me but as soon as it seen my light it bolted,thank goodness.And i did run!All this cat talk is giving me the heebie geebies....

>What are
>some of the weirdest inhabitants in your local lakes that you
>have seen?

Well this doesn't exactly apply to your question regarding animals but I saw a guy do something really wierd.
I was on the dock a couple years ago of my local lake in San Diego and a guy was cutting something with his fillet knife sitting down on the dock with the point of the knife down. All of a sudden I hear a wierd yell and I look over and the 7" fillet knife was comletely in his upper leg. It was frieky ad the guy just had a few words to say about that and then he pulled it right out and then blood started to come out and I said I would run over to the boat dock to get the ranger and some first0aid stuff and I ran as fast as I could and after I told the ranger what happened he took his time and dlowly walked over there. I was about to yell at him to get his A$& over there or give me the first aid kit. So he got there finally and helped him.

Another time I was up in NorCal at Lake Pardee and I was walking the shore and came around a point and ran into a couple uuuhhh you know.

I think those were the most wierd things I have ever seen.

Not much. Just a BOBCAT at Castaic about 10 feet away from me. I was at the lower lake. I was leaving just about 1 hour after sundown. Walking to my car parked in the dirt lot (when it was there). I saw him hiding near the benches and table. At first, I thought it was a dog. Then, to my surprise it was a damn BOBCAT. He just stared at me eye to eye. So, I relized I better just walk away (looking over my shoulder of course). He was about 28 in. from his butt to his nose & about 12 in. tall on all fours. First time I ever encountered a Bobcat. COOL! :o