Fishing stories: Our best snags, tangles and break offs

Fishing shops around the country are adorned with massive trophy catches, but you can just as easily find monuments to some of the gnarliest snags we’ve ever seen. Monofilament bird nests, giant lure-eating logs, and other snags are hung up and immortalized for all the grief they’ve caused us anglers. Sometimes a snag, or the act of snagging something, is just as deserving of a good fishing story, and we decided to look into it.

We questioned some of the Fishbrain staff to hear about their legendary log, monofilament rat’s nest, or heartbreaking branch they still lose sleep over.

Nate Roman 

Walleye fishing in Ohio

“We were drift fishing the Maumee River walleye run, and I’d probably hung up on the exact same branch about a dozen times throughout the day. At the end of the day, I was so frustrated I finally put on heavier line and ripped the whole branch out of the water. The upside was I found out I wasn’t the only one who fell victim to this branch. I got all my jigs back, plus about 100 more.”

Jack McKinney 

Fly fishing for smallmouth on the Milwaukee

“I was fishing the Milwaukee River in Wisconsin for smallmouth on the fly, so I was using fairly light tackle. I made possibly the best cast of my life under a low-hanging tree and was rewarded instantly with a massive blowup. My guide told me not to panic, but to absolutely not lose the fish. I fought the fish gingerly, like a trout, and watched in horror as it avoided my guide’s net by forming a figure eight around two rocks. Then, snap, my only muskie swam away with my fly in its mouth, and I was left with a mess of leader snagged on the two rocks.”

Ryan Hearn

Bass fishing the Iowa River

"There's this oxbow lake on the Iowa River where I catch a ton of gars, bowfin and small bass. There's very few snags there as it's mostly mud, and I lost a couple rooster tails on the west side of the oxbow lake at the same exact spot. Oxbow lake water levels are extremely volatile and I went there during a drought once, and the exact spot I had snagged a couple of times was a gravestone! Casted at it and caught this tiny bass."

Captain Jonathan (The Captain’s Log) Moss

Red drum fishing Atlantic Florida

Last week I had my clients fishing live shrimp under a popping cork up against the mangroves.

One of the guys made a “perfect” cast that wrapped 15 times around the mangrove branches, but somehow the live shrimp and cork ended up in the water. I knew there were fish there and didn’t want to go up to the bushes and mess it all up, so I told him to just let it sit.

It wasn’t five seconds before that popping cork went under from a nice redfish, and because of all the wraps around the tree limb, the fish got hooked. I quickly took the boat up there, broke the branch off, and he reeled in his fish. Not only did he catch a redfish, he landed a pretty nice “tree pounder.” I guess the saying is true around here, “If you’re not catching the bushes, you’re not close enough.”

Rico (Florida man) Del Rosario

Topwater fishing for Jacks in Florida

Fishing in Stuart, FL, I was targeting jack crevalle using a topwater popper. After a few casts, a sea turtle popped up to catch a breath right in front of my popper. I unfortunately snagged its shell, and it took me for a ride. This was a smaller sea turtle, so luckily I was able to slowly bring it to the surface, remove the hook, and release the turtle unharmed.

Cavan Williams

Steelhead fishing in California

“My best friend in high school, my father, and I were all fishing the winter steelhead run on California’s famous Smith River. The river has deep, rocky holes that notoriously suck up a bottom-bouncing rig. On one particular hole, I sent my roe and sinker into one particularly notorious, but productive, hole and soon felt that telltale light tap that can signify a steelhead take.

I set the rod and was immediately met with a shaking rod tip and then what felt like trying to reel in a brick wall. I kept my rod tight and handed it to my friend for his opinion on what was going on. The bent rod tip started dancing in his hand like it did for me, and he yelled, ‘That’s a fish.’ Five minutes later, however, it proved not to be. The current in the hole had a tendency to pick up speed at certain times and make the rod feel like head shakes, while the giant boulder I was hooked on wasn’t going anywhere.”

Now let's go fishing.

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