Fishing at the locks and dam one July 4th with my two sons, the fish weren't biting much, but we were getting plenty of snags.
Suddenly, a discarded McDonald's bag starts hopping around, right beside me.
I grab it and shake the rat out of it....hmm, someone didn't eat their lunch. In the bag, I find some chicken McNuggets. As usual, that light bulb lights up over my head. I'm fishing with a white Mr. Twister, so I reel in and put half a nugget on the jig with the twister tail and cast that out.
BAM! My rod bows down like it's hooked to a log, and that's what the boys claimed, that I was snagged and just fooling around (again). I say no, just watch, it pulls back on it's own, see? Then I passed the rod around and let everyone hold it for a minute. They've both caught a lot of fish in their life, but they're pretty impressed with this one. But soon, they're back to telling me I'm never going to reel that log in, I should just break my line.
After about 20 min., the fish tires out, and I land the biggest hybrid white bass any of us has ever seen in these parts. People came running off the fishing pier to look and ask what I caught it on. I hold up the nugget box, but I don't think they took me seriously.
______________________________________________________________________
My brother-in-law is a pretty adventuresome guy, once had his pic on the front page for riding his bicycle on a frozen river. One year the trout hatchery up in the mountains flooded, releasing brood trout into Shavers Fork. So here we go at 3am, all our gear loaded into his Corvette, it's been snowing for days.
Close to dawn, on a twisty two-lane road, we zip around a curve and there's a huge white horse standing in the middle of the road. We stop within inches and all I see is the horses belly at windshield height.
We arrive and begin fishing, catching one here and there, using chest waders, the water is so cold it feels like burning instead of freezing. We get to a point in the river where it's all frozen over, but we see trout under there. BIL produces a hatchet and chops a hole in the ice. We're catching fish out of two holes, then the ice breaks and plunks us into the water. Whew, no problem, the water isn't over our waders. We're catching fish while dozens are circling around our feet.
Later on, the fishing gets slow, and we climb back on top of the ice. We're standing there thinking of what to do next. CRACK! The ice we're standing on breaks off and starts drifting downstream. We know the water is over our heads in places, so we're kinda nervous. CRACK! Our frosty raft bumps a rock and splits into two rafts. Ok, so what do we do now? Fish! Here we go, floating down Shaver's Fork on two sheets of ice, and we're still catching fish.
We reach a shallow spot where our ice rafts hit some rocks and break apart. Except we tip off into the deep area, over our waders. Talk about shrinkage!
With waders full of ice water, and winter coats soaked too, we are two heavy dudes. By that time, we were miles from the car, the snow is ten inches deep, and here we go slogging along in a deserted state park. When we reached the first picnic shelter I built a roaring fire and we strip off our gear. Now there's two wet, naked, hillbillies cooking trout in a park. Luckily, nobody spotted us. Or if they did, they avoided contact. :P
_________________________________________________________________
Whew, that story went a little long. Maybe I should have told you about catching 12lb carp with 4lb line on ultralight rods.
All the time I am swimming and crying. Hubby got himself in control and dump the eel back into the water. He drove the boat over to where I was swimming 100 MPH. Got me back in the boat (still crying and cussing). 8) We then looked at each other. Me looking like a drown cat and burst out laughing. If the water isn't clear and I can't see what I'm hawling in I don't "yank" it into the boat unless I can see it! 
