I caught a rainbow today that had presumably been hooked and lost by someone else. My fly was neatly hooked in its lip, but there was about four feet of leader (complete with loop) trailing from its mouth and another two or three feet coming out of its backside - which was tangled round the line that went into its mouth AND there was a length of dropper coming out of this tangle

I presumed I would find at least one fly in its guts somewhere but when I opened it up (at home) it became clear that there was no fly at all. The leader was made of level nylon of about 3 lbs BS so it was difficult to determine which bit of tangle went in which direction but I managed to take out the guts without cutting the nylon and was then able to slide the guts up and down it - so it was able to move freely. I can only presume that the fish managed to pass the point fly right through its guts and would have eventually passed the rest of the leader - except the dropper got tangled with the point fly and somehow the fish managed to loose both flies - maybe on the bottom?

The fish seemed none the worse for all this and fought as a normal 1 1/2lb stock fish would. There were about 20 very small midge pupae in its stomach so it was able to feed. Since the rules dictated that I had to kill my first fish I did so - but if I had cut the line I could possibly have pulled it out of both ends without any damage and let it go

I've caught many fish in the past with hooks and line in or around them but never quite as unusual as this one!

StickMan