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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | I was out trying the night bite with 2 friends. About 11:30, in the pitch black, I make a cast and just before the bait hits the water, it gets crushed! I instinctively set the hook, and hear the most blood curdling scream I've ever heard. As my line starts going up and the screaming continues, I realize that I hooked a HERON in mid-flight!
The bird comes crashing down, and it is struggling and squawking like nothing I have ever heard. If I reel in to help it out, it squawks even worse. So I just cut the line, figuring it would figure it out and untangle itself. Well, then we realized that it's feet were hooked together and so it couldn't get itself up to fly, and it was basically not going to free itself. So, we decide we are going to have to have someone grab it's neck and cover up it's head, one person help him out and hold the lights, and I was just going to cut the hooks out of it's legs... | |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | This can't end well without some additional drama... | |
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | Well, we soon realized that being on the business end of a heron was not going to happen. This guy was peeed, for good reason. It was looking like it wasn't going to make it, so we figured we should put it out of it's misery. In the meantime, it had gotten too shallow for us even get to it. I'll never know what happened to that guy, and I'll never get that shrieking out of my head.
Seriously, I've missed hundreds of fish in my lifetime, and got a pinned up hookset on a heron's legs in mid flight. How did that happen. | |
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Posts: 480
| Sorry Mol, I caught a egret/heron on Vermilion a few years back. It flew into the line from behind an island off my cast (neither one saw the other). I reeled it in sqawking all the way back to the boat. We threw a coat over it's head and cut and removed hooks from her neck. We did the best we could and returned it to shore and hoped it would be alright. I bet you did the same. | |
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Posts: 280
Location: McFarland | i had that happen with a goose last year. By the time I reeled in the goose it had called all of it's near by buddies for help. Get it to the boat and magruter held it's head with net while I unhooked it's leg. Must have had a dozen geese sitting next to the boat yelling at us and all this is happening right in front of the Henry Vilas zoo in Madison. Wish I would have had a head cam for that one. | |
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Posts: 100
Location: Bemidji/Cass Lake | Seagull for me. I threw out a white depthraider while moving forward to get a backlash out from the night before. The backlash came out easy and the reel over-ran but line didn't bury in. In the amidst of it all, the seagull most have felt the floating crank was the easiest meal of all time. I caught it in the foot. It was not easy to remove, and tough to grab ahold of without getting pecked. | |
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Posts: 4266
| Seagulls were pretty normal back in my early days fishing on Lake Michigan. Every spring we would catch a couple running flat lines in shallow water. The gull would start tracking back and forth while drawing a bead on the target. Thin Fins got hit the most, but usually a few good yanks while it was airborn would free it.
Except that one time.......... 
Beav | |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | I hope there's more to that stroy... otherwise that is a terrible story about that Heron. I hope you did your best to release it unharmed, as you would a muskie. I can't believe you cut the line on the Heron and then have the chance to free it and leave it for who knows what? Will it starve to death, drown, exposure. | |
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Posts: 1270
| My dad always tells me abotu the time 40 years ago or so when he was using a big frog for bait and in the evening instead of letting it free he clipped the 3' leader to a branch on the shore so he could use it again the following day. About 2 in the morning he hears the most God awful screams coming from down by the lake, only 30 yds fron his tent. The screamin is so bad that he can't get back to sleep and sits up all night with a pistol in his hand.
In the morning he went down to the lake and there were bobcat tracks all over the shore and the shoreline looked like a bomb went off. Just imagine a bobcat with a 5/0 treble hook in his mouth attached to a nice springy branch! | |
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Posts: 22
| last week while fishing with the wife, I had quite a surprise as an eagle came from nowhere and hammered my weagle! I was fishing and the wife was reading her book, all of a sudden I see this eagle about 40' away and I say to the wife, hey look at the eagle. then it spurned on me that he was there for a reason, OH $%#@!!! I start reeling like a mad man trying to get it in, well I guess I wasn't fast enough as I see it hit the water and take off with it. now 2 things are going through my mind, do I just cut the line and hope that the bird gets away freely or do I try to save my prized weagle and try to jerk it from it's claws of death with out snagging it. well thankfully It flew about 30 yards and dropped it. I'm not sure what would of happend if it hadn't of dropped it, but the more I think about it I think I would just cut the line. # 1, I dont' want to deal with a peeed off eagle. # 2, They are protected. Has any body experienced any thing like this, and in the case of a protected species, what is the proper thing to do? | |
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Location: oswego, il | Whitey, be lucky the eagle dropped the bait. I had to catch two hawks in a pheasant pen once when I worked for a game farm as a teenager. One was a really big redtail. When they realize your in their way of freedom, they come right at you, talons first.
My dad hooked a seagull once that picked up his bait. Every seagull, must have been 500 of them circled our boat as we unhooked it and let it go.
My oldest son had a loon swipe his bait boatside with a big splash a couple weeks ago. Another big bird that is far from friendly when threatened, glad that it was never hooked. | |
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Posts: 20
| I hope Norm Wild doesn't mind me reposting this story, but it's the best "bad catch" story of all time. Originally posted on Bay Store website last August in connection with OM. As told by Norm:
Well, Frank has left me little option than to share my story with all, so here it is.
Like Frank said, I was up a few days early to look for fish for the soldiers in Operation Musky. Looking for fish was not really a problem. The lake was exactly like it should be, lots of fish chasing, some eating, and some even willing to come to my boat. It was the night before the outing and I was out fishing alone. At about 6 o’ clock that night a squall came in bringing with it rain and very heavy wind. I almost came in at that time as I thought I had the fish fairly dialed in, but the weather changed again as quickly as the first time and I was fishing again in beautiful weather.
My first spot after the weather change brought out a low 40” suicidal fish, that only a few people in the world could have avoided catching. I was one of them. The fish ate in the figure eight and I hooked up, it head shook and released itself. I half-heartedly resumed my figure eight after it got off. It was not exactly text book figure eighting, the big double ten blades were laying flat on the water skiing across the top, but like I said, the fish was suicidal, and it ate again. I also said I was one of a few that could of avoided that fish, and I did again. I was beginning to wonder if it was meant to be that night, but decided there was a spot that I wanted to fish before I went in. I headed the boat north for a mile or two to the last spot of the night, a two island compex with a rocky saddle that was catching some of the wind that was blowing just moments earlier.
I approached the island and grabbed a rig with a Top Raider and began my last spot of the evening. The sun had already gone behind trees and light was disappearing rapidly. I had just reached the shelf that runs up to the saddle and launched ole Toppy up to the shore. I hadn’t moved it but inches when the water erupted. I set the hook and instantly knew that what I had hooked was anything but ordinary. Water was flying everywhere and it was STRONG. I started working it off the shoreline and probably gained about 10-15 yards of line when it took off on one of the strongest runs I have ever witnessed. It ran right back to where it came from and started thrashing in the water again. I couldn’t get a good look at what I was dealing with, but I did get a glimpse of the girth of this monster, and I was getting more anxious by the second.
I started working it back toward the boat again, and started the typical fishing analysis. Two very strong runs, a lot of thrashing and head shaking, and I am still pinned to this thing. I may actual boat it! My thoughts immediately shifted to the fact that I am fishing alone, and netting will be very difficult and a picture…well that may be impossible. This is what was going through my mind when it takes off on another drag burning run, and again it heads right back toward where it came from. I have never had a fish run and thrash in shallow water like this thing was and was a bit perplexed as to why it wanted to fight in such shallow water. This run was a bit weaker than the last couple and I knew the fight was starting to turn my way. I started working it back to the boat, hopefully for the last time. I was now searching very hard in the water for my first glimpse of this thing when its head popped to the surface. I think I actually did a cartoon-like double take when I saw it. The head I was looking at was much different than what I had anticipated, it belonged to a beaver.
My emotions immediately shifted from the highest of highs to, Oh My Lord, what has Norm gotten himself into now. I worked the beaver a bit closer to the boat and saw that I had it hooked in a rear leg and the tail. I considered cutting the line but quickly dismissed that idea knowing that eventually the beaver would probably end up with its snout involved in the hooks, and I did not want this beaver to die. It was during this analysis that the beaver took off again toward shore on another drag ripping run, and I finally realized what all the shallow fighting and attempts for the shoreline were all about.
I began yet another attempt to bring the beaver toward the boat. I had all the necessary release tools right at my feet (minus great big leather gloves) and again began to analyze the situation. As it came nearer the boat I grabbed my knipex and started considering how to pop these hooks. I was kneeling on my deck with rod in one hand, knipex in the other, and beaver just out of reach when it turned its head toward me and let out a type of hissing sound. Now, I don’t know if this is a big beaver, but it is by far the biggest one I have ever had on my line, and I want no part of its angry hissing. To my relief it took off away from the boat again.
I stopped its run and again began to work it toward the boat hoping that with fatigue, it may allow me to unhook it. I could tell by its actions it was getting pretty tired and I am hoping maybe I can get it unhooked. About this time I could see the beaver actually get an idea. It started swimming toward the boat, and I can tell the way the head is turning and the eyes are shifting that it is considering resting inside of my Tuffy, all it needs is an avenue for entry. I realized that I want no part of an angry rodent in my boat and immediately get on the trolling motor as fast as I can away from this thing. I gave it slack line and got away as fast as I could. The beaver gave up its chase and sat floating between my boat and shore.
At this point it is the first time the beaver and I are not in a violent fight, and it once again starts swimming toward shore. It is then that I got my first good idea in this entire ordeal. I let it swim on slack line toward shore. When it was far enough away I engaged the reel and pulled straight toward me as hard as I could with the rod pointed directly at the beaver. Thankfully, when the rod bend was taken out of the equation the quick force was enough to pop the hooks out and we were finally, and hopefully pemenately separated.
Believe it or not, I actually fished out the spot. I did boat a low 40 inch MUSKY this time just minutes later on the saddle. After releasing that fish I decided it was probably best to end the evening then before God knows what happened next.
So there it is, the story of my 40#er. I am quite sure it weighed all of that. Possibly even approaching the fabled 50# mark. I never did get a picture of it, but that is probably just as well because I would of probably lost my PETA card if that picture got into the wrong hands. And thank you Frank, for putting me on the hook and making me share this with everyone.
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Norm Wild Jr.
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Posts: 366
| I hooked the biggest snapping turtle I've ever seen in the foot with a DDD. I've never weighed a turtle before, but the shell was easily 18-20 inches in diameter. It was not an enjoyable hook removal, but thankfully I was able to cut the hooks and get it free after about 15 minutes.
I know of another guy who had a whitetail swim into his line and ended up hooking it in the face with a Jackpot. The deer swam to shore, and then took off up the hill, and he was actually able to thumb the spool and stop the deer in its tracks. After a moment of shaking its head it took off again and the line broke just above the leader. Who knows what happened to the deer or the bait and they were gone into forest.
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | Yes, Will, as always there is more to the story. The bird swam (with it's wings) up onto the shallowest spot on the Afton bar. We ran the boat aground trying to get to it. We were in a 20 foot Stratos, which doesn't handle water under a foot deep very well. We had water temps in the upper 60's and air temp was 49, so forgive us, but we didn't wade to it. We didn't think it would be a good idea approach a beak that can stab completely though a rabbit (check the youtube video) on it's own ground. Also, being 5 miles from the landing and underclothed, we would run the risk of hypothermia.
I didn't reel it to the boat, because I didn't want to put any pressure on the hooks. That's why I cut the line in the first place. Maybe we should have done it differently. I haven't read the latest release tactics for blue herons at night. | |
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| Looks like there are a few of people out there who have managed to snag an incidental non-Musky species. A Black Lab for me. Real nice dog down near the dock where we were fishing. First he was just hanging around being friendly. Then all of a sudden he's in the water chasing down a surface bait I'm retrieving. I suppose I should have seen it coming, being as that's kind of what Labs do. But he caught me by surprise. It was a long cast, but he swam in from the side, and had the lure in his sights. I tried to reel it back in fast enough so that he couldn't catch it. But he was a fast swimmer, and caught it just as I thought Id get it by him. So I stopped reeling and let him bring it in. Fortunately the barbs never penetrated, so we just easily yanked a hook out of his lip out and sent him on down the road. He didn't seem to notice that he'd ever been hooked. | |
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Location: Grand Rapids, MI | Moltisanti - 9/1/2009 9:08 AMYes, Will, as always there is more to the story. The bird swam (with it's wings) up onto the shallowest spot on the Afton bar. We ran the boat aground trying to get to it. We were in a 20 foot Stratos, which doesn't handle water under a foot deep very well. We had water temps in the upper 60's and air temp was 49, so forgive us, but we didn't wade to it. We didn't think it would be a good idea approach a beak that can stab completely though a rabbit (check the youtube video) on it's own ground. Also, being 5 miles from the landing and underclothed, we would run the risk of hypothermia.I didn't reel it to the boat, because I didn't want to put any pressure on the hooks. That's why I cut the line in the first place. Maybe we should have done it differently. I haven't read the latest release tactics for blue herons at night.
I was hoping "more" meant you actually did something about it. It's just a bird and they weigh about 5lbs, I'm sure you could have handled a 5# bird. I always wondered who the people were that left the Herons, Seagulls and Ospreys tangled in line and lures that I've untangled over the years. I'm not trying to go PETA on you at all, I've put arrows through lots of deer, turkeys, elk, etc. but all the while with a complete respect for wildlife. | |
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Posts: 582
| last year, i thought i had a follow and as i started to react, i noticed it was a loon. That would have sucked. | |
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Posts: 639
Location: Hudson, WI | I will reiterate again, we could not get the boat to the bird. I had already cut the line. My mistake. And yes, we had a giant net. In fact, we released a fish that was roughly 50 with that net on that exact spot 3 nights previous. Look at the "How long is this fish" thread. | |
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Posts: 2686
Location: Hayward, WI | Moltisanti, I have a great respect for all kinds of wildlife like Will does, so I can see where he's coming from. Sometimes it' hard to think about what to do in a case like that, since things like that don't exactly happen every day. It sounds like initially, you were worried that you were hurting the bird, and that's why you cut the line. Can't blame you for wanting to hurt it - I hate to see animals in pain too. You probably realize this in hindsight too, but the best solution probably would have been to reel it in, squawking and all. Chances are good that the hooks were tangled enough for them to not just come out on their own, and would have taken some human intervention to get them out. That bird would have been happy getting reeled in, but it might have been its own chance.
I'm not blaming you. Once you realized it wasn't free you did attempt to go get it. Chances are that will never happen again. I it does, you'll know to reel it in, net it, and work on it in the net.
Loons scare me. I've had a ton of them follow baits in. I'd hate to hook one of them someday, but I could see it happening.
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Worst Catch Ever