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Posts: 371
Location: Northern Illinois | Well if you don't, don't feel bad because I didn't know either until one hit my 90mm black Berkley Choppo at the river today.
I was shore fishing some slack water on the river with the Choppo (top water) when I saw this bird come out of the trees early in the retrieve. I stopped the lure thinking he might stop tracking it or realize that it wasn't a fish. Unfortunately, that didn't happen and he picked up the lure. I still didn't put any tension on the line hoping he wouldn't get hooked and drop it. Unfortunately, that didn't happen either and he started to fly off. I put just enough tension to bring him down. I then sat down on the rocks, pulled out my pliers and slowly brought him closer.
I tried, to calm him down through my calm actions and voice hoping he would realize I'm trying to help him. He was hooked on the back treble with a point in both his upper and lower beak. I only had regular pliers (not my knipex cutters in my big tackle box) so I had to grab the lure in my left hand (with the other treble dangling) and try to get the hook out with the pliers in my right hand. Luckily, he was cooperating and letting me operate. I tried to cut the treble with the cutter in the long nose pliers but I couldn't, so I had to bend it back and forth enough times to break it off. I then staightened out the other hook enough to get it out.
Fortunately he flew off looking very healthy. |
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Posts: 482
| it is decimating the fish and its feces destroy any and all land its over , where seeing the result of this up in canada for a while . |
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Posts: 1200
Location: E. Tenn | To answer mm3's question... "Yes", and they are infestation down here . It's not uncommon to see several hundred "rafted up" on some of our reservoirs in the middle of the day. Had a similar experience with a blue heron, and a Rapala.. Had a helluva time getting him to quit flying, but eventually managed to unhook the bird, and he took off, more than slightly embarrassed, otherwise fine..
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Posts: 2
| in Ireland they have decimated fish stocks, and they are protected despite being an invasive species |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Our lakes down here are infested with Canada Geese. Can't walk on a boat dock without slipping on their leavings, and park beaches are unsanitary.
On your way up to Canada, could you all pls take a few back with you? thanks, m |
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | mikie - 8/30/2021 7:38 AM
Our lakes down here are infested with Canada Geese. Can't walk on a boat dock without slipping on their leavings, and park beaches are unsanitary.
On your way up to Canada, could you all pls take a few back with you? thanks, m
The border only recently opened.
Those birds must be ours... |
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Posts: 72
| mikie - 8/30/2021 7:38 AM
Our lakes down here are infested with Canada Geese. Can't walk on a boat dock without slipping on their leavings, and park beaches are unsanitary.
On your way up to Canada, could you all pls take a few back with you? thanks, m
Sky carp |
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Posts: 1184
| ColdLabatts - 8/31/2021 4:46 PM
mikie - 8/30/2021 7:38 AM
Our lakes down here are infested with Canada Geese. Can't walk on a boat dock without slipping on their leavings, and park beaches are unsanitary.
On your way up to Canada, could you all pls take a few back with you? thanks, m
Sky carp
Except they taste good  |
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Location: MN | If it happens again reel up the slack and give em a hero's hookset. They are easier to unhook after you’ve snapped their neck. Fish eating machines that are overpopulated. Ontario opened a season on them to stop them from ravaging fisheries. If they open it stateside I’ll gladly do my part to thin em out.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iov85x1laJY |
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Posts: 72
| TCESOX - 8/31/2021 5:15 PM
ColdLabatts - 8/31/2021 4:46 PM
mikie - 8/30/2021 7:38 AM
Our lakes down here are infested with Canada Geese. Can't walk on a boat dock without slipping on their leavings, and park beaches are unsanitary.
On your way up to Canada, could you all pls take a few back with you? thanks, m
Sky carp
Except they taste good : )
LOL touché |
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Posts: 4269
Location: Ashland WI | We have a lot of cormorants here in the Chequamegon Bay.
They hang out on the breakwall and paint the rocks. Pretty nasty. |
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Posts: 371
Location: Northern Illinois | I never really paid much attention to them or gave them any significant thought. Just figured they were part of the ecosystem and were there like everything else. Are they a recent addition in some areas? Do they have any positive aspects like carrying eggs to other lakes and spredding fish or anything? Or are they just eating the fish and pooping? |
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Posts: 1184
| Mostly they just eat fish and poop. Typically, they aren't an issue. They are native, and should exist. However, there are occasions where environmental factors such as an abundance food, perfect weather for breeding, lack of predation, etc., can lead to a population explosion. Leach lake had this issue, several years back. They certainly can impact fisheries, if their numbers get out of whack. Just because you see a rock pile bleached with poop, doesn't mean there is an over-population, or that they are harming the fish population. It is normal. They are kind of disgusting, though. |
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Posts: 1200
Location: E. Tenn | From what I've read and have been told, they were included in a Migratory Bird Treaty from 1918, partly due to translation errors, omissions and such. They are a protected species, and there's no open season here in the states..
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Posts: 770
| They are easier to unhook if you cut their head off… just saying |
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Posts: 2226
Location: SE, WI. | T3clay - 9/4/2021 10:01 PM They are easier to unhook if you cut their head off… just saying A good pair of Side Cutters work well for this. Usually on board;)….always Prepared! |
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Posts: 497
Location: Ludington, MI | Nothing normal about their current numbers. Isle Royale is an archipelago of formerly wooded islands. From 1993 to 2000, hundreds of them lost all vegetation due to cormorant guano. If you see a V coming out of the fog and aren't sure it's geese, shoot anyway. |
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Posts: 1516
| Rat with wings that eat A LOT of fish. Black in color to distinguish them from the city pigeon |
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Location: Ontario | Vere VERY tasty when smoked on cedar board ... Yeah, you eat the board only |
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| Don't have Cormorants where I live but did watch a family group of five otters feeding while having my morning coffee today. They are incredible predators. Today they were right on the deeper weed edge but sometimes they feed on the small blue gills that use my boat lifts as structure. Watching the otters flash and turn around the legs, braces of the lifts gives an idea of agile they are. They bite through a 4" gill with a single bite. Have watched them where I was close enough to see the blood on their whiskers and hear the fish bones crack. Last fall one even climbed up on my dock and ate a turtle that had at least an 8" shell. A few times they all climb out and rest in the sun on he dock. And then they poop before going back in the water. Clay red, and remnants of everything from fish tails to crayfish shells. The crack pots who want to kill all musky so they don't eat walleye probably would start tossing dynamite if they ever saw them feeding. |
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Posts: 29
| Studies in the Kingston, Lake Ontario region found they eat 1lb of fish a day and there are huge colonies. Their guano fouls water and kills everything.
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | A few years back the DNR hired a few people to help elevate hundreds of those nasty things on Leach Lake.. they eat a lot of fish including muskie and walleye... Fun to pick off with the AR.  |
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Nasty birds. |
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Posts: 28
Location: Pacific Northwest | miket55 - 8/29/2021 7:27 PM
To answer mm3's question... "Yes", and they are infestation down here . It's not uncommon to see several hundred "rafted up" on some of our reservoirs in the middle of the day. Had a similar experience with a blue heron, and a Rapala.. Had a helluva time getting him to quit flying, but eventually managed to unhook the bird, and he took off, more than slightly embarrassed, otherwise fine..
Holy smokes, I'm glad you didn't get hurt.
For anyone else who happens to hook a blue heron PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T TRY TO UNHOOK IT. That beak is a serious weapon. Knife-wielding wading birds like blue herons, sandhill cranes, etc. will aim for the eyes. Just cut your line. I know of 2 instances when well-intentioned guys have lost an eye trying to free a blue heron. Actually, one guy lost both eyes.
As for cormorants, yeah, I'm far too familiar with them. Hate 'em. |
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Posts: 1
| In Canada, the MNR has culled the eggs at breeding time and greatly reduced the numbers on Georgian Bay, no more floatillas!
This is something that could be presented to the DNR in the US, under saving fisheries! |
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