Birds of prey caught on a swimbait?!?!?

[FishDr]

2 hours ago, basssavage24/7 said:

Wait until you hook a big beaver there's so many of them where I live and they do nothing to control there population.     I aways have them going after my wake baits when night fishing. But the old komodo 463 with 80lbs braid with 30pound drag puts a whoopin on them. I've only caught two so far.   I would rather it not happen because I allways worry  about them wrapping me in a tree and breaking me off.   

  Its not fun trying to Unhook a pissed off beaver fighting for its life but still they swim across the lake and attack my wake bait. I hope they will learn but they don't so I just live with it.

Beavers going after your baits?  Dang!  Do they bite into your baits?  Given their dentures, that could get bad in a hurry.

I've never had them go after baits though I've definitely had a lot of encounters with them in the dark.  Nothing like having one do a tail slap 6' behind your pontoon on a dark and foggy night to set you flailing your fins in frantic fear.  Anyone who says you can't get a pontoon on plane hasn't seen me react to an angry beaver at short range!

[FishDr]

2 hours ago, mbleming said:

Yikes, I would've died when he got tangled and hooked the second time! I can't imagine catching an owl...glad to hear he didn't get the hooks. I also regularly see muskrats swimming by in my local lake at night...I'm always burning baits in after casting as I suddenly notice one approaching. I hope I never snag one of those guys...would be a total nightmare. I don't think they'd go after a bait, but getting tangled in the line could cause it to get hooked for sure. 

The 2nd time around I was more experienced and knew how to grab hold of that big freakin' beak and subdue the wings.  I will admit that my language was, well, colorful when he got hooked the second time around.  I kept waiting for a game warden to roll up and ask me what the hell I thought I was doing to a threatened species - I was fishing in clear view of that long highway/causeway that runs along the keys and I figured some well-meaning citizen was going to call me in for trying to land and keep a pelican .

[ThatKidInNY]

I had a beaver slap one of my wakes out of the water once. Scared the crap outta me.  Also had a mink go after one of my rats in the river. 

[basssavage24/7]

2 hours ago, FishDr said:

Beavers going after your baits?  Dang!  Do they bite into your baits?  Given their dentures, that could get bad in a hurry.

I've never had them go after baits though I've definitely had a lot of encounters with them in the dark.  Nothing like having one do a tail slap 6' behind your pontoon on a dark and foggy night to set you flailing your fins in frantic fear.  Anyone who says you can't get a pontoon on plane hasn't seen me react to an angry beaver at short range!

Not sure if they are trying to bite it.  The 2 I've hook into i felt a bump and swung on it. In my area they come right up to my wake baits. I just rip from them and reel as fast as I can so don't hook up.         

 I wish they would leave my bait alone. They put up one hell of a fight when you hook up tho.   I tried to find a youtube video of a guy who caught one on the slammer on the delta but I can't find the video anymore its a few years old.      But I hook them in the face I allways carry a huge net with me while I'm bank beating and long needle noses pliers.   Haven't hook any with the  3/0 4x st66 I got on some of my gaint wakebaits.      

  It be a nightmare trying to those out of them.

[rwp]

It's pretty much a daily occurrence here that a bird will start to dive towards a bait.

As soon as they start to drive I crank the bait in as fast as I can and they usually abort the mission. I've yet to have one commit, but all it would take is me not paying attention.

[basssavage24/7]

5 hours ago, FishDr said:

I've had an owl pick up a Slammer at night - everything was just like a surface strike - big splash, instant tension on the line, rod loaded up.  The only thing that wasn't right was the line sailing up and away instead of down and away.  Luckliy the owl dropped the lure after about 15 feet.

I've also had ospreys dive on wakebaits - a burst of winding speed is definitely called for.

The one bird I've hooked in recent years was a brown pelican that came streaking over my head at dawn during a family trip and nailed a Lunker Punker.  It took about 5 minutes to unhook it while trying to avoid the big bill with the hook on the end, and then the bloody bird tangled the line again, requiring a second unhooking.  Luckily, that one was easier and after two attempts, the bird took off in a hurry.  And I threw now more topwater baits because pelicans were everywhere.

My buddy  caught a few owls. One felt the tug gave it one of those FLW Hooksets thing smack the  water hard.   He thinks its a bass flailing on top of the surface. So he his rod tip in the water trying to keep her head down.   Thing gets about 15feet in front of us then we realized its an owl.   

  Owl was fine he was allittle soggy not that happy to see us. Just another night fishing.

[Fishguru]

Beavers are a whole different set of problems. Aggressive little buggars, always manage to swim right into your line. 
This osprey on the other hand was surprisingly easy to deal with. He was above me on a power line for a few minutes and I forgot about him, was trying to figure 8 a 15-20 lb striper and he smashed it at my feet. Scared the chit out of me when he spared me lol.  Deps 250.
Let me unhook without incident actuslly. 
 Then proceeded to try to eat my mega spook or Deps for weeks after. 
juvenile bald eagles tried too but always seemed to pull off before contact. 
osprey was always all in

 

Edited November 8, 2021 by Fishguru

[stkbass]

I've caught several gulls, a cormorant, and a pelican before. Not fun. 

[GreenPig]

On 11/6/2021 at 11:57 AM, basssavage24/7 said:

Me and my friend caught 5 birds in one week. We caught more birds than fish. We caught 2 ospreys and 3 geese all accidents of course last thing I need 100plus bait to go flying away never to be seen again.   We just throw our jackets on them and breakout the pliers. 

   Wait until you hook a big beaver there's so many of them where I live and they do nothing to control there population.     I aways have them going after my wake baits when night fishing. But the old komodo 463 with 80lbs braid with 30pound drag puts a whoopin on them. I've only caught two so far.   I would rather it not happen because I allways worry  about them wrapping me in a tree and breaking me off.   

  Its not fun trying to Unhook a pissed off beaver fighting for its life but still they swim across the lake and attack my wake bait. I hope they will learn but they don't so I just live with it.

My Remington LVSF 221 Fireball is my beaver gun and it controls those nuisance beavers just fine.

[buzzed bait]

Last night I had an owl come in hard with the landing gear down and everything on my battlewing crawler on THREE consecutive casts!!  Thankfully it freaked out when I jerked the bait back each time. Reminded me to come back to this thread….

i bombed my fatback herring out one day past a big lay down and mid flight a heron takes off from said my down. Line goes over the birds wing and all I can do is watch the line tighten up as he sails off. Bait stuck right into the bird’s wing and panic immediately ensued!!  Thankfully I got the thing by the body and unhooked the bait (feathers came back with it) and the bird swam off probably just as shaken up as I was!!  Thankfully I didn’t have to go to plan b with la pistola…. I was getting that bait back one way or another!!

[Jim137a]

Out testing the Black Anchor Fishing Co. RT - FKR today and  this heron wanted it bad.  I definitely think this rat is going to be a killer when it’s top water season - if it could fool one of the better fishing birds out there I’m pretty confident it’ll get bass. 

https://vimeo.com/647901733

 

https://vimeo.com/647901177

[DrewManFishing]

On 11/11/2021 at 9:41 AM, buzzed bait said:

Thankfully I didn’t have to go to plan b with la pistola…. I was getting that bait back one way or another!!

LOL

[bassturds]

I’ve had owls and ospreys come down after my baits 

[bassturds]

I’m actually a pro at unhooking birds. I help people all the time! I see someone catch a bird, I stop fishing and take the hook off

[dlegg96]

I have hooked a loon on a soft plastic swimbait, luckily the hook pulled out before it got to the boat. Im not a big fan of loons. They tend to nest in places i like to fish in the spring. My dad also hooked a pelican while we were surf casting. Dang thing bit me before i could grab it. Snapping turtles too. I have had them eat hollow belly frogs and had one bite a spook in half.