Opportunistic Birds!

[Mr Flyguy]

I've had pelicans swim around the canoe while playing a trout, loons actually grabbing some, but today I was dived bombed. While playing a frisky 15" bow at my favorite pothole, an osprey splashed down after it about 25 feet away, scared the heck out of me. I did net the fish much to the bird's annoyance.

[ShortsideK]

Wish I had been there to see it. Great story to tell.
Lucky you weren't eating clam chowder.

[thumper]

I often wonder how much of our fish stocking production goes to loons, osprey and eagles - especially in BC. Not that I'm concerned or wish it to stop- but I just wonder. In some East Kootenay lakes I'd guessestimate that 50% of those stocked rainbows goes to predators.

[Don Andersen]

Fish stocking benefit wildlife osprey, Eagles, pelicans, loons, otters, mink and bears.

[JReed]

Cool story, don’t you wish that times like those were video taped. Such a unique experience.

Was fishing the bow near Cochrane this spring with a couple buddies. Me and another guy were working a nice riffle run for the better part of an hour without even a bite (typical bow, even worse in spring).

Saw an Osprey hovering 50 feet above us, so I yelled at my buddy to look up. As we started watching, the osprey descended half the distance to the water and hovered again. A couple more seconds went by, and the osprey went into a complete dive and slapped the water. After another second or two, the bird came off the water with a nice 15” rainbow clutched in his talons. We stared in awe and had a good laugh as to how inferior our skills were compared to the osprey.

We tipped our hat and reeled up for the night. What a slap in the face though, that bird sniped a fish right out of the run we were fishing.

[Flymph]

You are, indeed, a lucky man. It is my belief that people who are fortunate enough to be so trusted by wild life are truly blessed and special. Thanks for sharing.

[Roderek]

We were fishing in Koocanusa, and caught a little Kokanee, it took my son a little longer then normal to get the hook out, we pondered keeping it, but we put it in the water and gave it a minute to see if it would take off.

After a few seconds it flapped its tail fin and off it went. It didn't dive down right away, then out of nowhere an eagle comes down and scoops up the fish. couldn't have been more then 5 feet from the boat. It was a pretty awesome site, I just wish I had my camera out at the time.

[QBC]

Great stories all!

A big part of my enjoyment of fishing and for that matter, being in the outdoors, is the many encounters and interactions with wildlife I've had over the years.

I had a 15 minute conversation with a Fisher up on Yanks Peak near Barkerviille BC. I walked down an old logging road looking for Moose (non fishing related story) when a commotion in the Fir tree in front of me caught my attention. A Fisher was running around the tree on it's branches, about 15 yards away from me, then it would stop and chatter at me, so I talked back to him. He ran around the tree a few times and chatted back. This went on for about 15 minutes until he talked one last time, came down the tree and walked up the hill away from me. I will remember that encounter always.

[Flymph]

Awesome! Fishers are extremely rare in my area of the world and only seen by biologists seeking them out with trail cams and than rarely.

My wife and I were looking for wild life one evening when we say a very rare lynx. Fumbling around for the camera, a second lynx came out of the bush and both cats raised up on their haunches and began a spit fight! Yea, never one shot with the camera.

[Stryker2]

We were trolling with big Pike flies a couple of weeks ago and this seagull started dive bombing the pike fly! It was a clear lake and the flies were very flashy. We didn't want the bird to get hooked so we were scrambling trying to reel in really fast, and the bird was so persistent that it even wanted to dive bomb our see thru fly box!!!! It was crazy! Never had that happen before!

[AltaBorn]

Originally Posted by ShortsideK

Wish I had been there to see it. Great story to tell.
Lucky you weren't eating clam chowder.

HAHA

[Red Bullets]

Years ago I was shore fishing the Skeena river 25 miles inland from Prince Rupert and when I caught a salmon I had to hope a seal wouldn't get the fish before I got the fish in. The big fish could take a long time to get in. The locals would carry slingshots to scare the seals away. A few rocks from a slingshot and the seals would take off. I only saw 1 to 3 seals any given time but they were there. And when the seals came the salmon left.

[SNAPFisher]

Loons are the nuttiest. I had one pulling at the brookies on my stringer at Kinky lake by Hinton. I actually took a long paddle and whacked the loon on the noggin. It surfaced, gave its head a shake, got its bearings and then dove again for another grab. Persistent....

Had a river otter jump up on a causeway in Idaho five feet from me. It proceeded to chatter with me. I responded. I swear it was saying good morning to me. Very friendly creature. Decided to finally reach for the camera and it quietly slipped into the water. It was there for a few minutes. Something I won’t forget.


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[C.wright1]

On the bow fishing about a month ago I had 3 young river otters sneak up behind me and jump in the water about 10 feet from me, they played together for 10 minutes. The whole time I thought I was recording some amazing footage, and when I went to hit the stop button when the action stopped, I realized I never started the video. Unfortunate about the video but a very cool experience

[pipco]

Fishing a local pothole lake a few years back on a little pontoon boat I had a loon incident.

While bringing in a 10"-12" fish and releasing it, right down at my feet, a bloody demon loon swooshed under pontoon seat and grabbed the trout.

Shocked the s*^# out of me as I hadn't seen it anywhere close by.

It surfaced several feet away and gobbled it down.

I've never been bombed by an Osprey but have seen them scoop a fish out of the water ( little bear lake) not much more than 15-20 feet away.

Very cool!

At a pothole lake the other day there were six ospreys and a bald eagle hanging around.

Usually only 3 or 4 around this particular lake so maybe they had a larger brood this year.

[Robins36]

While salmon fishing near Telegraph Cove, BC last spring I had a bird take my anchovy rig while I was dropping the downrigger ball and didn’t notice until about 10 minutes later when the clip released. Thinking I had a chinook on, i reeled in to find the dead bird snagged in the beak. Later, the bird did manage to get me a few crab for dinner.