Ever seen this?

M

MikeH

Joined
Oct 18, 2001
Messages
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One of the great things about fishing and hunting is the things you often see that have nothing to do with fishing and hunting but which are rewards in themselves.

I have been fishing for sixty years. Sometime I catch fish and sometime I don't but I have collected a lot of memories of things worth seeing. While fishing this past Tuesday I noticed movement in the shallow water at the end of a narrow slough. A large Barred Owl was in the water up to chest level, bathing.
He would sit still for a few minutes, then flap his wings in the water and shake himself, or dip his head quickly into the water, scooping it over his head and back. He was obviously enjoying it, and let me approach to within about 10 yards in the boat, where I sat and watched for perhaps ten minutes before he flew away in an unalarmed manner. First time in sixty years I have ever seen that.
 
One year during migration period we had just had a good bit of rain .It created a small puddle hardly bigger than a bird .A group of small birds came along and landed by the puddle. One by one the birds ,no more than a dozen, took a bath . When they finished off they flew to continue their journey !
 
Last year i saw a sparrow land at the waters edge to get a drink, only to be devoured by a large bull frog.
 
cool story about the owl... a couple years ago i saw a fawn's first trip to the water. the water was a city lake. were in the boat watching her. she was scared of the water at first till momma came up behind her and nudged her in. it was damn near 100 degrees that day. these are pics of the lil one after mom nudged her in the water, momma saw us and back tracked in the woods. as you can see we got pretty close

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I live on a river and there are a good number of mergansers there. There's a section where there are a number ot standing waves .There wasn't any doubt that the ducks did this intentionally .They lined up and rode the standing waves one duck at a time ,mother and ducklings , and repeated it a few times !! Yes sometimes creatures just play !
 
mete said:
Yes sometimes creatures just play !
Click to expand...

No kidding.
I live on the Clearwater River in Idaho.
It's a common occurrence to see a raft of Honkers float the river for miles and miles.
They're clearly not feeding. I'm convinced they simply enjoy floating the river.
Kinda like the tubers and Kayakers I guess.
 
One time while fishing the Nelson Reservoir in Montana I caught a perch. I was using a Rapala Shad Rap which is a deep diver that looks like a perch. Any way, I could tell I caught a perch, because of the sharp, quick tugs on my pole. But as I was reeling it in, WWHHAAAMMMM! When I finally got it to the boat, there was a 13 LB. Northern Pike that had fully swallowed the perch I caught, and the Shad. Two fish one cast!
 
That must have been a site. the I have never seen anything that was very strange, but I have seen a red tail hawk hit a pigeon out of midair. the hawk sounded like a jet while it was diving. a Few years back me and my friends had a Raccoon, Coony, for a fishing buddy. he would stop by at night and just hang around. this went on for about 2 weeks.

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We also saw a young Porcupine crawl up into a tree that was on the side of the road and go to sleep.
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I was fishing for native brooke trout this year in a small PA mountain stream when I decided to releave myself at the bank (no one around of course). Out of no where this little fawn comes around the bend and comes within about 10 feet of me staring at my junk wondering why in the hell this tan and green tree is leaking fluid when its not raining. Finally when I went to shake and re-adjust myself the little girl realized I wasnt a tree and ran...still pretty cool having that experience.
 
Great sighting of the owl. I once photographed a great horned owl nest with chicks. That was a bit unnerving since raptors do defend their nests and chicks.

There is so much to enjoy that goes beyond the actual fishing activity. I especially like to fish streams and rivers for trout. Sometimes you see deer crossing the water or an occasional black bear. Muskrats and an occasional beaver, mink, or raccoons are also fun to see especially when they are in their natural habitat doing what they do best. I also like to look at, photograph, and identify some of the wildflowers that tend to grow along these water courses. Fishing is just part of the experience, but it is central to getting you out where you can enjoy the other stuff.

Fishing for wild brook and brown trout in PA is a great resource that is available in PA. I frankly have not found a better state for this.
 
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