A number of years ago I lived at a small lake in northern New Jersey. One evening after all the swimmers had left, I went across the street to the beach to do a little fishing. On one of my first casts, I made my backcast and started to come foreward, but the fly was stuck. My first thought was "oh rats, I've snagged a tree." Then I realized that I was on a beach and there was nothing but sand for 100+ feet behind me, and I can't cast that far. So, I turned around and walked back to my fly, and there flopping around in the sand, was a bat, my fly in its mouth. Not thinking very clearly, I reached out, grabbed the bat, smoothed its wings back, and removed my fly from its mouth. I put the bat down, it looked at me for a second, I swear I heard it say "thanks," and it flew away. I never thought until I got home about the diseases, including rabies that bats carry, but everything worked out well for both of us. By the way, I stayed on the beach for a while and caught a couple of sunnies, and a very large Crappie.

Bob ...