interesting nature encounters while fishing

[rizeye]

as an off shot to the strange things found streamside thread in the sound off forum, I thought this would be a good topic for us to relate to others the wonders of nature that we've all seen while out and about. i just wish i could of had some pics from some of the unexpected encounters.

While fishing the lower Youghiogheny River in SW PA a friend and I were walking the RR track up river when I heard rustling in the weeds and all of a sudden a field mouse came bursting out about 10ft in front of us, a martin was just a few feet behind it. I was in the lead and as I took a stride the mouse ran right under my boot, the martin run up to about 2 ft from my boot and stopped, we both froze. the martin was looking at my boot then looked up at me, it looked like its eyes bugged out in surprise as it turned tail and ran back a ways. It stopped and looked back 1 time then took off into the weeds. My friend looked at each other dumbfounded and laughed. I lifted my foot and the mouse was curled up, probably frozen by fear because it took a little nudge from my toe to get it to move.

[turvy]

Many, many springs ago my fishing mentor and myself were out fishing a trout stream in SE Minnesota. It's a small stream and saw a flock of cedar wax wings across the stream near a bush. We stopped and watched and then couldn't help but laugh. The birds were eating last seasons berries off the bush and they were drunk. Some were so drunk they couldn't even hop on the ground. It was so funny we stood there not 20 feet from them and laughed outloud but the birds were having such a good time they never did fly away.

[Mike Thomas]

As a youngster living in England I used to go beach fishing at night, most times a few red fox would come along and try to help themselfs to the bait. When I told my then girlfriend (for the last 23 years my wife) she insisted on coming along, we bought some chips for supper but ended up feeding the chips to the fox's.
They came right up to within about 15ft and stayed for most of the night.
All the best.
Mike

[Steven]

On the corner of Madison Ave. and State St., I witnessed a seagull swoop down and swallow a sparrow not five feet above the sidewalk. Everbody on the corner just looked at each other and said "Holy Sh-t!" Nobody'd ever seen anything like it before or even knew gulls ate other birds.

The gorgeous coyote sitting on the rail of Lake Shore Drive by North Ave. stopped traffic for a mile.

Nature is where you find it.

[bobbyg]

I suppose the coolest nature encounter I've had while fly fishing Lost Cove Creek in the Wilson Creek drainage here in North Carolina
was watching a very big red tailed hawk swooping in, settling comfortably on a tree branch, and devouring a snake he had caught.

Luckily I had my pocket binoculars with me. It only took Mr. Hawk about 30 minutes to devour that grey colored snake.
Have no idea what particular snake it was but it met a natural fate, I suppose. It was an encounter you would never forget.

Great thread by the way!!

[Silver Creek]

First a bear cub and then the mother came to visit while I was fishing this year. They were non threatening so I continued to fish. I was about 20 feet from them and at a stream crossing point. A second cub then wandered by. One bear cub killed by a car EARLIER in the year and this mother and two cubs were seen in the area. Could this mama bear have had 3 cubs?

[Dave E]

Tell me, does this qualify?

I and a friend stumbled upon a large Gorilla standing about ten feet out from the shore on the old geezer hole above the Cantara loop on the Upper Sacramento River a few years back.
In the Gorilla's arms was an attractive young lady, dressed in flip flops, daisy dukes and a tank top. Actually it was just a very large man in a gorilla suit...

Don't know why, didn't ask.
It's California.

[James Smith]

I've enjoyed a number of interesting wildlife encounters while fishing. Once while fishing the canals of Miami along the endge of the Everglades, I was creeping along keeping one eye on the water for looking for bass and the other on the path watching for water moccasins. It was a somewhat spontaneous fishing trip and I was wearing flip flops so I wanted to be careful. As I crept along, all of a sudden, grass and dirt was flying immediately to my right and I froze as a six foot alligator tore across the tops of my feet as he made his mad dash for the water. I had been so quiet, that I didn’t wake him up until I was between him and the canal. I’m still not sure who was more startled by the encounter.

More recently, last week in fact, I was out in my kayak fishing the 50 acre lake I live on. We always have a couple of pairs of beavers and too many muskrats so I see them quite often. I heard a splash over by a nearby dock so I stopped to look what it was. Up popped an otter about 10 feet from my kayak. He stopped and a sat up straight in the water up to get a good look at me. Then, he swam about 30 feet away and started squeaking/whistling looking back where he had come from. Sure enough, up pops his mate. She was even more interested in me and swam very close to the kayak and stopped, watching me. The male (I assumed) then made a short cough or barking noise and she dove under to swim away. I’ve only seen otters one other time in this lake when I saw a female and three pups. The pups were about 2 feet long and she was taking them up the bank along the dam presumably to go down to the South River which is only about 50 yards away. The last pup was dragging a 12 inch bass along which was quite a feat for such a little guy. He was determined to keep his fish and him mom and siblings waited for him on top of the dam where he settled down for lunch.

Jim Smith