Thief

[Thomas L]

I fished the Esopus this past Thursday I was having a pretty good day,caught and released a couple of browns an bows. Then it happened ,I had just hooked a fish and after a good run down river I had him back up river in a minute or two .I had him within 10 feet of me and was lifting his head up out of the water when a large Heron(I think it was) came from across the river an snatched him right out of the water, before I knew it he had peeled about 25 feet of line of my reel an was sitting in a tree across from me, he then flew over into the next tree an snapped the 5x tippet off. So, has anyone else ever lost a fish to a similar incident or any wild life?
The thief

The fish I caught from the day

[CaseyP]

fished a lake in Maine where they were complaining about a loon that would come to the canoes and snatch the fish out of the net. so much for catch and release! trouble was, that's a protected specie...though how much protection he needed with that great big pointed beak was the question of the hour.

when the birds learn to let us do the fishing, something is screwy!

[Eight Thumbs]

Hi Thomas,

Your thief was definitely a great blue heron. They are usually very respective of humans and tend to keep their distance. Your experience makes me think that this guy has been fed by other fishermen who gave him a standard, nine-inch stocker or two. He may have also come from a broken family, had a crack-wh*** for a mother and just drifted into the gang life to commit such a desperate act. Was he wearing a colored bandanna?

I've never had a fish taken directly off my line but I've had a bald eagle snatch a big fish out of a large group of surface feeding fish that I was casting to (I know, prepositions should never be the last word in a sentence but what the heck). It was a major thrill to see that eagle; they are still spotty in SC, though coming back well. Needless to say, the fish stopped feeding and I stopped fishing. There's just something about the unexpected appearance of huge, air-born objects that tends to put feeding fish down. 8T

[JohnScott]

About four years ago I was fishing Warm River, which is a tributary to the Henry's Fork, east of Ashton ID.

I hooked up with a small rainbow, maybe 5-6". The little guy headed for the bank, for the safety of an undercut bank. Just before he got to the undercut, a much larger trout charged out at him, chased him down and got him by the tail.

For a matter of seconds, I had two fish on. But the bigger trout won - he pulled the smaller rainbow free of the hook. Not sure what happened after that.

[dixieangler]

In saltwater, pelicans are the regular thieves. They will also wait until the fish is close but not in hand before they snatch the fish, hook, line, and all. Kind of hard for me to feel sorry for pelicans with fishing lines wrapped around them given their thievery instead of catching their own fish.

[Mike Thomas]

Not while fly fishing, but I did once catch (and release) a Ganet on a live bait while fishing for kingfish. You should see the beak on one of those!
All the best.
Mike.

[Flyrodde]

Not exactly. My cousin was fishing to a riser on the Farmington in CT and an osprey picked it out before he had a chance to fool it.

[joe cool]

Never lost a hooked fish to a bird, but I have allowed a rather large snapping turtle to eat a couple of sunfish I hooked from one of the ponds I fish. The only problem now is that every time I have gone to the pond since then, I have seen the turtle sitting about 15 feet from the bank staring at me waiting for me to catch a fish and leave it in the water long enough for him to get it.

We did have a bird on the beach in florida that would climb onto the rim of the bucket we kept shiners in and eat all the bait. We had to put a towel over it and eventually buy a bucket with a lid to keep it away. It still hung around and even climbed on our chairs when nobody was sitting in them like it was one of the group.

[cj4750]

I was fishing a spring creek here in NY a few weeks ago and had two of them double tag teaming me. I was fishing the run they wanted and let me know it in no uncertain terms. The language was not pleasant which now after reading here of another good heron gone bad makes me wonder just what's going on in the bird kingdom.

[James Smith]

While fishing for salmon off of Queen Charlotte Islands BC, the sea lions were the thieves. There was one large outcropping that had about 75 Sea Lions on it. The minute they heard a reel screaming as the salmon made a run the Sea Lions would plop into the water and the race was on. The fight lasts about 10 seconds until the hook pulls out or the line breaks. The only thing to do is to move away from them as they will follow the boats as long as you're fishing.

Jim Smith