Your Preyed On Catches

[DaveNJ]

Ever have another animal attack your fish as you're bringing it in?

I've had a couple encounters with this, but my fondest memory related it it took place on a lake when I was 11 or so. I was on a camping trip with my cabin from camp, and I was the only one who brought fishing tackle. It was an overnight, so we only had one morning. I got up slightly before day break and figured I had it made, being alone and all. This lake's edges worked their way into coves and out to peninsulas, so there was a lot of great structure and the morning fog never lifted. Should have been great, right? Nope. Nothing. I fished by myself for 3 hours to no avail. After losing morale and thinking about quitting I finally got a strike! However, it was a little bass. So I reeled it in half heartedly, feeling ungrateful-- BAM, a pickerel sniped it and chomped it almost in half with one bite and wound up on my hook! It was thrilling and very dramatic. I got the pickerel in, unhooked it, and let it go. However, the dying bass now sat in the shallows, plumes of blood slowly swirled away like clouds. It reminded me of the end of Jaws when Jaws gets blown up and slowly sank away under the trail of blood.

I have another story from more recent times, but I'm curious to hear yours!

[Marterius]

A friend got a nice 15 lbs salmon in Norway in the dusk and we left it hanging in the tail outside the hut, so its head came rather close to the ground, and cut the gills to have it bloodied out. Left it there for perhaps fifteen minutes while we brewed up in the hut, and when we got back there was an animal in the darkness disappearing in the undergrowth and half the salmon's head was eaten. Probably a badger. Brazen fellow!

I have witnessed a sea trout hooked on the fly in salt water being snatched by a seal. Could have got the picture of a life-fime if I had been more alert.

[Cimarron]

A smallish, maybe 1 lb bass died after an unfortunately difficult unhooking, so I threw it overboard. As it drifted away, a very large northern pike attacked it and carried it under, only to have it reappear on the surface. I retrieved the bass and buried a hook in it and threw it back to see if I could get pike lucky. That pike attacked the bass five or six times, but never got hooked itself, no matter where I placed the hook. Clever fellow. There would be an exciting 10-15 seconds and then he'd let go. Finally he caught onto the game and went home to sulk. It was a thrilling predator interlude to a slow day.

[Webfly]

Had a Kingfisher dive bomb my streamer this summer while fishing for smallmouth. That must tell you something about the fly if it fooled a kingfisher. Luckily it missed!

Also had two Bull Trout attack my hooked whitefish in one day. Landed them both!



A third memorable attack was when a 17” smallmouth came out from under a log and stole my Sneaky Pete out of an 8” smallmouth’s mouth! Was a great trade off.

I love when these nature experiences happen...

[Kenneth]

Sharks are the well known Balrogs of the SWFF world, but I personally think dolphins and their congeners are even more of a bane, especially when trolling for tuna on the open ocean. They're craftier, and crucially, faster than sharks, and when a pod of them turns up, time to pack up and go home, or at least far, far away.

My scariest experience was when a False Gharial came out of nowhere and grabbed a grouper I was pulling out of the mangroves. That it happened on a pitch dark night just made the whole experience more memorable.

Kenneth

[6tUc05]

Once had an 8 ft alligator take a largmouth bass I was playing. A I did not have a net with me for landing, I broke him off. Didn't want to contend with the teeth! Fishing a private fishing club's ponds one Father's Day with my grand kids, three of them had a large mouth bass take the bluegill each was "fighting". The two boys each landed both the bluegill AND the bass! The granddaughter was not so lucky. Irony of ironies, one of the boys landed TWO bass this way that afternoon! All three bass were weighed and released. All three nudged 5 pounds!

[flyfishingpastor]

Three times by birds of prey - all in Yellowstone National Park. Two on the Madison and one on Nez Perce Creek. Fun. But I wish they'd catch their own darned fish!

Pat

[twistedtippet]

On the Farmington River several years ago we had a Blue Heron that would land about 10 feet away from you and wait until you hooked a trout and then swoop in to try to grab it.

One of the most comical things I ever saw was a Heron that had speared a trout. Before it could swallow it a Egret swooped in to try to take it away. The Heron tossed the trout on shore and while chasing the Egret away a mink came along and took off with the trout. The Heron came back looking for his fish and couldn't find it. Some times fishing can be a comedy show.

tt

[headwaters]

I've seen loons try and succeed taking fish away from fisherman on lakes in Maine. Seeing fisherman try to win that battle is like watching an Abbott and Costello movie. It's impossible not to laugh, even when you know you'd hate to have it happen to you.

Also, one day on the Gunpowder, a guy came running down the bank to me with eyes as big as saucers and said, a monster brown just took a 10" brown off his line right as he was reaching for it. He asked if I had ever seen anything like that. I told him I had. He was so worked up he could barely talk, but he said the size of the of the big brown was unbelievable!

[Peales]

I and my fellow fishing companions have had many encounters with Bull Trout attacking hooked Cutthroat and Whitefish in BC. Some of the Cutthroat can be up around 16 to 17 inches and still be considered as prey. Amazing to me that a Cutthroat has the capacity to flee from the jaws of a pursuing Bull Trout while also fleeing from the pull of the hook.

[RWHoffhines]

Residential lake at 120th St in Pinecrest/Miami: I was fishing primarily for peacocks, but picked up a little Florida strain largie on my sparkleminnow. Fishing was slow, so seeing the little guy charge and eat my fly was the biggest thrill of the day thus far. So I released him into the clear water over the wide 18" deep littoral zone and watched him slowly glide over and hold below a lily pad to regain his wits. In a flash, a 6-8 pound peacock bass surged up from the deep blue. The little bass wheeled around but he monster peacock had a full head of steam and blood in his eye. A couple zig zags, the gills flared, he was sucked in, it was over...except for the dying wakes on the surface...and my dangling jaw. You bet I cast to where the assailant returned, but to no avail. It struck me that the bass was not wounded, it just swam over to the lily pad calmly to rest. He looked perfectly fine, but somehow, that peacock could read that the little guy was stressed and thus...vulnerable. Rough neighborhood.

[Loogie]

This last August, I cast a Schminnow tight into a mangrove. I was in about two feet of water. The water was stained but clear enough as I saw the 35" plus Snook come out of under the roots, and smash my fly. I thought in my head that moment "this is it, I'm finally going to touch a big ass Snook"! I was trying to clear the reel, and keep her out of the roots, when a big Giant whirl swam right by the fish. My friend on the poling tower said "Bull Shark, pull it in!" I couldn't get any leverage on the fish it was swimming towards me, as I tried to strip and get back in contact with the fish to try and haul her in. The shark turned and chopped my Snook in half, and left me a well hooked fish head attached to my Schminnow. That shark was at least a 5 footer, amazing predator, don't mess with sharks!

[mlarocco]

A local still water has nesting bald eagles. They watch people fishing and when someone hooks a larger trout it's game on. You end up trying to play the fish so the eagle won't snatch it. The eagle ends up circling the fisherman in their flotation device waiting for an opportunity when the tired fish exposes itself close to the surface. Over time the eagle adjusted it's tactics and for the element of surprise would plan it's attack from behind the fisherman, flying directly overhead of the fisherman line-of-sight to the struggling trout. Scares the * out of you when you realize there's an eagle flying a couple feet over your head (hear the wings).

Gary Loomis of Loomis rods (ex) tells the story of silver fishing in Alaska and hooking a nice coho. A brown bear saw the commotion and took the fish from the other side of the river and walked into the brush. Gary said every time he pulled on the line to break it off the bear would grunt and pull back. Not sure if it's true as Gary is an animated story teller.

[DaveNJ]

Also, one day on the Gunpowder, a guy came running down the bank to me with eyes as big as saucers and said, a monster brown just took a 10" brown off his line right as he was reaching for it. He asked if I had ever seen anything like that. I fold him I had. He was so worked up he could barely talk, but he said the size of the of the big brown was unbelievable!

Had this happen to me in Jersey. Saw a bolt of lightning shoot upstream, downstream, and then my graphite rod was bent to the cork for 2 minutes. Just as suddenly as it happened the rod bounced up and only a little tension could be felt as I brought the little chomped up trout back in. It could only swim in circles after I released it.

[Chuck441]

Years ago I was standing on a dock, fishing a warm water pond near my home, in a condo neighborhood. I hooked a decent bluegill, who did the usual circular 'gill fight- when suddenly a really fine largemouth bass shot out from under the dock to grab "my" bluegill. It swam into the middle of the pond, and I gave it line to do so. Eventually I tired of it, so I tried to set the (size 10) hook into the bass. He was having none of it, and spit out the "gill. Fun while it lasted, though- but not for the bluegill!

Chuck

[reidrods]

Lost a good brown on the Ausable near Shadow Rock pool to an Osprey. They make quite a splash when they dive. Same river - A heron followed me upstream,hopping from rock to rock and staying about 15-20' away. Looking for a handout I guess.

Nine mile creek in Camillus,NY. I finally got a good drift and just as a small brown came up for my fly, there was a large splash and a large snake came out of the creek with my trout in his mouth. I watched the snake dine.

Millers River in Mass. Snapping turtle almost took my hand off taking a smallmouth that I was landing. It was under a large rock I was standing on and every time I brought a trout or bass in close, out came the turtle.

I had a hard time landing a large dragon fly that took my fly on the back cast. They put up quite the fight. And I don't want to talk about taking bats off the hook night fishing on the Otter R. in Middlebury Vt.

Willis

[BambooNut]

The only animal attacking my fish is my dog. I can't convince him the fish are not something he can eat.

[Bill Moschler]

I hooked a 11 inch or so rainbow trout in Little River in the Smokey Mountain Nation Park. In the "old foiks hole" at Metcalf bottoms. That is a big fish for me in the park. A very large (20" plus and maybe plus by a lot) brown trout came from the riffle behind me, over a ledge right beside my legs, and swallowed the trout. The brown then laid down on the bottom in the pool in about 8' of water where I could see it. I hung on with my 5x leader for what seems like a long time. Finally I could stand it no more so I started exerting pressure. The large trout disgorged the small trout and I landed and released it. The small trout seemed okay. All this happened in very clear water so I could see and knew what was going on the whole time. Just nothing else to do about it. I was glad to have the experience. Probably my top moment in 30 years of fishing in the park.

[DrLogik]

Not animal but another fish! Barracuda eating Mackerel when off-shore fishing and Pike eating Small Mouth Bass in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Both were smart enough to not hook themselves. A friend in the UP had an otter take a trout, though that was many years ago.

[Bee]

Moral: Big fish eat the little fish. Its all a matter of size.

Ive lost trout to bigger trout, stripers, eagle, osprey, otter, and a beaver that swam right through the leader breaking off the fish. Steelhead way in to the backing on the Dean when a previously unseen brown bear crashed off the bank and dashed across river with my fly line as its only obstacle. Also to the oars of a local dumbass who who rowed right over the top of me while I was trying to land a nice fish.

And bonefish to various sharks.