About five years ago, the wife and I were visiting family who were staying at the South Seas Plantation in Captiva. Looking for an excuse to escape the in-laws, I went to the local hardware store and picked up a cheap rod and reel and later found some frozen shrimp. I was casting from the dock, landing grey snapper with every third cast, when the big mamma osprey perched in a nearby palm tree decided to make her move. My plump snapper was no match for mamma osprey who swooped in and grabbed the fish 20 feet from one stunned angler. Besides thinking "holy poop", I also recall worrying that osprey cannot unlock their talons until they land (I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard this 'factoid' during the trip) so I wasn't sure how the fight would end. The osprey tried to fly back to its palm tree with teh fish, but my 12 pould test and hook held up. After about a 10-15 second fight, i decided that trying to pull the fish from the osprey was better than opening the bail and risk getting a hook into the bird. The snapper had HUGE gashes across its back, and the osprey returned to the tree and smack talked me until I left.
One other quick story.. A long, long time ago, I was fishing with Lucky Craft Man for muskie. I was in the back of the boat when WHOOOMP - he smacks me upside the head with his lure on the backcast. Fortunately, no hooks embedded, but my dome was rocked by a freaking Suick! The bizzare thing was that a decade plus later, we were fishing Lake Mead when my rattletrap got stuck on a rock. I gave it a huge pull only for the lure to come free and make a bee-line for Luck Craft's Man-hood. While he was doubled over, I couldn't stop laughing or thinking that it was sweet vengance.
