While Fishing What Unusual Or Rare Animal Have You Seen ?

[aceman387]

As long as the winter has been i'm surprised i haven't had a polar bear sighting in the back yard.  

[Inglorious Basser]

See a LOT of black bears at the cottage ,on the average 6 or more a season. The cottage is north of perry sound Ontario Canada, black bear territory.

[lmoore]

 

Oddest for me though was a mink we found playing in the rocks on a small island in the middle of Barkley Lake.  First I had ever seen, little guy must have swam all the way out there.

 

That reminds me of another one from a few years ago.  I was up in Wabasha for a family vacation staying at a place along the river.  The first night, my brother and I wanted to go out and do some fishing and my sister wanted to come along.  We got out along where a backwater slough entered the main channel through a cut between 2 rock points and we were fishing where the rock met the shoreline.  We stayed out until nearly dark when the critter started moving.  The rocky points must be some kind of highway because we saw mother mink and 4 little ones and a mother raccoon with 2 little ones.  My brother and I spend a lot of time out doors so it wasn't too big a deal, but my sister loved it.  The raccoons were fairly calm around us and let us get in pretty close for some cool pictures.

[mjseverson24]

I have seen a few very interesting animals while fishing, Two stick out in my mind as the most unique. 1) Lake Nipigon on a large creek named shadow creek, there was a large herd of moose mostly cows, but a few very large bulls in the mix, standing up to there knees in what looked like a wild rice field. Less that 100 ft from those beautiful animals on a remote reek in Canada was an amazing experience. 2) Fishing a local MN lake I had a very large Golden Eagle attack my hollow body frog, When I quickly reeled in the frog the Eagle turned its attention on us in the boat, and hovered less than 50' from the boat for quite some time before heading off. That was one stare down I wont forget.

 

Mitch

[buckeye_bass66]

Nothing too unusual for ohio but scared the crap out of a blue Huron and he freaked out and clothes lined himself on branch Hahahaha probably the funniest thing I've ever seen

[Darren.]

Bald eagles, golden eagles, but the most fun for me has been the otters! Love those guys, but sometimes they scare the living daylights outta me when everything's quiet and suddenly the slap the water nearby. Or I come up on one sunning on the bank...

 

In all my years fishing here, it's only been the last year that I have seen them. Had to call the local fisheries department to ask if I saw what I thought I saw...

[gripnrip]

Bald eagles, golden eagles, but the most fun for me has been the otters! Love those guys, but sometimes they scare the living daylights outta me when everything's quiet and suddenly the slap the water nearby. Or I come up on one sunning on the bank...

 

In all my years fishing here, it's only been the last year that I have seen them. Had to call the local fisheries department to ask if I saw what I thought I saw...

Glad it wasn't "El Chupucabra" 

[Darren.]

Glad it wasn't "El Chupucabra" 

 

Well, the funny part is, the first time it happened, all I saw was the head swimming toward me, and at the very first glance I thought it looked like a huge python head...a chill went down my spine, but a snake with a head that big is probably only in Burma and the Amazon (or Florida now) so it had to be something else...

 

All that was split-second thinking before I realized what it was. But yeah, it freaked me out good. I see them fairly often now. So no more freakouts. Until some behemoth comes up from the deeps of the reservoir. LOL

 

One of those things where your mind knows what it sees, figures it out quickly, but in the space while it's figuring it out, it freaks you out.

[Sam]

Came upon a bald eagle teaching her two chicks to fly.

 

Wondrous site to behold.

 

And she was not happy having us pass by in the creek.

[Bankbeater]

I see hawks and ospreys every once in a while out fishing.  Last year I spotted a bald eagle sitting on a log near the water.  I wanted to get a pic, but I didn't have a camera, only a cell phone.  I got about 50 yards away before it took off for the trees.

[pbrussell]

I once watched a couple of hawks fight each other up in the air above me for a while. They were making a terrible racket, screeching at each other.

They lost my attention after a bit, and I went back to fishing. After a few casts I heard this whistling noise and then there was a giant crash in the water about 10 feet behind me. Turns out one of the hawks that was fighting dropped a squirrel. It scared the crap out of me. 

[hookset on 3]

My best buddy has a fishing and hunting camp up in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, that has provided some of the most majestic sights I've seen while fishing.

 

These include beavers, otters, eagles, owls etc.  The coolest thing we've ever witnessed was a Bull and Cow Moose feeding on aquatic weeds along the marsh side of a river we fish. They wade in up to their stomachs and dunk their heads in the water to get a mouthful of vegetation. I like when they bring their heads out of the water and have milfoil or pondweed hanging off the antlers or heads.

 

This is why we go fishing, Guys! It is the love of the Natural World.

Man was not meant to work in cubicles!

[gripnrip]

My best buddy has a fishing and hunting camp up in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, that has provided some of the most majestic sights I've seen while fishing.

 

These include beavers, otters, eagles, owls etc.  The coolest thing we've ever witnessed was a Bull and Cow Moose feeding on aquatic weeds along the marsh side of a river we fish. They wade in up to their stomachs and dunk their heads in the water to get a mouthful of vegetation. I like when they bring their heads out of the water and have milfoil or pondweed hanging off the antlers or heads.

 

This is why we go fishing, Guys! It is the love of the Natural World.

Man was not meant to work in cubicles!

I'm glad I've never had to work in a cubicle.  I promise I never will either! 

[Trek]

   Another cool thing I saw when at Midland Ontario fishing Georgian Bay. I believe the area was called Honey Comb. It's between Midland and Perry Sound. I saw a rattle snake. The guy that rented me the house told me there was some around and I laughed. Then Brian that has a bait shop there took me out fishing back in Honey Comb and we had one swim right up to the boat. He wasn't very big but it was a rattle snake.

[Jar11591]

I had a beaver scare the ever living daylights outta me. He somehow swam up next to our boat unnoticed and smacked his tail on the water so loud it sounds like a shotgun. I thought a hunter was shooting near us. I think the beaver wanted us away from his home..,but too bad, there were bass to be caught.

[Trek]

My best buddy has a fishing and hunting camp up in the Moosehead Lake region of Maine, that has provided some of the most majestic sights I've seen while fishing.

 

These include beavers, otters, eagles, owls etc.  The coolest thing we've ever witnessed was a Bull and Cow Moose feeding on aquatic weeds along the marsh side of a river we fish. They wade in up to their stomachs and dunk their heads in the water to get a mouthful of vegetation. I like when they bring their heads out of the water and have milfoil or pondweed hanging off the antlers or heads.

 

This is why we go fishing, Guys! It is the love of the Natural World.

Man was not meant to work in cubicles!

  I've fished that area. Your right the sights are awesome. I believe there are more moose then there are people. And I'm ok with that.

[edfitzvb]

LOTS of Ospreys here at the coast. I have to smile bemusedly when I am getting skunked and an osprey dives down and takes off with dinner. I have seen deer, beaver, muskrats, nutria, and cormorants galore when bass fishing. Saw a bald eagle eating a fish on the shoreline at Buggs Island Lake. I could have hit him with a rock. Saw mink, a bear, chipmunks, and otters while trout fishing (realize this is a bass forum, but I still fish for trout when in the mountains). Even the ordinary sights, like turtles, herons, egrets, gulls, add to the joy of fishing. It's why I can get skunked and it's still not a wasted day.

[Christian M]

I've had a few interesting sights and interactions. Birds galore, herrings, turkey vultures, humming birds, owls...NJ has  a lot more wildlife than most people would think. I was fishing a pond near my home one day with a friend and we saw a couple Redtail hawks flying above. Apparently they didn't take too kindly to us fishing their pond because one of the hawks swooped down and dropped a half eaten squirrel about 2 feet in front of us. Another time I gut hooked a perch and it was going belly up, about a minute later a Bald Eagle came down about 10 fet away from the boat and took the perch for lunch. While surf fishing for Striper I've had red foxes come up and try to steal our bait or our catch. I came down a trail once and found myself facing a 30lb+ Beaver with its babies. We've had Coyotes yipping on the bank while we were night fishing tons of times, but the scariest was when I was wading the bank fishing and a water moccasin passed in front of me and went up on land behind me. I love every minute of it though.

[Scott F]

Moose, black bears, caribou, musk ox, arctic hares, wolves, deer, and peregrin falcons to name the most uncommon. Fishing up in Canada gives you the opportunity to see a lot of wildlife. Eagles are so common in Northern Wisconsin, that at almost any point in time from almost anywhere on the lake I spend most of my time, you can look around and are almost guaranteed to see an eagle.

[Lucky Craft Man]

I have seen a lot of the aforementioned animals (e.g., Bald Eagles, Beavers, Bear, etc.), but that closest encounter I have ever had came with a female moose while fly fishing the Snake River in Wyoming.  I was fishing on the edge of the river with 6 to 8 ft. brush behind me.  I hooked onto a nice fish and was quickly walking downstream in the shallow part of the water to keep up with the running fish.  I then heard some heavy crashing through the brush behind me only to see a female moose come busting through.  This moose was about 10 ft. from away at this point, but as soon as she saw me, she started grazing on the grassy edge of the stream as if I wasn't there. 

 

I quietly and slowly walked away from the moose downstream around the bend.  When I thought I was far enough away, I walked up the bank and wanted to peer back through the brush to see where she was.  When I parted the branches from a large bush, she was standing right there (approximately 5 ft. away) starring right at me (actually down at me would be more accurate).  In what was probably the dumbest move I have ever made, I ran as fast as I could through the brush, tripping all the way.  I climbed the embankment to the road where my car was parked and turned around to try and spot the moose (as from the road elevation, I could look down into the field of tall bushes).  I ended up spotted her with a huge bull moose, who was also down in the brush.  I assume when this female heard the splashing along the river, she thought it was this Bull she was looking for.  Thank God it was the female I ran into, because I may have passed out had I ran into that huge Bull.

 

As a side note, I never knew how absolutely HUGE moose were until I was standing that close to one looking straight up.     

[SudburyBasser]

Most unusual (for me) were the sharks chasing my bonefish while I was in the Turks & Caicos doing some fishing. It was the one time I think a bonefish preferred the boat to the alternative.

 

Outside of that, nothing usual up here in northern Ontario...regular gamut of bears, moose, foxes and other citizens of our forests. Well, outside of a small community of people I bumped into once that gave me the willies and made me wish I was armed that day, anyway

[5 Dollar Fishing Game]

My mother in law..........

[PondLvr]

I had a Great Blue Herron come and take a bluegill from between my feet at a pond once, pretty cool.

[starcraft1]

Two things, both Mt. lions. One on a big rock right over our heads, didn't really see it, just the shadow, the 2nd. scared the hell out of both of us. A lion cased a deer down the bank and both jumped in the lake about 25' away. The deer won that one, out swam the lion. We left in a hurry!

[geo g]

About 15 years ago, my son and I were out real early on L67 in the heart of the glades (The Pines Area) before first light. We were fishing quietly the only boat on the canal, and all of a sudden there was a high pitched roar of a big cat on the spoil bank islands next to the canal. Off in the distance there was roar about a mile away responding back. This continued for about 20 minutes, back and forth. We never saw the cat in the thick weeds but it was within 50 yards of our boat. We both felt so blessed to be there.