First Time Catching a Seagull, What About You?

[UPSmallie]

Knew it'd happen eventually fishing topwaters.  Threw out my Heddon Spook and before I could do anything a seagull dive bombed it.  It hit the water and then the seagull swooped in and tried picking it up in probably less than 2 seconds.  Thankfully I was able to tow it in and pop the treble hook out of it's leg as a nearby woman held it's beak shut.  What are the chances that a woman with experience rehabilitating seagulls would be fishing right next to you?  Seagull flew away unharmed and I learned to watch for any and all birds in the area before you throw a minnow bait on the water.  Anyone else every hooked one, and if so, were you successful in removing the hook? 

[CenCal fisher]

I was surf fishing once and had a seagul fly into my line. It didn't flop around much as I untangled it. I had an owl pick up my top water recently, luckily it dropped the bait about 20 feet later without getting hooked.

If you want to catch seagulls the best way is to lay flat on your back with a beach towel covering your body. Place crushed up potato chips on the towel. When you feel seagulls eating chips off of your stomach do a sit-up with your arms and legs. 

[seyone]

i had this happen while striper fishing. We were live lining bunker when they started getting nervous and surfacing. This attracted a big herring gull, who swooped down and grabbed it. I yanked the rod to pull it from its mouth and actually took the bird to the water before it let go. luckily it wasn't hooked.

[Gundog]

46 minutes ago, CenCal fisher said:

 

If you want to catch seagulls the best way is to lay flat on your back with a beach towel covering your body. Place crushed up potato chips on the towel. When you feel seagulls eating chips off of your stomach do a sit-up with your arms and legs. 

I'm not gonna even ask how you know this or why.

[Scott F]

No gulls, but I did hook a mallard once with a senko.

[JackKlassen]

Ahaha I was fishing a spook for bluefish on Nantucket and a gull picked my bait up and would't let go until it was a good 40 feet up in the air. Man did that pull drag

["hamma"]

Theres a good striper spot not far from home thats actually a bridge over the river. While cut bait fishing I cast out and before the bait could sink a seagull swooped down and picked it up, I pulled hard to avoid hooking it, but it was too late. So there I am, during rush hour afternoon traffic, fighting a seagull for about fifteen minutes with car horns beeping behind me, trying to gain back some of my braided line. I finally did get most of it back but with the big seagull flapping franticly (about ten feet away) to get away, I cut the line.

 seagulls fight hard,..lol

[Smjunior25]

Never caught one, but Wednesday night I had one fly in front of me while running down the lake at 50 or so and just miss the pedestal seat by inches! I thought for sure I was going to catch a face full of bird! 

[WIGuide]

 I don't remember if it was a seagull or another type of bird, but last year at the state tournament I was throwing a Zara Spook in the morning when one swooped down and tried to grab it. I tried to pull it away but the bird had good aim for the most part. I hooked it around the leg with one of the trebles and pulled it in. Fishing was slow enough I contemplated putting it in the livewell and seeing if they'd let me weigh it in. I just got lucky that the hook didn't penetrate anything and only hooked around the leg.

The year before in the state tourney, I managed to hit a duck while it was flying with a bait. The chances of that happening must have been astronautical as I wasn't aiming at it. I didn't hook that either but it dropped almost to the water before it regained control and corrected to get back on it's original flight plan.

Quite a few years ago, I had a run in with a loon. I was fishing with my dad on a little lake and I had seen some loons around but they were staying out in the deeper water while we worked a weedline. All the sudden one popped up close to where I had casted and not wanting to catch it I started reeling in my rubber worm. The water was pretty clear there, and as I reeled in, you could see what looked like a minni missile behind it so I start cranking as fast as I can and the loon is gaining on it. Luckily, I got it back quick enough as the loon just dove down deeper and continued under the boat...now that would have been a fight! 

[Ohio Archer]

I caught about 10 of them one day while fishing off the jetties in Destin, FL (early '80s before all the damned condos went up and you could walk out to the jetties).  I was using frozen cigar minnows for Redfish...cast them out, let them be pulled by the outgoing tide toward the sandbar outside the cut.  That was the plan anyway.  d**n birds would hit the minnow before it had a chance to sink, no matter how much weight I put on the line.  One got a wing wrapped in the line, another got pulled in by its tongue.  Most weren't hooked but wouldn't let go of the bait until I had reeled them all the way in.  Some would catch the minnow in mid-air.

On the last one (hadn't had one for about an hour or so) a mom was telling her kids and husband that some bad guy had been catching seagulls all morning.  That is when I "caught" the last one by its tongue.  Said something about it being 10 or 11 and "mom" got beat red, grabbed the kids and hightailed it off the rocks.

Biggest Redfish I caught off the jetties was about 30 lbs and took about 45 minutes to drag it in from the sandbar (about 100 yds away) one very cold night.  Big ol' fillets came off that one.

[bigfruits]

14 hours ago, CenCal fisher said:

If you want to catch seagulls the best way is to lay flat on your back with a beach towel covering your body. Place crushed up potato chips on the towel. When you feel seagulls eating chips off of your stomach do a sit-up with your arms and legs. 

not worth it. a homeless man in san diego once told me that seagulls taste like crap.

[timsford]

I haven't hooked a seagull but I was night fishing on a pier below the chickamauga lake dam near Chattanooga one night and watched a heron fly off towing a guys combo across the river. He had a couple of rods cat out and had the rods lea ed against the pier with the line semi tight. There are always a bunch of birds circling over the water and one apparently got caught in the line he had cast and then ended up getting hooked somehow. The bird made horrible noises and kept flying and then the guys rod got pulled over the side of the pier and towed across the river.  Possibly one of the funniest things I've seen happen in person

[lecisnith]

My buddy and I were cruising along Grand Traverse Bay last summer and had a small flock of gulls get startled in front of us.  Most of them took off pretty quickly, well before we got to their spot, but there were a few stragglers.  One of these stragglers went to the passenger side of the boat and was on a parallel path with us, which I thought was pretty cool until it veered toward the boat right as we got upon it.  Luckily I have cat-like reflexes and the hunting instincts of my prehistoric brethren and head-butted it.  Didn't feel the best, but I fared better than the bird...

[Ohio Archer]

Don't run thru a flock of Coots trying to take off from the water at 55 mph...don't ask me how i know that.

[Jar11591]

4 hours ago, lecisnith said:

Luckily I have cat-like reflexes and the hunting instincts of my prehistoric brethren and head-butted it. 

I don't have any facts to back this up, but I can say with certainty that you are one of the very few, if ONLY to ever have head-butted a seagull! 

[Bluebasser86]

I've caught a seagull, owl, and as of a few weeks ago, a blue heron. For anyone interested, owls put up a pretty good fight on a medium baitcaster. 

[Gundog]

21 hours ago, bigfruits said:

not worth it. a homeless man in san diego once told me that seagulls taste like crap.

Sounds like expert advice if I ever heard it.

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I've caught a seagull, owl, and as of a few weeks ago, a blue heron. For anyone interested, owls put up a pretty good fight on a medium baitcaster. 

Should I use braided line for those owls or mono? 

[scaleface]

I Ive never caught an animal or bird . I did have a bunch of bats hitting my line the other night .

[Further North]

On 8/19/2016 at 11:39 AM, WIGuide said:

Quite a few years ago, I had a run in with a loon. I was fishing with my dad on a little lake and I had seen some loons around but they were staying out in the deeper water while we worked a weedline. All the sudden one popped up close to where I had casted and not wanting to catch it I started reeling in my rubber worm. The water was pretty clear there, and as I reeled in, you could see what looked like a minni missile behind it so I start cranking as fast as I can and the loon is gaining on it. Luckily, I got it back quick enough as the loon just dove down deeper and continued under the boat...now that would have been a fight! 

Lake of the Woods...this loon wouldn't leave us alone...it'd dive under one side of the boat, pop up on the the other, then repeat...for like 15 minutes as we worked a rocky point.

Finally quit fishing to just watch.

All I could guess at was that there were some baitfish under the boat.

[Bluebasser86]

15 hours ago, Gundog said:

Should I use braided line for those owls or mono? 

I would suggest braid for sure. The one I hooked pulled drag and dove into a bunch of bushes and pulled off. 

 

1 hour ago, Further North said:

Lake of the Woods...this loon wouldn't leave us alone...it'd dive under one side of the boat, pop up on the the other, then repeat...for like 15 minutes as we worked a rocky point.

Finally quit fishing to just watch.

All I could guess at was that there were some baitfish under the boat.

I had one come out from under the boat at Table Rock chasing my jerkbait, really surprised me. Then he wouldn't leave us alone either and ended up having to move because I was afraid he was going to catch my bait and get hooked. They are really cool looking birds up close though. 

[Ronald K Smith]

40 yrs ago I was fishing a small pond at night with a large Rebel-R popper and a muskrat hit from underneath. I knew we had large bass in the pond from catch and release. Talking about the drag singing, it was pitch black with the moon shining. I didn't know what I had until it went to the opposite end of pond an came up the bank into another pond. Lost that lure.

The same summer I was fishing another pond and a goose kept on chasing our popper. We tried to chase it away but no luck, we gave the goose the pond that day.

[WRB]

Fishing the ocean you catch lots of gulls and Pelicans, it's common because of casting fly lined live bait.

Fresh water I haven't ever caught a gull, came close to catching a osprey that grabbed a Hudd in mid flight.

Tom

[everythingthatswims]

My brother caught a Tern that had a band once, we took the band off with pliers and released the bird.

[WIGuide]

I almost forgot about my run in last year with a blue heron. It was just chilling deep in a small cut looking for minnows. I didn't even see it until I threw my frog to the opening of the cut. It saw it hit the water and flew up and then saw me. Looked at the frog, then me, as I start trying to get it away from it. It keep flying closer, you could almost see it's thought process as it kept getting closer to the boat. Luckily, I succeeded in getting it away from him before he took a whack at it. 

[GORDO]

On 8/18/2016 at 8:02 PM, CenCal fisher said:

If you want to catch seagulls the best way is to lay flat on your back with a beach towel covering your body. Place crushed up potato chips on the towel. When you feel seagulls eating chips off of your stomach do a sit-up with your arms and legs. 

Im dying laughing right now at the mental image of this!

I have caught a duck on a medium diver, vicious little guys they are. Once I got the duck in my hands it calmed down 100% and let me get the hooks out and take a picture with it. Too bad the phone was lost to the river bed the next week!