Funny Random Encounters

[Manifestgtr]

I’m sure there are some wild stories people have around here but I had two interesting incidents this morning.

 

1.) I saw a little frog hopping along a mud puddle and wanted to get a look at his underbelly color...so I went to give him a little nudge with my senko. He hauled around in a split second, chomped down on my wacky rigged senko like a savage (it was about twice his size) and made a REAL effort to eat it as I was trying to shake him loose. Luckily he didn’t get the hook. Frogs are nutty little creatures sometimes...lesson learned...

 

2.) There was a woodpecker unlike any woodpecker I’ve ever heard in my life. It sounded like a pterodactyl. In place of the normal, taptaptap woodpecker sound, there was a deep, 3/4 speed, TAP TAP TAP high up in the trees. I don’t know if it was a normal woodpecker working on a large, hollow branch or if there’s some enormous species of Dusty Rhodes woodpeckers around here that I’m just not aware of. 
 

Crazy morning on the water....

[scaleface]

I witnessed a bullfrog eat a sparrow .

[garroyo130]

1 hour ago, Manifestgtr said:

2.) There was a woodpecker unlike any woodpecker I’ve ever heard in my life.

Was it this dude???

 

[Manifestgtr]

9 hours ago, garroyo130 said:

Was it this dude???

 

Upon further research, I discovered this:

 

 

case closed, as far as I’m concerned...

[RoLo]

11 hours ago, Manifestgtr said:

I’m sure there are some wild stories people have around here but I had two interesting incidents this morning.

 

1.) I saw a little frog hopping along a mud puddle and wanted to get a look at his underbelly color...so I went to give him a little nudge with my senko. He hauled around in a split second, chomped down on my wacky rigged senko like a savage (it was about twice his size) and made a REAL effort to eat it as I was trying to shake him loose. Luckily he didn’t get the hook. Frogs are nutty little creatures sometimes...lesson learned...

 

2.) There was a woodpecker unlike any woodpecker I’ve ever heard in my life. It sounded like a pterodactyl. In place of the normal, taptaptap woodpecker sound, there was a deep, 3/4 speed, TAP TAP TAP high up in the trees. I don’t know if it was a normal woodpecker working on a large, hollow branch or if there’s some enormous species of Dusty Rhodes woodpeckers around here that I’m just not aware of. 
 

Crazy morning on the water....

 

Frogs are highly aggressive feeders.

If you so desired, you could probably catch more frogs on a fly-rod during the day,

than frog gigging at night.

 

That woodpecker you seen was almost certainly a pileated woodpecker.

They're easily distinguished from flickers and downies, because you can actually count the taps.

 

Roger

[Bluebasser86]

Walking a creek a few weeks ago I had a doe jump out of the brush next to the creek, in one bound she was at my feet and I thought going to run right into me. Thankfully she cut up the creek and back into the brush. I said a lot of words I can't repeat here. If she'd have just stayed still, I'd have never known she was there.

[kayaking_kev]

I got out of my truck one morning to do some wade fishing and two Turkeys just walked right up to me and let me pet them and wouldn't leave me. Right after that I had a snake chase my lure, and then later I had a clam close itself on my T-Rigged Worm getting the weight stuck inside. I have it all in one video. (I had to remove the link to the video because I saw I had a solicitation at the end to subscribe in it)

 

Then in a recent video, I actually hooked a snake on a Whopper Plopper. I have a lot of run ins with snakes on the river, it seems that they try to get in the boat with me at times.

 

I'm sure I can think of a lot more if I try hard enough.

 

 

[Catt]

Caught on a Texas Rigged Speed Craw ?

 

[Manifestgtr]

3 hours ago, kayaking_kev said:

I have a lot of run ins with snakes on the river, it seems that they try to get in the boat with me at times.

 

 

I’ve had that happen too. I don’t know if they think it’s a little moving “island” that they can hitch a ride on or something...but they always seem to speed up as they get closer. I’ve never had one make it aboard though. They tend to swim away once they realize that the “island” is already occupied by a human. 

[jbmaine]

To us 2018 was the year of the " swimming squirrel" . We saw several squirrels swimming across lakes and ponds we fished in. Haven't seen that before or since.

[A-Jay]

2 minutes ago, jbmaine said:

To us 2018 was the year of the " swimming squirrel" . We saw several squirrels swimming across lakes and ponds we fished in. Haven't seen that before or since.

And the Next New & 'Hottest' Wake Bait was born.

A-Jay

 

[BurrStone]

Had this Loon hit me up. He made off with a dink LMB.

[Way north bass guy]

5 hours ago, A-Jay said:

And the Next New & 'Hottest' Wake Bait was born.

A-Jay

 

I caught a 3lb smallmouth on a spinnerbait a few years ago that had a full sized squirrel halfway out of its throat. It had caught the squirrel a while before, as the fur had pretty much all fallen off, but you could easily tell what it was. I’ve also seen a squirrel get eaten by a largemouth while it was swimming across a pad filled bay. The bass hit it two times and let go before it finally got him enough to take him down completely. Maybe I should be throwing brown/orange coloured frogs?.

[schplurg]

Caught a bullfrog on a frog once. Only thing I've ever caught on one so far. Was barbless so he was an easy release.

[Bass Junke]

On 6/22/2020 at 9:31 PM, RoLo said:

 

Frogs are highly aggressive feeders.

If you so desired, you could probably catch more frogs on a fly-rod during the day,

than frog gigging at night.

 

That woodpecker you seen was almost certainly a pileated woodpecker.

They're easily distinguished from flickers and downies, because you can actually count the taps.

 

Roger

Definitely a pileated. I see them all the time. My disc golf buddy is a bird watcher. He gets pretty excited whenever we see one. Like Roger said, so loud and slow. Sound so much different than other woodpeckers.  

[Black Hawk Basser]

Maybe about a decade ago, I was walking and casting along the bank of an old gravel pit.  As I was generally focused on the water and my casting, I haphazardly hopped over a hill as I went along.  Right as I got over the little hill, I was almost right on top of a coyote trapped in a snare.  Simultaneously startled, we both jumped back away from each other.  After that I kept on fishing with the coyote just laying there, carefully watching me as I continued to fish.

[slowworm]

On 6/23/2020 at 10:19 AM, A-Jay said:

And the Next New & 'Hottest' Wake Bait was born.

A-Jay

 

Just add a furry tail to those rats you got recently...

[Fishingmickey]

On 6/23/2020 at 4:52 AM, Catt said:

Caught on a Texas Rigged Speed Craw ?

 

He needs a fresh fig leaf.

 

22 hours ago, BurrStone said:

Had this Loon hit me up. He made off with a dink LMB.

Beautiful photo Burr!

 

[Squarebill79]

I was fishing a Pop-R at night once and had a bat dive-bomb my lure. I couldnt tell what it was at first until I got out my light, luckily it got off the hook as it was flailing around. 

[airborneduckhunter]

On the water, I have seen some strange things as well. I have caught frogs on frogs, big bullfrogs. Caught one back in April that hit my frog so aggressively I thought it was a bass. I've also seen deer swimming across a lake, while I was duck hunting. 

[cheezyridr]

i've caught birds a couple times, while casting.  i foul hooked a muskrat once.   the worst was "the snake encounter". walking across a fallow field once, i had a 15' snake look me dead in the face.   he didnt mess with me, and i'm really glad. i have no idea what kind of snake  it was.  i never told too many people about it, because i didnt think anyone would believe me. the place where i saw it, was a private  place that only a handful of people had permission.  not long ago, i ran into a buddy who used to also fish there.  we were talking about fishing, and i mentioned how much i liked going there.  he said "i stopped going there because i saw a giant snake". 

[Ogandrews]

1. Had a giant beaver, looked 60-80lbs, try to climb into the boat one time. I didn’t notice it swim up and all of the sudden heard this scratching noise on the bow, noticed the beaver trying to grab onto the walls of the bow. I luckily had a paddle close to me and whapped it on the head a couple times and it just swam off like nothing happened. Had to change the ole trousers after that one, those things have some serious claws and teeth.

 

2. Hooked a small pike super deep with a treble one time and really mangled it unhooking him. I did my best to revive him but he went belly up after a couple seconds. Not even a minute later I heard a huge whoosh close to my head and a full grown bald eagle came and grabbed the pike 10 ft from my kayak. Made me feel better the fish didn’t go to waste.

 

3. Had a vole or mole or something come and sit on my boot one time while trout fishing in the winter. It must have felt some warmth coming from my boot and liked it, looked like it didn’t have much for eyesight. Chilled on my boot for a good 10mins and I proceeded to land a pretty nice brown while it was sitting there.

[Manifestgtr]

5 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

Had a vole or mole or something come and sit on my boot one time while trout fishing in the winter. 

FALCON...bring us back a vole...

 

 

 

[KYRANGERMAN]

On 6/23/2020 at 1:04 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

Walking a creek a few weeks ago I had a doe jump out of the brush next to the creek, in one bound she was at my feet and I thought going to run right into me. Thankfully she cut up the creek and back into the brush. I said a lot of words I can't repeat here. If she'd have just stayed still, I'd have never known she was there.

Wasn't fishing related but I used to coach track at our local high school and during cross country season one of our girl runners was in the woods during a meet and while she was running a deer came across the trail and knocked her down.  Wouldn't have had any humor to it except the girls last name was . . . wait for it . . . Buck.