Paul Mueller & The Owl

[fishballer06]

For those who didn't catch it yesterday during the first day of the Elite event on the St. Johns River, Paul Mueller had a run in with an owl while fishing. Check out the footage of this. 

 

https://www.bassmaster.com/blog/owl-reaches-out-touches-mueller

[A-Jay]

"Incoming ! "

That was cool.

A-Jay

[The Bassman]

I've had owls dive bomb buzz baits when I used to wade creeks. Even had a great blue heron swoop down on a Rapala I was twitching. Definitely a wake me up.

[Sphynx]

I have had several birds do this sort of thing on the Columbia, seagulls, a big pelican, couple of ospreys/hawks, for as many times as they have attacked a crankbait or whatever I am just very, very thankful that they have never succeeded in tangling themselves up in the trebles, I doubt that it would end very well for me, the bird, or the lure.

[Sam]

Not an owl but an Osprey on the Historic James River.

 

Flew down from "no where" and grabbed the bass and took off with it, never to be seen again.

[scaleface]

 Thats cool .

[12poundbass]

That was pretty wild! 
 

One of our father son walleye trips on Bay de noc as a kid one of the other boats we were with had a seagull grab a lure while they were trolling. It was interesting watching someone reeling in a seagull, kind of like watching someone fly a kite. 

[BrianMDTX]

Not fishing, but once I was 15’ up a tree bowhunting whitetails, and I just happened to look to my left and had an owl making a beeline right at my head. Missed me by inches. Never heard a sound. They are totally silent. 

[GaryH]

That was great. 

[padon]

14 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

Not fishing, but once I was 15’ up a tree bowhunting whitetails, and I just happened to look to my left and had an owl making a beeline right at my head. Missed me by inches. Never heard a sound. They are totally silent. 

ive had the same thing twice over the years bowhunting. once a hawk and once an owl. when i saw them they had their feet stretched out like they were gonna land on me.veered off at the last second.

[rtwvumtneer6]

Hadn't seen that.  Thanks for sharing! 

[BrianMDTX]

10 minutes ago, padon said:

ive had the same thing twice over the years bowhunting. once a hawk and once an owl. when i saw them they had their feet stretched out like they were gonna land on me.veered off at the last second.

That’s what it was doing. Skeered the heck outta me! 

[slonezp]

Watching nature at its finest is part of the reason I love fishing

 

[geo g]

Once had an Anhinga hit my fluke underwater.  I felt a hit and was about to set the hook when the bird came up with the fluke in its mouth, but not the hook.  Lucky for me because these birds will try to stab at you with that sharp beak.   Got half the fluke back, the other half went to the BIRD!?

 

[Trox]

That was wild! 

[Catt]

Had a hawk grab my hollow body frog just last week!

 

Got a new frog rod & walked across the street by the bayou to make a few cast. Dang hawk dove on it from a limb high up in the pine tree I was standing under. I jerked it away & before the frog hit the ground behind me the hawk was on it again. Jerked it away again, reeled it to the rod tip,.Started back across the street eyeballing that hawk eyeballing me!

[jbsoonerfan]

4 hours ago, BrianMDTX said:

Not fishing, but once I was 15’ up a tree bowhunting whitetails, and I just happened to look to my left and had an owl making a beeline right at my head. Missed me by inches. Never heard a sound. They are totally silent. 

Same, but it was a hawk and it missed me by a foot or so and I almost soiled myself. 

[N Florida Mike]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

Had a hawk grab my hollow body frog

A hawk swooped down once and latched onto my frog right as I was about to cast it. He disengaged , and flew about 30 feet from me, and kind of looked at me like he wasn’t sure why it hadn’t felt  right to him… 

[GreenPig]

Crazy. I've had several close encounters with owls during my years of predator calling at night. Blowing a rabbit in distress call and the only part of you moving is your fingers around the call to change the tone/pitch can be dangerous.

[slonezp]

10 hours ago, Catt said:

Had a hawk grab my hollow body frog just last week!

 

Got a new frog rod & walked across the street by the bayou to make a few cast. Dang hawk dove on it from a limb high up in the pine tree I was standing under. I jerked it away & before the frog hit the ground behind me the hawk was on it again. Jerked it away again, reeled it to the rod tip,.Started back across the street eyeballing that hawk eyeballing me!

The herons around here are notorious for chasing topwater. 

My son and I were both throwing topwater. I had a white frog and he had the Live Target panfish "frog" tied on. They were both equal in catching numbers of bass. He had to stop throwing the panfish frog because the small birds would not leave it alone. 

[12poundbass]

25 minutes ago, slonezp said:

The herons around here are notorious for chasing topwater. 

My son and I were both throwing topwater. I had a white frog and he had the Live Target panfish "frog" tied on. They were both equal in catching numbers of bass. He had to stop throwing the panfish frog because the small birds would not leave it alone. 

Not surprising. That LiveTarget panfish looks real on the top side. On the bottom side where the fish see it…not so much. 

[Basser2021]

That's crazy! 

Thanks for sharing

[schplurg]

The owl had it too for a sec! One thing I love about fishing. Sometimes it's the small things that make fishing what it is.

 

Yesterday 5 geese/ducks flew right in front of me while I stood on the bank. I was hidden from their view as they approached from my right I guess. I was startled because they were so close.

 

Head-mounted GoPro got the smooth and well framed video, as always. They landed maybe 100 feet from me - love watching them glide to a stop on the water. Showing off!

 

Photos don't do it justice, the closest bird was within reach if I'd jumped for it. Closer than they look - 8 feet max from the one top-left. Could hear the air whooshing. Honk honk!

 

 

 

This guy was not impressed by my fishing that day. Making sure my GoPro wasn't edible.

[cyclops2]

People are push overs if they trespass in a animals hunting area.

[Miabucman]

Something similar happened to me twice.  I was trout fishing in Alaska and I was catching! On the far side of this little lake was a momma duck with six ducklings following her.  I look back to where I was casting and I hear a commotion and the group was hauling towards the shoreline.  Just before they got to the shoreline, a bald eagle snatched a duckling and headed to a tree.  Pretty awesome sight when it went from ghostly calm to chaos.

 

The other time when I was fishing offshore of the Keys.  We were trolling for dolphin (mahi mahi) when a cormorant was soaring above a pod of baitfish.  I guess the skirted ballyhoo looked good and the cormorant swooped down and slammed into the water.  Drag started screaming off of the reel and we had to maneuver back and reel the bird in.  After catching the bird with a towel, we had to carefully negotiate the attacking bird to remove the hook and release.  We would always see them flying but I couldn't believe how big those types of birds are when up close.