your wildest animal encounter while fishing....

[mrlitetackle]

As i was talking with my buddy today, we recalled an encounter with a rabid raccoon on a fishing trip.....

As we pulled up to our spot (deep in the woods along a heavily wooded trail) there was a raccoon in the spot where we normally park.  This was in mid day, and the coon looked rather ragged and torn up to say the least.  We both thought immediately that something was weird... Needless to say, we both then noticed the tell tale foam at the critters mouth, so i proceeded to reverse the truck......and the crazy thing chased my truck down the trail!!!!!!!!  Well, we had to go elsewhere, but returned a couple of hours later... and thankfully it was gone...but we were quite weary still!!!

Just wondering what wild experiences you have all had while trying to get a good day of fishing in?????

[Pitchinkid]

Growing up in southern WV, we had Black Bears in our yard on the regular. One time fishing in the creek behind my parents house, there were 2 cubs splitting the creek and running up the side of the hill. If you know anything about Black bears, you know that where there is cubs, the mother isnt far behind.In the corner of my eye i caught something moving and sure enough it was her. She ran a short distance at me and stopped. I was so scared i couldnt move. She looked me over and went down stream from me and kept looking back. Once on the other side her and the cubs took off like somebody shot them out of a cannon. Pretty intense

[Maxximus Redneckus]

Not a wild encounter for me... but my dad and i were fishing a pond nearby about 20 yrs ago in a pasture that had black angus and a few dairy cows .the whole time im worrying about the angus as they have a nasty disposition. Well we are both close to each other and this cow comes down to us just being nosey sniffing our tackle boxes and such shes a good 900 lbs .Well she musta liked my dad a awful lot she went up to him all curious sniffin his shirt and such. He just ignored her till she tried to hump him. Almost knocked him in the water it was hilarious i was LMAO at this point he didnt find it funny at all.  ;D

[Micro]

I had a large Northern Water Snake crawl up my motor and entagle itself in the hinge.  And on two occassions I had myopic old muskrats swim to my boat and try to find a way in.  

The wildest thing I ever witnessed was this last weekend.  A blue heron had nested in the top of a cypress tree.  A bald eagle came down to its nest.  A fight ensued and the eagle dropped through the trees before flying off with its prize - a big blue heron chick.  Feathers came down like snow.

[Maxximus Redneckus]

I had a large Northern Water Snake crawl up my motor and entagle itself in the hinge. And on two occassions I had myopic old muskrats swim to my boat and try to find a way in.

The wildest thing I ever witnessed was this last weekend. A blue heron had nested in the top of a cypress tree. A bald eagle came down to its nest. A fight ensued and the eagle dropped through the trees before flying off with its prize - a big blue heron chick. Feathers came down like snow.

Yalls bald eagles are livin good cause all the ones on this side of the potomac hang out with buzzards and eat dead stuff ;D

[Siebert Outdoors]

years ago I was trout fishing and had a copperhead swim between my legs.

or

Years ago while trout fishing it was real cloudy and looked like it was going to rain so I started to leave.  I made it about 50-75 yds out of the water and toward camp.  Then lightning struck in the vacinity I was in.  Almost pooped my pants.

[Eddie Munster]

Similar to Redneck's adventure:

A friend and I was fishing a couple cow ponds deep in Arkansas years ago and this big ol' bull comes up, acting irritated. I was out on a point but my friend was near a dead fall on the shore with no where to go. The bull kept advancing and he had to get out on the deadfall to keep away from it. The saying stubborn as a bull was defined that day when he waited 45 mins for the bull to leave. I kept fishing by the way. Great friend, right?

[FishingBuds]

Was fishing and looked up and saw a doe, told the wife look over her shoulder at the doe. I moved up closer to the doe and it turned, then it was like two face on batman.

sucker had like a big o'scabbed up eye, and half its face was missing. it looked as it was trying to heal up but man it was wild looken

[grimlin]

I remember landing a small bass from shore,went to put it back in water and a dang muskrat came flying out brushing pass my hand.Took off after the bass i just released.

Scared the heck out of me....I don't stick my hand in the water much anymore.

[dallas0996]

Not really anything exciting in hindsight, but I have had a nearsighted snapper come swimming up on me one time that was easily the size of a wheel on a compact car...we noticed each other about the same time and scared the crap out of each other....I went flying up the bank and he went diving down in the water...Then the other day on the same pond, I saw what I thought was a muskrat swimming around off shore...as I watched it for a while I realized it was too big and too fast...had to have been an otter! Didn't know there were otters in our neck of the woods!

Then there was the time riding dirt bikes in the desert when we came flying around a blind corner into a small herd of cattle on the trail....we almost had beef for lunch the hard way!

[Branuss04]

I bank fish this trophy bass lake at night fairly often.  One night while alone, I was next to some bushes fishing a spot that numerous teen fish have been caught from.  I hear a grunting noise from within a giant bush.  Being alone, I got a little freaked out, but not enough to do anything.  So I fish for another 5 minutes and this sound gets closer and closer.  I turn on my light, but I see nothing, so I pick up a 15 pound rock and chuck it into this bush, only to hear one of the wierdest sounds i've ever heard.  It's was like a grunt, scream, yelp, and fart all in one.  This pretty much scared the crap out of me and I ran to my car while dragging my $80 across the rocks trying to reel it in.  

The same night after that incident I came in the middle of a street fight between two gangs of raccoons.  They are kinda scary up close and personal.  I would move out of their territory and they would follow me.  It's like they were trying to corner me and shank me!!

Also on the same night I was fishing I had a pack of coyotes circling my car.  I had to set my alarm off to scare them away so I could get back in my car...

So all in all that was a pretty crazy night.  I did stick some 4 pounders on a wake jr... that was fun, but... Nighttime + Bank Fishing + Being alone= No Bueno!!!

[slomoe]

I've had a few blue herons hover above my wake bait to the point I had to really crank it down so they wouldn't dive in after it.

I was also wading this small creek last year when I noticed something swimming towards my feet. I couldn't make it out but I thought it was a large carp or something. I didn't notice until it was a foot away from me that it was a HUGE beaver. Lucky he didn't whack me with his tail.

[deadeye32.]

When I was around 12-13 years old, my parents bought a new house and we had a pond, 5 acre field, and a creek that ran back behind. Well as they were inside with the builders and people closing on the house, I decided to go down to the creek and fish for some of the carp. I was fishing for about 5 minutes when I looked down and right next to my foot was a HUGE black snake all curled up. Now I was pretty husky at the time 5ft.8 and about 210 pounds (thats a big middle school kid) and my parents said somebody stops and says "who is that high stepping across the field" I went on to play college athletics and my dad still says that was the fastest he had ever seen me run. I ran into that house terrified, out of breath, and hungry to tell them what I had just saw. My dad and I went over their later on and found that snake in the same spot. I think it was just a big rat snake, but that thing was about 5ft. long and all puffed up. One of the scariest moments of my like.

[fatbass]

Fishing a steep riverbank when it got too steep to stay by the water.  I scramble up the 12-14 ft bluff to go down to another flat area.  Just as I clear the top of the bluff two deer that had been laying down, jump 8ft in the air.  Of course, I probably jumped 10  ft in the air.  I was bout 5 ft from them when they got up.

[etommy28]

hmmmm... i can think of three

we had a manatee put its head on the back of the boat and would not move

i had a heron who would not leave the dock and as i would release short fish it would grab them.

and we saw deer swimming across duns creeks in the St. Johns river one day.

[tritz18]

giant snapping turtle, surfaced right by the boat. must be really old cause its HUGE

[bilgerat]

Years ago, me and my buddy fishing his grandad's farm pond.

I climb a small hill to get to a different spot. When I get to the top, I'm face to face with a huge p_ssed off female Canadian goose guarding her eggs.

As she's squawking and screeching and flapping her wings, I'm tumbling backwards back down the hill, tackle box contents flying everywhere, my buddy laughing uncontrollably........

[South FLA]

I was on the Farm Pond with my little 14 foot jon boat trolling along the backlot through the trees and I thought I hit one, I was wrong it was a HUGE A@@ GATOR! Its gigantic head surfaced about 1 foot away from the staring the trolling motor down as if it were its next meal, I quickly laid down on the front of the boat with no part of my body above the gunnel (hard to do when your 6'2"). I told my buddy to crank the kicker and get us out of there ASAP! As he cranked it, the wake of the gator's tail rocked the boat. The gator could have easily lunged at me on the front deck! Stick Marsh and Farm Pond have some HUGE GATORS and I think this one was thinking he could take the 14 jon boat!

[guitarkid]

I would have to say seeing a bedding bass attacking this turtle, the turtle got near the bed and the bass started biting it on it's head or leg or something.the turtle eventually left, but I thought it was funny though.

                      -gk

[fourbizz]

Scariest:

When I went to Alaska the first time, we drove 6 hours inland from Anchorage to Glenallen. We had some family friends there. Our friend Jeff owned a whitewater raft for fishing. We drove 16 miles up a 4 wheel drive road ( about 2 hours) and he paid his neighbors son to drive the truck back while we floated the 12 miles down the river and fished for Kings. At this one particular hole, I jump out in my waders and fish this chute adjacent to this big sand bar. For about 30 minutes I fished there with this nagging "someone is watching me" feeling. No fish, so we floated on down the river.

We made the same float the very next day. When we got back to that sand bar, I went back towards where I had fished the day before. I see my tracks in the sand from the day before. About halfway to where I was standing the day before, a huge set of brown bear tracks show up, one of them was right over the top of one of my wader tracks, completely obscuring my size 13 boot print. The bear tracks led right to where i stood the day before, then looked like it milled around, leaving a bunch of tracks, then headed back along her trail that led out to the sand bar. Her tracks took me to a stand of trees not 30 yards away. I called Jeff ( and his .454 Casull ) over to help me investigate. After making a bunch of noise we walked about 20 feet into the brush were we found the bed she had most likely been laying in watching me the day before.

Talk about feeling like a toddler in the big kids playground, lol.

Coolest:

Despite growing up in Colorado and spending a bunch of time in the hills in my life, I had never seen a bobcat in the wild. About 2 years ago, I was fishing alone in my boat at my local dink factory nestled in a deep oak lined canyon. This lake has tulies completely around its shore line. As I was slowly t-motoring down the bank, I kept hearing rustling in the tulies. Now, noises in the tulies are plenty common here. Usually a squirell getting a drink or a blackbird or something. What was strange about this rustling, was the fact that it was keeping perfect pace with me. After about 100 yards of this, I finally caught sight of the unmistakable pattern of a wildcat. At this point I wasnt sure that it was a bobcat and not a juvenile mountain lion. It followed me mostly obscured for at least 200 yards when it finally came to a big rock ledge that broke up the tulies. It stepped right out, onto the ledge about 30 feet away from me and just hung out there for about 10 minutes. It licked its fur, sunbathed, and stalked what I assume was a lizard. REALLY COOL!. I didnt have my digital that day, so I burnt an entire roll of disposable on it, but they came out really crappy.

[burleytog]

I once spent 8 hours in a boat with Long Mike.

[Eddie Munster]

I once spent 8 hours in a boat with Long Mike.

Boy, that could be taken the wrong way (pardon the pun).