1st time for this, Never happened before

I caught a seagull last year and posted the picture. Seagull flew away unharmed after I removed the hook. Today the two Osprey and I were fishing for crappie together as always. The predators have never disturbed my fishing ever. In turn I do not disturb them. I always stop fishing when they are about to dive in on a crappie. The three of us are compatible competitors.....NOT TODAY....I was only there an hour catching crappie. Did not see the Osprey right above me while I was reeling in a big crappie. WHAM...SPLASH...water everywhere. Oh no I hooked the Osprey. It felt like I had caught a friend with arrant cast. My heart fell out of my chest right there. I was devastated in an instant. In the one second it took to wipe the water off my face the osprey was gone. I did not hook the beautiful creature. My reprieve was immediate as the Osprey flew back to his nest. I consider today one of my luckiest fishing days ever. This is what was left of the crappie.

Crappie is now turtle food and Osprey flew home and so did I for the day. That was too freaky and I am sure it scared the other crappie away any how.

CM, may your respect for nature be contagious...

Cheers,

WOW!!!

WOW! That is pretty close. I may sh.. myself if I did not see it coming.

Wow, amazing story.

Very cool story with a happy ending. I caught a Bonaparte's gull once....but it was more that it flew into my line as it was flying low to catch minnows in the Barrie marina. It was all tangled up but I was thinking clearly enough to get it in quickly so it would not accidentally get it's head in the water and suck in water. Took a bit to untangle it and all the time, I was worried that I may break some feathers or a wing or worse since it was fighting me all the time. Luckily, the line was not knotted up anywhere (thin braid can be a real B to get untangled and tend to knot up on itself at the worst time. I was able to get the line off quickly enough to let the bird fly off seemingly none the worse.
Last week, I did head up to a few of my Kawartha spots to see if anything was biting. Lots of minnows in but no catchable fish (for me anyway) so I suspect fish should be moving in anytime. At one spot, I saw three ospreys fishing. Two got fish and flew off. One was still fishing when I left. Of course, they were fishing on the other side of the bay I was fishing (nothing on my side and fishing from shore, I couldn't get to that side to try my luck - but maybe for the best given what you experienced).

I guess it is more common than I thought catching a bird. Checked the date on my seagull hooking picture. It was Nov. 2020. Thought it was last year. Where does the time go. LOL.

Actually, after I caught my gull, I saw it happen twice (not the same year but in later years) at the Barrie Marina....all were in the late fall. It may be quite uncommon most of the time but in the late fall when there are tons of birds feeding off the huge schools of emerald shiners and lots of fishers trying to catch the schools of perch, also feeding off the shiners, it's more likely to happen. But given how many birds and fishers there are at the Barrie Marina during this time of year, I think it may happen more frequently. I didn't like the way the others man-handled the birds but it looked like they were scared to get bitten. All were tangled in the lines and not hooked.

Wow that was a close call! At least it wasnt a bear!

I caught a Torun few years back in middle of lake in the summer

I wonder how many people on this fishing forum have caught a bird.

I only see bears fishing at night and only maybe one a year. Or a wolf just depends but I saw many coyote last year, almost every night at one lake I fish back in the trees. Only saw 2 moose last year.

I was fixing a tangled line on Simcoe a couple years back, not paying attention to the floating Rapala but the seagull was. Bye bye husky jerk, last seen heading towards Barrie

I got a cormorant out on GPool a few years ago. Was vertical jigging bass, lol. Released unharmed. Nasty little bugger once we got him into the boat.