By a frigging goose!!!!!!
Last stage of dusk, plugging a favorite reef of mine. Fish breaking outside, so I clip on an Afterhours Junior, which casts a ton, and is a favorite of mine for dusk topwater in the fall. I reel back with my 1088 and am just commiting to casting forward, when I hear Canadian geese honking, very close! They came from behind me, left to right, and were LOW.... As I released my finger from the braid, casting full, I see them pass in the flightline of the launched Junior. I get that uh-oh feeling, and waited, and then went to put the braid in the roller of the VS, assuming I had missed them. But no.... The braid began to burn through my fingers, flying off the spool at a rate I had never witnessed shorefishing. Unfortunately, I had not gotten the line in the roller, even with a leather finger guard. All I could do was watch the line disappear and wait for the bitter end break. And then it went slack, with maybe ten turns left on the reel. So I start reeling in. Nothing. Crank a little drag. Still nothing. So now I crank it down as far as I ever have, and it's a ten minute battle to get a couple feet here and there. Hell, I thought the damn goose had taken it up over the rocks where bait guys were fishing, and that they were trying to hold on to their heavenly acquired AF Jr!!!! At this point, the braid and plug were totally encased in chitloads of weed. In the end, I got about 150 yds of my new PP 50# back (out of +300) and ended up losing the last Junior I got from Don at the RISSA show.:lossinit:
So you guys who fish the Castle, if you poke around the weed piles, you might get lucky... What I wonder about is; where did it get wrapped around the bird? Did the braid burn through its feathers? Given the rate of speed I was losing line, did the plug get lifted out of the water, and where did it ultimately land, before I started reeling in????
I need to get a spare vs200 spool......

ive had a similar thing happen to me with a commorant and a super strike polaris. i was in the boat and was able to cut the line before i lost it all because a knife was in reach. the bird crashed and then flew away minus the plug.
i once demolished one of those little black birds that fly by in formation at night, with a 3oz tin. bird dropped, tin kept going.

I had the same thing happen with a smack-it popper, bird swooped down and grabbed it while i was working it and off it flew......I set the hook pretty damn hard too

the treble hook ...hooked right over the goose's shoulder
and he just kept
staying in formation right behind the others ...

i was driving in uxbridge once and saw a V -formation of geese
flying over to the river when one goose suddenly started tumbling
like he had been shot with a shotgun
or had banged into a cloaked klingon bird of prey :D

he must have encountered a turbulance air pocket or
something because there was nothing visable i could see (no wires)
and the goose tumbled maybe fifty feet downward before recovering
his flight path... it was a very strange site.

I snagged a tern once on the fly, luckily I was fishing for schoolies in an estuary, so I had a real light tin on with a single hook that I'd crushed the barb down on, made getting the hook out a lot easier, although the bird was still quite angry and very uncooperative, made unhooking a bluefish seem pleasurable in comparison. I cant help but wonder what sort of rig you'd need to actually land a Canadian goose, hmmm?

I I cant help but wonder what sort of rig you'd need to actually land a Canadian goose, hmmm?

A 20 guage should do it! :D

"So you guys who fish the Castle, if you poke around the weed piles, you might get lucky... "

finders keepers!!!!

ross, i think you have a history with birds. one of my first memories meeting you, you were on shore helping some guy unhook a seagull. you looked like a pro, putting a rag over the gulls head to calm it. you're the friggin beastmaster man! :bl:

sorry to hear about your misfortune.

ross, saw those geese there this am...did not see any plugs attached to them though...

:rotflmao::wave:

Geese are currently "OUT OF SEASON" so you would have had to throw it back if you had landed it. I don't think you are allowed to hunt geese with rod and reel, so be careful [federal offense]. Also, you said it was at the "last stage of dusk"--shooting [fishing] hours end at sunset, so you better watch your a-s! :bl2::laughs::hf1: