Wrestling egrets and other mishaps
 

The other morning about 4:30 a.m. I was fishing usual spot with my buddy, the ever present egret that is always perched to my right scoring mumichaugs, things were going well. The egret takes off and checks out what is happening a couple of poles away. It flew back, under cover of darkness a few minutes later.

Unfortunately for the egret as it flew by, my power pro got wrapped around its wing. The lure I was fishing was a goo goo repro, whose tail hook actually impailed the egrets right leg. I reeled it towards me as slowly as I can, the whole time the egret is making this god-awful wailing noise. When I finally get it close, I see just how F'd up things were. My jacket I could use to cover its eyes, something I have done many times with seaguls, is fifty feet away and up the embankment. I yell over to a guy, who is only about one pole away to see if he will come over and throw my jacket down to me. No answer. I yell over again, no answer. Glad I wasn't injured. I make a couple of grabs, holding my rod in one hand, for the birds wing. Bird tries to bite the first time and did in fact get me the second time. Just after the bite occurs, the bird is still wailing like its giving birth to a basketball size egg, the guy one pole away must have been getting annoyed at all the noise and yells over to me, "hey buddy, do what you have to do to get the lure back, just don't get bit". I replied its too late for that now. I couldn't put the rod down, because I didn't want the bird to swim out into the friekin canal with it in tow, so I just distracted the birds biting beek, with my left hand, squeezing my rod between my legs, so it wouldn't fall on the rocks, and grabbed the lure whose tail hook was slightly impaled in the egrets right leg. Once I got the hook out, the bird was still trying to show how ungrateful he was by continuously trying to sink its beek into my right hand again. I cut the line on both sides of the wing, releasing the tension on my rod, and the lure which dropped to the rocks. Then I unraveled the line which was wrapped around the egrets right wing. Bird then swims off about twnety feet away. The bird was shaken up, and didn't move for about an hour. I rinse off the wound with water, and went back to fishing. Everybody always says threads like this are worthless without pics so, here is the wound, the bird, and the reward.

The other morning around 4:30 am Peter/Bronko says hey the guy over there is hooked up with a bird
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Was trying to save the bird. Guess he didn't here me yell over! It didn't take long to find out who it was.

Your a tough old bird frank
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Jusst trying to be decent with the wild life, and get a lure back that I turned and has worked for me.
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Don't know about egrets, but if you let a cormorant bite the right hand sleeve of your sweatshirt, you can grab it's head with your left hand.
Now, if you hold it's head it will hang limp like it's dead while you untangle it.
I'd post a picture but I can't figure how on the is site.

Wait! I wasn't the guy who didn't answer a call for help, thats not my style. From the sounds of it, I was 20 poles away. However, I could make out the sounds of what sounded like a mass murder and commented someone must have hooked a bird!
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here's how :point: a tutorial

http://striped-bass.com/Stripertalk/...sting+pictures

That's a great Blue Heron, and that beak he's sporting will do some damage, as you can attest to. Next time, try to be swift and grab it by the neck, this way you can manage it more better, nicely done though.

I had a Lady yellin at me in Florida saying i was snagging seagulls out of the sky on Purpose.:hs:

At the end of the ???? there were two guys fishing about 100 feet apart. The furthest one away had a large fish on and lost it a short while before the bird incident. Pole #0000 the two guys rode off about 5:30 a m
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I have had my history with birds as well.... Here's one from 2007.
http://www.striped-bass.com/Stripert...hlight=spooled

Frank, be sure to keep that wound clean. Get some betadine solution. It's the brown soap they use in the ER.

I've never hooked an egret or a great blue herron.. both are in close proximity to where i fish ....I spook them often as they fish the shallows as i drift bye.. the sqwaking always scares the crap out of me... I did set back on a fox once the pounced on an eel I had tossed onto the sand during an extra long cast just above the water line ..he/she must have been hunting plover chicks.. I never saw it until it pounced... when I "set the hook" trying to get my eel back before it bolted down it's intended meal the damn thing must have jumped 5' in the air... the fox got the eel.. I got my hook back..it ended well...

glad you and the bird are no worse for wear...and just a tad wiser...

I have only had the pleasure of catching seagulls. You are lucky that you did not have an audience. There is nothing worse than the non-fisherman who thinks you are going to kill it like the lady Raven met. I bet more birds are caught at the canal than any place else.

Don't worry Frank, i will keep the birds away at M.V

That part of the deal isn't it.
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Great work on saving the bird Swimmer and you were rewarded with a fish. Karma.

I have perfected brown pelican catch and release from trips down south. Great Blue Heron is made to impale fish. That is a pretty tough one man job. Good to hear it turned out ok.

I Caught a Seagull.Casted ,I watched the Gull do The back pedal with its wings ,but got caught up in the line. when it took the nose dive. got hooked with a nice Gibbs Popper. I reeled to get as much line as I could, Then Cut it Loose.

When you see the bird do that, its the moment you go "oh no" to yourself, and by then its too late.

the trick I've learned is to reel in the beast real slow, so as not to get the lure into the bird. No way im letting that stupid cormorant take my plug

You gotta tell your bird story it's classic
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The one where the bluefish pulled the bird underwater? When the 2 women were watching me fight the fish and then all of a sudden the bird surfaces? Those women were horrified. I cant believe the bird didn't drown. So I landed a bird and a bluefish and scared 2 women. It was pretty funny.

That's the one
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My son is here to post the picture for his dinosaur dad

What did it weigh? Should have taken a pic with it on the boga:)

Good job saving the bird and your lure. I can appreciate the sharpness of the beak as a great blue heron has been hanging around a local pier where people have been feeding it skipjacks. Unfortunately, you had to handle this alone. Last fall I aided someone in the release of a post-Sandy pelican.

I guess we should have, but none of us carry Bogas. It was strange how calm and still that bird was with a hand around it's face.
flew away after giving us a dirty look.