Bats!

[STONEMAN]

Last week when I was fishing the Breeches, the bats came out at about 9. At first they didn't bother me and I continued to cast to rising fish. Then I unknowingly hook or tangled my line with one of the bats. I hate to admit it but I cut my line rather than try to free it. I thought bats were supposed to have a super sonar! Last night, I quit when the bats started swarming everywhere rather than risk another hookup. Anyone else have this problem? How does one fish the late evening/night hatches?

 

[FarmerDave]

STONEMAN wrote:
Last week when I was fishing the Breeches, the bats came out at about 9. At first they didn't bother me and I continued to cast to rising fish. Then I unknowingly hook or tangled my line with one of the bats. I hate to admit it but I cut my line rather than try to free it. I thought bats were supposed to have a super sonar! Last night, I quit when the bats started swarming everywhere rather than risk another hookup. Anyone else have this problem? How does one fish the late evening/night hatches?

Carefully?

not much you can do about it. Even afterdark still fishing, they will swoop down and hit the line.

 

[pcray1231]

They do have super sonar. They think your line is a bug. Pretty good to hit that moving target in mid-air without seeing it, don't you think?

 

[FarmerDave]

Ever see it in slow motion with a high speed camera? Pretty cool.

 

[JackM]

I can fish with them around without problem, and have many times over the years. But, for the first time, ever, at the Yough this weekend, I ended up hooking two in the same night. The first one hit the water and was motoring toward me, and like a school girl, I screamed and flicked it away and the fly came loose. The second one, not too long after, got hooked well in the wing. I'm slightly embarrassed to say I slapped him off the water a couple times and couldn't dislodge him, so I reeled him and cut the fly off as close as I could, which was still 6-8 inches away from the fly. I paid two bucks for that fly and caught a good half dozen or more trout with it and was not happy. Next one that gets stuck with a $2 fly may learn a hard lesson.

 

[giantsjim]

Fished the Little Lehigh yesterday and my brother hooked a duckling in the leg with a trico. We got the hook out but boy did the momma duck go crazy. Even after the duckling was released she made one final run at us nipping at our ankles. Happy to say, we both caught fish heavier than the duck.

 

[mikeyB]

I too have had issues with bats. The most unusual occured 2 years ago on Elk. I was fishing just at dark waist deep in a fairly deep pool when I thought that I had wacked my fly rod on an overhanging tree branch. A bat dropped into the stream directly in front of me and after we both got over the initial shock, he began to do a Phelpsian butterfly swimming stroke towards me. I was doing my best MJ moonwalk imitation trying to get away. Thankfully, we both seemed to survive the incident.

 

[parson]

Bats are kind of an occupational hazard (it seems) if you're fishing late evening/night hatches. My brother hooked one on the letort a few years ago while we were fishing a pretty decent sulphur hatch. He ended up cutting the leader as close the fly as he could. I remarked that his pattern must've been convincing if it was able to fool a bat, now if he could just fool those leader-wary letort browns, he'd be in business.
My son hooked a swallow one night on mountain creek with a low backcast. Again, we had to snip the leader and hope the critter made it.
We've run into ducks quite often on the big spring, but I've never hooked one; they seem to have an uncanny knack of being able to avoid your casts... maybe they have supersonic radar?

 

[Chaz]

I caught my first one after years of trying last year, I released it unharmed immediatly.

 

[bikerfish]

I've caught them before, easily released by reeling them in(they can give quite the fight!) gently holding them down with my foot and using forceps to take out the fly. they may scream a little but the ones I've released all flew away and seemed fine.

 

[PoconoPuke]

The brother in law hooked one years ago. That was his last night fishing trip.