Caught A....Cardinal

[Paulson]

I am sure I won't be the first, nor the last but nature works above the water I found.

On a back cast that was wide open I felt a snag to turn back and realize my line was moving away then arcing to a circle. He made a few gawking passes around as I slowly brought the line back in to settle stream side. Once I finally had him stopped, he made a final attempt to free himself that was successful without me touching him. The fly was caught in his right wing.

I am assuming he went for it, and not some coincidence that it might have just been flying by. Funny that I was thinking of this happening as I was watching barn swallows dive around about an hour before. He appeared unhurt, but I sure felt bad.

The main lesson is: size 14 EHC if you're targeting cardinals this time of year, they love em.

Has this ever happened to anyone else?

 

[Cold]

Good thing you were birding with dries.

I've heard the egg patterns are significantly more tricky, since you have to get them right in the nest...

 

[redietz]

Cardinals aren't particularly adept at catching insects on the wing; they eat (mainly seeds, grains and fruit) off the ground; so you probably snagged it rather it was going for the fly. (They do eat insects, but it tends to be things like beetles that they can catch on the ground.)

Has it happened to anyone else? Probably everyone who's fished more than a few years. I catch more bats than birds, but I can tell you from personal experience that a mallard will take a properly presented sulfur dry on the surface.

I barely missed a bald eagle a few years ago. It wasn't going for the fly; it was going for the same rising fish I was.

 

[poopdeck]

I have fished for over 40 years and never snagged any kind of bird nor have I ever seen a bird get snagged and I have never heard a fishing story about snagging birds. I would say unusual indeed. I don't think you have to worry about catching another one.

 

[Millsertime]

I caught a bird (swallow I think) last August right as the fly was dropping to the water. This was during a hatch. The bird didn't survive!

 

[pcray1231]

I've caught a handful of bats over the years, but never a bird!

 

[troutbert]

I caught a swallow one time. It swooped for the fly in front of me as I was casting. It was also hooked in the wing. I released it and it seemed fine.

I've also caught 3 bats over the years.

 

[gfoledc]

I caught a Pelican once in The Flordia keys on a popper

 

[chromid]

Slough Creek, lower meadow section, American Merganser on a size 10 green drake imitation........

I was fishing a bend in the creek when a group of about 10 mergansers came around the corner .....tried to strip the fly in as fast as possible which only piqued there interest even more.....

How come when you want a tippet to break it seems like it takes forever, but on a good fish it happens immediately????

Drag was singing as if I were bone fishing......

 

[Alnitak]

Millsertime wrote:
I caught a bird (swallow I think) last August right as the fly was dropping to the water. This was during a hatch. The bird didn't survive!

Yes, that's a Rough-winged Swallow. Too bad he didn't survive.

Jeff

 

[Alnitak]

I've never caught a bird, but my nephew had a weird one--he had a dragonfly snatch his fly out of the air and fly away with it. Well, not far.

Dragonflies eat insects and catch them on the wing using their legs like a basket to scoop them out of the air. Catching bats and swallows shouldn't be too rare in the right locations as they also eat flying insects and frequently feed over the same bodies of water we fly fish on.


Jeff

 

[SlingerFlyRods]

my father hooked into a diving duck up fishing for walleye in pymatuning.. he literally reeled it in, we took the hook out and I think that duck is still flying north to this day lol

 

[afishinado]

I've creeled a swallow, a seagull and a few bats. The seagull put up one heck of a fight!

 

[Paulson]

redietz wrote:
Cardinals aren't particularly adept at catching insects on the wing; they eat (mainly seeds, grains and fruit) off the ground; so you probably snagged it rather it was going for the fly. (They do eat insects, but it tends to be things like beetles that they can catch on the ground.)

Has it happened to anyone else? Probably everyone who's fished more than a few years. I catch more bats than birds, but I can tell you from personal experience that a mallard will take a properly presented sulfur dry on the surface.

I barely missed a bald eagle a few years ago. It wasn't going for the fly; it was going for the same rising fish I was.

Good point, I did not consider a cardinals normal behavior, so just snagging it actually seems more likely. It just seemed so abnormal that was the only conclusion that made sense at the time.

Certainly unusual. I am still glad I was able to control it flying around me and it didn't leave with a fly in its wing, and it freed it self.

Thanks for the stories!

 

[pete41]

I caught a pelican in Florida-using spinning gear with braided line-not an experience to be recommended.lol
also caught a manatte -same type of outfit-very expensive.

 

[pcray1231]

On a spinning rod, but I had a beaver on once. Did not land it, or even gain any ground, lol. It did not take the bait, but rather swam through my line and got tangled. After it took some line and I figured out what happened I broke it off, and can only hope the beaver got itself free. Big strong animal with sharp teeth and claws on 4 lb test, I'm guessing he was ok.

I have never "hooked" a bird, but I guess I've had a few on the line. I had a blue heron take a trout I was fighting once. Just swooped down and scooped it right up and took off, but I pulled it out of it's mouth, and landed the fish. And yeah, a seagull. I was crabbing, so chicken neck on a kite string. Through it out, splash, gull sweeps in and clutches it and tries to fly away. I won the tug of war.

 

[RLeeP]

Lucky you. My best so far has been an Archbishop..

I caught and landed an immature hen mallard while wade fishing East Lake, a caldera in the Oregon Cascades. She was putzing around bobbing for elodea and talking to herself the way mallards do and she was right in the middle of a pod of risers. I dropped a #12 Parachute Adams at least a dozen feet away from her, but it was still too close and before I could react, she glided over and snuffed it up. I had her good. The hook was stuck in one of the holes in the top of her beak. Luckily, while the fish in East Lake are pretty good sized, they aren't very bright and I was fishing 3X. She was pretty small, maybe a third of the way to full grown. I ran right up on the bank and hauled her out of the lake. Then, I had to hold her down and grab the fly with my hemostats. She was giving me all kinds of h*** the entire time and I can't say I blame her. One turn of the hemos and I had the hook back and I picked her up and set her back in the lake. She wandered around in circles for a minute or two and then went back to her salad bar.

 

[Paulson]

Ha!

 

[FiveWeight]

Had more than one swallow take flies off the water and in the air. The place where I've had it happen most is standing in Pine Creek at Pettycote Junction facing Cedar Run just shy of dark. Had a few bats on line there also over the years. An owl on a top water plug one night in a lilly pad covered cove in NH. A bovine, number 26 was her ear tag, at Snavely's Mill in Lancaster county. A crow that picked a green Drake off of the LJ a few years back and of course the assorted snake, turtle, and muskrat. But those don't fall into the flying aspect of critters, neither does the cow now that I think about it. Most of the flyers don't get hooked. They just get tangled and usually after a short kite flying experience they work themselves free. The owl, snake, turtle, muskrat... Not so much. Oh, then there was the highly pissed off cranberry worker... That's another story.

 

[just_jon]

I too have hooked a number of bats in my day. Nets come in handy when making the release.