Eagles and Muskies, Lake of the Woods

[laker1]

Sharing a memory,

Its late September and Bob Holden and I are fishing inCanadian Esox's Musky Tournament. Bob is an accomplished multi species fisherman. Fishing has been poor.
Fog and rain in the morning and bluebird skies in the afternoon. Its the end of the day and we have time for just one more trolling run at Forest Island. We let out our lines. I am using Live Target's Sucker and Bob is using a white Jake made by Drifter Tackle. Suddenly my line goes skyward, to be followed by Bob's. We look up and there is a huge eagle trying to fly away. It is frantic! My crank and Bob's are attached separately to each leg. We carefully reeled the bird in. At the boat his wings are beating like hammers across the stern. Bob put on his leather gloves and I found a paddle. I put the blade between Bob and that great beak. The bird is now on its back and starting to relax. Bob deftly removes a crank from each talon. Released the bird half swims and half flies to Forest Island. On shore it rested for a bit and then flew straight up to perch in disgust in the highest tree.

We continued our troll. Wish we had a camera.

jim

[Bo D]

That would have been some awesome footage had you had a camera... Now that is truly called catch and release...

[WillieBeno]

Good Story, too bad you didn't have a camera would've made a great video. Was it an osprey or bald eagle? Catch any fish?

[laker1]

Good Story, too bad you didn't have a camera would've made a great video. Was it an osprey or bald eagle? Catch any fish?

Bald eagle and hooked only two Pike which were released. However we caught them on bucktail spinners we made ourselves!

I now carry a camera with fresh batteries.

Should mention we almost got hooked up with an unmarked free floating fish net.

jim

[WillieBeno]

Nothing more satisfying than catching fish on a homemade lure, let alone eagles and fishing nets. Cheers