Word of warning

[Gone Fishin]

Hi,

 

Just thought i'd share my worst experience fishing ever. Went for a chuck last nite. There was a duck on the water with 8 ducklings. My mate was float fishing and whilst his float was out, the duckings came noseying.

When one of the ducklings was about 50 cms from the float my mate lifted his rod and, you guessed it, he hooked the duckling, this paniced the duckling, which in turn sent the mother duck into a frenzy. The mother duck in attempting to help her baby then got caught in the line. At this point I told my friend to cut the line, which he did. The mother then proceeded to flap around the water with the baby dragging behind her like a dead weight. The mother, exhausted by now ended up snagged in some bullrushes, I managed to throw my net over her and cut her free from the line. She swam off unharmed, but unfortunetly the duckling drowned.

I am retelling this story, to hopefully make people more aware of the dangers their tackle poses to the local wildlife.

[Brian Carragher]

Sounds to me that it is'nt the the tackle that has the potential to cause danger to the local wildlife but more likely the use of tackle in unexperienced hands that could be the danger to local wildlife

[Gone Fishin]

Sounds to me that it is'nt the the tackle that has the potential to cause danger to the local wildlife but more likely the use of tackle in unexperienced hands that could be the danger to local wildlife

 

 

Fair point Brian, to be honest I would have retrieved the line sooner than my mate did.

[Guest tigger]

You shouldn't have cut the line !!!!!

 

You should have just reeled them in, untangled/hooked them and released them.

[Gone Fishin]

You shouldn't have cut the line !!!!!

 

You should have just reeled them in, untangled/hooked them and released them.

 

 

I was in two minds whether or not to make this post. I feel really bad about what happened and if I could turn back the clock obviously I would.

 

I made this post as a warning of what could happen, if you don't act quickly when birds approach your tackle.

 

I appreciate the replies and god forbid anyone else experiences this but maybe they will remember Tigger's advice, not panic and retrieve their line, instead of cutting it.

[chesters1]

the little devils seem to be needing to be hooked a couple of times before they learn to avoid diving after freebies.

last year an angler caught a duckling and i caught it from the reeds it was hiding in ,mother went for the throat as they do but it was safely unhooked and returned ,most when they get older avoid the float and swim around the pond side rather than swimming over the line.

unfortunately hooking ducklings seems to be normal in the run of things growing up around anglers and the free food they give out.

not all survive their accidental encounter but one angler has "adopted" a one eyed duck (obviously a tackle accident) named it wonk and it feeds from his hand ,his extra feeding has brought it on from half the size of its brother ,mind you how its going to fly in a straight line is beyond his help

we had a very large population of young ones last year and i warned anglers about them diving after ground bait ,one angler turned up as i was making my rounds so i warned him not to chuck ground bait in if the ducks were in the vicinity ,one minute later curses in a very loud voice was head and on my way back he was still cursing that his swim was full of ducks ,some pratts just dont listen

this year the duckling count is way down and strangely all the ducks that had broods (3) all nested in trees ! ,whether the squirrels got to them i dont know but the largest brood was 4 (13 last year with one although swiftly it turned to seven) ,coots had four and moorhens on their third nestings!

the visiting geese had 5 ,one disapeared half grown and the group now make a nusience of them selfs crapping on the hole nearest the golf course ,very tame indeed.

Edited July 26, 2007 by chesters1

[poledark]

Would have been best to wind the duckling in and then unhook it...still no harm done

 

Here is a coot I adopted (actually he adopted me) he has a severely damaged foot and can't dive more than a foot or so, and whenever I fish near him he ends up sitting down a couple of feet away, waiting to be fed, usually method mix

 

 

Den

[chesters1]

we only get coots occasionally and most years they hang about for a couple of weeks then disappear ,this year they stayed and raised four young (little punks) aggressive little blighter's and have a strange form of attack ,sitting on their tails they use their feet as weapons! ,the geese weren't impressed though and one grabbed it ,the coots kept a respectfull distance from then on ,as i walk around its nothing but young moorhens dashing back across the path to the safety of the water.

i dont know what happened to the coots young last time i saw them they were half grown but all inc the parents have gone ,no pike to speak of and no signs of mink maybe they have walked off into the marshes

[Guest Brumagem Phil]

I was in two minds whether or not to make this post. I feel really bad about what happened and if I could turn back the clock obviously I would.

 

I made this post as a warning of what could happen, if you don't act quickly when birds approach your tackle.

 

I appreciate the replies and god forbid anyone else experiences this but maybe they will remember Tigger's advice, not panic and retrieve their line, instead of cutting it.

 

 

You read tons of literature which tells you to cut the line and ring the RSPCA........IMHO this advice is just plain wrong. I agree with tigger (did I really say that??? LOL) in that you should reel them in (with care) and just unhook them, check them over and let them go.

 

I'm a big fan of surface fishing so over time I've done my fair share of ducks, geese and even a couple of swans. Not yet had a bird which didnt reel in easily enough (even a big male swan surprisingly enough) and which didnt go on its way with little more than a few ruffled feathers.

[Neil G]

You shouldn't have cut the line !!!!!

 

You should have just reeled them in, untangled/hooked them and released them.

 

 

I think that's pretty good advice

 

I've seen a few kids just cut line in the past when snagging up with birds and it did p** me off a bit as the birds will probably get tethered somewhere and starve to death or get attacked & eaten by predators.

 

Anyway.....at least you will know what to do next time if it does happen.

Edited July 27, 2007 by Neil G