Forums36
Topics40,961
Posts557,951
Members18,500
|
Most Online3,612 Jan 10th, 2023
|
|
11 members (catscratch, WallyB, Bigtrh24, Mainer, TonyinKY, Bill Cody, Rick O, Willowwood, Augie, Shorthose, KenHorton),
1,091
guests, and
196
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 31
Lunker
|
OP
Lunker
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 31 |
A way too-low flying purple martin drowned in my pond today. I didn't see the crash happen, but one of the LMB was tuggin at the dead bird, pulling the carcass under repeatedly, in mimicked discovery channel shark-attack style. It was finally pulled under never to resurface. I've heard of LMB and other big pred fish eating birds, but was surprised at this behavior.
Sorry...no photos or videos to back up my claim.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 20,043 Likes: 1
Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 20,043 Likes: 1 |
I took in a Canadian northern pike to mount once that had remnants of a crow in its stomach. I guess if you're hungry it doesn't matter.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841 |
I've seen swallows, martins and kingbirds swoop low over the water to get a drink. I'm suprised that we don't see more birds getting picked off by fish.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2 |
I've only seen ducklings and goslings get eaten by fish. I suspect if big enough, bass, pike and other predatory fish will eat what they can fit in their mouths.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 13,748 Likes: 294
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 13,748 Likes: 294 |
I think there are some musky/pike lures that look like ducklings or smaller birds.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14 |
That would have been awesome to see. I recall a story last year of a LMB having a coyote pup in his gullet. I think there are some musky/pike lures that look like ducklings or smaller birds. I've never heard of those before! Going to Google now...
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 265
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 265 |
I had about a 3lb lmb jump out of the water and latch onto my finger, scared the crap otta me.
"Is the Poop-Deck really what I think it is?" - Homer Simpson
"A man can't just sit around" - Larry Walters, 1982
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 31
Lunker
|
OP
Lunker
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 31 |
The most surprising thing was the bird was dead, no twitching...flat out buzzard food. I never saw, heard, or read anything about LMB being pond jackals!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14 |
Google didn't come up with anything. Anybody have any pics or links to these bird imitation lures? So curious to see what they look like.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 814
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 814 |
Those are homemade. You just steal your kid's rubber ducky, attach a couple of trebles to its feet and tie your line around its neck.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841 |
I have a hard plastic duckling lure that was my grandfathers. It has a wire running thru it from breast to tail, flat bottom. It's "feet" are colorado spinning blades, and it has a fairly large treble hook under the tail. It's roughly 3" - 4" long and a couple of inches tall. Found it. It's called the Cree Duck and it was made in the 1950's.
Last edited by esshup; 06/28/10 08:34 AM. Reason: added picture
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457 |
There's this old guy who fishes the Mississippi at the same spot as me. In janurary when the ice sheets float down he ties a lil baby chicken to a line with the hook dangling from its neck. He swears that the noise they make as they skitter across the ice guarantees a huge fish by the end of the day. I've never seen it, but he claims to have snagged quite a few massive fish that way. They skitter across the ice, dump into the water and boom. Fish on.
-Skinny
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois - - The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut. Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,793 Likes: 14 |
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,721
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 1,721 |
We had a pair of mallards this year that had their babies eaten by fish. I don't know what kind of fish ate them. But my guess was bass.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,365
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,365 |
The most surprising thing was the bird was dead, no twitching...flat out buzzard food. I never saw, heard, or read anything about LMB being pond jackals! I've heard of catfish eating dead birds. My BIL and friends went camping and running catfish lines on the Mississippi. They ran out of bait, and shot some blackbirds and used them. At first they skinned them, later they just put them on whole. He was surprised by how many 2-3 pound catfish took a whole blackbird.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 814
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 814 |
I can do you one better. My cousin in law swears that before I bought my pond, a cow some how died and rolled into the pond. He said that he could see catfish eating on it for a long while afterward. Yum.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841 |
The cats might have been feeding on the maggots that were falling off the carcass too.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 13,748 Likes: 294
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame 2014 Lunker
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 13,748 Likes: 294 |
"The cats might have been feeding on the maggots that were falling off the carcass too."
Great. Who's having beef for dinner?
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,534 Likes: 841 |
Sunil, can't you just picture a beef half floating in a pond, with the part above the water a writhing, squirming white mass of little worms? Then one will fall into the water every few seconds, and either a BG or CC will be waiting there to slurp it up. Have fun at dinner tonite!
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,840
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: May 2010
Posts: 1,840 |
I had some of my best crappie fishing out of a pond where many cows had died. You could see the maggots falling off into the water. So I throw my minnow over there right against the carcass and my father said what are you doing, I guess he thought I was trying to snag the cow to bring it to shore. Anyway in the middle of his speech my cork was gone and I hooked a nice fat crappie went at least a pound.
So with my fathers surprised look on his face he says that was luck. So I tried it again and bamm another one. We must have caught at least 30 in that little whole and boy were they tasty.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2 |
I have a lure that looks like a muskrat for night fishing for musky. I have caught three muskies on it.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457 |
I had some of my best crappie fishing out of a pond where many cows had died. You could see the maggots falling off into the water. I'll second this for the crappie fishing, my favorite spot is on my old college campus, and there was a dead deer in the pond. Man it stunk after a while.....but the crappie bite was on. Whatever you threw in you got a big fat slab. -Skinny
Last edited by skinnybass; 06/29/10 09:35 AM.
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois - - The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut. Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 457 |
I have a lure that looks like a muskrat for night fishing for musky. I have caught three muskies on it. Good call! I have a scum-frog that looks like a little brown mouse....i am totally going to use that this weekend @ night. Thanks again, CJ! -Skinny
Trying to help with 7.5 Acres in the Chain of Lakes Illinois - - The fish would stay out of trouble if it could just keep its fool mouth shut. Turns out there is a lot I should be learning from the fish.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 3,505 Likes: 3
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 3,505 Likes: 3 |
Good call! I have a scum-frog that looks like a little brown mouse....i am totally going to use that this weekend @ night.
Thanks again, CJ! -Skinny This past winter while working on my outbuilding at the farm, I came across a nest of field mice that had gotten crushed inside a pile of lumber we had. They apparently nested inside and when we started moving the boards, presto, dead mice. Out of curiosity, I threw the one adult we found out into the middle of the pond. About a minute later, the water boiled around it and it was gone. Very cool. Nothing but LMB and BG in the pond. Plus one or two snapping turtles, but neither one big enough to cause that sort of boil.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343 |
I have a sparrow trap that I use to catch house sparrows then trim the feathers off one wing and chuck them off the dock. Bass will learn they are good to eat and will inhale them. The bass I have now are feed trained and spoiled so they only eat them about half the time. When I was a teenager the pond's bass only ate live food and a live spashing sparrow on the surface lasted about 5 seconds.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
|
|
|
Moderated by Bill Cody, Bruce Condello, catmandoo, Chris Steelman, Dave Davidson1, esshup, ewest, FireIsHot, Omaha, Sunil, teehjaeh57
|
|