I found this nice sized Bass floating dead the other day,I wear a size 12 boot so you could see he was a decent sized fish.Upon inspection I found a perfect little spear hole in the top of his head and it dawned on me that one of the many Great Blue Herons or egrets we have here probably speared him thinking it was dinner.I should have weighed and measured him but I was so pissed I just chunked him back in for the turtles.I stocked 50 Bass fingerlings 6 yrs. ago so that was his age,anyone have a guess at what he might of weighed ? And have any of you lost a nice fish to what you think might have been a bird? ,Ryer.
Tough luck, that was probably once a nice fish. I lost five 3.5 lb RB Trout to herons a couple of years ago. They didn't eat them either. Almost like they did it for sport...
rmedgar,if they are it seems like cheating to me but I guess we could don a mask, snorkel and some fins grab a speargun and level the playing field.I noticed from your post you are from East Alabama, I have family up in North Ala. in Colbert county up on the mountain,Ryer.
Keep in mind gentlemen that it's a instinctive reflex response for herons; if it move it gets hit. However also keep in mind many times if a large fish gets nailed it means it was sick or on the way out anyway. That is, large fish are rarely in shallow enough water for a heron to nail them unless they are having problems with the exception of spawning.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Cecil, I had a GBH nail one of the trout when it was in the shallows eating pellets that drifted there. With steeper banks, the GBH was standing where the water dropped off quickly to 2'-3' depth. The trout was about 18" long.
I have chasing off a giant white heron the past week or so, it's huge. I have plenty GBH but never a white one. None the less I'm not a big fan of them.
Cecil, I had a GBH nail one of the trout when it was in the shallows eating pellets that drifted there. With steeper banks, the GBH was standing where the water dropped off quickly to 2'-3' depth. The trout was about 18" long.
But...
You're talking a domestic trout that was grow out in a shallow pond. A large bass would be much more cautious. That's my opinoon and I'm sticking with it.
BTW been there done that with brook trout,which is why I have strands of mono around the pond.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Personally, with no scientific backing, I think the heron is spiking the larger fish to eliminate competition for it's own forage base. We see way too many fish that have survived the "spike" to be caught by us later. Those wouldn't have been sick and dying fish at the point of the heron attack to be able to live on.
Further, with no scientific backing, I think the heron and other birds instinctively stock bodies of water with fish to provide them with a forage base down the line.
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."
Just my opinion but for a GBH to remove competition purposely above an instinctive level of just jabbing at anything that moves, goes into the anthropomorphic realm which I just don't buy.
Same goes for them instinctively stocking bodies of water "to provide them with a forage base down the line." My thinking is if this does occur it through the dropping of fish etc.
But hey that's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions as in everybody had one.
I'm also not a believer in animals predicting winter weather via fat reserves etc.
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 11/24/1211:15 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Well there are pods of dolphins that help herd fish into fishermans nets in South America in exchange the fisherman feed the dolphins a % of there catch. Crows drop nuts on roadways from power lines so cars crack them cats of killed mice for hundreds of years so there humans pamper them ect, ect, ect, . So anything is possible, I know there stubborn and a major PITA
A crow dropping a nut to crack it doesn't show they thought ahead as in "if I drop this nut it will break and be easier to eat." Same with a heron thinking 'hey i need to kill any competitors." I don't buy it.
I can see a crow accidentally dropping a nut a few times and finding it was easier to eat that way, then repeating it.
So a cat kills mice because he wants to be pampered by a human? Huh?
That said, I do believe we don't give animals enough credit for things. I can watch my dog and just see the gears turning in her head. LOL
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
I'm going with evolution..... The ones who can change with their situation (or some of their off-spring) are the ones who live. The ones who can't are "turtle food". What I'd like to have is a heron eating turtle. .
When I say providing a forage base down the line, I mean the heron putting live fish in a BOW, not the fish egg to the leg thing.
I believe a heron has a sense of what size of fish it can eat, and will only instinctively spike another creature as a self-defense mechanism. I don't think the heron is physically threatened by the larger fish that it spikes, and it knows it cannot eat it.
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."
I have a small wooden bridge that crosses a small stretch of water and goes from the bank to a small island.The posts on the ends are anchored in 3 ft of water and the deepest in the middle of the bridge is 6 ft.I placed large hollowed out logs and some barrels around the posts in shallow water for c.c. spawning areas but a few bass took them over and in the 100 degree Texas heat they would always sit shallow under those logs and under the shade of the bridge and you could see them ambush B.G. in the deeper drop off when I fed the fish.The water is very clear there and the herons always stand around the edge and on top of the logs to fish,I think maybe the bass stuck his head out slightly from the log and on instinct the heron stabbed at what he thought was a small fish and killed a big fish,Ryer.
When I say providing a forage base down the line, I mean the heron putting live fish in a BOW, not the fish egg to the leg thing.
I agree, but I still think it's accidental but could be wrong.
Originally Posted By: Sunil
I believe a heron has a sense of what size of fish it can eat, and will only instinctively spike another creature as a self-defense mechanism. I don't think the heron is physically threatened by the larger fish that it spikes, and it knows it cannot eat it.
Well that does make more sense to me vs. the heron cognitively thinking he needs to eliminate his competitors.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
Call it dumb luck or planned revenge but there was a Heron that would sit by the feeder waiting for it to go off every day and then pound the fish that came to eat. No big deal there, we have all seen that. After he took one too many I decided I had enough and snuck down there to throw a big stick near where he was to scare him off. You know how sometimes when you throw a stick it sticks in your hand and goes off course? My thought while the stick was in the air was "uh oh, that is way closer than intended" and "I hope my game warden best friend does not ride up". Luckily (or not) he ducked and the stick barely missed him. He flew to the other side and just stood there glaring at me with one eye. For the next three weeks he left presents for me all over my floating dock. Do you know what a mess one of those can make on a white floating dock? Had not happened before that in five years and has not happened since. We both came to an understanding after that. He eats all he wants now.
A crow dropping a nut to crack it doesn't show they thought ahead as in "if I drop this nut it will break and be easier to eat." Same with a heron thinking 'hey i need to kill any competitors." I don't buy it.
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