It's unfortunate that bird was a non-target victim of that conibear. I suppose accidents happen.
A trotline set in an appropriate location of a pond probably would be a fun fishing adventure right now. Fun story. I grew up fishing the Arkansas River. It's shallow so we always waded it. Best place to set a trotline was behind an underwater sandbar. One fall we had one set in about 2ft of water and had been doing well with 1-2lb channel cats on it. One morning we showed up and there were a couple of pelicans hooked on it. THOSE ARE BIG BIRDS! And they can beat the living crap out of a 10yr old with their wings. We eventually got them unhooked and they flew off seemingly no worse for the wear, but holy crap I was bruised and sore!
