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Ever have an animal pop up next to you while fishing?


The Yeti

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I was sitting in a tree stand one morning when a small owl decided it was time for a rest or that I looked like a 250# piece of lunch. I was watching the trails below when I caught him coming towards me claws out. It's a blur after that but dad wondered who was down in the cow pasture screaming like a girl when I came back to the house.
To many squirrels to count have come up and chattered at me from a few feet away as they assumed I was a big nut.

One more,
When I was about 6 or 7 my dad and I were driving home after checking cows when we ran over a jack rarbit that was blinded by the head lights. I had never seen one up close so dad picked it up and put it in the cab of the truck for me to see and probaly to feed to the cats. As we drove along I was touching the long ears and looking at the huge feet when the road kill became very much alive. Dad had only stunned the little critter. It commenced to running laps arount the inside of the pick-up as we drove 55 mph down a gravel road. It bit us each a few times as it ran mach 1 upside down across the ceiling of the truck cab which was a blur of rabbit hair. Dad slammed on the brakes and we both jumped out to allow the rabbit to escape. no one was injurred beyond what a band-aid couldn't fix. We still laugh about it when ever we see a jack rabbit.

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Great stories guys!
A couple years ago I was shore-fishing the Minnesota River when I heard a noise, turned around and saw an otter trying to STEAL his breakfast out of my minnow bucket. I'd chase him away for about five minutes and he kept coming back. Finally I chased him away and put the lid on the minnow bucket, but he returned and knocked over the whole thing! With no bait left, I was forced to surrender.

Another time I was ice fishing on a southern Minnesota lake in a bit of a blizzard. I'm kind of anal about keeping my ice hole-area clean, so I always toss the dead minnows out the door. Well, about mid-way through the day, I zip open the door to check out the scene and I get the begeebers scared out of me by a bald eagle standing right there next to the door, protected from the wind and enjoying a nice dead minnow snack. Probably the coolest thing I've even seen in the outdoors.

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A couple years ago, we were in the flowage between big sandy and aitkin lake. I looked in front of the boat at something swimming in the water. I thought it was a couple beavers or loons. Turned out it was 2 does swimming across the channel. They got up on shore and away they went. Pretty cool. Got pictures of it too..

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My coolest encouter with an animal was when I worked at many point scout camp. I was at one of the beaches doing a little night fishing for walleyes when a skunk decided to take a stroll by. I was sitting on a bench watching my lighted bobber when he came hopping along. He kind of pounced around like a squirrel or like a cat chasing something. He ended up right at my feet looking for something to eat. I got lucky and he didn't get scared so there was no stink involved. It was crazy because I could have reached down and petted him. He sniffed my feet for a second and decided that I wasnt edible and hopped along his way, ending up down the beach eating some turtle eggs. Pretty crazy though, that is the closest I have ever been to being in a real mess. If he would have decided to try my feet for supper, there would have been a interesting scene to see.
><>deadeye

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Me and a buddy were trolling on a channel between Little Pine and Dagget on the Whitefish Chain a couple years back, when we noticed a group of 7 or 8 ducklings fallowing in our wake, for about 45 mins they kept fallowing us. Later in the day we came back to the spot and they came swimming out and again the fallowed us, close enough that they could touch the transom. The next day we drove b y and we saw them again but this time they were with the hen...

JegerJack

------------------
"What did the old man trade for these guys, a used puck bag?"

[This message has been edited by jegerjack (edited 09-13-2004).]

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About 10 years ago I was shore fishing for eyes during the evening bite on a very secluded lake north of Lutsen. This lake was on the fringe of the BWCA.

I caught a couple walleyes and put them on a stringer on the ground and continued to fish a little more. After awhile I didn't hear any flopping so I went to inspect and I couldn't find the fish! confused.gif

It was dark, so I figured I would find them later.

I caught one last fish for the evening and as I proceeded towards my stringer there was a red fox taking and eating my fish! It acted as though it was tame, and I could darn near hand feed it.

On another occasion I was walking out in the dark to my vehicle when encountered a bull moose on the trail. That was not fun. Luckily the moose walked away into the woods after our encounter.

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A thieving fox, LOL.

That happend to the Warden (wife) and I on LOW in a sleeper house once.

We were in the Angle, just off the shore of the southern end of Oak Island. We had the sleds with us, and we were saving some of the nicer 'eyes and sauger to bring home. I had them buried in a snowbank against the house. There were some tullibees and two 'pout there also.

We hopped on the sleds after dark to go to Sunset for some adult beverages. When we came back, I went to check on them, as I did not want them to freeze solid. Well, the only thing left were the 'pout and the stinky 'bees, LOL. I thought some jerk had taken our stash. Once the sun came up the next morning, there was a well worn path where the fox had raided our fish.

I guess he needed them worse than we did.


We have had some close encounter with eagles in the Sabaskong bay area of LOW on our March trips. Very cool indeed.

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One of the guys in our club and his partner reported having to avoid a herd of 7-9 deer as they swam across in front of them after coming out of channel between Rush and lower Whitefish in the Whitefish Chain early in the AM as the sun was rising.

Daze Off

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One nephew and I were canoeing a back bay on Little Mantrap years back when a family of loons came out, the two young and the parents. The male gave a loon call, and using a cupped hand technique that I use, I TRIED to duplicate his call. I must have called his mate something bad in loon talk because he went ballistic. He was squacking and flapping and tried to climb into the canoe. I've never been good at foreign languages.

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Just thought of another one...My son and I were on the Mississippi checking traps in my canoe, he had a vest on, I had no life jacket, just a floatation cushion, (This was back when I was invincible!) and the current was fast!

There is a semi long story connected to this, but I'll get right to the meat.

This big Raccoon is swimming across the river, I drop my son on shore and go after the coon. I pulled along side of him, thinking he would veer away..."Eeegh.... Wrong!!!"

He reaches up and somehow grabs the gunnel on the side of the canoe and tries to haul himself aboard! In the process, he almost tipped me over, the Coleman I was in had a rounded keel and a narrow beam and was'nt as stable as other canoes I've had. I suppose that in the scramble, I had a little to do with it also?

A well placed whack with the canoe paddle, from the standing position ended his attempted piratcy ...or so I thought!

I prodded him a few times and when there was no response, I grabbed the comatose critter by the back of the neck and held him under water until the bubbles quit comming....I gave him a little time after that also!

When I figured he was twice dead, I hauled his big wet frame into the canoe...that was a bad move!

The current had taken us a good ways down river and I started paddling back up stream toward where the truck was parked.

I was looking away at something on the shoreline and I hear this grunt! I spin around and there is this 25 to 30 pound enraged Raccoon, big canine teeth showing, shaking his head, growling, and looking at me with very bad intentions!

I was paddling like crazy, trying to get as close to shore as I could before I had to deal with the coon!

Each time he would growl and come for me, I would push him back with the paddle and he could'nt get any traction for an all out charge.

I was soaking wet from sweat and my muscles felt like they were going to explode, from leaning into that paddle, fighting the current and warding off the Raccoon.

The beast let out a nasty growling, hissing scream and came over the top of the brace, I took my chances, had faith in my balance and my aim and timed him perfectly, I caught him right between the ears with the edge of the paddle.

I made it to shore, my son had been following the action and met me, I could'nt even talk! We went and got the truck, came back for the canoe and the dead coon and he was laying about 10 feet up the shoreline, finally expired!

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My father & I went out on his pontoon for a nice afternoon of northern fishing, with suckers and big bobbers. We were kicking back listing to the twins game, when my bobber went under. It didn’t just slowly go down, it went down so fast that the water shoot up about three feet. I jumped up and started to reel up some slack, when I saw the bobber, under the water, coming strait for the pontoon. It was coming so fast I couldn’t keep up with reeling in the line. As I saw the bobber go under the pontoon, I saw that a loon had grabbed my sucker. My father, who had the net ready, just stood and laughed. The loon dropped the sucker once on the other side of the boat. It tried several other times at our suckers but we were on to him then. After about ten minuets he left us alone.

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Many fine stories folks. Besides the usual beavers, loons, sea gull- and duckling-grabbing muskies, deer, coon and moose swimming by, yesterday I saw a first. I was trolling a shoreline on Fontenelle Reservoir in Wyoming and saw a few speedgoats (pronghorn antelope) on the shore, close to the water. As I motored nearer I noticed two more in the water about 20 yards out in 50 feet of water, heading for the shore. They reached the beach and once out of the water they shook like labs for a full minute before grazing on the nearby grass with the others. Nobody I've talked to has seen this but with their hair being hollow (looks that way anyhow) they should float good.

Kevin

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I know that no one is going to believe this, I can hardly believe it myself, but last Thursday up on Big Sandy, prior to going into lake Aitkin, I had a Yeti jump into my Boat! Yes, you heard it right, a Yeti!

As Yetis go, he was'nt to awfully big, a couple of hundred pounds or so, so I was able to handle him...I gave him a ham sandwich and a coke and he was good for the whole day...not bad company for a Yeti! He turned out to be a pretty good fisherman to!

I think the critter might have even started this post?

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Quite a few years ago i was sitting by the river bank fishing when all of a sudden i had a [PoorWordUsage]ed off Western Grebe come out of the water. It ended up between my legs with his wings spread and a I'm going to kick your butt look in it's eyes. In one swift motion I was up on my feet and heading the opposite direction. And at that time i figured it was time to go fishing somewhere else.

HC

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2 things
1) had a mouse that use to keep us company in our ice shack on Lake Pepin. We had an old orange crate nailed to the wall as a shelf and he/she would come out once we had the wood stove going and sit on the shelf while we played cards and fished. It got so tame that we could feed it by hand and when the tip ups would go off and everyone went scrambling outside it would just sit them and not run away, waiting for another hand out.
2) Sitting on a pot hole in NoDak the last 2 years I've had a Mink walk over and sit on its back legs waiting for a treat. It isn't afraid of my Lab and I have to keep her on a tight line for fear of them tangling. I usually throw the mink a piece of deer sausage, it grabs the sausage and runs away. Next day, if I'm there, it's back again.
Kinda fun, hope I see it again this year but I don't know how long they live and I would imagine it's gotta be close to it's end.

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Beaver, muskrat, loons, had a bear come after the boat. The weirdest still has to be a squirrel, adn yes, it was indeed a squirrel cause its bushjy tail was floating on top of the water. Got right up to it too, guess he just wanted to take a shortcut across the lake.

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A couple of years ago my brother and I were on leech and heading south from Goose Island, I looked into the sun in the east and saw, what my first impression was, a whale tale. Well that didn't make any sense so we had to motor over there and take a closer look. It was a deer. Looking straight at us with her ears up and alert she looked just like a whale about to dive. She was swimming at least a half mile from any shoreline with no apparent destination so we left her be. We didn't want to panic her.

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I've had a couple that have been neat for me. The first was when I was about 12 years old. My dad and I were fishing in a creek and catching chubs and small sunfish. We had 4 otters come down stream and check us out. A momma, daddy, and 2 babies. I had caught a chub deep and threw it back and it was floating. The one otter picked up the chub and flipped it around in the air and devoured it. We proceded to feed them about 50 chubs and they continued to give us a show. Very cool!

Last year I had a owl who became friendly with me in one of my platform stands. The first time we met he landed on the rail about 1' to the side of me. For about a minute he didn't notice I was there. Then his head turned around his eyes got big, so did mine, and he flew to a branch about 10 feet away and whoo'ed at me. I saw him numerous other times always within 20' feet or so and he would always give me a whoo.

At the deer shack we had a white irming(sp?) that was always around. He ate all of the mice in the shack. He would sit in front of the tv and watch movies. Don't know why but he would stare at the tv for a few minutes and run off. He did this all of the time. He also was know to run across your sleeping bag and scare the **** out of ya.

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This didn't happen when I was actually fishing, but on a fishing trip in NW Ontario.

I was headed from the cabin to the outhouse and met someone else from our party just leaving the one holer. I opened the door and was startled by a pine marten sitting proudly on the bench next to the hole. This critter must have been more startled than I because he figured he had only one escape from me and that was......you guessed it - down the hole. I proceeded to go behind a tree this time, trying not to contemplate the life of a pine marten.

[This message has been edited by uffdapete (edited 09-16-2004).]

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We were in the BWCA and a bear came swimming 50 yards in front of the canoe. Got a couple snapshots. Thought that was pretty cool until we realized where he was headed. High tailed it back to camp to find him up a tree swiping at our food pack. Some yelling and a few rocks later and he was gone.

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Just talked to my friend up in Little falls last night.

We were talking bow hunting and ice fishing and he told me that last season, he was reeling up a sunfish and a good sized Northern Pike came rocketing right up the hole after the sunfish and landed in his fish house...he said it scared the **** out of him, it happened so fast!

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Sat around thinging about this topic last night and came up with a couple of more.

I was in the BWCA back in the late 60's and paddled over to a small rock. Got within 20 feet and teh rock turned out to be a moose. Back deep in the water, head down gettin some vegitation.

Several times I've been either turkey hunting or deer hunting and have had grouse come sit on a log and wonder what the heck I was doing.

Fishing Lake Pepin one HOT August day, nothing biting so we were just drifitng and b.sing. Shadow appeared and when we looked it was a Bald Eagle swooping down to pick up a floating fish, about 30 feet from us.

Speaking of Lake Pepin, Has anyone been buzzed by an F4 Phantom while fishing Pepin? It use to happen all the time but I haven't seen a jet buzz us while we were fishing for quite some time. They would come down the Lake and just as they got to the end by Lacupolis they would kick it in and scare the he-- out of everyone.

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