Bird Whisperer- A step before becoming a Fish Whisperer

[ComeOnFish]

I thought I caught a nice fish. Well this was the 3rd time I hooked a bird.
Somehow this bird got it. The bird trusted me. Perhaps, someday, I can make fish jump into my kayak.

Joe

[daddyg]

I have 3 birds myself but no video that's Great.

[daolai]

Impressive release you're getting pretty good at that. How was the fishing?

[Cowpokey]

Glad you were able to give it a quick release. I've had birds hit my lures, but never had to land one to get it off the hook.

[willf650]

We caught one in the surf Saturday. He was no where near as calm as yours. They must like you


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[mweber02]

Definitely a smooth looking release.

I've had a few close calls with birds when casting shallow or topwater baits, I have never tried trolling them and after considering this risk will probably hesitate to try any time soon.

[J.A. Veil]

Joe -

That was amazing. You definitely are a bird whisperer. I never caught a bird from my kayak, but have done it many times from boats. The birds have never been stuck with the hook -- they have flown into my line during a cast to breaking fish and get the line wrapped around their wing. Once I get the line wound in close, I get a cloth (T-shirt, towel, rag) and moisten it. I lay it over the bird's head, and the birds calm down quite a bit. Plus it immobilizes their bill somewhat. I can then either undo the wrap, or cut the line and pull the lure out the other side.

[Snakehead Hunter]

Similar thing happen to me at the bay bridge on Tuesday. I was live line a perch & jigging the piling. I heard the zing zing sound and turn around, my line was in the air with two bird fighting over the perch. They got the wp off the hook without hooking themself

[ComeOnFish]

Impressive release you're getting pretty good at that. How was the fishing?

I posted the actual fishing report on VA forum.

Thank you
Joe

[DOGFISH]

That was a pretty good bird release. However, I hate to take the title here, but I caught 13 birds in one day. We were chasing breaking fish all day from my center console. We were throwing Kastmasters. So the birds would fly right into the line and get tangled or actually get hooked by the lure. Hey, that's right 13 and with witnesses. To this day, they bring up that story. I don't know if anyone has mentioned this, if you should find yourself in a caught bird situation, just throw a towel over the bird. They calm right down lie there. Of course on the 13 bird day, I got to the point where I would just grab them and take the bird bite, which is not so bad. The fishing was too good to take time for the towel. Seagulls are very light in weight.

[Shady]

Haha nice job

[ComeOnFish]

Thank for the tip (towel), Dogfish.
I do carry some small towels. I think I will carry a large towel When expecting a 13 bird day. It can be any day from now on.

I caught a large bird at HRBT while lite-lining with Tufnik and Redfish12 years ago. The bird is one of the large birds we see (usually dead ones, with 5'+ wing span) on HRBT and CBBT when driving. I and the bird struggled about 40 minutes in the dark with a dinky LED head light. We (bird and me) got all tangled up with braided line. It was quite an ordeal. Eventually I used scissors to cut the tangled braided lines. I removed the braided line as much as possible, and finally cut the line leaving about 2' of the leader. Because the bird was so frantic, I couldn't use scissors too close to the bird. l felt bad about the jig left on the bird.
I was drifted about 3/4 miles from HRBT, and I was all wet and exhausted.

Joe