Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I decided to spend a few hours on the river Sunday afternoon solo To see if I could find a few small mouth. The forecast was cloudy Due to the chance of this afternoon shower Due to the chance of afternoon showers so I was hoping to have a little top water action For the 1st time this year.

Launch the kayak and start paddling upstream Alternating between throwing the fluke and A black chapo. About 15 minutes in got a solid whiff on the top water But followed it up with a plastic Hellgrammite when the fluke didn't work. Got a solid tap and the 1st fish Was in the kayak and went 15"

Move the little bit upstream And Was working in area along the riverbank Where I saw a bass chasing bait fish along the shore. Made a cast with the choppo And looked the way just so It would lessen the chance of me setting the hook early if 1 hit. Turn back to look at my lower and I see an owl about 5' from the lower incoming hard. Before I could do anything it grabbed the lure, with 2 sets of treble hooks, in his claws and starts to fly off. Needless to say it couldn't go very far considering It was attached to my lure. It went in the water pretty quick And floated there.


I was completely shocked And The only thing I could really do was try to get it next to me and hope it stayed calm so I could see exactly where it was hooked. Ended up going right back into the water. I could see then that Only 1 of 6 hook points was In its 'When it got right next to the kayak So I gently reach down  And grab the hold of its ' And grab the hold of its foot' and it just looked at me. It let me hold its foot with 1 hand and use my other hand to pop the hook point out with a tool. It wasn't very deep which was a miracle And came out pretty easy.

It swam about 10' over to the bank and climbed up Climbed up on a few limbs from a down tree. And then after a couple of minutes hopped on to the Trunk in the top of the picture. Then it flew away after it's wings dried out a few minutes later.


I did up end up cashing 4 or 5 more smaller fish on a Fluke and a swim bait. I also had 4 more solid whiffs on the topwater, so even though I missed them at least they were fun misses.   They still weren't super active but Had some hits and caught some fish so it wasn't a bad day. I also had a once in a lifetime experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Not many people could say they caught an owl ???