Hi all,
On the northern lakes we used spend time watching for loons to surface as we had thought it may indicate where abouts the baitfish are. Sometimes it worked well as we could see the schools on the fishfinder after approaching the area where the Loon dived or surfaced and we caught fish too at times.
One time we were out on Pigeon Lake near dusk about to begin walleye fishing when we spotted a Loon on the surface only it was not doing the usual dive when we came within 150 yards of it. Now I'm not sure about others, but I have never gotten' anywhere close to Loon before it dived and they looked the size of a duck from the distance.
Well, this time was different as this Loon couldn’t dive and it kept going down and bobbing back up. My fishing partner said he thought judging by the bird not diving a hundred yards ago, it may be tangled in fishing line.
We shut down the main engine and slowly approached using paddles. Sure enough it was caught in fishing line and could not move. My buddy suggested we use the fishing net to get it above the water so we could cut the line the frantic bird was caught in.. he also mentioned that loons will go for your eyes and be careful as I was the person that was going to hold the bird by the neck so it couldn’t attack while cutting the fishing line.
Well we ended up bringing it up on deck to free it. Let me tell you, Adult Loons are huge birds. I simply could not believe how really big they are. The beak alone was about four inches in length and the bird must have weighed about fifteen pounds. Anyway, the bird was freed and probably made it home a little l;ate that night.
On the northern lakes we used spend time watching for loons to surface as we had thought it may indicate where abouts the baitfish are. Sometimes it worked well as we could see the schools on the fishfinder after approaching the area where the Loon dived or surfaced and we caught fish too at times.
One time we were out on Pigeon Lake near dusk about to begin walleye fishing when we spotted a Loon on the surface only it was not doing the usual dive when we came within 150 yards of it. Now I'm not sure about others, but I have never gotten' anywhere close to Loon before it dived and they looked the size of a duck from the distance.
Well, this time was different as this Loon couldn’t dive and it kept going down and bobbing back up. My fishing partner said he thought judging by the bird not diving a hundred yards ago, it may be tangled in fishing line.
We shut down the main engine and slowly approached using paddles. Sure enough it was caught in fishing line and could not move. My buddy suggested we use the fishing net to get it above the water so we could cut the line the frantic bird was caught in.. he also mentioned that loons will go for your eyes and be careful as I was the person that was going to hold the bird by the neck so it couldn’t attack while cutting the fishing line.
Well we ended up bringing it up on deck to free it. Let me tell you, Adult Loons are huge birds. I simply could not believe how really big they are. The beak alone was about four inches in length and the bird must have weighed about fifteen pounds. Anyway, the bird was freed and probably made it home a little l;ate that night.
We had a tug of war while I poked him w a stick and the turtle finally let go, the birds toes were injured but I think it probably recovered, it flew away in a flash.
