Watch out for eagles!

I was fishing this morning and had 6 fish on the ice. 3 were at the next hole over which was probably 25 feet away and included the biggest crappie I have caught in a long time. A real freak for that lake. I thought about taking a picture right there but decided to wait until I got home. All a sudden I hear a Wierd sound to my left and it was the wing beat of a white head. I barely made it to my feet yelling the whole way up and he executed his attack. Guess which fish he took? That one fish rounded out a meal. I’m glad I was able to help him out but damn! Lol. I left a couple small one’s on the ice for his buddy. I’ll have to get back out this weekend for a few more between sledding.

Pics or it didnt happen…

I too have had that happen on a trout lake.
I explain it the same way, just heard a weird sound.

I had one steal a duck once. Pretty cool

A couple of the lakes around here have local eagles which, by this time in winter have learned to prey on the ice fishermans catch pretty regular. Last year my daughter had a hey-day feeding an eagle our suckers. It would perch in a tree a couple hundred yards away until you waved a sucker around, then launch and start circling your spread. She’d give the sucker a toss and watch it swoop in 25 ft away for the treat. I still think she’s disappointed she couldn’t get them to take it right out of her hand…

That and that coyote… so I don’t be leaving my catch outside of the shack no more.

A few years ago I was tip up fishing for walleyes, and seen a fox come out on the ice across the lake, suddenly an eagle swooped down at, the fox hightailed it to shore, the eagle still after it. The fox made his escape, pretty lucky.

Anonymous wrote:

I had one steal a duck once. Pretty cool

That sounds like a good story.

And Scott, that is pretty cool. I once watched a golden eagle in hot pursuit of a small herd of pronghorn along a fence line while hunting in SE Montana. It was after the young ones. Man are those goldens gigantic.

Only thing that has ever cost me a fish is my lack of skill…

My brothers cat got eaten by an eagle last winter.

tomr wrote:

My brothers cat got eaten by an eagle last winter.

It was a good death.

I got even this morning with a 9″ Bluegill. I hope he was watching. 😁

What are the coordinates of where you caught those fish, I wanna see this eagle!

Neighbors daughter watched as her prize winning 4H rooster was snatched right in front of her in the middle of the farm yard. They also had a Great Pyrenees pup go missing in the middle of the day. Pretty sure where he ended up.

reverend wrote:

A couple of the lakes around here have local eagles which, by this time in winter have learned to prey on the ice fishermans catch pretty regular. Last year my daughter had a hey-day feeding an eagle our suckers. It would perch in a tree a couple hundred yards away until you waved a sucker around, then launch and start circling your spread. She’d give the sucker a toss and watch it swoop in 25 ft away for the treat. I still think she’s disappointed she couldn’t get them to take it right out of her hand…

I have been fishing with my Grand daughter and we have done this also with an eagle. It learned to leave it’s perch in a dead tree when we unzipped the front door and my GD would toss out a fish. Pretty cool to watch. We have not seen the eagle this season, but she still leave a fish or two on the ice for it.

When fishing with young kids near Minong WI the usual happened – they let the fish run too long before setting the hook. After a short time we had a couple of bluegills floating nearby. An osprey nesting in a tree overhanging the lake swooped down and grabbed a fish, soon came back for another. We could hear the osprey chicks howling for food in the nest and the osprey continued to snatch fish near our boat. Amazing experience for kids and dads.

My buddy was on Trout Lake (Vilas county WI) yesterday. He laid the first fish on the ice. 2 minutes later an Eagle took it. He said the fish was 3 steps from him.

A few years back there was an Eagle on Lake Cantell in Vilas county that you could toss a fish in the air for him. That was cool.

This winter I had to keep my Walleyes in the shack otherwise a Fox would take them. Tracked a Fox with a 19″er a 1/2 mile until he climbed a big hill with it. You could see the drag marks all the way. He wanted the fish more than me. BUT he did teach me to hide my fish from him.

I was out fishing at a resort in Longville area and while not an eagle but a loon swam over to a beaver dam area we were nailing good crappies out of and we watched him in shallow water work back and forth on that school of fish until he grabbed a 9-10 incher brought it out to deeper water and pecked that fish to death on the surface then take it off to eat. We were only 20ft away from him. It killed the fishing spot, but man that was awesome to watch.

Check out this site arconic.com/eaglecam/
Nesting pair of eagles – no eggs yet – this pair has raised multiple eaglets.

Does Alaska count???

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an eagle ran into our front window diving on our chickens a month or so ago. scared the bejezzus out of us.

my wife was like what if it broke the window and we had an eagle stuck in our house

That is an awesome story, Suzuki. Though, if I was fishing with you and you said, dude, I caught this huge crappie. But….an eagle stole it. Man, you shoulda seen it….

I’m just sayin. I’d probably give you a pretty hard time.

Not that I doubt you. Much. Heh, heh.

shockers wrote:

That is an awesome story, Suzuki. Though, if I was fishing with you and you said, dude, I caught this huge crappie. But….an eagle stole it. Man, you shoulda seen it….

I’m just sayin. I’d probably give you a pretty hard time.

Not that I doubt you. Much. Heh, heh.

I hear ya. I did get a hard time about it by some “friends” up north. Too many people must make stuff up. I don’t. Here’s a pic of that niner that took it’s place. Another one of my classic cutting board pics! Lol He really shouldn’t have been 9 but had an unusually long tail section.

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I had a spot where a horned owl lived first time he stole a fish scared the heck outta me threw him a fish or two every time we went back got it on video he would get close about 15 feet i you sat calm and didn’t look….

Too bad we can’t post short videos here. Fishing a lake in Sullivan County, NY on Monday and I had a 20″ pickerel flopping on the ice when another flag popped. I didn’t know pickerel could fly but with the help of an Aerial Thief that pickerel was gone in a flash. I could see 3 eagles perched in a tree about 300 yards away watching my every move. I caught a smaller pickerel that was hooked real bad and would have died anyway so I got my phone set on video and tossed the fish about 20 feet away. Got it all on video as he flew over and swooped down and grabbed the fish. My buddy turned to me and made a famous Clint Eastwood quote, “Buzzards have to eat too”. You never really know just how large these eagles are until you watch them work from 20 feet away.
I will be happy to post the video if anyone knows a way to do it.

Gamalot

Last week. Landed within 15 yards and squaked at us until I threw it a fish

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Ummmm, I think it’s illegal to feed bald eagles. Not sure you’ll want to share the evidence….

AK Guy wrote:

Ummmm, I think it’s illegal to feed bald eagles. Not sure you’ll want to share the evidence….

I suspect there are laws against feeding eagles in some states but I have never heard of this being the law here in NY. I know our DEC sometimes take road kill deer carcases out on the ice in remote areas for the eagles to feed on.

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I wonder how they would/could determine “feeding”?

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I wonder how they would/could determine “feeding”?

It would be one thing if the eagle just swiped your fish while you were turned away. Different if the DEC watched you purposely toss a fish enticing the bird to grab it. I honestly don’t know if I broke a law when I tossed the fish to get the video but I am sure the first fish he swiped was not my fault.

A fisherman throws a fish to an eagle out in the wild. Even if illegal who cares. It hurts no one or nothing. You’re actually helping our national symbol. I would say a positive event. forgetaboutit.

Resorts up north feed all the fish cleanings to the birds every single day. What better way to use them?

If you feed an eagle and it gets sick, does it become an illegal?

Get it!!!!