Death from Above!

Photo: www.osprey.org
***This account is from 10/13, just posting it late***


Had a first today on the South Branch.

About mid afternoon I was working my way upstream when I see a large bird fly downstream about 25 feet off the water.
"Great Blue Heron" I said to myself as I continued to fish. But as the bird past directly by me, I saw it was not a Heron, but a large Osprey.

I think to myself, "OK... that's neat, haven't seen many of them along the South Branch over the years." And then continue on fishing.

About two hours later I am about a quarter mile upstream nymphing a run when I hook into a very solid fish. After dogging me in the run for about 30 seconds the fish drops back into some skinny water as it blows the hole.

This fish is MOVING and probably gets a good 20 yards away from me as I begin to give chase. As I start downstream to recover line I take my eyes off my line and fish to negotiate myself around some obstacles. While I'm looking down I hear the kind of splash made if you threw a bucket full of water into a stream. I look up and the Osprey has landed on my fish in the riffle below. I was stunned! It, (the osprey) clearly didn't get a good grip because I can see the bird moving its legs as it tries to get a better grip on the fish, wingtips touching the water as they remained in full horizontal extension.

By now, about five seconds have elapsed and I have visions on the fish AND MY LINE going airborne! Do I break the fish off? Hope the Osprey gives up? The last thing I wanted to do was have the Osprey take off with the fish and then drop and kill it because my pulls the fish away.

So...I decide to put pressure on the fish in hopes to do...something. I apply pressure and the fish breaks off, while simultaneously the Osprey takes flight......fishless.

I make my way down to the scene and no signs of a injured fish, although I'm sure the fish is scarred, in more ways than one! Never got a look at the fish, but the fact that the Osprey and I went 0 for 2 trying to land it makes me think it was a fine specimen.

**Note** Picture at top of post is not THE bird. Just a good Osprey w/trout shot from the web.

Our camera is currently AWOL. As was the case on this day. Here is a quick video of a pretty brown caught prior to the Osprey incident.