Cool Things You've Seen Hunting/Fishing

[CdnVet0506]

OK, the fishing and hunting are the coolest things, but there are things we see that most only see on nature documentaries. Two of the coolest I've seen have to be watching a Humpback Whale breach about 150 metres from my boat while salmon fishing on the west coast this summer, and watching an owl land and grab and eat a lemming 6 feet from my boots while sitting at the base of a tree waiting for deer to cross a cutline.

What cool things have you seen?

[blackpheasant]

Nov. 20th last year at around 5:30 p.m, we were done hunting for the day and while walking through a field back to the truck the Meteorite entered our atmosphere, WOW is all I can say, the sheer power of that thing was/is a little scary...

[buckmaster]

Nov. 20th last year at around 5:30 p.m, we were done hunting for the day and while walking through a field back to the truck the Meteorite entered our atmosphere, WOW is all I can say, the sheer power of that thing was/is a little scary...

x2, i will never forget that!

[jaylow?]

a hawk dive bomb a tree that was weighed down with some type of medium sized black birds ( not crows ) , and just when that hawk got into range the tree basically exploded with hundreds of birds bursting in every direction possible. it was like a bullet hit an apple. probably the one of coolest things ive ever seen.

[THE MANITOBAN]

Probably the one thing that left me in awe of nature happened last year while out for whitetails.

I found a nice little clearing to sit in just before sunset. There was no wind that day, so I picked a nice little tree at the edge of the clearing to lean against, and started that familiar old waiting game...

Well, I guess a long day in the bush, sunshine and fresh air started taking it's toll, and soon enough the eyes started closing, and head bobbing. I know I didn't quite fall asleep, but was very much relaxed, when I felt a slight breeze on my face. I tuned in my hearing a little, listening for any twigs breaking in the forest, and heard not a sound.

I opened my eyes to find a HUGE great-horned owl less than 2 feet from me, looking at me, trying to figure out what the he11 that bright orange thing was in his favorite hunting ground.

When he realized that I was now watching him too, he lifted up and flew off, and again, all I felt was a breeze on my face. I never heard so much as a whisper from it. I am still, to this day, absolutley in awe of natures design for this steatlthy hunter.

[BBJTKLE&FISHINGADVENTURES]

x2, i will never forget that!

x 3 that was neat .

Or Ive seen a Northern Pike attack a Goose . 3 strikes and that Goose was lunch .

[cover]

Came across evidence of what must have been a monumental mule deer buck test of dominence as the ground was torn up in the fresh snow..sapplings broken..sprayed mud all over the site of about 50 sq. yds.. and the treasure of finding a complete side of a 160 class 4 pt mule deer antler broken about 4 inches above the base..that was inspiring

[Jamie]

Check this out

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showthread.php?t=40390

That was by far and away the coolest thing I have seen.

next up would be 2 Bull elk kicking the crap out of each other 1 day before the season opened in the Bow zone.

It was dusty and on the edge of a field. I watched from about 40 yards. That also was amazing. never saw them again though.

Jamie

[fish-man]

x 3 that was neat .

Or Ive seen a Northern Pike attack a Goose . 3 strikes and that Goose was lunch .

I had one nail my boot a few weeks ago, just ran right into it (wasn't even chasing a lure). Saw another one run itself right onto the shore.

Back when I was in South Africa... started throwing pieces of leftover bait to a baby seal, a seal and a seagull started fighting over it. We kept throwing pieces of herring out into the harbor and make them race for it. Finally some homeless guy got mad at us (not sure why, maybe he was trying to mug is?) and started waving a bottle at me. Then he realized I was holding a knife (I was cutting bait with it, didn't even realize it was in my hand) and he ran away. Good times.

On the same trip, my cousin and I were fishing at the St Lucia Lagoon. We caught a bunch of fish, he even caught a couple with his hands. There was a massive crocodile cruising in the lagoon. Every time we unhooked a fish we had to look around for the crocodile. Another guy fishing started casting at it with a big heavy sinker, but it didn't scare off.

[gunned]

Having lunch beside the Kakwa River, about 100 yards upstream, a cow and calf moose came ripping out of the bush and zig zagged up the river as fast as you can imagine... then they took off into the bush again, just as a big ole griz jumped off the bank into the river, where the cow and calf came from, fast as lightning, it looked around and kept going straight up the opposite bank. Lucky day for those moose being able to loose the bear, just in time.

Flying through the Rock Lake area in a helicopter, saw a pack of wolves having a nap on the bank of a little creek... weren't too concerned, just looked up as we flew by.

Watched a couple whitetails standing on their back legs, using their front legs to punch each other - looked just like boxers!

But the coolest thing, my buddy fell off his bike and landed right beside a six pack of Kokanee that someone must have forgot, cooling off in a little brook. Best wild beer we ever had.

[firegod74]

I watched an air battle between an eagle and a Canada Goose. The eagle eventually drove the goose into the ground, but the aerial display that they put on was amazing. Never in my life would I expect a goose to do the flips and turns this thing was pulling off.

[BigJon]

Two bald eagles in a mating ritual in mid air.
A juvenille baldie attack a duck decoy.
Hand feeding a pike a dead minnow.
A hawk owl swooping in at my head.

Many, many more. Some of the best memories have nothing to do with catching a fish or shooting an animal.

[marlin1]

last saturday a whitetail buck came running across the wheatfield right towards me , pretty impressive sight I gotta say . He's still out there unfortunately :(. not something I'll forget too soon

[Dakota369]

Was out in the morning near a reservation and saw two bunnies go by like their tails were on fire (almost all white too very visible in the bush as there is no snow yet where I was) with two golden/husky/shep cross reserve dogs hot on their tails. Never seen something move that fast through the thick stuff, very educational. We were just standing around quietly watching a clearing when it occurred. I don't think the bunnies saw us, but one of the dogs did and it scared the heck out of it as it sorta double stepped and then continued on. I am betting that second bunny got away just cause of that, but don't know about the 1st.

[TheClash]

i was on a kayaking trip in montana and watched an osprey and an eagle fight it out of a trout for about 15 minutes.....tons of dives, collisions and dog fighting areial displays..it was incredible. eventually the speed and agility of the osprey won out.

[dcutter]

Nov. 20th last year at around 5:30 p.m, we were done hunting for the day and while walking through a field back to the truck the Meteorite entered our atmosphere, WOW is all I can say, the sheer power of that thing was/is a little scary...

x 4

Similar story. Walking back to the truck, and the sky lit up like it was noon. Very very cool. Made for some interesting conversations driving home that's for sure!

[rhuntley12]

Saw an Osprey take a trout out of a lake

First year bowhunting I was following some tracks I thought was a wolf or something similar, came over a hill to a cougar looking back at me from about 30-40 yards.

[Bassett]

Probbaly seeing a lynx that was pretty darn cool... or loading up our old little boat i was like 5 or something at pigeon prov. park launch and cow and calf moose came out for a drink about 10 yards away.

[bessiedog]

And most don;t believe me... I don;t blame them.

3 years ago hunting white tails on a cut block on the edge of Crowsnest Mountian. It was snowing super heavy, and the light was fading fast. I was dissappointed as this cutblock was absolutely filled w/deer tracks two days previous.... now.. nada.

I stopped about 1/2 way up the cutblock and 60 or so yards from the edge... sat down and took a casual stand just kindof waiting for the light to fail. I heard a crash-thump stumble noise in the woods to the east... I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was... I figured it was bucks trashing something in the rut.... but no antler noise... then something rushed out of the bush.. looked like a deer and another deer chasing it (it was the rut). They seemed to be heading stright towards me so I readied my 303 and took a bead....

I then witnessed a nice buck rush by me at about 3-5 yards followed by ... a wolf, blond.. HUGE and they were flat out speeding and the wolf was stretched right out trying to maximize real estate coverage. I really don't think they even took notice of me. I fired at the deer, and the two dissapeared. I stood there stunned... just kindof trying to figure out what the hell happened. By the time i snapped to... the light was worse... and I had no flashlight. I tracked the pair over 75 yards.. no sign of a hit and the span between prints was amazing!
I quit b/c of darkness but resolved to come back the next day to make sure.

Sure enough... 150 yards or so downhill from my shot I found ravens and a juvie golden eagle fighting over a head and right front leg of the 4x4 wht tail.

I assumed I hit it... and tore up my tag... I figure I helped someone get an easy meal that night.

I wouldn't believe it either... if it didn't happen to me.

sometimes you don;t have to get meat to get your moneys worth from your tags.

bd

[Bassett]

bessie, blonde wolf? Dont be shootin the deer, shoot the wolf!!! haha. So the wolf got your deer or did i miss read it. I beleive.

[DuckBrat]

Not so much amazing as maybe shocking or superunexpected. Ice fishing for whites at Wabamun one year and looking down the hole in my pop up tent. When this Muskrat comes rocketing up the hole right into my lap. Needless to say I soiled myself, as did the muskrat. The fight that took place tipped over the tent. In the end I ended up with a bite to my glove, a hook in my ear, and the muskrat back down the hole.

Amazing was watching a Gyr Falcon snap up a ptarmigan my old dog flushed off of Red star mountain. Never seen anything move like that.

[bessiedog]

Blondish?? Light coloredish??

and yea..... All that was really left was the antlers, face? and hoofs. A 4x4 sounds nice, but the genetics around here are terrible so you've got a super thick main beam... and four thumb sized points on either side...

Can't eat horns.. no matter how big.

Had to fill up on geese that year to get my sausage.

[Elkaholic6]

On Saturday me and my bud went to 544 and were gonna set up on a pipeline to rattle. We parked the Teryx on the cutline. While I got out I seen a piece of paper on the tree so I told him to go read it. A forest company was warning that they sprayed herbicide. On the way back to get our stuff ready my friend points out the HUGE wolf tracks. We wake out to the pipeline and see a black thing about 600 yards away. He tells me to go get my binoculars. I get them and put them up to see what it is. To my amaze I seen 2 black wolves playing with each other. We were like "Lets go get the guns!!!". We get them and by the time we get back to the pipeline they were about 300 yards away from us. We are now cocked and ready to rock. We decided that we would let them get closer, hoping for 2 to come side by side on the hill 150 yards from us. While waiting I count 2 blacks, 2 greys, and a grey and black mix. Well 2 of the sneaky bastards got on the hill and hide behind some willows, still not knowing we are there. I see one go into the bush. Still waiting for 2 to come into a shooting lane. All of a sudden my friend wells "wolf!" We look to our right and there is a grey wolf standing there 64 yards away. My friend lets him have a 270 short. The wolf does a barrel roll we are extatic that we finally shot one! He gets up and my friend shoots another bullet at him, which missed. Me and my friend start piecing together what happened and we high five each other. We thought for sure we got ourselves a wolf! After a victory cigar, we go and look for our wolf. Cant find him! We see his pee and poop from getting shot haha but no blood. Just spots of looked to be gut fluids. They ended quick. We search the swamp spruce looking but no reward. We were pretty disappointed that we couldnt find him. But oh well, made for a good story. Im 16 and not many adults can say they had a pack of wolves run towards them, with the wolves not having a clue your there. Funny thing is about 10 minutes before that we seen a pretty good buck that we werent sure if we should shoot. Probably the coolest hunting experience I had of the 3 years ive been hunting so far.

[CdnVet0506]

Been some great stories so far, keep 'em coming.

I guess I should also add watching a pod of Killer Whales "spy hopping" within throwing distance of my dad's boat about 15 years ago to my list of cool things seen in the wild.

[rhuntley12]

Not really anything unusual but still one of the coolest things was the first time I ran into a herd of elk. Brother and I were deer hunting(About a week before elk season opened!) in Idaho and we stopped for a rest and did some scoping. Across a few hundred yards a huge herd of elk stepped out and started moving with a monster bull pushing them. Really neat to see a huge herd moving through the mountains and a monster bull pushing the cows. And the bugling was so loud. Really something you can't explain to people who have never experienced it!

Another thing that came to mind, was out on a boat with my dad and a couple cousins. Cousin set down fishing pole to do something on otherside of the boat, sure enough the pole is pulled right into the water before anyone could grab it.

At end of day when dad was pulling up the anchor there was a fishing line attached to it. Pulled in both lines, one end had the fish the other end with the pole broke off. Caught the fish but lost the pole!

[Deer Hunter]

Saw this thing sticking out of the coulee. Kinda neat.

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj188/AlbertaFleaBags/sept19007.jpg

[Scratch]

Nov. 20th last year at around 5:30 p.m, we were done hunting for the day and while walking through a field back to the truck the Meteorite entered our atmosphere, WOW is all I can say, the sheer power of that thing was/is a little scary...

Awesome indeed. I have a piece of that meteor on my desk. I spent 30 hours walking Buzzard Coulee to get it. ;)

[plinker]

1st) Fishing a channel of the Mackenzie in Inuvik, we had a Golden Eagle hammer a small bird less than three feet in front of our boat. Boom, and then just feathers floating down into the water.

2nd) Coming home from Calgary, the wife and I saw two hawks fighting at about 300 feet. They locked talons and flopped and fluttered right onto the highway in front of us. We stopped our pickup in front of them so they wouldn't get run over and waited for them to seperate. Too cool.

3rd) I was a commercial pilot in Inuvik, operating out of the old town dirt airstrip. Coming in on final approach at 65 knots (slow approach), I saw a seagull fighting for his life. He was in this little bitty channel, and a massive pike had him in his jaws. That was very surreal.