# Don't leave fish unattended!



## UPJerry (Dec 14, 2006)

I had an unfortunate experience today, but it was a lesson learned. While bait fishing on a small stream, I caught an 11 or 12" brookie. I was fishing for food today, and this stream has an abundance of brookies (including large ones), so I put the fish in some tall grass several feet from the stream bank. I left it there for 20-30 minutes while I moved a short distance downstream. Then I came back for the fish, but it was nowhere to be found!

I must have searched for that dead fish for another half hour altogether, but it had disappeared. It was certainly too far from the stream and would have been too tangled in grass to make it back to the water on its own. (Not to mention it was dead or nearly so when I left it there.) There was little sign of what happened to it, but my theory is that a mink or other animal probably grabbed it and carried it away for its own feast. THIEF!

I've heard of this happening to other people, but I didn't learn from their mistakes. Hopefully you will all learn from mine!


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## det07 (Mar 26, 2006)

This summer while fishing in Northern Ontario I left a stringer w/ a few walleye and pike attached to a log on an island. When I came back to retreive my fish they were all eaten. The only thing left was the heads. Some ravens pulled the string up on the rocks and ate my fish.


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## Oldgrandman (Nov 16, 2004)

Yeah, even in the big cities like GR you gotta be careful. Once I got an eye and with no stringer I thumped it dead and left it in the ground and walked upstream a bit to cast some more. Then a racoon came out of the bushes and b-lined for it. It was pretty bent on having MY DINNER! I stood him off a few times then he hung out in the area until I left with it. I thought I was gonna have to fight him for it :lol:


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## Linda G. (Mar 28, 2002)

I have a print in my house of a fly fisherman enjoying a day on the river, with his rucksack full of sandwiches sitting on a rock about 100 yards behind him...and two raccoons having lunch...

LOL


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## Team Spawn Bag (Aug 12, 2008)

I was shore fishing a small river all day. I thought I was going through worms at a very fast pace. I soon found out that a squad of robbins had been flying over and making off with my worms that I had left uncovered.

It wasnt as bad as losing a fish, but still funny to turn around and see what had been going on for a few hours.


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## Macker13 (Oct 1, 2007)

Oldgrandman said:


> Yeah, even in the big cities like GR you gotta be careful. Once I got an eye and with no stringer I thumped it dead and left it in the ground and walked upstream a bit to cast some more. Then a racoon came out of the bushes and b-lined for it. It was pretty bent on having MY DINNER! I stood him off a few times then he hung out in the area until I left with it. I thought I was gonna have to fight him for it :lol:


 I'm putting my money on you be able to take that ****!:lol::lol:


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## fish_skeered (Oct 12, 2006)

turtles ate a couple of my catfish i left on the stringer in a lake overnight so i didnt have to clean them at night. they left the living ones alone and just ate the two dead ones. at that point i just let the others go


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## autumnlovr (Jul 21, 2003)

The bald eagles are infamous for stealing fish off the ice on Van Ettan Lake in Oscoda. It's real easy pickin's for them! And, they're a little harder to scare off than a raccoon.


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## Oldgrandman (Nov 16, 2004)

autumnlovr said:


> The bald eagles are infamous for stealing fish off the ice on Van Ettan Lake in Oscoda. It's real easy pickin's for them! And, they're a little harder to scare off than a raccoon.


Your post reminds me of a funny pic I got in an email recently. Sorry, could not resist!


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