Close encounters

[jmorain]

So, last year I wandered over to a neighbor's pond to test my replacement transducer. It's not very deep, but has a good population of little bluegills to play with. This wasn't meant to be a serious trip so I travelled light. I'm sitting on a bucket staring at my flasher when the water in the hole sloshes and swirls and then goes still. I look back at the flasher, and there's nothing strange on screen.  I lean over the hole to have a look and suddenly, there are eyes looking back up at me and I'm face to face with a muskrat. We can't have been further than 20" nose to nose. He bolted, and I fell backwards off my bucket. I'm not sure which one of us was more startled. You just don't expect to see a face looking at you through your hole.

Anyone else have a close encounter story they're willing to share?

[nocod]

none from me,thanks for the laugh 

[Svengalli]

Lol... there's been many stories on here about otters and muskrats in peoples holes.  I think last year someone had one pop up into their permy.

[Drifter_016]

A few years ago I was fishing a lake when a herd of lynx came sauntering by.
Another time I had a run in with an arctic wolf the size of a great dane!!! :O

[sandhillguy]

I had a bit more heated situation with a muskrat..... I had reeled up a big ole shiner to a about 2'below the ice once to take a leak, looking over my shoulder i noticed the rod tip inching towards the hole in quick snappy jerks, i thought what in the world? so as quick as i could i grabbed the rod and gave a quick sideways awkward jerk and pow somebodys home!!!! Though the fight seemed real weird, finally what i pull up to the hole was real fuzzy, and of course im freaked out.... then all the sudden it came outta the hole and i identified this pissed of critter as a muskrat, im assuming he had grabbed the shiner with his little paws and tried taking off with it and when i set the hook i ran my larger pike hook right into his shoulder through the skin, wanna talk about a comical dance on the ice..... me holding the rod and 6' away a muskrat tethered to the end of my line......... not sure what to do i just hurried up and cut the line and he ran off into the cattails, hope he lived lol.

[Bumski]

When one pops outta a hole in your shack just make sure your buddy does NOT have quick access to the spud.....He darn near took off a couple of my toes..    

[adkRoy]

Last year I was fishing an Adirondack lake when a Doe and her yearling came out on the ice and walked right up to me. I think they were curious as they didn't really spook but just stopped about 10 feet away trying to figure out what the heck I was. 

[mricefish]

I was in high school fishing with my best friend in a 4x8 homemade shack with the blue tarp.  Not much of a bite so we were both about half asleep sitting on our 5 gal pails.  looked over to check bobbers and mine was not there, but there was a something crawling up into our shack.  Buddy saw it about the same time I did and we both were saying what the >>>>.  Think he saw us about the same time we saw him, and I flash he was gone again.  We were both wide awake to say the least though after that lol. 

[Sawtooth]

I had heard about muskrats before, and thought it was pretty funny, but unlikely.  Then a month ago up in the Colorado mountains on a new lake, one popped up, took a look at us, and threw it into reverse as we had a good laugh.

[tomturkey]

I noticed the water swirl in the shack one night. Up pops a 12 inch bull head. I had to dig for my gloves so I did not get spiked. Bull head are really good eating out of that ice water

[NorthWoods Harry]

I had one visit me a few times last year in my permy. Scared the crap out of me! Dang rat tried crawling out of the hole! Good thing I was about 18in off the ice and he couldn't get a good grip in the sleeve!

At that point, I was glad I wasn't in the portable or he would have been in my lap!

I was suddenly VERY awake!

[mthuntr]

I've never had those kind of things happen...Heck it's a rare event for a fish to even come out of my holes.  Sometimes we get a dog that comes out of nowhere to investigate.

I have heard of beavers and muskrats coming out of spearing holes but don't know anybody that has had it happen to them.

[butcher]

Never had a close encounter with anything interesting other than fish and the occasional heron stopping by for a visit but I did read a story on IS a year or two ago about someone who had a Labrador retriever pop into his shanty through a hole.  Apparently it jumped into a hole from a nearby shanty and came up next door.  Not sure of the authenticity of the story but I was laughing hysterically when I read it. 

[Ice Scratcher]

Never had a close encounter with anything interesting other than fish and the occasional heron stopping by for a visit but I did read a story on IS a year or two ago about someone who had a Labrador retriever pop into his shanty through a hole.  Apparently it jumped into a hole from a nearby shanty and came up next door.  Not sure of the authenticity of the story but I was laughing hysterically when I read it.

I remember that one too...

<°)))>{

[pike basshole]

2 years ago I watched this guy run over to a flag,it took me quit a few seconds to realize that his tipup was moving along the ice,couple seconds later.....the seagull runs out of gas and comes in for a landing,..guy left a shiner on the hook with line/tipup  out of the hole,walked away and the gull stole the shiner

[mike 7]

I've never had any of these situations.
But these are some great stories.
Thanks for sharing

[jdice]

I had a good friend get bit by a muskrat while fishing.  The fun and jokes stopped after the $1000 bill for a rabies vaccine.

[jmorain]

A few of us were fishing topwater at around dusk several years ago. My wife was creeping a jitterbug away from the shore when POW!  an owl swooped down and flew off with it. It got several good flaps in before... boink. The line went tight, and it just rag-dolled down into the water.

We used the trolling motor to get close to it, but it was very effectively doing a butterfly stroke and was headed to shore. Fortunately, the line had busted right at the knot. We escorted it to shore.  It walked up on shore and hopped up onto a stump and turned around and stared us down.  You could see the lure just on its shoulder. 

We all felt terrible, but there wasn't much to do.  It happened just off of glimmerglass state park on Otsego, so the next day, I talked to the ranger and several raptor rescue folks to tell them to keep an eye out for a bird in distress. The general thought was that, since the lure was within easy reach of the beak, the owl would probably survive, but I wish I knew for sure.

Not an ice story, but it seemed appropriate.

[Cantgetenough]

About 7 years ago a friend and I where fishing a stocked private club in Plainfield Il. The lake had been stocked with decent size trout 2-4lbs. We had been out for several hours having a blast catching these trout. My friend -Rick hooked into another one and the fight was on -after several minutes the trout leaped out the water through one of the holes we had drilled earlier knocked over a bucket with another rod across the top dumping the rod  right down the hole. Funniest damn thing we have ever seen. We both laughed so hard until I realized it was my rod that went down the hole. To even with that bugger I him for dinner.

[oldman]

None on the ice but a couple of them in open water.  I spend a lot of time night bass fishing during the summer so I'm used to things that go bump in the night; bats flying way too close or getting caught in my line, snapping turtles popping up next to me and hissing or the most common a beaver swimming by and slapping its tail.  So one night I'm fishing a particularly dark cove when something way too big to be a beaver, came swimming by.  It was so out of the ordinary that scared the s### out of me.  It startled me so badly that I almost went over the side.  My brother thought it was hilarious, especially when we turned on the headlamps and discovered it was only a big doe crossing to the nearby shore.

I had a more scary incident that unnerved me a bit.  While striper fishing late one fall night, I hooked what I figured was about a 24 incher.  When thump, the rod goes down hard and something starts slowly peeling drag.  It didn't stop and when I palmed the spool it pulled hard enough to drag me toward the water.  I finally just planted my feet, palmed the spool harder and let the line snap.  Now I would like to know, shark or seal but in the dark I was a bit freaked out and at the time didn't care to know.