Falcon Hunting with The Huddleson

[Gambler]

Saturday morning I had the most unusual experience ever while bass fisihing.

I was throwing the 6" Hudd at Cataic Lagoon along the shoreline, moving past the dock towards the dam. A Peregrine Falcon http://gallery.photo.net/photo/5704604-lg.jpg
that was watching my bait from a tree suddenly lifted off, circled twice and dove at mach speed towards my bait. It grabbed the Hudd with it's powerful claws and took off flying! I couldn't believe my eyes! After a couple of minutes circling my boat on the end of my line, it landed in the water. We cruised over to it and using the net to keep it's sharp beak away from my hand, I removed the hook from the back of it's claw. It flew off back into the tree it had come from.

My only regrets are that I didn't get a photo or a tail feather.

I looked up some info on these Raptors when I got home. Found out they are the fastest animals on earth... over 250 mph while diving and killing other birds in flight.
The eyesight on these birds is supposedly 7 times more accurate than humans, but it still got fooled by the Hudd!

Truly an awesome moment!

Gambler

[Tin Can]

I've had other birds of prey dive on and grab my floating swimbaits. I've never had one actually get hooked though. I would not want to mess around with a big hawk or osprey.

[acm95301]

rare that a peregrine falcon would attempt to hunt fish.

I see eagles and Osprey at many lakes though....makes for a cool tale.

[BassManDan]

Really wierd for falcons of any type to go for fish. Cool story though, shame you didn't get a picture, but it would probly be best if you left it with all its feathers

[blackcloud]

Very cool story. As has been said, it's unusual for a Falcon to eat much of anything that isn't Avian. They prefer other birds so this was one aggressive Falcon. Cool that you left all the feathers on it though.

[Joe Bruce]

I was in a tourney at pedro throwin a bbz floater. not watchin the bait I here a crash and feel a tug so I give a full on 25 lb test swimbait swing. I look to the bait and oh crap a big bird is flappin on the water surface. I give it some line and a full size osprey takes off with my bbz attached to its feet. birds cant fly very good when tring to tow a boat so it fell to the water purty quick. I had to reel it in and flop it onto the deck. HOLY CRAP they have some claws. put a towel over it then held it down with the net then used needle nose pliers to get the hooks out. it flew off and we were glad to have goten it done with no blood.

[Melones_IS_Mine]

Man, it's a rare treat to see a Peregrine Falcon! Glad you got the Hudd back, and the bird is ok.

I've had experiences with Ospreys also. Glad I never caught one, but came close. They usually give themselves away with their constant PEEEEEEP!! PEEEEEEP!!

[acm95301]

there is a vid on youtube where a delta fishermen taged an egret with a punker...ouch

[Greg_Cornish]

Not only that but when they are at full speed in a dive they are flying so fast the wind wou;d rip the eyes out of a human being. They can changed direction so quickly it creates a g-force of 23 g's which is enough to kill any other animal on earth.

Most modern aircraft including stealth fighters have Peregrine Falcon contributions designed into the aircraft.

You are cool for setting it free and really cool for not getting hurt. My brother wasn't so lucky. After nursing a red tailed hawk we found on the road to health for a month, he was ready to free it. In an instant it grabbed his arm with its talons and sunk them in both sides of his wrist. He could not free himself. The talons met inside his arm. The hawk did not fair well.

[TonyL]

Very cool story. As has been said, it's unusual for a Falcon to eat much of anything that isn't Avian. They prefer other birds so this was one aggressive Falcon. Cool that you left all the feathers on it though.

To the Falcon that hud was avian !

[Chaozu]

Birds love hudds. I've cant even count how many birds have flew off with my bait, never hooked one though. Now if I can only get a bass to hit one!

[Gambler]

After I got home my son and I looked up the Peregrine Falcon on the internet. I was surprised too to find out that their normal fare is fowl... and kill in flight at that!
Not that anyone has challenged me but we did look at many pictures and it was definitely the same type falcon. Next time out to the Lagoon, I'm taking the big camera.

This was might first time throwing a Hudd, and one of the first times throwing a swimbait. Still have yet to catch a fish on these big baits, but I'm not ready to give up trying.

Thanks for sharing.

Gambler

[DaveH]

Hate to tell you this but what you encountered was one of our resident Ospreys...And again all birds of prey are protected by the Feds, so taking a souvneer wouldn't be the best of ideas.
I really gotta tell you that you have to beaware of the Ospreys if they are around and you see that there on your bait, do the reponsible thing and get your bait out of the water!
From listening to your tale of watching it fly around while hooked to your hudd and thinking, How cool... It's really isn't, these birds can die from stravation when they can't hunt with a 8 inch plastic trout bait hooked to there feet.

[miklanderson]

I thought the story was cool...The bird was reeled in and released with no harm done (aside from maybe a little hookhole... ) and it sounds like it put up a pretty good fight. I think I'll go out this weekend and catch a couple Osprey myself. I've always wanted a bird of prey mount...

[Melones_IS_Mine]

Actually, I don't think you'd have to try targeting the Osprey.

They are almost as pesky as a Redeye Bass.

Still haven't caught an Osprey, OR an Eagle, and I don't plan to either.

[FR0G]

Birdies seem to like swimbaits more than Bass! I caught full grown Osprey before on a punker last year. That was a nightmare. I was working my punker and I just looked away from my bait for a second and I heard a explosion in the water, so without really looking before setting the hook, it was way too late, haha. That Osprey got a backend full of three treble hooks. There was no way I was letting this bird get away with my Punker! So I reeled it in and it stayed pretty calm luckily. I covered it with my jacket, and I did my best not to hurt it. Got all three of the trebles out and it flew away unhurt.

[Greg_Cornish]

Wingspan of the Osprey is 60 to 72 inches - 5 to 6 feet

Wingspan of the Peregrine Falcon is about 40 inches - 3 feet 4 inches

Which was closest?

My buddy was able to avoid catching an Osprey by a hard jerk and a scream.

[Gambler]

Well, I won't claim to be an expert on Raptors or any other wild birds, but this one didn't have any white underneath. My son and I looked at the pictures of both online that evening, and it sure looked more like a Falcon than an Osprey. It did swim, it's wingspan was a lot closer to 3 feet than 5-6', and we didn't see any other birds like it that day.

Either way, a great experience! Sure wish I woulda got a picture... woulda been a great ad for the Huddleson Co.

In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't take the tail feather.... looking for some great feathers for my new tatoo design.

I guess it just shows ya how I acted in a purely instinctive mode. No real time to evaluate and develop a plan...I was first concerned about my safety and that of my son and Bobby, 2nd about getting the bird free without harm, and 3rd..... it was my first Hudd S/B and i wanted it back, haha.

Mission accomplished, sir.


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