Reel Repair by Alan Tani

This old man is still having new experiences. I've caught a few fish eating birds in lakes, but never a Marine bird, until yesterday. Was trolling a little(~3") Yo-Zuri plug with a streamer several feet above it, while looking for bait balls on the fish finder. "Oh boy a strike!, doesn't feel that big..." then I heard a bird shriek and looked around—-darn a big ol' sea bird. It was big and angry and kinda scary when I got it close, aw-maaaaan, hooked in the soft part of the beak. He tried to eat the fly! I wanted to go hands-on, but knew one of us was gonna get injured, so I cut the line as close as I could to the fly. I think(hope)it'll be ok... I always feel bad when that happens; turtles, a Monk Seal, Eagle Rays, the dive-people's pet Barracuda...

I think it was a Wedge-Tailed Shearwater, based on the size, the hook-shaped terminal part of the beak and the commonality of them here.
Hmmm, am I doing a good job tying-up the trolling streamers? The fish (and now a bird) definitely go after the fly more than the lures... or, maybe it's just a naturally occurring and expected thing, eat the little fish, being chased by the bigger fish.

We catch a fair amount of various birds. The trick is to grab them by the neck (don't choke them) and hold them under your arm so they can't flap and you have a free hand to take the hook out. Most birds can't do much damage with the beaks, maybe a bruise or scratch, it's not like a parrot that cracks nuts open

I catch my fair share of flying fish , reel them in , throw a towel over the eyes and  unhook them .

Ditto, clipping off right at the hook probably the best, the critter has some "jewelery" until it rusts out/body rejects it.  Have unhooked my fair share; pelicans can absolutely beat the stuffing out of you with their wings, but they tend also to be pretty passive (if you hook one you were probably being pretty inattentative).  Seagulls - pretty agressive and unpleasant but the only time I had to deal with one of those was when I threw a surf cast and it went for the anchovy and got the line wrapped around.  Wasn't happy but didn't have to extract any hooks.  Cormorants.  They suck.  Nothing else to say there.  Also endangered here in SoCal but I am a hardcore "non-fan".  We even get them at my local freshwater pond (I'm like 75 miles inland) and on stocking days they fill their gullets; they can dive and swim almost as fast as the fish and the pond "might" be 12' deep at the deepest.  Having one hit on a troller is defintiely one for the books! - john

 Cormorants Have surprize me on how deep they do dive /swim down .   I have watch a strange mark on my depth recorder 30-40 foot and watch them come to the surface   .

Quote from: oldmanjoe on May 02, 2025, 12:17:51 AMCormorants Have surprize me on how deep they do dive /swim down .   I have watch a strange mark on my depth recorder 30-40 foot and watch them come to the surface   .

they truely are remoakable.  Respect them..but not a fan. - john

Quote from: Swami805 on May 01, 2025, 07:45:40 PMWe catch a fair amount of various birds. The trick is to grab them by the neck (don't choke them) and hold them under your arm so they can't flap and you have a free hand to take the hook out. Most birds can't do much damage with the beaks, maybe a bruise or scratch, it's not like a parrot that cracks nuts open

Yes,..... but I've been bitten and mostly scratched by claws on the end of webbed feet.   Best to remove hook with two persons, one to hold bird and other to remove hook.    I regard seabirds as a menace even cormorants I am very careful with.

PS  I'm definitely not a bird hater, probably the opposite, when boating they are a huge help in locating fish, and great to watch how clever they are, especially Terns!   One of my fishing mate was a very keen and experienced marine birder, he used to do many boat birding tours of our coast and always pointed out any birds of interest.

I've extracted the hook from many species of seabirds over my years of shore fishing, as I never cut the line on them. I've even volunteered to do it for other anglers that were too afraid to get near the hooked/wounded creature. Not a bird lover, just trying to do the right thing cause it's us throwing a bunch of hazardous hardware in the water.

For long necks like cormorants & grebs a firm but non-strangling grab around the neck at arms length will keep you out of scratching claws range during hook removal.

If they're too heavy, rambunctious, or aggressive,(like seagulls & pelicans) a good size towel thrown over them will usually calm them down and you can easily pin it down, remove the hook and send it on it's way.

I got a Grebe in a Lake once and managed to grab that long neck and de-hook it. But, it felt like the neck broke when I tossed him back. Maybe not, but it jetted outta there before I could see.
Good idea; a towel. In a kayak maybe cover it in the water rather than a tussel in the yak, which might tip me over.

Knock on wood, I've only ever hooked one bird and he immediately broke the line on structure before I fully realized what happened.

But I did have a circle hook get stuck in the webbing of a snapping turtles front hand. That removal was the trickiest thing I've ever done. If I didn't just randomly have long handle pliers I'd have been bit. A few times. It's so creepy how long their necks are.

I had have my quota of birds when trolling shiny lures too.

no permanent injure to any of them to my knowleage

     Makes you wonder how kite fishing got started  !   

I've a half day trifecta of a pelican, seagull and tern on the same trip! They've all been released. Some will talk with a lisp going forward!

I once caught a big white egret.  It wasn't hooked but just tangled up in my line.  I learned it's important to constrain the head and neck first.  That sucker opened it beak, turned it's head sideways and was trying to poke both my eyes out.  It was quick too.  Freaky as all get-out.

twice, have caught a bat on a trout fly.. fishing the evening rise..
easier to hold than a bird, tough to unhook.

once caught a big old mossback snapping turtle on a carp fly. that was an easy call, pulled to break the tippet..