Tims Ford 6/9/12
 

StriperFan and I met up and headed out on Tims Ford on saturday night. Our target was walleyes, hybrids and rockfish. Our plan was to fish after dark, but we arrived a bit before sundown and decided to drop the down riggers and troll a bit. We only made it a few hundred yards and we came across a bird that looked like it was attacking something on the shore. We got closer and realized it was a Great Horned Owl hooked on someones abandoned Limb Line! People, PLEASE take your limb lines down when you are done fishing with them!

It was hooked right in the joint of the wing. My dad had to rescue an owl in MN a few years back and a naturalist told him to throw a towel over its head and it would completely calm down and not move. Well we tossed my sweatshirt over it and it did just that! StriperFan picked it up and we cut the line, but the hook was completely buried in the joint of the wing. We headed back to the state park nature center and got ahold of a park ranger. They took it and put it in a cage and they were going to take it to the state park vet. Who knows it may end up in the cage with the other owl at the nature center.

By this time it was about dark and we headed to our destination. Just as it got dark, the fish started to show up. We fished until 2 am. We had several hybrids, a few cats, a walleye, several white bass, a smallie and we broke off on a few bigguns. I had one on for a while and then unfortunately I was not paying attention to the anchor rope and it wrapped around and broke my line! BUMMER!!!!

Anyways, the owl thing was pretty neat and fishing with StriperFan was great!

It is great to meet new friends on this site!

Here some shots of the owl and a few fish!

Bless you guys for taking the time to help out the owl. Could use more people like you out there.

A good time was had by all. MNfisher caught more than he let get away. We will be going back around the 4th and will give an update on owls progress.

how do you troll down riggers with an anchor line out ?

what kind of bait were you using for the owl?

We started out trolling to look for schools of fish while we waited for dark, since I only get to the lake once or twice a month, this is how I scout. The anchors came later.

It wasn't our limb line. I am guessing he went after whatever had eaten the bait.

That's awesome of you guys rescuing the owl. We have recently been discussing limb lines, and trot lones on another forum. I myself hate them, and can be very dangerous to people, and other wildlife.

Jeremy

Great deed guys ! <'TK><
 

The Tim's Ford Facebook page has an updated story on the owl being released back into the wild today.:)