Osprey Catch And Release

Safely removing a bird from your fishing line is a chore

(May 2017) … Osprey are my favorite flying anglers, they always let you know there are fish around.  They can even let you know when there aren’t any fish around.  They don’t fly a mile off shore if there are fish close to the surf.  Shorebirds can get caught up in all kinds of stray fishing gear.  We have all had a “sea-gull” fly into our line and get jammed up more than once. If you haven’t, just wait, it’s a real experience getting them untangled.  It was quite the experience to untangle an osprey.

Memorial day weekend 2017, we were fishing in Cape Henlopen at the point comfort station crossing and the beach was a parking lot.   The blue fish would come through and hit people’s line cutting off rigs left and right.  I think the funniest part was the fact people were not paying attention to their gear and we had a pool going which group was going to lose their rod and reel first.  They were “actively not fishing”.  Seriously one guy had a big blue on his line for close to ten minutes, then th e line goes slack and wafts into the air.  When the blues would show up and cut rigs, we would start casting spoons and plugs.  This is where the osprey comes in to play.

If you haven’t used plugs or surface lures when there are birds around, the bird will try to pick it up, usually these are “seagulls”.  Birds will try to pluck lures out of the water and carry it off. They don’t know it is a lure they think it is alive, the purpose of the lure is to mimic. Stopping the lure action is usually enough to distract the bird. But not always …

 Sometimes the birds get caught up in the line and you have to untangle the bird, or yank the plug from their grip.  With a sea gull this is an easy process and safe for the bird.   This situation is unavoidable, even without birds around they tend to just show up out of nowhere and dive bomb your plug.  When Mike threw his plug, this osprey shot across the sky.  I looked at him (Mike) and said here comes that osprey we must still have fish in front of us.  That’s when the osprey tucked its wings and dropped in hard and fast.  Right onto his plug, the osprey was going to have it for lunch.  The osprey goes under, comes up, does the wing shake for excess water and starts flying.  We now have an osprey on the line.  When it was about fifteen feet or so off the water, Mike looked at me and said what do you want to do?  I said … Drop it in the water or we are never going to get it off the line, and you will have an osprey kite for a while, and that is braided line.  Not to mention I am sure Mike wanted that plug back, it catches fish.  No one wants to hurt a bird, especially an osprey.  The water and waves were calm, we knew we could recover the osprey quickly and safely.  It was a necessary means to a fast release. Before you freak out, birds float.

Paul, Mike E, Mike P, and I ran to the surf with thick leather gloves and a towel. I always carry these as part of my surf fishing gear. An old sheet is nice to have too. I use the gloves when airing up for the rough hoses at the park pumps.  
We wrapped the osprey up in the towel, and then held the talons still.  Those puppies are sharp.  Paul has experience doing this and I do as well from tagging osprey.  They tend to not resist you much when you are handling them, but there is always the fact they are a bird and you can’t tell them what is going on.  That sharp beak and razor sharp talons must be kept in check.  Paul used his body to hold the bird upside down.  At this point there is a huge crowd and we have an audience, it is Memorial day weekend, Saturday.
 We had to hold the bird upside down to remove the plug and tangled line.  The line was cut in several places and we removed it carefully, braided line is no joke when it comes to its ability to cut through anything, especially soft flesh.

Once freed of the line, we slowly turned the osprey over so Paul could get a better hold for a good release.

 This is the tricky part, to not get bit or stabbed by a talon.  Once the bird was upright and Paul had a good grip for a release, he threw the bird into the air over the water.  Just in case it had any issues, it would land in the water and not on the hard sand, birds float and the water is calm.  If necessary we would be able to recover it again. Also there is probably a hundred plus people watching this on a crowded memorial day weekend. No pressure.

It wasn’t a hard throw more like a lofting toss into the air.  The osprey flapped its wings once and was airborne.  The crowd was cheering the bird’s quick flight and recovery.  We were just happy it wasn’t hurt and wanted to get back to fishing.

We see birds all of the time with fishing line wrapped on feet, wings, and even hooks.  It is very important to be able to handle any tangled bird and release it quickly.  I have seen people catch a bird and then cut the line only to leave it to fend on its own.  Flopping on the ground all jammed up in line, that is not how you help.  We always carry heavy leather gloves and couple of old towels just for this process.  You never know when you will need to release a bird.  Seagulls are the worst, they tend to fly into fishing lines, I think Corby caught two last year in about an hour.
 Beach chicken doesn’t taste good anyway so we release them.  I’m kidding!  It is illegal to assault a seagull they are federally protected, a generic term for all of the different gulls we have here.

Fish On!
Rich King