TerryP
Staff
Goose Creek Reservoir, SC.
Here's an overhead shot. No. That's not our trek Tuesday, but I have made that trip dozens of times. The entire stretch has some fun fishing. The story below the picture ...
We'll call this the crazy shit that happens whenadults guys get bored.
Tuesday afternoon and I'm sitting with three friends doing adult things (debatable, but for another day.) It was a little chilly in the wind, mid-50's that afternoon, but discretion be damned, "let's go out on the water."
As you've probably seen in other bodies of water, the Reservoir has several steel electrical towers in a few locations guys love to fish around. Some swear by it to the point of comparing it to the train tracks and how fish bite just after one passes. Meh, I don't know.
When we were circling a few a friend noticed a seagull that was caught up in someone's fishing line, which was caught up around a tower. The bird had managed to get snagged by the hook, a big one, right through its wing. He pulled it down and took right at 10 minutes to get the hook out and the bird free. Now, his thought at the time was, "if I leave it there a gator is going to jump up and grab it for dinner." True. Very likely.
So we have a humanitarian effort, right?
He puts the seagull back in the water back in the water and we watch it flail for 10 yards or so...then SWOOSH. No one saw it coming, but let me tell ya that eagle had a wing span of seven or more feet. HUGE. And, it missed.
We're sitting there in a bit of shock—you'd have heard a few four letter words.
Then again, faster than the first time, the eagle makes its dive again. Missed, though the third time was a charm, as they say. All of this happened within a span of a minute, maybe a minute and a half.
Seeing a gator grab its dinner is not that uncommon out there. A couple of times a year, at least. Seeing eagles fly around that area is very common. Seeing them grab fish out of the water isn't unusual. Hell, the subdivision to the left of the water (looks like a golf course because it used to be one) is called Eagle's Landing.
But ...
I have NEVER seen an eagle snatch a seagull before. And honestly, I'm still in awe.
Here's an overhead shot. No. That's not our trek Tuesday, but I have made that trip dozens of times. The entire stretch has some fun fishing. The story below the picture ...
We'll call this the crazy shit that happens when
Tuesday afternoon and I'm sitting with three friends doing adult things (debatable, but for another day.) It was a little chilly in the wind, mid-50's that afternoon, but discretion be damned, "let's go out on the water."
As you've probably seen in other bodies of water, the Reservoir has several steel electrical towers in a few locations guys love to fish around. Some swear by it to the point of comparing it to the train tracks and how fish bite just after one passes. Meh, I don't know.
When we were circling a few a friend noticed a seagull that was caught up in someone's fishing line, which was caught up around a tower. The bird had managed to get snagged by the hook, a big one, right through its wing. He pulled it down and took right at 10 minutes to get the hook out and the bird free. Now, his thought at the time was, "if I leave it there a gator is going to jump up and grab it for dinner." True. Very likely.
So we have a humanitarian effort, right?
He puts the seagull back in the water back in the water and we watch it flail for 10 yards or so...then SWOOSH. No one saw it coming, but let me tell ya that eagle had a wing span of seven or more feet. HUGE. And, it missed.
We're sitting there in a bit of shock—you'd have heard a few four letter words.
Then again, faster than the first time, the eagle makes its dive again. Missed, though the third time was a charm, as they say. All of this happened within a span of a minute, maybe a minute and a half.
Seeing a gator grab its dinner is not that uncommon out there. A couple of times a year, at least. Seeing eagles fly around that area is very common. Seeing them grab fish out of the water isn't unusual. Hell, the subdivision to the left of the water (looks like a golf course because it used to be one) is called Eagle's Landing.
But ...
I have NEVER seen an eagle snatch a seagull before. And honestly, I'm still in awe.
