Post by jackfish on Nov 14, 2008 19:40:36 GMT -5
One lucky little duck!
I was out in the boat one day cruising around a lake that i fish for pike and walleye in. Near the edge of the lake shore i noticed a mother duck swimming quickly and trailing behind her were some small baby ducklings.
They could not fly yet but could swim very well and fast. I suddenly noticed just in front of my boat what looked like a large swimming log dart in front of my boat and toward the ducklings..
It was a huge pike must have been over 4 ft at least..This pike did not even care that i almost ran it over with my boat and motor! As i watched the mother duck she got vary scared and took to the air quickly leaving her ducklings on the surface of the lake. They headed for the reeds in hurry but it was to late.!! They were sitting ducks. The monster pike was after them popping them off one by one!!! All i heard was pop! pop! pop! on top of the water and watch another duckling get gulped down. All that was left was a bit of feather fluff on the floating on surface.. So i grabbed my fishing rod and casted it in the direction of the pike hoping to catch him. Sure enough he hit my lure and hit it hard!. What a fight!!. Finally i got him to the edge of the boat after all thrashing he gave up and layed floating length wise. He was bigger than i figured and i looked closely his huge mouth and teeth. To my surprise i noticed he had a little duck in between his mouth!! So i opened the pikes mouth gently trying not to excite the fish and placed my hand in the rows of teeth. Chomp! The pike bit down on my hand i waited in pain not moving try to protect the little duck body as mush as i could. The pike calmed down again and i managed to gently get the baby duck out from its jaws.. The little ducks feet were half way down the pikes throat.I thought for sure this lil duck was a goner. So placed him on the seat boat beside me looking at him holding my bloody hand ,,I then seen a lil eye blink at me then sure enough in few more seconds i saw a fuzzy lil head pop up and look around. He was scared shaken up a bit but seemed to moving ok. Let him rest for a while longer and release him close to the reeds by his family. When i think back of that pikes belly it was swollen and full of baby ducks, I bet he ate over 5 baby ducks maybe more,,Oh well i thought at least one lived and went back to the others that were hiding in the weeds. I let the big pike go too, But i felt abit sorry for those little ducks .. At least a few made it..i kept saying to my self..
Its mother nature at work and she can be harsh at times.I just did not have the heart not to try to save that little duck.. Time heals all wounds but pike bites sure take alot longer!!!
The End
Jackfish..