In earlier times I spent a bit of time pursuing various game creatures in the variety of locations they called home. Occasionally I would happen upon activity that really got my attention ... something I had never run across before, read about or heard of. It would be interesting to hear from some of you who have witnessed othere unusual happenings in the wild.

Several years ago we had put in at Biloxi, MS and were heading south in the Gulf to a weather bouy about 25 miles south of the barrier islands. About halfway out one member of the party called our attention to a happening just under the boat ... a virtual river of Spanish Mackeral about three feet below the surface, headed west, high speed and packed as tightly as they could be packed together. I chopped power and we drifted above that mass of Mackeral for about 20 minutes in utter disbelief. Some members of the party were tossing everything but the anchor trying to get in on the action but the fish were hell bent on traveling, not eating. Our best guess was that the traveling school was several hundred yards wide and the numbers surely were in the millions. After that, our catch of a few Jack Cravelles and Ling seemed pretty insignificant.

Another time my son and I were in a jon boat fishing for crappie and/or bass in an ox-bow of the Red River south of Bossier City, LA. The action was slow so some splashing activity on the bank about 25 yards away got our attention. The way the water at the bank was roiling my first thought was a snake had hold of a large catfish, or a loggerhead had snagged onto a large snake. We eased over to it using a paddle. About 20 feet away we could see hundreds of minnows going wild on the surface of the water in a mass about 4 feet in diameter. Then, from outside that circle we would see a large bass blast into that pack of minnows, knocking half onto the bank. Then another bass would hit the minnows. It was obvious several bass were working together to corral those minnows and harvest as many as possible. I had never seen or heard of such in my fishing days. The entire event was over in probably 20 minutes but it was a sight to behold.

I yield the floor.

Last fall when bowhunting, I was watching a chipmonk dicking around in the leaves about 5 yards from my tree, and 20 feet below me. All of a sudden, a redtailed hawk swooped in from nowhere and took off with the chipmonk in its talons. The chipmonk was screaming, and the hawk went into a nearby tree and downed it. Five minutes later, it swooped down and snagged another one 50 yards away. It just worked its way down the ridge eating chipmonks.

This spring, I saw it happen again, while turkey hunting.

Another time I was bowhunting from a ground blind, and had a squirrel run up a log and up my leg. I stopped worrying about being quiet and tried to swipe him off my leg without getting bit. I was successful.

Another time I had a bird land on my rifle barrel while deer hunting.

I had a stringer of trout stolen by a black bear. ****er.

I was wade fishing the James river in SW MO and had a cottonmouth chase me in the river. I broke my rod tip smacking at the snake.

I got bit by a copperhead when I stepped on him by accident. The bite was dry.

I've had dozens of interesting/funny encounters, but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

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I had a stringer of trout stolen by a black bear. ****er.

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Why didn't you box him and then kick him in the junk?

Wade fishing chest deep in the channel at Aransas Pass between markers 4 and 6. Had 4 or 5 keeper trout on a stringer tied to my beltloop. I suddenly found myself being drug out into the channel. Turns out a porpus decided he liked the looks of the trout on my stringer. My belt loop busted after being drug about 30 yards. I may have chummed the water that day.

While deer hunting at our lease in laredo i witnessed a roadrunner catch a field mouse and proceed to beat it to death by swinging by the tail and pounding it into the ground, got it on video. Same spot, we saw a coyote run about 10 feet in front of us and it had a huge jack rabbit in its mouth.

The best story from the lease, which is about 8 miles from the border, was when we would call in the border patrol, because of illegals ruining our hunts, they would fly a helicopter right above our jeep and we would drive to where we last saw the "wets", the chopper landed captured them all and called in a bronco to ram about 8 of them in it. The cool part was when the border patrol officer showed how the wets crossed sandy roads. They would walk on their hands using only three fingers strategically positions to look like doe, rabbit tracks depending on the size of the wet, of course we didnt't believe it until they asked one of the illegals to demonstrate, it was amazing.

1) Have had several stringers taken by sharks in the surf.

2) Was fishing at night on the gulf side of the north galveston jetty with a submerged green light. We had a healthy collection of bait attracted to the light and plenty of trout, ribbon fish, and other predators working the bait. When we finally got tired and decided to leave, my dad leaned down and unclipped the light from the battery. The instant that the light went out it was like somebody dropped a mortar round into the water under the boat. The surface of the water exploded with fish jumping, thrashing, and just going berzerk in general. It only lasted about 15 seconds, but there was literally foam on the surface from how violently the fish were thrashing the water.

3) While hunting with my bro when I was about 11, I wasn't old enough to shoot deer and we had decided to stop stalking and sit on a hillside for a while watching for deer. I was fidgeting to much and he commanded me to lay still. I laid back, and soon went to sleep. About 15 minutes later, my brother looked over and saw a doe approaching me from behind. She walked all the way up and sniffed the top of my head before snorting and walking away. Good thing doe permits were required back then and we didn't have any. Otherwise my brother might have woken me up with something besides the rock he tossed my way.

4) Not while hunting...but have watched owls and hawks feed on bats emerging from caves and other roosts several times. Pretty amazing to watch them swoop into the cloud and fly off carrying a bat.

I was at our deer lease in Paint Rock, right outside San Angelo and it was perfect cold crisp weather right during the rut on thanksgiving day. After eating all that food i dont know what possessed me to go out and rattle but i did. I sat in the stand for about five minutes which is about all I can last just sitting still. I starting walking and then posted up against a mesquite tree. I began rattling and i hung to scent bombs along the way. About 15 minutes into and i havent seen anything and just as i am about to get up i hear breathing behind me and im thinking "the damn sheep ruin another hunt". And with my absolute hatred of the sheep on that ranch i turn around ready to kick the sh*& out of that sheep and see its a big doe and two yearlings. She isnt 5 feet away from me and she is hissing and snarling and stomping her feet. I think we both scared eachother pretty good and she wasnt backing off and i had cactus and a tree behind me. She kept up with her display and even threw her front legs up in the air and then all of a sudden here come the sheep about 75 of those smelly basturds coming to see what they can steal out of the feeder. And just like that the deer take off. The whole thing didnt last very long but i had never seen a doe get that angry before. I wasnt plannin on shooting her because we had plenty of meat and she had two yearling and i was strictly after a nice buck.

Not terribly exciting, but last weekend I was stopped at a red light north of Fort Worth (pretty much in the sticks). To my right was a hawk chilling on a phone line, while a p*ssed off mockingbird was fluttering overhead, working the hawk over with his mini talons. He would swoop in, claw away, then fly back.

The hawk completely ignored him for the few minutes I watched ... I bet he tore up that damn mockingbird a few minutes after I left, though. They may be pesky, but our state bird has balls the size of melons.

Pod of Killer Whales in the Gulf of Mexico.

continue about killer whales....never heard of that one.

I had a great horned owl try to get in a deer blind with me.

I shot a big feral hog a couple of years ago and the watched to my disgust as a smaller (about 100 lb) boar climbed up in his dead ass and humped away. Then the younger boar climbed all the way on top of the dead on and lay down for a snooze (it was cold out).

While deer hunting I watched a grey fox trot between two bedded down does, stop, lick one of them on the nose then trotted off.

Funniest thing I have ever seen was I watched a juvenielle bobcat stalk up on a cover of quail (mom and chicks). When he got into position to strike he raised up a paw to swat the momma quail. She bowed up and began beating her wings in the face of the little bobcat and he in turn tucked tail and ran the other way.

About 5 years ago several of us had gone out one morning just to shoot does. We wound up with 5 between the 4 of us and took them to a huge tree where we have several gambrels hanging to clean/ skin them. about 15 minutes into it I looked up and there was a doe and fawn walking up smelling the air bobbing heads etc... They were clearly confused and interested. We were talking and moving around the whole time and they got close enough to almost reach out and touch numerous times (inside of 4 feet away). They stayed within 10-15 yards moving in and out for over a half hour before finally walking off. One of the strangest things I've ever seen.

1. I might have alredy posted this: We used to have a year round lease in Coleman County. I had an old Jeep Cherokee that I left out there. One warm early fall day we arrived at the deer lease and I opened the back gate of the Cherokee. There was a snake about 2 foot long coiled up against some camping gear. I did not get a real good look at him but rattlesnakes were everywhere out there and I have to assume thats what it was. I turned to grab a stick or something and all I could come up with was a piece of mesquite firewood about 4in in diameter. When I turned back around to apply a deadly blow to the serpent, he was nowhere to be seen. I gingerly removed all my gear from the Jeep keeping ever vigilant for Mr Noshoulders. I never did find him. I assumed he found one of the many rust holes in the jeep and had escaped to the ground and won his freedom. Later that afternoon I decided to go for a drive around the property. After one last look under seats, under dash etc I headed off still feeling uneasy. I was about 15 min into my drive when it happened... With horror I felt someting slither quickly up my pant leg all the way to my inner thigh. I looked down and could see the beast wriggling inside my camo pants. I quickly reached as high as I could, clenched my fist and brought it crashing down repeatedly on the trapped animal. I punched again and again until I was sure the life was completely gone from the critter. I felt I was in a kill or be killed situation. With the jeep still moving I lept out and yanked my pants down as quickly as possible. What fell out?... The flattest/ deadest field mouse ever seen... Now I know what the snake was after. I woke up the next morning to the biggest, blackest bruise I have ever had and a matching limp. I bought some flashing and silicone and filled in all of those rust holes.

2. We had a deer lease in Maydell in East Texas. I was sittin in a box blind (which is unusual for me) one morning. I heard scratching on the tin roof then noitced little toes hanging over the edge. Suddenly a flying squirrel lept off the roof and soared down to the base of a tree about 25yds away. He ran back along the ground, climbed up the back of the blind and jumped again. He did this a couple more times before he had a buddy join him. They would take turns doing the big jump then flolic around the base of the pine tree a couple of minuted before they would do it again.

3. I once shared a vienna sausage with a 3 lb bass. We were fishing and not having much luck. I opened a can of viennas for a snack. As a joke I put a half eaten one on my worm hook and threw it in. After a minute or so I hooked a nice bass.


[This message has been edited by swampstander (edited 6/29/2006 3:48p).]

1. Twice in the Spring turkey season I've dropped gobblers and had accompanying gobblers grab the dead one's head, beat it up and kick the dead turkey's @ss. Cheaters!

2. Had a sea turtle swim up about 50 feet away while wading the surf last month.

3. Herds (30 or more) of deer or hogs walk right by within 10 feet when I had a shotgun in my hands turkey hunting.

4. Flipper doing aerials up to 10 feet high on dead croaker from a shrimp boat cull in Port Aransas.

5. Being in Laguna Madre during the scallop spawn and harvesting sacks full of em. If you've never seen it, it's cool. Millions and millions of them are on the grass flats swimming around.

6. Me and 2 buddies 3 weeks ago catching 28 keeper trout in 3 hours on topwaters. Nothing in nature like hunger-frenzied trout blowing up on bait.

7. Had a 30"+ trout come out from under the pier and grab a 10" skipjack on my hook one night. Trout took off and I never got a hook in her. She would have torn up my wimpy tackle anyway. Saw her again chasing a 12" speck that I was reeling in.

Several years ago while predator hunting one midnight with my brother, we had an electronic caller with a remote speaker with 50' of cord. We had set the speaker as far away from the truck as possible and was using a yellow hammer woodpecker call. Within a couple of min utes we heard something near the speaker. When we hit the spotlight, there was a huge bobcat taking swipes at the speaker.
Another few years ago I was sitting in a deer blind while still dark in the morning. It was still and I heard several deer walking thru the leaves, crunching away very closely. They suddenly stopped and a doe had apparently tried to stick her head throught the side window. When she alarmed and "huffed", the air hit me full in the face.

I was sitting in a tree stand that hangs out over a bluff, about 40 feet in the air. It's about an hour before sun up and just starting to get an orange glow in the east. Then outta no where I hear the most god awful shreik below me. Lasted about 10 seconds. Figured it was a bobcat killing breakfast.

Long time ago, when had a heavy rain at the lease and the winter wheat was flooded in 1 corner of a feild. Maybe 6 inches deep. A goose was just swimming around all by itself.

pb, I remember that story! I think you have the winning story so far, not that this is a contest.

The last two years in June and July, we have seen several sea turtles along the gulf side of the north galveston jetty. It is getting much more common to see them there and in the surf than it used to be.

I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes....anybody who calls me a liar gets a free pass on this story

Strangest thing I have seen hunting in the hill country is an Ostrich. It was about 200 yards away on a neighbors place, the thing is they didn't raise Ostrich's. It lingered around for about 20 minutes or so and moved on. I guess it had escaped from somewhere and was just roaming free all over the place. Just isn't a normal thing to see an Ostrich in the hill country.

Mine aren't that great of stories.

Was bowhunting in Edwards Co. and had a bird mistake me for a bush and land on my head. Freaked him out pretty good when he realized that something wasn't right.

Was hunting in SE of Bronte, TX and had over 150 deer come into a winter wheat field. I knocked out a doe and most of the deer just kept eating. Pretty weird in my book.

Isn't my story but it's a good one:

My dad and his brother, my uncle Jimmy, were goose hunting down near Port Arthur back in the 60's. It was ultra foggy that morning and they wandered out to this levy they would hunt from and waited for the fog to lift. The fog just hung around for whatever reason and they were about to head in when they heard geese. They couldn't see a damn thing but they were doing their best to call them in anyways.

Long story less long, my uncle Jimmy is standing on the levy peering into the fog when a full grown snow goose flying about 4 feet off the water hits him square in the chest. Knocked him backwards off the levy into the water. Knocked the breath out of him and eventually left a deep bruise about the size of a basketball right in the center of his chest. He said it was like being hit by a sledgehammer.

I was wadefishing north of Port Mansfield in about knee deep greasy smooth water. I notice some nervous water a good ways in front of me. As it got closer I realized it was a Diamondback Rattlesnake heading straight for me.I moved out of the way fighting him off with my rod. He didn't really change course at all and kept heading for Padre Island. The closet I was to land in any direction was about a quarter of a mile.

Happened yesterday -

we were about 60 miles out east of SPI near Colt/Canyon and had a pod of about 100 dolphins (I don't think they were porpoises) get right in front of our boat and ride with us for about 20 minutes. It was pretty wild how many of them were there.

[This message has been edited by TKEAg04 (edited 6/29/2006 9:16p).]

Goose ... In 1973 I was on a goose hunt on a morning just like the one you described, with fog so thick you could cut it. I, my 13 yo son and father-in-law were huddled on a narrow levy beside a pond in Brazoria County south of Danbury. It was a white-out at eye level, just like being inside a bale of cotton. I don't know if I heard something or just happened to look straight up and about 12 feet or so above was a canada flapping its wings but virtually not moving. I punched my son and pointed up. He grabbed his shotgun and wheeled and shot all in one motion and that goose fell dead right in the middle of us. It was his first goose and thus cause for celebration right there in the fog and the mud and the muck.

A bit later we discovered the goose was banded and the band had an address to write to for information on the banding. That was interesting but it took back seat to planning on what to do with the goose. His mom promised to cook that goose for Christmas dinner. Well, that bird had a sorry looking carcass from any I had cleaned before but I didn't mention it to the son. On Christmas, despite the wife's best efforts, that goose was as tough as a roll of trotline cord. It was inedible but we bragged anyway to pump up the kid.

A couple of months later we got a reply from the band we had mailed in. The report said that goose had been banded at some lake in Canada 13 years prior. We were shocked because I had no idea any bird in the wild could live that long ... but if the report was true, I could understand why that goose was so tough ... with 25 one way trips to and from Canada.

While I was at A&M we would go wade fishing for white bass at Somerville. We would seine for minnows then wade out about 50yds off the beach by the dam to fish. On one trip, someone had set a trotline baited with big brim right in our honey hole. a large water moccasin was snagged on one of the hooks while trying to eat one of the brim. I got the bright idea to pick up a rock off the bottom and throw it at him from 40 feet away. As luck would have it, my aim was true and the rock splashed down on his head. This did not stun him in the least but it did unfortunately piss him off AND disengage him from the hook. I found out that a water moccasin can swim a whole lot faster than a skinny college kid can run through waist deep water. He broke off the persuit just as he was about to catch his prize and for that I am eternally grateful. I guess he was just gonna thank me for unhooking him.

Another I almost forgot. Several years ago a buddy had a 7MM STW built for him, back when it wasn't commercially available. He called it 7mm Wild Western. Anyway, he wanted to shoot at a deer in the 700 to 1000 yard range so I took him to a 200 acre wheat field at the back of my place. We sat in some high grass on the edge and I told him he could shoot a doe since we both had already got our bucks for the season. We spotted one all the way across and he had one of the old rangefinders where you aligned the images and determined range from that. I had a spotting scope and could get a glimpse of small horns, so I told him to pass. Anyway, we watched this buck for over an hour as it made it's way around the edge of the field and on up toward us. We sat very still and quiet until this young buck got about 5 feet away, and as he had just taken a bite of wheat his eyes rolled up at us. You could see him freeze and tense up and quiver like he had been electrocuted. He jumped straight up in the air about 6 feet, and we hit the ground laughing our a**es off. He couldn't run because it had rained the day before and his feet were sinking in the soft furrows so he high stepped his way away from us.

Finding a live, healthy, juvenile horned lizard at water's edge on Stedman Island (Aransas Pass) while exiting the water after a wade one August morning.

PB, that's an amazing story! Won't call you a liar, though.

I wouldn't blame you if you did...

pb - that story would be pretty hard to make up even if you tried.

It made me remember something. Last year I watched a doe and redtail hawk square off over the head and neck of her fawn. Not sure how the fawn died but redtail had it and had pulled the head and neck from the carcass. The does finally chased off the hawk, then picked up the head by the ear and ran off into the brush. Was kind of unsettling but that nature.

Deer hunting with my dad when I was 12 or 13 down in the Gila National Forest in SW New Mexico. We were walking out a ridge line with my dad up on one side near the top and me walking the bottom. Haven't seen anything but squirrels and crows all week when suddenly we jump a huge buck. He takes off before either of us can get off a shot between the trees. Dad says he is going to climb a little higher up so we can try and keep him in the little canyon and maybe get a shot at him a little later on.

Maybe 20 minutes later I hear something on the opposite ridge from where dad was. Coming the other direction from us was black bear. This was the first bear I had ever seen in the wild. We didn't have a bear tag and even if we did I don't think I would have wanted to shoot him in case I didn't get him with the first shot and therefore have to suffer through the subsequent mauling. So I decide to sit on a rock or stump and watch him go by. He was about 150 to 200 yards up the hill and I'm guess about 250 lbs. Not a large bear by any means but big enough for somebody my age. I don't think he had noticed me at all up to this point. He was just poking along minding his own business. About the time he got even with me, Dad jumps the deer we had seen earlier and takes a shot at it. This startles the bear and he stops, stands up on his hind legs, looks around and starts barrelling down the hill almost directly towards me. I've got a 7mm mag with me that I didn't even think of at this time. I don't know if he ever saw me or not. I did the 200m dash up the opposite ridge to my dad in record time. I never remember looking back and didn't stop till I saw pop. Dad said I was white as a ghost for having run so far and so fast and couldn't stop laughing. I didn't think it was so funny but I did give a little back when I found out he had missed his shot at the buck.

Ag97

Last year, my nine year old son and I were hunting out of our box blind on our lease in Junction. A very young 6 point buck hung around for most of the morning, eating some ground corn we had thrown out. We finally decide to leave, even though the buck was only 40-50 yards away. As we got out of the stand, the deer walked into the shadow of a large cedar bush, thinking he was hidden. My son and I started throwing rocks at this deer, just for the heck of it. He would jerk every time one hit close to him. I finally got lucky and hit him in the hindquarter. He jumped straight up, 5' off of the ground with the back legs going 100 mph. He finally took off on a hard sprint. My son and I were crying, we were laughing so hard.


Also, two years ago on a cold, clear, crisp morning at the same deer lease, my boys (8 and 12 at the time) and I saw the shimmering red sky referred to Aurora Bourealis or the Northern Lights as we walked out to the morning hunt. What a magnificent site.