Octopus attacks and eats shark!

This video has been around for a while, but it's still an amazing capture. This octopus has been hunting in a public aquarium...hunting sharks!!

What ate that Carp?

Otter? Raccoon? Maniac mutant squirrels? Whatever it was, that was a nice-sized carp. That's my minnow bucket above it for scale. It's intact head is to the left, and to the right you can see it's anal fin and how it's tail curves upward just behind that. The view of the skull is from beneath 'cause it's a little twisted.

Lions and tigers and...well, just bears, but still.

We've got lots of bears in Western PA, but most people don't realize it because bears tend to keep away from people. The thing is, when the population increases, the bears start to smell what you've got in your backyard and want to investigate.

A friend of mine lives less than a mile from one of my favorite fishing spots, and she sent me these pictures of a "friendly" that keeps investigating her backyard. Keep in mind, she lives on a major state road that is heavily trafficked!

Black Bears...yow. This friend has drastically reduced the number of spots where she'll hang out with me while I fish now. A firm prerequisite is that there be lots of open space in case she needs to run! :D

Ever been scared by something out there? -conclusion

At that moment, a large (12-15pound) black object rose slowly from the water in front of me, and then after a moment of shock I realized what it was; I was staring at a huge Cormorant! I had no idea they'd come this far south from the place where I'd last heard they were becoming a nuisance, Lake Erie. There is a chance that it could have been a large black Loon, although I didn't see the tell-tale white or grey band around it's neck which most Loons I see have.

It looked at me and quickly took flight (why does everything run from me?) across the river, flapping hard to ascend more than a few inches above the water until it had traveled quite a few yards, when it finally attained full flight. At this point you're probably asking yourself why this would have scared me. Remember: it had been very quiet and I had not heard that bird enter that water. All I knew was that suddenly, less than eight feet away from me, a large black living thing was rising from the water before me.

Yeah, Blair Witch Project scared me, too.

Anyway, after the big bird flew out of sight and I picked up my lower jaw, I got out of the water to wait and see if this bird had any companions following. It didn't, so I got back to fishing, but the bites were done.

No problem. It was time to go to work anyway.

Ever been scared by something out there?

It was a cold, grey day. I decided to spend some of my afternoon fishing the beautiful Allegheny River in Pennsylvania. I was bundled against the cold, dressed in layers. In fact, many layers. Four sweatshirts and a denim jacket over my neoprene waders. The end result is that I look like "Ralphie's" little brother in "A Christmas Story", my arms stiffly out to my sides. I'm in so much trouble if I ever fall down in winter. (I must invest in some decent winter fishing fashion!)

I parked at the top of a hill overlooking the spot I was planning to fish. A trail leads down the 30 or so yards to the waters' edge and I waddled it with no real agility. (Though I didn't fall!) The area has a clear dirt beach maybe 10 feet from treeline to shore, and leading to the mouth of what I think it a runoff drain, though it's well disguised with overhanging vegetation and boulders around the mouth to the point where it would fool you into thinking it's natural until you look closely under the weeds and see the bricks used to form the opening.

I settled in and started casting a 1/4 oz Roostertail spinner, white body with a silver blade and white tuft on the hook. The Smallmouth were very friendly that day, and within an hour and a half I'd caught about 13. At this point with an icy breeze scraping my cheek I decided to take up position leaned against a large boulder which blocked some of the wind. I was balancing myself carefully between a number of basketball sized boulders, in ankle deep water. About 4-6 feet in front of me the bottom dropped off quickly to 5 feet, then after a foot or two more horizontally, over 9 feet.

The bass were hitting as the spinner skirted the edge of the first, more shallow drop. They were anyway, until suddenly there was nothing. No more bites, no chases, nothing. Ordinarily I discount this to the appearance of a predator near the school I'm fishing. A pike, or musky maybe. Oh, it was a predator all right, but not the fish I'd expected. In fact, it wasn't a fish at all.

As I mindlessly fan cast the area waiting and hoping for the bite to begin again, a small dark circle formed in the water only slightly more than a rod length in front of me, slightly off to the left. This circle got bigger, and bigger, when I suddenly realized that something large was rising up from the bottom of the river!

The next thing that happened is what really freaked me out: a black head, atop a long black neck (like those grainy pictures of the Loch Ness Monster), then broke through the surface and that neck kept getting longer. Finally, a large body broke the surface and I found myself face to face with...

...to be continued.