Two of my favorite outdoor activities are flyfishing and birdhunting. Yesterday, I found a new way to combine them.
While floating the North Platte River, I was casting a peacock woolly bugger toward the shore, hoping to move a trout.
After one cast, I saw a small bird fluttering around the water and figured it was catching insects. When I raised my rod for the next case, I noticed I had caught the bird, which I think was some kind of swallow.
He must have mistaken my fly for a tasty bug meal and grabbed it out of the air on the cast.
The leader was wrapped around his wing, and, fortunately, the No. 8 fly hook didn't get him. I untangled him and released the bird unharmed. He flew away just fine, hopefully a bit wiser.
