bat fishing

[seb ellis]

the most amazing thing happened last night that made me laugh and i would never have believed it if i hadn't have seen it . my mate and i decided to go to river to do a bit of fishing early evening and we were using maggots .
he baited his hook and cast out followed by a shout as he said he had caught something ,but his line wasn't in the water but has rod end was going mad .
unknowing to him as he cast out a bat had swung low over the bank and had located his flying maggots plucking them out of the air and flying off with them .
luckily for the bat it felt the resistance of the line and dropped them without finding the hook .
is this the first case of bat fishing ?

[Gill Catton]

Originally Posted by seb ellis

the most amazing thing happened last night that made me laugh and i would never have believed it if i hadn't have seen it . my mate and i decided to go to river to do a bit of fishing early evening and we were using maggots .
he baited his hook and cast out followed by a shout as he said he had caught something ,but his line wasn't in the water but has rod end was going mad .
unknowing to him as he cast out a bat had swung low over the bank and had located his flying maggots plucking them out of the air and flying off with them .
luckily for the bat it felt the resistance of the line and dropped them without finding the hook .
is this the first case of bat fishing ?

No there is a bat called the Daubenton's bat which specialises in foraging over water, it flies up and down very close to the water's surface mainly looking for insects just above the surface though I think I remember reading about how they will also take insects from the water surface (but might be wrong about that bit). There are other species that do actually fish and grab things from just beneath the surface but I don't think there's been evidence yet of Saubenton's doing this. Hope this helps!

[ForestPaul]

I caught a bat on a back cast whilst fly fishing on the Usk reservoir once, although that's probably not what you meant by bat fishing.
Fortunately I was using barbless hooks so was able to remove the hook without damage, but it put the wind up me enough to stop for the evening.

[~T~]

I guy I knew caught one fly fishing too. It had actually grabbed his fly in mid air but luckily landed in the grass and was easily unhooked and as far as we could tell unhurt. I dont remember the species as I was only about 9.