Hi everyone. Happy middle of the week. Since I'm not around next week I want to get most of my challenge art posted this week. Today I want to share another page from my Harvest Journal for Aimeslee's Anything Goes challenge at Art Journal Journey
I started with red and orange ink pads as well as some stickers I picked up a couple of weeks ago on markdown. The big peppers are from a stamp set I have. I finished them off by adding some colored glitter glue to them. The little pepper girl and the stamped quotes around the page from a Janet Klein set. I just love her pepper hat.
It's hard to read the quotes, but they say: Keep it spicy and (the long one) the recipe called for salt, parsley and a sprinkle of pepper.
I finished by adding some tiny red confetti flowers and a piece of retro looking trim down the center of the spread which is actually the center of my journal.
And I have a story to tell about an adventure my husband and I had on his boat this past Sunday afternoon. He was fishing for striped bass. I decided not to fish because 1) I was more in the mood to relax and 2) the hubby, although happy for me to have already caught 5 fish this summer, needed to catch one himself. We had very limited bait, but on my husband's first try he caught this large striped bass.
It was actually too big to keep because here along the coast or New Hampshire (but also in Massachusetts and Maine) you can only keep fish between 28-31 inches/71-78 cm. (And only keep 1 per day too.) This guy was about 36 inches/91cm so Mr. Fish was released back into the water after we got a few photos.
The hubby decided to throw out another line. Shortly after he did that we were buzzed by this guy.
We frequently see eagles while we're out in the boat as they nest on the islands where we cruise.
He was about 5-6 feet over the boat, and I could have reached up and maybe even touched him. Darn, why wasn't I ready with my camera? He flew up into a tree nearby where we were. And he sat there for quite a while. Enough time for me to watch him and even get a few more photos.
But what I didn't realize is that he was watching us. About 30 seconds after I put the camera down and turned away, he swooped back down and grabbed my husband's bait fish. It was so fast, we only saw a swish of feathers. What we really noticed was the high pitched sound of the fishing line being pulled out quickly, the sound of catching a fish, but this time instead of the line going out in the water the line was going out above the boat and across the water.
There was a flash moment where we looked at each other wondering what we should do. The eagle had swooped back in and grabbed the bait fish that was hooked on my husband's line. It was flying off before we could scare it into dropping the fish (which we had to do once several years ago). Never mind the line, but the fish had a hook in it.
While we went for the scissors to cut the line, it snapped and the eagle took off with the bait fish in his talons. Luckily when the line snapped it pulled the hook out of the fish, but the eagle got the fish and flew off beyond where we could see him.
That has me thinking a lot about eagles getting hooked when people fish. They're only looking to eat, but if the fish is small enough, and if the eagle swallowed the fish whole, that hook might be swallowed too. Granted salt water hooks are meant to rust out fairly quickly because often fish swallow them in what is called gut hooking, but fish are in salt water and an eagle is not. I'm not saying people should give up fishing, and maybe this is a rare occurrence. Maybe eagles are smart enough to not swallow a hooked fish whole. Eagles are smart enough to know where an easy meal is. Anyhow, it was quite exciting, but in other ways concerning because the hooks can pose some serious risk including the eagle having internal bleeding and dying.
I like to fish but I don't want to kill eagles. Maybe I'm just too much of a softy. (That is absolutely true.) That's enough for me today. Have a great rest of your day.
10 comments:
Good morning, Wow on the eagle "adventure" When we first retired to Missouri Larry would fish for trout at Bennett Springs State Park-where there are many eagles. Once he was fishing near a lady and the eagle did the same-swooped down and grabbed her trout-flying off with her fishing pole-she said I just bought this fishing pole and he can't have it--I think they finally cut the line to save the pole.
after he told me that I said I wanna come along to see the eagles haha so I am thinking wildlife are opportunist--I would be concerned about the hook too
Fishing and wildlife have generally not gone well together. I have seen swans wrapped up in discarded fishing line, lead sinkers are responsible for lead poisoning, hooks have caused untold damage (we removed one recently from a Canada Goose’s wing) and so on. Catch and release always seems problematic to me too. You wonder whether the fish truly recovers from being hooked, hauled in, held up by the gills, being out of water for an extended period - and so on. All the best - David
...too big? I've never heard of this!
I don't eat meat but we do love fish. So I would have to be very cautious about not going over the regulations about size and frequency. Do people pay attention to the regulations, as far as you can tell.
Why not brought it home and cook a great meal with it?? You release them only when they are too small...my brother loves fishing and he usually takes big ones home.
Beautiful art!
But, oooohhhhh the whole fishing story is a huge bummer!
First fish and then too big, how sad.
And that eagle!!! As the hook fell out, I am sorry, I had to laugh about that desaster!
In Carnarvon, Western Australia, a seagull got Ingo´s hook through the beak. Ingo helped her and no ten minutes later she was after bail again.
Think seagulls are not the brightest.
Hope you can have another boat-trip and your Hubby has more luck! Hugs
That is an awesome fish! That is a small slot for keepers, only 3"'s?
What a awesome sighting seeing eagle. I think it is a pretty rare occurrence that an eagle swallows a whole fish, they generally rip them apart.
I learned a lot here. I hadn't realized a fish could be too big to keep. I'd never heard of eagles swooping down to get the bait fish. I didn't realize salt water hooks were any different than fresh water ones or that they were designed to rust quickly. Thanks!
That was quite the fisherman's tale, Erika, and glad that the eagle didn't get hooked.
Such a hot spread in so many ways, assuming the peppers are a hot variety. The little PepperGirl is so cute, love her hat, and the little flowers that are scattered about and echoed in the ribbon.
WOW what a scary moment you had on the boat. I had no idea you were surrounded by eagles and that you often saw them when out fishing. Nor did i know that you had to throw the big boy back - so that means if a fish gets big he can live on until nature intervenes? Don't see the reason for this rule.
Hugs, Neet xx
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