
Catfish hunt pigeons in France - narad
http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/67959-catfish-hunt-pigeons-in-france
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kposehn
Having been an angler (mostly fly) for almost my entire life, I've seen things
like this fairly often.

Fish are very attracted to surface animals in the water due to their relative
inability to escape once in the water. Ducks make easy prey and watering birds
in the shallows are only moderately more difficult. Probably one of the most
voracious shallow-water predators is the Northern Pike, which I've seen catch
birds, mice and other animals many times while fishing in Canada. At my Dad's
house in northern California, we see Bass suck under small ducklings many
times a year.

Unlike the Catfish, Bass, Pike and other shallow water predators have specific
behavior for lying in wait. They will stop in the water, use the pectoral fins
to hold stable and then curl their tail to one side. This allows them to
rapidly straighten their bodies and blast forward in one swift stroke to seize
prey. Note in the video that the catfish do not employ this - they make a
snapping/sucking motion with their jaws to draw the prey in.

One of the largest Bass I ever caught was hooked using a fly I tied, made to
look like a Robin. I had seen a 14+ lb. Largemouth attempting to eat robins
that were landing on lily pads. I tied the fly over about 1 week and caught it
on a gorgeous Sunday morning just after the sun came over the trees :)

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WillyF
Do you have a picture of the fish?

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yareally
It's a big fish:

<http://www.kingsailfishmounts.com/UserFiles/northernpike.jpg>

Pike grow to a relatively large size; lengths of 150 centimetres (59 in) and
weights of 25 kilograms (55 lb) are not unheard of. The heaviest specimen
known so far was caught in an abandoned stone quarry, in Germany, in 1983. She
(the majority of all pikes over 8 kg or 18 lb are females) was 147 cm (58 in)
long and weighed 31 kg (68 lb). The longest pike ever recorded was 152 cm (60
in) long and weighed 28 kg (62 lb).

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kyberias
Maybe it's the cat genes... ;)

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gadders
How long until we start seeing anglers using pigeons (hopefully decoys) for
bait?

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WillyF
Most flies used in fly fishing incorporate some sort of feathers, but that's
usually to imitate an insect or fish. The largest "terrestrial" that I've ever
imitated is a mouse (the fly consisted of some other type of non-mouse fur--
rabbit and deer). This is typically done at night, and it's a lot of fun.

I know people who have seen fish eat ducklings, and I've seen fish try to grab
damselflies out of the branches of trees. But watching a fish grab an entire
pigeon off of the shore is pretty cool.

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gadders
Yeah, I'm a fly fisherman myself, so my response was partly tongue in cheek.

I had a vole-type fly as well, but never used it in anger. Biggest for me
would be a fry/minnow imitation.

People always talk about pike taking ducklings, or duck's feet, but I agree
saying a pigeon being taken would be cool.

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kposehn
I've seen lots of Bass and Pike go for ducks :)

As a note, the vole or mice flies are fantastic for Trout streams, Bass and
Pike. Big rainbows or Brown Trout will snap up a mouse fly on the surface -
draw it past with a very rapid staccato motion to make waves on the surface.

Then watch their wakes rocket to the fly. Total blast :)

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jvermillard
Hmm I live at 100 meter of this river, I think I need to spend more time
watching and filming the pigeons.

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ChuckMcM
Interesting adaptation of a non-native species.

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mhb
The article also mentions that these are non-native, but why is that relevant?
Is the suggestion that in an area in which catfish are native, they wouldn't
exhibit this behavior?

There must be areas in which native catfish are hungry and in proximity to
birds. Maybe it occurs there too.

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ChuckMcM
_"There must be areas in which native catfish are hungry and in proximity to
birds. Maybe it occurs there too."_

Its the combination of birds being available and regular food _not_ being
available and then one has to be successful enough at it to survive. Catfish
are pretty opportunistic feeders, which is perhaps why they would consider
birds to be food if they were otherwise starving.

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oto_tot
This reminds me a bit of one of my favorite episodes of this "X minus 1" old-
time radio show.

[http://www.podcasts.com/x_minus_one/episode/student_body_073...](http://www.podcasts.com/x_minus_one/episode/student_body_07311956)

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bostonpete
Does that make them catfish hunters...?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catfish_Hunter>

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gonzo
why is this on HN?

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davidw
Because someone found it interesting, and it's not an article about a
poisonous topic like politics/economics. I didn't find it terribly interesting
myself (the article was too short), so I did not vote for it, but it doesn't
seem likely to generate boring/repetitive discussions, either.

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yareally
Yeah, something fresh and unique article wise can never hurt. I always figured
the mentality of a hacker was to be curious about everything in the world
around them, even if it's not directly related to start ups, programming and
technology.

Curiosity leads to wanting to figure out why things are as they are and how
they can be improved. Never know when something seemingly independent can lead
to some other inspiration.

However, I do agree the content is lacking and it says that the actual
research behind it is on an open site (though no link). Would have been nice
to link that instead of the above link.

Since it wasn't posted here's the direct link to the research:
[http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna...](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0050840)

