They're getting BRAVE!

I've never seen the loons come this close up
Now I did have a 10" bass in my hand

Or is just HUNGER???

They figure a boat that big prolly buys minners by the pound!!!

Last time I was at Fork that same loon grabbed a small crappie right as I was getting it to the surface. Wound up braking the line.

I hate those things. One followed me around on Pines last year for about two hours and dove to get my jigs and minnows every time I reeled up my rods. Get outta here stupid birds!

It figured WRONG!
But it did chase the bass when I released it, was under quite a while, not sure if it scored a meal or not.
Figured if it had, it would have surfaced to swallow it

When we were at Pines a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't believe how social these birds were compared to the CC loons that I used to see. When we caught yellow bass, I felt like I was in the scene from Finding Nemo, when the gulls were like "mine, mine, mine."

The Pelicans used to be very brave at Pines, but I've never seen Loons get this close!!!
People have probably been feeding them dead minners?????

They wanted a closer look at that pretty boat !!!

Just wanted to have it's picture taken! Love those nature shots.

I was fishing with my son a couple of weeks ago. We were putting a spankin on the bar fish. we had a loon come up and we started tossing a few his way. ended up feeding him 6 fish. It was funny watching him try to get them down.

That water is awfully clear for lake water???

Well there ya go.....
That's what trains them a boat= food.....

Hey Todd, is this yours, I thought it was going to get out of the water Sunday, pretty sure he has been getting some easy meals from someone.

It has been pretty much this clear all winter down south.
Very muddy up north on the West arm a couple of wks ago.

There have been several posts about some type of bird that has taken shots at crappie,normally leaving a puncture type hole in its side.Is this the bird you guys were referring to?

Same thing happened to David and I a couple weeks ago at Pines. These are all young birds and evidently don't have any better sense. The older birds won't come within 100 yards of you.

It works the opposite on my lake, the water clears on the north end before the south end... .
I heartell it's due to all the natural springs on the north end.....

The bird that normally punctures the fish is the ever-present Cormorant. (may have spelled that wrong, but most just call them Water-Turkeys)

Give a bar fish a good tap on the head with the pliers and toss it to the loons. You'll make a friend for life. They usually hang back while I catch crappie, and as soon as I pull up a yellow bass they hustle over to the side of the boat for their treat.

Funny you say that, we used to do that for the bald eagles up in MN, we could get eagles to come grab a fish about 50 yds from the boat, the loons stay far back though. Never seen them acting so "social"

I've feed them yellow bellies for years on pines. They always turn the fish nose down before they swallow Its fun to watch

I hand fed a couple minnows to one out here a couple of weeks ago... He flinched twice but took them both pretty quickly. This was his reward after he stole a couple minnows I was dropping down at the same time right off of the hooks. That loon you saw might have been my buddy "Bill"!

He is a young bird comes over to that gold cat every time I go outthere, loves bar fish ha