A very unexpected catch - Orange Reservoir

[logs22]

A couple weeks ago I spent the afternoon with my wife and son at the Turtle Back Zoo in the South Mountain Reservation. I convinced my wife we should take two cars so that after the zoo I could do some fishing in the area. Since it was almost dark when we got finished I decided to just fish the Orange Reservoir that is right next to the zoo.

I was fishing the far side (across from Mcclunes) and worked my way down towards the dam. I wasn't having much luck with cranks or plastics and it was getting dark so I started to pack things in. I took a final cast with a lipless crank and the strangest thing happened.....my lure never hit the water. My first thought was that I must have snagged a branch but there were no trees where I was fishing. At that point I finally heard a splash and felt some tension on my line so I started to reel in. I had absolutely no idea what was on the end of my line until I had the mystery creature on shore.....it was a bat!

I don't know if my lure foul hooked the bat while casting or if the bat itself attacked the lure while it was in the air...regardless the occurrence attracted a small crowd of people walking the track around the lake. No one could believe that I had a bat dangling at the end of my line. I tried my best to dislodge the treble hook from the poor bat's wing but it was simply not coming loose. Knowing bats are common carriers of rabies I was not about to get that close and risk a bite so I regretfully was forced to cut the line. All in all a very weird day on the lake.

See link below for some pictures and a short video clip.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9...UZyQ2NJbDA1S28

One little side note - that night when I got home I found a deer tick firmly embedded in my side/underarm. I pulled it out and saved it just in case and then proceeded to find two more deer ticks also embedded later that evening (neither was there when I found the first tick). I was shocked as I spend a lot of time in the woods over the summer and in two years had not been bitten by a single tick (deer or dog) and here in one (November) day spent fishing from a well traveled paved path around a reservoir I managed to get bitten 3 times. That was about three weeks ago and I have not exhibited any symptoms nor did I develop bulls eye rashes so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I am in the clear.

Lesson learned - beware of ticks even late in the season and In areas you would not expect to be exposed.