Ever catch a BAT?

[RollininZona]

I'm sure every fly fisherman has had bats follow their flies... right? It happens all the time...

Well tonight, in Oak Creek, at twilight thirty, one actually snatched my #20 bwo dry fly as it was settling onto the water!

I saw the bat dive in toward my cast, then thought I had a fish, then noticed my line was rising in the air perhaps 8 feet off the water! I tugged and the poor guy plummeted into the drink. Amazingly, he lifted off the water again, made it several feet, then in the drink again. He did this at least three times. I retrieved him to within a few feet of myself, but he was flying around me! Still hooked!

I tried to get a video of this, but it was dark, my camera is a pos, and I was really concerned for the little guy.
I finally got him to the ground and very cautiously used hemostats to released him. He was hooked in the web of skin between is back legs. After a quick crawl on the sandstone slab, he took off, free again.

-

So on my way back up-stream toward my truck I passed a glassy pool and couldn't resist the cast. You've all been there... Beautiful execution, fly settling down, and BAM, another bat on the line! A SECOND bat! A much bigger bat! Also caught in the web between his hind legs! Also flying in circles around me. This one released him/herself as I was reaching for the hemos'.

In 30+ years of throwing flies at fish, I've never, ever caught a bat. Nor have I heard stories of such things. Then in one evening, I get two.

I learned two things about bats. It seems they "scoop" their prey - at least the tiny stuff - in the web between the hind legs.

They actually can take off from the ground, and even the surface of the water.

Oh, and they like #20 green emerger parachutes!

[YettiReconAZ]

Some bats carry rabies. A friend of mine was bit in Flagstaff. It was at night at a volleyball tournament and she needed the rabies vaccine.

Careful, might be hard to get the bat off the line and get bit.

[Mr.Smith]

Insect eating bats scoop with their uropatagium (web between their legs) and then raise the bug to their mouths, while flying. The smaller ones (myotis, pipistrelles) just kinda chill out when captured. The bigger ones (mexican free tailed) get pissed and try to bite the **** out of you. bats are neat.

[Chef]

Yes at Lee's Ferry If you have fished & camped up on the banks of the Ferry you'll know each night there's a wicked sound that happens around sun-down. You can make out flocks(?) of bats flying down the river hitting insects and sometimes a fly. I have a picture somewhere that I need to find but getting them off was a bit freaky.

There are fish in there that enjoy the right sized bat too if given the chance to eat them...Trust me

[fshfanatic]

Yup. I caught a bat.

[Alex Landeen]

Tom Rosenbauer over at Orvis was talking about catching bats last month...

If you are interested. (It's the fishing at night one)

[Shildy]

Im seen my buddy catch a swallow under the Blue point bridge. Unhooked it and let it go. It was on his back cast. Para Adams.

[funkeeetrout]

Does anyone remember what thread that post was in about the guy hooking the duck on the Ferry and the male duck trying to "take advantage of the situation"? That one had me ROTF!

Two bats in one day... That may be a new state record!

[joe]

"That's what happens when you match the hatch down to a bat's ***"

[mvtoro]

Originally Posted by Mr.Smith

Insect eating bats scoop with their uropatagium (web between their legs)

AHA! That explains it.

I literally caught a bat just two nights ago for the first time in about 12 years. Killer fishing for big browns in darkness by the way 19", 20", 23", 22" one after the other. I had caught a bat just false casting years ago and told my buddy about it as we were fishing and setting to the sound of the splash of the take as bats were flying around. He didn't believe me so and I had already felt a couple bats briefly grab my PMX, so I just dangled it out there and let a bat grab it. Hooked him and was worried that I'd got him in the mouth and felt pretty bat about it.
Upon further inspection he was biting the fly with his mouth trying to get it unhooked from that uropatagium thing. I helped him with my hemos and he took off alright. Pretty cool.