Shag Attack
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: Freshwater Fishing
Forum Name: Freshwater Fission
Forum Description: The place to discuss all matters related to freshwater fishing!
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=15101
Printed Date: 27 Jul 2026 at 9:52pm
Topic: Shag Attack
Posted By: mike555
Subject: Shag Attack
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2006 at 1:48pm
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On Saturday afternoon I was fishing the Waitainui, just up from the lake maybe the third pool from the true left bank. I hooked a fish and a fresh one too. I played but it got away down stream a bit but I still had plenty of bank to land it. I reckon it was just legal or thereabouts. Anyway from the bank above me on the opposite side swoops an enormous shag. The fish is up near the surface and exhausted and the shag lands on it and attacks it. I was furious as now the drag was too much and I was going to loose the fish. I would have released it anyway but now it was stuffed. I threw all I could find at the bird and shouted like a mad man. In all the effort the fish gets off and I now have a shag on. I pulled it up to the bank to get the hook out. Bend down and it bites me. (on the boot). It had huge beak 10-15 cm long. I was tempted to kill it but just cut the line and kicked it back into the river. All I can say is they are horrible birds and must really slay the trout as I could not believe that it would go for something this big. Do you think I should have finished the horrible thing? |
Replies:
Posted By: Finatic
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2006 at 1:53pm
I saw a shag scoff a legal sized snapper in the viaduct once. Grotty birds full of warms and not much good to anyone if you can't eat the bloody things anyway. A neck amputation would have probably done that shag no harm.  ------------- What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck. |
Posted By: Boz19
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2006 at 4:19pm
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chuck a cloth over 'em mate, they will calm down then and also you can grab them without getting bitten, works for most birds.
yeah you gotta watch out for them "warms" eh Si
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Posted By: Finatic
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2006 at 4:23pm
Yep, you sure do Boz, they're more dangerous than worms. ------------- What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck. |
Posted By: ThomasW
Date Posted: 11 Jul 2006 at 4:55pm
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I once watched a shag battle a large eel, was almost a meter long. The shag won in the end. Had no idea how it would fit.. The stomach would be upset for a while I guess with the eel pushing around in it.
Another slightly off topic bird story. One time out fishing on a boat, my father decided to grab a adult Mollymawk. The beak on that thing did serious damage, but it calmed down quite quickly. Once released hanged around begging for scraps with the other birds. |
Posted By: bluefox_13
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 9:37am
| Should have wrung its neck still learning................ Less of them bleedin things around the better.... |
Posted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 10:23am
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I am in no position to condemn anyone for killing shags as I have been responsible for the demise of several over the years when duck shooting, mainly because I just hate the things on principal. However, they are an important part of the ecological chain and in Taupo, without eels as predators they are important in culling out sick and weak fish and making sure we don't have an overpopulation of trout. When Taupo experienced an overpopulation in the past the size declined and every fish in the lake was a slab, keeping a balance is important and the shag is an integral part of that.
However, emotion still can't stop you hating the things as every time they eat a fish we all have visions of it becoming the 12lber we were going to catch one day....
There's two reasons why you shouldn't have killed it... 1) It's illegal, so although I have sconned a few myself I couldn't advocate anyone to do it...
2) You were on the Waitahanui three pools from SH1. If you were in some secluded spot where the chances of encountering a Department of Constipation officer were 10,000,000 to 1 then I'd have probably stomped on the bloody things head myself, but where you were killing it might just have brought about a court appearance for you... not worth it. A real high likelihood of running into the Doc boys there.
Clark
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Posted By: Reel Deal
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 10:51am
| For it to so aggressiviley attack this fish the poor thing may have been starving with starving chicks (the background music starts about now) Throwing risk a side to do everything it could to save itself and family... |
Posted By: Finatic
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 10:58am
Would it be your fault if the stupid thing happened to be attacking the sole of your boot when it died?  ------------- What's the cheapest type of meat? Dear balls. They're under a buck. |
Posted By: mike555
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 11:13am
| Great call Finatic and thank you for idea of duck shooting on the Waitahanui. Excellent cover and easy stalking I reckon!!. |
Posted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 12 Jul 2006 at 12:48pm
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You wouldn't need to convince me... but you ever tried to win an argument with a DOC Officer????
Clark
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Posted By: ptj
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2007 at 3:10pm
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apparently a survey done in 1945! of the stomach contentsof about 2500 shags found some18500 trout. No BS! You should feel ashamed. I would have paid your fine or done your time. My local pond/lake was fishing very well until a pair of the arrived. Then everything stopped. ptj |
Posted By: Mudfish
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2007 at 9:20pm
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This is my reply on this forum last year. I go by what I say.
Anglers, particularly trout anglers love to hate black shags. The black shag and the trout share a predator - prey relationship. In my humble opinion, I believe that the predation of trout by black shags keeps the population of trout healthy. More of the weaker trout tend to be predated than healthy fish, and these healthy trout breed to form stronger and more healthy trout populations. This process is known as natural selection. Where black shags do pose a problem is in some trout spawning streams and some trout hatcheries. ------------- There's more to fishing than catching fish - but catching fish is a big part of it. |
Posted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 03 Mar 2007 at 9:29pm
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Mudfish is right... bear in mind how many young one spawning from one hen produces... work it out,.... if they alll lived fishing would be crap! There is a natural selection at work and survival of the fittest has always been what has kept our trout stocks among the healthiest in the world. ------------- http://www.clarkreid.co.nz" rel="nofollow - www.clarkreid.co.nz FFF Certified Casting Instructor / Umpqua Designer Tier 
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Posted By: Rusky
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2007 at 1:50pm
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Saw a shag gulf down a good size Pink MaoMao the other day of around 35-38cm, and did it in a matter of say 5 seconds!!!!!!
Gob smacked i was.
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Posted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2007 at 2:04pm
Probably not as "gobsmacked" as the Shag  ------------- http://www.clarkreid.co.nz" rel="nofollow - www.clarkreid.co.nz FFF Certified Casting Instructor / Umpqua Designer Tier
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Rusky wrote:Posted By: Rusky
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2007 at 3:44pm
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Very true Cicada
You wouldnt think that a fish that size could fit down its thin neck, but it did it with ease...
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Posted By: ThomasW
Date Posted: 04 Mar 2007 at 7:36pm
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It is cool watching a big Shag try and eat a large eel. Saw a fight a few years back and at first I was not sure who was winning, the eel wrapped itself around the shag and was pushing it under the water. After around 3-4 minutes the shag managed to swallow the entire eel. Then it weakly climbed onto the bank and rested for half a hour.
I wonder how long it would take the eel to stop moving once swallowed. |
Posted By: Andrew
Date Posted: 08 Mar 2007 at 6:16pm
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what'd id like to know is why he grabbed it mili lol lol ------------- www.projectlocal.co.nz Everything fishing,scuba diving and spearfishing in New Zealand. |
Posted By: ptj
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2007 at 1:45pm
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I made a post about these birds last month. One not based on personal experience but now I have one. Based on the Lunar Calendar I visited Lake Pupuke around midday yesterday and left frustrated by the amount of shag activity (they were catching and I wasn't). I returned in the evening and was troubled only by myopic rowers. After about 45 troutless mins and growing darkness I was about to leave for a steak, when suddenly a strike. As I reacted the fish leaped, about 35meters out. To my amazement it was followed in a nano second by a shag from nowhere (I hadn't seen one 'til then). Within seconds it made several attacks on poor trout which was now threatened on two fronts. My hook or the shags? I treated the fish roughly, retrieving fast without regard to tackle, pulling it left then right - as if this would match the incredible speed and agility of the bird. For whatever reason the shag dived away. Uncertain of another attack I continued my flustered and aggressive 'play'. Trout was 15 - 20metres out when, in the deepening gloom and from the corner of my eye, I spied a rapidly approaching manned craft bearing down on the line between me and trout. I shouted a warning (no bell or foghorn) and the rower was quick witted enough to assess the situation to veer away in a nick of time - most of them aren't. So I brought my catch to the shore. Unfortunately the drama had been too much for me and without a net I attempted too haul the damn thing carelessly up a two and half foot bank pausinig briefly to assess it. Without a struggle it dropped back into the lake, stunned and seemingly almost lifeless, and lay on its side half submerged in a pile of weed. This was a very good sized fish for the lake and though I usually release them it was more than enough for a 2+2 family and I wanted it (but not enough to fall in the lake). A relatively recent hip replacement creates restraints but I manage on hands and knees to position myself to just reach it. Its arse end stuck out from the weed but its belly was just out of reach. I grabbed its slippery tail and in a moment Nemo was awake and gone. I was pissed, but if ever a fish deserved its freedom... Dead true. |
Posted By: Barbary B
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2007 at 3:51pm
| It really makes you wonder why Shags would hang out at Pupuke when they've got schools of kawhai, koheru, pilchards, piper just a couple of hundred metres away? (Oh- that's right they've all been sent to Aussie as pet food). Or for that matter why gannets don't target trout (or do they?....) Maybe shags prefer trout over salt water species? Hmmmm |
Posted By: Pole Dancer
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2007 at 4:26pm
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A great tale for sure and kind of a happy ending, for the fish at least. Or in another view, at least if you couldn't have it, the shag missed out too.
I still maintain the shags don't make a real impact and actually help keep the fishery healthy but it still riles us anglers when we see an attack...
Barbary... dunno about the Gannets... but God forbid they ever work it out!!!! Imagine the fright as the #16 Adams touches gently to the surface... the cunning brown tips slowly up looking for all the world like its in the net already and CASPLASH.... a gannet nails his arse... I'd be carrying my 12 gauge in short order... ------------- http://www.clarkreid.co.nz" rel="nofollow - www.clarkreid.co.nz FFF Certified Casting Instructor / Umpqua Designer Tier
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Posted By: ThomasW
Date Posted: 18 Apr 2007 at 5:54pm
| I see many more herons then shags while out fishing. |
Posted By: ptj
Date Posted: 19 Apr 2007 at 8:19pm
| Barbary B, when I watch a pair of clearly experienced perch fisherman, from Eastern Europe, haul out about 20 of them in little more than as many minutes, 20 metres from me, it's not hard to understand why the shags like it there. |
Posted By: Barbary B
Date Posted: 20 Apr 2007 at 8:59am
| Just hope that the Shags are hitting the perch 100 x more than the trout. |
Posted By: Barbary B
Date Posted: 07 May 2007 at 12:14pm
| An interesting post script.... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10438208 - http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10438208 |