Bald Eagles Ice Fish

Many Ice Anglers See Bald Eagles While Ice Fishing

Bald Eagles are ice anglers too. Baldy’s soar over ice fishing areas to scour for dead fish and bait left on the ice by anglers. I’ve even witnessed a bald eagle soar out of the fog (we couldn’t see it thru the fog until it was too late) and grab a northern pike that was still attached to a tip up! This eagle swooped in and carried away the pike and my son Sam had to make a mad scramble dive to snare the tip up as it went across the ice snapping the line before the bald eagle could carry away the fish and the tip up!

For years I’ve watched bald eagles soar over me while ice fishing and finally on December 14, 2024 I brought my camera onto the ice while fishing. It was a low overcast day, warm as December goes with occasional snow squals. There were bald eagles sitting atop the pines along the shoreline and we knew there was potential that there would be a fly by or two. Sure enough these eagles flew down to make a recon flight to see what was on the ice and at one point they flew right over the top of us. Fortunately for me I was near the sled my camera was in and I grabbed it from under the blanket I had it wrapped in. I did the best I could under the circumstances pointing my 500 +1.4 MM lens towards the bald eagles I hit the shutter. My camera was set to be ready for this and it was set to 1/3200, F5.6 auto ISO. The encounter was brief but I managed to capture this moment in the images you see below.

Bald Eagle Ice Fishing

Please Share This Post