The Great Cormorant Mystery

Got up this morning to 29 degrees here in beautiful downtown Jackson. I really wanted to go fishing, but if you'll remember the last time I froze my butt off.

So I steeled myself to staying home even though I completed today's Haus Frau chores yesterday. I hemed and hawed back and forth and finally decided to see what the temperature was at the lake. It was a blazing 45 according to a Google search.

That was it, I'm going.

I got to the lake at 9:00 and parked out on the point where I usually fish.

The usual point.

Set a couple rods out with rainbow Power Bait and took a couple photo's around to show, at least I wasn't alone.

The far point

Close by

Notice it's a bit cloudy yet? Actually it was very cloudy, but not rain clouds. Just ones from the incoming storm system due tomorrow.

Cloudy

It was rather nice until the wind picked up. I was prepared though. I had my parka, gloves, and hand warmers. No frozen butt today. No I didn't put the hand warmers on my butt. Thought I'd head that one off at the pass.

I spent my time sipping a nice cup of coffee from the little coffee shop in Martell, on the way to the lake. No more Starbucks. When I can get a good cup of coffee, don't have to fight the parking lot with all the cars from people crammed into Starbucks playing with their free WiFi, why fight the crowd. Besides, their coffee is better than Starbucks and it's 75 cents a cup less.

I noticed a Cormorant out in the lake, then it suddenly took off doing the "broken wing" escape maneuver. Where it was sitting, I saw something in the water. At the time I thought it was one of those little mud ducks that are all over the lake. Like the one in the picture below.

I don't know the real name, I call them mud ducks

As I continued to watch, what ever it was slowly descended into the water and disappeared. Not a way a mud duck would act. I found the Cormorant out in the lake just sitting there. Very unusual for a cormorant. They generally dive a lot for fish, but this one just sat there.

That's him out there

I thought that maybe it was just catching it's breath. It was quite show when it was doing the "broken wing" thing. Still it sat there.

I kept checking every so often and it was still there just drifting. Made me think that what ever scared it must have been something BIG. What in Lake Camanche is big enough to take on a Cormorant? I have no idea. 

As time passed, the Cormorant drifted closer to shore. Still not acting like a normal Cormorant. It ended up by shore not too far from where I was sitting. I looked away to check on my rods and when I looked back, it was gone. Just like that, gone. I don't believe it flew away because I couldn't see anything in the sky. I checked along the shore, but it was nowhere to be found. 

Thus the great Cormorant mystery. What was in the water. Do we now have a Lake Camanche Monster (like Loch Ness). Is there something we should be concerned about when we're out there in kayaks. Has there been mysterious disappearances at Lake Camanche? Are we having a Twilight Zone experience. Do I need to call the X-Files? Is there a USO in the lake?

Oh, no bites. 

Stay tuned.