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[eman]

we have all heard fish tales but i want someone to top this !!!

Holmen angler catches coyote

Anglers might have a tendency to stretch the truth sometimes, but it's tough to top Bruce Chandler's fishing story. The Holmen bass fisherman two weeks ago was casting an Ish's Phat Frog fishing lure in a Mississippi River slough near Goose Island when a coyote sprang from the tall grass on shore, leaped into the water and latched onto it.



"In a blink of an eye, it was that quick. It looked as shocked as I was," said Chandler, 62.

The adult coyote, estimated at 25 to 30 pounds, pulled one way, Chandler the other.

"All I thought was that coyote had my $9 frog that I had just bought and I wanted it back," said Chandler, who used his trolling motor to pull the coyote into open water.

"Once I got it out of the weeds and into open water, it became pretty submissive," Chandler said.

Chandler used his cell phone to call his fishing partner, Darren Zumach, who was fishing in the same area.

"Darren asked me what I was smoking when I told him what I caught," Chandler said.

Zumach arrived in about 10 minutes.

"I never saw anything funnier. Here was Bruce, holding onto the pole and motoring slowly down the slough, with the coyote trailing behind," said Zumach, 43, of Onalaska. "I took a picture with my cell phone because I knew nobody would believe us if I didn't."

Neither man wanted to kill the coyote, only free the hook from its mouth and save the fishing lure. They said they felt sorry for it.

Chandler handed Zumach a pair of long, needle-nose pliers, which he used to remove the lure from the coyote's upper lip.

"The hook came right out. I was surprised the coyote didn't snarl or try to bite me," Zumach said.

The exhausted animal instead grabbed onto Zumach's trolling motor. Chandler used his boat to gently push Zumach's boat backwards toward an island, where the coyote managed to crawl up on shore.

"The coyote shook itself, rested a minute or so and then just walked away," Chandler said.

The men fished in a bass tournament the next day and Chandler took plenty of good-natured ribbing from Zumach and other fishing buddies.

"Guys have been asking me what's the best bait for coyotes," Chandler said, laughing. "Some guys said they wanted to check my live well to see how many coyotes I had caught that day.

"One thing is certain. That coyote is on a total mouse diet now," Chandler said. "I doubt it will ever go after another frog."