The Great Blue Heron was in a cove just North of the Burnt Cabin Cove and South of Chicken Creek on the east side of the lake. As we came into the cove we saw him there, but didn't pay to much attention, then we heard splashing and at first it was fish jumping. After about 15 - 20 minutes of the sporadic splashing we looked over where the Heron was and saw it was the Heron flopping and splashing around. As we approached him we realized he was in trouble. As stated earlier we turned off both motors, so we would not scare him any more than he was already. As we approached we found that he was caught by the trot line. This Trot line was completely unmarked. It was only about 6" below the surface and baited with fish cut in half, both of which was illegal.

After cutting the Heron loose, he staggered to the shore, where he had trouble walking, whether it was from just exhaustion or an injury too. I am not sure. We checked to see if the line had any markings like required, but did not find any. We couldn't stay any longer to see if the Heron was okay as the winds and lightening forced us to get off the lake.