It's a day that started out like any other for Garry Olson, JR. "Really it's my zen, it's my peaceful place, it's just me and the fish some paddle boarders and other kayakers," he says of the time he spends fishing.
It's a past time that he's enjoyed a couple of times a week for the past four years. "Having been a 16-year veteran, Marines and the Army, my doctor said it might be a good opportunity to get back out there, it's quiet, you're by yourself, not only that but it's good thinking time."
He set out on Lady Bird Lake early Saturday morning, ready to make a big catch."I was minding my own business in this cove across the street from Austin High School," he says, when, "the owl came out of nowhere." He says it swooped in and took his lure.
Olson, who always has his go pro with him, had it rolling, catching everything on camera. He paddled up to the owl to see if it was tangled in his line. That's when, "it came right up and sat right on my go pro."
The owl's talon was stuck in the lure so Olson called Austin's animal control. Olson said other than the owl snapping at him, it was calm, and he never felt threatened. "I think we respected each other's boundaries, I knew not to try to get my Go Pro and he knew I wasn't going to get my Go Pro so it was a mutual understanding."
A mutual understanding that the two shared for the next hour as they waited for help to arrive. The lure couldn't be removed so Olson cut his line and Animal Control took over from there. The owl has been sent to a rehab facility here in Texas that specializes in birds. Once it's been nursed back to health, it will be released into the wild.
Olson says as long as he's been fishing, and as many big catches that he's made, he's never seen anything like this...but if this ever happens again, he says, "that'll be a hoot."