Beaver Lake bad bat attack

[Quillback]

A bat assaulted a man sitting in a lawn chair by the lake.  Hit and run attack, the bat flew off after delivering a bite.  Beware if you plan on visiting Beaver Lake, that critter is still out there, somewhere...

Northwest Arkansas man recounts surprise bat bite that led to rabies treatment | 5newsonline.com

[snagged in outlet 3]

Link doesn’t work for me but I love your breakdown 

[Quillback]

Maybe this one will work.  The guy that got bit had to go to the ER and now is on some sort of shot regimen.  Better safe than sorry (I think),

Man bitten by bat at Beaver Lake

[Johnsfolly]

18 hours ago, Quillback said:

Maybe this one will work.  The guy that got bit had to go to the ER and now is on some sort of shot regimen.  Better safe than sorry (I think),

Man bitten by bat at Beaver Lake

I wouldn't want to go thru the rabies shot regime. Hope that I never get bit by a possible carrier😉

[Quillback]

7 minutes ago, Johnsfolly said:

I wouldn't want to go thru the rabies shot regime. Hope that I never get bit by a possible carrier😉

For sure.  Bat coming out of nowhere and biting a person, that's winning a prize in the bad luck lottery.  

[dan hufferd]

I am not a spelunker but when I was young we crawled around in several caves in the Greene and Stone counties, many times I would catch a bat by trapping it against the cave in my ball cap (now I have weird hair in that spot...not really😜) I never had a bat deliberately bite me. 

I would guess that bat was infected, really weird ! 

[tjm]

As a kid I used to find bats under the overhanging bluffs in this area and they were just another critter to catch, like a furry grasshopper. When back east there was a particular mill pond on a trout stream that had a huge bat population nearby and I've spent many evenings with bats flying inches from me as I fly fished into the dark when a hatch was on. One house we lived in had bats get inside a few times and I removed them. I've probably handled a dozen or so over the years. Never ever saw any aggressive behavior from a bat, although they don't like being held, so yeah if one seems to assault you, it's best to presume it's rabid. 

The vaccine only needs two injections if you haven't been exposed and and a booster whenever your blood titer indicates, so for people that might commonly come into contact with wild animals it's not a bad idea to get dosed before getting bit. Or even licked or other contact with saliva. 

[rps]

If you are fishing right at dark, and the bats come out to feed, do not be surprised if you feel light bumps on your line. Evidently, the line returns the same radar ping as the bugs. It has happened to me more than once.

[Linhardt]

On 7/16/2025 at 12:10 PM, rps said:

If you are fishing right at dark, and the bats come out to feed, do not be surprised if you feel light bumps on your line. Evidently, the line returns the same radar ping as the bugs. It has happened to me more than once.

Anyone know what the limit of bats is when fly fishing at night? 😆🦇

[tjm]

I'll bet you can't hook a bat. I've seen them avoid a fly/fly line in the air dozens of times. The smaller casting lines may not have enough echo for them to avoid, idk, but there is no open season on them so the limit is 0. 

Long time ago the guy I used to fish with came in one morning telling me that an owl had snatched his plug in midair the evening before and took a lot of line before it broke off. He said it swooped and grabbed at the lure, so maybe lures sound like birds in flight? We wondered if the hooks got the owl or if it just held the lure while flying off.