Bald Eagle Catches Fish

Canon 5d Mark II
Canon EF 400mm f/5.6
ISO 400
1/1000 sec
f/13
Handheld from a boat

Taken in Newfoundland last month, first time using my new 400mm "toy" lens. In CS3, tried to lighten the fish to no avail, there are just no details there. Brought out some s/h on wing edge. Sharpened face as well as overall sharpen. I know already HA is not ideal and that the clarity on wing not great. What i also now know just from my short time poring over these forums is that I should have upped the ISO and maybe opened up the aperture? I was in AV mode, probably should have been in Manual or TV.
Maybe I should try to sharpen some more? I always do one pass, and don't know if it's appropriate or overkill to go into Unsharp Mask a second time.
Did crop a bit, maybe 1/3.
Thanks for any comments/critiques.

Hi Melissa - could you post the original for us to see- Please.

Here it is, Lance.

Hi Melissa, did you add saturation on your original post? I think the colours look better in the full size image. I don't think you need to crop quite as tight as you first did, and maybe you can try and squeeze some colour out of the fish. You caught the action nicely!

Hi Melissa- Bald Eagles present an exposure challenge in harsh light because of the dynamic range between the light and dark areas of the plumage. It looks like you exposed correctly for the highlights- well done- but with the light coming from the upper left, the trailing edge of the wing and under the bird are in shadow. I like the crop from the original with lots of room in the direction of flight. However, it seems softness couldn't take the crop. I'm not sure any more sharpening is going to help in that the eye looks a bit over sharpened as is. Looking at the techs, the 5DII can produce very good quality images at ISOs higher than 400, and the 400/5.6 is super wide-open so you could have upped the ISO and maybe used f6.3 or f8, which would have allowed a much higher shutter speed. For birds in flight, this is a good way to go.

If your camera lets you shoot in raw format, I recommend using it for dynamic subjects like this with the challenging dynamic range. The raw image has more data to work with. When shooting, I typically set my camera to record both jpg and raw so I have the option of using either one for my post processing.

Yes, Dawn, I did shoot this in raw. Guess I should work on it a bit in ACR, don't think I did. I'm still learning how to use that.
And yea, John, I now know I should have opened wide up and also upped the ISO. Amazing how much I have learned so quickly here in just a few weeks. Geoff, I may have saturated. I'll try again with less saturation, too.
Lance, interested to hear what you think.
Thanks to everyone.

Hi Mellisa - Original looks a tad soft which explains why the OP looked a little over sharpened (had that harsh sharp look about it) The crop should not have degraded the IQ that much seeing as it is 25mp to begin with.
John is right about the dynamic range.
I like the pose and the incursion of the prey even though it cant be seen - so great timing and action. Also like how you left room up front for him to fly into.
Looking at the OP and the original - think that maybe you were a bit heavy with the post processing.

Keep em coming :)

Thanks so much for your helpful comments, Lance.