Whatcha catchn’?

[Magicman]

Another is the "Freshwater Drum".  We call it a: Gasper Goo

Here they are considered a trash fish.  We slice the top of their heads open and get the rocks out. 

[trapper]

Freshwater Drum are called sheephead around here

[SawyerTed]

Freshwater drum were once common in the rivers of SW NC.  There's only one indigenous population left in the French Broad River IIRC.  The Wildlife Commission has a plan to restock several of those rivers.

The Dan River and Kerr Lake on the Virginia boarder has a population where some big ones are caught.  Those are non-native fish.  I'm not sure what that means - introduced or stocked.

The record here is 22 pounds.   

[caveman]

It was a long grind today to catch a mess of specks and a few bass.  The biggest speck was 2 lbs and the bass was a touch over 4 lbs.  The weather was perfect, and I really enjoyed spending time with one of my good friends.  We will enjoy some fish and grits either tonight or tomorrow. 

 

 
That's Interstate-4 and an Amazon warehouse in the background of the top picture (male speck).  Not too many years ago all of the land around this lake that was not swamp was citrus groves.

[SawyerTed]

Glad you are getting some "speck therapy'.

[caveman]

I went speck fishing with a friend and his son this afternoon after the rain stopped.  We caught a good mess but did not murdercate them.  We did catch a few mudfish and no bass while filling the livewell.


 

 

 

 
We ate some fried fish that we caught Tuesday tonight.  Bass are my favorite freshwater fish, but the specks we had tonight were about the best I've ever eaten.  I hope to be retired this time next year.  If so and my health holds, there will be some fish in trouble.  This is a lake that JMoore and I have fished since we were kids.  A huge development is going in on the south and west sides of this mostly secluded lake.   Things are changing here rapidly.  I don't know where all the folks are coming from, but they sure keep coming.

[SawyerTed]

Spent some of the Forum downtime at Santee SC on Lake Marion.

These catfish are from Thursday.  The big guys didn't show themselves.  These are 8-22 pounds.


My cousin is holding the 22 pounder he caught.  I'm in the background in the other photo - on the boat.

[doc henderson]

That makes sense, Ted.  If you only caught the small fish, you should be in the background! ;D

[caveman]

JMoore painted a trailer we built for him and his family at my place this morning.  A couple of my other friends called and asked I wanted to go with them this afternoon to go try to catch a few fish.  John was invited but his honey do list was lengthy.

I met my neighbor at his place at noon.  We head the 10 miles or so to the boat ramp, which is 1/8 mile from the Detroit Tigers winter ballpark.  They were having a 1 o'clock game today so we spent quite a bit of time getting form his place to the ramp.  I think they were playing the Braves, which is always a big fan draw.

We started slow, catching an occasional shellcracker or bluegill out of the lilly pads.  We had crickets, jumpers (freshwater shrimp) and worms for bait.  We caught a few big (5 lbs or more) Tilapia, which we call Nile Perch and a bass or two.  Later, probably around 4 o'clock we started getting after some big bluegill and a few shellcrackers.  I did not take any pictures.  The fish are on ice and we'll clean them in the morning. 

The sky was blue, and the air was hot, close to 90 degrees.  I have a fresh red neck.  We had a lot of fun as we always do when we are fiddle fart fishing.  I used a bamboo pole I've had since the early 90's, which my friends ragged me a bit about, but it put a lot of fish in the boat today. 

Today was also the first time that I've ever fished out of a pontoon boat.  That thing was like fishing off of a mobile bridge or pier. One of my friends who was among us today guides bass trips at a local resort.  He usually fishes on his days off too.  On the corporate trips he guides that have more than two guests, he uses a pontoon boat.  He's been telling me for months how convenient they are to fish out of when he has several guests/clients.  I suggested that we strap a 10-12 step ladder on the deck and shoot Nile Perch with our bows from the top of the ladder.
Amended the post.  A picture before we cleaned them this morning.

[Magicman]

Grandson sent me this picture of one of his catches this morning.
The funny thing was that this catfish took his bait and got caught even with that other fish sticking out of it's mouth.  It's tail looks like a Channel Cat.  Musta been hungry.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   Tell your GS to save him for @YellowHammer to help with his monster bluegill problem. I think a couple of those will solve Robert's problem.

[caveman]

It took me quite a few seconds of looking at that picture to figure out what I was looking at.  I still want Howard to take me catfishing.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Let me know when you will be here. Bring plenty of coolers.

[caveman]

My son in law asked me if I wanted to accompany him and my grandson on a fishing trip in the swamp this morning.  I grabbed an ultralite spinning combo, stuffed a few roadrunner jigs and a few soft plastic baits into a ziplock bag, put six bottles of water in a backpack and headed to meet them at their house. 

The swamp is really low right now.  The river we were fishing was dry in many spots, but the walking was a bit challenging due to the mud and cypress knees.  It was a little over six miles round trip, trapsing through mostly swampy areas, but it was beautiful.  Some cypress in there were big enough to make transmission poles (public land).  We were far enough off of the beaten path that we did not see much evidence that people had been there, other than a duck box.  I carried my five-year-old grandson in most of the way and his dad carried him most of the way out.  He was a trooper, but he'd get distracted with berries, snails, turtles and some of the areas were a little rough for the little fellow. 

When we got to the area of the river we were going to fish, a long pond really, we saw 8-10 baby gators and the water was not clear at all.  My son in law and grandson fished there several months ago and it was blue water.

I made my first cast using the roadrunner jig on the small spinning reel and a good 4-5 lb bass hit the little jig.  I handed the rod to my grandson, and he got to fight a good-sized bass.  A few casts later, I lost my jig on a submerged log.  I started using flukes or senko worms (I brought two of each and only two bass hooks).  We caught a few and lost a few.  My son in law caught quite a few on jigs under a cork.  We all had a ball and even caught some monster sized mudfish too. 

There are several little gators in this first picture.  I can't find them on my screen.




This was on the way in.



He rode his daddy's shoulders on the way out.  I put the fish in my backpack.  It was so humid, most were still alive when we got to the truck, almost an hour later.  We'll be eating bass tonight along with grits and hushpuppies and probably some more watermelon. 

[SawyerTed]

Kyle, I can imagine your grandson one day in the future telling somebody, "I caught a bass as long as my leg."  

Of course they won't believe him because they have never seen a bass as long as a 14 year old's leg.  He will have to show them the picture.

Very nice catch!  It sounds like it was a fun time!  

[caveman]

He had a big time.  After supper last night, before going back to their house, the tired little boy came up to me and gave me a big hug while saying "thank you for going fishing with me".  I suspect he slept like a baby in the arms of Jesus last night.  

I told him more than once while we were carrying him in and out of the swamp that one day he may have to carry us to a fishing spot.  

[firefighter ontheside]

We got home from Canada over a week ago, but I've been too busy with stuff to post.  Finally its time to share some fish'n pics with you all.  Total numbers of fish was a little down from previous years, but we made up for that with some nice sized fish.  My oldest caught a 41" muskie and a 49" muskie.  I caught a 40" northern and several 19" smallmouth.  My youngest caught a few smaller muskie and a few nice bass.  He was very excited to have caught muskie even if they weren't big.  I was excited too.  My oldest's buddy caught a 38" muskie.  We were there on father's day so got a nice photo at lunch.  Can't wait to go back again.

[firefighter ontheside]

[SwampDonkey]

Not too bad for fish. Good memories.

[Andries]

Did you fish Lac Seul or Eagle Lake? 
What a difference from Caveman's Florida fishing pictures!

[firefighter ontheside]

Eagle Lake...not too far from Winnipeg.  

[Old Greenhorn]

WOW! I've had Muskie on, but never boated one. I have had a lot of good pike, but you boys got yourself some real fish there! Trip of a lifetime, that.

[caveman]

Good looking fish.  We occasionally catch fish that big, but they are usually eating the fish we are trying to catch.  I may eventually make it up to the glaciated tundra and try to trick one in to biting.

Last weekend, JMoore and I got to fish together again after a long hiatus.  Saturday afternoon we ran out to a manmade reef that was seven or so miles off of the coast that we had not previously fished.  We caught a few decent mangrove snapper, fed part of one to a large barracuda and generally had a good time.  We fried some Saturday night and tonight we blackened some and I smothered mine in over ripe mangos-delicious.

Snapper for the next three nights.  I have a few bugs to work out of my old tub of a boat before I take it too far offshore.  I'm going to replace a relatively new water pump impeller and install a new antenna for my primary GPS.  My boat is 35 and my motor is old enough to legally drink.  Stuff has to be right when you plan to run 30-35 miles or more offshore.  

The mangrove snapper JMoore is holding was about 22" until the barracuda decided to assess the reef tax.  He fed him a big mackerel on Sunday.   



John asked his son to stick his finger in one of the snapper's mouths to determine if it was a boy or a girl Friday evening when we were fishing in the pass.  Thankfully, the boy was smart enough to not follow his dad's advice.  Those little fish will bight with a violence not normally seen in animals.

My wife's used new hooptie has been hauling the boat the past couple of weekends.  Single digit mileage, but it hauls it well.

[Old Greenhorn]

Caveman, you guys are out with your kids and that a great thing pulling in those fish and making memories, very important memories, as Bill is doing with his boys in the prior post.
 All this brings my childhood back to mind and how those memories are so important.
 Back when I was a kid, my parents didn't have the option of putting a 'device' in my hands to amuse me for a few hours, and in the summer we didn't watch TV, especially when the sun was up. So they would put me in a dingy with a 200' rope anchored on the beach and shove me out with a pair of oars and a half cement block for an anchor. I could row around wherever that 200' line would let me go, drop anchor and fish. I would take lunch and a bait bucket and be out there all day catching blowfish and flounder and 'figuring it out'.
 Then after dinner when the men (my Dad, Uncle, or maybe a friend of theirs or two) were available, we would get the gear ready for eeling and set the lanterns on the boat. Around 11pm when the water got flat we would pole along the shoreline about 30' out and spear eels on the bottom and flip them in the boat. I would keep my knees tucked under my ears so I didn't get my feet bit. We'd quit around 1am and the next night we would eat ourselves sick on deep fried eel.
 Those were the best days of my life, hands down.
 Thanks for dredging up that memory. I hope my memories remind you how important the memories you are creating are to those younger folks.

[caveman]

The young man pictured between John and me is my youngest daughter's boyfriend.  He went with us Saturday afternoon.  He, my daughter, and my son in law went Saturday morning but both my daughter and my son in law were blowing chunks by 9 a.m., so neither of them went on the afternoon trip.  

John's son went with us Friday evening but after a couple of baseball games Saturday morning, he was too tired to fish Saturday afternoon.