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.