Did You know - outdoor edition

[Walnut Beast]

Definitely funny how the bear looked back after he got out 😂

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that a crawfish will regrow a lost pincer? The same is true of a stone crab and many other species. In some states only one claw from a stone crab can be saved and then the crab must be released. 

   It is interesting that many primitive animals lower on the evolutionary scale can regenerate lost limbs while animals higher on the scale cannot. A crawfish or crab is about as high on the scale as any animal I can think of that can regenerate.

   Scientists and doctors have been studying this trait in hopes they can use it to somehow trigger the human body to regenerate lost limbs and digits and such.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that many fish and shellfish, particularly squid and octopus, change colors to match their surroundings? Stonefish will match the color of the coral where they are laying in ambush for their prey and be nearly impossible to see. A squid, cuttlefish or octopus will do the same thing.

   While spearfishing in the Red Sea one time I shot at a fish and missed (Yeah, I found that hard believe too :D) but I noticed my spear was wiggling. When I pulled it out of the bottom, I noticed I had impaled a small stonefish. This was actually a problem as they are covered with poisonous spines making him very hard to remove. Kind of like the first time I went frog gigging and gigged a big angry water snake. and had to pull it off. Another less brilliant idea of mine but the stonefish was purely unintentional.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know some people stock their livestock water tanks with goldfish to help control the algae and mosquito larva that try to raise in them? I put a few minnows/darters in my lower tank a couple days ago and am going to put a few more up in the upper tank as I see wiggletails in it. If this works I'll have cleaner stock tanks (One is an old cast iron bathtub and the other is a big, black, rubber tank) and maybe a ready source for crappie and catfish minnows.

  I remember we had a big concrete tank in our waste treatment plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and our Filipino workers said in their country they would put carp in such tanks. They would raise and grow on the nutrients in the effluent and they would harvest and eat them. We would not do so for fear of toxins and heavy metals present.

[Chuck White]

I recall back when we were kids on the farm, we most always kept a half dozen or so Bullhead in our cattle watering tank.

Kind of funny during the winter, when we let the cattle out to drink, at times they would empty the tank and the fish would be flopping around on their sides until the incoming water was enough so they could swim again!

One winter we even had a 3-foot freshwater eel in there, but he survived.

[Don P]

When Michelle was an ag tech at State one of the experiments she took care of was a vegetable greenhouse with the plants in sandbeds in benches. It was originally intended for arid regions. The slatted floor had been dug out underneath into several ponds that they raised tilapia in. There were timed pumps that sucked off the bottom of the tanks and watered the plants, which filtered the water and used the nutrients. The water, filtered by plants and sand, would drain back to the fish tanks below.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know that river mussels seem to prefer areas with a lot of gravel instead of just sand? I grew up fishing on the Escambia River in N. Fla and it was a pretty swift river with lots of curves and turns and such which created lots of big sandbars. While we would find a few small mussels in the sand the most and the biggest mussels were always on the bars with a lot of gravel. I assume this is a preferred place to spawn and the eggs hold on the the rocks and gravel better than the sand. 

[Ljohnsaw]

I assume this is a preferred place to spawn and the eggs hold on the the rocks and gravel better than the sand.

Interesting.  Or maybe the predators have a harder time extracting them from the gravel?

[TroyC]

Did you know that once sockeye salmon head upriver from the ocean they are caught by snag hooking them in the mouth? Seems the fish don't feed during their final journey. They swim upriver open and closing their mouth. They are caught by drifting a weighted  bare hook with streamers or flies tied on them and as the leader encounters the open mouth the hook will hopefully  hang in the jaw of the salmon.

[WV Sawmiller]

Troy,

   i knew in some cases salmon were snagged but I never heard of or realized people were trying to snag them in the mouth. From your description I understand the fish are swimming upstream with their mouths open and fishermen are basically trying to toss a stream or such into their mouth and hook them.

   I wonder if a J hook or circle hook works better in this case?

[Ljohnsaw]

Sacramento is a long way from the ocean.  And Redding (Lake Shasta) is even further.  When the salmon enter fresh water, they stop feeding.  We use a "lure" called a flat fish.  It has a big bill that causes it to wobble in the current.  You rig it with a big drop weight to keep it near the bottom (6" to 18").  You let it out slow an "walk" it back away from your boat.  The salmon come along and see these "fish" and attack them to protect the reds.  Sometimes you will snag the side of their head as they hit it - those have to be let go.  Others will use a big jig.  They drop it to the bottom and rip it up 2 or 3 feet and repeat.  Those guys will often get an illegal snag in the gut or tail.  Lots of fun trying to steer a tail hooked 30-35 pound fish!!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Did you know a potato rake is commonly used to rake clams along the South Carolina coast? I learned this technique from our MWR rep at Parris Island Recruit Depot when I was stationed there in the USMC. 

   We would got to The Jean Ribault Monument at the end of the road next to the golf course on Parris Island SC at low tide. We would walk along the edge of the golf course and the wives, when they went alone, would take our son's little red wagon then climb down the slick mud bank to the marsh 20' below. We would rake through the oyster shells in the shallow water and the clams would turn and slip between the fingers of the potato rakes and hang. Often when the muddy water cleared up we would spot other clams we had exposed and rake them in. 

   We only had an hour or so of low tide before the tide started coming back in and flooded us out. The wives got real good at reading the tidal tables, one would baby sit the small children and the rest would go rake clams. They would often fill a 5 gallon bucket. one problem was a 5 gallon bucket full of clams is heavy. 

   It was like trying to walk/climb back up that greasy mud bank carrying a couple of cinder blocks. We/They would have to cut steps into the bank and work our way back up to the top. Once on top the ladies would go to a golf ball washing station there on the golf course and wash the worst of the mud off themselves and and their gear and return home and share their clams with the lady on baby sitting duty - as task which they would rotate amongst themselves. 

   We would keep the clams in a bucket of water in the shade and they would live and stay fresh a week or more like that. We would typically cook them by putting a dozen or so on a BBQ grill over hot coals or on a shallow pan in the oven and they would cook in their shells. Once done the shells would pop open inndicating they were ready to eat.

[KEC]

Those old potatoe rakes are also useful for opening up a beaver dam where you either don't have a machine or can't get to that dam with a machine. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Those old potatoe rakes are also useful for opening up a beaver dam where you either don't have a machine or can't get to that dam with a machine.

Dynamite has to be the preferred beaver dam modification tool. Those logs are so tied together from every direction and packed with mud it is almost impossible to take one apart and if you are down south there is always a swarm of mosquitoes and deerflies and handful of cottonmouths who don't appreciate you messing with their home too. :

[wisconsitom]

Deer flies?  Mosquitos?  Sure enough, got them up here in good supply.  We had a job to do on a muggy buggy day down in the swamp a few years back.  I'm not an insect repellent guy too much,but that day I was just about spraying DEET in my mouth!

But you're right WV, not too many cottonmouths....

[WV Sawmiller]

  Did you know that some, if not many/most fish can feed on items on the surface without ever breaking the surface of the water? Yes, sometimes you will see a fish jump completely out of the water after a flying insect or such. I once saw a largemouth bass jump out of the water nearly 2' trying to catch bird on a cypress knee.

But a common way of feeding especially on surface insects such as mosquitoes and especially in a big Mayfly hatch is for the fish to ease up to a couple of inches from the bug then force the water through his gills creating a vacuum pulling the insect into his mouth. In fact during a Mayfly hatch on our local lake you can approach any low hanging bush or limb where the Mayflies are swarming and falling into the lake and you will hear little popping or slurping sounds and see little ripples emanate in a circle about the size of a dinner plate as they pull the bug under. The fish never break the surface of the water.

It is fun to watch when fishing with a fly line and a floating cork or foam bug with little rubber legs. I toss the bug into a likely looking spot then twitch it a time or two to simulate a swimming bug and attract local fish. It is common when the water is fairly clear to see the fish ease up to a few inches under the bug and stop and watch sometimes for several seconds. Sometimes they will slap at it as if to kill it but when you hear the loud slurp he has sucked it down. When you land the fish you will almost always find the bug hooked several inches in the fish's throat rather than in the lip.

Case Fishing Knife | Duluth Trading Company

The link shows a style of fish knife where one blade has a combination scaler and hook disengorger. The narrow blade and the notch in the end of the blade is the best tool I have found to unhook such a deeply hooked fish with a small mouth such as a bluegill. I keep several of these in my boat. Don't worry about the brand. Many companies make them and the $2 Chinese special works just as well as the most expensive one on the market.

Anyway, the next time you hear a slight popping noise on the lake grab your fly rod and go have some fun. I often keep a long pole in my boat and go bang it against leafy overhanging bushes and vines during a Mayfly hatch to make them swarm and fall in the water. I ease back a few feet and toss a baited hook with a BB shot under a float a foot or so deep and catch a bluegill or two. They will be slashing the water like Piranhas at time. Often I use a pinch of night crawler or just put a Mayfly or two on a long shanked #8 or #6 cricket hook.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I am really surprised we did not get any comments to the last past - there was some really good information there. ???

    Did you know that bream, especially bluegills go to their beds (little depressions in the sand) every full moon in the summer (Late Spring to early Fall) and lay more eggs? About 3 days before the full moon is often a very good time to go catch them with a flyrod and floating cork or foam bug as described in the last post. I prefer a white or lime green round bug but that just me. I find the bream will bite much further from structure and such at night than in the day time and that I'd catch lots of fish in places I'd never catch them in the daylight. I generally make shorter casts. Let the bug lay a longer time before I try to wiggle the legs and listen closely. Often you will never hear the strike and just feel the fish on the line and sometimes when you start to make your next cast you find a fish on or snatch a small surprised bluegill out of the lake to come sailing past your ear.

   You need pretty much a dead calm night for this kind of fishing. Any light chop on the water will prevent the fish from seeing and hearing the bug land and you will not hear the strike. I assume a lot more bugs are out at night and are falling into the water and the fish are out looking for them.

[TroyC]

i knew in some cases salmon were snagged but I never heard of or realized people were trying to snag them in the mouth.

The fish are opening and closing their mouth as they swim upstream in the current. Legally you have to hook them in the mouth or let them go. A 'foul hooked' fish will sometimes break your rod if not your line. "Combat Fishing" as it is called is where you use a hook ( required to have a fly or ribbon on it) with a split shot about 2 feet above it. Use just enough weight to take the hook to the bottom but it must bounce along in the current, The line is cast 45 degrees upstream and as the line drifts down, it will sometimes get caught in a open fish mouth. When you pull the line in, it hooks the mouth as you are pulling the leader through the fish's mouth. Then the battle is on! In Alaska you line up in the river, knee deep, almost shoulder to shoulder, and most use a heavy weight fly rod with 20-30 lb mono to catch the 8 lb sockeye. Everyone has to throw and retrieve in unison or everyone gets tangled. A holler of "Fish ON!" and the two people on either side pull their line in so you can battle your catch. It is not uncommon for a hook to pull out and the hook and sinker send someone to the emergency room. They are usually back that afternoon with a couple stitches and a 'trophy hook'. Google combat fishing for some interesting watching.

[WV Sawmiller]

  I have foul hooked a few fish when they'd slap at a lure or such and get hooked in the belly, side of the head or the tail. Its hard for me to imagine deliberately and successfully foul hooking one in the mouth as I understand here. I wonder what is your cast to hook ratio or do you just cast and leave it out there till one sucks it in?

  I don't think I have the personality or patience to fish with that many people on both sides of me especially if they are strangers. I don't do well on party boats and such.

   I do know the sockeye or red salmon as we always called them were pretty good eating. My BIL in Alaska sent us some as frozen freight and my wife and daughter went up on a trip for pink and silver salmon. My daughter had won the fishing trip but the guide and pilots and such quickly found they were happier to go around taking pictures than fishing.

[TroyC]

Did you know Razor Clams (in Alaska) are highly sought after? They look sort of like a big hot dog about 4" or so long and are quite tasty. Around the Cook Inlet area, the tide goes out and exposes quite a bit of beach. The clams are 6" or so down in the mud but they leave a bubble hole in the wet mud. You look for the bubble hole. You use a 6" tube about a foot long with a  T handle on the end. The handle has a hole so when you push the tube over the clam (very quickly as they can go thru the mud amazingly fast) you cover the hole with your finger and as you pull the plug of mud up the suction causes the plug to come straight up inside the tube. Release the hole and the plug drops out hopefully with a clam. There is a season and limit on clams you can harvest.

[TroyC]

Sockeye is great, almost as good as King Salmon but I never caught a King. In Alaska during the salmon season it is daylight about 23 hours a day. I did a lot of my salmon fishing late night to avoid the crowds. 2 AM there is like 3PM in the south.

[TroyC]

I wonder what is your cast to hook ratio or do you just cast and leave it out there till one sucks it in?

You are continually drifting and retrieving your line. Your hookup ratio improves with you skills. You might cast and drift 20-30 times before connection or you may be in a good spot and hook one every 5-10 cast. Location is important as the fish can be funneled around obstacles such as boulders that will increase your chances.

[WV Sawmiller]

Troy,

  If I remember Razor clams are long and thin and I guess they were named after old straight razors and might have even been used by indigenous tribes as razors to shave their heads and such.

   It sounds like a fun way to fish for them. I wonder if a long narrow trenching shovel/spade with about a 4" wide X 16" long blade would work? Maybe press it down from just past the hole and hope to slide the blade under the clam so he can't scoot back then pry up the load and hope he is in it.

   I did know that clams are able to move a lot more and a lot faster than many people give them credit for. I think they use hydraulics pushing the water out to propel themselves. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Sockeye is great, almost as good as King Salmon but I never caught a King.

I've only had one ocean-caught Sockeye that I got on a party boat in the sound south of Seattle.  BBQ'd it for lunch, yumm.  Down here, I've caught King in the Sacramento and American rivers.  Quite a fight and quite tasty.  I also lake fish and we have planted Kings in Folsom lake (very good eating) and further up the hill (6,000' ele) Sockeye are planted (called Kokanee) in Stampede and neighboring reservoirs.  They don't get big (17" is huge) but make up for it with phenomenal fighting and superior taste!

[KEC]

Here in New York they planted Coho and Chinook Salmon in Lake Ontario which swim up numerous rivers and streams to spawn. For a period of years, people were using big weighted treble hooks, casting and retrieving and hooking fish in all parts of the body. It was carnage and sparked a lot of outrage. Now, for a fish to be legal, it must be hooked in the mouth. As I understand it, people are catching them in the mouth with flies. Even though the fish are not feeding, if a fly gets near their mouth, they instinctively will bite. I have not fished there. Maybe this is force of feeding habit or maybe they are annoyed by the fly or are programmed to attack anything that might be a threat to their eggs.