FISHERMAN NEVER LIE .. THEY JUST TELL WHOPPERS!

[JACoastie]

I prefer panfishing from my solo canoe, it has to have at least 1.5 inches to float. That plus I have discovered that there are many more small fish than large fish and if you use UL rod and reel they are a blast to catch.

I keep pictures at:

http://www.myspace.com/jwbnspace

Sadly I have only been able to fish about 3 days a week this March. 

[BuoyJumper]

One of my favorite pastimes growing up at the New Jersey shore was wading in the shallows of Barnegat Bay with my grandfather to catch soft shell blue claw crabs in the late spring.  During the spring you might net a crab in any one of three stages...a comer, (photo left) where the back of the top shell and the back of the bottom shell are beginning to separate...stage 2 (photo middle) is a shedder where the back hinge is broken and opening up...and stage 3 (photo right) when the crab has backed out of the old shell exposing a totally new and soft shell.  When you catch a blue claw crab in the softie stage the entire crab, gills and all are edible and fried up in butter in an old iron skillet with a little salt and pepper and you never ate anything better.   

   

NOW FOR THE STORY:

My Grandpop and I were wading the shallows of Barnegat Bay in pursuit of soft shell crabs.  Grandpop had the lanyard from the crab car (that was a wooden box with a screen bottom where you would keep comers until they shed) tied to one of the belt loops on his shorts and he was holding a dip net in his right hand.  As we approached a cinder block anchor for one of the sailboats anchored to the north side of the Seaside Park Yacht Club, Grandpop stepped on a bay flounder.  He gave out a yelp and I looked to see the dip net flying backwards through the air and him falling on his back, ploosh into the water.  I laughed so hard my sides hurt.  It was like watching a Laurel & Hardy sight gag where someone pulled a throw rug out from under someone.  The more I laughed the madder he got, but then he started to laugh at how he must have looked and so we just sat on the bottom of the bay and had a good laugh and then went up to his house to fry up some softies for lunch.

[vftb]

I'd probably walk from CA to the Chesapeak for soft shell crab in season.  Done up with a little Old Bay and on a sandwich is to die for.  It's especially good when the little eyes are staring at you from between the bread 

[JACoastie]

We used to get steamed blue crab in a gallon tin pail with a pitcher of beer at the dock in destin. Couldn't eat enough.

[Mollypitcher]

Dry Fly = Fario Trout in Lozere in June.

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[JACoastie]

Did you drive down the road with the fish out like that?


I would.

[BuoyJumper]

Molly, that is one pretty trout.  That had to be fun on a fly rod.   

[Mollypitcher]

I Love Fishing.  Any kind of fishing but really have a preference for surf casting and fly fishing.  Either my feet in the ocean or mounting a mountain river  it's all the same.....fishing is music for the soul. 

I was leaning against the car with that one which was a real beauty.  Quite a fight.  I think the greatest memories are fishing and hunting and my children and grandchildren are coming along in the same road. 

Have another nice pic around here somewhere.....

[BuoyJumper]

HOW TO CATCH A FISH WITH HALF A BAIT

Here is the story behind this Largemouth Bass.  In an earlier post I had mentioned following the tractor around the pond on my brother’s horse ranch.  (NO SNAKES THIS TIME HANS     )  On this day I was fishing a submerged point on my brother's pond that had a lot of felled wood debris on the bottom.  Not wanting to get snagged in the debris I decided to fish the point on top of the water to bring the fish to the bait instead of fishing with a plastic worm or jig on the bottom and risk getting snagged.  I cast a medium sized tiny torpedo past the point and started retrieving it with two or three short jerks then a pause, two or three short jerks then a pause and then just as the torpedo crossed over the point the surface of the water exploded.  I reeled down to get out the slack and then set the hook.  When I did my bait came back at me as if released from a sling shot and whizzed by my ear and landed in the water behind me. I reeled in the bait and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Only the front half of my torpedo was attached to my line, the back half was missing.  Back in those days (maybe still?) tiny torpedoes were made in two parts and glued together in the middle. 

A week or so later with a new torpedo tied on my line fishing out of the canoe, I was fishing that same point and ya know what happened, yep you guessed it.  The surface of the water exploded as I retrieved my tiny torpedo over that point, but this time I caught the bass and hooked in its mouth was the ass end of my first torpedo. The fish weighed in at just over 5 pounds.   


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[vftb]

I'm the one that kept nagging about fish stories and haven't told one yet; your story remminded me of one of those  ones.  When I was young my dad's thing was going out with his buddy off the northern CA coast and going for ling cod.  Not sure if you're familiar with ling cod, but they're great eating and they are extremely aggressive and hard fighting; it's not unusual to hook a medium sized ling cod and as your reeling him in have a bigger one latch on and fight you for him (brought in quite a few big ones that way).  Anyway, we were fishing in the kelp beds off of Capitola and had an unattended rod/line in the water leaning on the gunwale.  All of a sudden, the unattended pole got hit so hard it pulled the pole over the side and down into the kelp bed; that was in the morning.  Can you guess the rest??  Later that afternoon we were on top of the same area when my dad hooked into a big one; he reeled him up and we netted him.  You guessed it, had a hook and line dragging out of his mouth; pulled up on the line and got the rod and reel back. 

[vftb]

BTW; thanks for skipping the snakes - I hate snakes!!!

[BuoyJumper]

I'm the one that kept nagging about fish stories and haven't told one yet; your story remminded me of one of those  ones.  When I was young my dad's thing was going out with his buddy off the northern CA coast and going for ling cod.  Not sure if you're familiar with ling cod, but they're great eating and they are extremely aggressive and hard fighting; it's not unusual to hook a medium sized ling cod and as your reeling him in have a bigger one latch on and fight you for him (brought in quite a few big ones that way).  Anyway, we were fishing in the kelp beds off of Capitola and had an unattended rod/line in the water leaning on the gunwale.  All of a sudden, the unattended pole got hit so hard it pulled the pole over the side and down into the kelp bed; that was in the morning.  Can you guess the rest??  Later that afternoon we were on top of the same area when my dad hooked into a big one; he reeled him up and we netted him.  You guessed it, had a hook and line dragging out of his mouth; pulled up on the line and got the rod and reel back. 

  I am familiar with the species but I have never fished for them.  Not a very pretty fish but good eatin!  Unusual way to recover your rod and reel, but hey if it works and you get all those good Cod fillets too, that's a win - win     

[scrounge]

I was night fishing for catfish at a lake called San Vicente (San Diego)some years ago.....I was visting home on leave and I borrowed my friends fathers set up....He told me to be careful with it because the reel was an old shakespear that his father had bought brand new.

We set up our rods and left the bails open.....left a bell on the tips...so we could stand around, shoot the bull and drink heavily.

A short time late we heard a bell ring and then a splash.....running over to the poles we realized my borrowed set up was gone, the bail must have closed.....Needless to say, my friend was a bit upset....

I borrowed another pole and a deep sinking Rapalla lure.....4 or 5 casts later I retreived the rod and reel (I had hooked the oversized bail)....And using the retrieved rod, I reeled in a 17 Lb catfish....Best tasting Cat I've ever had...We ate it over a campfire right there.

[AIREDALE]

Well gang, here goes:
         This story is about 4 of us that go jet skiing on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey. My wife and I and Charlie and his friend Joanne. We usually ski only on Sunday mornings at first light for 2 reasons, one the water is like a sheet of glass (for speed) and secondly the Saturday night party folks aren't up yet.
         We headed down to the barnegat Inlet for the purpose of going outside into the ocean for a change. Lots of young kids are usually out there jumping the rollers as they head for shore. 
        We were out there messing around for about 5-10 miutes when Charlie yells over to me to ask what's that fin coming in close to my ski. When I looked around I see the fin and 4 more dark shapes below it. All of a sudden they all come up to the surface and boy am I glad. Here I am sitting in the middle of a pod of bottle nosed dolphin. Beautiful!
        My wife had a waterproof sinle use camera I had given her for her brthday the previous month. I told her to take some pictures. The camera is still in the original box with its foil protective wrapper. Her hans are wet but she manages to get the box open but can't open the slippery foil pouch with the camera inside. The dolphin are swimming so close to me I could reach out and touch them. As she's fumbling with the pouch the dolphin start to swim off as their curiosity must have been satisfied. 
         To make a once in a lifetime experience short, we never did get any pictures,so I have to file this under the heading of: "The 5 that got away." The irony of it all is that the camera is still in that stupid foil pouch. We're still looking for "Flipper" and friends on Sunday mornings. I'll probably never get any pictures as I'm now 70 years young with a 1000 year old body and it's getting harder to take the strain of bouncing around on a jet ski for a few hours of fun. 
          Guess I'll stick to fishing on my 22 footer where I can lay down and take a snooze when I get too pooped. Haven't seen any dolphin lately while on my boat but I'm still looking.        
       

[fishnfanatic]

Okay, here's my best story.  Truth is, its no story, its the truth, and I have two witnesses who say it happen.

My cousin, his wife, and I were fishing a small river one Saturday afternoon, things were slow, not even getting a nibble.  Because of tree limbs and moss in the river, I opted to use a float to keep the bait off the bottom.   

I kept my rod in a holder while fishing and I spotted a rather large and juicy grasshopper.  Using my superior stalking techniques <snicker>, I caught the rascal, put it under a plastic cup, and brought the hook in.  I replaced the worm with the grasshopper, and fed it back out into the current, trying hard, but failing to keep it completely out of the grass overgrowing the side of the river.

WHAM!!  SPLASH!!  KER RACK!!  Thats all I heard, I felt a mighty tug on the line and it wimp limp.

After I got over the initial shock of the sudden strike, I realized my pole had been broken in TWO places, not cracked, but broken.  I was using Berkely Fire Wire, 20lb test.  It broke that too.  Grasshopper, hook, and float were gone.

To this day I don't know what hit it, there were rainbow trout, as well as large and small mouth bass in it.  I later caught a small smallmouth bass with another pole.

I did let one go one day, actually 2 of them.  I was fishing a stream down river from a fish hatchery, and was letting my lure go out into a pool below a small waterfall.  I know there was some big lunkers in there, but never had any luck catching them.  This particular day, I was using a lure that look exactly like a minnow.  I no sooner got the lure into the pool and WHAM!!  Both times, and they were beauts,  at least 4 or 5 lbs.  For a trout, thats good sized.