Gonna Build a Little Pond

[Amarok]

Went down to the river a little after 6. It was sunny and 29C.
Squished back up the bank about 8, it was 16C and the rain was blowing sideways.

In between I caught a walleye and a goldeye and had hits nearly every cast. I sized up the hooks for a better chance at the bigguns, so whatever little buggers were nibbling had to be pretty serious to get hooked.

Storm is blown past now. Hoping the weather will co-operate in the morning.


Funny little story from this morning: I couldn't find my needlenose pliers, so I decided to walk along the bank for a look. Didn't find my pliers but found another set, along with a nice small set of snips and a small butane torch. Night fishing and beer lead to all sorts of shit getting left behind.

 

[Psychobilly]

Funny little story from this morning: I couldn't find my needlenose pliers, so I decided to walk along the bank for a look. Didn't find my pliers but found another set, along with a nice small set of snips and a small butane torch. Night fishing and beer lead to all sorts of shit getting left behind.

That's literally how we got our landing net. The biggest Channel Cat I've ever seen in my life got off the hook sadly that year:

The Wife and I were fishing with a friend and her now ex BF, and I had a good hit on my Penn 209m setup, and after pulling his ass up, he started to come up towards the surface. The Wife, seeing the head was NOT going to fit in the net, started to try to get ready to get the net under him, so she could try for the tail end first, as the people with us watched in disbelief saying "there's fish THAT big back here????" and then he did a spin, and spit the hook before the net could get to him. The landing net is big enough for my shoulders to go in. I don't know what he would have weighed, but considering his head was as big as mine....

 

[LoboGrow]

We always knew when we had a nice flathead because it would start doing barrel rolls as soon as you started to bring it in...

 

[Psychobilly]

We always knew when we had a nice flathead because it would start doing barrel rolls as soon as you started to bring it in...

That and the way they hit the bait; If it grabs the bait and kind of stops, it's likely a Channel Cat, but if it BARELY taps it, for like a while, before slamming it, Flathead. Apparently a Blue Cat is like a train going by LOL.

 

[Amarok]

Winds gusting into the mid-sixties kept me home most of the day. Slipped down to the river in the late afternoon to give it a go but it was rough fishing. Couldn't keep a rig in one spot or keep the slack out of the line. I was getting hits but they were really tough to detect.

Stayed an hour or so and packed up when the thunder started rumbling and I could see the wall of rain moving downstream toward me. Currently on my covered deck enjoying the storm.

Hope you had a great weekend and an even better week ahead.

 

[Amarok]

What an awesome time!

Went to the river after work. It was gusty at first but calmed down after a while and turned into a nice evening

I believe the order of catching was walleye, walleye, sturgeon, walleye, goldeye, walleye, sturgeon. This would be the first time I've caught two sturgeon in one outing. Neither was big but it was still so fucking awesome.

Had a really cool experience to end the trip.
Any serious outdoorsman knows how the woods have a feel to them, if you are attuned. It might be chill, it might be happy, it might be wary, etc, and it changes.

Anyway, after a "happy" evening, I started picking up little sounds and feeling there was something hanging around. Then I noticed the birds had stopped singing.
I've never felt something so specific before: I was certain there was something dangerous around, but that I wasn't in any danger.
I fished for a few more minutes before packing up, and as I went up the hill, there was a coyote staring at me from maybe 25 yards away. He turned and very casually sauntered into the undergrowth.
The validation I felt was empowering.

Back tomorrow morning in the quest for a 6 foot dinosaur.

 

[Amarok]

Here's the smoke-assisted sunset.

And this is the bank behind me where the yodel dog was freaking out the birds.

 

[Amarok]

Back tomorrow morning in the quest for a 6 foot dinosaur.

Worked all morning just to kill the skunk. Caught the first mooneye of the year and followed up shortly after with a goldeye.

Back this evening to do it again.

 

[Amarok]

Friday was horribly windy, yesterday was worse. Fishing was not an option.
This morning was sunny and calm and I was casting by shortly after 7 AM.

I still have to check the action cam, but here's a pic from my phone. This is a 29 inch walleye getting ready to swim away(needlenose pliers for scale).

IIRC, it went goldeye, goldeye, goldeye, sturgeon, mooneye, walleye, walleye, walleye.

Sturgeon was in the 40 inch range. It jumped clear of the water right after the hook-set and gave a hard, hard fight. The second wallie was small but the third was a 28 incher. The 28 and 29 are the two biggest I've caught at this spot.

I absolutely love my life.

 

[Amarok]

This is the second big 'eye.


View attachment Bye Eye.mp4

 

[Agreenpassion]

Friday was horribly windy, yesterday was worse. Fishing was not an option.
This morning was sunny and calm and I was casting by shortly after 7 AM.

I still have to check the action cam, but here's a pic from my phone. This is a 29 inch walleye getting ready to swim away(needlenose pliers for scale).

IIRC, it went goldeye, goldeye, goldeye, sturgeon, mooneye, walleye, walleye, walleye.

Sturgeon was in the 40 inch range. It jumped clear of the water right after the hook-set and gave a hard, hard fight. The second wallie was small but the third was a 28 incher. The 28 and 29 are the two biggest I've caught at this spot.

I absolutely love my life.

Damn, nice Walleye bro!

 

[Mr Jay]

Gold, Moon, Wall,,,
All eyes on you !

 

[Amarok]

Gold, Moon, Wall,,,
All eyes on you !

Billy?


Yeah, not a lot of variety name-wise, but very much difference on the end of the line.
One of the goldies today was a tank, probably pushing 20 inches. It fought really hard, but nothing like the big walleye.

One of my favorite things is that a 12 inch mooneye and a 50 inch sturgeon make the rod twitch the same when they are nibbling. The anticipation as I set the hook is so fun.

 

[Amarok]

I realized after reviewing the pics and video that the 28 and 29 inch walleye I caught were the same fish.
I caught the same hawg walleye twice in under an hour.

I was sloppy in my first measurement, but it's pretty obvious when looking, since this fish has a deformity, a superfluous fin on its belly. It has two normal pectoral fins plus a weird extra fin. The extra can be very clearly seen in the video and seen without detail in the photo.

After the first fight, this walleye was drained. It couldn't move. In the pic with the pliers, it had already been laying there recovering for a few minutes and took a few more after before she swam away. For the first couple minutes I had to support her to keep her belly-down.
Then, somehow, a very short time later she was feeding again and fighting as hard or harder, and still swam away in a fraction of the time it took to recover the first time.

I'll never understand these creatures, but it's always fun trying.

 

[Amarok]

Eye?

Aye.

 

[Psychobilly]

Eye?

Aye.

OK Captain smartass