Gone Fishing!

The other morning, just for a change of pace, I decided to grab my fishing poles and a little gear and do a little fishing for the first time in 2012.  I picked up some minnows and crawlers at the local hardware/sporting goods store and I headed over to Larry and Bev’s party dock. (Larry is also known as Big Dude…blog site http://bigdudesramblings.blogspot.com/)

This photo from Larry’s dock is from last year when our son David and his wife Amy and our grandsons David III and Emmett Lee came down to visit.  The best part about this cove is that no one else lives on it, so it’s very quiet and peaceful...especially ‘early’ in the morning. (Being retired, Laurie and I regard ‘early’ as anytime between 8 am and 9 am!)

I fished off the dock for 2 mornings in a row… It was very relaxing.  I didn’t have a camera with me that first morning…but I caught a nice Bluegill, what I would call a Rock Bass, a decent Channel Catfish, a small Largemouth Bass and an undetermined fish that the East Tennesseans would call a Brim...  Everything was caught on minnows…

Note: Brim or Lepomis is a genus of freshwater fish that consists of 16 species which includes Sunfish, Bluegills, Warmouth and Pumpkinseeds.

On the second morning, I started out with a nice little 13” Channel Catfish.  He put up a nice fight and got my adrenalin started.

Then I picked up a 12” Largemouth Bass.  He fought a little harder than the catfish and I had to bring him in all the way from the other side of the cove…

I was fairly close to the back of Larry and Bev’s pontoon boat when this bruiser of a Channel Catfish hit my minnow… What a fight he put up!  He jumped, dove and did everything he could to shake the hook.  He’d see the surface and the dock and he’d dive, bending my pole almost in half…lots of fun!  I measured him at between 22 and 23” and I could barely get my hand around his chunky body to get the hook out.

This is the last fish that I caught on the second morning.  I’d never caught anything like this before…anywhere.  It was 13” long and a decent fighter.  I wasn’t sure what it was, so I went on line at http://www.tnfish.org/PhotoGalleryFish_TWRA/FishPhotoGallery_TWRA/TWRAFishPhotoGallery.htm to see what I could determine.  My best guess after looking at this site and then Wikipedia is that it’s a Mooneye.  They’re widespread across the USA and they can reach 19” in length.

All in all, I had 2 nice peaceful mornings on the cove listening to the birds calling and the fish jumping.  The variety of fish I caught made it even more interesting. (Note: My fishing standard is 'catch and release') Thanks to Larry and Bev…and I’ll be back!

Just click on any photo to enlarge it…

Thanks for stopping by and sharing you time with me!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave