Hey guys, I know we are concentrating on the Challenges right now for the most part, but there must be some cool incidental catches or experiences outside of the Challenge.
Please share anything you'd like here!
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This morning I saw a low to mid 30" range Tiger Muskie swimming around with its whole head out of the water like some kind of weird snake. I 've heard of other people seeing that but it was a first for me. Definitely interesting behavior. After swimming like that for a while it went back under and swam like normal fish. Weird bugger
Found this ont the web: "HEAD ABOVE WATER
They are a fish that is bigger than life, and have an aura of mystique surrounding them. In muskellunge fishing, just seeing a big fish is considered a great day. In tiger fishing, seeing them is expected. And you just might see one that appears with its head out of the water, trying to spot you first. Unlike either of their parent subspecies, tigers exhibit one bizarre behavior. I have witnessed it twice out of maybe six tiger fishing trips. They stick their head out of the water -- completely out of the water -- and cruise in a serpentine pattern as far as 60 yards with their backs showing like some sort of Loch Ness look-a-like.
It is a spooky, surreal thing to see, because they exhibit no shyness like most fish. I once spotted one a hundred yards away, it's white opaque chin like a cobra head sticking out of the water. Only when it cruised by sideways did I recognize what it was, and cast to it with no success. Such behavior only adds to their mystique. Biologists like Sorenson have no clue what the spy-hopping behavior is for, but Sorno likes to imagine the fish are looking for jet skis."
I spent half my money on fishing, gambling, alcohol, women and billiards. The other half I wasted.
I caught that highfin carpsucker that I posted in the facebook group, but I seem unable to post a picture of it here......
"I swear if you catch another drum"
Every single body of water around me holds crappies, and my efforts to catch them were met with disappointment.
Or maybe it's just that I suck in regard to crappies. I've not caught one on purpose in decades (haven't tried), and I realized over the last week that I don't really know how to approach catching them. Everywhere I went that I knew held good numbers of crappies, I caught nothing but green sunfish and bluegills.
Redhorse ID cheatsheets, gars, suckers: moxostoma.com
2020: 10 days fishing 11 species 0 lifers. 2019: 34/45/13 2018: 39/40/5
I caught an exceptionally bulbous GreenGill hybrid, but cannot attach it to this thread (see https://www.roughfish.com/sites/default/files/20200603_181728.jpg ) I also caught my lifer Golden Shiner after at least 15 total fishing hours in its pursuit. I, too, had a difficult time with crappie. Had to make a second trip out to one of my spots and bring minnows to pull it off - very shameful. Naturally, my first cast with the exact Beetle Spin in the exact location as the day before yielded one and made the minnows moot....
Iris noticed it in the water, half buried in the sand. Obviously a stylized Black Redhorse and clearly left there by ancient roughfishers. Possibly ceremonial, definitely magic. Museum bidding war will start soon.
Redhorse ID cheatsheets, gars, suckers: moxostoma.com
2020: 10 days fishing 11 species 0 lifers. 2019: 34/45/13 2018: 39/40/5
That’s is crazy about the tiger Muskie! That has got to be a sight you won’t forget soon haha
Was fishing for the grocery store challenge. Didn't get any bites so after a couple of hours decided to change bait to maggots. Not much later had the first bite and that was the confirmation I needed. Fish were in the area and I just had to persevere with the sweet corn. Didn't get another bream this session but will get one somewhere along the way I'm sure.
edit: finally got one on the sweetcorn
Just thought I'd toss up a few of my favorites from this week! It was pretty cool seeing all the panfish roll in!
Maurer416's longear sunfish, the button fish.
drawer.bli with a great shot of a big bluegill -
Big rock bass for Catfish Jr. -
Detail of Gary's pumpkinseed -
Iris's warmouth and contest coloring -
boah.. that longear...
another mission. was catching the same species over and over again on bread. at one point switched it up to maggots. got a perch and a gudgeon on the maggots. also had a hybrid on bread. I believe its a rudd/roach hybrid. and got both parent species in the contest so it don't count.
ahw look at that little fella! are those native over there or was it used to be someones pet? We've had a visit from mr/miss hedgehog last session. always fun!
Native to the East but invasive here in Arizona where I am. The city lakes here are full of them. They reproduce but the source of the population is released pets. In a system with native fish I would have removed him but since he was in a closed system chuck full of non natives he got cpr'd :)
That Hedgehog is awesome!! I love seeing the different European fish and creatures you post!
I went out last night to the river to try and get a last minute bullhead or green sunfish for the grocery store challenge. I had just gotten snagged when a rattlesnake started buzzing right by my feet! I had been at that spot for at least five minutes! He made his way off into the brush then I cut my line and made my way as carefully as I could back to the car. I've seen plenty of rattlers but I think was the most shaken I'd ever been from one hahaha
Hey guys, keep the cool random posts coming! I decided we'll just keep this one Forum topic to post this stuff, instead of having one each week.
I thought the Grocery Store bait challenge was super fun - so many unique bait choices and success stories!
Fishing up the Food Chain was a fun challenge even though I got skunked. I managed to catch a bunch of bait-sized fish (all in the same spot) but none could be legally used as bait. Where were these fish Week 1 when I needed them?
Saturday evening I dropped the kids off at my parents and went to the San Pedro River right next to where I grew up. It is dry in many stretches for much the the year but does have perrenial water in others. I have hunted there many times but have never tried fishing it. During the winter I have seen schools of longfin dace, and I have heard of carp, bullheads and bass being in there. The first stop was a tributary called the Babacamori River that according to the internet has held water and fish on the past. Not this year! The next two places I tried farther upstream may have had some fish in the deeper pools but it was impossible to keep all the Crawdads off of the bait!! The good news is now my dad wants to go and get some mud bugs to make étoufée so that should be fun!
They reintroduced beavers here so that was cool to see the hole in the bank!
That's some good variety from one spot!
Week 2 was uneventful - most interesting/random thing was catching a golden shiner on corn while targeting sunfish.
Week 3 had plenty of random though, given that I fished 20+ hours:
Hannah (CityLimits), who is contest-adjacent (aiming for lifers rather than the competition), hand-nabbed this adorable baby gar at a culvert while we were bowfin fishing
She also succeeded in adding a new addition to her lifelist while I was Flatheading - the highly elusive River Carpsucker. She almost half-assed the landing in the dark thinking it was a small carp!
I went bowfin/pike fishing with my fiancee and learned she has supernatural powers:
And I found this neat looking swimbait, with Shorthead Redhorse colors and White Sucker scales.