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Freshwater

Hodges Gardens

March 11, 2012
Fishing, Food and Drink, Freshwater, Warmwater
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I went a month straight posting new content every day, but had to break that this past weekend. Amanda and I spent my birthday at Hodges Gardens State Park, near Many, LA. We booked a cabin a couple weeks ago, had second thoughts this past week due to the weather forecast, but it worked out in our favor and never rained Saturday. We walked the gardens Friday evening and Saturday morning, fished the lake Saturday afternoon. Now Hodges is no Callaway, not nearly the size or staff, and Callaway is private, but, the gardens are very nice, a unique part of the state park system. They boast an impressive array of camelias, azaleas, and some awesome water features. The lake is a reclaimed quarry, 225 acres, lined with aquatic vegetation. We rented a canoe for the day and started pounding the banks. The bass were pretty active and I caught enough to keep me interested.  We ate pretty well too, barbequed shrimp, grilled steaks, and Amanda made a fruit pizza in lieu of a cake.

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We made it back in town just in time for a crawfish boil with some friends. First of the season for us. Hit the spot too.

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It was a great birthday weekend, I really enjoyed it! I’d love to fish the lake again when it is a little warmer, it is one of the healthiest I’ve seen in Louisiana. Amanda ended up being a pretty good paddling guide as well, another good reason to get a Big Tuna.

Pond bass

March 2, 2012
Fishing, Freshwater, Warmwater
3 Comments

Got a chance to wet a line today in the neighborhood pond. I haven’t fished it since late January when I caught some channel cats and a pretty nice bass. Well it didn’t disappoint again. Winds today were pretty severe so I just used spinning gear, but I ended up catching 3 bass with 2 over 3lbs. I was throwing a jointed Rapala and all the hits came next to the bank. I don’t think the bass are currently on the beds, but I think they will be soon. I noticed we have at least 3 koi in this pond as well. I’ve got to figure out how to catch them on the fly. Time to do a little research….

 

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Other Freshwater Fish

February 17, 2012
Fishing, Freshwater
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Outside of the sunfishes and the salmonids I haven’t caught multiple species from one family, so I lumped them all together here. Most of these were caught as bycatch while fishing for bass. I have begun to target some of them a little more these days with the fly rod. The picture quality on a couple of these is less than stellar. It is pretty funny looking back at some of these old pictures, I could tell when I got my Pentax Optio, quality improved, it was 2006-2007, sometime when I was living in Alabama.  Also, I haven’t included every different chub or shiner that I’ve caught. There are so many different kinds out there and previously I really didn’t feel it was worth my time to research just what kind of chub or shiner I had caught as bycatch.  I’m working to rectify that, I’ll try and keep tabs on them from here on out.

Amia calva – Bowfin (choupique)

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The bowfin is actually the only surviving member of the family Amiidae.

Cichlasoma cyanoguttatum – Rio Grande cichlid

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The Rio Grande cichlid is the only cichlid species native to the U.S. They’ve been introduced to the City Park lagoons in New Orleans.

Esox americanus vermiculatus – Grass pickerel

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Esox niger – Chain pickerel

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The chain pickerel is a member of the family Esocidae, for which Esox is the only living genus. Musky and pike are also Esox.

Ictalurus punctatus – Channel catfish

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The channel catfish is in the Ictaluridae family, they are a family of North American catfishes. There are plenty of ictalurids out there, I just never target them.

Lepisosteus oculatus – Spotted gar

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The spotted gar is in the family Lepisosteidae, which has 7 living species in 2 genera. Gar are another fish I rarely target, though they are everywhere around here.

Lepisosteus osseus – Longnose gar

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Cyprinus carpio – Common carp

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Nocomis micropogon – River chub

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river chub

We catch these in the creek at the cabin, in fact, you will often run into them while fishing for trout in Georgia, they readily take flies. The tubercles on their heads are prominent during the spawn.

Semotilus atromaculatus – Creek chub

Cyprinella venusta – Blacktail shiner

A species of shiner commonly found in our Florida parish streams here in Louisiana.

Luxilus chrysocephalus – Striped shiner

Luxilus coccogenis – Warpaint shiner

Notropis texanus – Weed shiner