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Fishing

Fat Tuesday fun

February 21, 2012
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Kayak Fishing, Music, Saltwater, Video
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Took advantage of the Mardi Gras holiday and the good weather and headed to the marsh to try to sightfish for reds. The drive down was shaky to start as I narrowly avoided three deer on the side of the road who decided to cross just as I was about to pass. I swear they do that on purpose. Once Zebra came on the radio though I had a good feeling about today’s fishing.

Met up with Blake, his dad, and two of our friends from New Orleans who just got kayaks. Blake gave me a fly he tied up to use for the day. I don’t recall what pattern it was, but it just looked fishy. That fly ended up being pretty damn effective. I caught 7 reds, 2 sheepshead and a black drum on it. That’s a cajun slam in my mind. Sightfishing was pretty decent throughout the morning, with a number of fish tailing and some sunshine here and there. Wind was never an issue as it laid down all day. Clouds rolled in after lunch and made sightfishing pretty tough. The first red I caught was my big fish on the day, 28″.

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A couple of other interesting bits. Early on I was throwing a new 4pc TFO BVK 8wt. I got this BVK because TFO couldn’t replace my TiCr, so they stepped up and gave me a BVK to replace it. They called me to tell me this when I sent in the TiCr for warranty work. I was bummed I wouldn’t get my TiCr back, but looking forward to using the BVK, which is all the rage these days. It is light and I guess fragile too because it broke during the fight with my 2nd red. I don’t think I did anything out of the ordinary to cause it to break – it just broke while under sustained pressure from a 25″ red. The drag on my reel was loose and all line was clear. The rod just snapped right below the ferrule for the top section. This time I remembered to bring a back up rod, the trusty Redington Crosswater. This rod has landed dozens of redfish without problem. TFO has a solid warranty, so I’ll give the BVK a shot at redemption, maybe I just got a lemon?

I also fell in today. First time ever in the marsh. It has happened a few times on rivers, moving water. Unfortunately I wasn’t filming, because I’m sure it would have been hilarious to witness. Anyways, I went to sit down but forgot I had my fly rod in my seat. This was the back up rod, so I didn’t want to put all my weight on it. I sat up to slide the rod forward and get it out of my seat, but I guess I put too much pressure on one side and I went over the other way. The Coosa flipped as I fell out. The only thing I think I lost is the suction cup mount for the GoPro, everything else floated or was leashed. It was pretty funny, I’m glad it was warm out today. Water temps didn’t feel that cold. Just goes to show you, it doesn’t matter how stable you’re boat is or how good your balance is, one mistake is all it takes and you’ll be in the water.

Saltwater Fish

February 18, 2012
Fishing, Saltwater
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All of the saltwater species I’ve caught have come from the Gulf of Mexico or bodies of water tidally influenced by the Gulf. There are so many saltwater species out there that it would be pretty pointless to separate them by family, like I did with the freshwater fish, so I divided them between inshore and offshore species, of course most of the inshore species you can catch offshore too. If I caught it inshore, it got labelled as an inshore species. With the exception of the snook, you can catch all of these species in Louisiana or offshore of Louisiana. This list will only grow as I continue to make trips offshore and to Florida. Cobia, tripletail, mackeral, grouper, sharks, pelagics, etc. The list of saltwater species just in the Gulf seems infinite.

Gulf of Mexico inshore species

Bagre marinus – Gafftopsail catfish

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Paralichthys lethostigma – Southern flounder

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Pogonias cromis – Black drum

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Sciaenops ocellatus – Red drum (Redfish)

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Archosargus probatocephalus – Sheepshead

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Elops saurus – Ladyfish

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Cynoscion nebulosus – Spotted seatrout (Speckled trout)

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Cynoscion arenarius – Sand sea trout (White trout)

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Bairdiella chrysoura – American silver perch

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Lutjanus griseus – Gray snapper (Mangrove snapper)

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Lagodon rhomboides – Pinfish

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Orthopristis chrysoptera – Pigfish

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Synodus foetens – Inshore lizardfish

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Centropomus undecimalis – Common snook

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Lobotes surinamensis – Atlantic tripletail

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Caranx hippos – Crevalle Jack

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Fundulus grandis – Gulf killifish

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Fundulus similis – Longnose killifish

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Gulf of Mexico offshore species

Seriola rivoliana – Almaco jack

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Seriola dumerili – Greater amberjack

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Balistes capriscus – Gray triggerfish

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Caranx latus – Horse-eye jack

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Coryphaena hippurus – Common dolphinfish

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Lutjanus campechanus – Red snapper

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Euthynnus alletteratus – Little tunny

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Thunnus albacares – Yellowfin tuna

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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