Weird day yesterday. Went bass fishing in a local bayou and caughh two gar, one catfish and a truly prehistoric beast, a paddlefish (spoonbill) ?

 

They are filter feeders with huge mouths/gills that constantly strain water so they are only caught by snagging. That's what happened to this fellow, snagged in the dorsal fin by my Yo Zuri 3/8 oz. lipless crankbait. The trebles had already bent out on the gar but would not straighten out so the paddlefish, around four feet long, hauled me around for 15 or so minutes on my casting rod with 12# Sunline Sniper. Fortunately a passing boat helped me land it so I could try to remove my crankbait, which got lost in the shuffle anyway but the paddlefish seemed no worse for wear.

 

No decent pictures available so here's a link to a USFW shot so you can see what one looks like. https://www.fws.gov/media/american-paddlefish

20 minutes ago, BayouSlide said:

paddlefish (spoonbill)

They are a strange fish, no doubt about it.  You probably won't see another one in person again.

On 6/2/2023 at 8:16 AM, gimruis said:

They are a strange fish, no doubt about it.  You probably won't see another one in person again.

 

That's the truth. Those darn things can live as long as 30 years, truly prehistoric. Whis I could have gotten a picture of its gills gaping open...looked like the bucket on a steam shovel, flapping out what looked like twice the girth of the fish!

 

An aside. I wanted to replace that crankbait, a citrus shad, and the only 3/8 oz. I could find was Ebay for $12 bucks ?

I discovered the joys of ultralight fishing last night. Caught about 10 little crappies and a dozen or so bluegill in 90 minutes on a little Creme tube. Its just automatic with that thing, every cast = bites 

Doing a little pond fishing, got some beautifully colored pumpkinseeds on a grasshopper fly. They’re a blast on tiny poppers and dry flies. Couple nasty pickerel crashed the party as usual. 

My first ever catfish of any true size. Thought I could thumb it like a bass until it clamped down and shredded my thumb. Luckily my buddy had gloves.

2 hours ago, Texas Flood said:

My first ever catfish of any true size. Thought I could thumb it like a bass until it clamped down and shredded my thumb. Luckily my buddy had gloves.

Haha, those suckers are mean.   I carry a single glove in the boat specifically for those guys. 

1 hour ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Haha, those suckers are mean.   I carry a single glove in the boat specifically for those guys. 

I now have a pair in my bag. I was just hoping a jig off the bottom at a farm pond too. I thought it was a good size bass at first until it clearly wasnt.

Some Gulf of Maine fishes

Went down the Potomac last weekend and caught two Northern Snakeheads, the top one being my new PB at 4 lbs. 2 oz.!

It's been a long time since I caught one of these beauties. I can cross it off the bucket list.

 

A client of mine treated my wife and I to a salt water fishing trip in Sitka Alaska.  It was the first time I had ever fished anywhere in South East Alaska, the first time I wasn't guiding while fishing in Alaska, and the first fishing trip my wife ever went on.  My wife had a great time but did tell me she is never going to get up at 3:00 Am to cast all day hoping to catch bass that will be released.  We are back home and eating salmon and halibut tonight.

 

44 minutes ago, king fisher said:

A client of mine treated my wife and I to a salt water fishing trip in Sitka Alaska.  It was the first time I had ever fished anywhere in South East Alaska, the first time I wasn't guiding while fishing in Alaska, and the first fishing trip my wife ever went on.  My wife had a great time but did tell me she is never going to get up at 3:00 Am to cast all day hoping to catch bass that will be released.  We are back home and eating salmon and halibut tonight.

 

I fished out of Sitka in 2006

bald eagles all around 

Salmon and halibut, lingcod,yellowtail,seabass 

great fishing,I know y’all enjoyed it. We fished 4 days in the first week of June.Great place

Not a single bass for me on my Monday trip. All I could catch was drum, catfish, and this buffalo. This one was fun on 6 lb line.

 

These things are becoming a regular catch for me this year. I don’t approve!

 

 

5 minutes ago, 12poundbass said:

These things are becoming a regular catch for me this year. I don’t approve!

 

 

That looks to be about pickling size.

10 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

These things are becoming a regular catch for me this year. I don’t approve!

I haven't caught very many lately.  I think the water is too warm right now.  Once it cools down some, they will be back on the rampage though I'm sure.

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

I haven't caught very many lately.  I think the water is too warm right now.  Once it cools down some, they will be back on the rampage though I'm sure.

Surface temp 78 when we were out and they were out in force. They kept hitting within 10’ of the boat.

1 minute ago, 12poundbass said:

Surface temp 78 when we were out and they were out in force. They kept hitting within 10’ of the boat.

Surface temps are about 77 here, so pretty much the same.  Annoying is the word I would use to describe them.  I only caught one last time out, and it was 27 inches, so at least not the endless 20 inch snot rockets that you are describing.

Got this today, biggest snake head so far out of my pond. 

 

On 6/17/2023 at 8:27 PM, king fisher said:

We are back home and eating salmon

What kind of salmon are they? I just had some sockeye filet for dinner on the grill the other day that someone brought me from Alaska when they were there.

29 minutes ago, gimruis said:

What kind of salmon are they? I just had some sockeye filet for dinner on the grill the other day that someone brought me from Alaska when they were there.

King Salmon

21 minutes ago, king fisher said:

King Salmon

Never had it, never seen it in the store either. I presume because it’s the most highly prized of the salmonids and harvest is very restrictive.

@gimruis Your stores may sell it, it might just be called Chinook Salmon instead of King, idk how Alaska is with it but in New York at the Salmon River the state takes the harvest and the fishing of them so seriously they actually have undercover DEC agents fishing along the river.

It’s generally a bad idea to stock crappies in these smaller bodies of water as they tend to overpopulate really easily, then stunt out. I rarely find a pond where that has happened, but surprisingly, it seems like every pond always has a random crappie or two in it. One I’ve been hitting this past week, I hadn’t run into a crappie in over 5 years of fishing it…then this week, I suddenly catch 2 big ones (~15”) out of nowhere, both on swimbaits. Might be time to bring out the crappie gear for a trip or two and see if I’m overlooking a population of big fish.