First Fish!

Well, I knew it would happen eventually. I decided to put aside the heavy duty tackle I've been using to catch the world record bass. Instead I hung the smallest hook I could find in my tackle box, a very small split shot weight, attached a small piece of scented worm to the hook and went hunting for a small pan fish of some kind. As soon as I started casting (only about 10 feet with the light weight), I started getting nibbles. Then I had one on the hook that self-released.

This guy was watching everything I was doing, and laughing, I'm sure. He's a lot better fisherman than I am. I think he's been depleting the canal of fish around my house!

On about the 10th cast or so, my line got hit hard! My pole flexed nearly in half! I was close to being dragged off the dock! But I fought hard and managed, after facing near exhaustion, to land this HUGE crappie!! At least, I'm pretty sure it was a crappie. He was a good 4-5 inches and maybe 3-4 ounces! After Susie took a couple of pics, I released this monster so that somebody else might have the pleasure of facing this powerful fish!

I wish we had better, closer, pictures of the fish, but Susie thinks I'm better looking than the fish, so she wanted to feature me in the pictures. Love really is blind, but that's fortunate for me! Anyway, I was surprised to pull this fish from the canal since I've seen nothing but these black-striped green guys around our dock continuously and have been feeding them bread. I think they're probably some kind of sunfish, but not sure. They look a lot like the pictures I've seen of Green sunfish, but supposedly they're very rare this far south. Maybe that's changed, or maybe these are some kind of hybrids. I want to catch one and get some good pictures so I can get a positive ID. In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of these guys in the water. You can clearly see their stripes, and their black eyes. They have a black ear spot, as well as a dark area toward the back end of their dorsal fin. Their tail fin has a moderate cut and has a trailing nearly white edge. Some have a definite reddish cast on their tails.

Okay, I think the bottom line lesson learned here is, not everyone will lose their virginity to a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model! So be happy and always grateful for what you have!

Actually going golfing today and Saturday. First time in a long, long time. Should be ugly, but fun! Retirement is a bitch! No vacation days!

Life is soooo good. Bill