Some nice Florida drum!

[divemaster99]

I did not know that! Still collecting all sorts of cool natives? Got that dove instructor certification yet?!

Sorry, missed that post before. Yeah I've still got some cool stuff, down to 9 tanks but still have my perch, sunfish, darters, catfish, Cyprinids, and all that good stuff. I'd love some trout but unfortunately a chiller is a bit pricey for me. I am hoping to get some Drum and possibly a native Lamprey species to get this year, though. Haha, not quite an instructor yet, but hopefully by the time I'm 30 I'll have it and I should be a real Divemaster by 18, can't do it now because of PADI standards. With any luck I should be getting my Rescie diver cert this summer, couldn't do it last year because of a cold during the dive weekend.

 

[divemaster99]

Cool I had no clue! Do you catch them at night? They sure love shrimp down south, is that your bait? Looks like the variety in Erie is the sheepshead. They have some crazy teeth, I would not thumb them like the black and red drum!

We catch them all day long. Normally at night I'm fishing on the beach with a big 9' "surf rod" and use crawlers, crayfish, or shrimp for bait. During the day we catch them on just about every method of fishing. We'll pick up a few in bait while fishing for white bass, I'll do some vertical jigging on 5-40' deep flats for them, and I'm also figuring out really good ways of how to catch them trolling. In fact, I broke my personal best 4 times this year alone and the biggest/most recent 3 were all caught trolling either with flutter spoons or stickbaits. The one pictured above was on a spoon and just about snapped the downrigger rod like a twig when it hit and started running.

 

[divemaster99]

How is the fight? For me there is nothing like fighting a lake run rainbow in the river, theyre so strong its unbelievable. Anytime I fished for rainbow in lakes (which always tend to have white meat over pink meat, that's why I ask) or even lake trout the fight is nowhere like the ones in the river that are shooting up to spawn. Everyone of those suckers is muscular too, small ones and big ones, but you tend to catch either a 1 lber or 5+ lbs, don't catch too many in between.

Never doubt the fighting potential of a lake trout. I've caught thousands of fish and I can safely say that there is a list of only 20-30 fish or less that have legitimately made me tired to the point where I had to take a break for a while or even stop fishing. A 20 pound lake trout I caught last May being pretty high on that list among monster channel catfish and huge sharks in the Atlantic. That fish took a good 15-20 minutes to surface and even then it was trying to dive back down to the bottom. Such stamina and endurance in those fish. Steelhead are definitely the acrobats in the Salmonid world just as Salmon are the Olympic runners, but Lake Trout are no doubt the body builders.

As far as suckers go, I couldn't agree with you more. Those things are one of my favorite groups of fish to target in streams and they fight like crazy. Catching them on a fly rod is even more fun and I've had fish fight five feet in front of me for over 5 minutes without showing any signs of giving up!

 

[divemaster99]

We have them around here. They're mainly bow targets though.

Ugh, don't get me started on fish archery, absolutely no sport in standing over a grazing or resting fish where it can barely see you and shooting a spear through its back. The whole reason I like fishing is because you have to fool the fish in to taking your presentation and once it's on the hook you have to skillfully fight it in without losing it. Then most of the time I let them go to live another day (not that there anything wrong with keeping fish, as I occasionally do with certain better tasting species) and if they're smart they won't fall for another bait in their lifetime. I'm not even sure what fish archers do with their fish. It seems that very few of them actually eat their catch and while fish do make great fertilizer, you never need the massive numbers that they harvest. What's sad is that many states permit the act of "bow fishing" but only for certain species, I know in PA it's only catfish, suckers, and carp. But if someone wants to go to a popular bass lake or trout stream and start shooting fish then every fisherman around is going to have a spaz attack. Just another example of the gamefish supremacy mentality, I suppose, and I pray that this way of thinking is gone within the next couple decades for the sake of all fish species.

 

[Thekid]

Ugh, don't get me started on fish archery, absolutely no sport in standing over a grazing or resting fish where it can barely see you and shooting a spear through its back. The whole reason I like fishing is because you have to fool the fish in to taking your presentation and once it's on the hook you have to skillfully fight it in without losing it. Then most of the time I let them go to live another day (not that there anything wrong with keeping fish, as I occasionally do with certain better tasting species) and if they're smart they won't fall for another bait in their lifetime. I'm not even sure what fish archers do with their fish. It seems that very few of them actually eat their catch and while fish do make great fertilizer, you never need the massive numbers that they harvest. What's sad is that many states permit the act of "bow fishing" but only for certain species, I know in PA it's only catfish, suckers, and carp. But if someone wants to go to a popular bass lake or trout stream and start shooting fish then every fisherman around is going to have a spaz attack. Just another example of the gamefish supremacy mentality, I suppose, and I pray that this way of thinking is gone within the next couple decades for the sake of all fish species.

Why not support the removal of invasive species? I shoot carp for many reasons. I use them for fertilizer for corn, I can feed the Asians who ask if I want them at the cleaning station, or I can chunk them up and use them as bait for big flatheads.

I'll take you out sometime if you're ever in the area and show you why so many people support it and love partaking in the removal of invasive species.

 

[divemaster99]

Why not support the removal of invasive species? I shoot carp for many reasons. I use them for fertilizer for corn, I can feed the Asians who ask if I want them at the cleaning station, or I can chunk them up and use them as bait for big flatheads.

I'll take you out sometime if you're ever in the area and show you why so many people support it and love partaking in the removal of invasive species.

I'm all for the removal of invasive species when it works. For species like common carp and round gobies in the Great Lakes, they're so wide spread over various watersheds and prolific that removing a small number of individuals does next to nothing, we just have to do what we can to reduce hatches of them and increase predation on them by other species. If you're talking about small, landlocked waters where it is possible for a group of people to remove an unwanted invasive, then yes, I would support eliminating them if they're unwanted. For species like Sea Lamprey running up creeks to spawn and Brown Trout in native Brook Trout streams where it's possible to eliminate the invasive population with enough effort, I support said actions.

Do you just bowfish for common carp, or other species too?

 

[Dieselhybrid]

Sorry, missed that post before. Yeah I've still got some cool stuff, down to 9 tanks but still have my perch, sunfish, darters, catfish, Cyprinids, and all that good stuff. I'd love some trout but unfortunately a chiller is a bit pricey for me. I am hoping to get some Drum and possibly a native Lamprey species to get this year, though. Haha, not quite an instructor yet, but hopefully by the time I'm 30 I'll have it and I should be a real Divemaster by 18, can't do it now because of PADI standards. With any luck I should be getting my Rescie diver cert this summer, couldn't do it last year because of a cold during the dive weekend.

I think rescue is the most important dive course and a lot of it should be in the basic course. You will enjoy it. Yes 9 tanks is a lot with school and other hobbies!

 

[Thekid]

I'm all for the removal of invasive species when it works. For species like common carp and round gobies in the Great Lakes, they're so wide spread over various watersheds and prolific that removing a small number of individuals does next to nothing, we just have to do what we can to reduce hatches of them and increase predation on them by other species. If you're talking about small, landlocked waters where it is possible for a group of people to remove an unwanted invasive, then yes, I would support eliminating them if they're unwanted. For species like Sea Lamprey running up creeks to spawn and Brown Trout in native Brook Trout streams where it's possible to eliminate the invasive population with enough effort, I support said actions.

Do you just bowfish for common carp, or other species too?

I only shoot common carp. The fin shape on carp is easily identifiable when compared next to buffalo or other natives. It's pretty similar to memorizing the wing shapes of ducks when duck hunting.

 

[Thekid]

Thanks Dave! I leave for a few months and come back to all kinds of great news. You've got a great litter of 7! Amazing tank build also!

My big Leo is around 158 days, I hope she has a healthy litter like yours soon

Let's see a thread on her.

 

[divemaster99]

I think rescue is the most important dive course and a lot of it should be in the basic course. You will enjoy it. Yes 9 tanks is a lot with school and other hobbies!

Good to know, are you a diver too?