Your Best Catches of 2010!
- Thread starter Dreamsofpeace54
- Start date
those are some very nice fish i do a lot of largemouth fishing with my girl but those are very nice
Didn't get out as much a I'd have liked to this year, and didn't take a camera with me most of the times I did get out. Didn't catch any real monsters this year, but I did have a first-
This was Father's Day. My dad and I went out to a swamp targeting bowfin.
I had two lines in, both with cut bluegill sitting on the bottom. I got a bite, so I grabbed a pole and started reeling, and couldn't figure out what it was. At first I thought it was just a snag, because of how much drag there was, and it wasn't fighting. Then it surfaced and this came into sight!
While we were trying to net this one, my other pole started moving toward the water. What was on the other line?
Two softshells at the same time!
I'd never caught one, let alone two, and both of them together like that was wild.
The bigger one was around 14" and the smaller one around 8". The bigger one had a big chunk taken out of the back of its shell. Looks like a 'fin got hungry enough to take a bite! Hopefully it healed up without a problem.
This was Father's Day. My dad and I went out to a swamp targeting bowfin.
I had two lines in, both with cut bluegill sitting on the bottom. I got a bite, so I grabbed a pole and started reeling, and couldn't figure out what it was. At first I thought it was just a snag, because of how much drag there was, and it wasn't fighting. Then it surfaced and this came into sight!
While we were trying to net this one, my other pole started moving toward the water. What was on the other line?
Two softshells at the same time!
I'd never caught one, let alone two, and both of them together like that was wild.
The bigger one was around 14" and the smaller one around 8". The bigger one had a big chunk taken out of the back of its shell. Looks like a 'fin got hungry enough to take a bite! Hopefully it healed up without a problem.
This was another great day. Please excuse the awful pic, but my phone was all we had when we got to the end of the float.
Did about 12 hours in a canoe, and brought these home. I landed 8 between 18-24", brought 5 home to do a fish fry, and broke off several that size. I landed a bunch of smaller ones, too, probably a dozen in the 8-15" range. Sure, they're not as amazing as the ones early in the thread, but all of these were caught on a 4'8" Ultralite Ugly Stik with either 4 lb or 6 lb test mono. A couple of the bigger ones (the 24" for sure!) actually pulled us upstream while fighting! They were mostly all caught near heavy cover, as I was throwing into downed trees in bends on the river, and it was definitely a challenge to land them. Most of the ones broken off wrapped around something in the water and broke the line, I only horsed a couple of them. I don't think I've ever had as much fun catching fish as that day. It was pure adrenaline all day.
Did about 12 hours in a canoe, and brought these home. I landed 8 between 18-24", brought 5 home to do a fish fry, and broke off several that size. I landed a bunch of smaller ones, too, probably a dozen in the 8-15" range. Sure, they're not as amazing as the ones early in the thread, but all of these were caught on a 4'8" Ultralite Ugly Stik with either 4 lb or 6 lb test mono. A couple of the bigger ones (the 24" for sure!) actually pulled us upstream while fighting! They were mostly all caught near heavy cover, as I was throwing into downed trees in bends on the river, and it was definitely a challenge to land them. Most of the ones broken off wrapped around something in the water and broke the line, I only horsed a couple of them. I don't think I've ever had as much fun catching fish as that day. It was pure adrenaline all day.
rnocera;4745719; said:
While we were trying to net this one, my other pole started moving toward the water. What was on the other line?
Two softshells at the same time!
I'd never caught one, let alone two, and both of them together like that was wild
The bigger one was around 14" and the smaller one around 8". The bigger one had a big chunk taken out of the back of its shell. Looks like a 'fin got hungry enough to take a bite! Hopefully it healed up without a problem.
Wow, was this in PA? If so I'd love to know where to catch spiny softshells in the area. I'm from outside of Harrisburg by the way.
Yumu;4745851; said:
I generally do catch and release, but I do like to eat fish, and I certainly don't buy it in a store when I can catch it myself. I'm fairly selective in what I'll keep, though, and probably 2/3 of the fish I keep are ones that were gut hooked or hurt in a way that they'd have trouble surviving. If I gut hook a legal fish I'd much rather take it home than have it end up rotting downstream.
In the spring I like to keep trout, but they're stocked fish so I don't really care about removing them- they don't do well in most of the waters I fish once it gets warm, anyway. I pretty much always keep northern pike if they're big enough to be legal, too. That's some of the best fish I've ever eaten, and I hardly ever catch them. I don't target them often, but I've caught a couple while trying to get bowfin. Occasionally I'll keep sunfish, but not very often. I have to be catching big ones pretty steadily before I decide it's worth keeping enough to make it worthwhile, but maybe once a sumer I'll bring home a couple dozen sunfish.
And I'll keep catfish. The water I caught those channels in is EXTREMELY plentiful. It's a stretch of river that's not floated too often, and there's absolutely no road access whatsoever for several miles, even though a road runs parallel to it less than a mile away for most of the stretch. Due to some local conditions, it's essentially a catfish farm for a stretch of a couple miles. I went about 45 minutes where every single cast was catching a cat, and this is while we were floating- my bait was never in the water for more than a minute or so before I had to cast ahead of me again. Anywhere else I'd keep one if I want to eat it for dinner that night, and if it's around 15". Bigger or smaller, I throw it back. Cajun catfish is by far my favorite way to eat fish, and I almost never pass up the opportunity to cook it, but I only ever take what I'm going to cook that day.
I target catfish pretty heavy, so I tend to know how they do in waters I fish for them in. If the population is plentiful and I'm catching healthy animals in a range of sizes, I don't mind removing some. There are a couple spots I take them from pretty regularly, and if anything it seems like there are more there than ever, so I really don't see a reason why I shouldn't. The ones in that pic came home for a big meal with friends. Baked with my own cajun mix and beer batter deep fried, couple pounds of store bought crawdads and a couple loaves of cornbread.
Vicious_Fish, I've only ever caught those two softshells, but come out west and I'll show you a dozen places I see them while I'm fishing. Almost every one of those places would be worth spending a full day fishing, and the ones that aren't are close enough to get a couple different ones in. A couple of those I've seen softshells I could've picked up with my hands. Not a ton, but at least a few times a year.
