Another weekend of fishing

I came home from a weekend at the camper really early because of the storm. The whole time I was there it was raining on and off which made fishing hard to do. On saturday when the rain slowed down we got in the boat and tried to some nice size crappie in hopes of cooking them for dinner. At first we paddled around the lake and got hit and all the crappie were the same exact size with almost no distinction between them. We circled the island to catch the fish and we would put some of them in the bucket that we planned to fillet later. Well when we got to one side of the island a giant snapping turtle came up the the surface for air. The hed on this thing was massive and I told Chris to look and his first reaction was to cast over it. Next thing we know the turtle freaks out and dives under the surface and Chris' pole just about bends in half. He got it up to the surface once and we noticed that the hook had to be on his side based on how he was swimming. While Chris was trying to real him in I had to row the boat towards the dock so when he did come up we could get the hook out. After about 5 minutes the hook had bent to the point where it no longer stayed in and he reeled back the rest of his line. Even though we couldn't get a good look at his up close it was fun to try to see what it looked like. But other then that moment in the boat nothing else really happened while fishing. We didn't catch any bass bigger then maybe 10 inches. And the only reason we caught those was based on the size of the mimic minnow we used for the crappie.
Once we came back in from fishing it was time to fillet the large amount of crappie we had caught. I did the first 2 and passed the knife to Chris to finish the rest. Filleting fish is the most annoying part and crappie tend to be exceptionally slimy making it more of an annoyance. But we got almost all of them filled and threw a few back we didn't want to cut up. The plan was to try and cook them with tempura batter since it has always been so good in the sushi I've had. We had got onions to fry as well since there would be a lot of batter. And the cooking process couldn't have been more annoying while in the camper. It took use about an hour to figure out how long to fry the onions and at one point we gave up and just threw them all in. Some of them tasted pretty good and other burned but the people who were down at the camper liked it. When we started to fry the fish it didn't go any smoother so it ended in us throwing them into to hot oil to fry. Just like the onions some came out nice and others did not. Overall the weekend kinda sucked and we now know not to try tempura batter again. But luckily this up coming weekend I get a break from the camper and will try some other places to fish and keep my sanity.

The Weather may have looked bad...

But the fishing did not. All day it said it was going to rain but I went out fishing regardless. First I went to Gander Mountain because I got a coupon in my email for buy 3 get one free and being the sucker I am for fishing tackle I got 4 packs of worms. I got the 2 colors I have gotten in the past and have run out of and tried 2 new colors. Normally I just get the watermelon color that has either a green or orange color mixed in but also wanted 2 new colors to try. So I picked out a black/blue worms and a bluegill color that is grey with blue and silver flakes in it. After buying 4 packs of worms giving me 80 to fish with I drove to longwood.

When I got there I wanted to try one of my new colors so I put on the bluegill worm. On my first cast the line went into the weeds and it took off. I was shocked that on the first cast I had got a hit and it stayed on the line. I got it in and it was a little over 1.5 lb and 12.5 inches. It was a fun fight but I wish it was just a bit larger but its longwood. So I walked around some more and almost anywhere I casted I got hits and oneafter another I landed smaller bass. It was almost every other cast that I landed one but they hit constantly. I was pretty excited that they were hitting but they were all the same size. But while walking around I saw the carp that are in the lake and it seems like every year they get even bigger then before. One of these days I plan on catching them and as long as I can land its going to be the biggest thing I've caught to date. But I caught 7 bass and since it is friday I'm off to the camper, where I'll probably be let down by the activity there but will try all day to catch anything.
~Fish on!

The first at longwood

I decided to go out on a whim and fish at longwood around 6. Once I got there I tried a buzz bait and the weeds soon stopped it from being successful. So after a few cast I switched to a shaky worm and on the second cast I got a hit. Almost right after the bait hit the water my line started to go to the left and I set the hook. It put up a pretty good fight and I thought I was going to loose it when I jumped out of the water. I got it to the shore and took out my scale to weigh and measure it. It was just over a 1.5 lb and 14 inches long. Still a very good fish for longwood. I tried to take a picture but it moved and the seconds one I took I didn't press save. I walked around the lake a little more and when I got to the dock I got another hit. I saw a bass try and get a dragonfly as it was flying by but it missed. So I threw my line in that area and it hit but I didn't feel it. I reeled in and the line started to fight back so I knew it took the bait. And just like the other bass it had to swim through the weeds. The second one wasn't as big so I didn't bother to measure in since it took me awhile to get the hook out. I kept walking around the lake and didn't get any other hits so I packed up and went home.