Fishing

[Doc Sharptail]

Caught this nicely speckled Channel cat down at Sturgeon Creek yesterday.
Lure is a 3/8 oz William's Wabler in silver electroplate finish.
I have caught some walleye and pike, but all were too tiny for eating purposes.

That catfish went for bottom as soon as the hook set. Quite a bit of fight there for his size- 3 1/2 to 4 lbs.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[lyman]

that will make a good supper

[Doc Sharptail]

I release them. The strong taste is a little too strong for me.
My great grand parents gorged on breaded deep fried cats though- a big favorite treat for them.

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Johnny P]

Son and daughter-in-law went fishing this past weekend in an oxbow lake. Fishing with Beetle-Spin lures, and everything was hitting it. Caught bream, crappie, catfish, and a couple of gar.

[lyman]

Beetle Spins are a go to catch all lure,

[Doc Sharptail]

O.C. Nikkor 35mm f2 at f5.6 and 1/250 sec with the camera's on-board flash.

Finally some eaters. Three pike from Sturgeon Creek- all about 3 to 3 1/2 lbs.
Water temp is still very warm at about 65 F. Once the water cools down a bit, the larger fish, and walleye will become a lot more active. Pictured with the oft-mentioned Finn filleter, which is about 18" from base of the birch handle, to the tip. End result is 12 medium/small boned pike fillets, which are gonna make a decent supper for Mrs. and I.

Store bpought walleye prices are crazy right now, with fresh, unfrozen medium sized fish going for 16-18 dollars per pound. Nothing wrong with pike fillets, as long as they are properly boned and prepped. I actually like the taste of these, and my stomach is rumbling just typing about it...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

[Doc Sharptail]

Spent some time today down at Sturgeon Creek right here in town.



Keeper eater pike. Water is very low, and getting cold.
Knife in photo is 18" long o/a for size estimating.
Decent supper tomorrow night. I brined the fillets for a while in salt water, and it's gonna be a bit of a feed.



Big Falcon landed in a tree across the creek from me to see what all the splashing was about. Contrast is blown to smithereens here by the overly strong sky back-lighting.
Micro-Nikkor 200mm f4 here at f8, and almost to the infinity mark on the lens bbl.



This tiny garter snake swam all the way across the Assiniboine R. to hang around down by my feet. He's only about 1/8" dia., and about 6" long.

In other fish news, my old Fenwick Eagle walleye rod finally broke. I caught a 10 lb channel cat, and he gave his tail a wicked flick as I was pulling him from the water. (a 3 handed job if there ever was one) I don't fault the rod at all- it's almost 12 years old, and has fought countless very heavy fish during it's life time in my hands. Time to find another one in the same weight range.

-D.S.

[5thDragoons]

I had big plans for trapping crawdads... unfortunately, coons had big plans of eating my bait - and any crawdads in the trap. I put the trap away. SW

[Allen]

While they live on dry ground too, down here any ditch that holds water any length of time will host crawdads. People who want them use landing nets (the type with the long wood handle) and just scrape the bottom of the ditch with them. I suppose sometimes they can actually see through the water as well.

[Doc Sharptail]

I had big plans for trapping crawdads... unfortunately, coons had big plans of eating my bait - and any crawdads in the trap. I put the trap away. SW

I have to watch my stringered fish at Sturgeon Creek especially- river otters. They will decimate stringered Walleye in particular.
Late June and early July are bad for turtles doing the same thing. There's still a big one down there- about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.

-D.S.

[lyman]

I have a drainage ditch, slash easement between my house and the neighbors,
we get those funky red crawdads in the ditch , they dig a hole and build the chimneys,

had one in the front yard one wet spring,

and the creeks around here have the more traditional crawdad in them,

good bait


did get a day off and went creek fishing with my high school buddy a few Saturdays ago,

biggest fish may have been a bream at 5 inches, and I skunked him with maybe 2x's as many,

beetle spin, orange body, vs about 4 lures he used, and it dominated,


I was using a 8'6" ultralite rod, and smaller spinner reel, with 4lb line

a light beetle spin would go a long way on a cast with that rod,