August 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Pictures of a couple of visits, who cares:

Smallish snapping turtle:

 Manage to drive a hook point into my finger: bleeds

 Sunfish 1:

 Sunfish 2:

August 26, 2015 - Curtis Lake

Put in at Curtis Lake up in Stafford County, fished until dusk:

Caught one bass on a topwater plug, casting around some standing timber:

Saw several cormorants, which weren't expected since I haven't seen those at Mountain Run Lake for a couple of months:

 And on the way back, my car hit 150,000 miles.  I took a picture of the odometer, although the digital display "turning over" was sort of lackluster.

I'd return to Curtis Lake, ridiculous misspelled racism-tinged porta-john graffiti be damned.

August 22, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

When I took my first few breaths upon emergence from the womb, I had no idea I'd end up where I am now, furiously typing on a library computer to hammer out a blog post before the time limit cuts me off.  I feel sort of like the character of James Bond in "Goldfinger" as the neutron bomb is about to go off and contaminate the gold supply of Fort Knox and it stops at 3 seconds or something like that.  I wonder if Pierce Brosnan had to be subjected to the consumptive hacking of a guy standing across from him, looking up God-knows-what on the library computer.

Anyway, a major problem with hammering out these blog posts is that really, most fishing trips are unexceptional.  Most of the time, nothing happens that is so noteworthy, so spectacular, that it warrants 300 words to describe it.  It's hard to wax poetic about mediocrity, which is why I feel sorry for newsmen, who, on days where there just isn't enough happening in the world to talk about, like today evidently, resort to inconsequential, rambling articles about idiotic crap nobody cares about, i.e. the current headlining article on the WaPo website:

"Alabama backed off Trump-style immigration law"

Who cares?  Although apparently "Trump-style" is the phrase de jour to be used by all the most fly kids on the block when they could have gotten away with "stupid" and saved themselves some column-inches to cram with more ads for Kohl's 5-day sale and hair-care products.

Anyway, went fishing yesterday, weather was beautiful, only one other boat on the lake.  Put in at around 4-4:30, took out at 7:30.  Fished mostly with a diving crankbait, caught a few small bass, caught a few bluegills on a popper.  Took a picture of a bass:

Saw a muskrat, and what I believe was a great egret, seen here.  It's unfortunate for the author that readers may believe that I thought that this egret was uniquely great, but no, the name of the bird is the "great egret."  Apparently they are also known as the common egret among ornithologists less inclined to prop up the bird's ego.

And found some egret tracks:  

And I don't believe that I ever posted this picture on here.  I've talked about Dead Carp Ditch, aka the Cesspool, but I had been down there after work one day, and lo and behold what do I find floating in the pond but a needle.  Nothing screams family friendly park like AIDS laced needles and twitching junkies (I didn't see any obvious junkies.  If I was more optimistic, maybe I'd figure that the needle was accidentally dropped by a diabetic after enjoying a picnic with his family and friends, maybe celebrating the birth of his first grandchild, but this is Culpeper, where optimism is typically rewarded with another metaphorical steaming pile in the face.)

August 21 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Went fishing after work, put in at about 6:30, fished with a weightless plastic and didn't catch anything.  No luck on a crankbait either.  Switched to an in-line spinner and hooked 3 bass, only landed one:

Hoping for more luck tomorrow.

August 2, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

So on Saturday, I caught a number of fish, which I'd put on a stringer, the eventual goal being to consume their flesh for sustenance.

But a snapping turtle got to them first.  Maybe it's hypocritical of me to criticize the turtle for eating the fish, considering that's what I'd planned to do, but at least he could have caught his own, rather that freeloading off of my catch!

Anyway, so Sunday, August 2, I put in and tied about 9 feet of 50 lb test mono to my center thwart, and tied a big 5/0 circle hook to the other end, and baited it with a live bluegill.  I proceeded to paddle around, fishing up near the bank, figuring there was a fair chance I'd catch a turtle.  My plan if I caught one was to paddle to the bank and hop out, and then deal with putting the turtle in the plastic bin I brought.

Turned out all my preparations where for naught, since I didn't catch a turtle.  After a while, I took the small bluegill and started casting him up near the bank, letting him sit for a while, thinking maybe that'd be more effective if my canoe was scaring the turtles away.  I don't think it does though, turtles seem to stick their heads up all the time to check me out, sometimes I have to prod them with a paddle to get them to go away.

Anyway, eventually I caught a big catfish on the bluegill, and took out, cleaned him, and went home. 

July 31, August 1, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Went fishing, caught a bunch of fish.

July 19, 2015 - Lake Pelham

Went over to Lake Pelham, put in around 5.  It was bright, hot, and unpromising.

Paddled around and caught a bunch of small bluegills on poppers.  Made my way to the head of the lake to see whether there were any carp around, but I didn't see any.  The put-in off of Henrietty looks impossible, even if the beaver dam was breached.  It's amazing how much sediment has accumulated over the last 2 years.

Cast a small jig with a curly tail on the paddle back to the ramp, caught a couple of small white perch.  I don't know whether fish come in any other size in this lake.

Took out at about 8, went home.

July 12, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Went fishing, fished most of the time with a small white popper.  Caught a fair number of bluegills:

A few of which were decent size:

One of which had sores around his mouth from something:

And 3 bass rounded out the evening:

July 11, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Went over to Mountain Run Lake, Put in at about 6:30. PM of course.  What sort of normal human is up and awake and aware at 6:30 AM?  Freaks, that's who.  Since I'm not a freak, readers should assume when I refer to putting in, I'm referring to PM in all cases, and thus henceforth it will be unnecessary for me to specify.

Anyway, I put in at 6:30, paddled around, casting a small black popping bug, and caught a number of sunfish of various species, including this green sunfish.  The picture doesn't give him justice, the yellow-orange dithered fins and the iridescent cerulean (vocabulary!) stripes really making for an attractive fish, even if he was small and mundane in every other way.

But if this was a trip where all I caught were bluegills, what kind of bullshit is that?  Glad you asked, because I caught a carp!

Casting my small blag popping bug, on the sneaky Pete model, up near the shrubbery, where there were surely bluegills to be found, I saw a cavernous maw open up, and take in my bug!  Yee Haw, I set the hook and had a carp on the line!

Carp, for you fishing-uninitiated, are the red-headed stepchildren of the Pisces order, somewhat universally reviled among fishermen as trash, "rough" fish, unworthy of pursuit and subject to universal disdain,  But shit, when you have a  24 inch monster on the line who fights like a child unwilling to go out into the snow with boots on (preferring to go without boots), does their loathsome reputation matter?  Hell no!

I battled this leviathan for 15 minutes, and finally brought him to the boat.  It occurred to me that I should have put a fighting butt on my rod.  It also occurred to me that I should have used a stronger tippet than 4 lb test mono.

Anyway, got him in the boat, then it occurs to me, what the hell do I do with him?  I caught a bigger carp last year, or the year before, and threw him back, but I only had 4 bluegill on the stringer, so I kept him.

A carp, subdued:

Subdued and ready to be cleaned:

1/6 of a carp, cleaned and cut into chunks:

I called my father with reports of my success, similar to how I imagine a winning politician does when he sweeps the opponent, and he read to me a forum post that, I have to admit, was a little discouraging:

Icky?!

Anyway, for lunch of July 12, 2015, I ate carp.

I coated the carp pieces in batter, and fried them in oil.  They looked delicious, removed from the horrific lighting of the CFL bulb in my kitchen:

The taste?  It tasted like fried fish, but if I hadn't cooked it myself, it might as well have been fried flounder or tilapia or cod; or for all I know, fried chicken or just lumps of batter.  Which is to say, it tasted like fried flour and didn't cause retching. There were bones that were annoying.

Of course, I still have 5/6 of the carp to go until I'm done, so I might try for dinner tonight sauteed in butter or broiled with salt and pepper.  I even offered over the telephone to freeze some and bring it home to my parents, but they seemed less than totally enthused over the possibility.

But even if carp aren't to be commended as table fare, they put up a fight, for sure.

The Acute Angler, signing out.

July 4, 2015 - Unnamed pond

 Went with my father over to a pond that shall go unnamed.  Oddly, some bluegills down here may still be sitting on beds:

 Caught one small bass on a teeny crankbait.

My father caught 7 bluegills and 1 bass, using fly tackle.

June 26, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Went to Mountain Run Lake, caught some bluegills, including this one:

 And caught at least one bass:

June 24, 2015 - Delmarva Pond

Went over to Delmarva pond after work.  Caught a couple of bass, one of which I got a picture of.  I caught one on a 1/4 oz yellow and black spinnerbait, which I promptly hung up in  a tree and lost, and one of a weightless plastic lizard.

 The problem with plastic lizards here is that they get torn to bits by all the sunfish, which can't of course swallow the hook.  This plastic lizard started out fully intact and by the time I left looked like this:

June 21, 2015 - Lake Orange

Went down to Lake Orange around midday.  It was a hot, sunny day, ambient air temperature was 94, surface water temperature in the sun was 86.  Fished at first mostly with a chartreuse spinnerbait, but did no good.  Switched to a 3" yellow double curlytail texas rigged, but did no good, then put it on a 3/8 oz jighead, fished deep, and caught this bass in deep water.  It was fairly fat, and its stomach contents included some crawfish parts.

Otherwise, I caught a few small bluegills on a small inline spinner.  Caught one bluegill with some size to it, which I kept because I kept the bass.  This is an example of the small bluegills, the decent one was maybe 6 or 7 inches.

Got sunburned, maybe next time I'll use sunblock or wear long pants.

Anyway, took out around 5, having taken a break in the middle of the afternoon to stretch my legs, since sitting in a canoe for more than a couple of hours gets sort of uncomfortable.

I  took an icechest stocked with sodas in the canoe, which upsets the normal trim of the boat.  I'd rather have the ice chest in front of me, but the additional weight in front makes the boat bog down and feel clumsy, so I have to keep it behind me, but then it's difficult to retrieve a drink without feeling a little tippy.  The seat in my canoe slides back and forth on rails to allow you to adjust trim and let the seat double as a carry yoke, and I wonder if I drill the gunnels further back and make some extended rails, if that would allow sufficient adjustment to accommodate the ice chest in front without causing the seat to bind against the sides of the boat.  I'm hesitant to do it for fear of screwing it up, but you know what the famous Assyrian haberdasher Pliny the Flatulent said:  "C'est la vie."

June 16, 2015 - Mountain Run Lake

Thank heaven for small fish, that's what I always say.  Just ask anyone within earshot of me and they'll confirm, I always say that.  It's hard to find anyone within earshot of me though, since I tend to drive people away, that being my only conversational gambit.

The reason for the appreciation for small fish is that without a 6" bass or a 4" bluegill, I would've been skunked on this trip.  And nothing is so demoralizing as getting skunked, I always say.  Damnit, I've contradicted myself, and this is only the second paragraph!

Anyway, I fished with a chartreuse spinnerbait, a red/white/black curly tail, a spinner, a blade bait, a plastic lizard, a 1/12 oz crankbait, and I may be minus one kitchen sink as well.  Nothing worked.  The fish I caught were on the blade bait, a chartreuse and black 1/8 oz job, and those fish I'm fairly certain were just swimming by, not intending to be hauled from the not-so-briney deep to be held aloft and photographed.

Speaking of photographs, you might be wondering, where are they!?  Surely these small fish have been captured in 16 megapixel glory?!  Indeed they were, but I don't have my camera handy, and am feeling too lazy to go get it.  And who would want to see pictures of small fish?  Well, maybe someone interested in fishing Mountain Run Lake in mid June after a miserable heat wave.  But I wouldn't want to discourage them.  Fishing is about discovery and fiddlefucking around trying to find something that the fish will bite, and I wouldn't want to deprive someone of the joy that results from that infernal process.

In any case, I also did something fishing related on June 15, but can't write it up because it might incriminate me.

See you soon!

June 14, 2015 - Lake Orange

Went down to Lake Orange, put in at about quarter 'til 6, fished until 9.  Caught a few bass, one on a chartreuse spinnerbait, one on a tube, and one on a spinner maybe.  Fished for a while with a plastic worm with no success.

Also caught this fish, which I believe is a yellow perch.

Fishing was slow, but I didn't get struck by lightning.

June 13, 2015 - Delmarva Pond

Went over to the Delmarva pond.  Was a hot, bright day.

The sunfish were making nests at the head of the pond.

Geese and goslings

Largemouth bass, caught on a weightless, Junebug plastic lizard:

May 25, 2015 - Farm Pond and Play

Went fishing at a farm pond, caught some fish.  The pond is so choked up with lily pads and algae, the best way to fish it is to cast a weightless plastic worm past the weeds.

Also, if you are looking for a theatrical extravaganza, come to Brandy Station Fire Hall this coming Friday, Saturday, or Sunday and see KINGDOM!

May 3, 2015 - Delmarva Pond

After doing laundry, I had 15 minutes to kill, so why not go fishing over at the Delmarva Pond?

Why not?  Snakes in the grass, that's why:

I gave my friend the garter snake a wide berth and fished around the pond.

There are still a bunch of small sunfish here, but I was able to hook more than I had been able to in the past, which made me think that perhaps the average size was increasing.

But what would be responsible for larger sunfish?  Maybe a predator in the pond?  Like, oh I don't know, a largemouth bass, for example?!

Well that's exciting.