Now THAT’s a fish!
While on a drive with some of our visitors during the recently completed school holidays, we came across some campers.
You see, we have a dam a few kilometres ‘downstream’ of our house – well, we have a very big dam wall to the south, and a mostly-dry river bed connecting here and there. But with all our recent rain, the puddle hole that had been the ‘dam’ (officially measuring just 1% of capacity when we arrived here four years ago) is now up to a not-too-shabby 15%. Which means the fish actually have some swimming room. Seriously, they had to ‘rescue and relocate’ fish gasping for water when things were really dry…
It’s incredible how quickly things regenerate in a good season though – check out this Barramundi, caught by a friendly camper who went fishing with his grandkids…
Over 70 centimetres long! Not bad… although I am not sure how muddy it would have tasted. We were all debating the logistics of catching a similar fish and having them swim around in a salt-water pool for a few weeks to ‘clear them out’ before attempting a meal… it sounded like it had possibilities to me. As long as someone else did the fishing for me – I ain’t a rod-and-reel kinda girl, I’m afraid! But I do like my ocean fish very much… hmmmm.
How bout you: Are you a fisherman/woman?
And how do you feel about freshwater fish versus their saltwater cousins?
11 Comments
Tom C.
BB I live in Northern California and catch all the trout I want during the season. However I went catch and release last year because Id rather eat a salmon or halibut, but of course now I have to pay at the store! Tom
Bush Babe
Hey Tom – look everyone, a real live BOY! Welcome!
Just wondering: is your water muddy that you are catching the trout in, or clear Tom?
🙂
BB
UtahZen
That really is a fish! Or as we say round here “that’s a big’un” 🙂
I love fish! I really enjoy fresh trout but i’m a saltwater fish girl for sure. Salmon baby! (which is both i guess…) And yeah, for some reason saltwater fish seem cleaner. Weird.
Pam
I love to fish!
I have caught the Sturgeon here in our Columbia river! Good eating, firm white flesh.
Salmon, trout, small mouth bass,Blue gill, steelhead! all good eating freshwater fish up here in the NW US.
Hubby and I went bottom fishing in the Pacific for our honeymoon! We cought black rock bass and Lingcod.
The worst thing I have fished for isnt because of the fish, but the bait! I hate mealworms!! I have to use a plastic baggy to hold them, LOL LOL
Mikey
That is a huge fish!!! Wow!
We love to fish, I come from a commercial salmon fisherman father. I myself prefer freshwater. Spent a summer in Alaska cleaning salmon. We like to go out to the lake these days and teach the kid how it’s done 🙂
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Amanda
What a whopper!
I grew up with a fishing rod in my hands and Dad I went fishing in the bay almost every weekend.
We’d dig / pump our own bait and fish for whiting, bream, flathead, dart and the odd tailor.
… and we just spent the last school hols teaching the kids how to fish.
I’m definitely a salt-water fishing / fish eating kind of girl though … real or imagined, most freshies taste muddy to me.
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Jayne
I love fishing but haven’t been for years (that reminds me I really need to teach Feral kid to fish soon).
I like both sea and fresh water but prefer fresh water only as it’s generally in a quiet, secluded area with few interruptions and you can laze back with the rod in your hand and watch the clouds…. 😉
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A Cajun Down Under
That’s one big freakin fish!
I love to fish, and I’m equal opportunity between salt and freshwater. I usually only fish with my brother when we are visiting Louisiana. It is great to catch up with him and very relaxing.
A Novel Woman
Holy moly that’s a big fish!
I love freshwater fish, and have been fishing before, though not lately. We have mostly trout in our lake, and the guys stock it with a couple of thousand “fingerlings” every year. My favourite, though, is salmon. Oh, I loves me some salmon…
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Kelly
Nice fish!!! I’m impressed!
I love to fish. We have a nice pond (the one in my blog header) that we stocked with catfish, bream, crappie and large-mouth bass. I like bass fishing best since I can use artificial worms. The only live bait I’ll handle is a shiner (minnow).
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Tara
I grew up in Zimbabwe, a landlocked country so the only fishing I ever did growing up was freshwater. Mostly for bream (Tilapia of various species) at Lake Kariba or some of the other smaller dams round about. Bream make good eating. The best fish I’ve ever eaten, bar one instance (which is another whole post in itself!) was one holiday at Kariba. We were fishing off the back of our houseboat, hauling out some fairly small palm-sized fish. The cook was scaling, filleting and crumbing & frying them for snack as they came out the water. 20 mins max from hook to belly!
It settles my soul, fishing. The smell of suncream mixed with the rich dirt of the worm-box. Gunk, fish slime, ice-cold beers. The subtle tug on your line from a Grand-Daddio far below in the dark green water, a flutter of anticipation as you try to judge whether he’s taken the bait…one tug, another, and STRIKE!
Once we fished on the Zambezi, near a border town called Chirundu. That was amazing. I never knew the meaning of ‘roiling water’ until I went there. The sheer power of that river is exhilarating. And that’s long after the white waters at Vic Falls!
Recently I’ve done a touch of fly-fishing, but I am very much a beginner and the the <5% full dams in our area don't allow for practice.
I've never been salt-water fishing. No, that's a lie. Once, in 1996, we went out fishing. I remember my friend getting violently seasick from the fish guts and two-stroke fumes from the engine of the little rubber duck. Fortunately I've never suffered from that! Though the Rapala through her Dad's shin shin when the boat beached a little too hard made me feel a bit green.
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