Catfish

So I have a nice three day weekend for the fourth, unfortunately do to a scheduling glitch I was unable to use a vacation day on the sixth when Renee and the boy will be going to Story Land. Not a big deal as we will all go again later in the summer.

This morning at about five I went to the bridge by the Belknap Mill to try my hand at trout and salmon fishing. Naturally I caught two little rock bass. Nothing exciting but two fish for me in one day is still a pretty big deal. I caught one with my Berkley Gulp Minnow (far and away my champion lure) and the other with my biggest dud lure, the Rage Tail baby craw. The Rage Tail is such a slick looking lure but with plenty of opportunity today was the first time I caught a fish of any size using it, meanwhile 11 of the 18 fish that I have caught have been chasing the Gulp Minnow. It was almost 60 degrees by five am with clear skies and little wind, so it was a pleasant morning for fishing.

By seven am I had tired of the limited action under and on the bridge so I figured while I had a couple of hours I would head back to the Laconia Citizen parking lot. It had started to get warm so I took off my sweatshirt and spent the better part of two hours watching little bass float feet away from me mocking lure after lure. Then as I was starting to think about leaving I caught a flash of black out of the corner of my eye. At this point all I have caught is basically lake trout which is kind of a silvery color and bass which is mostly greenish so black struck me as odd. After watching the spot for a few minutes a beautiful little catfish swam into view. Catfish favor amateurs like myself because basically they are scavengers who will eat just about anything. So I pulled my lure and switched to a leftover chicken finger that I had brought with me. I dropped it where I had seen the cat and got nothing. Then I saw the cat on the other side of the little pier and when I cast to the other side I almost hit him in the head spooking him a bit. With a little bit of frustration setting in I took a break to see if I could spot the cat again. Looking back where I had seen him originally sure enough he was there and he was rooting around where I had dropped the chicken originally. Now I'm no brain surgeon but even I could tell he was sensed the chicken with his barbels and was looking for it. I slowly dropped the chicken back in the water and after settling for not more than a minute the cat swallowed it whole. The fight was brief but the best that I have had at this point having to let him back out a little a couple of times so I didn't snap my line (at this point I am using the 8 lb test that came with the reel).

When I pulled him into my hands I was impressed with his size and beauty (for me anyway). At 14" and a pound and a quarter the all black cat is the largest fish which I have caught and it made for three in one day. I wanted to snap a picture of my catfish but I struggled a bit with the hook and I needed to get him back in the water. The only thing that was odd was that I couldn't find the exact species in the NH Freshwater Fishing Digest. The digest lists one catfish species, the brown bullhead, which is brownish with a white belly, this fish was definitely all black and definitely in the catfish family. He actually looked like this fella' who apparently lives in Brazil, go figure? Anyway, I am excited for this Army stop-loss pay, Renee and I discussed, and if it isn't a scam I will probably get a little one-man kayak and a roof rack.

Mission accomplished...sort of.

I was up at 4:30 and headed out to my new favorite little spot. The weather was cool in the low 60's and overcast. Mission accomplished, I did in fact catch two fish and have them filleted and standing in the kitchen by 7 am. Now as for the size of the fillets, they were a lot closer to one ounce than they were to six ounces. Today was a real challenge so I wanted to use my best bait and my best spot, you know based on my three weeks or so of experience fishing. So I stuck with my Berkley Gulp Minnows and went back to the train trestle by Hebert Foundry in Laconia and I caught two little rock bass in a hour and a half. I've been trying to cast close to the trestle which is a little tricky when your standing on it. The second wrinkle is a fairly swift current in most places. Today I found a pile of rocks at the base of one of the supports where the current isn't quite as fast so I can cast away from the trestle and let it drift back into the rock pile with just a little twitch on the pole to make the minnow behave a little more minnow-like.

They were really modest little guys and let me tell you they look a hell of a lot less impressive when you fillet them. But I wanted to practice the actual process of filleting. As I told Renee unless you practice filleting a slippery fish isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to do. Renee, I'm sure knows a lot more about filleting than I ever will, but she's kind enough to humor me.

Proof of Fish

So here you have conclusive evidence of me catching fish number two of the season. On a cool and overcast Sunday morning I went out to begin my big vacation fishing adventure. There was some light rain and a little mist but overall not a bad morning, if you don't mind the high 50's. Again catch and release only at the moment, for one thing bass are still protected and for another thing you really ought to be prepared to cook the fish if you are going to take him home with you (not a whole heck of a lot else to do with a fish at home). This little guy is maybe 2 lb. and about 9" long Rock Bass. I am not really a 100% sure on the species, but comparing the shape of the head to the NH Freshwater Fishing Digest (page 32) Rock Bass seems like the most likely culprit. Tough to tell from my lousy photo but cell phone photography while holding a living fish is not exactly easy. I got a little ten dollar scale at Wal-Mart that has a tape measure built in. At his size weighing wasn't worth the effort so two pounds is totally a guess but the length is pretty accurate, his tail fin is basically behind my right wrist.

I went back this morning to the train trestle in downtown Laconia. I was out the door before five and the location is only a few minutes from my house. I caught our little friend today with a "wild eyed shad" a small lure that looks like a little fish with a neon tail. All of my efforts with the Senko have been unsuccessful. This four inch cigar shaped worm is famed for its bass catching prowess but he's done very little for me. I saw a couple of larger fish (one 12-18" that looked like a trout) in the water today but one literally swam past my lure without interest. I also had a very nice sized snapping turtle pass under the trestle, he was also disinterested in my lures sadly. Obviously I still have a lot of work on what the call presentation, which is making the lure act like the thing that it is supposed to be. I also have had some nice bites that I lost so I need quite a bit of work setting the hook, which is getting the hook to stick in the fella's face once he starts to nibble. Special thanks to my wife who has been very supportive of my new found desire to wander off at five in the morning.