# A New Venture for the Fish Nerd



## Coryphaena (Oct 2, 2007)

Life is full of new experiences and trying different things..... and having grown up fishing the Gulf, freshwater fish are a whole new ballgame for me! Sure, I'd done it a few times when I lived out in Arizona (hey, I had to have a "fix" somehow.....LOL) but in the small handful of times I went out there, the result was a smattering of small bluegill.... not bringing in the keeper fish but just enough to keep the itch scratched. I've had the good fortune to have someone show me some basics of freshwater fishing- my sweetie and I have fished Juniper Lake together a couple of times over the past few weeks, and I have to say I really enjoyed catching freshwater fish!! I used a tiny spinning setup spooled with 4 pound mono, fished off his dock on Juniper, soaked a couple of cartons of worms and we just had a great time reeling them in. 

Here are some photos of the fish we kept:

Yellow bullheads- my first catfish (boy were they awesome in the fry mix that he made)...










The biggest bluegill I have ever caught... it was actually bigger than my hand! LOL










One of Dave's bluegill had really pretty colors- bronze and purple- inspiration for a future painting I think!










Here is what we kept on one of our adventures- we released a good handful of bream and catfish and kept enough for dinner and leftovers..... Dave caught the bass (I am still waiting to catch my first!)










The Nerd in me had to pull the otoliths from these fish, just because I'd never done it on freshwater fish before- and boy, were they tiny! The otoliths in the catfish were about the size of pinheads..... It was neat to dig around and try to find them though.

Next venture..... we went out to the dock just after a good rain and the catfish were on fire. We hauled in about a dozen, and kept 6. Just after dark, I had a bite that was a little different, and got another first- a redear sunfish (shellcracker). We kept it and the catfishin a livewellbasket overnight and got the pictures the next day....










The fish was probably 9-10 inches- pretty littlefish! I did keep this one whole for a painting- I've never done one of a shellcracker before.










Well, he did it- Dave has me hooked on freshwater fishing now. He's done it his whole life, and it's neat to get to learn from him! I'm looking forward to catching more, and maybe getting that bass one of these days.....


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## Splittine (Nov 24, 2007)

Very cool, nice mess of fish.


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## User6882 (Feb 4, 2009)

i bet those cats were fun on 4lb mono


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## surfstryker (Sep 28, 2007)

Great report with pics, as usual. It looks like you've mastered wiggler fishing, now use heavier line and try a plastic worm.


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## User6882 (Feb 4, 2009)

nah theres no need for bigger line for bass.. hell i grouper fish inshore with 6lb


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## surfstryker (Sep 28, 2007)

> *BigBrandon89 (9/27/2009)*nah theres no need for bigger line for bass.. hell i grouper fish inshore with 6lb


I'm trying to help her catch a bass over 10" long Brandon. A lot of stumps in Juniper.


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## Pinksnappertrapper (Dec 7, 2007)

and i would have to call bs on catching gouper on 6lb test. I use 65lb braid and get broke off.


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