Babies!!!

Look closely

through the rain drops

through the water...

You can see my baby fish!

They are called Fry.

Is that because when they grow they are best Fry-ed?

I have two water gardens...one with Bluegill, a native fish, and one with Koi.

I do enjoy my water gardens.  It's soothing.

Fishing With Me

Retrieved my fish bait from my worm pit/compost pile, grabbed my purple rod and reel as Hubby gathered his little tackle box with all his lures etc.  Headed off in the Gator to the top pond with out the dogs that can't stay outta the water.  Lizzy got to go because you know she doesn't care too much for swimming.

Hubby starts reeling the bass in before I even get my bucket of worms unloaded.  My first cast I hang on a log and have to break the line.  Hubby says they're feeding deep so I trudge back to the Gator to get a float to hold my hook at the right depth.  I cast again.  

Oops!  Tangled up in a Button Willow in the edge of the pond and I'm NOT losing another hook, much less a floater.  After I retrieved the clippers from the Gator, off with my shoes and jacket. Pushed my pants legs up as far as they would go and stepped carefully into the mucky bottomed pond to save my float. Success.  Muddy feet are happy feet.

Contemplating which worm would be prime bait I wondered if they could feel that hook as I strung their little bodies on it.  Fished all my life and, believe me, the way they wiggle, they feel it! My line is still not in the water.

I was distracted by a rock.  Who, me??

I found another rock that fit my pocket.

Then decided to change fishing spots since I had no bites...

remember my line is not in the water.

Lizzy finds her spot

and I find mine far across from Hubby

where he continues to notify me with glee of how many he's caught!

My mess of fish is growing too!

Final tally...Hubby six, me twelve...but who's counting.

His stringer may be bigger but we all know size doesn't matter.

Mine were released into the spring pond

and

we're having Bass for supper.

Sometimes, We Look...

instead of working.

We checked the pond to see

how many catfish were still "bedding".

I discovered it takes a special photographer

to take underwater shots.

There is a fish in this photo, right hand side.

This one, you can't miss.

A big catfish guarding her eggs swims away.

Seining Fish...

When I was a child, seining the pond was a annual event as the water grew low from the dry weather.  Low water, less oxygen...removing some fish assured the survival of the whole.

Our seine was about fifteen feet long with weights on the bottom and two poles at each end.  One person stood on the bank as the other waded out, set the seine and began to walk to the bank with the net on the bottom.  I was always the lucky one, red clay mud sucked at my feet and caused me to stumble but I held my pole straight and steady as I walked that seine to the bank.

A large bass kept jumping the net and we walked the seine again and again. We caught several catfish, some large perch and some small bass, plenty for supper and some for the freezer.

I was soaked from head to toe, mud all over me but we tried one more time. During the last sweep, there was no jumping fish, maybe he was worn out!  There was a chance, a small chance, Big Bass was in the net.

Struggling through the mud at the edge, I fell but spotted the giant bass flopping to reenter the deeper water.  No way was he escaping this time!

I dived toward the bass in the shallow, covering him with my body until I could get a good grip.  The fins stuck my stomach as I worked to get a hold.

Finally, triumphantly, I stand, totally mud-covered with a thumb in his gills and hold him high above my head while whooping at the top of my voice!

The sun shined bright as Daddy smiled.