Fishing Journal Entry 14 - The Turtles Win

7/22/16

Today I took my son along with a friend and his son to a small fishing pond to enjoy some fishing and relaxing.  We had a great time talking and catching fish.

A view of the pond

Having fished in many other places recently, I decided it was time to return to this beautiful pond to see how the fishing would be in the middle of the summer.

2nd view of the pond

There was an enormous amount of aquatic vegetation growing in the pond which brought with it some fishing challenges, but we were able to cope with the situation.

Another view of the pond

The weather was extremely hot with a temperature approaching 100 degrees.  The barometric pressure was 30.00 with a UV index of 9!

Catfish

The wind was blowing at twelve to fifteen miles per hour.

Largemouth Bass

We caught three decent bass.  They were just shy of being keepers.

First Crappie

We caught three crappie.

Channel Catfish

We caught six catfish.  Most were big enough to filet, but we released them all so they could get bigger.

Catfish

We used minnows, night crawlers and even some stink bait to catch these fish.

A couple of the catfish were rather small, but a fish is a fish.....right?

Catfish

As the crappie started biting I began placing them on a stringer.  Upon catching the third crappie I pulled the stringer from the water to find that the first two had been mutilated by turtles.  One was completely gone except for its lips and some of the skin around its facial area.  The other had about one half of one side destroyed.  Once I saw this, I decided we wouldn't be attempting to keep any more fish.  It is better to catch and release than to feed the turtles. 

One of many turtles

In all we caught twelve fish and two turtles, but in the end.....the turtles won.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day (even when the turtles are stealing your fish)

Build A Compact Fishing Kit

If you have ever been somewhere and found yourself wishing you had a way to fish, one solution is to build a compact fishing kit that can be stored in your vehicle and will take up very little room.  For this project you will need a sharp knife, scissors, two sports drink bottles,  an expired credit/debit/gift card, super glue and of course hooks, fishing line and sinkers.

The video below shows the process to build a compact fishing kit.

The steps involved are quite simple.

• Cut the tops off of both bottles just underneath the rim that sticks out below the cap and ring.
• Cut the ring off one of the bottle tops.
• Trace around one of the tops onto the old gift/credit/debit card.
• Cut a circle out of the card following the line that was traced.
• Glue both bottle tops to the plastic circle that was cut from the card (one on each side)
• Place hooks in one side and replace the cap.
• Place sinkers in the opposite side and replace the cap. (Placing the sinkers in the side that the ring was removed from in step two works out best.)
• Wrap fishing line around the open space where the ring was removed.  (Wrap the line in a clockwise direction.)
• Attach a sinker to the end of the fishing line, remove the cap and place the sinker and the end of the line inside.
• Screw the cap back on. (The sinker on the end of the line will prevent the fishing line from escaping and unraveling.)
• Your compact fishing kit is complete.

Please feel free to leave your questions and remarks in the comments section below.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day