Fishing - An Unlikely Catch

While fishing below the Truman Dam on the Osage Arm of Lake of the Ozarks, I had one line in the water specifically for catfish.  I wasn't fishing with any special bait.  I simply placed a medium sized minnow on the line and sent it to the bottom of the lake.

After half-an-hour or so I noticed the familiar sign of a fish on the end of the line as my pole began dancing about.  I knew I had one, but as I began to reel in the line there seemed to be no resistance. "I guess I missed it" I told my wife.  However, as I continued reeling in the empty hook, a fight broke out that would end in the biggest catch of my life so far (I'd love to think there may be more giants like this one at some point).

The "first glance" at a big spoonbill

The above picture shows the spoonbill as it first reached the surface and decided to begin swimming away from me.

Almost have it landed

Shown above is the point at which I began to regain the control in this battle

"The Big One"

In the picture above I had the spoonbill almost all the way in to the dock.

Right up to the dock

The final picture shows this large spoonbill just before I released it.

The spoonbill was scarred and its "bill" was broken.  It seemed to have had a hard life. I'm sure it had been snagged a time or two in the past and I felt as though I should release it without removing it from the water.  I carefully set the giant free without adding to its timeline of scars leaving it to continue swimming somewhere below the Truman Dam in Lake of the Ozarks waiting for the next person to come along and surprisingly catch the biggest fish of their life.

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day

Fishing Journal Entry 10

June 18th 2006

Today I took the family on a fishing trip to Warsaw, Missouri.  We fished below Truman Lake on the Osage Arm of Lake of the Ozarks.

The weather was a bit on the hot side, but in my book that is perfect fishing weather.  The sky was mostly sunny with a easterly wind of five to ten miles per hour.  The barometric pressure was 30.10 and holding steady.  

A beautiful day at Lake of the Ozarks

We fished with minnows the entire time we were out there and caught enough fish that I lost count of the total.  I did however catch the biggest fish I've ever caught in my life.  

Huge Spoonbill

The spoonbill pictured above was about four feet long and a very conservative guess on the weight is about 50 - 60 pounds.  It was an old fish and I didn't remove it from the water to release it.  I simply knelt down on the dock and let it go.  I didn't want to injure it as it looked like this thing had lived a rough life.  There were scars on it's body (probably from having been snagged at some point in the past) and it's paddle was broken.  No sense in taking a chance on adding any more wounds.

Cody having a blast

A tiny bass

A little crappie

Cody and the rest of the family had a ball catching and releasing fish all day!

Blue Catfish

Channel Catfish

Tiny Channel Catfish

Above are some pictures of a few of the catfish we had the privilege of catching on this outing.

One of several crappie

Another Crappie

A small crappie

Above are a few pictures of some of the crappie we caught throughout the day.

We even had the opportunity to observe some deer while fishing.  Below is a video of them running back into the woods after being spooked by a passing car.

Overall we had a great day of fishing as a family.  This post is a little late being posted as we didn't arrive back home until a bit after midnight.  Needless to say I was a bit too tired to write a post....But it was worth it!

- Any day in the outdoors is a good day