Fish fry, no pics yet

My friend Terry came to town this weekend, and on Saturday we met up with another friend, Chuck, and did some all-day fishing. We took a canoe out to picnic point so that we could get at all the hard to reach spots along the shore. Not much was biting though, and we left after a few hours with one pumpkinseed in the bucket. It was a PR for me, at 7 3/4 inches.

Back to the Yahara! We set up shop under the bridge where I'd had luck in the past. Pretty soon we had several 8 inch bluegill added to the bucket. There was a lot of splashing going on under the bridge by the sides, and we found out that white bass had moved in to feed on minnows. Chuck was having a ball with them, catching 3 or 4 with two good keepers. He also caught a 14 inch walleye that we threw back. He was having quite the day! He even had a huge musky on the line at one point. It came up to the surface, thrashed around and really churned up the water before coming off the hook.

Terry wasn't having as much luck, catching a few crappies that were too small. He had his dog out with us too, and when some other people came by with dogs that wanted to play... well let's just say the fishing was pretty much done. After his dog was tired out, we took our catch back to the house and had one heck of a fish fry. All three of us ate as much as we could, and now I probably have 2 lbs of leftovers in the fridge. Fish sandwiches anyone?

Terry took a few pics on his camera, so hopefully I can get those up in a few days. What a day to forget my camera!

Still fishing?

Took some time off work yesterday to throw some hooks in the water. I went to the spot on Wingra creek where I've caught northern and largemouth in the past. I had some worms I wanted to use up, and the bluegills were happy to help out.

While I was down there, two game wardens pulled up and came over to check my fishing license. One of the guys read it over several times, and then asked for my ID. I gave him my IL drivers license. He frowned at that, and asked me if I had a 2nd ID for verification. I gave him my university ID. He looked back and forth at the two pictures several times and then read my fishing license again. Then he looked back to the road and asked if that was my car. Yeeeess...? He asked my why I was fishing down here. I told him I was catching bluegills. He said, why aren't you up at the lake with everyone else? I told him there were plenty of fish here. At this point, a car load of black guys went by, and one of them yelled out the window, "hey you still harrassing people???" and drove off. He frowned at them, turned back and frowned at me, and asked if they were friends of mine. I was laughing at this point and told him no. I think the only reason he left then was because he was so frustrated. I have no idea why!

I saw a northern going after bluegill in the weeds, but by the time I got my gear ready he was gone. It was pretty cool seeing him in attack mode!

I gave up there and drove over to Lake Monona to get away from the weeds and fish some deeper water. It was a nice day still, but the water was cloudy with dead plant matter and the action was slow. I did end up catching one largemouth, at 14.5".

My girlfriend the fish expert!

She did it! The last person I expected to ID the fish I caught in Japan (no offense, if you're reading this) was my girlfriend. It's called a Japanese whiting or シロギス in Japanese. It's popular fried in tempura.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_whiting

Here's the website she used to ID it.

http://fishing-forum.org/zukan/fjysrch.htm

Fish in the freezer

Went out yesterday with a guy from the lab. We had an early start at 6am out at picnic point. It was cold and windy. Not a lot was biting, mostly small perch and smallmouths. The only keeper was a 12.5" drum. We cut our losses around 9:00 and went to the Yahara to catch bluegill. We got 6 or 7 nice big ones and an 8" perch. We finished around noon and took the fish back to my house. Filleted them up, now they're in the freezer. :)

Big fat bluegills

Went fishing on Lake Monona between the terrace and Monona Bay. I caught bluegill, green sunfish, rock bass, smallmouth bass, and largemouth bass. I kept the 3 largest bluegill and filleted them up at home. The largest was 8 inches and the other two were 7 1/2. They made for a good dinner. :)