North Carolina Aquarium - Manteo

We spent the second half of Tuesday up at Manteo - to specifically checkout the aquarium and to do some quilting recon for La. The aquarium was not gigantic like the National Aquarium or Atlanta's, but it did focus on the local fauna and was very charming. Marlon and Noe both had a great time at the touch tank - especially with the eager cownose rays. Admission was inexpensive, so if you find yourself in the MAN-E-O (not MAN-TE-O) area, head towards the airport and check out the aquarium. We also checked out the "Lost Colony" area - Marlon spent some time in his history studies learning about what happened to the settlers. Good thing we had GPS...

Catch of the Day (13 July 2012)

Besides the new truck, here is the COD (catch of the day). This little snapper kept stealing my bait. Caught him on the Daiwa Soyokaze 27SR - this rod is amazingly fun! I also caught two brooder sunfish (males protecting a nest) with size 24 hooks and a tiny piece of hotdog on the hook as bait. It was intense watching the decent sized fish rise up to the bit of hotdog floating along and timing the hook set just right... this never gets old (especially while Marlon and Noe are along side learning and developing their own tactics).

Definitely a Snapping Turtle

With the feeding frenzy going on, the snapping turtle picked up on the vibes and came in. We spent a long time with it today, studying how it eats (slower than the other animals, but they gave it a lot of respect when it came up), how it swims and how it reacts to other stimuli (Noe teasing it with the tip of her cane pole). There is no doubt the turtle we saw the other day was a snapping turtle.

Turtling

Not the surfing maneuver, but the act of catching turtles. Noe has a fan club at the lake now - as soon as the kids show up, so do the turtles. They've even drew in a new species - I think it is a young snapping turtle, but it could also be an adolescent long neck. I'm going to have to file the tips off the hooks the kids use so they don't hook these guys. Amazing what a hot dog will catch!