Fishing Report 6/19/2014

Sometimes when you go fishing, you don't have to set up your rig. Some bugs working the morning away on this Summer Thistle. I was out at Manassas this morning getting new tires mounted on the camper trailer wheels. The shop said it'd be a few hours, so I spent the time checking out the battlegrounds. First stop was the site of the Second Battle of Manassas. The fields and rolling hills looked like places regiments would have marched on - but today, you could see the bales of hay being rolled for colder times ahead. I walked down the path and came up on this pond - the first thought I had was "I need to go back to the truck and get my flyrod" - but I decided to just stop and watch what was going on in the water. I saw tons of tadpoles - going up to the surface to take a gulp of air and disappearing back under the weeds. There were a couple of turtles - one more interested in the other. And I saw several of these crayfish just hanging out in their 3"x3" space - as long as no one moved from their spot, there was peace in the crayfish neighborhood. I did not see one sunfish or bass - and even if there were any in this pond, they'd probably be so stuffed full of food that they'd ignore my flies and the mediocre presentation. Sometimes it is better to just watch.

Turtles and Snakeheads

The tide was draining when we were at the LBJ Memorial. On the bridge across the channel, we saw these turtles and a decent sized snakehead. Then we saw this snakehead - HUGE guy - just cruising the area. I need a harpoon....

National Aquarium - Amazon Animals

The Black Caiman was really interesting to see up close Frogs, piranha cousin skulls and turtles with barbels.

Freedom!!!!

The kids and I went back to the lake late this afternoon to let the turtles get back to the water. They had their fill of hot dogs and kiddie pool time - While Noe and Marlon were letting the turtles go, I was trying to catch the pancakes I know live in the depths. Summer is slipping away and we have the goal of making some epic Bluegill gyotaku... I nailed this decent sized LMB and a bunch of almost-epic gyotaku sized bluegills. Noe had trouble letting go of the smaller turtle. She'd let it swim away and recatch it before it got too far. I had to distract her to give the tiny guy a running start. When the two guys were out of reach, they popped their heads back up out of the water and sent a telepathic message "thanks for the rock'in dogs SUCKAS!" - after that, I let the kids take turns wrestling the 'almost" bruiser sized bluegill. Tomorrow is another day!