fishing, but not in UK - or in UK if you like. All manner of fish and shellfish.

[george47]

I am from England but many years ago. I learned to fish there, in London mostly. I would love to talk of fishing anywhere, and will talk of these fish mostly, which I fish for all the time, and shell fish, and past fishing.

Last night I netted some live shrimp and went to the harbour where a light brings in fish, and they were there - a fish as soon as you threw in. The problem is the one I wanted, specks, were almost all under the 13 inch limit, only two were big enough. (I throw back ones that are not clearly over the limit) Then the white trout were biting a bit, and they are a smaller fish with no size limit, and I kept 6 of them for an acquaintance.

This is the place, North Gulf of Mexico, but at the far end of the walkway.

Fishing for these, but I would not keep so many unless it was getting to the end of the time for catching these - like when this picture was taken, October or so, or if a friend wanted some fish. I do give a lot away. These are specks, short for speckled trout, no relation to real trout, but look similar, and so named that by the Europeans. These are what we eat all the time and I am trying to find new ways to cook them.

I have fished all my life, Arctic to tropics, different oceans, and all manner of fresh waters - mostly for the love of it, and to eat the fish. And so I think of nature a lot. And so ethics, and why I fish. I am a very tender hearted person so what is all this fishing about? Why do I love it - but I do. Since a tiny child I could never be around any water without peering into it, rummaging in it for snails, crayfish, newts, minnows......... I always watch water, peering into it to see some thing, any action or life, even currents and waves - driftwood, shells, birds. I suppose water, and the life in it, is a passion of mine like some take up a musical instrument because it just pulls them.

Then my paleolithic genes are still strong in hunting and gathering I guess - that may be one of the main factors - but it is more, it is the aesthetics, and love of the waters and the life dependent on it and the entire interlinking living system.

I have a little boat and am taking out some crab traps here

And I would love any posting on European fishing, or UK, it is very nostalgic for me.

 

[Harvestman]

Well I'm no fisherman (I have caught precisely one fish ever) but I enjoyed that post. It is good to have a passion for something, and yours puts healthy food on the table too.

Fishing is one of those things that I always think about taking up, but I get bewildered by the enormous range of hooks, rods, reels, float, lures, flies, lines and so forth, and the fact that fishermen seem to speak a completely alien language.

 

[bopdude]

Hi George47.

Great write up and pictures, if the specs aren't trout what do they taste like ? you say your looking for different ways of cooking, what have you tried ? I've just started fishing again after a fair few years, I used to fish for Trout, Sea Trout and Salmon, also coarse and sea fishing, now though it's pond fishing for and because of my Father, he has mild Dementia, and before it gets to bad he wanted to go fish again, I waffle, fishing is great for all ages, my Son fishes as well, I don't think it's that easy or affordable nowadays, what with clubs grabbing water left right and centre, as for the cost of it, bah, don't get me started.

Anyway, tight lines

 

[Goatboy]

Nice post George.
I don't get a chance to fish much these days though like you have had a facination for water since a nipper myself. Various girlfriends have learned that romantic walks along the beach can get disturbed if there are rock pools. 'Cause if there are I'll end up poking around in them for hours.
Used to fish the local estuary and docks a lot as a kid and when I lived in Crail I had lobster pots out a lot and ate a lot of them.
As well as finned and clawed fish I have a weakness for shellfish. Clams, razors, scallops and mussells being my favourites.
Have used many ways of catching my food from digging it up, nets, rods, snorkling and in my misspent youth guddling too.
I like cooking and fish is a healthy firm favourite. From simple fish baked in milk to a lot of the more adventurous middle eastern dishes that I like. So saying sitting on a white sand beach on the west coast of Scotland with freshly caught fish cooking over an open fire is my personal idea of heaven.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[santaman2000]

Nice mess of Specks. Now I'm hungry again.

 

[george47]

I am up at 3 a.m. now - last night I went out night fishing to the harbour (3 1/2 hours ago I got back) which was terribly windy, waves high coming right into the wall. The fish were biting very well for about half an hour but the specks remaining undersized. Then the bite slowed right down till I left at 11:30. But it is glorious out at night with the wind and waves. I was the only one out for half the time till I was joined by another regular who also nets live shrimp for bait. I kept 7 white trout with an average length of 11 inches and weight of 1/2 pound - this is considered big for them.

Here is how it begins, making shrimp bait. The bait is cast out where you expect shrimp, wait 10 minutes and throw the net. I use an eight foot net - which is supposed to be the radius but is not. The diameter of the thrown net when it lands on the water is more like 10 - 12 foot. After every second cast a bit more bait gets thrown. This bait is my own invention, the majority using just rabbit pellets and canned cat food. This batch made enough for 4 bags (frozen now) of bait for trips out to net eating shrimp. I only use a tiny bit of a bag for bait netting, just needing a couple golf ball sized bits to get 100 shrimp of the small (bait) size.

making bait https://www.flickr.com/gp/35311573@N05/7s3Wf2

We do a lot of shrimping, this time of year for bait, soon for eating, but last night wile getting bait I was getting 2-3 dozen a cast and kept a quart of nice ones for gumbo soup.

To head then you grab a handful of the antennae and let them hang and with the other hand pull the body off. It goes pretty fast. This is doing that. If it works, I could not get it in html (I am editing the picture turned out huge)

I stayed up much too long, good night. And a final picture if it works - using BBC code instead of HTML This is white trout, but the ones I kept this night were quite a bit bigger - and full of big roe, which is kept and cooked just like the fish. They should have 2 roe as big as your little finger each.

 

[george47]

Nice mess of Specks. Now I'm hungry again.

Almost everyone likes fried fish - under my house, fried trout.

 

[bopdude]

Thanks again for the write up and pics, great stuff

 

[Joonsy]

Hi George47, I enjoyed your post very much, thankyou. Like you I have fished all my life too, though only in British waters. Yes there is something magical about water, I simply cannot cross a bridge without peering over and staring into the water, somehow you get lost in thought when looking into water and the soothing effect has been my saviour in difficult times. There is also something inwardly satisfying (for me) about catching your dinner, it’s so much more satisfying returning home with a couple of fresh caught fish than stopping off at the supermarket and buying your dinner. Many non-fishers have a misconception about fishing, I have often been told by non-fishers that it is boring sitting watching a rod tip all day, however as you know there is far more to fishing than catching fish, only the other day while fishing I had an otter swim right past me and a kingfisher landed on my rod top. I was introduced to fishing by my father well over 50 years ago at such a young age it seems I was fishing before I could walk and have many happy memories, it was common for people then to take home something for the pot, pike and eels was a particular favourite back then and of course trout, one old fellow always used to set a few rabbit snares while he was fishing and often added a rabbit to the bag. In the notorious winter of the 1960s my father took me fishing and the river was frozen over solid, a cow had fallen through the ice and we fished through that hole in the ice made by the cow, needless to say we caught nothing, the line kept freezing to the rod rings and I was froze stiff with the cold, when you are passionate about fishing and being out in the countryside such handicaps are overlooked and the passionate angler is ever optimistic, the last cast for me usually takes about two hours as it’s hard to drag oneself away. Fishing has changed enormously since when I was a lad, I can’t help think beginners of today must feel a bit dazzled by the amount of tackle available and end rigs used by the modern angler, they seem to think they need all this stuff to be successful but in fact all you really need to start fishing is the very basics, to beginners don’t worry you don’t need all that fancy stuff to start and enjoy fishing, believe it or not you can still catch fish on very basic and cheap fishing tackle. Also when I started fishing I began by catching lots of very small fish and I believe it’s the best way to learn fishing, it was years before I caught anything over one pound in weight, it taught me how to handle a rod, play a fish and how to approach and read the water but above all how to be patient and content with any fish one caught, nowadays folks seem to want to catch big fish from day one and are not interested in tiddler snatching, if your first fish are carp over 5lb then you don’t appreciate an 8oz roach or perch. I feel that’s a shame as I believe they are missing out on what fishing is really about. The nicest thing of all about fishing is the ''surprises'' that turn up, you simply never know what is going to happen in the next few seconds, surprises come in many forms from catching fish you didn’t expect to seeing various wildlife, or even falling in fishing memories are very nostalgic for me too and i have a great many, All The Best.

 

[Joonsy]

PS to reply above – a favourite way of mine to cook trout is to -- gut the fish, shove butter into it’s cavity, wrap the fish in newspaper, soak the newspaper with water, bury in hot ashes (or shove in oven) for about 20 minutes or so depending on size of fish. (the paper will brown and go crinkly on the outside but remain moist in the centre) -- small fish I usually just roll in flour and fry in butter.

 

[santaman2000]

Almost everyone likes fried fish - under my house, fried trout.

Lots of ways to cook them but yeah, fried is my favorite too. Especially in a cornmeal breading (looks like that's what you used)

Do you ever get mullet?

 

[redneck]

always good to see how others fish in different parts of the world, keep the posts coming.

 

[george47]

Thankyou for your nice posts.

I have asked a mother and her two young boys to go out tonight, and my friend who often joins me, and my wife. The spot under the light only accommodates a dozen people squeezed up on each other and this would be 6, so hopefully it will be pretty empty.

The snag is getting bait as the shrimp come out at night mostly and the kids cannot stay up late, waiting wile I net bait. My friend has just bought a cast net, a six foot one, and I am to teach him to throw it this afternoon so we may get some bait - I will be supplying the bait for the group - I have a simple rig on my truck for that. When home I just put the garden hose in the bait tub, turn it on to get rid of the air, unscrew it from the tap, and the tub siphons dry onto the ground with zero effort.


[video=youtube;3bda7SXRxk8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bda7SXRxk8&feature=youtu.be[/video]


Here is the spot - down at the end in the light

[video=youtube;UYrEYNNhsFI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYrEYNNhsFI[/video]


Can I post flickr video where it shows the picture and a start arrow like Youtube?

Nights are my favorite time as all the modern and mundane man made things are no longer visible, and one feels nature much more strongly. Out here under the light sometimes the trout work the surface, like an aquarium, chasing the little fish and shrimp on the top. Occasionally a 40 pound drum, or 30 pound redfish will swim through slowly - and alligator gar 20-40 pounds going through right on the surface; even the rare shark sighting. Porpoises may be hunting wight off the wall. One night they hunted just out of the light pool all night with their loud blow sounds and big swooshes and back fins always in sight.

Night herons, green herons, and Great blue herons are there sitting watching you if the place is not crowded, skimmers fly between the waves (these birds are both nocturnal and diurnal) Last night some beetles would fly at the light, sometimes hitting you in the head or body, a fun addition to the night. I just wear shorts and a shirt, it is warm, 78F, 25C, with a breeze, or last night a wind, and that keeps off the mosquitoes and gnats from biting.

Hi Joonsey, hi goatboy, harvestman, bopdude, redneck.

For this crowd I will need 2-3 hundred shrimp if the fish are biting, and only have about 60 in my floating tank - so it depends on how the afternoon casting goes, or I could net a hundred pogies, which are OK bait, but sometimes they do not want them, but one cast will get those, and what shrimp I have. Or tonight go out back on the bayou and net a couple hundred shrimp in an hour - which I enjoy very much too, for fishing tomorrow night. As an aside, few people know how to net shrimp and the bait sellers get $4 per dozen. Most people have had to work with most of their energy and could not spare the time and energy learn how to do all this - like gardening, a normal person just does not have the time. I make fishing sound easy, but I am pretty expert at it because I have always had so much time off, being a tradesman who hates doing construction, but did well at it.

Last week I thought the family was coming so I took 250 shrimp and 100 pogies to a pier that has lights at night (Public fishing piers are everywhere here Free, funded by a special tax on all outdoor gear.) Then no one could make it. So I fished and told everyone there to just use the bait. They were all using dead bait and catching nothing - but then all were onto fish. A couple tourist kids were out, and an elderly woman and her mother who must have been 90, and they all caught a bunch of fish. I enjoyed that a lot, and got all the fish I wanted.

 

[george47]

And it was a lovely night, not great fishing because it was neap (neap tides are the ones with the least amount of change between high and low tide h here that means virtually no change, and fish always bite when tide is flowing) (when the sun and moon are at opposite right angles to earth they cancel out each other's gravitational pull which makes the tides, and thus the neap.)

But then the moon was spectacular, a dazzling crescent with the whole unlit part still showing dark, but clearly. When it got low over the water setting at about 10:30 p.m. the moon crescent turned pure silver bright with scarlet edges and corona. Just gorgeous. below us the water was flat, but being neap very little fish action to see. The occasional popping gulp on the top as a trout would come up to chase a fish or shrimp, but they stayed down, out of sight, mostly. We had some exciting takes, fishing live shrimp on the surface mostly, the trout would sometimes take them with a great swoosh and splash. But the specks were all but one undersized - and that one was very nice, 16 inches - only the white trout were big, getting to 12 inches, 3/4 a pound - very nice for white trout. The take was about 30 white trout, and 1 speck.

I took a woman and her 3 young children, a man about my my age, and my wife - 7 of us. And that made it so much more fun than going alone. First was we got to block off half of all the area under the light, the entire East end, so we did not have to have people crowding in. My friend is a big guy and he took the position at the light and basically acted as the gate. The walkway is only three foot wide, if that, so by putting his bait bucket and himself under the light he acted as out boundary. (you can only approach from the West.) The other fishermen there are nice enough, but this is the deep south where much of the population are kind of roughly brought up and do not always have great social graces. They will not be threatening, or intentionally rude, but they just do not know all the middle class conventions. Like nor crowding in, and throwing their trash, fishing right on top of your float, and whatever. I get along with everybody, but enjoyed my friend playing gate to our patch. About 10 others showed up after us, most later as we were winding down.

And with the fish not being anything like their usual numbers I had lots of excess live shrimp on my truck live tank. (shown in the posted video - works amazingly well. When you get home just put the garden hose in it, on the truck, run water till the hose has no air in it, disconnect from the tap, and let the tank siphon out onto the ground. Our land is 3.5 foot above mean tide, and we get 3 foot high tides, so we flood with salt water all the time, the saltwater does not bother the plants.) I know most of the regulars so ask them if they want some shrimp - which they do, as few people know how to catch their own - and then keep them alive, and a live shrimp out fishes a dead one by a huge percent. So I gave a hundred away. I like catching shrimp, and have the floating tank which will keep them alive a week, so do not take them home if someone wants them. By the way, the bait sellers get $4 a dozen for live shrimp!

And I forgot my camera. But we are talking of getting together Monday for another trip. The kids loved it, and it is so gorgeous out on the Gulf at night. I am even thinking of maybe asking another couple people - 9 of us. I will have to get 500 shrimp if the fish are biting. When the trout are in you get a bite within 30 seconds of your shrimp landing. Although you only land about every third bite. They can be hard to hook as I use circle hooks so the fish is always hooked in the jaw, under the jawbone, and can have 100% survivability if undersized. If you wanted to use a treble hook you could get a higher percent catch, but not so cleanly hooked.

I use these hooks:

The curl means they slide up the throat instead of hooking it, and just loop around the jawbone as the fish has its jaws shut firmly to hold the bait. Some Canadian Provinces only allow these as the releasing of undersized fish has a much higher survival rate. They are becoming suggested more and more for this reason.

In October the speck trout will be bigger, 14 to 16 inches (size limit for specks is over 13 inches, we let 30 go last night for being under 13) and I will put up some winter trout packs. I do 14 oz, and will make up about 30 packs for the chest freezer.

 

[george47]

I am wasting my mid day when I should be being productive, but my wife went off to the farmers market to sell our eggs - only takes minutes as our eggs are the best - they come from semi-feral forest chickens. This is our farmers market - we know everyone and just go to hang out

It is pretty lovely, under big 'live oaks' overlooking the Gulf. My wife is the one on the left. I keep thinking of selling fish there, I do hold a commercial fishing license, but the law is cloudy on my rights to sell fillets rather than the whole fish, which is 100% legal as I also hold a free retail fish license. The processing bit is the thing - I certainly can head and gut and scale them, but can I fillet them? And that is the only way people buy them. Also I cannot sell 'speck' trout, or redfish, shrimp or crabs - but just white trout, mullet, sheephead, and other non-game fish. But those are good fish, and caught in sight of the market actually.

The couple fish and game officials I asked were vague about that issue - it is not something that comes up I guess. But I should sell fish there - it is in the remit of a farmers market - self produced foods.

 

[Goatboy]

I'm enjoying your posts George. A bit further up you're talking about freezing some of your catch. Have you ever tried freezing them whole instead of filleting them? I was dubious about it at first as I was taught to carefully prepare both fin & fur as soon as possible.
But about ten or so years back a friend was telling me to try it with sea fish. Leave them whole, no gutting or taking the heads off. Just give them a rinse and freeze. It makes a real difference to the taste when defrosted. Over fillets they taste much more freshly caught which is always good in my mind.
Keep up the good work, enjoying it; heck you've even got me in the mood to bake something sweet. The rhubarb and raspberries are looking like good candidates just now. May even do a sweet quiche/flan.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[george47]

Hello Goatboy. I freeze fillets because all the cleaning of the fish can be done at once so one just thaws a packet and cooks although your theory sounds good. I have a fish cleaning station back on the bayou, I dug 80 foot of water line in, built a table with sink, and it makes the fish cleaning so easy. I always used to clean fish on my truck tailgate on a big chef's cutting board - which worked great, but the station with water is way better. Here is Jack dog helping me clean a couple trout and a flounder the old way.

The way to freeze seafood is to add 2 T of water to the zip lock bag - and I always weigh out the bags first so I know just what is in them, and squeeze out every bit of air, then zip carefully and roll the bag so no air touches the product. Fish still only lasts 6 months, and is not so good after 90 days, but still good. After six months needs lots of flavoring. 9 months throw it away. Commercial fish are frozen for a year all the time, but done in a way we can not.

Here is doing white trout, and as I say a couple times (I just hack together bits to make a video and never bother to make a good one.) the skin is so very soft it is hard to cut off, and would need scaling if one left it, and I find the trout skin bitter. But every time I go out to clean fish I run my knife over a diamond hone I keep in the kitchen. Speck trout, and all the others, skin easily.

Cleaning fish and crab traps
[video=youtube;P6JUQtPolOo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6JUQtPolOo[/video]

So the big fishing trip is tomorrow night - circumstances allowing. The crowd will now be that family with 3 kids, the father coming too, the mother, her friend, my friend, me and the wife. 9! And I am trying to get the bait together. Last night I cast a bit and have about 150 shrimp in the tank, and want another 200 tonight. I would like 400 shrimp but I worry my floating tank will not keep that many. I could set up my 50 gallon tank with electric pump as well and keep all I could want - but that seems to be getting to be a lot of effort. First I need to call everyone and verify it is on. Then I want some people to go there and set up at our place behind the light before dark to reserve it - taking coolers and chairs. It is all building into a major trip, like say a group BBQ, where lots of work goes in, but several hours of socializing and activity results.

This is an experiment I guess on a new kind of fishing, fishing as a social gathering - I hope it goes well. I am an exceptionally skilled fisherman so I can pass on a lot to the more novice. I spent a lifetime learning water skills - except for the young years as a member of a London fishing club, I never have had anyone really teach me things. I learned by watching the ones who seemed to be doing better than me, and just thinking and trying. I learned a lot of carpentry from an old carpenter who spent a lot of time teaching me things he had spent a life learning - and I owe him my being a carpenter - and he always used to say "If it was easy everyone would be doing it". And that is so true. Like how very few take live shrimp. They cost $4 a dozen to buy, and then to keep them alive for later use (like buy when the bait place is open - then for use at night) is hard if you do not know how, or have the stuff like a pump.

My bait pumps: $23 high volume plug in air pump, $23, 12v water pump for spraying aeration, and $8 battery powered bait bucket air pump. These are at Amazon prices. You have to be pretty serious to have any of this stuff. (The battery pump is $16 at Walmart). Then net - I have a $75, 8 foot net, a $20, 4 foot net, and $15, 50 gallon tank (used drum) and buckets and floating bait buckets ($12) So it all comes to $220! Just for bait. I get years out of this stuff, but still..... and those are at great prices too.

 

[Goatboy]

Good to see Jack dog (a Westie?) getting his nose in. Does he like fish? My last dog Snoop (a JRT) loved the stuff though wouldn't touch prawns or lobster. He also used to try and help when out after razor clams but would get a bit freaked out when the foot started waving about. He also used to try and catch fish in pools or the shallows but I suppose JRT'S are just programed to chase small things.
Sounds quite a set up you've got going there, sounds a good life and one that makes you happy. I enjoyed living on the coast and made the most of it when I did. These days I live fairly far inland but I still play around in the burns around the village, we're bordered on all sides here and theres around a dozen bridges 'round the village. Theres also a few local lochs with brown, blue and rainbow trout. The local fly fishermen are kept busy.
I had my collecting round today and picked a load of rhubarb and raspberries. Haven't cooked anything but just ate a heap of it raw. Funny theres one big patch of rasperries that have a real banana taste to them every ear. I made some raspberry gin with them last year and the banana flavour really worked through the gin which was nice. The feral apples are coming along nicely and looks like it'll be a good crop. They're edible raw though best cooked. I do like an apple and bramble crumble with homemade custard.
Hope your trip goes well, looking forward to hearing how it goes.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[george47]

""Sounds quite a set up you've got going there, sounds a good life and one that makes you happy.""

Not unhappy, but not very stimulating. I garden, fish, cook...........well, that is most of it I guess. Lately I have not been reading much - I am very interested in history, ethics, literature, and elementary philosophy and religion; having been a voracious reader all my life. But I seem to not even to be bothering with that much. Historically I have spent most time on political talk sites but have been banned from yet another because I am conservative from my life experiences, and seem to go to British sites, which will typically be rather left, because I do like to hear British people. Ones still is the same person one was as a young person, just older, and I was raised for much of my young, and young adult, years in London.

I have had a very unconventional life, and till 10 years ago was a drifter, but then through an unlikely set of events settled down (hurricane Katrina playing a big part) Here is the picture of the house I am sitting in now after Katrina - the water was up to the roof eaves. Here the flood was not like New Orleans, the water rushed through, 26 foot of it here, %80 of all the buildings in my town were destroyed. And I had just hand built this house, but not officially had it inspected so it was not legally finished - and had no insurance. Plus I had bought other lands - and all was wrecked. And so I stayed here (I was moving to Alaska, I had just stopped here a bit over a year previously as a tourist and bought a crumbling semi-mansion and put it back together, sold it (that was what I did for a living)) and thought I would build a waterfront house before leaving, so built this place.

Then I had to rebuild this house again - and it was really wrecked, and by the time I finished building it again, and another house, the property values were shot - and my money was gone. So I stuck around. The bayou is nice, the ocean is nice, the town polite and friendly enough. Here is a typical road in the town post Katrina - this was %80 of the town, where buildings still stood.

Anyway, the years kind of slid past and I kind of was stuck, and slowly my drifting need slacked, and then one day I kind of realized I just was too worn out to sell everything yet again and set out to rebuild again elsewhere. My body was just too used up. I have led a very physically hard life. Very hard, and am - like so many older tradesmen, not up to doing my trades anymore (building new, and rebuilding old, houses). I am a bit of an old war horse - and finally accepted that this is where I will spend out my time. Money is tight, I cannot get disability as it is hard to get here except if caused by a sudden injury - so I work on being content with things. I have been remarkably fortunately all my life, and am now, and I do try to make this place one which makes me happy - and am doing good at that.

I do regret I stopped moving in a socially quite place though. Here the people's grand fathers all went to school together. When they talk to someone they do not know well they always begin with genealogy and pretty quickly find out their Mother was married to the other's uncle's second wife's brother - or some thing, as they always can trace some joint lineage when they get going. All have a handful of cousins, and a mass of second cousins, let-alone family and friends. So people are friendly, but more polite, than becoming part of their life.

See, for a social life, move to Alaska where the average resident lasts 2 years. Every year 50% of your friends change, and newcomers join who want friends. Social life in the fast lane. Or live in a big city in an area with foot traffic, and lots of people and face to face meeting. But a place like here you each have your car and meet at Walmart in the isles - or passing social things, and it is not easy to join really.

I was one of the first to come back from Katrina - living with no water or electricity, one of the few, watching for looters and sweating in the baking heat. They had a food tent with three hot meals a day for 7 months; just down from me - that was how destroyed it was. And so we became part of the place as you never would be able to normally. We got to know everyone from the mayor down, simple when you all eat daily in a big, semi-air-conditioned, tent. And they respected us for rebuilding, and I rebuilt 7 houses in all, totally rebuilt - so got to know people.

And tonight I netted the 400 live shrimp which are in my floating live tank. Great fun in the dark with fish splashing and the shrimp coming up 10 a cast. I had some from yesterday, and tonight used my small, fine mesh net and caught twice the shrimp with a net less than half the size, because my big net lets the small ones through. Then I pulled up the floating tank and took out a quart of the big ones, the eating size ones, so the risk of them being starved for oxygen was lessened - made a casserole of Mexican style trout for dinner with 'Peanut butter cup, double chocolate", ice cream to finish, and am going to bed. Good night - and I will pick some random, cheerful, picture to end. Here is an old picture from my porch:

 

[Goatboy]

Good final picture, makes us living here think how safe it is, we don't have large biting things like that lurking on our stoep.
I've moved around a fair bit too, and lived usually in a rural setting. Bit of a physical wreck myself these days and looking forward to getting back to work if I can.


Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.