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

[george47]

""we don't have large biting things like that lurking on our stoep.""

large biting things are one of the parts of my old life, I have been bitten by a number of things - and here keeping the cotton mouth moccasins in check is one of my jobs. This video is terribly bad, but if you just take it as a night walk narration it will give a bit of a feel of the place. I did get the moccasin a couple nights latter by spotting it swimming in the pond with a flashlight. Listen to the night sounds - sometimes the bayou sounds like hippos are fighting the fish are so loud. mostly in spring when the big alligator gar are out, and masses of long nose gar, and some big redfish cruse, attacking mullet. The bayou is narrow and only knee deep and less when tides are down a bit - and that is when the big fish come in at night to hunt because it is virtually fish soup with all the prey species driven out of the marsh grasses from the lowering tide. 20 to 30 pound fish will go into foot deep water at night hunting. Amazing. Then the clapper rails, mocking birds, whippoorwills, bard and great horned and screech owls all sing wild all night during spring/early summer. Something fights in the deep marsh grasses that will make your blood curdle it sounds so wild and spooky - I guess raccoons, but we have bobcats as well.

[video=youtube;vOhIuYm1LEI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOhIuYm1LEI[/video]

It was this sort of tedious video I made caused me to say to someone that keeping videos to 2 minutes was a good idea (after walking his nice, 10 minute long, video.) and worry he was offended - but I meant well as I had made these rambling ones and now know brevity is good.

Here is an old picture of an alligator gar on the shell point behind the house. They are fantastic to eat once you learn to clean them, and make gar cakes. best fish in the bayou. I only catch a couple a year as they are disparaging throughout their range - except here and a couple places. That is my white Lab Kate, she was the only survivor of 8 in her litter from the dreaded disease 'parvo'. It left her weak and brain damaged and is a 'special' dog still. She is my main dog of the 4, because she needs me so much, and is so loving, and helpless. She is at her constant position of laying at my feet as I type.

If I stick here - I am out at night in the woods and on the bayou all the time, walking and looking about. I have the pond this shows, and my paths, docks, chickens, veg and flower gardens and love the night - I lived in camps, from tent to my school bus, for 16 years so am at home in the night. Mostly I do not carry a light - I can move well in darkness, and the night sounds are spectacular! The frogs, chorus, gray and green tree frogs, leopard and bull frogs, narrow mouth toads, crickets, locusts, night birds, fish splashing - some hot nights it is so loud it is like being in a mad factory going full throttle as they all sing in their tens of thousands, at the top volume they can manage. And they always fall into rhythm - a massive one so well timed, and so loud, you can feel it through your body as well as hear it.

This is why I love to fish at night mostly, it all seems wild as the dark obscures all the man-made sights, and the night creatures come out and perform.

Flora, in her position on the sofa behind me where she can make sure she knows where I am and everything is good. I am not allowed to get into the truck without her, she goes everywhere. I even take her into some places I shop - everyone knows me for the truck full of dogs I always have - you will never see my truck without seeing dogs in it.

 

[george47]

Goatboy - I spent a lot of time in Scotland, even being fortunate enough - way back - to stay in Orkney a couple times amounting about 6 months - and did an archaeological dig of Bu Broch. What amazing fun, we were paid one pound a day, exactly what the hostel charged. I am 1/4 highland Scott, Harris. My mother being the 7th child of a seventh child of a Harris/Sky man. I believe I am entitled to wear the clan tartan.

But you said how you lived in Crail when younger - so I goggled it. (I had an odd time in Findhorn once - an odd group, but I hung with all kinds of cults and communes back then.) I also remember the Texans in the Aberdeen pubs, and meeting the mad Scotsman in Bronar Bridge who carried the upright piano up Ben Nevis on his back. It is a great part of the country - the central West coast.

And I am taking the liberty (tell me if I go too far) of posting a picture as Crail is just spectacularly beautiful!

What an amazing land. The new world has not got this kind of sight. Could you post pictures of how you all live and fish?

 

[george47]

Goatboy, sorry if I offended you with my post but the beauty of it was so nostalgic. I will delete it if you wish.

So last night fishing trip......not great. I took plenty of shrimp but the fish were not biting well. And the mood seemed a bit glum of the greater group. I enjoyed it though, and after a couple hours of sporadic biting the family left with over a dozen fish, but I think only 1 was a speck, of about 15 inches - but the white trout were fair sized. We all left half an hour later. Then I kept the bait live on the truck, I am a fisherman and cannot help wanting to get back on the water....so at 1 a.m. I popped back and it was gorgeous out, and the fish biting within a minute of casting the shrimp out. The snag was 7 to 1 undersized specks and white trout had gone.

The second trip (alone) the sound of porpoises would come past and just out of casting range of a heavy rig (If you had one, I no longer do) the sharks were hitting the top with great splashes and whooshes - all that second time out. A rude fisherman showed up. casting lures across where you were fishing and ignored my barbed comments which took a bit of the niceness of it all off for a bit, but then we all settled in. The other late night fisherman there was a very wild guy who works around the world at some unsaid trade for big money (we have a huge oil industry here) and was about half nuts and half buzzed but became friendly and added a manic element to the whole event. He narrated the situation in an unbroken stream - every bite he told why the fish had hit at that point, and that time - anyone's bite, especially his though. And he brought in a stream of specks on his lure, almost all undersized too. And every one was narrated from hooking to landing or getting off. He was a real, as it would be called here, 'bad bottom', and a bit high, but certainly was colorful; Interspersing the fish narrative with comments - most highly colorful and derogatory, on all the countries he has worked in (Lots of them). "England is a party place but very dirty and not worth bothering with - Germany the best, food kind of OK, but it is soo clean." "France the food sucks, the people rude, but is great, I stay drunk, do you know how cheap the wine is?" And Africa and the ME, Central and South America, well those places left distinct impressions on him. (his work apparently has him in some of the rougher places of the developing world.)

And I have a bag of 5 specks and 5 white trout to clean - I enjoyed it, more the second time out because the night was more beautiful later, the people less, and although the two there were not your typical people, the human dynamic was entertaining - even the rude guy added his bit to it all in retrospect. Huge, surly, and grumpy - but the world out there shrinks to this tiny bit of concrete and railing and one light above; and all the rest is moored dark boats at ones back and the huge Gulf ahead, all is dark with beaches stretching off East and West - and the other people are the population of it. I am sort of a connoisseur of odd characters, my life in other countries and living on the road I was often with the true oddballs. Mad people, cult members, wild eyed fanatics, hermits, ex prisoners, druggies, thieves, drug dealers and just oddballs who have dropped out of normal society - those are the ones you get to know living rough on the road. And the surely guy was just a Southern Country kind, so good in that way; the other one was a great kind of whack-job to be out enjoying nature with. 1000 observations on tide flow, fish feeding behavior, predictions of fish behavior, money (he spent a lot, all the time), and the whole world region and people by region and people. And with lots of fish being caught, looking down you could see fish moving all over, and back, well out of the light circle, sharks splashing and swooshing - and a night heron peeking at us from where he was hiding behind a metal pole, but was as obvious as can be - he was watching for us to leave and leave some shrimp or bait behind, which I am sure we did.

And so a gratuitous fish picture as I did not film the group - they seemed a bit blaa about it all and made me uninspired as a camera user. Although I would guess they had a good time - I think they are not a jolly, joking around, group.

Redfish, an important local sport-fish - they must be 18 inches to keep and get 30 pounds if you want to fish for them - called bull-reds then. They were commercially left alone till some New Orleans chef, Paul Prudhomme, as a TV chef invented - Blackened Redfish. As there was no demand prior there were no laws protecting them and they were wiped out as the huge spawning groups would be netted up. Now they are very protected and plentiful enough. Now blackened redfish is a regional standard

And redfish on my boat with a couple blue crabs

 

[santaman2000]

Blackened redfish was a regional standard long before my parents were born. Daddy was born in 1909, Mama in 1922. Long before there were commercial blackening spices or tv.

 

[Goatboy]

George I wasn't offended, just got caught up in something last night. I'm on my phone just now but will post a bit about it later today when on my 'puter. Might have some photo scans on there for you though not sure. I think Crail used to e reckoned to be the most photographed harbour in the UK.
Will post later sorry just having a quick catch up with a cup of tea while getting ready for the day.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Goatboy]

Well I'm afraid that all the scans of film photographs that I had must've been on my old dead computer which is a shame. Crail is a lovely place, I lived right on the waterfront. My front window about 40 feet from the water, so close that the windows would get covered in salt on windy days. Had a little rocky bay right in front of me, used to eat breakfast on the rocks in the summer. When I couldn't get out in my mates boat (converted lifeboat) I'd don my wetsuit and wade out with a couple of creels to lay them for lobster. Had to keep an eye as for a while the odd diver was raiding my creels, I caught one of them at it though, The rocky shore was also really fossil rich and I built up quite a collection. On some of the walls I built around there I'd work fossil bearing rocks into them at the point where windows were so that folks would have something to look at while doing the dishes. It's also an area prone to mini earthquakes. First time it happened I was sitting having breakfast and everything started to shake. I didn't know what it was at the time and was a bit worried.
On the fishing side the waters were pretty rich around there. Didn't fish much from the shore, usually out in a boat for that but it kept me fed. Some really nce cod, flounder and the odd mackerel, the latter being one of my favourite fish. Freshly caught, rolled in oatmeal with some onions, boiled tatties and peas... wonderful.
As I mentioned earlier I also went after things with claws too. My target was lobster mainly though I did catch some lovely crab too. I'm not a huge crab fan but would save them for my partner when she was in country or for giving to others. I do like lobster though and I used to catch a huge amount. Tried a lot of ways of cooking it though there's a lot to be said for keeping it simple. Quite decadent when folks visit sitting down to a table full of them, lots of butter and fresh milled pepper. So saying some of the more Spanish themed recipes worked too; with chorizo, peppers and the likes. Also some squid used to come in and I do like that too.
Made a lot of fish stew/gumbo type things from around the world, always liked to add to it with other stuff foraged like seaweed and various clams, bivalves and molluscs.
Miss living there, though I'm very happy living where I am in the middle of nowwhere these days. The smell of salt air does you good though and a marine based diet is very good for you. Langoustines, scallops and razor clams are amongst my favourite foods though the wee fish van that comes 'round every Wednesday is well priced. A mate of mine on Skye finds it cheaper to feed his family on bought scallops than things like mince. I'm just happy that where I am the wild berries and fungi are pretty plentiful at the right times of year.

 

[george47]

Amazingly beautiful places you live Goatboy, such a shame your computer is wrecked, I would love some fish and landscape pictures from you. I lost most of my pictures on a wrecked computer, the disk being wrecked too - but you can take your computer to a shop and have its hard drive put onto disks (just the content you wish) for a reasonable price. Here it was $65.

Are you in the Treeless hill country? I really have a fondness for that kind of Arctic lands - I always would try to get up to the far north as it is my greatest love. I actually was born in the High North with six months locked into frozen ports, no roads, and just air. Here is where, and all that coming down the valley is glacier, coming down from the mountains in the back where the great ice sheet begins. We left when I was 2 - but there is a memory one gets through ones family of all the talk and their memories being recalled - and naturally then your eye always catches anything concerning similar places. My father caught a couple Arctic Char in the river, and cod were easy off the shore, he was always a fisherman.

I have people poaching from my crab traps. Once I caught a guy stealing crabs and told him those were my traps, and my crabs. He was elder with a couple young men and was very ashamed and apologetic - we recognized eachother from town - so I told him to keep the crabs but not to bother them anymore. Here stealing crabs is theft and if I had called the police he would have had to go before a judge and pay a big fine, and pay me something. (In my town, 7000 people, police are always on patrol, at least two in separate cars, even in the middle of the might - and they come flying when called) But I would not do that to someone for just making a stupid choice. And the next day he showed up with a jar of pears, and one of figs, his wife had canned from his garden, and an apology.

These two (on my porch railing) and I used the figs to make a fig/blackberry pie which was excellent! The pears I will use when I have no fresh fruit. Catch odd things in a crab trap.

 

[santaman2000]

Now you've got me wanting hot biscuits and figs. Most of my Dad's siblings had fig trees and put up preservs; we were all addicted to them. Sadly that generation have all gone but for one last uncle in hospice care. I need to get cutting from my cousin's fig tree and start my own.

 

[george47]

I have 4 fig trees, none yet producing enough to keep up with wild life depredation, and not enough to try to protect those few figs. I took cuttings from 2 of the small bushes and they are the other 2. Figs do very poorly here on my land, almost everything other than natives and bad invasives do. But one day they will be big - each is on some bit of raised ground. The ones I had originally planted were always killed by hurricane floods. Our property being often flooded by salt water. Here is my wife swimming under the house with the dog during one of our floods

So I have everything in a raised bed now on the theory that I can flush out the soil with fresh water after a flood and hopefully save any perannuals. On that basis I have planted over 50 fruit trees and bushes. The blackberries bringing in a huge crop, and the kumquats (the first I began in big pots) already make enough for wonderful marmalade.

Looking from my porch the water is solid pogies! As it always is here in this amazingly fecund water. These tidal bayous are the nursery and food bowls of the Gulf of Mexico. The bio-mass they produce per acre is only equaled by twice cropped rice paddies in Asia, or sugar cane fields. I just went down with my small 4 foot net and on one cast got 10 pounds, a typical cast by targeting the group as they swim past making tiny wakes. A gallon went into the refrigerator; I am flushing out my bio-filter and took some back to the chickens and tossed some to the fish, and to the dog.

Netting some pogies for bait - one casts to the side of the group or is overloaded. Everything eats a pogie (Menhaden is the proper name). My dog will always get a couple live and flopping - she comes running when she hears the net. My chickens get a couple a day each - they are an oily sardine, very short lived so have not accumulated any toxins, and the water is fine, and the war-mouth brim in my pond get some cut up. This is on my shell point.

 

[george47]

Goat, Santa, it seems only the three of us on both threads, but will keep this one alive too, hoping for some fishermen, so sorry If I am repetitive.

But shrimp are coming in more, and it is time to go out in the boat and really get some. I broke out my brand new 8 ft (radius, but it is only about 12 foot diameter as these nets are cheap - and that is just how castnets are as well. It is the standard, affordable, net here - good at the price, this net is the same as mine but has more weights around the perimeter, same brand) 8 foot, 1/2 inch mesh - most people use 3/8 mesh but I like the faster sinking and the way most of the little ones get away so you do not have to sort out so many little ones to throw back. When casting for small shrimp for bait my 1/2 inch mesh is bad though - but I still like it, and have a little 4 ft net with 3/8 mesh for bait.

I bought a new one last year as my old one was about 6 years old and all worn out and on its second throw from the boat the swivel snapped in 12 foot of water. I was able to find it and get it up with string and a fish hook and called the national distributer - they had me send in a copy of the receipt (bought that day) and a photo of the swivel, this one, still on flickr, and in a few days an entire new net arrived! I had told them I recovered it, but they still sent one, great service, and I put the new one under my bed for future needs. So I fixed my broken one and yesterday used the one from the box for the first time. It was amazing! Throws so easily and has no holes. My old one has been torn up so much the weights are all over making it uneven, and it is so full of holes the shrimp escape and weights drop through holes making a complete mess when getting it ready to cast - and that is after my stitching holes and weight lines - it is worn out from oyster shells and hidden snags, and heavy use. I will stitch it all up again and use the old one for places I do not know are completely snag free - and keep the new one for clean, known, water bottoms. Cast netting is a big deal for me, I net shrimp, bait, and fish like mullet to eat and fish for the chickens.

So popping in and out last night I caught this just legal redfish on the rod (18 inches) and some small, but big enough to eat, shrimp in the net, off my shell point - about 30 foot off the back of the house.

I also kept about 100 smaller shrimp in my floating bait tub where they will live for a week, and be used or let go, in-case I wish to fish - the trout are thick but undersized. The smaller, bait size, were coming up in the net at about 3 small ones to 1 keeper size.

For redfish, which I have gotten to 30 pounds off my dock, I net a small mullet and cast it out - my dock and shell point have rod holders, so you put the rod in and check it periodically - like when mowing the grass. I have a clip on bell for the rod tip I sometimes use - it works well. By using a circle hook the fish hook themselves. Lots of redfish out there, but the water is solid bait so hard to get one. We eat fish a lot.

 

[Goatboy]

George, don't worry that only three are posting at the moment. Many more are viewing if you look at the figures. For some reason (and I do think this to be very true, even more so in the UK) costal threads don't seem to do too well. Crazy really as trying to survive & thrive in most of the UK mainland is next to impossible long term. I've always said that if it came down to it I'd jack it in and head back to the coast. You just uave to look at the arch. record and also see what's under water in places like Dogger bank to know that our forebares spent most of their time on the coast where protein is more easily available. Yet most bushcraft seems aimed at eating berries and roots in the boreal forest. I don't know if its doen to certain TV folk making forests cool but I know where I'd be heading.
Have some good pictures that I'll hopefully get up tomorrow for you of other costal trips in Scotland. Though I'm sorry to say there's few fishing ones as a) I don't get to fish much these days b) when I do I fsh & c) most of the fish I eat these days is caught by a fishing fiend friend of my and I'm not there.
So saying he too likes to eat, and is a brilliant cook - better than me. We smoke some stuff, turn some fish skin into dog treats, but mainly just eat it.
Will post tomorrow when I get to town, but I'm enjoying your posts - it lets me live a life I'd like to live... bar the big reptiles with the long faces and big pointy teeth.

Sent via smoke-signal from a woodland in Scotland.

 

[Harvestman]

I'm no fisherman as I have said, but I have always fancied a cast net. Sadly they are illegal in fresh waters here, and I don't have suitable sea access.

 

[Robson Valley]

Somebody wrote: "Humans are the only species on earth intent on living where there's no food."

Not much here where I live. Short-lived salmon runs now. The birds get most of the berries.
The bears eat all the other berries by the bucketful.
Before logging, the climax cedar forest held few animals. They thrive on "edge" and the regenerating
broadleaf things.

https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastN...04072.391394594261224/795461803854499/?type=1

 

[santaman2000]

....... but I'm enjoying your posts - it lets me live a life I'd like to live... bar the big reptiles with the long faces and big pointy teeth. .....

Those big reptiles taste pretty goo too.

I'm no fisherman as I have said, but I have always fancied a cast net. Sadly they are illegal in fresh waters here, and I don't have suitable sea access.

Yeah there are a lot of restrictions on them here too regarding freshwater. Much more versatile in the Gulf, the bays, and the bayous. I've also been trying (vainly so far) to learn to throw one.

 

[Uilleachan]

Yeah George. Keep em coming.

I was out yesterday fishing for Mackerel spinning from the rocks with a pal who's up visiting from Edinburgh. We hung about for around an hour and a half with nothing happening until they were on, then it was a frantic 5 mins until the shoal moved past. The rocks are a very steep drop off dropping 25 to 30 fathoms so the mackerel behave as they do when out at sea. Sprats leaping out the water ahead of them, and then the gulls slightly behind the curve.

That spot is one of three where you can get right in among them without a boat, although you can't use darrows/feathers and are limited to a single lure. Still if you're quick you can usually catch more than enough to eat.

No photos, as it was pouring with rain and no evidence, as we've eaten it

The irony is that despite the rain our local stream still doesn't have enough water in it, to have a pop at the trout, that said it's rained on and off through the night and there's more forecast, plus it's windy so we'll take a look today as the wind provides cover to get close enough irate:

Tight lines

 

[george47]

""bar the big reptiles with the long faces and big pointy teeth""

We get a venomous snake called a cotton mouth moccasin, it lives around fresh water, and in water. The bayou is too salty for them thankfully but they show up and I kill every one I see - with a 90% success. They will kill a dog, or disfigure it. The vet anti-venom is $800! And if one bites you it is bad. They are common so no worries of killing them. I will pick up a stick or shovel if they are in the open and get my snake gun (a .22 pistol loaded with snake shot I keep in my desk) if they are on water or in woods. I kill about 6 a year. Here is one on my driveway, a smaller one, and the pistol.

I have had all kinds of snake adventures in my life, living outdoors - and we get many kinds of harmless snakes too, some of them very beautiful. When at the pond sometimes one hears a squeaking which keeps going, and if you fallow it it will be some grass or tree snake with a frog, swallowing it - which takes a couple minutes, sad to watch, but the wheel of life. I have masses of frogs, the pond in a marine environment is a massive wildlife oasis. I had a guy with a big machine dig it for $1200 for swimming - the deep end is 12 foot and the whole middle parts are 5-8 foot. Now it is all landscaped and terraced, and the perimeter all in water plants (Iris, canna, ginger, lily bads - all dug from gardens and road side). The terraces have lots of blackberries, asparagus, kumquats, plum, persimmon, peach, apple, pear muscadine, lemon, grape............all bought at half price when the seasons end - then nurtured to survive. I put in the well to irrigate and keep the pond topped up, and ran 400 foot of wire to it through the woods.

 

[george47]

""The rocks are a very steep drop off dropping 25 to 30 fathoms so the mackerel behave as they do when out at sea.""

Isn't that dangerous? The possible huge, rogue, wave sweeping people off the rocks? But it sounds amazingly beautiful and fun. How do you cook the mackerel? I actually like Santaman's thing of rolled in crushed potato crisps. Also I think they would make a great Mexican bake - loads of flavor to stand up to the tomato, peppers, cheese, olives. When I used to backpack in Scotland, many years ago, I would roll them in foil and cook on a small fire.

Where do the trout go when the water is way down?

Here we get 'Spanish Mackerel from shore sometimes, and King Mackerel from off-shore. Not like your mackerel too much, but then similar - and much bigger. They are not such a dark meat though.

Why are you limited to a single lure? And do you use these at all - the #1 Spanish mackerel lure, a Clark spoon.

(sorry for the huge picture posted earlier, was not paying attention.)

 

[santaman2000]

...... Here we get 'Spanish Mackerel from shore sometimes, and King Mackerel from off-shore. Not like your mackerel too much, but then similar - and much bigger. They are not such a dark meat though.....

In this part of Florida we get Kings from the piers also; at least from the larger commercial piers. I remember a great night about 20 years ago when my then fiancé caught a 20 odd pounder that was slightly longer than she was. Kings supposedly don't bite at night and supposedly only like live bait, but that night over 200 were caught with frozen minnows on the Okaloosa Pier.

 

[george47]

"I'm no fisherman as I have said, but I have always fancied a cast net. Sadly they are illegal in fresh waters here, and I don't have suitable sea access. "

Santaman, it takes a bit to learn to throw but I have had a net so many years it is totally natural to me, like riding a bicycle. I do not know if this youtube video will work - I forgot to edit it so it is too long - I was trying to get the Great Blue Heron diving into the water like a pelican. Many people do not know they will dive, but they do. On my bayou I sometimes watch them diving into a mullet school and grab, or spear, one.

Shrimping - sometimes you can get your daily limit of fifty pounds in a couple hours although more typical would be 10 to 20 pounds, but it takes a good wile to learn the ways - from baiting, throwing, and mostly the when and where part.

[video=youtube;PGTVKrx-zRo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTVKrx-zRo[/video]

I popped out last night with some small shrimp I had kept (in my floating tank) and had a wonderful time. The night on the Gulf was perfect with the wind at our backs. Way too many rough people though. One had to step over about 14 redfish rods set out wile walking out the long path - then the rod owners were casting under the light for trout - about 6 big guys. Also two elderly black women, in the South Black women are very big on fishing, it goes back to the days when it was necessary to feed the family so is part of the culture. Also a 4 other men, and one young man I know, who is not a bad fisherman although he buys shrimp (live $4 a dozen!). The women were getting plenty of small white trout, ground mullet (properly Gulf Kingfish) and one big flounder, on cut up fish for bait. You will not get speck trout on dead bait. The guys got nothing mostly, but a couple were also using cut bait for white trout and getting them. We were really squeezed in - and they were not all good sportsmen. When they thinned out it was very pleasant.

I caught 5 nice keepers, and the friend got 2. I do love it on the Gulf at night, and as always did not take the camera to show it.

 

[santaman2000]

The link is coming back "no videos found" but yeah, I've been on youtube for tutorials before. So far I just can't get the net to open properly. I keep hopeing Bass Pro Shop in Destin will have one of their classes covering it (they do various free classes from time to time)