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

[george47]

Is it not working? I signed out of everything and it works for me - the problem is privacy settings and set them to unlisted - let me know if it works please. It is some film I downloaded to Youtube unedited - then never remembered to edit it, which is why it is such an ambling mess.

Those green light pools across at the docks typically have trout circling in them, they show up very clearly when present. If you cast a shrimp across they will take it. That heron is there most nights. Great Blue herons are both diurnal and nocturnal and this one stands on the dock because there is no where at water level for him to use - and dives head first onto a fish and catches it - quite big fish, up to half a pound and 12 inches long.

I felt like going back to the harbor as it got dark here a bit ago but resisted. I will walk the dogs down the bayou in a wile and go startle some frogs by circling the pond - they sit on the trail waiting for bugs and leap with a Yippes! cry and land in the water - Splash! when you disturb them. Keeps you on your toes as the big bullfrogs sound like a cat lumping into the water, they are pretty big. The moon is almost full and I do not need light to walk in the woods.

And tomorrow is the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina! Commemorative meeting in the park. A few people from this town died, but mostly peoples houses were torn apart and the people clung to trees and survived, unbelievable how many did this and lived, even quite old people - this is not like New Orleans, the water was moving. Before Katrina the most destructive hurricane in USA was Camile, 1969 - and here was ground zero for it too, another plaque in the park commemorates those deaths. But now days building codes are different and the buildings can survive, may get wet though.

Here is the foundation of the little cottage I built down from my house a couple years ago - to meet post-Katrina code, forty foot marine pilings being driven twenty foot into the ground and the cottage then is twenty foot above the ground on them! And it all has to be strapped with metal straps - from base to roof peak - and lots of other codes. Building on low waterfront land if a chore nowadays.

 

[santaman2000]

The link has disappeared but an actual video has now appeared and yes I could watch that (although there was no casting in it?) However I have subscribed to your channel.

Nice shrimp. I was a bit surprised you didn't keep the mullet to bait your crab traps.

 

[george47]

I was on my own so no one to film my casting. Will see if I have a video of netting - again sorry for not editing it down to 1/4 of the length. I used to make the mistake of rambling on and on and am still trying to learn brevity. I use the heads and guts of fish for the traps when I have been filleting - I use mullet if I do not have the waste remains. mullet is better as it is tougher, but the skeletons work OK so do not kill the mullet if not necessary.

Here is some netting - I am using a torn up net there so the lead lines keep tangling as a lead drops through a hole in another part of the net - that is what I was straightening out. This would be wile still late summer so hot and the shrimp small. Our summer goes through September really....we get hard freezes in winter, but this is a fairly hot place - not like Florida after you leave the panhandle, but June to late Sept is hot - which I love. I absolutely love being out fishing on those hot, humid, nights. Only a tee shirt and shorts needed, and you can get soaking wet casting (casting gets you soaking wet) without being cold, even in a breeze in the middle of the night.

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

So today is the big 10 year anniversary event - for Katrina, and the hippies and society for anachronisms people will be having their monthly - full moon - drum circle on the beach - that we typically go to. I may take my flounder spear and light and walk the shallows to gig a flounder wile listening to the music.

 

[george47]

I had a great time fishing last night. The shrimp were really in - bait sized, last night. I put out my bait and let it get dark, then 30 - 40 shrimp a cast. You have to wait 10 - 15 minutes between casts, and throw out a piece of bait about as big as a golf ball. So I soon had about 300 shrimp in my tank (you can do two casts, I bait two places thirty foot apart = 60 to 80 shrimp. Then at 11 p.m. I could not help myself, I had caught them for a friend to use tonight and was not going to fish - and took about 50 and went to the light at the harbour. The biting was slow but speeded up - all the specks being 12 +-, but only 1 the legal 13 inches, but I got half a dozen white trout almost a foot long (no size limit)

A couple men had driven 130 miles down to the coast and were having no luck with dead shrimp (specks will not eat it but white trout will) as the fish were being picky. A couple were also there and getting nothing either. But they were all nice - so I got home and put the fish away, and could not help myself. I took 150 shrimp and went back and told everyone to use them up. In 25 minutes the shrimp were all used up - they bit almost as soon as you cast out. The thing was the specks were all just a tiny bit too small to keep. But everyone had a great time, a fast bit of fishing. The shrimp swims on the top and the trout come up and take it, you can watch them - take with a swoosh and a flash of gold. (they did get some nice white trout to keep)

 

[george47]

I just cannot help myself - the friend who I netted the shrimp for to use last night canceled - so I went at 9:30 and stayed till 12:30. It just is so amazingly lovely out there. The trout were thick in the water, feeding on a tiny fish called 'Bay Anchovy', the base of the food chain, existing in more tons than any other fish in the Gulf of Mexico; rather like your sand-eels. The trout just swim randomly opening their mouths and making a little swerve - utterly casually like the anchovy do not care. A fly fisherman would wear him self out if he had the right flies.

I would get some action on the shrimp, but especially on the tiny ones I had (I used my small net so I could get little shrimp), ones an inch and a half long (why did the British government disrespect its glorious past enough to go metric, I love America for sticking to Imperial measurements) 3.75cm and thin, and they would take those happily. Then when you landed a fish they would shake disgorging tiny anchovies -they were literally stuffed to the gills.

I ended up catching most of the fish, the other 7 fishermen using dead bait and lures. I know most of the people who fish regularly - vaguely by sight, although as I am a odd looking guy with my beard and bald head, and the way I greet anyone who gets within greeting distance of me, everyone knows me. And with the - roughish is the word I would have to use - other guys fishing, I finally got to actually introducing myself to rather than just a hi - and that made it so much more fun. I then was in the group so to speak, and we would comment of the fish and anything. Mostly I do this but these guys I had not really as they come together and are the sort who may be a bit reticent with strangers.

Race is a big hangover here in the deep South. The majority fishing where I go are black, with a big percent Southern Country White. This fishing is almost totally a working mans thing. And Black and White, at least here on the Coast where I live, are very polite to each-other. They just want to get along, no matter who you are, because life is better when everyone in the area is respectful of everyone else. But still there is a slight barrier - not if, say, you needed to borrow a hook, or use their pliers to unhook a stingray, or conduct any process, but in making actual friendships. This is not so strong a reticence in fishing as we are out there together, where I go, just feet apart. We need to always be moving our floats as they drift into the other's way, or pulling it in if he has a big fish, and getting along, we are there to enjoy it. So we chat, and all of us regulars eventually get a small friendship going - white and black, Country or city. Like most I do most of my socializing with white people; but most of my fishing with Black people. Public Fishing is a good equalizer. I just mention all this because race is an issue here, it has an almost tangible feel in all aspects of Southern life. Things are getting better, I believe fast, but Black people may feel differently. As much time as I spend with Black people, (and that is a lot, my main fishing buddy being black, and I worked for a black company 6 years, living with the fellow crew members on the road) It still is hard to talk of issues of race between different groups. A sort of shyness, or awkwardness, stops that discussion being explored.

But the night was wonderful. The water totally smooth, fish working under the surface, outside the light the sharks and big ladyfish making their great splashes as they feed on the surface. Behind us, in the harbour, were some great swooshes from alligator gar doing their big, loud, rolling. Warm enough that shorts and T shirt perfect, a pretty sky of almost full moon and clouds. I was giving all my fish away, I still have the ones filleted from before, and at the end I just gave everyone live shrimp and all caught a couple fish. Overall the fishing was bad because the specks were undersized, and the white trout small. The bites slow. But I did not leave because it just was too nice; the warm night, the water and fish to watch, and people to talk with and enjoy it all together.

This is the railing where I fish, this is where I spend hours under the light.

 

[santaman2000]

....... Race is a big hangover here in the deep South. The majority fishing where I go are black, with a big percent Southern Country White. This fishing is almost totally a working mans thing. And Black and White, at least here on the Coast where I live, are very polite to each-other. They just want to get along, no matter who you are, because life is better when everyone in the area is respectful of everyone else. But still there is a slight barrier - not if, say, you needed to borrow a hook, or use their pliers to unhook a stingray, or conduct any process, but in making actual friendships. This is not so strong a reticence in fishing as we are out there together, where I go, just feet apart. We need to always be moving our floats as they drift into the other's way, or pulling it in if he has a big fish, and getting along, we are there to enjoy it. So we chat, and all of us regulars eventually get a small friendship going - white and black, Country or city. Like most I do most of my socializing with white people; but most of my fishing with Black people. Public Fishing is a good equalizer. I just mention all this because race is an issue here, it has an almost tangible feel in all aspects of Southern life. Things are getting better, I believe fast, but Black people may feel differently. As much time as I spend with Black people, (and that is a lot, my main fishing buddy being black, and I worked for a black company 6 years, living with the fellow crew members on the road) It still is hard to talk of issues of race between different groups. A sort of shyness, or awkwardness, stops that discussion being explored.......

Yeah. One of those things that if:
-You're on the inside looking out it's hard to explain
-You're on the outside looking in it's hard to understand.

William Faulkner did it best though.

 

[george47]

Last night we went to the harbour again and it was lovely out. I took a quick one handed video at the end - a terribly erratic thing of fishing right handed, filming left handed. You can see a fish grab my bait, and glimpses of fish swimming about, and my fishing friends. The positive is it is very short. And also I think it captures the mood of fast fishing where a bait has a short time before the float goes under, and typically the fish can be seen taking the bait.

Most of the fish swimming about - and I could have so easily shown them but forgot to, are white and speck trout; it is often like an aquarium of trout feeding on invisible bay anchovies - or chasing the odd shrimp skittering off across the surface. Big Ladyfish (a powerful, long, silver fish) splash and smaller ones are always darting about - like silver missiles, a pest fish really as they have a reputation of being no good for eating. But one I need to put to the test as we always get a couple big ones.

I caught a lot of fish, I would guess thirty - 40 white trout, most of which I would give to the couple at the end, who were catching fish for a family fish fry. Then I caught about thirty undersized specks, only getting 4 keepers, but one big - shown at the end of the film, and I kept some white trout for making a thing a Chinese guy who fishes there told me he loves. The thing is to fillet some white trout, peel some shrimp (I netted them the night before last, about half a gallon) and put the fillets and raw shrmp through the meat grinder (mincer). Then add chopped scallions - and mashed potatoes. Make fish cakes.

So here it is, my friends, the harbour at night, some fish, the fish my friend has on is a undersized speck - and the fish I have on for a second lets go and the float flies up and hits me in the shoulder. The night is likely 80f, 27c, fish are everywhere, big ones like sharks and big ladyfish, alligator gar, and redfish are making occasional splashes in the distance, sometimes huge ones - sometimes shoals of silver bait fish are leaping in small waves ahead of some unknown, massed, predators. Most of the fish caught are 1/4 to 3/4 pound, a few 1-3 pounds. They are good fish, easy to fillet, and very attractive. I love going here - always someone to talk to if I go alone, always fish, usually enough to give some to non-fishing friends. (My Chinese woman friend takes them whole as she makes some things from the heads - and I give them filleted to the others - I can process them very fast, and do not mind doing it at all.)

[video=youtube;GJCaZI1suwg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJCaZI1suwg&feature=youtu.be[/video]

 

[george47]

Last night I popped out and put three bait balls off my neighbor's dock, went home, fed the dogs and started prepping dinner, back 40 minutes later to throw a cast of my small 4 ft net over each bait - catching 70 or so shrimp, more bait balls thrown out (My secret bait, half a golf ball sized bit at each spot), back home and dinner gotten all ready to be finished and served (fish and chips, MaMa soup with garden veg and shrimp Thai style from the same dock but from earlier) Then back to catch another 80-90 shrimp. They are all in my floating shrimp tank. And a good dinner, based on the catch as typical.

So tonight fishing at the harbour under the light again. I do like it there, so lovely with all the Gulf out front, you can see the fish in the water, giant shrimp swim past on the top occasionally and usually get chased by trout - leaping and skipping off, mostly getting away. Big fish splash on the edge of the light - mostly ones not desired, and would be hard to go after anyway.

 

[george47]

Again, bad video of the night fishing. Last evening I netted a few shrimp to check on the size that are moving into the bayou; small, but a couple nice ones. I had my surgery today, and the doctor says I may have to pass on shrimp netting with my big net for up to 6 weeks - but maybe not, I see him next week. I would really like to get a couple hundred pounds of big shrimp for the freezer- and they will last into the end of October only it gets a bit hit or miss then. This is the first thing to do, after a good icing when caught. Shrimp will spoil in hours without ice So removing the heads and tails (I leave a middle girdle part for latter when I am using them to avoid doing it all at once. One holds them by the antennae and pinches the body off. I then pinch off the last 3 tail segments to get rid of the thorn in it or your zip lock freezer gags get punctured. These are last years early season shrimp and are small size. I keep some a bit smaller than these sometimes; for soups, but then it is a lot of work peeling them in big amounts.

Here on the coast where people fish a lot, and want their beer and drinks cold, and with hot weather, there are big vending machines - 8m X 2.5m X 2.5m that take $1.50 in cash and either dump 20 pounds of loose ice into your cooler, or give you a 16 pound bag of ice. Called "Twice the Ice" they are a chain and the machine makes the ice - bags it, and dispenses it automatically - at a great price. I mostly make ice by freezing 1 and 2 l bottles, but one needs small ice to really chill the shrimp if you get large amounts, with the bottles frozen for helping, or for fish.

And my friend and I on the wall with a couple others - Bad filming, but one time I will actually show the process, and the place, it is lovely out there at night, and usually we get a few nice fish.

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

 

[santaman2000]

...... Here on the coast where people fish a lot, and want their beer and drinks cold, and with hot weather, there are big vending machines - 8m X 2.5m X 2.5m that take $1.50 in cash and either dump 20 pounds of loose ice into your cooler, or give you a 16 pound bag of ice. Called "Twice the Ice" they are a chain and the machine makes the ice - bags it, and dispenses it automatically - at a great price.....[/video]

Here's a pic of the machines

 

[george47]

That is the place Sant, so like my one it could have been photoed here - but for the price here being $1.50, 1 British pound. It seems you and I are the only ones here - tell us some fish things. I am getting better fast - the tube down the throat during the surgery leaves you with a sore throat - and it seems they put sand in the Vaseline for the catheter so peeing is a startlingly burning thing - and they pump the gut cavity with gas to get it all separated for the surgery - and one is all bloated and uncomfortable till the body absorbs that gas in a couple days.........

But an excellent bit of surgery all told. The doctor does %90 hernias and is a master at it - he also is an extremely cheerful and goofy man, we spent 1/2 hour during the first consultation talking of historical hernias (I was able to tell him of Queen Caroline (the one married to George II and ran the country in fact, and did more for forming GB than almost anyone) died of an strangled hernia 35 years after getting it during child birth.)(the people said the wrong monarch died.) Him telling me of the hernia surgery then using gold thread - but unfortunately very rarely done and Caroline never had any help with hers.

I am doing good enough that those shrimp I netted the night before the operation and are in my floating tank, (2 nights ago) are calling to me to get out tonight and give it a go. My fishing friend (in both videos) is always ready to go, but I think the fish start off too small and the big ones wait till they are done before getting feeding. Those small trout (under 13 inches have to be released) are so crammed full of anchovies they scatter some about when they shake their head, and bellies are bulging. His wife does not like him to be out after midnight as she has a hard time sleeping wile he is off - but we will see, like me he loves it out there - it really is gorgeous, in an industrial sort of way, being the concrete harbour, but I like that too. Our harbour is a working one. Not all silly pleasure boats - although many are, but half at least are the hulk, shrimping netters, and oyster dredgers - a couple industrial boats - and all those work boats look so much better than the immaculate fiberglass 35 foot cabin cruisers and sailboats.

This is some shrimp boats in my harbour - you can go and buy shrimp from them. A couple always have someone sitting with the "Shrimp Flag" out - a orange flag of a shrimp which is the universal word for local shrimp sold here. Every town has at least one Vietnamese person in a van parked at the side of the road with the flag out and coolers of shrimp for sale. The going price being about $3 a pound (450g) for nice ones and $3.50 - $4 for great big ones. They use the same corner for year after year and most people buy from them - the boats give a little better price though, often $2.50 a pound. The same shrimp in the grocery stores - in the fresh fish section, sell for $5.99 a pound!

 

[Uilleachan]

""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.)

Sea lochs, so there's unlikely to be any large rollers, it wouldn't just be the fishers who were in trouble if there were

Single lure is because in that spot one needs a rod to clear the rocks, there's a load of weed barnacles and other snags that make multi lure fishing a nightmare to lift the fish off one at a time, if you lifted them all up in one go to land them the line would snag on the undergrowth, which grows right down to the safe access stance, as they thrashed around. So best just using a single lure, and working it fast when the fish are on or near the surface. When they're on it's a fish a cast, they may only be on for a couple of mins at a time, but if you're organised the deed is done in a couple of short risings.

As for cooking I just heat a lightly oiled pan and fry them until their cooked through, remove from the heat and eat, extra I just leave in the pan to cool and then pop them in the fridge, eating cold usually for breakfast.

Ah, " Where do the trout go when the water is way down?" they drop back into the sea in the smaller streams, which means you can get another pop at them when they're running back in in a spate.

Although I've kind of had my quota from my favoured spot, for this year, having had around 50 of which I kept 10. I don't want to ruin it for next year, I haven't had a salmon out of it yet, so if there's more water I may go completely C&R on the trout and see if I can't connect with red fellow. There's lots of other places too though.

 

[george47]

It sounds lovely Uill, I love that kind of land and water - and a salmon! I hope we get a picture if you get one - and of the mackerel, and trout. I would love a bad, and simple, video of one of your outings. Words just will not give the mood and look of the place. My videos are bad - but I put no effort in at all, and likely give a little of the zeitgeist, nature/weather/fish/native culture wise. I hope my videos invoke the lazy kind of leaning on the railings overlooking the Gulf - hot night, watching fish below, and catching. Locals always next to you to talk with under this sole light 300 foot down a narrow, concrete, walkway. In any breeze the sailboats behind have the metal gear on the masts clanging in a very nautical sound - Deep South, crude bait fishing. I love it too.

 

[santaman2000]

.......Ah, " Where do the trout go when the water is way down?" they drop back into the sea in the smaller streams, which means you can get another pop at them when they're running back in in a spate.......

I have a friend here that uses a similar strategy on the flounder. They migrate from the Gulf into the bay when the water temperature cools below a certain point and back out in the other direction when it warms back above it. He follows the temperature reports and when It hits the sweet spot he's waiting in the pass with a gig.

 

[george47]

Lots of small shrimp - I am using my tiny 4' net to get them because it has 3/8 inch mesh net wile my 8' net has 1/2 mesh. The math shows that 1/8 inch difference in size means the small one is 1.4 sq inch where the 1/2" one is 2.5 sq inch. This is enough for most of the current shrimp to charge through - but then when the big ones arrive you do not have to sort out so many small ones to throw back, which is good.

The thing is where I net now the water is only 3-4 foot deep and I toss out the bait carefully, and the small net covers the baited area as well as the much bigger net does - the shrimp are right on the bait. So why use the bigger net. An 8 foot net gets you soaked completely, even your shoes full of water. The little 4 ft one you can hold away from your body as you gather and throw it. Then I am mostly after bait shrimp, so want the little ones. I am getting (3 bait spots in 30 foot of dock) about 100 shrimp a go, then toss a bit bait and wait 10 minutes. Only a dozen or two are keepers, and those are small.

Last night I went out at about 12:am till 2 a.m. with a big supply of tiny shrimp and in half an hour had 3 specks about 15 inches (no one else got any keepers - they were feeding on small things and the others had big shrimp) then the small trout really moved in and it was endless undersized. Even the white trout were small but I kept half a dozen that were OK, and one just legal speck as well.

Wile netting bait I kept the shrimp which were just big enough to eat and had about a liter of them, which is not much meat after peeling - but worth it as the big ones are elsewhere - and this afternoon I discovered them still in the bucket outside - I had forgotten to put them in the refrigerator. I had to throw them into the bayou, just oversight, glad it was not a lot.

 

[george47]

I keep going out to the harbour to fish, it is just so lovely. Last night I fished with a couple who are regulars and brought enough live shrimp to share. The shrimp are so thick now - small though, but most even still bigger than I like for bait, that it takes 5 minutes to net 10 dozen if you bait lightly and come back in 40 minutes. And netting right in the bayou behind the house means that is easy.

Terrible catch though - endless undersized ones and only one keeper. But the specks are a bueatyful fish - they soon lose their colour when dead as all fish do, but here are some

 

[george47]

Lovely might at the harbour, I netted some shrimp, made dinner, went out at midnight and stayed till 3 a.m. I have to stop this staying up, but I love it out in the warm nights watching the Gulf. The fish were almost absent but for foot long ladyfish darting all about in the light right next to the wall beneath the light. (which I avoid catching if possible).

I got 2 redfish, nice ones, here they are in the kitchen

Then later 5 specks in the 14 - 16 inch range. The redfish I will cook on the half shell. Their scales are large and very hard so when filleted skin on, and then baked - or put on the charcoal grill, a very popular thing, the skin cooks hard and is like a baking dish. The most common way is to rub the meat with some bought Italian salad dressing and lemon and then cook it meat side up, adding butter when done. This produces a very moist fish which is in its own serving dish and the meat lifts right out.

 

[george47]

This is the bigger shrimp from netting bait a couple days, saved - cooked in Zaterains crab boil. If any moderator is ever passing - I seem to not get comments much but views are shown; are the large majority of views counted from robots crawling? I know google and many others crawl sites, and I assume those are why it shows views.

But shrimp from a couple days ago, small, the ones I kept wile bait netting - I like smaller ones for bait as they use less oxygen. These will be peeled for use in all kinds of things.

 

[santaman2000]

..... The redfish I will cook on the half shell. Their scales are large and very hard so when filleted skin on, and then baked - or put on the charcoal grill, a very popular thing, the skin cooks hard and is like a baking dish. The most common way is to rub the meat with some bought Italian salad dressing.....

George you've been an American a long time. LOL. Remember to translate that our "Italian" dressing is "French" dressing in the UK.

 

[santaman2000]

I wouldn't worry about not getting comments. This is the type of thread where many people will only comment if they have a question, and you're doing an excellent job of explaining away most questions before they're asked.