Active night with a surprise catch

After running errands all morning, I checked the weather and decided an afternoon siesta and then a trip to the pond would be a good way to spend the rest of my Saturday. I'm glad I waited as we began to get some intermittent cloud cover and it knocked the temp and the humidity back just enough to be bearable. I arrived at the landing about 4:15 and was disappointed to see how much more breeze there was here at the pond compared to home. I stuck a big wad of patience up under my hat brim and headed out. I soon found fish in water 18-22' or so and trolled back and forth along a long stretch of it with steady action from my usual 3 stingers. Here is a sample of what came in the boat this afternoon:











Along about 6pm, trolling the 3 poles as usual, I had a solid take on the right hand pole. I knew immediately it was not a crappie or a bluegill. Took me on a strong run to the side and I thought "big bass" at first, but he never made a run to the surface to jump. Next I thought "big pickerel" and wondered if I'd be able to handle him long enough to get him to the boat without him cutting the line on his teeth. 10 seconds after getting in to the fight, the middle pole loads up with another solid take; I grab that with my left hand, set the hook and stick it upright between my knees. Pretty good fish on that one, too but I had quite a tussle going on the 1st one. Finally get him to the surface after a very good battle and was surprised to see big whiskers! A brown bullhead, 13-14" long, biggest one I've ever caught, so my PB in that species! I haven't caught one of those that I can remember since I was a kid, like 12-14 years old.
So I get him in the boat and turn my attention to the other pole and soon land a nice crappie of 11" and lay him right next to the bullhead in the net on the floor.

I quickly release the crappie and toss him back and decide I better pull in the 3rd pole before dealing with the catfish. As I take up the slack, that pole loads up with something solid and in comes a hefty 13" yellow perch!

At this point I'm laughing out loud at the whole situation and trying to remember where the spikes are on the fins of the bullhead so I don't get speared. I snap another picture of him with my stinger on the jig, then get him unhooked and back in the water. He swam off strongly so no harm done from his extended stay in the net.


I kept at it and continued landing bluegill and crappie at regular intervals until I called it a night and left them biting about 7:30.
Total for the afternoon was about 15 crappie, all between 10-12" except for one youngster of about 5", and probably 2 dozen bluegill, of average and above average size for the most part, plus the bullhead. A memorable evening on this pond for sure.