TWiF (This Week in Fishing) April 23rd - April 29th

Saturday April 23 Fishing took a backseat for a little while today. I spent the morning between a roadside cleanup with the National Honor Society I sponsor and some yard work that needed to be done. But around 3:30 or so I gave the creek at Sewell Branch a try. I tried an inline spinner, as well as a smaller Rapala jerkbait. Not much luck, but I did "catch" one small bluegill. Actually foul hooked him so does that even count as a catch? More tomorrow.

Sunday, April 24th: after church in the morning I grabbed the kayak and headed down to Lake Lariat. Bright blues skies, a slight breeze with temperatures in the mid 60's or so, it was gorgeous. Casting the same small jig and tube as usual I was able to catch quite a few panfish. I ended up with about two dozen fish in total, with most of them being bluegill and crappie. In fact while I was snapping a photo of one nice crappie my bait was in the water and another smaller crappie took it and ran. I did manage to get a "slam" when the last fish I caught was a very pretty red ear sunfish.

Some people like to call them "shellcrackers" since they predominantly eat small snails and mollusks. Until later in the week...

Tuesday- primary Election Day in Maryland and my school system had inservices. With a little later start I tied a Rebel Pop R onto one of my rods and headed to a small private pond. Casting along the shoreline paid off as I caught a nice largemouth as he hit the lure once and then inhaled it on the second hit.

It was like reeling in a drift sock since the bait was sideways in his mouth.

Later Tuesday, after my meetings were completed, I took the kayak down to Lake Lariat. We had a pretty strong breeze so fishing was a little difficult. (I was wishing the entire time that I had an anchor.) I made my way along the bank and caught another good number of panfish. Nothing really big, but it was time on the water which is always fun.

Whohoo! It's Friday and I have been blessed. I was asked last week if I'd be able to do some announcing at a school softball game. Due to the cool and damp weather the game was postponed which left me with taking my oldest son, walking the dog and an empty afternoon. Of course I took the kayak down to my current favorite spot, Lake Lariat. I spent a couple of hours paddling around the lake casting along the shoreline. I figure it's close to time for the fish to really start spawn because I caught a few bass but not any big ones. I also caught quite a few panfish, some really nice crappie and bluegill. One of the last "species" I caught was a "red eared slider." To the fish nerds out there - we know that isn't a species of fish, it's actually a turtle.

He grabbed onto my tube and really had it stuck in the roof of his mouth, as you can tell from the photo. Not wanting to harm him, I grabbed my pliers and grabbed hold of the jig. That caused him to bear down even more and even draw his head into his shell. But I've seen what can happen so I did my best to remove the hook.

Fortunately I was successful in getting it out, and he swam off. I've seen dozens of turtles while I've been on the water in that area. Today was the first time I hooked one. I guess I can add it to the species list. Until next week... Tight lines!

Also for those keeping score at home - which means ME - I have caught 375 fish so far in 2016 with the greatest percentage (37%) of them being black crappie. I've also caught ten different species as well. (I told you I'm a real "fish nerd.")