Outdoorsman Thread

[Quick Steel]

Dinadan,
Very nice shot of the ducks. At first I thought you were correct i.e. Scaup. But I am confused by the white cheeks which seem prominent. Any chance they could be Ruddy? I may be overthinking this; I am not familiar with coastal ducks. But we do get Scaup on Lake Michigan. Anyway, catching a flock on lift off is tough if they come as a surprise.

[treefarmer]

Bruce,
Tell your dad we tried to eat a mudfish one time. I suppose one of the common names, cotton fish, is well earned. Certainly not as good as a bass or a crappie, but if I was sure enough hungry, I'd eat another one. We fileted one my son brought home, edible but not desirable.
We hated to catch one and bring it in the boat, not because it was so slimy and nasty, but they seem to just flip and spin in the net and tie themselves up. Took too long to untangle and retrieve the lure when other fish were bitin'. Some folks would say just cut the line but we hated to lose a good lure, they loved to hit a Shyster spinner!
Thinkin' about the mudfish brought back some good memories!
Treefarmer

[TripleF]

Love the ducks pic Mel

[RobesonsRme.com]

IMHO, grinnell or "grinling" as my brother-in-law called them, are a filthy, foul smelling pre-historic "Blood Fish', another of his terms.

We used to catch them in the backwaters of the Escambia River above Pensacola. He would shoot them with a .22, cut the line and let them fall back into the water.

They smelled even worse after he shot them, almost nauseatingly foul.

Jimmy would not even touch them.

No way I would ever consider eating one and I'd be highly upset if anyone ever fed me such unbeknownst to me.

To each his own.

And the fish in that photo does not even resemble the trash fish I'm talking about.

Possibly, we are talking about two different species.

Charlie

[Paladin]

IMHO, grinnell or "grinling" as my brother-in-law called them, are a filthy, foul smelling pre-historic "Blood Fish', another of his terms.

We used to catch them in the backwaters of the Escambia River above Pensacola. He would shoot them with a .22, cut the line and let them fall back into the water.

They smelled even worse after he shot them, almost nauseatingly foul.

Jimmy would not even touch them.

No way I would ever consider eating one and I'd be highly upset if anyone ever fed me such unbeknownst to me.

To each his own.

And the fish in that photo does not even resemble the trash fish I'm talking about.

Possibly, we are talking about two different species.

Charlie

The grinnell is prehistoric looking to me. Scary looking even, like something left over from another time.

Ray

[Old Hunter]

Dad's fish is a Bowfin - here is some info from the Florida Fish & Wildlife Dept. about it. OH
Ps They used to be referred to as a Blackfish here (when I was a kid) - hadn't heard that term in many years (second link lists many alternate names for the Bowfish).

http://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/profi ... er/bowfin/

http://www.bowfinanglers.com/bowfininfo.html

[Dinadan]

Thanks for the kind words about the ducks, QS and Scott.

I have never caught any Grinnell or Bowfin so I would be interested to catch one just as a new fish. Here is a photo of a Long Nose Gar that I caught last April out of my kayak. I have not caught many Gar, but every now and then one hits. One time I kept the Gar and was planning to cook it. But when I went to clean it my knife would not penetrate the scales even when I tried stabbing as opposed to slicing. I know some folks eat Gar, so I just did now know how to clean it. Anyway, since then I just throw them back.

[treefarmer]

About 45 years ago, I worked for the Orange County FL Water pollution control as a field technician. On a regular schedule our biology lab monitored the heavy metals in the fish found in Lake Apopka. The field crew gathered the samples by use of a shocking boat. We were to gather 10 samples of each species that we could find. 10 bass, 10 crappie(speckled perch), 10 bluegills, 10 catfish, etc...to include 10 gar fish. A 1 inch square, the thickness of the filet was place in a sample bag, put on ice and then taken to the lab for them to analyze.
The most difficult sample to obtain was from the gar fish. We actually would use a small hatchet and tin snips along the dorsal to penetrate the heavy scales. As I recall, the flesh looked good. We never did try to eat one as there was plenty of regular game fish to salvage after the samples were obtained.
I just checked the internet and there are several articles and videos showing the art of cleanin' a gar.
Treefarmer

[edge213]

Mel, that is a prehistoric looking fish.

[Old Hunter]

Mel, your Gar photo is clear as a bell, good picture in good water. Pretty interesting fish, amazing how many pre-historic animals still inhabit the waters. OH

[FRJ]

Great picture.
I would love to catch a Gar.

[Dinadan]

A hatchet and tin snips would work, I guess, a fish knife sure did not! Actually Gar are extremely hard fighting fish in my very limited experience. That Gar in the photo was between two and three feet long and jumped completely out of the water at least twice. I did not want him the kayak so I was able to grab the hook with pliers and shake him off.

[gsmith7158]

Many years ago when I was avid bass fisherman I would always see maNY of those alligator gar lurking just under the surface. Try as I might I never got one to strike anything I had. I have seen hundreds but never caught a one.

[TripleF]

Knice pic Mel!! Knice fish!

If I get a Gar on, I cut the line...dad-gum mean fish with WAAAAAAAAAAAAaay too many teeth!

[KnifeSlinger#81]

IMHO, grinnell or "grinling" as my brother-in-law called them, are a filthy, foul smelling pre-historic "Blood Fish', another of his terms.

We used to catch them in the backwaters of the Escambia River above Pensacola. He would shoot them with a .22, cut the line and let them fall back into the water.

They smelled even worse after he shot them, almost nauseatingly foul.

Jimmy would not even touch them.

No way I would ever consider eating one and I'd be highly upset if anyone ever fed me such unbeknownst to me.

To each his own.

And the fish in that photo does not even resemble the trash fish I'm talking about.

Possibly, we are talking about two different species.

Charlie

I've never heard anybody have such disdain for a fish, that cracked me up. Your brother in law may not be off point calling it a prehistoric fish. This is taken from wikipedia:

"Bowfin (Amia calva) are basal bony fishes related to gars in the infraclass Holostei. Common names include mudfish, mud pike, dogfish, griddle, grinnel, cypress trout and choupique. They are regarded as taxonomic relicts, being the sole surviving species of the order Amiiformes which dates from the Jurassic to the Eocene, persisting to the present. Although bowfin are highly evolved, they are often referred to as "primitive fishes" because they have retained some morphological characteristics of their early ancestors."

[bighomer]

I caught a alligater gar in a dead river up in Illinois, my wife uncle skinned that thing and its meat was whiter than snow, he said it tasted good.

[TripleF]

Consider myself fortunate to have caught this hawk about to land on the roof corner with my cell phone.
If you blow it up, it's pretty cool.

[Quick Steel]

Well done Scott. Cool indeed.

[Dinadan]

Scott - that is a good hawk photo. Right now spring migration is in full swing in my area. Lots of birds passing through, including hawks.

[Old Hunter]

Mel and Scott, you guys did something that I find very hard to do - catch a bird in flight - good pictures! OH

[Old Hunter]

Hunted a field and the swamp by the creek all day on Saturday - they are bulldozing the adjacent field - heard plenty of birds, but they went across the creek into the other county or onto the far side farm, neither of which I have permission to hunt - couldn't call them in with that rumbling bulldozer at work! Hunted Monday on a different farm (different county) - but still in the swampland and pinewood (adjacent to the river). I heard this bird gobbling from the roost a couple hundred yards behind me about 0715. I started working him with a slate pot call from my spot, the base of a tree I had set up at so I could watch up and down the powerline (cut some shrub to conceal my hand movement on the calls). He came real close to me in the woods, 40 or 50 yards, but I couldn't see him in the scrub. He crossed the dirt lane on the powerline to my right (east), maybe at 70 yards, and thundered out a gobble at my hen decoy - I couldn't see him with the sun in my eyes! Then he entered a big, overgrown cutover; for the next hour he was pretty much silent - just an occasional gobble - but he slowly worked around in a wide arcing horseshoe path and into some tall pinewood to my front left. By 0843 he had finally had enough and started gobbling and coming through the woods, each gobble was closer - I got ready and caught him peering out of a burnt wooded area, looking at my decoy - I took a 31 yard shot at 0848. Cleaned him with a Buck 121. OH

[djknife13]

Where I was building a deck for some people, they feed wild turkeys and three of them kept trying to come up to the house to eat. My saw kept scaring them away. A red squirrel was a little more brave. He was almost at my feet until I sawed off a board. Then came back when I was done cutting. They have a pond about 30 yards behind the house and several kinds of ducks, a muskrat, and Canada geese hang around it besides the turkeys. The lady of the house said the turkeys sometimes roost on her deck railing. ___Dave

[jmh58]

Congrats Bruce.. NICE!!! John

[TripleF]

That's what I'm talkin' about! Congrats pal!! Knice harvest!!!

[garddogg56]

You made me feel like I was there with that great story OH good for you Congrats