Re: NANFA-- Record Blue and Miscellany

Todd Crail (farmertodd_at_buckeye-express.com)
Mon, 15 Mar 2004 15:38:42 -0500

No reason to be embarrased. Neither genus are ones that show up in our nets
very often. However, fish with rod n reel at the tail end of the walleye
run on the Maumee River, and you get real familiar with what big drum and an
assortment of suckers look like (Lake Erie spawning runs). A lot of times,
you can hear a very disappointed "It's just a dang trash sucker!" Which of
course, is followed by The Farmer (tm) saying "Hey, mind if I look at that
for a minute?" :)

Some of the biggest "walleye that gottaway" stories, I'm sure, were snagged
bigmouth buffalo. Hook one on the doral in that spring current... You just
hooked into a frieght train that can rouse the greatest stories of battles
with leviathan ever conjured. Many times I've hooked into "something huge"
that near broke my rod and instead, fortunately, snapped the line. Like
immediately.

It goes Hook->OH!->Snap!->AGH! Just that quick :)

And then there's the 6-8lb drum and carpsuckers that you actually land, and
wished the line would have broken because your wrists are trashed for a good
five minutes after the battle. Or the plate sized gizzard shad that you
snagged in the dorsal... It's like dragging, well, a plate, in the current.

Last May I caught a quillback carpsucker that had broken off my line when I
snagged him in the back earlier in the day, so I learned. This time I got
him in the mouth and there he came up, my red/yellow powerbait with lime
green floating head in tow. I wonder if the fish was disappointed that I'd
removed his recently aquired "punk rockness individuality" with the other
carpsuckers ;)

If people are out there who like to rod n reel fish and are in this area,
this is definately one to come out for. May is nice because the walleye are
actually feeding, there's a huge amount of diversity running about... Might
make a nice side trip from the Tippecanoe Trip. Forget about putting a
seine in then tho... You're not doing anything illegal, for sure. But
people get way too persnickety for it to be worth it.

Even if you're just getting your own bait...
Like really, _actually_ , getting bait this time. Not just "Getting bait."
:)

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Bongiovanni" <bongi_at_cox-internet.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: NANFA-- Record Blue and Miscellany

> Good long distance ID Todd. I'm sooo embarrassed. Tha's it exactly.
>
>
> John
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