Fishing

I've been a total slacker about posting to this blog... sorry guys!  I'll try to get caught up.  As you all know I moved back to my hometown in February of 2013.  Our first year was spent so busy building our new house that we literally had no free time to do anything.  This year I've been busy making up for lost time LOL!

One of our favorite hobbies is fishing.  When I was a kid I always went out on the lake in my dad's boat so I only knew where the boat launches were.  I didn't start bank fishing that much until I moved away.  So now that I'm back I want to do both.  We've been scoping out good bank fishing spots and found a really great marina not too far away.  I'm very happy to have found it because that's the biggest thing I've missed since moving.

This marina has a boat ramp, docks, benches, swim areas, soccer, baseball, volleyball, disc golf, restrooms, pavilions, etc.  Lots of stuff to do!  I didn't get many pictures because it was very overcast.

The fish weren't biting very well that day, but it doesn't matter.  I still have fun hehe.  We both caught turtles (hate when that happens-both were fine) though.  I caught a bunch of small bream like the one below.

We even saw a giant Koi in the lake too!  People are not supposed to do that, but it was still kind of cool watching him swim by.  The really cool part is I caught a crawdad!!!!!

I have never caught a crawdad while fishing (only with my hands when I was a kid-they were tiny, not like this one).  The area we were on was concrete with a bench.  The concrete had cracked and I was fishing in the crevices (that's where I caught my biggest bream).  As I lowered my hook and worm into one of the crevices something grabbed it and jerked it into the hole.  I fought and fought before finally getting it back.

I had no idea what was grabbing it, but I tried again anyway.  The second time the crawdad came out of the hole a little and I saw it.  It was so cool!  I tried again and he pulled it in, so I wrestled it free.  Realizing I would never get him out of the hole I lowered the worm in front of it a little ways off.  The crawdad slowly left his hole and I lured him away from it, then I let him grab the hook.  As soon as he had the hook in his claw I jerked the line up onto the bank, but he let go and fell in the water on the other side.  I was soooo upset!!

So I started fishing in crevices on that side.  I caught a huge bream (green sunfish) out of one and then got a bite in another hole.  I wrestled it away and saw the crawdad.  I was so excited I found him again!!!  I thought he would have vanished at that point.  I lured him out of the hole again and let him have the hook, then swung him back on the back.  That time my hubby was able to grab him and I took the above picture.  :D  So much fun!!!!

We didn't keep any our catches, but it was still a lot of fun.  :D