All tagged Fishing
In the United States there is an obscure group of very small freshwater fish that most people have never heard of – and certainly never seen. These fish are called darters, and they are in the perch family. There are at least 225 species of darters in North America, and most of them sport dazzling colors during the spring spawning season.
The melodious chirping of crickets on a quiet summer night is a familiar sound to most people. The crickets we hear are one of several species of common field crickets, and they can be pretty hard to tell apart. Crickets can be found throughout most of the United States and even parts of Canada and Mexico.
The bluegill is one of the most popular species of fish in the Midwest, if not the entire country. Bluegills are part of the sunfish family, and they are often called panfish. This is because they have a relatively tall, flat-sided shape and they fit well in a frying pan when it is time to cook them for dinner!
The smallmouth bass is a much sought-after gamefish. Pound for pound, many anglers believe they fight harder than any other freshwater fish. They also have a habit of leaping completely out of the water when hooked in an attempt to get away, making them very exciting to catch.
American bullfrogs are the largest frog in North America, and they are one of the symbols of spring and summer around our lakes, ponds and marshes. Their distinctive croaking calls blend with the crickets and other night-time sounds.
Have you ever caught a warmouth while fishing for bluegills or other panfish? Warmouth are found in the Great Lakes states and the Mississippi River basin, and they are common throughout most of the southeastern United States from central Texas east to Florida and the Carolinas.
The channel catfish is the most common catfish species in the United States. It inhabits lakes, rivers, streams and ponds. It is easy to identify because it has a fairly large head and has a total of eight whiskers (or barbels) located around its mouth.
The next morning found us in the van, leaving Massachusetts, heading to East Hampton, Connecticut. Bill and Heather Embacher, old friends from Alaska, live there. The last time I saw them, they were childless. Now they have a beautiful nine-year old daughter. It had certainly been too long.
Ralph moved us to the Pond House, still in Lovell, Maine. The previous cabin (the one with the squirrels) had been nice. This place was a major upgrade, though! All wood paneling and ceilings, fireplaces, comfortable leather furniture, pond views out of enormous windows, nicer than our home, certainly nicer than the van.
Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans that look like miniature lobsters. People around here call them crayfish, crawfish, crawdads or mudbugs, but if you lived in Europe or Australia you might call them yabbies!
The world abounds with exciting hunting adventures, and many share a common launch point. What Cape Canaveral used to be to NASA space exploration, the Safari Club International Convention is to hunting. If it roars, bulges, grunts, runs, or hides, SCI has a hunt to catch it.
We read the weather headlines with a touch of disbelief. "Triple-Digit Temperatures!" "Record-Breaking Heat Wave!" We were on the Oregon coast. In spite of the record heat only 100 miles away, we often wore our cold-weather jackets, at the end of July. Frequently, those jackets were not warm enough.
