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Author Topic: Catch of the Day  (Read 1015 times)

bogtrotter

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Catch of the Day
« on: Aug 19, 2018, 07:31 PM »
My younger son and I went to Greek Fest in Pittsfield today. (Love those dolmenis, gyros, moussaka, baklava, et al, along with the bazouki music)

While we were down there, we took a side trip to fish Onota (off the Dan Casey Drive causeway, which was partially "flooded" with water forming a big puddle on one side of the road) and, on the ride home, stopped to fish a backwater of Cheshire Lake (just before it goes over a small dam to form the headwaters of the South Branch of the Hoosic).

Weather was nice (mostly sunny, 70 degrees), although the water was high, and the fishing only so-so: we ended up catching one dink perch (at Onotoa) and a bunch of sunfish (at Cheshire).

What was interesting was the non-piscine catch of the day.

Over the years I have hooked all kinds of animate and inanimagte objects in the water (rocks, tree limbs, birds nests of line - - sometimes with lures attached, bicycles, shopping carts, and even a bread truck once), and reeled in a few more (nuts and bolts,rocks, crayfish, and even a mink icefishing last winter), but I had a new "first" today.

While fishing the backwater at Cheshire this afternoon, I cast my line (with a few split shot attached) into the "pond" and slowly reeled it in.

As I did, I felt a weight that I assumed was a stick.

But as the end of my line broke the surface, I discovered I had caught a mussel.

Upon closer examination, I learned the mussel was not hooked, but had glommed on to my line and refused to let go - - sort of like the crayfish I have caught in the past. The difference was that, while crayfish have grabbed onto my bait, the mussel had closed the ends of its shell to my line itself, about 8 inches above the hook, and just above one of the split shot.

It took a few times of raising and lowering my line to tap the mussel against a concrete abutment to get it to release my line.

Unfortunately, in the process, I accidentally cracked the shell, so instead of releasing my catch unharmed, I ended up cutting up the "meat" and using it for bait.

Note: It turns out sunfish like mussel meat.

lowaccord66

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Re: Catch of the Day
« Reply #1 on: Aug 20, 2018, 11:43 PM »
This pretty much summarizes why I enjoy fishing.  Every trip is different.

s fontinalis

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Re: Catch of the Day
« Reply #2 on: Aug 21, 2018, 12:30 PM »
Some of those mussels can put up a good fight on light gear!

filetandrelease

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Re: Catch of the Day
« Reply #3 on: Aug 21, 2018, 04:36 PM »

Great story , thanks for sharing

 



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