Catfish, bluegill, shell cracker, mudfish, or anything else.

[BUGEYE]

I didn’t get to do hardly any fishing last summer because of honey-do’s but this year year is gonna be different.
When I don’t get to fish, I feel like something big is missing.

I’ve already planned a April trip to Clybel wildlife management area for bluegill and catfish.

I’ll use my mini trout magnets to catch bluegill to eat and bait for channel cats.
Of course there’ll be a backup tub of worms, just in case.

Is anyone else here “bank bound” like me??
I sold my boat after it nearly pitched me headlong into the lake.
I’m disabled, so......

[Graybeard]

I've not owned a boat in prolly over 30 years. We used to fish the mountain watershed lakes around this area mostly for bream but we also caught bass from time to time and even crappie on one of them.

Since then I've been bank bound like you. I've really not done that much fishing the last few years.

I have a pond of about 3/4 acre in size on my property. It is stocked with bass, bluegill, shell cracker, catfish and crappie plus minnows and grass carp to keep down the algae.

I rode down there today on my JD Gator to take a look around. It's so full it's overflowing its banks from all the rain we've been having. I have a peninsula that jugs out from one bank into the pond  about 30 yards maybe. As I was moving slowly along it I saw a huge swirl in the water.

Dunno if it was a big grass carp (some of those might go close to 10 pounds now), a large bass, large catfish or a huge turtle. I don't think it was a turtle but can't be sure what it was.

I have 20+ catalpa trees down near my pond and all around it really. We mostly use those when they are on the trees. I think every fish in the world will eat a catalpa worm. There is really no place in my pond that is too far to cast to and if I had some proper cane poles I think you could reach about all of it with one thanks to the peninsula.

Our preferred method is to cast out with a float using the catalpa worms and just let it set in places we know from experience fish hang out.

I also use lures when fishing for bass and just cast and retrieve. Now with the crappie in there I'm expecting to catch some of them fishing for bass with smaller lures. I'm guessing any of them I put in (200 of them) that are still alive should be in the 2 pound or over class. I think they've been in there 3 years now.

I have at least one huge bass I've seen but no one has caught. I'm guessing it was close to 7 pounds the last time I saw it which was the day I was putting the crappie in.

I know there are catfish over 5 pounds cuz a couple or three years ago the grand kids were fishing down there and caught one of at least 3 pounds. They were stocked at least 5-6 years ago.

We mostly catch catfish when fishing for bream with a float but I still fish on bottom with a sliding sinker and those catalpa worms for bait.

[BUGEYE]

Yeah, I guess catalpa worms are about as good as it gets.
When I was a teenager, I found a row of catalpa trees beside a blacktop road and for years I used them for everything.
But, I have never found a catalpa tree since I moved to Georgia in 69.
Thank goodness for night crawlers.

[pastorp]

I own 2 boats still but haven’t used either in years. We have 2 fish ponds on the ranch, and the catfish are now good eating size. But honestly I do most of my fishing at Charlie’s fish market, in Crystal River. The fishing boats dock behind Charlie’s and I go pick out what ever I want. Usually gulf grouper.

Publix has fresh Alaska salmon flown in daily, during season. And I can buy fresh Alaskan salmon cheaper than I can in Alaska.

Since my stroke I’m not allowed to go out in my boat by myself so I computation however I can.

[Graybeard]

If you are patient Ron I can send you some catalpa seeds to plant. I'll have to look but I'm sure some seed pods will still have them this late. I've fixed other folks up like that. The trees grow really fast and you usually have worms within a couple years.

[BUGEYE]

If you are patient Ron I can send you some catalpa seeds to plant. I'll have to look but I'm sure some seed pods will still have them this late. I've fixed other folks up like that. The trees grow really fast and you usually have worms within a couple years.

At age 77, 78 in April, and disabled, I have lots of patience. 
I do have an area in my backyard that could stand a couple of catalpa trees.
And thanks Bill, I'd like that.

[Graybeard]

PM me your address Ron and I'll go down and look for some seed pods today.

[DDZ]

I live near a reservoir, and I wait for every spring when the bluegills move into spawn.  I use a light weight rod and reel, and they are fun to catch, also I think they are one of the best eating fish there is. Crappie are good to eat in the spring when the water is still a bit cold, but later when the water warms up the texture of  fillets changes. I still have another month to two months until the pan fish move into spawn.

[Graybeard]

Bream are prolly already spawning in my pond. It's March already and March thru May is spawning time here.

[BUGEYE]

PM me your address Ron and I'll go down and look for some seed pods today.

I showed a picture of a catalpa worm to my wife and she went screaming over the horizon.
Maybe I'd better reconsider and put fruit trees in that spot.

She freaked out last year when I showed her a cut worm on the tomatoes.

So thanks anyway Bill.

[oldandslow]

I sold my hole in the water that I poured money into a few years ago. I still have a two man boat with a trolling motor for power but it isn't allowed on the city lake so I'm restricted to bank fishing around the lake. At least the state stocks it to some extent but not as well as do in other parts of the state. I fish it with an ultralite spinning rod and reel using really light weight line. I'll be able to catch a few stocked trout until about the last of April and then it's catfish, perch ( local name for all sunfish including bluegills), crappie, and black bass. Once in a while someone will pull a pretty good sized catfish or bass out of it. A nephew caught an 8 bass there a few years ago. There isn't much choice of where to fish on the western edge of the south plains. There is another city lake about 15 miles south of me that is also stocked but the town is much larger and it's pretty heavily fished so I mostly leave it alone. Even small fish are fun if you use the proper sized tackle to catch them.

[BUGEYE]

I live near a reservoir, and I wait for every spring when the bluegills move into spawn.  I use a light weight rod and reel, and they are fun to catch, also I think they are one of the best eating fish there is. Crappie are good to eat in the spring when the water is still a bit cold, but later when the water warms up the texture of  fillets changes. I still have another month to two months until the pan fish move into spawn.

I agree totally about bluegill being the best eating.  The wife prefers catfish so I can keep her fed out of the freezer at Walmart.
But the bluegill I have to catch myself.
I'm gonna try mini trout magnets this year.  They are so tiny that you have to clip on a small bobber to be able to cast any distance.
And according to youtube they are killers on pan fish.

[BUGEYE]

I sold my hole in the water that I poured money into a few years ago. I still have a two man boat with a trolling motor for power but it isn't allowed on the city lake so I'm restricted to bank fishing around the lake. At least the state stocks it to some extent but not as well as do in other parts of the state. I fish it with an ultralite spinning rod and reel using really light weight line. I'll be able to catch a few stocked trout until about the last of April and then it's catfish, perch ( local name for all sunfish including bluegills), crappie, and black bass. Once in a while someone will pull a pretty good sized catfish or bass out of it. A nephew caught an 8 bass there a few years ago. There isn't much choice of where to fish on the western edge of the south plains. There is another city lake about 15 miles south of me that is also stocked but the town is much larger and it's pretty heavily fished so I mostly leave it alone. Even small fish are fun if you use the proper sized tackle to catch them.

I fished a lake like that in Empire Oregon.   Any time of year I could toss out a salmon egg and have 5 nice cutthroats for supper for me and my brother.

[Dee]

When I sold my house in January, I sold my boat a week later. Now I'm in the middle of a major remodel of a house I bought the 3rd of February in the Texas Panhandle. I'm confined to bank fishin, but I'm 20 minutes from Lake Meredith, and 40 minutes from Lake Fryer.
Me and Linda will be hittin the Bream, crappie, and catfish, this spring, and I'm gonna give the walleye a try.

[northwoodneil]

Bream are prolly already spawning in my pond. It's March already and March thru May is spawning time here.

I love pan fishing in the spring. I still have a long wait, a foot of good ice on my favorite lake. A #4 weight flyrod and a nymph are my tools of choice unless the grandkids are with me. Then it's garden worms.

[northwoodneil]

We have catalpa trees up here but I've never seen worms. Are we talking the same tree? Big spade shaped leaves, white flowers, and foot long cigar shaped pods? Maybe we just don't get the worms.

[Bob Riebe]

I bought a license last year for the first time in four or five but in the decades before that when I bought one every year, I never used them.
Mostly because I like to go fishing in the little creeks , side streams that are normally only full in the months of early spring but genuine items came up and I never got out.

Now, I found some fishing rods that I had put away fifteen years ago that I had forgotten where they were, by accident but most of my reals do not work due lack of use and they dry out, plus -- and this is really odd -- about 7 years ago I was rounding them all up so I could send them in for a tune-up repair and now I cannot find them.
Go figure.

[oldandslow]

When I sold my house in January, I sold my boat a week later. Now I'm in the middle of a major remodel of a house I bought the 3rd of February in the Texas Panhandle. I'm confined to bank fishin, but I'm 20 minutes from Lake Meredith, and 40 minutes from Lake Fryer.
Me and Linda will be hittin the Bream, crappie, and catfish, this spring, and I'm gonna give the walleye a try.

I'm surprised there is any water in it now and I figured from what I've read about it that they would be stocking salt water species there now. 

I've caught walleyes at Brantley and Elephant Butte. Excellent eating but not much excitement in the catching part.

I used to go up north of Pecos, NM in July every year, stay for two weeks, and trout fish wading in the Pecos and Mora rivers. I used an ultralite Berkeley Lightening rod and a Spidermite reel with the lightest fireline made to cast 1/8 oz. spinners I made myself. I miss it as it was one of my favorite places to go but am not tough enough for it anymore and my wife sure isn't. I have a brand new, supposed to be better than the old Lightning rod, with another brand of reel on it just waiting for a little warmer weather to try out. I have a great grand daughter that likes to fish and she's old enough now that I won't have to spend every minute helping her that I'm going to take along if she will get out of bed early enough. The bait of choice is either worms or shrimp. and she doesn't shy away from handling either and probably won't make much of a fuss if she falls in the lake. I was really surprised to find out that hatchery raised trout go crazy over shrimp.

[BUGEYE]

Bream are prolly already spawning in my pond. It's March already and March thru May is spawning time here.

I love pan fishing in the spring. I still have a long wait, a foot of good ice on my favorite lake. A #4 weight flyrod and a nymph are my tools of choice unless the grandkids are with me. Then it's garden worms.

Ah, a fellow fly fisherman.  When I used wets, I liked most any kind of wet fly.  I just liked how that hen hackle worked.
That said, I have used nymphs and done well, but for excitement a dry fly beats'em all for me.
The above is for bluegills,  for trout I nearly always used wet flies or small streamers.  I wasn't agile enough for all that line mending and stuff that trout fishers use.

[Dee]

When I sold my house in January, I sold my boat a week later. Now I'm in the middle of a major remodel of a house I bought the 3rd of February in the Texas Panhandle. I'm confined to bank fishin, but I'm 20 minutes from Lake Meredith, and 40 minutes from Lake Fryer.
Me and Linda will be hittin the Bream, crappie, and catfish, this spring, and I'm gonna give the walleye a try.

I'm surprised there is any water in it now and I figured from what I've read about it that they would be stocking salt water species there now. 

I've caught walleyes at Brantley and Elephant Butte. Excellent eating but not much excitement in the catching part.

Been a while since I've been to elephant butte.

[oldandslow]

When I sold my house in January, I sold my boat a week later. Now I'm in the middle of a major remodel of a house I bought the 3rd of February in the Texas Panhandle. I'm confined to bank fishin, but I'm 20 minutes from Lake Meredith, and 40 minutes from Lake Fryer.
Me and Linda will be hittin the Bream, crappie, and catfish, this spring, and I'm gonna give the walleye a try.

I'm surprised there is any water in it now and I figured from what I've read about it that they would be stocking salt water species there now. 

I've caught walleyes at Brantley and Elephant Butte. Excellent eating but not much excitement in the catching part.

Been a while since I've been to elephant butte.

It's little more than a mud puddle now compared to what it was back in the mid 80's and early 90's. My wife's sister and her husband moved over there when he retired and bought a place on the lake. We would go over with our camper, park in their yard ,and spend two week in spring and fall, catch white bass (sandies) in the morning and black bass and an occasional channel cat or a walleye afterwards. We went for several years before he retired and we would camp down on the water in our trailers.

 I caught an 8# channel cat on a light casting rig using a bomber one morning.  It was  a pretty goof tussle but he was delicious eating that night.

[Dee]

Meredith all but dried up fighting with New Mexico over water, but its kinda made a comeback and seems to be holding its own.

[wtxbadger]

Have a 12' jon boat with an electric trolling motor and use it on occasion but the boss lady and I really like fishing from the shore. Hearing reports that the crappie are starting to move up and people are catching some nice ones in the local fish house on occasion. Figure the spawn for crappie will kick off in a couple of weeks if the weather holds up and fingers crossed we find the right spots and catch some keepers.

[mcbammer]

We have catalpa trees up here but I've never seen worms. Are we talking the same tree? Big spade shaped leaves, white flowers, and foot long cigar shaped pods? Maybe we just don't get the worms.

You have to find some  worms and transplant them to your trees ,  40 year ago I pick some worms off my late aunts trees and placed them on my trees an had worms every year since .  severe defoliation over several  consecutive years can cause  death of the trees . actually in these parts  its  pronounced   catawba  tree .

[BUGEYE]

Have a 12' jon boat with an electric trolling motor and use it on occasion but the boss lady and I really like fishing from the shore. Hearing reports that the crappie are starting to move up and people are catching some nice ones in the local fish house on occasion. Figure the spawn for crappie will kick off in a couple of weeks if the weather holds up and fingers crossed we find the right spots and catch some keepers.

I always tried to hit the crappie spawn and bluegill spawn, partly because I love fried fish and partly because I love those egg sacks rolled in cornmeal mix and fried brown. yum,yum.
whew, y'all are making my mouth water for some fresh caught fish.

[Graybeard]

We have catalpa trees up here but I've never seen worms. Are we talking the same tree? Big spade shaped leaves, white flowers, and foot long cigar shaped pods? Maybe we just don't get the worms.

Yes same tree. I don't know the range of the moths that lay the eggs to make the worms. It's called the catalpa spinx moth.

I have let folks get some worms and take to their trees to help get a start.

The worms when mature and ready come down the tree, go into the ground and burrow under. Then come spring and summer they come out, turn into the moths which lay the eggs and start the cycle over again.

Catalpa trees actually need the worms to eat the leaves off to keep the trees healthy. It's a symbiotic relationship. At least down here if a tree fails to have worms eat the leaves off a couple years in a row they get sick and will die. As long as the worms take the leaves off each year they stay healthy. I have trees over 28 years old.

[oldandslow]

Meredith all but dried up fighting with New Mexico over water, but its kinda made a comeback and seems to be holding its own.

Texas and NM has been fighting over water for years. Texas wants more water than the state has. Look at what the idiot judge that ruled on the Pecos River mess did. He gave Texas more water than the river flows. I understand both sides water concerns but a few people with brains need to sit down, look at the numbers, and come to an equitable solution and not what we have today which is NM wants to keep all her water and Texas wants it all and more. BIG mess.