Dutiful Dad!

  We all hear about how the male seahorse carries the eggs and little ones in a pouch but, most of the time, we never hear about a dutiful dad who does an even more remarkable feat.  The Gafftopsail Catfish is a "mouth-breeder".  The male fish carries the fertilized eggs in his mouth for the entire time it takes the eggs to hatch.  This is quite the undertaking as the fish can be carrying around 50 marble-sized eggs at a time!  Think about that one for a minute, here!  For the 65 days that it takes those eggs to hatch, poor, old Dad cannot swallow!  The male fish does not eat for the entire time that he is carrying the eggs!  Once the eggs hatch and the little fish swim out of his mouth, they will seek refuge there any time there is danger nearby for approximately two weeks.  Ok, so the eggs hatch, a bunch of little, 2 inch long fish swim about eating and growing until they are 4 inches long BUT, if danger lurks nearby, they all scoot right back into Dad's mouth!  This sound incredible enough but usually Dad is a fish that is usually less than 20 inches long, himself!  Now go figure!

  The seahorse get all the fame and glory and our catfish simply goes about doing his fatherly duties without complaint.  To my way of thinking, the Gafftopsail Catfish should be voted Father of the Year of the critter world!  He goes above and beyond just to assure that his little ones are safe.  Personally, I have new-found respect for the fish usually dubbed as "trash fish".  By the way, the one in the photo is a tiny one that I caught this morning.  It could not have been hatched for long as it was a mere 6 inches in length!  Little fishy...go back in the water and be safe!  No more biting baits that are on a hook!

Weird and wonderful (?) finds!

  There is a young man that grew up around here that is my "go to" man when I want to know something about fish or fishing or, for that matter, fishing gear.  He knows it all!  Taylor is one of those rare young men that is always eager to help even if it calls for helping a old Bayou Lady.  Now that he has moved to other parts, he tells me to "send pictures of any weird catches" and, so, I do!  I do believe that today's catch might even be a little too weird for him.

  Mark went out fishing early this morning but for some strange reason never got a bite.  He was cruising along the shoreline searching for "runs" of big reds or trout when he came across the most unusual catch of the year.  It seems that not once did he find a redfish or trout but instead saw something stuck in the marsh.  Curiosity got the best of him and that strange item pulled all of his attention away from fishing.  He tugged, pulled and otherwise hoisted his find from beneath the marsh roots.  This thing was STUCK!  

  Finally, he succeeded!  Whump!  A Santa Claus was plopped into the boat!  Yep, he "caught" a Santa Claus!  This was a three foot tall Santa yard decoration.  At one time, the thing obviously had a light attached and a much better paint job but even without all of that, its identity was very apparent.  He headed home and hoisted the thing up onto the pier. When he called me down to examine his "catch", I had to start giggling. Only my husband would tote something like this home for me to photograph!  He is amazing!  Ms. Ez, the Bayou Dog, was not so thrilled with the newcomer on the pier.  She never barks at strangers yet this Santa was enough to send her into a frenzy!  Between her barking and my giggling, Mark never got to fully explain how he came about giving a boat ride to Ole Santa.  It took a while before he could finish his story!  

  Yep, this is probably the weirdest catch that I have ever seen pulled from the Bay but, then again, no one really knows what is under that water or, in this case, in the marsh.  Mark and I figure that this thing has been stuck out there since Hurricane Katrina.  How strange that no one has ever seen it before!  Santa Fish, anyone?

Fish Tales!

Mark teases me a good bit when we are out fishing.  He always says that I catch the weirdest things!  I, like everyone, catch fish but that is not why he teases me..it is for all of the other things that I catch! I must say in all honesty, that I do hook into my share of oddities!  One of the strangest things I have ever caught was a "zombie fish"!  No, that is not a real fish but hey..the day was not ordinary! We were fishing one evening when suddenly my line started tugging!  I had a bite!  I jerked back on the line and had a fight on my hands!  The fish tugged and tugged!  My pole bent this way and that until I finally reeled in..wait for it......a dead fish!  Yep!  I had caught a dead fish! Not just recently dead...dead as in decaying dead!  Parts were sort of sloughing off and it smelled awful!  Now, I ask you..just how in the world does one catch a dead fish???  I did!

Then there was the time just the other day that while fishing with my sister-in-law, Cynthia.  We were fishing and talking..not worried if we caught anything or not.  It was just an outing to "get out of the house"!  I cast my pole far up on the shore hoping to get a flounder or redfish.  As I slowly reeled it back in, I felt a tug.  Here we go again!  No this time it was not a dead fish..I caught a sinker!  I actually hooked into a lead weight that someone had lost while fishing.  The point of my hook had slipped right into the hole of the lead weight.  This might not have been so impressive had it been anywhere else but here..yep, pretty impressive.  You see, here on the Bayou, we have mud.  Ooey Gooey mud.  The sink-up-to-your-neck-if-you-step-in-it type mud.  That sinker should have sunk! (Pun intended!)  Instead, I caught the thing!  Who catches fishing tackle?  I did!

Today, however, was different!  Not really, I caught another weird thing..now Mark can tease me about this.  It had rained almost all afternoon and had cooled tremendously.  I thought this might be the perfect evening to catch a few fish for supper.  Off I went, pole in hand.  The third cast out with my humongous menhaden for bait, I felt the telltale tug!  I had a fish!  This one did not actually pull though..it sort of just laid there.  I eased back on the line..perhaps a flounder?  Mark always tells me that I pull to quickly when flounder fishing so I let it sit for a few minutes.  Nothing.  I eased back on the line again...there was definitely something holding onto the hook.  I slowly and steadily reeled the line.  When I pulled it up on the pier, I had no bait but...I had caught...a BOTTLE!  Woohoo!  Huh?  Yep, I hooked a mud-filled bottle!  That does not look like supper!  Somehow between the time that I had a fish take my bait and the time that I got the line reeled in, my hook had slipped inside the bottle.  The hook had actually turned sideways in the bottle causing it to be quite jammed.  I had hooked a bottle!  Now, all of you anglers out there...let me ask you...just how many bottles have you hooked???  I did!