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!

What a catch!

  It is a sad state of affairs when I cannot even catch a fish large enough for a meal!  This evening, as usual, I headed to the pier to catch a few mullet for the injured heron.  While there, I thought that I might as well try to catch my supper, too.  A few shrimp were the only things I saw that resembled food.  Well, perhaps as bait those few could be turned into something larger.  While I waited for the heron, I baited my hook and tossed the line in the water near the shore.  I had high hopes of snagging a redfish!  Well, it did not happen!  As matter of fact, nothing happened!  The bird did not show, I did not catch mullet nor did I catch my supper.  My catch of the day consisted of one teeny-tiny Gafftopsail!  This wee bit of a catfish was not much larger than my bait! How in the world did it completely swallow the shrimp?

  It seems that this is a prolific year for catfish of all sorts.  I have caught more tiny, baby catfish this year than any other that I can remember.  This is not the only strange catch of the season. Shrimp..large shrimp..very large shrimp filled the Bay this past month. Every fall, we usually catch a few shrimp but never the size of the ones this year.  Each evening, I spent several hours throwing the net and filling my freezer with the beautiful, white shrimp!  When Mark was home, he would go out in the boat and throw the net.  Between the two of us, we caught buckets full of the delectable critters!  Our freezer is filled to capacity!  There will be plenty of fine eats for us come this winter! Gumbo, jambalaya, po-boys...you name it, it will be served!  

  If I cannot catch a fish, I definitely am not complaining about the shrimp.  There will be plenty of lazy days ahead that can be spent hooking a redfish but shrimp are here only for a short while.  The usual catchphrase around here is "Catch 'em while the catchin's good!"  

 

Big mouth!

I have suddenly grown vastly fascinated with the mouth shape of fish!  Yeah, that is a weird thing to find interesting but after getting bit by one too many trout and redfish, I have come to appreciate the toothless grin of the catfish!   I have no clue if all catfish are without chompers but the ones that I catch from the pier could only "gum" a person!  There are no teeth in there that I can see!  How in the world do these fish eat? I am supposing that they just swallow their prey whole and hope for the best.  Not that I think any fish actually chew their food but at least most have pointy teeth to help them catch their breakfast!

I caught another Gaff-topsail Catfish the other day and was both interested and appalled by the fish.  First, I was naturally disgusted by the fish's slime.  When grasping the fish to unhook it, my hand was immediately covered with the stickiest gunk imaginable!  This stuff is awful!  The slime does not wash off with a mere soap and water rinse...oh, no...you have to break out the scrub brush!  Then it feels as if you are taking off a few layers of skin just to rid your hands of the gummy stuff!  Once I got past the idea that my hands would be permanently glued to the next thing I touched, the Gaff-topsail Catfish demanded my full attention!

Beyond the fact that these fish have quite the unusual fins (hence the name), it was the mouth that held my attention.  I probably could have fit my entire fist in that gaping maw!  I stared at the fish..my goodness!  That mouth was huge!  Then I thought about how the male catfish broods the fertilized eggs in his mouth until they hatch.  Well, there sure was enough room in there to brood a lot of them!  That toothless mouth would be well-suited as a nursery as long as he did not decide to swallow the whole shebang!  One wrong gulp could be the end of an entire generation of little catfish! I unhooked the fish and was about to toss it aside to be used in the crab trap when I noticed that the fish was blind in one eye.  Obviously, this fish had been caught before and my hook was so near to the same eye that had been punctured.  Poor fish.  I did not have the heart to kill this fish.  It had been through so much already!  Off you go, Gaff-topsail!  Go back and keep that big mouth shut..do not bite anymore baited hooks.  You may not be so lucky next time!

Morning before the storm..a beautiful sunrise!

As an added thought....I ask for prayers for all those in the path of Isaac.  We here on the Bayou have made our preparations and are now waiting for landfall. If the weather reports are correct, we should be on the tough side of the storm.  Things could possibly be a bit wild on the Bayou for the next few days. The winds are picking up a bit and rains are expected soon but we are safe and snug in the Little Bayou House.  I will keep posting as long as we have electricity and internet.  Until we meet again....be safe, Folks, be safe.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!

I have a very vivid imagination. I see things a bit differently than most people which may or may not be a good thing. Sometimes very common things can take on a very different persona in my mind. I tend to see beauty even in things that others might find a bit disgusting or at least distasteful. That said, today was one of those days where my imagination soared to heights unknown.

It was another hot (very hot) day here on the Bayou. By late afternoon, I was so ready to head to the pier for a bit of fishing. The crab traps needed fresh bait which meant the usually aggravating catch of channel catfish was a welcome catch. Those plus a few gaff-top-sails rounded out our evening's catch other than one small redfish. Just before sunset, we set about cleaning the pier and putting the bait in the crab pots. I turned just in time to see the sun gleaming on the drying skin of one of the gaff-top-sails. This dead fish..now in the process of being dried by the hot sun..had become a thing of beauty. Yep..a stinky, dead fish appeared incredibly exquisite. The sunbeams that peeked through a mass of dark clouds struck the glistening skin at just the perfect angle to reflect an iridescence unlike any I have ever seen. I grabbed the camera and started snapping closeup pictures of the dead fish causing Hubby to stare at me in disbelief. I am sure he thought that his wife had already lost all of her marbles or at least had a few of them rattling around loose inside that brain of hers. When I told him that the fish was gorgeous, he looked a bit disturbed. Yep..that stinky, dead fish had captivated my whole attention..the imagination wheels were just a whirring at full speed.

Now you tell me..in the pictures, can't you just see this as some satellite picture from outer space? Maybe of a look back at Earth..you know..the ocean and waves on a sandy shore!! Or perhaps it is some fabulous gemstone..one whose opalescence is unmatched!! Or maybe it is the Aurora Borealis as seen in the northern sky! (Speaking of that..I would really love to view those Northern Lights some day!) As I said the imagination soared!