Catch of the Day

A very special fish. This white perch is my first catch of 2005. Went down to Sarge's bait shop to find out how best to catch something other than catfish in the Big Elk Creek. A couple years ago, I had gone eight months fishing at this site without catching a single fish. Then one day, my older brother suggested using hot dogs as bait once we read that catfish swim in these waters. It was like the opening of flood gates. Since then, catching fish one or two dozen at a sitting hasn't been out of the ordinary. (Unfortunately, the fish aren't really edible due to pollution. One guide I read stated that it's only safe to eat seven catfish from this waterway a year. To me that means NO catfish.)

My last time fishing on this creek last August, I caught 14 catfish with 17 pieces of hotdog. Catfish are fun to catch because they put up a good fight. Not so fun is that they are slimy bottom feeders. After every catch, both the angler and his line are covered with what I call catfish boogers: balls of slime that gunk up the hook, line, and sinker. So I wanted to catch something different this time.

At Sarge's, they suggested I use night-crawlers (aka "worms"). I guess there is some special kind of worm called a "night-crawler", but really, who are we kidding. Aren't they just worms? Night-crawler definitely sounds cooler than "worm." But when it comes down to it...you get the point.

The night-crawlers did the trick. I caught 16 white perch, one yellow perch, and four catfish. The yellow was the first one I have ever caught out here. The fishing is so prolific in the creek, that at one point I had caught 13 fish with just 3 1/2 worms...I mean night crawlers.

While bringing my haul (actually, catching and releasing), I had the privilege to observe a beaver frolicking in the newly sprouted marsh grass, several loons diving for food, and some frisky muskrats in hot pursuit, then gettin' it on right in the edge of the property. It is springtime, after all.