Another big catfish

Last weekend I drove up to my parent's to go fishing with my brother-in-law. Since I did not get there until late on Saturday we only got a couple hours of fishing. We did not catch anything on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. On my first cast I hooked a nice size catfish (see below). I was using light tackle this time; 6'6" Shimano rod and Shimano open face reel with 6 lb line. I was fishing with my favorite fresh water live bait, night crawlers. It took some time to get this one in. Every time we would get him close to bank him would take off, taking 20-25 feet of drag.
After we got the fish out of the water it weighed in a little over 8lbs. I also caught 5 small (1/2 - 1 pound) catfish that day, but I threw all those back. I gave the big catfish to my brother-in-law, and he got 2 really nice flillets.

Deep sea fishing

For father's day my wife gave me and her dad tickets on the Thunderstar. Last Thursday the two of us took our trip. The boat was crowded, but it was still a lot of fun. We both had really good spots on the boat. We left Shem Creek in Mt. Pleaseant, SC around 7AM and headed out 50 miles to the Gulf Stream.

People were catching a variety of fish, but most were Vermillion Snapper. I only caught Vermillion Snapper, and by the end of the day I was ready to catch something else. We both caught our limit before the day was over. When we returned we weighed the fish and had a total of 29 pounds. Now it was time for a fish fry, which we had Friday night. Here are a few photos from our trip.

Heading out to sea

Sunrise

The water was very calm that day

My father-in-laws catch

It's been a while

It has been a while since my last post, but lots of things have been happening. I am learning lots of cool new things at work. The project I am working on is moving forward nicely. I have also been doing a lot of little projects around our new house. But most of all, I have been doing a lot of fishing.

One of the first fishing trips this month was over the July 4th holiday at my parent's pond. My parents live near Rock Hill, SC. It is a small pond loaded with catfish and bream. On my second cast I reeled in a nice 8 pound catfish. My oldest kid caught a couple nice catfish also. We were using night crawlers as bait. Nothing like good live bait. At the end of the day we let all the fish go to be caught another day. Here are a couple pictures from that day.

I will post about the other fishing trips later this week.

Went Fishing Today

I went fishing with my wife's dad today. He bought a really nice boat about a month ago. We were planning on fishing tomorrow, but the weather forecast is looking bad. So we decided to move up our plans and went today. We put the boat in the water here on Daniel Island and took it down a few inlets and the Wando River. He snagged a really nice fish, but lost it before we could get it in the boat. (The one that got away) I did not get any bites, but I was just happy to be out on the water fishing. I cannot wait to go back out. Now I want a boat, but that will have to wait.