Walking catfish
Andy Thompson
July 16, 2008 7:29 AM
How have I never heard of this before?
Click here for a video of a catfish that walks...kind of.
I did a little research on the beasts (Read: I Googled them). Check out the world distribution. How did they get to Florida?
Here’s the Wikipedia entry.
Kayak bass fishing
Andy Thompson
July 15, 2008 6:44 AM
Loyal reader Kevin Harver sent me this great story (and pics) of a recent bass fishing trip, and I thought it was worth passing on. Look at the size of that beast!
I had just recently purchased my dream kayak and was looking for a great place to catch some fish. On Sunday, after church, I decided to take it
out on it’s maiden voyage to break it in and my wife tagged along to keep me company. We made plans to fish in a private pond in Hadensville
but couldn’t get in touch with our friends who lived there to get permission. At the last minute, we diverted and went to a family member’s pond in Amelia county. I have fished there only once before and caught some crappie. I had thought that it looked like a perfect place for some bass fishing.
Sunday was hot, in the nineties. We began fishing and I was working the silver-dollar lillypads around the edge. I had several hits and caught
six. My wife was bored and sitting in her kayak in the shaded area of the pond reading a book. Just as she decided she was tired of reading
(and concerned about a big spider she just saw crawling on her kayak) she paddled over to me. Right about this time, I got another hit on my
top-water bait. Nothing remarkable, I thought, just some fish hit it and took it under. I began reeling it in. After a few moments of reeling, it leaped out of the water. All I remember was a huge head and eyeball followed by a long green body. “Whoa! I think I got a big one!” I hollered to my wife. I thought for sure the line was going to break and this fish was going to get away. That’s what always seems to happen to big ones, right?! I loosened the drag so the line would give when the fish tried to turn and swim away. Around and around it went, wrapping the line first around a log in the water and then around a clump of lilly-pad roots. The wind was blowing steadily and hard - blowing my kayak and me away from the stuck fish. I had the paddle in one hand, the fishing pole in another, and I grabbed the net with…—oh, how I could have used another hand or two. My wife asked me if I wanted some help. Truthfully, I did need and want some help but I knew that if anything went wrong and this monster got away, I didn’t want to blame anyone but myself. Finally, after fighting my way close enough to the fish, I was able to net the fish and bring it on board. My wife says that I just sat there in a daze and said “what do I do now?” However, I don’t remember any of that. All that I remember was that I had this giant fish with a head and giant eyeballs looking at me while I had my leg holding it down to the floor of the kayak so it wouldn’t escape. I think this kayak just went up in price—it’s gonna cost me another $300.00 to mount this one on the wall! I quickly got the fish
up on shore. In fact I think I took it about 50 yards up on shore so it wouldn’t be able to flop its way back into the water. We hurriedly took some measurements and photos. This is where I did accept my wife’s help ‘cause I was shaking too much to hold the ruler and camera still. Taking my wife, Michele, with me today was one of my best decisions. She said all along “you’re not planning to mount a fish are you?!” Now, with her right there with me to see the catch and excitement, she was calling taxidermists for me. She’s my biggest fan and although this fish was the biggest I’ve caught so far, next to her, it was my second best catch.
Largemouth Bass
25 inches
7 lbs. 11 oz.
Private Pond
Amelia County
July 13, 2008
Blogging about Bogging
Andy Thompson
July 09, 2008 10:07 AM
It’s official. No country hosts more random “World Championships” than Great Britain. For evidence I present to you the World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships, which was just held in Wales. And apparently it was just part of a larger bog snorkelling triathlon of sorts. An awesome spectacle of human endurance, to be sure.
Tunes for Trails
Andy Thompson
July 08, 2008 8:30 AM
The below is a press release put out by the band Green Giant. They’re playing a concert on July 25th at Capital Ale House and all the proceeds will benefit Richmond-MORE, the local mountain biking and trail building organization. Good music, good food and beer, and a good cause. Sounds like a good reason to part with five dollars.
What: TUNES FOR TRAILS BENEFIT CONCERT
Why: To raise $2,500 for Richmond-MORE ( http://www.richmond-more.org ) to purchase
equipment and materials for maintenance and upgrades of the James River Trails.
When: Friday, July 25 – 9:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m.
Where: Capital Alehouse Music Hall, Downtown at 7th & Main
Who: Green Giant – Fun, Hard-Driving, Soulful Rock / Originals & Covers
How Much: $ 5 – All proceeds go directly to the purchase of equipment and materials for the
James River Trails.
The James River is the crown jewel of Downtown Richmond. An estimated 500,000 people enjoy the
wonders of nature on the James River each year. More civic attention has been focused on the
James River in recent months than ever before!
The James River Adventure Games a few weekends ago highlighted the various activities the James
River Trails have to offer. The XTERRA Urban Assault had 8 mile and 15 mile loops of the XTERRA
Mountain Bike Course, which is considered the most technically challenging urban trail on the entire
National XTERRA Tour! The James River Scramble was a 10 K race, half of which traversed over
Belle Isle and the Buttermilk Trail.
Richmond-MORE is a group of ardent mountain bikers throughout Washington DC, Maryland and
Virginia whose mission is to create and preserve trails. Members of Richmond-More have
volunteered more man hours and have sweated more bullets and have provided more money than
anybody else for the 20+ miles of trails along the James. They have invested their own time and
money to attend eco-training to learn the most eco-responsible methods, not to mention paying for
truckloads of stone and sand as well as lumber for bridges. If you have walked on the Buttermilk Trail
or the North Trail, you have enjoyed Richmond-MORE’s work If you have crossed a wooden bridge
on any trail, you have enjoyed Richmond-MORE’s work.
Equipment and Materials are expensive. Richmond-MORE just completed a new arched bridge and a
new truss bridge, which cost over $10,000. Richmond-MORE needs your help to raise the funds to
continue this worthy and necessary effort to keep the trails safe and accessible to all.
Read Less...
Using your noodle
Andy Thompson
July 07, 2008 9:37 AM
It’s long been a dream of mine to go noodling—that is to catch a catfish with my bare hands. No, seriously, it has, though I’ve heard it’s illegal in many states. I better check on that.
Anyway, the good folks of Pauls Valley, Oklahoma—ah, the heartland, noodling on Saturday, church on Sunday—are gearing up for their annual noodlefest, one of the largest catfish wrangling tourneys in America.
Click here....
Here’s an old NY Times article about the the tourney.
Do not miss this Website, which offers a primer on the tourney and the documentary that was made about it.
The King of Beasts has a memory like an elephant
Andy Thompson
July 03, 2008 12:22 PM
Gentlemen: You should not think it a comment on your masculinity to weep like a helpless baby upon seeing this video.
Ladies: All I can say is, good luck keeping it together.
Click here...
New Speed Record on El Capitan
Andy Thompson
July 03, 2008 7:19 AM
I just heard about this on NPR. Two guys lowered the record for climbing Yosemite National Park‘s “El Capitan” yesterday.
Click here for the story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Now that I’ve climbed at Peak Experiences, I think I’m ready to try this.
Okay, maybe not...
Speaking of bears…
Andy Thompson
July 01, 2008 1:00 PM
When you see a picture like this, you have to click on the link, don’t you? I promise, you won’t be sorry.
Click here...
Grizzly Attack at 24-hour MTB Race
Andy Thompson
July 01, 2008 7:13 AM
We had a snippet about this on A8 yesterday. Below are some links to the expanded coverage in the Anchorage Daily News. Pretty amazing and scary stuff. A 15-year-old girl was mauled by a grizzly at 1:30 a.m. Sunday during a 24-hour mountain bike race near Anchorage. Needless to say, grizzly attacks are not something we had to worry about during the 24-hour bike race I participated in a couple of weeks ago in West Virginia (though black bears are common in the area, supposedly).
This is an interesting article about the aftermath of the attack. It gets into the debate about what to do when humans and bears encroach on the other’s living space. Up there that debate is a matter if life and death.
All aboard the Davy Jones Express
Andy Thompson
June 28, 2008 7:30 AM
See, Virginia and New York City don’t have to be enemies. Check out this press release.
CHINCOTEAGUE – The Virginia Marine Resources Commission sank almost four dozen donated New York City subway cars off the coast here in a daylong operation this past Thursday to expand an artificial fishing reef.
“These surplus subway cars are fish magnets that provide shelter for a variety of marine species and attract prized gamefish,’’ said VMRC Commissioner Steven G. Bowman. “We’re very pleased to be able to help our recreational anglers with this reef expansion and very grateful to the New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority.’’
Since the early 1970s, VMRC has worked to establish an extensive artificial reef system throughout the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia’s coastal waters.
The agency now has 23 reefs, many of them quite large, formed from old concrete pipes, demolished bridges, the remains of piers and a lighthouse, or surplus equipment such as subway cars, armored personnel carriers or old Liberty-class ships.
The material duplicates the natural nooks and anomalies of the water bottom, providing habitat for marine life and aiding in the development of a food web that attracts large predator fish.
Funds for the maintenance and expansion of the reef program are augmented by money collected from the sale of saltwater fishing licenses, in keeping with a VMRC philosophy that license fees should be used to benefit anglers.
In Thursday’s reef expansion operation, 44 stainless steel subway cars donated by New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority were shoved over the side of a barge in a grid pattern to expand Blackfish Bank Reef.
That reef is located off the coast of Chincoteague and is 5.8 miles southeast of Assateague in Maryland.
The subway cars now rest in 65 feet of water near 50 New York City “Redbird” subway cars sunk in November 2003 and 40 Army-donated surplus armored personnel carriers deployed in 1998.
The cars each were 50 feet long and their combined weight was 17 tons.
“We have an artificial reef system that is the envy of other coastal states and the fishing here is tremendous,’’ said Commissioner Bowman.
The exact locations of each reef, and their composition, can be found by clicking here.
Specifics on Blackfish Bank Reef can be found by clicking here.
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