Johnsfolly

My BIL has been on a bucket list deal since he turned 65 a few years ago. He shot a bison which we helped with the butchering and packaging. In turn got a bunch of meat. Then he did a high fence pig hunt. Livie went along on that hunt and shot one of the pigs. These weren't wild boar but released domestic pigs. She did drop the pig with one shot. We got it butchered and it was delicious. Last fall he did a high fence hunt and shot a five by six elk/red deer stag. We helped pack that one up as well and got more meat from that stag. A couple of months ago he set up another pig hunt from the ranch where they got the last pigs. He bought five pigs. One guy dropped out. Livie is out in Missouri. I was originally to be out in OK this weekend. My wife was going to go along and have her brother shoot one for us. I ended going up with my wife as the OK trip didn't happen. I didn't bring a rifle since I really didn't need to shoot a domestic pig running around in the woods. We get to the ranch and the owner tells us that he didn't see the pigs that morning. We all got into two 4 wheelers to go and find the pigs. The shooters would be my BIL, his son and the 13 yr old granddaughter of the friend of my BIL. I rode along to help where I could. This ranch is in the Appalachian mountains of PA. It has a large grass land area near a few grain feeders and open woods on both sides of a valley. We drive thru the tall grass and down into the woods where they saw the pigs the day before. Nothing. We sidehilled the 4 wheelers a couple of times that left a couple of us thinking that we might roll😒. We saw several white tails. A couple of the bucks already had antlers outside of their ears😧. Going to be some nice trophies. We also saw a few of their elk but no pigs. I was with the father of the owner and the father daughter duo. He felt that the pigs were likely in the tall grass. The land owner felt that they were in the woods. We split up with us going into the grass. About 120 yds in we nearly ran over the pigs😉. We got the attention of the other guys and got back to where the pigs were. One pig broke off from the group and we took off after it thru the grass on the 4 wheeler. We were trying to cut it off but it got into the woods. Once there it slowed to a walk. The girl got her gun ready and the old man got the wheeler in a position to have the pig go by giving her a broad side shot. Her first shot was high. She started to get nervous not sure she could kill the pig. Her father calmed her and she shot again. Another miss. The pig ran up the hill into some downfalls but left a broadside shot. She dropped it in the next shot. While this was going on we heard a couple of shots from back up in the grassland. The old man and I drove back up towards the grassland. Just as we got close to the field a pig popped out and headed down towards the father daughter taking photos. The old man didn't want the pig to get into the heavy woods on the other side of the valley. He asked if I wanted to shoot it. I said yes if I was able to borrow the girl's rifle and they didn't want to shoot another pig. She was more than happy to let me borrow the rifle. Her dad showed me how to work the safety and off I went to get setup. The pig came down past me. It stopped a couple of times but not giving me a shot. After that it only gave me the moon as it headed down into the valley. I got back in the 4 wheeler and we drove down to get ahead of it again. I used the 4 wheeler as a rest and had to shoot the pig as it was walking by. 1 shot and it dropped 😉. I was worried that since I haven't shot a rifle at moving game for some time that I might miss or just wound it. No worries now. Got back in the 4 wheeler and turned to head back up to the others. We then noticed that another pig was coming straight at us down the trail. Not knowing if five pigs were already killed or if this one was the girl's if not fatally shot. The old man told me that they only had 5 pigs. There was no way to get any of the others to us before this pig would get into the woods behind us. While still in the seat I used the dash as a rest. Placed the cross hairs between the eyes and dropped it 25 ft from us. The old man went back to get the front loader for the pigs. While there he told my wife the guy that wasn't going to shoot one shot two😂. Wasn't going to let them get past us.😉

I've caught a 12 lb 13 oz in a small pond at my old work place. We have accurate scales in our lab and I was able to get a good live weight and then back out to the pond. I caught it on a #10 hook fished weightless with a red worm on #4 line. Took over 15 mins to land it. It made several runs all across that pond.

I hope that I can get one this fall on one of my business trips😉

Congrats on a nice fish. They are fun to catch.

Very true

Must be a killer bee 🤔😉 Stay safe @BilletHead @jdmidwest

I wish that I could still fit in those pants,😂

Congrats Dan! Great trip report buddy!

Rick I will let you know if we do get a ray that would make "scallops" and how they taste/work.

We haven't. I would be interested in trying to eat skate wings or the faux scallops from the stingray wings. Usually we catch them without having the gear, e.g., large cooler with ice, etc. to bring them home.

That's a tank! Great catch!

I have only caught one blackfin tuna and lots of false albacore (little tunny, bonitos, etc.) when we lived in FL (way back when😉). They are incredible fighters. I would love to tangle with a big one😉

Local rains blew out the MD and NJ creeks for the weekend. On our last trip to a local saltwater spot, we caught only one fish. I didn't measure the water temp, but it may be cooler due to the lower than normal airtemps. My wife and I decided to get away for the weekend and headed south down into VA. The hope was to get away from the rain and get into some active fish. As with every trip there is always the hope to get into some lifers, aka fish that neither of us have caught before. We decided to fish the VA beach fishing pier. I have seen YouTube videos of fish caught there, but we have not fished it before. We went down on Sat. I checked out a spot in Cape Charles VA that I had hoped to do some night/sight fishing for some odd ball flounder and bottom species, e.g., blackcheek tonguefish, smallmouth flounder, hog chokers, stargazers, etc... Water was very dingy and choppy due to the winds. No go on the night fishing. We did have a nice meal at a restaurant right next to our room. In the mornign we had breakfast at a local diner and drove across the Chesapeake bay Bridge/Tunnel down into Virginia beach/Norfolk area to get to the pier. As with any pier in a tourist area, you never know who you will encounter and what you may see. We did see a carrier off in the distance (not a surprise since the naval base was not far from us). Then there is this guy. He is fishing with an ice fishing rod and it's upside down🤔. I see a lot of folks fishing with spinning reels like they do with their Zebco push button reels. This guy had me scratching my head. I could see flying down with a small rod that could fit in my luggage (I have several), but if you brought the rod I would have expected that you knew how to use it. I met one other guy fishing the same way. I was going to correct him but his buddy was fishing normally and I figured that he could tell his friend😉. We were fishing our typical dropper loop bait rigs and using bloodworms and pieces of crab. We did not get a bite for well over an hour and only after we moved deeper. There were a bunch of skates and a couple of singrays caught towards the end of the pier. We both have caught the clearnose skates previously, but Sue has not caught any type of stingray before. I put on a small piece of Fishbites and soon caught our first fish, a silver perch. That guy was unfortunate since he became cutbait😉. I think two things happened when we moved. We got into deeper water and there was a tide change that got the fish active. We really started catching a variety of fish using bloodwomrs, Fishbites, and the cutbait. We both caught a couple of the clearnose skates on the cutbait (always fun to hand line them over the rail, especially with braided line🙄). Lots of silver perch were caught. Also more standard species on the bloodworms and Fishbites. Southern kingfish Spot croakers Pigfish (one of my favorites😁) Sue caught a lifer striped anchovy on a tiny piece of bloodworm. I caught a menhaden (hook had cut its gills. Too bloody for a photo😒) and my own striped anchovy on the Fishbites and bloodworms, respectively. I caught a couple more anchovies just by keeping the bloodworm baits a few feet off bottom and just bouncing the rig. I should have put on a Sabiki rig (a six hook multirig used for baitfish), but didn't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with the rig after we were done fishing. We didn't catch any prized species, like bluefish, stripers, cobia, etc. But as multispecies anglers one man's trash is another man's treasure and we had fun catching a variety of fish.

@FishnDave have you caught white catfish on fly?

Here Kitty kitty😉

Looks great @Daryk Campbell Sr! Congrats on a great trip with all of you self made items! Can't wait to see more future trips.

I saw that movie not too long ago. I liked it. That was a crazy tuna scene for sure. That was the way they used to catch them.

Love these breeding colored fish! I can't seem to prioritize and put together the time to head back up to NJ or PA to get after bowfin😒. Still chasing lifers or PB fish.

What fly did you use to catch this one🤔

Sounds about right😂

I know that PETA had a time when they were trying to rebrand catfish as sea kittens🤣

For @snagged in outlet 3😉

I can't think of one off hand.

Hey snakeheads are now rebranded in Maryland as Chesapeake Channa🙄

I do like blue cats.to eat. We keep a few each year. Don't fish for them much though but have gone out on a couple of occasions now trying for gar and cats. I gave away a nice 4-5 lb blue on our last trip since I didn't want to deal with cleaning any. I'll have to remember to post a photo for Pete😉.