Livie Catches a Toad!

[Johnsfolly]

I get a call at work.. "When are you coming Home Dad?!?" was the question. "5:30 was the response. Good. Mom says that you'll need to change into fishing clothes when you get here and we are going to the bridge!" Now I probably fish a lot for many folks, but never enough for me. So when my wife says that we are going fishing I don't question it. A big "YES DEAR!" is all that I have to say .

We decided to fish the bridge - aka Bill Burton fishing pier on the Choptank river. The pier is really the old bridge with the center taken out for boat traffic. I chose the Cambridge side of the river. We had a bag of bloodworms that needed to be used if you know what I mean. We typically bottom fish using a high and low hook rig and a 1 to 2 oz weight. I have been wanting to get Livie to catch an oyster toadfish. She has caught a couple in our crab traps but never on a hook and line. I pushed us to go to the end of the pier and fish the large pilings out there. We got some worms on the hooks for my wife and let her fish while Livie and I rigged the other two rods. 

No sooner than her baits go to the bottom, my wife hooked and landed an oyster toadfish!

Livie was a little steamed that she may have missed her chance. Sue gave her the rod to fish and I finished rigging up another rod for Sue. She soon caught a small white perch while Livie was getting no love and getting a bit more frustrated. She had just lifted bait off the bottom to reel it up and check her baits when she got a pull on the line. She finally got her oyster toadfish!

they have the face that only a mother could love or in this case the whole Folly family .

Livie caught her toad - Mission accomplished. We still had another hour to 90 mins before the pier closed and I had all the rods rigged and ready to go. I have to say it was a bit of a white perch and spot slay fest. We would cast towards the new bridge pilings and get bit as soon as we got the slack out of the lines. Many doubles (fish on both of our hooks) were caught. We also caught a few silver perch and one juvenile striper was landed. We weren't thinking about saving any, but a few like this one made me question that idea.

All in all a great suggestion by my wife, great weather, and just under 50 fish landed in under 2 hours!

[jdmidwest]

Looks like a bloated sculpin to me.  But good job keeping on target.

I spend hours at a time aiming for Smallies and catching drum, bowfins, largemouth, spots, redears, and everything else under the sun.  Persistance pays off.

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

That's the biggest one I've ever seen.   Good job Livie.   (And family)