Unbelievable... fishing a new found honey hole

[Johnsfolly]

After my trip from NC, I am still a few new lifer fish from achieving one of my 2022 goals. I found some spots close by for a species called a spottail shiner. I spent an hour fishing a spot after dropping my daughter off at her friend's house. No luck. Yesterday I had planned for a long trip to go ack and try for a sculpin species out in western MD and also try for some small game and fall turkey (these areas actually allow Sunday hunting and the fall season is only in three counties and lasts a week). But due to a persistent cough from a recent cold, I decided to get some stuff done around the house and run errands. One of the errands would put us on a new spot for those spottails. We found a little community lake with a creek coming from the outfall.

I was fishing a tanago hook on very light line for those shiners and my wife was fishing a trout magnet 1/16 oz jig armed with a piece of redworm under a float. We caught fish after fish. The float would go down as soon as it hit the water. These were nearly all bluegill sunfish of all sizes. 

Afraid of breaking the light line on one of my few tiny tanago hooks I switched out for a trout magnet jig and float combo after catching my 21st bluegill. Sue was way ahead of me with nearly 30 bluegill and this nice redear sunfish.

She went up to fish the lake. Very scenic but not as productive.

After she was chilled she headed to the car. In the end she ended up with 38 bluegill, that redear and a hybrid pumpkinseed sunfish. I fished until I no longer had bait. I ended up with another 40 bluegill after switching from the tanago, thus bringing our total bluegill catch to 99 and 101 total fish for a couple of hours of fishing. What a great little honey hole!

[Daryk Campbell Sr]

The line on the tanago hooks is surprisingly strong when a good fish is on it. But breaks really easily when it catches on to clothing.   

 

[Quillback]

Nice find!

[Johnsfolly]

12 minutes ago, Quillback said:

Nice find!

I guess that I could have titled the post "Filled to the rim with Brim!"🤣

[Quillback]

3 hours ago, Johnsfolly said:

I guess that I could have titled the post "Filled to the rim with Brim!"🤣

What do the locals call them?  When I lived in Mass., they called them "kivvers".  Bullheads were called "Horned Pout".

[Johnsfolly]

12 minutes ago, Quillback said:

What do the locals call them?  When I lived in Mass., they called them "kivvers".  Bullheads were called "Horned Pout".

Either bluegill or sunnies.

I had heard about horned pouts a few years ago. I was hoping that it was a different species. Was disappointed that they just are brown bullheads.

[feather n fin]

I grew up catching hornpout.

https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/humble-hornpout

[Quillback]

Some of the lakes where I lived where loaded with them.  Once it got dark, if you tossed a crawler out there it might last 2 minutes before you got a bite, and it would be like that for as long as you wanted to deal with them, bite after bite.  The bottom of some of those lakes must be crawling with them.

[feather n fin]

12 hours ago, Quillback said:

Some of the lakes where I lived where loaded with them.  Once it got dark, if you tossed a crawler out there it might last 2 minutes before you got a bite, and it would be like that for as long as you wanted to deal with them, bite after bite.  The bottom of some of those lakes must be crawling with them.

As well as small lake backwaters, ditches and streams. They were everywhere when I was a boy.