..we connected on a few. Not overly big, but at a size that gave some strong fights. Most ranging between 10 and 20 pounds each. Some getting airborn which often threw hooks. One much bigger one I messed up trying to get pictures during jumps and ultimately lost the fish because I was trying to work the camera when I should have been working to catch the fish. Did not even end up with a good picture from it. We are going back, so I can't disclose the location, at least not yet.





Lots of incidentals with oxbow fishing:





Wife's Snake, she was not real happy about catching that one.



BTW, As always my son and I pay attention to any possible records. My son had a potential line class record with the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. I had the certified scale and took all the pictures, but we did not want to kill the fish. I had assumed we would be able to have a fisheries biologist sign off on the form doing the identification from the pictures.

Nope, the HOF infomed me it had to be a kept fish. If we released it it would not count. A biologist had to identify it hands on. I asked about IGFA which most record submissions are identified only from pictures. The HOF explained they accept dual records from IGFA provided "they do not conflict with
our criteria". Meaning you may have a record with IGFA, but if you did not keep the fish and have a biologist identify it, they will not accept an IGFA record into the National Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame record keeping.

We figured out a couple ways around this that they agreed we could do if we go back that I'm not going to get into, but I do want to say I find it odd that they make you keep and kill a fish to obtain a record, when IMO, it should not be difficult for a fisheries biologist to identify from pictures with most (I understand not all), but most fish. I am suprised they do not give that option.

Ok, off my soap box. I think my son had a day he will never forget. It was really fun, despite the heat.
John

That is good stuff there. I hope you guys catch a monster. That baby snapping turtle is pretty cool too. Good luck and look forward to the next report.

Jack

Because I had the scale out, we weighed it. The turtle weighed 18 pounds. We caught one other Snapper and it was much bigger. The first one stunk up the place so much, we did not dare weigh the second one.

Y'all have waaaaay too much fun, Draggin....

As much as I tried, I just could not get a picture of one in the air. A couple would be diggers and just dive dive dive, most would jump. Every picture I got was just before or just after. Here is the best I ended up with. Just one kicking off for a run.

Awesome fish John, congrats to you both! That sucks they wouldn't accept your sons record via photo.

Sometimes I miss film cameras--they didn't have the lag that digital cameras do when you're trying to get a quick picture.

Nice story and pixies, by the way.

awesome pics, looks like a great day fishing with your son

Thats really cool. There are SOOOO many of these one year old fish right now! We have to find ways to deterr them when fishing for big fish. Good problem to have.
Steve

Which ones are a year old? The gar?

Yes, he is refering to the gar. I believe the two fish pictured above are under two years old, but they do grow very slow from there.
Correct me if I'm wrong GarGuys.

We did have much bigger ones where we were fishing, but none of the real 100lb+ giants like in the river nearby.

John

Awesome gator gar

Draggin, I think that you and your son might be the kings of multi-species angling. Those are awesome captures! Congrats on rejecting the death of the fish for a paper cert. I am so glad that TPWD and the IGFA doesn't require it. I am even happier that TPWD has the new catch & release division.

Awesome fishes!

WTG!!