campin' and fishin'

[jdupre']

Went out to Lake Verret for an overnighter. Weather was perfect - 50 degree nights and 75 degree days. Got to the short dead end canal right after daylight and started catchin a couple on a black 1/124 oz jig on the fly rod. Made my way along the bank to the slough coming out of the swamp between the spoil banks at the campsite. 5 casts-5 fish. Caught them on almost every cast and decided to switch to my favorite- rubberlegged popping bug. They KILLED the top water bait!

Caught about 2 dozen , with many of them as big as this one. I took a break to set up camp and clean my fish. Started a fire and set up the grill. Filleted some to pan fry and left few to grill whole. A great lunch.

After lunch, I set up my new double-bottom hammock to "test it out". Purely for scientific testing, ya know. :wink:

The blue pad goes between the layers on an angle and really stays put. It doesn't bunch up around you much at all and you hardly know it's there. I temporarily pinned some shock cord at the tie-out points for testing. They worked great and I'll will be sewing them in permanently.

It was a great trip.

Joey

 

[Kayak Jack]

Please bring that double bottomed hammock to the rendezvous? I want to see it. Nice fishing!

 

[jdupre']

I'll bring it. The double bottom has a couple of other advantages. Mosquitoes can't bite through the two layers so you don't need a heat trapping pad in summer. The relatively heavy fabric hardly stretches and doesn't squeeze in around you as much. Dang nice piece of kit for 7 bucks.

I came this( ) close to buying a Hennessey when I found this cloth in the $1.00 bin at WalMart and decided to give it a try. I really like the fact that I can throw the mosquito net back to lounge or lay out the sleeping bag in the open hammock to repack it.

 

[oldsparkey]

Like your expensive $7.00 hammock.....
As far as the skeeters , not a single bite when in the Clark and there were tons of skeeters on the last trip , it is skeeter proof as they claim. Plus you can toss the bug netting aside if you unzip one side , back if you unzip both sides , if you do not want it and have a wide open sleeping place. The best part is that it is a side entry ( either side ) and that makes it easy to put stuff in there or take it out including myself.
Plus without a pad under you it sure is a lot cooler. That one trip it was hot and humid , bedtime rolled around and getting in the hammock was like stepping into some air conditioning , nice and cool with a slight breeze blowing off the water.

I do like the price of yours a lot better.......Leave it to a Cajun to come up with the right way to do it. Speaking of the right way to do things.......

Next best thing after having a comfortable sleeping area is a good meal and those sunfish on the grill sure looked good , really , really good.

Chuck.

 

[catfish]

joey where did you say you caught those at , i got it by that log in the water aye. i bet you aint giving your map or gps cordnets out. :wink: :lol: those are nice perch i bet they ate good too.

 

[Kayak Jack]

I'm not sure how you guys transformed bluegills into either sunfish or perch. Genetic magic, ehh?:wink:

 

[jdupre']

Jack, I've heard them called bluegills, bream, brim, perch, poich(think Brooklyn accent) and sunfish - Location sensitive as Ronnie says.

Catfish, "my" spot was none too secret judging from the couple dozen boats in that tiny canal over the weekend.

Chuck, 7 bucks ain't bad, eh? Hammock material - $7.00 ......8x10 tarp -$13.00 .......blue WalMart pad -$6.00 .......thread -$2.50 .........suspension straps and tree huggers( had the material on hand) $0.00 ------- bug net -$0.00.. $28.50 for a no-excuses, bug-free, warm, durable, COMFORTABLE set up at 1/5 the price of the commercial versions------hard to beat.



Joey

 

[Wannabe]

That's right Joey,
Squeeze those pennies till they squeel. Reminds me of the old thrifty Scotsman. After he finished with a chaw of tobacco he would set it on the fencepost and lit it dry, then he would put in his pipe and smoke it, then polish his boots with the ashes he knocked out of his pipe. Like my Daddy used to say. "It's not what you make, it's what you save".
Bob

 

[oldsparkey]

I'm not sure how you guys transformed bluegills into either sunfish or perch. Genetic magic, ehh?:wink:

Actually they are all "Sunfish " even the Large Mouth Bass we have here in the states that everyone try's to catch.

" The sunfishes are a family (Centrarchidae) of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes. The type genus is Centrarchus (consisting solely of the flier, C. macropterus). The family's 27 species includes many fishes familiar to North Americans, including the rock bass, largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, and crappies. All are native only to North America."

As you can see "Sunfish " is a generic term for all of the individual ones , Red Breasts , Warmouths , Stump Knockers , Specks , Bream , Gills , or any of the numerous local names for them. The pore Speck or Crappie has a ton of names , depending on where you are. They are papermouths, strawberry bass, specks, speckled perch, calico bass (throughout New England), sac-au-lait (in southern Louisiana, lit "bag of milk") and Oswego bass.

No matter what name they go by they are really good with some Grits or Hash Browns ( for Yankees) anytime of the day.

Class is over , everyone back to your Nap's.

 

[a Bald Cypress]

Man, just look at all that information.

And to think, my wife thinks I look at this site just for the boat pictures.

Little does she know.