Birthday Fish

It seems I might have told Autumn a story on her eighth birthday. You see, I told her she had caught a warmouth, a species she'd never caught before. Having looked at a couple of comparative photos and habitat descriptions this morning, I'm pretty sure she actually caught a green sunfish. Either way, it was a kind of fish she'd never caught before and her first fish as an 8-year-old. She caught it on a Rebel Teeny Wee-Craw after seeing fish movement near the bank and casting in that direction.

Birthdays are often fishing days around here, and yesterday was no different. Autumn went to Moccasin Creek State Park, stopping to feed the giant trout at Mark of the Potter along the way, and fished a bit in the creek, Lake Burton and the catfish pond, which is next door on the Lake Burton Fish Hatchery property.

The catfish pond produced a few hits, but no hooked or landed cats, which is rare. It's late in the season, though, and I don't think they keep a lot of fish stocked in the little family fishing pond when there aren't many people fishing.

We started at Moccasin Creek (her fishing; me watching), which is a youth/senior citizens stream within the park. We didn't linger long, though, because as is usually the case, camping senior citizens were camped out in the most productive areas, leaving little opportunity for an 8-year-old girl to catch a trout on her birthday.

She caught her sunfish, which was our lone fish, from the lake itself, close to the mouth of the creek.

Autumn finished her time at the park on the playground, and then we wrapped up the birthday fishing outing with sandwiches and sundaes at McDonald's on the way home.