Catches & Catch-Up

There's no denying it. I've been woeful with this blog. The gap since the last post is the longest since I began the Jeff Samsel Fishing blog. I won't make excuses. I'll just move on. I also won't make any big promises, except that I'll try to do a better job of keeping things fresh.

That stuff acknowledged, I've gotten to do some good fishing since the last post. Not much local stuff, but trips to Texas, Florida and Alabama. The Florida trip in particular put a charge in the new year's species count because we did both freshwater and saltwater stuff and because a couple of the days produced a good mix of panfish species. The species tally through mid-March is at 21.

My most surprising catch of 2017 is pictured above. While fishing in Florida's Santa Fe River, I caught a mullet on a Rebel Crawfish, and the fish was hooked inside the mouth. Despite having grown up in Florida and having spent a lot of time around coastal waters over the years, I'd never before seen a mullet caught on an artificial lure, so when I realized what I had, I was pretty surprised.

My favorite fish this year has to go to big speckled trout I'll caught from a kayak in Texas. It took a YUM Swurm fished on a Bomber Shad-Head Jig-Head.

Fish Species Firsts

Twice in this year's travels I've gotten opportunities to target and catch localized black bass species that I had never caught (or seen in person, for that matter) before. In Texas, a couple of months ago, I caught a Guadalupe bass, which looks a lot like the Coosa redeye bass we have in some of the rivers around here. Last week in Florida, I got to add a Suwannee bass to my lifetime list. Both were caught on Rebel Crawfish.

As you can see in the photo above, Suwannee bass look a lot like smallmouth bass, and they act like smallmouths, too. They definitely favor current, they hang out around rock, and they feed heavily on crawfish. Different from smallmouths, Suwannee bass have turquoise coloration on their cheeks and undersides, their eyes tend to be a bit bugged out, and they are notably smaller (record is less than 4 pounds). Oh, and they live in Florida and a couple of rivers in South Georgia.

While in Florida, I also got to catch my first butterfly peacock bass. I'd caught peacocks previously on two different trips to Brazil, but none were butterfly peacocks, which is the kind that lives in the canals of South Florida. The butterflies are beautiful colored and brutally strong, just like their larger cousins.

Salt-Infused Plans

I've fished mostly on fresh water in recent years, but that's certainly not due to any lack of interest in saltwater fishing. In truth I like the salty stuff a lot. It just hadn't been as good a fit with my writing markets.

That changes with my new role as a content specialist for PRADCO-Fishing because there are many great saltwater stories to be told about the Bomber, Rebel, Heddon and Cotton Cordell brands. During March alone I have coastal fishing plans in Texas, Louisiana and Florida.

Those places are also all warm, which is mighty nice during a month when we typically get a lot of cold weather in Georgia. Often I'm headed north to fish late ice this time of year, so the headstart on spring will be quite nice.

Guadalupe Bass

Although I certainly caught larger fish on the recent Texas trip with Nathaniel, I'd have to say that my single favorite catch from the trip was a Guadalupe bass that hit a Rebel Wee-Crawfish. The catch came from the namesake Guadalupe River in a stretch that cuts through Guadalupe River State Park.

The setting was part of the reason. High bluffs bound a clear tumbling stream that almost looks like it should be in the Ozarks, except for the very Texasish looking vegetation. We only fished one short section and for a couple of hours, but I could have easily spent a day walking along the edges or wading these waters.

The big thing that made this one No. 1 in my mind, though, was simply that the Guadalupe is a unique Texas black bass species that is the Texas state fish, and I had never caught or even seen one before. Catching one was a definite trip goal, and one I'm glad to have achieved.

Interestingly, in just a little more than a month I'll be in Florida and will spend a day trying to catch Suwanee bass, which, like the Guadalupe, would be a first-time catch for me.

Texas Calling

Today's a packing day for Nathaniel and me because tomorrow, right after Asher's Little League tryouts, we point the Expedition toward Texas and begin the long drive. We'll spend a week or so in the Lone Star State, fishing for everything from speckled trout to rainbow trout. (Yep. They have those in Texas.) Rough path is slated, but we'll fill in most details as we go.

I've enjoyed some really good fishing in Texas, including time on acclaimed lakes like Falcon, Amistad and Fork and wading out of Port Mansfield. It's been a few years since I've been there, though, and next week plans don't include any places I've fished before, so I'm really looking forward to getting back down there and to discovering new stuff.

Better get to packing, I suppose!

#CatchFishAnywhere