Back yard hawg.

[N Florida Mike]

Had a friend over from work to catch whatever we could. Dug up 100 worms and we caught a nice string of shellcrackers ( red ears ) , bluegill , and catfish.

About 20 minutes after we started , I caught a nice bait- sized copperhead bluegill and threw him out on my live bait rod.

I had been watching the cork and had taken my attention off it for less than a minute. The cork had silently gone under and had been taken 200 feet or so out in the lake in that short time .When I tightened up and set the hook , the fish came all the way out of the water.

 

The fish ended up weighing 6 lb 11 oz , and was 24 inch.

That was the only run we got all afternoon on the bait rod.

 

[nosdog2]

Nice!

[The Bassman]

Is that a white cat or a channel.  I've got a friend near the space center who has two lakes loaded with white cats.  Reminds me of our bullheads up here, only gray.

[N Florida Mike]

It's a brown bullhead. That one had more white in it than normal.

[Gundog]

Nice hawg Mike. Good to hear someone's catching the big fish while the rest of us dream about spring. 

[TimberTodd]

That's always how it goes, take your eye off the float and it will go under. Nice catch!

[Bankbeater]

That's a nice bass!

[J._Bricker]

Great afternoon of fishing Mike, must have been a fun few minutes getting all that line back! And I’m a guessing the big girl didn’t make it on that stringer...

[N Florida Mike]

1 hour ago, J._Bricker said:

Great afternoon of fishing Mike, must have been a fun few minutes getting all that line back! And I’m a guessing the big girl didn’t make it on that stringer...

Yeah , we had planned to go out in the boat but kept catching fish so we stayed put. And yes , big mama is back in the lake . I was out back a little while ago and I think she's still around . Saw another big blow-up on a bream right where she was the other day. Also seeing bedding activity, 2 little bucks were hanging around close in about 10 feet apart. Seeing some lake bottom excavations too !