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View Full Version : Lake Gregory Afternoon Casting Session 8/14



Natural Lefty
08-15-2009, 01:27 PM
Well, it had been 2 weeks since my previous fishing expedition. I am now officially on vacation but our plans have been messed up. I was originally supposed to leave to Taiwan today, but there were no tickets available when I needed to return, plus it is typhoon season and typhoon Morakot has been a huge problem in Taiwan. There was around 2 meters of rain from the one storm around most of Taiwan, including my wife's hometown, Kaohsiung. Thus, there will be no fishing reports from Taiwan in the near future, but perhaps in December.

We hope to take a several day fishing trip in the near future (before August 26 when my wife goes to Taiwan), but for now, an afternoon at Lake Gregory will have to do. You can probably tell that I don't have a heck of a lot to report about the fishing. My wife is still supervising her daughter's home renovation project, so she could not come. She suggested I go to Lake Gregory "since it's free." Since I am also a major cheapskate, I decided to go with her suggestion, going against my better judgment. After finishing my other activities, I went to Lake Gregory, getting there between 4:30 and 5 p.m. I went to the place I usually go there, Catfish Cove, which usually has Crappie plus other panfish all summer. I only brought artificials with me to fish with. One reason for that is that I have had some bad allergies at Gregory, to which I believe the dirt in worm boxes contributes.

When I got to Catfish Cove, I noticed that the water was low, yet there was not much vegetation in the water -- poor conditions. The only fish I could see were schools of little 1 inch long baby Bullheads. I wonder if each school consists of all the siblings spawned by 1 pair of Bullhead parents. There was also a small dead Crappie on the shoreline. Casting on the south side of the cove with a 1/32 ounce Crappie jig that should work, brought nothing. I next went to my usual spot by the trees, but nothing bit there, either. I fished there until six p.m. without a bite. By that time, there were 8 people fishing the other side of the cove. I did see one kid catch a stocker trout, which he said he caught on a nightcrawler, but that was the only fish I saw caught. Apparently, spawning season is over, and this year, all the fish vacated the cove after spawning. They usually stay there all summer. Fortunately, the trees which usually give me the allergy had also stopped spawning as well.

After trying the south side of the cove again for awhile, I decided to head toward the baseball field area (actually, football field yesterday). I went to the south side of the baseball field cove where people often go to fish for trout. I tried my jig around that area, and finally around 6:50, just past the point, caught a Crappie. At first, it felt like I hit some weeds about 15 feet from shore, but then it began moving. Fortunately, it had hooked itself, and it was bigger than they usually are are Gregory, all of 7 inches, so I kept it. Last time I went to Gregory, my wife and I probably caught about 30 Crappie at Catfish Cove on jigs, but only kept about 10. Many of them were little 5 inches laden with eggs that we put back, so they are really stunted there. Once, I caught several 9 to 9 1/2 inch Crappie at Gregory, but those were "giants" for there, and that was in 1998.

So now, I thought, this is where "they" are. As it turned out, that was where it was. I have caught lone Crappie before, but never before at Lake Gregory. There were no more hits on the jig, so I went along the south side of the cove to where there were 2 downed trees in the water. This area was also more sheltered from the wind, which was surprisingly strong yesterday (and the weather felt surprisingly cool). This setup spelled fish habitat to me, and it was true. There were numerous flies swarming the area, and fish could be seen surfacing here and there. I swithced to a Black Gnat fly, and managed 3 or 4 strikes, probably from Bluegill, but could not hook any of them. Finally, as it was getting dark, I tried the baseball field cove again with a jig, to no avail. By then, it was around 8 p.m., so I decided to head home with my one measly Crappie. I know many people on this board go to Lake Gregory from time to time. I usually catch good numbers of fish there, but based on what I saw yesterday, I would say that this is not a good time to fish there.

By the way, I made Sashimi out of the Crappie after I got home. Crappie Sashimi, yum! It may not sound so good, but it tastes much better than it sounds. That amount of Sashimi would probably cost about 10 dollars at a Sushi Bar, and this was fresher and better quality than most Sushi, so that was some compensation for the mediocre fishing. I put lime juice, soy sauce, Korean Pepper Powder, and some strips of seaweed on the fish for good measure. I wanted to put Wasabi on it, but my wife must have hidden the Wasabi from me. :Confused:

Another good thing about the trip is that I had zero noticeable allergies this time. :Smile:

idratherbfishin
08-16-2009, 07:01 PM
Come on, you gotta have the wasabi. Sounds good though.

Natural Lefty
08-18-2009, 03:27 PM
What, I actually had a reply? :Shocked:Thanks, idratherbefishing!

I will make a point of asking my wife where the wasabi is. I think I will be needing it in the near future. :Smile:

trail blazer
08-18-2009, 04:22 PM
REALLY COOL REPORT BRO.
Only kept 1 crappie and still made a meal out of it,,WTG.

Keep us posted<FISHING REPORT> when you make that TAIWAN trip.

T,BLAZER

Natural Lefty
08-18-2009, 08:43 PM
Thanks Trailblazer, my wife's friend and her boyfriend were stuck in her house in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan for an entire week while it rained and flooded so heavily that they were unable to get out of there. They were probably sweeping the water out most of the time. But on the other hand, that could be a pretty romantic way to spend a week.:Big Grin:

The boyfriend is from Australia, by the way. I am pretty sure nothing like that happens in Australia. It certainly doesn't happen here. I heard a newscaster lady say with a straight face a couple days ago that an estimated 500,000 people had died in Taiwan due to typhoon Morakot. She was only off by a factor of 1,000. The actual number of dead is about 500, but it is still a big disaster. Most people had their homes flooded, so they had to do lots of cleanup. My wife told me she donated some money to the relief efforts, so I am fine with that.

I hope to go to Taiwan in December, meanwhile, and get in some fishing while I'm there.

I hope to have better fishing stateside in the meantime, but I thought people should know how things are going at Gregory.

ichthus
08-19-2009, 08:48 PM
Thanks for the detailed report. Hope you'll get em next time. Sashimi sounds good. God bless,
Mark

Natural Lefty
08-20-2009, 11:26 AM
Ichthus, I have another fishing report from yesterday to write, but I was pleasantly surprised to see my previous one is still getting comments. Thanks! I did better yesterday, though not great (Shelter Island Pier in S.D.).

Panfish Junior
08-20-2009, 06:57 PM
Sashimi sounds good. You make me hungry again. I gotta look for some left over. Thanks for sharing brotha! :Big Grin:

Natural Lefty
08-22-2009, 08:55 PM
Panfish Junior, I think that Sashimi and Sushi are probably two of humankind's best inventions ever. Just think how natural, organic and healthy it is. I imagine some Japanese people were fishing sometime long ago, and were really hungry by the time they caught something, so they just cut up the meat, wrapped it in seaweed, added the rice they brought with them and whatever spices they had on hand, and just ate it on their boat. It's no wonder that the Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the world. My neighbor from Okinawa had her parents move in with her a couple of years ago. They are now 91 and 92 years old, very active, friendly and work a great deal in their yard. They also bring us homemade Japanese food such as Sushi or Japanese cookies sometimes. :Smile:

Kevman
08-22-2009, 09:46 PM
Thanks for the detailed report. You got outdoors, relaxed, and even caught something you could eat. And no allergies. Good job!

syiamonster
08-23-2009, 03:31 PM
crappie sashimi. sounds good! is it safe to eat fresh water fish raw? I have no idea why, but it thought it shouldn't be done. I'm sure I'm just making it up. I'll have to try it sometimes. And yes, you need the soy sauce and wasabi. Yummy!

Natural Lefty
08-24-2009, 02:45 PM
Syiamonster, good question. Mostly saltwater fish are used for Sashimi or Sushi. I did see somewhere that it is easier to transfer parasites from freshwater fish to humans than from saltwater fish. But I still use freshwater fish sometimes for Sashimi with no problems.

Here are my guidelines: 1. Use very fresh fish from places with relatively clean water.

2. Use species which will taste good raw and are not likely to have parasites. Mostly, these include panfish such as Bluegill, Crappie, Redears, Pumpkinseeds, or Yellow Perch in other states that have them. Also, I have done stuff such as making gravlax from pink-meated trout. Maybe its a mental thing, but no Catfish Sashimi for me although I like to eat cooked Catfish. :Confused:

3. Check the meat for little crawly thingys. Those would be parasites, which would preclude eating it raw, but still be okay to cook presumably.

4. Marinate the meat in lime juice, lemon juice or vinegar for awhile, as is done in Ceviche. This also helps to disinfect the fish.

5. If keeping the fish overnight, put the fillets in the freezer, which should kill any germs or parasites, then thaw the fillets out the next day.

I hope these guidelines help.

So I caught one measly 7 inch Crappie and I have all these replies. I guess I am not the only one here who likes Sashimi. :Smile: