Hamilton, Ontario

I caught them yesterday and lost a HUGE longnose gar. I pulled it up from about 20 feet of water like it was a bluegill barely any resistance at all. I thought it was a tiny one. Then, when it got about 10 feet away from me and fully extended, I realized this thing was easily 4-5 feet long. 😳 It dove straight back into the deep, and this time it took off like I was attached to a truck. I managed to pull it back, but the hook came off. 🤬 The crazy part is, it literally parked about 5 feet away from me for maybe 10 seconds, looking for bait like a madman, left and right, then disappeared. About 30 minutes later, it hit my bait again and almost ripped the rod out of the holder. I thought, This time I’m finally going to hook it. Nope. It came off the hook almost immediately. 😂 And this kept happening over and over for a while. Speaking of fish that are hard to hook, land, and actually have a good landing ratio, this fish is absolutely the hardest. Longnose gar are terrible for my mental health. 😂🤬

Looks like channel cats are back.

So far, this fish species has been the hardest to hook and land. The hookup to landing ratio is very low because of its weird, bony mouth structure. Out of 7 fish, I’m losing about 6. They play with the bait like a bullhead, and even when they take the bait the hook can come loose during the fight. Based on what I’ve figured out, size #1/0 circle octopus hooks without a banded tip work best for this species.

Caught this one 2 days ago, around 8 or 9 lb I don’t remember the exact weight. Put up a nice fight. Channel cats are such fun fish to catch because of their aggressive nature. They fight hard and are like pit bulls once they take the bait, they just don’t want to let go.

Nothing was biting, and the mosquitoes were eating me alive. I was about to leave, turned to the ultimate fisherman, Jesus, and said God, please make something happen. I’m begging you, let me catch a big fish. The rod moves nothing there. 😂 I forget about it and start packing up when something tells me, wait. A couple minutes later, this 14-lb fresh drum crushed it😂 Put up an intense fight, diving deeper every time I brought it closer. Somehow landed this absolute fatty in the waves.

New species unlocked. Took me a while to figure out what fish this was. After extending the fins, I thought it was a White Crappie, but this app says White Perch. Go figure.