Fishing Report September 6th, 2012

With the impending rain, I decided to get out last night for a short fishing trip down to the Forks of the Thames. I got there about 8:30 and left at 10:00.  We used hot dogs.  I caught a white bass around a pound in the first couple of minutes and thought, great they generally travel in large schools and we would be hitting white base every cast. No suck luck as he was clearly the only one in the area. My next catch was my first Spiny Soft Shelled Turtle. The one was big, at least half a meter in length. She was released without incident. (That brings my Thames River Turtle species count to 4: Snapping, Spiny Soft Shelled, Painted and Red Ear Slider) That was it for my night of catching.  My daughter who was almost asleep at 5 to 10 jumps out of her chair and her reel starts screaming.  This fish pulled off well over 100 feet of line before she turned it. After her initial panic, she settled into the lift and reel down rhythm.  After a good 5 minutes she pulled in and released a nice sized carp ( 8-9 lbs) It was then off the home. I know she's telling every kid at school this morning about her monster fish.