Holiday Weekend

We had the whole family together here this weekend. We didn't do much fishing from the boat, but always seemed to have a line in the water from the dock. I think Cory caught more than anyone. He was sending me pictures of perch from his cell phone ten minutes after he arrived. I added a few more species to our "caught" list. There are some sunfish nesting in Lake Placid. Cory and Daniel figured them out pretty quick by baiting grass shrimp they caught in the shallows. They then tried that method for bottom fishing off our dock and came up with lots more perch, a small croaker and a catfish. My "big fish" of the weekend came on a piece of shrimp left over from take-out chinese food. I was sitting on the back of the boat about midnight and saw my rod bend double. I set the hook into a very heavy fish and tightend the singing drag. I just knew I had my first rockfish, but the struggle ended way too quickly and the boys got a good laugh when they netted a 15 pound carp. I didn't know carp lived in brackish water. Oh well, maybe I'll get that first rockfish some day! A little later I caught a nice-sized catfish, so most of the new species were very familiar. I fileted and fried up a few white perch. They are delicious. Here's my current list of kinds of fish caught so far, either off the dock, or behind us in the lake:
Chain Pickerel
White Perch
Yellow Perch
Sunfish
Croaker
Catfish
Carp
Dianne has more information and photos of our weekend on her blog. The Saturday house-warming party was a big success. I guess there were about 50 guests. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Sunday we drove up to Baltimore where Andy and Sarah joined us at the Inner Harbor. Sarah is a Herpetologist who works at the National Aquarium. She and her co-worker Rachel provided a us with a behind-the-scenes tour that was very interesting. She even let us hold some of the critters. We had a great time on the boat all weekend. I got a 2-person tube at Bass Pro, and we spent Monday riding it, then cruising down to Annapolis. I think Ella enjoyed her first boat ride! What a great weekend! -S