... all of about a mile or so from my place

Last Friday I didn't have time to make a trip to any lake, to chase after the Crappie, so I did the next best thing .... I went at a FINs lake. FINs = Fishing in Neighborhoods ... and Jacobson Park has recently been designated as Lexington's FINs lake. There were 4000 Rainbow Trout released on 10/23/12 ... with two more stockings of 4000 trout to be done this Winter. These fish are the 9-12 inch hatchery stockers. There will also be stocking done a couple of times next Spring, of some hatchery Catfish ... in the 1lb avg size range. And then another stocking next August. There's even been rumors of the possibility of Hybrid Bluegill being stocked ... but no confirmation on that, yet.

In any event, I spent about 3 hours fishing ... and out of around 10 or so "bites", I managed to stick a hook in 3 Trout & one small Carp. The Carp went back, & the trout went on the stringer. I probably would have caught my 5 fish creel limit in those three hours, but I outsmarted myself by thinking that a very small hook on one of my poles would work better. Missed every bite on that pole, until I took the tiny hook off & replaced it with a #6 Aberdeen.

I was using the "small nightcrawlers" from Wally World, under a small float about 2 feet or so .... one rig with a hook/sinker/float & the other with just a hook/float. I probably missed the first 4 or 5 bites by trying to set the hook too fast ... but, once I decided to let them run a bit with it, I started hooking up.

When my time was up, I headed to the truck ... and as I was dropping the stringer of trout into the cooler, I noticed that one of them had a tag. When I lifted the stringer back up, I realized that tagged fish was the very first one I'd caught

See, the KDFWR has tagged some of these trout ... and drop boxes are placed around the lake, that have envelopes to send these tags back in with. "Rewards" are being offered for the returned tags. what those "rewards" might be, a pin maybe, or possibly some $$ ... but, I did think it kinda neat that my FIRST trout was a tagged fish !!

Brought them home & cleaned them up, popped'em in the freezer ... and will have myself a trout dinner, sometime soon.

Here's the skinny on the FINs lake at Jacobson Park : KDFWR - News Release

Even with the additional cost of the Trout Stamp ($10) ... it's still cheaper than buying them at the grocery store. And next year, after I turn 65 & get my $5 fishing license ... a trout stamp won't be needed !!

Now, of course this won't take the place of my Crappie fishing .... just an added bonus for those days/occasions where I only have a couple of hours to kill & just need to get out & wet a line.

... cp