Great Catch on a Great Day!

I received the CDC Man of the Year Awards today while I was Crappie fishing. Well in the same spot, fishing as Ketchn suggested (Bobber & Jig) working over some submerged structure I caught Speckled Trout (Saltwater Fish), Male Crappie with Full Colors, and this Paddlefish.

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The spots on this fish look really cool! I tried to blow up the images so I could share with you. This is the second in my lifetime to catch. It was pushing 6ft long, I hooked it with one of my Rojo Grande 8wt Fly rods using the latest order of Varivas Braid. It was 20 minutes or so before I even saw it. What a Day! Releasing this fish was great, hooking it in the Bill made it easy to pull the hook with pliers. If you look close you can see my jig near the tip of the Bill.

I bet that was fun!

Wow! Awesome catch!!!

Very nice catch on crappie gear. I've caught one while crappie fishing about half that size on a jig, stuck it right in the bill.

That's a nice fish, BUT he looks like you scared him to death or he's screaming at the top on his lungs!! :Rofl

How cool is that bro :highfive
Used to be on my bucket list back when…
KABOOM :cheers2

Wooo! Get the harpoon! Nice catch.

Jim

Super cool, sounds like you got a good workout bringing that one in. Congratulations

Rojo, your picture brought back a good memory and story....when I was in high school, the brother of a good friend of mine had come home on leave from the Marine Corps. He was a helicopter pilot and flew CH-53's, the Marine Corps' biggest transport helicopter. Anyway, one day while he was in, he brought my friend and I water skiing, and while he was pulling my friend on a slalom ski, we hit something with the prop of the boat that dramatically slowed us down. When we looked behind the boat, we had hit a giant paddlefish (or spoonbill, as we called them), and the fish was flopping on the surface because he was cut pretty badly. Because he was going to die, we threw him in the boat and took the fish home, and their dad cooked a delicious tomato based courtboullion over rice. It was one of the best meals I had ever eaten. Not long after that, my friend's brother became the pilot of Marine One and flew the first President George Bush and then was the pilot for President Bill Clinton. Sadly, when he finished that assignment, he was working as a CH-53 instructor while he was on the waiting list to become a pilot in the space shuttle program, and the young marine pilot he was training, crashed into the ocean, and they were both killed. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. He was a huge inspiration to me, and one of the main reasons I joined the Marine Corps, so your photo brought back some special memories. Thank you.

We were going down in a S76 Sikorski back in the mid 80's. The S76 was a twin turbine Executive Helicopter that was slow selling so Air Logistics bought some. They put the aircraft together, never did the test flight with the weights out to the edge of the coastline even. When we were at the Mobil Docks in Morgan City waiting for our ride out to work I saw the S76 landing and thought it was very odd. Well those you know, you don't walk anywhere near the front as the Rotors dip very close to the ground. Anyway we boarded, of course I had to sit where I could look between the two Pilots who were holding a book with instructions to fly the thing. While we were over the Morgan City river I was watching the two digital Turbine readouts, well one bounced a little, went to zero readout, right before we lost the first Turbine. Patterson Air Base was where Air Logistics was based so we were loosing altitude heading for Patterson. The aircraft could not fly anymore with the body level so it was listing Tail Rotor down as we continued to Patterson. I was looking out the window at the Cypress Trees under us thinking we were toast. Well the pilots kept the Helicopter in the air till we were a few feet from the runway at Patterson. At that time they lost the other turbine while trying to execute a rolling landing since the S76 had wheels. The machine bounced once, twice, and somewhere once touching the ground all the Roughnecks exited all of us out the side doors. I was never so happy to see a old Bell 212 power up and fly across the field to bring us to work. I'm sorry you lost someone due to a helicopter crash. They Grounded the Puma's & S76's while the Puma was never used again as long as I worked offshore the S-76 got an updated Airframe to support the larger Turbines. Turns out the original design had too small of a Turbine installed. Killed a few people till they grounded and fix them. The Puma killed several crews, I worked for Penrod Drilling Company at the time and 2 of the crashes was on Penrod rigs.

Penrod Drilling - haven't heard that name in a very long time. Met my wife decades ago on Penrod 72 in the Gulf. She was a geologist, and I was a directional driller.

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Originally Posted by Tracker123

Penrod Drilling - haven't heard that name in a very long time. Met my wife decades ago on Penrod 72 in the Gulf. She was a geologist, and I was a directional driller.

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The Man with the "Bend Subs" We did quite a bit of that on Penrod 89 working for Texaco. Set a LA record back outside of Main Pass, forget the angle today but we drilled into a sand full of the prettiest Oil return I ever saw in the Gulf right under Main Pass. Mud Motor all the way. Hi Pressure too, the Well Tester was spinning his toy adding weight and the plunger wouldn't go down. He kicked off all the weights, added a big huge weight, started adding weights, then it was Shut the Well In. We had to go to a real high pressure Stack before they would bring the well back in. 2 Flare Booms were used and we still had to run water hoses on the hull as it was peeling paint. I was the Rig Electrician back then, when rigs had SCR Drives. I would be lost today on one with the change in Electrical Drives.