There is no question I enjoy hunting above all other outdoor endeavors and pursuits. But, I admit to enjoying brief interludes of fishing, particularly during the late spring and summer, once bear seasons are completed and I am anticipating the beginning of the fall hunting seasons.
There was a time when during our summertime when I yearly succumbed to the lure of and headed to Africa. I dearly loved hunting greater kudu, Cape buffalo and other dangerous game as well as the myriad of plains game that exists across the broad ocean that separates North America from Africa. But with years rapidly adding to bones and muscles “stressed” during a youth that never took into consideration I might attain my current age, those long plane rides are no longer fun, nor do I consider them as necessary as I once did.
Fishing? As a mere tyke, still in short britches, the highlight of most days was digging worms with my maternal granddad, “Fotta” Aschenbeck, and then heading to Cummins creek to fish for “perch”. Those special days before being required to go to school instilled a love of the outdoors to the point that when I was finally forced to go to school I was convinced I had been sentenced to a living hell!
While I never lost my love of fishing, in time hunting became more important to me, particularly after my maternal granddad died when I was nine. By then, I could read about the adventures of Jack O’Connor, Russell Annabel, Warren Page, Robert Ruark and other outdoor heroes. They created in me a longing to experience distant lands and unique animals they had pursued.
Now many years later, having hunted big game on six continents and a few islands, I am content and have no desire to step on the land that encompassing the South Pole to see penguins. Thus, when now not hunting primarily deer and a few other big game species found here in North America there is time to spend my summers fishing.
Being someone who likes eating fish, as does my wife and family, most of my summer fishing is for those species that are caught and released in hot grease or butter in cast iron frying pans, or grilled atop a fire of oak or mesquite. There is one exception, alligator gar to that method of catch and “release”. And that is where we will begin this epistle about summer-time fishing.
I love the challenge of fishing for monstrous alligator gar, particularly with an ace guide who has also become a friend, Chris Moody, www.garfishingaddictions.com . Each summer I spend at least one if not two days fishing with him in hopes of hooking and landing a gar exceeding 7-feet in length, knowing remnants of the age of dinosaurs exist where we fish that exceed 8-feet in length and exceed two-hundred pounds in weight. My biggest thus far is a bit over 6-feet in length, although I had one hooked for a while that approached eight feet in length. She, all truly big alligator gars are females, like their kind tend to do when hooked jumped totally out of the water. When she did, it was as if she wanted to show me she was “throwing the hook”. I hope there will be a rematch!
Alligator gar, surprisingly are excellent table fare, but no way would I kill a truly big alligator gar, one of the reasons I refuse to hunt them with bow and arrow! As a youngster we occasionally caught gars on trotlines. Using a hatchet my granddad would cut the bony scutes along the gar’s topline, then peel back its skin to reveal a long piece of boneless “meat”. Back then the standard way of preparing any fish was to cut it into “chunks”, apply a coating of ground yellow corn meal laced with salt and pepper, then fry it in a deep skillet filled with hot lard. Even now writing about fish prepared in such a manner it makes me salivate!
This summer we will be filming my alligator gar fishing excursions for an episode of “The Journey” a new digital television series I co-host with Brandon Houston. He along with DSC’s Corey Mason (www.biggame.org) will be joining me in hopes of catching monstrous fish. “The Journey” mostly hunting and conservation airs twice monthly on www.carbontv.com.
Summer truly is a time to spend fishing with friends and family. Over the past many years I have developed a dear friendship with fellow outdoor writer Jim Zumbo, and outdoorsman Rick Lambert. The three of us are currently scheming a fishing trip to Rick daughter Miranda’s former ranch in Oklahoma. There we will be joined by another fellow writer, Jeff Johnson, to fish for bluegill, one of my favorite fish to catch and eat. Same with Zumbo!
During my college years, were it not for bluegills, my wife and I would have frequently gone hungry once we exhausted our supply of whitetail venison. The upcoming trip will be one of the highlights of the summer because I know the ranch’s ponds are filled with hand-sized and bigger bluegills. Too, I know Zumbo loves not only to fish for bluegill and eat them, he also wants to the the one who fillets all caught because he fears a “smidgen” of fish might be left on the bones. Rick, Jeff and I will be happy to “let” Jim clean any and all fish, and, we will do our best to keep him entertained with regaled tales of hunts and adventures past, while he is doing so. I plan on filming that upcoming fishing trip which will later be aired as an episode of “A Sportsman’s Life” on CarbonTV.com, a show I co-host with Luke Clayton and Jeff Rice. I too will record both an audio podcast and a video podcast episode of our “goings-on”. This for my weekly “DSC’s Campfires with Larry Weishuhn” which can be listened to on waypointv.com, gen7outdoors.com, and carbontv.com and many other platforms. The video version can be watched on my YouTube channel “dsccampfireswithlarryweishuhn”.
In the past I have enjoyed numerous fishing trips involving Jim and Rick both in fresh water and salt water. In years past as guest of Tom and Mike Snyder we have fished numerous times for particularly red snapper, both in Texas and federal waters. Most of the time we have fished with Captain Chad Kinney and his Bamm Bamm Charters (www.bammbammfishing.com) based out of Port Mansfield on the lower Texas coast. Limits of red snapper have provided many fine meals for all those who fished. I will tell you one of Zumbo’s favorites is red snapper “cheeks” and while I have eaten those delicious morsels he has prepared for us; he has not been forth-giving of his recipe.
This summer I have three wish list fishing trips I hope to do. Those include heading to Wyoming to the Bighorn Mountains to fish once again for cigar-sized brook trout, something I did a few years ago while my wife and I visited with the Zumbo’s. Not only were those little trout a blast to catch on a fly rod and worms, they were unbelievably delicious! Zumbo taught me the importance of stalking the edges of the serpentine, rather narrow and relatively shallow streams found in the Bighorns. Talk about fun!
Later this summer, about the time whitetail bucks’ antlers have nearly completed their annual cycle I plan on spending a couple of days combining a deer scouting trip with fishing on the Choctaw Hunting Lodge in southeastern Oklahoma (www.choctawhuntinglodge.com). The spacious and truly gorgeous property owned by the Choctaw Nation. It is home to both fabulous hunting, specifically for whitetail deer, eastern wild turkeys, feral hogs and occasionally buffalo and fishing. With many fishing “holes” and several streams the fishing there is world class. I will head that way in late July or early August. A few years ago I fished the sizeable lake right next to the lodge with Luke Clayton and Jeff Rice. We caught a really nice stringer of white crappie. This time I hope to also spend some time on one of the creeks simply to see what fish might be caught there. But I’ll spend early mornings and late afternoon driving around with Dusty Vickrey, the Choctaw Hunting Manager to see what this year’s crop of whitetail antlers looks like. Choctaw offers both free range and estate whitetail hunting.
One other fishing trip I have planned this summer is to return to Cummins Creek just north of the Texas Gulf Coast Prairie, the creek I fished with my granddad when I was quite young and where I started down my path in the outdoor world.
Summer-time, and the living might be easy…but can also be quite exciting, even when sticking relatively close to home…
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