Archive for February, 2009

Whopper of a Prize

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

I’ve heard about fishing contests, BUT have you heard about the Fantasy Fishing contest with a MILLION DOLLAR PRIZE????

reels

reels

The first million dollar winner was Michael Thompson of St Michael Minnesota. He received his prize late last fall in Columbia SC. He obtained the most points throughout the seven event season. His points, all 32,101 of them just barely swam by the runner up, James Brown of Lodi, CA who had 31,699 points.

The 2009 season starts THIS MONTH. Go on over to Fantasyfishing.com to sign up for this years competition. This year’s winner could be you!

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Save a catfish – Save the world.

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

There’s some exotic fish threatening the Florida Everglades. Marine biologists are having a hard time determining the threat level as the invasive species are underwater.

Isn’t that a hoot?!?!? Where else would they be?

The fish in question is the walking catfish. Now we don’t have walking catfish around these parts, but aren’t those the fish that travel above ground to the next water hole?

A few years ago, we had a big drought and the neighbor’s small pond all but dried up. He was a retired professor and used his country place as a retreat, so he was hardly ever there. One day I was down in the bottom of my property, on a nice sunny windless day, and kept hearing something. Curiosity took over and I climbed through the barb wire fence to discover what was making the strange flapping sound I was hearing.

Following the sound took me to the neighbors small near-dry pond to discover a whopper of a catfish trying to survive in what tiny little bit of mud that was left. Well, I couldn’t let him die now could I. I couldn’t just take him for my own devices either. You know, technically, I was trespassing.

What do you think I did?

Got down in that mud and scooped up that whopper catfish and walked him to the north side of the property, to the neighbor’s big pond.

That’s not a walking catfish, it’s walking a catfish.

catfish

catfish

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MacGyver Loved Fishing

Monday, February 9th, 2009

It’s not about the fish, it’s about fishing.

MacGyver

man fishing

man fishing

Richard Dean Anderson starred in the infamous MacGyver series. This quote was used in the episode where he was fishing with his grandfather.

The same quote was used by Richard Dean Anderson in his role as Jack O’Neill on Stargate. In this instance he was fishing at his pond with Teal’c.

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THE Fishing Story of the Year!

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Welcome to BackYardAngler! Here you’ll find information about your favorite fish, and your favorite fishing hole and even a recipe for your catch every now and then! Fishing stories are WELCOME here!

What better way to start off than with my favorite fishing story of last year!

A backyard angler from North Carolina snags a record fish with his granddaughter’s Barbie fishing pole!

Got a bite

Got a bite

David Hayes was fishing in his backyard pond with his granddaughter. Just spending a nice relaxing afternoon bonding and fishing with his granddaughter.

Seems the little one needed to make a potty run back to the house and asked her loving Grandpa to hold her fishing pole, her pink Barbie fishing pole.

It must have been a lucky pink Barbie fishing pole because just seconds later a state-record channel catfish BIT. It took David a little while to reel the monster fish in. It tipped the scales at a whopping 21 pounds and one ounce. A verifiable North Carolina state record!

I think David Hayes must be a master fisherman. Takes a lot of skill to reel in a whopper with a regular pole, much less one meant for a little girl.

Kudos to you, David Hayes, for catching the big one and for instilling the love of fishing in another generation!

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Backyard Angler

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

New Blog post #1

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