Canoe Trail Martin Dies Jr. State Park...

I made two day trips this week to Martin Dies Jr. State Park for canoeing and fishing the Walnut paddle trail. Entry fee is $4, pretty cheap fun and I certainly got my money's worth in fish. 

That's a big old goggle eye perch. I talked to one local who had entered the creek in a small flat bottom boat and that guy said, "there's major goggle eye in here." I had fished around with my old stand by ultra light lures but found that the thing they wanted was a 1 inch Charlie Brewer Crappie Slider. Charlie Brewer makes what he calls do nothing baits. You cast it out and reel it back. You cant fish in wrong if you fish it slow. 

Beautiful swamp with cypress trees and water hyacinths.  

Lots of birds which is always a good sign of fish near by. Can you spot the blue heron blending in with the bridge? 

This was my first days catch. Actually I had one other fish and for awhile there it looked like it was all I was going to catch. As I paddled along I came up on a elderly couple bank fishing the creek. The woman says "Hey didn't you used to work at the old folks home?" From 2011 till retirement I was making 1500+ patient visits a year. Not all those stick out in my mind but when she told me her name, it was unusual and I recalled her from the Jasper Nursing Home. I think that's pretty good, a patient you rehabbed several years ago is out scrambling up and down a creek bank. They had a few bream in a bucket and I gave them my one fish. Wish they had not left or I would have given them the ones I caught later.  

This is the second days catch, 19 fish. I had the pattern down. They weren't just every where but the slider fishing is kind of a finesse type fishing you spot a swirl, a shad jumps and then you take several fish from that spot. You then move around looking for other spots like that.  These were big bream and I filleted them all for a pile of what's going to be cajun popcorn.

I caught this one bass also and hooked two alligator gar. The gar were probably 15 to 20 inches long and one of them I had alongside the boat and had the landing net in hand but the hooks are hard to hold in their boney, toothy mouths and get thrown easily. 

I believe this bird species is a Little Blue Heron. They migrate as far south as South America and north to Kansas and are a bird the Audubon Society expects to have migration and ranges to shift due to climate change and urbanization.   

Blooming hyacinths. 

The crappie slider. It's a bait that I find they either eat it up or they want the small beetle spins instead. Seems if goggle eyes are around this is the best bait. One of those big google eye had a crawfish in his belly when I cleaned him. 

There are alligators. This one was only two to three feet long, seems like the photo makes him look larger and there was no problem getting quite close to him. I use a floating mesh fish basket and I hoped he would not try to bite it and get his teeth tangled in the mesh. He was very friendly.