Some of you know I love fishing and hunting and various other sporting activities. It was requested by a fellow ally and friend, Hive account@jbcoin, that I put up some of my own! You can see some of his in this post, Sunday Fishing Post - Wintertime Edition -Share your fishing stories & pics. I believe heavily in the 'give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime' adage. That old saying can be related to other walks of life too, but we'll get into that another time. Let's see some FISH!!!

Now, where I grew up, we had dogfish and eelpout, which were considered along with perch (in my family) a garbage fish. They eat nasty things in the water and so the meat doesn't taste as clean and sweet as say - walleye or bass. I feel the same way, as I've gotten older, about catfish. That being said, I never intentionally try to catch a catfish, but sometimes...they want to jump on my hook. Here's a few I've caught the past couple years:

I personally don't go crappie fishing. When I lived up north, it was a big thing. We'd catch a mess of them and have a huge fish fry for the whole neighborhood. Down here in Tennessee, I've grown to love the pursuit of Largemouth Bass. One night, fishing with my friend Charlie Pon, I happened to lay into one of two of the only crappie I've ever caught in Tennessee. This is also a personal record best weighing right about five pounds. Check out this plate-sized beautiful White Crappie:

Up north, the prize catch and what we were aiming to get on the hook was the clean flavored walleye. I have plenty of stories about those, but that can be for another time. This is going to highlight my now favorite catch, the Largemouth Bass. First, I'll share a couple photos, and then I'm going to pause so you can catch your breath as I explain my personal record largemouth story. Feast your eyes...

Ok, now I have you warmed up. Here is one of my best catches ever. The good part is the size and implications of what could have been. The sad part is I was alone, and have no proof aside from a few pictures I could barely take because it was so big. I was actually taking a piss and was holding my rod in one hand and my pole in the other (bwahahahahaha!). I had just casted and figured I had a minute as I didn't put any action on the bait yet. Then as I'm zipping up, WHAM! Pole just about flies out of my hand and I'm unbuttoned with an excited fight ensuing. I had to loosen the drag a little to prevent breakage as this thing was just squalling the bearings. It took roughly 20 minutes and about 100 yards of bank to finally land this lunker and it was well worth my pants not getting buttoned. She weighed a little over 15 pounds and I found out a month later it was actually a lake record and one of the largest ever caught in Tennessee. If I had known, I would have called the TWRA and had them put it in the books. (sigh) Here she is:

Fishing is a passion of mine and now that I have a few interested parties, can surely expect to see more in the future...it's gonna be a great year! I hope you enjoyed my catches peoples, STEEM ON!