Fish of 2011

2011 was a great year full of completely new fishing experiences for me.  Before moving to Mississippi, my list of fly caught fish consisted of smallmouth bass, rainbow trout, brook trout, brown trout, catfish, suckers, and various kinds of panfish (brim for you southern folk).  In the past year I added flounder, speckled trout, white trout, hardhead catfish, redfish, ladyfish, sheepshead, Florida pompano, Spanish mackerel, ground mullet, and a few more random little guys.  All of those fish were on the fly.  The funny thing is I often felt like I wasn't catching much, but looking back, I caught a bunch of different kinds of fish.  I think that's an exciting part of living on the coast - you never know what kind of fish you're going to catch.

I've picked out pictures of what I think are my best fish of the year.  Some of them have been posted here before but some of them haven't.  Its not a particularly impressive collection, but I was quite pleased to catch them.

 This is a sheepshead caught while fishing on Ship Island in the spring of last year.  I had been chasing visible sheepshead from the beach all day, and I finally hooked up with this one while blind casting.

I caught this Florida pompano on Petit Bois Island in the summer.  It is the only pompano I've ever caught, so I don't really know how big it is compared to other ones, but it is a beautiful fish and it put up a great fight.  I'd love to catch more of these this year.

This is a two foot long speckled trout that I caught on Ship Island during a morning where the trough between the beach and the first sandbar was just full of specks.  I love this picture because of how its belly bulges around where I'm holding it.

The common factor in these pictures?  The islands...  Good things happen when I go to the barrier islands.  I can't wait for the ferry to start running again in the spring.  Or better yet, I can't wait to get my own boat!

I plan on doing a little fishing this weekend, so look for a post sometime next week.