I decided to try sampling, i do not have my tank yet (still dealing with cleaning a room i haven't touched in two years to make space for it). But i decided to go out and test my casting net (my main sampling gear i plan on using) and do a little fishing.

Why did I choose a casting net? Dip nets remind me of those "fish and butterfly" nets I had as a kid that were flimsy and i could only catch a fish in one once. (they swim faster than i scoop, that one fish was a sunfish whose nest i set the net motionless outside of it, and after its fear wore off it swam into it to attack it). And I have had seine experience catching minnows with a friend i went striper fishing with and find that seines need three people to work, two to hold the net, and one to scare the baitfish back towards it as they can easilly outswim two people wading with a net.

My first attempt was at a small firepond I know has sunfish and hornpout (bullhead) to test the net, though i couldn't throw it far it seemed to work perfectly. sadly no fish were in casting range. So I was off to try the ashuelot and the connecticut river.

So i got to the ashuelot in winchester just before the rite aid where a tributary flows into it, a spot i know produces large fallfish. And in the water was an amazing site. A MASSIVE school of what was either large dace or sucker (couldn't tell which), the fish were all facing towards the slow moving tributary stream with the smaller ones near the front. I tried casting to them from the bridge and they ignored the bait. I saw alot of smaller minnows among them too so i decided to try the net out on real fish.

So I tried my casting net, an unathletic novice on a downward sloping, muddy, brushy hill wouldn't have any difference than he had at the flat open shore of a firepond right? WRONG!. almost every cast with the net flubbed and in the end i scared off the whole massive school. An amazing natural phenomenon scared off by my clumsyness. I also noticed the cast net opening and releasing a stick caught in it upon leaving the water, another bad sign.

By the time i reached the connecticut river i just fished and had no luck (the pumpkinseed were not even biting and they bite on bad days) though i saw someone catch a nice walleye.

My first test of my sampling gear and it was a failure. All i managed to do was scare off a very large school of fairly large fish which in itself is a very unusual thing to see.

Edited by FirstChAoS, 25 April 2009 - 01:16 AM.

Try practicing on a flat open space like a lawn, park or school yard. Once you develope the correct tossing method you'll do much better.

I have a 4 foot seine that I've had good luck with. My trouble isn't catching fish, it's identifying them once I've caught them.