st. croix crocodiles

took my buddy greenwood out fishing on the st. croix in hopes of getting his first longnose gar. we started off the day targeting other species with just crawlers on the bottom but didnt have much luck. i caught a few small drum and kept them for bait. i rerigged both of our bottom rigs with floats set about 2 feet above the hook and we moved down to the mouth of the canal. we cast the lines a few feet out and it didn't take long before greenwoods float shot under and his rod doubled over. unfortunately the fish didn't stay on. the next cast he threw made up for losing the fish because again he got a take almost instantly. the fish pulled hard and thrashed all over until he dragged it up onto the bank. a nice longnose gar and a new species for greenwood.

we continued to fish this way and caught one gar after another.

 i even caught my new personal best 30" longnose.

greenwood even got a lifelister shortnose gar and a nice one at that.

we fished into the night and eventually the gar bite turned off. we rigged up a rod with a huge chunk of cut fish and the other three with worms. we continued catching nothing but drum and bluegill for about an hour till greenwood hooked into something much larger. the fish didn't even bite he just adjusted the rod and felt the fish on the end of the line. it screamed the drag several times and eventually was brought closer to shore. i waded out to get a better look and saw a large pale fish in the light of the lantern. i grabbed ahold of it and carried it to shore. it was a smallmouth buffalo. i have dreamed of catching them for a long time and must say i am quite jealous of greenwood for beating me to it.

the bite slowed down and we began packing everything up. just as i was going to pick up my line with the large cutbait chunk the clicker screamed out. i let it run a few seconds and picked it up only to miss the fish. next week i will be back here night fishing to see what else lurks in the depths of the st. croix.