Sometimes you catch…

My friend Darren Gardner invited me out to his deer lease near Sour Lake, TX to explore a pond that hadn’t been fished in years.
When we arrived the pond had dried up quite a bit in the current drought and was covered in a variety of vegetation save for a few lanes we could cast in.

Immediately we saw large fish striking and make wakes and excitedly chunked out our lines in hopes of catching BIG bass.

The results?

Grinnel!

Arguably the fish with the most nicknames (bowfin, choupique, mud marlin, cypress bass, dogfish, etc.) they cannot be classified as a good eating fish but they are amazing fighters and tons of fun to catch.

No, they’re not as cool as lunker bass but on a hot summer day they will do.

Here are some of the results.

The author with his big catch.
Darren Garden and his hard-fighting grinnel.