1. when i was younger my dad took me to a descent size lake to crappie fish in the early spring. We had a ball caught crappie after crappie most of them about 15 inches. the water was kind of clear and i caught the sight of a large fish circling our fish basket. i told my dad about it and he identified it as a bowfin. This is prolly the largest bowfin i have ever witnessed being caught on 3lb test and light spinning tackle. My dad put a minnow right next to the fish basket and that sucker inhaled it. The fish was about 24inches long. It never saw got the prize in our basket that day.
2. My cousin and I have a good beach that we like to take bluegills off of when its spawning. The different thing is we catch them by hand. prolly around 30 8-10 inch bluegills get into this sandy cove on the lake below my house. When my cousin was focusing on catching a big gill i turned around to notice a water snake swimming right behind him. I told him about the snake and not to move. My cousin ran out of that water so fast and ran up the hill went into his house and i didn't see him again, the rest of the afternoon. Still wont go catching bluegills with me anymore.