[gentle orchestral fanfare] - I pulled him around that thing.

That's a pretty good fish.

- [Tom] Pretty colors.

That's a pretty good fish.

Mm-hmm.

Tom that's a nice one.

That's a nice bluegill, lotta girth to him.

Let's get him in.

See if I can hold this back.

Oh yeah, that's a pretty fish.

Pretty fish.

We've caught some larger ones, but that's a nice bluegill.

Yep, lotta copper on this one.

Mm-hmm.

They're all a little bit different.

They're all the same, but they're all different.

Let's see if I can get this outta him without hurting him.

Yeah man, yeah man, there he is.

- [Tom] Got some thickness, doesn't it?

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

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- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪ - Hello, welcome to the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

Well today's show is all about fly rods, bream beds, and poppin' bugs.

Joe, this is my kinda fishing.

- Oh I tell ya, this is a lot of fun, this is targeting the bluegill bream in June, when they're on the beds.

May's a good month too, but this particular show was shot in June, and we'd had some problems with high water, a couple times we couldn't get out on the pond, but once we did, we found the bream and just had a great day.

- Yeah, in gear time we'll talk about the fly rods, and the baits and those sort of things.

- Right, we'll go back, the guys will share with us the poppin' bugs that they used that day, and of course anybody that's ever fished a bream bed knows that once they're on the beds, they're pretty easy to catch.

They're pretty aggressive that time of year.

And we caught some nice fish.

- Our recipe today, lemon dill catfish.

Gonna be a good one.

- Yeah, it's gonna take a catfish and add that little lemon tanginess to it, really good.

- It's gonna be a great day.

We got a lot coming your way today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Bluegill are ...

Colony breeders.

They ...

They excavate saucer shaped nests.

Usually 20 to 30 saucer shaped, yeah.

And they look like craters on the moon, you've seen 'em.

- [Tom] Yep.

- [John] And they're the only, for example a largemouth bass has a nest that's very similar, but it's larger, but it's always solitary.

And I mean it's always solitary.

They bed alone.

But a bluegill colony, if you're interested in birds, it's very similar to a ... To a ... To leks.

L-E-K-S. That's dancing ground, there he is.

- [Tom] That's a nice fish.

- [John] Yeah.

- A little nice one, blue.

- That's dancing grounds for birds, such as like a, a prairie chicken or a sharp-tailed grouse.

- Uh-huh.

Not a ton of line out, but ... Bunched up at my feet.

- That looks like a better one to me.

I don't know.

Yeah it is.

That's a good bluegill.

Good job.

- Nice fish.

Barely hooked.

- There we go, there we go Tom.

Another nice- - [Tom] You found another nice- - Another nice male.

Male bluegill, yeah.

Pretty fish.

Seems like a nice one, can't get him around this side.

I wanna get him on this side.

Come on, come on.

Where'd you get on?

- I believe it's just his weight.

- No, he's on something.

Let's see if we can retrieve this fish.

Hey, now that's a bluegill that I was, I mean I'm pulling on him.

He got off.

Whatever was on him, he was on, he got off.

- There's your big one.

- Well that's a little nicer one than, that's a little bit nicer.

That's a nicer fish right there.

Come on baby.

- [Tom] Very nice.

- [John] Very pretty fish.

Pretty fish.

Tom, that's a beautiful male bream we just caught.

- [Tom] Mm-hmm.

- And that's typical of an adult male.

It's a parental male.

You know the scientific name for the bluegill is Lepomis macrochirus, and that's Greek.

Macrochirus means large hand, and that's about what we've got here, that's the size we've been looking for.

It about fits in the size of my hand, and I've got a pretty good sized hand.

And that's a typical male with the copper across the, some people will refer to 'em as copperheads.

- [Tom] Right.

- [John] And that's an adult male.

This, this, this flap right here, which is about the size of your thumbnail, and all males, all bluegills, their dorsal fin has 10 spines, although some have 9 and some have 11, and the anal fin has three, and that distinguishes a bluegill.

- [Tom] Right.

- What a pretty fish.

- [Tom] Mm, nice find.

- [Tom] What a pretty fish.

I'm gonna let him go and let him grow.

Gorgeous fish, let's catch another one.

- [Tom] You see that switch to white, you see that?

- [John] Yeah, let's get another one.

- [Tom] Well that's exactly where that chartreuse popper- Let's go.

- [John] Let's pick up on it just a little bit quicker.

See if we can't ... [bird calls] That's pretty right there, that's pretty I'll take that.

Yeah I'll take that.

How about sticking one in there, just to the left of that, about three feet?

There he is.

You got him.

Good job, good job.

Another nice bream.

Another nice bream.

- I don't wanna get him off too fast, that's too much fun.

- Nah, uh-huh.

No sir, good job.

[water splashes] Pretty color.

Super.

- Look at the color on that John on the bottom.

- That's a beauty.

That's another beauty.

You know it's funny how some ponds, some ponds raise a nice bream, and some just don't.

And you know, you hear a lot of theories about that, whether it's a bass pond, or but they're a lot of good ponds that have both bass and big bream in 'em.

Good job, good job Tom.

- [Tom] There he goes.

- [John] Good catch, good fish, good release.

Good release.

He ought to smack it, and not drop it.

I'm a let it, I'm a let it just sit there.

He's gonna swim under it.

- I normally do move mine more, but I'm gonna go your route and see if, and leave it still.

- There he is, ah!

There he went.

[chuckles] There he was.

Ah, that one got it.

I mean he smacked it, just like he's s'posed to.

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness.

I still get excited.

- [Tom] That's what you should be.

- [John] I think I've caught this fish and your line.

- [Tom] That's alright.

- [John] No, he's off.

No he's still on it.

That's okay, that's okay.

I need to bring him around here, we'll see if we can.

- I'll just leave mine in the water to get.

- There we go, there we go.

Okay, we got him, we got him.

We gon' get him, we gon' get him.

- [Tom] Another nice fish.

- Yeah, that's another nice, that's another nice male bluegill.

What pretty coloration, that one really has the copper head.

Nice fish, nice fish Tom.

- [Tom] Yep.

[fish splashes into water] - Let him go back.

Very good.

I'm gon' let you throw in there, and let yours sit a second and kinda wait.

[gentle music] What do you think, Tom?

They've slowed down a little bit on this bed, haven't they?

- Little bit.

- I think we got one more in us.

- I think we can get another one off this bed.

- I feel like we need to back up a little bit.

There he is, you got him.

You got him.

We knew there was one more here, didn't we.

The Martin bed.

Oh!

Good fish I think.

- [Tom] Yeah it is.

Real nice, best fish I've caught today.

- [John] As if there was a bad fish.

- [Tom] This is the biggest fish I've caught today, I believe.

- Let me swing you around a little bit.

- Haven't caught him yet.

- Let me swing you around a little bit so you can ... Get you away from that stump.

Yeah I like the look of that.

That's pretty.

- That might be a bass.

- That's a bream.

- Is it a bream?

- Yeah, you see how it's circles" - Yeah, but he was going on a straight line there for a while, didja see him?

- Yeah no, it is doing that.

But it's ... Bluegill to be sure.

- [Tom] Nice.

- [John] And really not as big as you thought, but it's- - [Tom] He got a little grass on him.

- He's got a little grass on him.

That's a pretty bream, that's a pretty bream.

- Big family.

- Good job, yeah that's a nice one.

- [Tom] Nice little fish.

- [John] Nice fish.

- [Tom] Very nice.

- [John] Nice bluegill.

- [Tom] Lotta fun.

- [John] Yes sir.

Yes sir.

He smacked it Tom.

- Man.

- I don't think- - I don't care if he's- - I don't know [unintelligible crosstalk] I don't think that's the biggest we've caught, pretty fish.

- [Tom] Very pretty.

- [John] But he certainly was hungry.

- [Tom] He's loud, he's a smacker.

- He certainly was the hungriest one we've caught.

Your mama didn't teach you any table manners.

- [Tom] [chuckles] That's right.

Smacking.

- Your mama didn't teach you any table manners.

Oh pretty color too.

- [Tom] That's what happens when they smack at it hard sometimes, they miss it.

- [John] Yeah that's a pretty fish.

He went after it now, I'm not kidding you.

- [Tom] Yes sir.

- Beauty, beauty.

Beauty.

Tom we've worked this bed pretty hard.

Do you think we oughta give it a rest?

- Well ... - [John] It's been kind to us.

- It's been good to us, we don't need to exhaust it.

- [John] Yeah, it's been kind to us, why don't we be kind to it.

- You wanna slide on the other side over there?

- Let's try a different spot, what do you say?

- See if we can't locate another bed full.

- Let's- - Another colony full.

- Let's do it.

If we want we can maybe come back later on.

But I think we'll give that, give that bed a rest.

Good deal.

That's a good spot.

Wanna see you get the biggin'.

That's what you call a drop shot, right there.

- Right now.

- That's a drop shot.

Pure luck is what some people call it.

Oh, there's another drop shot.

Okay I dropped it.

- There's the little hatch coming off, you were right.

- There's where it should be.

- Something.

- I tell you, now there ought to be a fish on this ... Tom there's been a bed here before.

That was a, that was a ... What's left up on there on that Cypress Tree is the back of a ... Of a wood duck box.

- Mm-hmm.

Now why would a bed, why would they relocate?

- I don't know.

I don't know.

Why there was a bed here in the past ... Maybe the bottom, maybe the bottom has, maybe some sediment or something's changed on the bottom.

You know they like a sandy, gravelly bottom.

- Right.

- I don't know, that's a good question.

Oh, I'm sorry again.

Come on, baby.

You know, there don't seem to be any, much activity right here.

Or at least, they're not caring for our offering.

Which may be, may be the case.

[bird calls] I like the area, I like the spot.

- Well I do too.

- [John] It's beautiful.

But let me tell you something.

Apparently the bream don't care for it, and that's really all that matters.

I pulled him around that thing.

That's a pretty good fish.

Pretty colors.

- [Tom] Again?

- That's a pretty good fish.

- [Tom] Mm-hmm.

- Tom, that's a nice one.

That's a nice bluegill.

Lotta girth to him.

Let's get him in.

Let's see if I can hold this back.

Oh yeah, that's a pretty fish.

Pretty fish.

We've caught some larger ones, but that's a nice bluegill.

Yep, lotta copper on this one.

- [Tom] Mm-hmm.

- They're all a little bit different.

They're all the same, but they're all different.

Let's see if I can get this outta him without hurting him.

Yeah man.

Yeah man, there he is.

- [Tom] Got some thickness, doesn't it?

- Yeah, he's a good fish.

There we go.

Good deal.

First rate, first rate.

I'm excited, I'm excited.

- [Tom] They'll do that.

- I like, I like to catch 'em, I swear I do.

Any size.

I know you do too, Tom.

- [Tom] Yeah.

A smaller one, this is a smacker.

- We'll take him buddy.

- [Tom] Heard him before I felt him, that's good.

No table manners.

[fish splashes in water] Very very nice, another ... Another one on a white popper, John.

- Looks like a ... [unintelligible crosstalk] It's a female, no it's a bream.

It's a female.

Very good, very good, very good.

- Good deal.

We'll take him.

We did take him.

- We did take him.

- That was a good day of fishing, we fish what, three, four different beds?

- Yeah, I think we had three different bream beds that they fish, they're just kinda moving around the pond, and actually I think John was telling me that there's actually more than that, but these were three that he's familiar with.

He's a great fly fisherman, him and Tom both are really professional with the fly rod, and both love the sport, and John particularly loves that bluegill bream.

Makes his own bugs, he's just a very talented fisherman.

- Fly rods and bugs, let's find out more.

Let's go to Gear Time.

[cheery guitar music] - John, we had a good day today, started out early.

Had some success, pretty much the whole time we were out here.

- [John] Yeah, we had a lot of success.

[chuckles] - [Tom] A lot of fun.

- [John] Yeah, I mean we had a great day, I don't remember a better day.

I enjoyed fishing with you ... Tom.

You're a good fisherman, and we were also aided by the fact that the fish were very aggressive.

We found a lot of bream beds, and so ...

Whether we were good fisherman or not, they- - We caught 'em.

- They were on it, and we were right there for 'em.

We had both of us using fly rods, I have a four weight, with a six pound tippet, a nice long tippet.

It makes it roll over and land on the bed pretty quietly.

And we were using top water baits.

Poppin' bugs.

We used several colors and several sizes.

Primarily a six and an eight.

I like the six a little bit better, because it doesn't go down in his throat.

- Right, a little bigger.

- It's a little bigger.

And it, you know it's easier to extract and you don't hurt the fish.

And we released all our fish today, I thought that was good.

- I started out throwing a little slider, it's considered a poppin' bug, but it's not, yours is more of a blunt front so it does make more of a traditional pop.

The slider, this is a little bigger than the one I was throwing.

- [John] Yours is a little quieter coming off.

- [Tom] A little bit quieter.

Just what it says it is, it's a slider it's got rubber legs, a little bit of mirabelle in the back.

- Mine's flat.

- [Tom] Right.

- [John] Makes it pop.

- [Tom] Which is exactly what it's for.

And this is, either one of these flies seemed to work real good today.

We didn't really vary too much off these poppers.

- [John] Sometimes when you don't get a hook set, when you miss fish, and we missed some today, but mostly we were successful.

But you can take a pair of pliers, and you can open up this hook a little bit, you can put it right down at the bend of the hook, and you can bring it out some, and that helps your hook set sometimes when you miss some fish.

But boy we had a great day.

This is a number eight.

I mean all these, they're different colors of course, and we both got ... Lots of different sorts of bugs, different colors for different situations.

Perhaps to match what the fish are feeding on.

But it's hard to beat the old glow color white, or the old glow bug color.

- [Tom] I was just getting ready to say, the chartreuse is what I started out with, had a few early, and then you were doing so well on the white, I switched over and stayed with it the rest of the day, it was good.

- [John] Yeah, it was the bait that did it.

I tell ya ...

I enjoyed it thoroughly, I don't think we coulda had a better time.

I hope we can do it again soon.

- Had a blast.

- Yeah, thank you very much.

Enjoyed it.

- Thanks guys for that information.

Now Donna's in the kitchen, she's got a recipe for lemon dill catfish, you're gonna like this one.

[cheery guitar music] - Hi, welcome to Simple Cooking.

Today we're going to make a lemon dill catfish in the kitchen.

Great recipe, lots of good flavors mixing together.

So we're gonna start out with our catfish filets, and we have ... Fileted 'em up and we're ready to go.

So they're nice and plump and moist looking.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna make a little dressing here first.

We're gonna use this dressing for two different purposes.

We're gonna use it as a topping after the fish is cooked, and we're gonna use it to baste our fish as well.

So we're gonna start out with a little bit of buttermilk, and some mayonnaise.

And I wouldn't use, I would use real use mayonnaise, I wouldn't use any of the salad dressing substitutes, because they add a little bit, they're a little sweet, so I would just go ahead with the mayonnaise.

Then we're going to add in some lemon to this as well.

What we're gonna do with this is, to get it nice and juicy, we're just gonna roll it around on our counter, to just kind of loosen up some of the ...

Pulp in there to get it nice and juicy, and then we're gonna use a little bit of the outside, some of the zest, to add a little bit extra flavor to this too.

What we're gonna do is I just a micro plane with mine to do that, and I just rub it along, and you wanna make sure that you only get that yellow part, you don't wanna get into the white because that's the pith, and it will be very bitter, so you just wanna just kinda roll it around.

Has a great flavor and a great scent as well.

So we're gonna add some of that, about two teaspoons of that in there.

Then we're gonna slice this in half and juice out the juice from the lemon.

And then you can place it in your disposal and clean out your kitchen smells.

This is very versatile, this recipe.

We're just gonna squeeze that out, and if you have, if it's a little hard you can use a reamer in here to get some of that juice out.

So we're just gonna mix that together and we're also gonna add in some fresh dill to this recipe.

So I just have some dill here, I bought this big bunch of dill at the grocery and it smells so good and if you grow dill in your garden outside, that's a great way to use it as well.

So we're just gonna mix that together, and then what I would is if I was, I really have some extra, but if not I would substitute, take out about two tablespoons of this to brush your fish with and then save the rest for after as a dip.

So what we're gonna do, we're just going to take our ... Basting brush and brush ... Our fish.

And if you don't have catfish, you can use any type of mild white fish, works out well too.

Then we're going to flip it and ... Brush the other side.

And then we're gonna dredge it into some lemon, pepper, breader.

Which adds some great flavor to it.

And once we do that, we're going to bake it on our non-stick foil, for about 10, 15 minutes.

This is a quick and easy recipe, which you know that's the kind that I like, not spending a lot of time in the kitchen, but come out with something that's really fabulous.

So we're gonna place that on our foil, like I said bake that at about 400 degrees, for about 10, 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.

And this is what it looks like when it comes out, it's nice and golden brown and crunchy, and nice and light and fluffy on the inside.

And it has all those great flavors that have mixed together as well.

And then I just serve a little bit of the dipping sauce, and you can do sliced cucumbers, you can put it on a salad, it's a great meal and I hope you enjoy the lemon dill catfish.

And I look forward to seeing you next time here on Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- Thanks Donna for that recipe, that's one you'll have to try at home real soon.

Joe, let's go back down to the pond, fished three beds that day, and overall we had a good day.

- We did, we caught a lot of fish, had a lot of fun, and as I mentioned earlier, John said that all the beds, we found the fish we needed on these three beds, and very aggressive that day.

We caught a lot of male fish.

And that time they were pretty aggressive, but you still need to know how to throw that bug to 'em.

- And talking about throwing the bug to 'em, it is an art in that fly rod.

- Yeah not everybody can pick up a fly rod and present it like these guys can.

We stayed off from the beds, and made the presentations, and they how to do it, they've been doing it a long time, both of 'em are very accomplished fly fishermen.

And that helps in catching fish.

- Overall it was a good day.

- Absolutely.

- For Joe Albea, I'm John Moore.

Thanks for joining us today on the Carolina Outdoor Journal.

- [Announcer] Make sure to visit our website for more information.

- [Announcer] The production of Carolina Outdoor Journal is made possible in part by: - [Female Announcer] Wildlife in North Carolina Magazine.

ncwildlife.org/winc.

- [Male Announcer] And by EZ Bait and Tackle, family owned and operated.

We've been fishing since 2003.

Come see the crew in Goldsboro, North Carolina, and we can hook you up for all your fishing needs.

[light instrumental music] ♪