@PappyJoe - WOW! Definitely not a panfish. They’re beautiful. Looks like an an over grown aquarium fish. I’ve caught freshwater drum but didn’t try to eat it.
Sheepshead are excellent eating. Here in the southeastern waters, since sheepshead compete with drum for shellfish, this time of year you usually find one or the other in an area but not both at the same time; so if you aren’t catching drum you can change your gear and fish for sheepshead. Water is still cold here though, about 6 degrees below normal, so no activity yet to speak of. Here they are mostly caught in marshes and river mouths near the ocean. They are relatively common along the Intracoastal waterway
@jfreedy @vtgrad2003 The water must get colder over there than it does in South Louisiana. I've caught redfish in weather so cold that we had to keep defrosting the reels because they would ice up. The key to those days was find the deeper holes where the redfish could find warmer water.
It is routine to catch redfish and sheepshead in the marsh areas I fish below Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne southeast of New Orleans. There were many times that I fished with professional guides or tournament fishermen where the person on the front of the boat would hook a redfish and the one on the back of the boat would catch a largemouth bass or sheepshead. (Back during the 10 years I was the managing editor for a monthly hunting & fishing magazine.)
What we have found is that what you catch is also dependent on the water salinity in the area you are fishing. Redfish like water that has a salinity of 25 - 35 ppm but you can also find them in water where the salinity 18 ppm. My son-in-law is a local charter captain and we fished together last Thursday. He checked the water salinity in the areas we stopped and the salinity was down to 12 ppm - which is why we caught channel catfish and sheepshead but no redfish. The one area where we had one redfish on the line, the salinity was 20 ppm.
@PappyJoe; Those are very nice pipes, especially the snapper. @Londy3; Savinellis are great pipes. Present well and smoke even better. You are preparing to make me hungry again, I can sense it coming!!
I think you and I are simply in different areas and not all fish "act" the same in different parts of the states. Around here, sheepshead are not brackish water fish, they are saltwater fish--they can adapt to both (https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/archosargus-probatocephalus/) . In your area they are probably more adapted to fresh than salt, but around me they are more adapted to salt than fresh.
Being that they are primarily saltwater fish around here, and the local water temp is still pretty cold (around 62), they are likely off shore still in deeper water--the red drum are too.
Drum can also be found in fresh water (where they are likely stocked there) and like largemouth bass (which I also fish for frequently) they will simply find deep areas during cold weather. I've caught bass in 35 degree water before at 100 feet in depth, but for the saltwater drum that I fish for, they simply sit off shore until the shallow marshes warm up.
Three bowls today. First was some Watch City Cigars Elf Dandruff. Second was Meistermischung Nr. 22 and Third, I opened another tin of The Untouchables.
Practicing for the first New Orleans Pipe Club meeting since February of 2020.
Well to no avail I’ve tried to like the Merde de Cheval. So far through multiple methods and pipes, it’s done nothing other than bite the shit out of my tongue no matter How I smoke it. @opipeman, I do not recommend it. I’ll be putting the remainder of it in the compost heap. Maybe the ph isn’t right with me. The first tobacco I’ve been “burned” on.
@utilityworker101 So, instead of throwing that Horse Shit out, how about sending it to @opipeman to try out? If he does not like it, maybe he send it on down the line to someone, so on and so forth until it’s gone, or someone really enjoys it🙂
WE DID It! The New Orleans Pipe Club held its first meeting in two years! At one time, we had a total of 15 pipe smokers attend. Three had to leave before we took the photo.
I will gladly gift this Merde de Cheval to someone who can provide in trade one or two pipes worth of any Esoterica blend. I have not ever been able to acquire any and would like to try any blend. I’ll ship to the lower 48. Message me your address if you are interested.
Even though I think it’s horse shit, someone else may like it.
Since we were meeting in a cigar & pipe shop last night, I bought two tins of tobacco. The first is Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Barrel Aged which I have put in the cellar for aging. The second tin was a mistake by the pipe shop. It's a tin of C&D Sea Dog with a date stamp of 11/06/19 that was priced at $15.75. I say a mistake because the post-pandemic, new owners have raised the prices on all it tinned tobaccos. All the other 50g tins are priced $19.95 and up - some were even priced at $29.95 a tin. Apparently they overlooked this tin of Sea Dog which had actually started to bulge at the top and bottom.
The last time I bought Sea Dog was back and 2018 and I smoked one and put the other in my cellar where it has been sitting forgotten. I'm tempted to open it and do a comparison between the 2018 and 2019 batches.
Comments
Beautiful day. Samookin some Oak Alley in my Savinelli while doing some grill prep
@vtgrad2003 The water must get colder over there than it does in South Louisiana. I've caught redfish in weather so cold that we had to keep defrosting the reels because they would ice up. The key to those days was find the deeper holes where the redfish could find warmer water.
It is routine to catch redfish and sheepshead in the marsh areas I fish below Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne southeast of New Orleans. There were many times that I fished with professional guides or tournament fishermen where the person on the front of the boat would hook a redfish and the one on the back of the boat would catch a largemouth bass or sheepshead. (Back during the 10 years I was the managing editor for a monthly hunting & fishing magazine.)
What we have found is that what you catch is also dependent on the water salinity in the area you are fishing. Redfish like water that has a salinity of 25 - 35 ppm but you can also find them in water where the salinity 18 ppm. My son-in-law is a local charter captain and we fished together last Thursday. He checked the water salinity in the areas we stopped and the salinity was down to 12 ppm - which is why we caught channel catfish and sheepshead but no redfish. The one area where we had one redfish on the line, the salinity was 20 ppm.
Those are very nice pipes, especially the snapper.
@Londy3;
Savinellis are great pipes. Present well and smoke even better. You are preparing to make me hungry again, I can sense it coming!!
must be “inviso tobacco” in a cool new pipe
@PappyJoe
I think you and I are simply in different areas and not all fish "act" the same in different parts of the states. Around here, sheepshead are not brackish water fish, they are saltwater fish--they can adapt to both (https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/archosargus-probatocephalus/) . In your area they are probably more adapted to fresh than salt, but around me they are more adapted to salt than fresh.
Being that they are primarily saltwater fish around here, and the local water temp is still pretty cold (around 62), they are likely off shore still in deeper water--the red drum are too.
Drum can also be found in fresh water (where they are likely stocked there) and like largemouth bass (which I also fish for frequently) they will simply find deep areas during cold weather. I've caught bass in 35 degree water before at 100 feet in depth, but for the saltwater drum that I fish for, they simply sit off shore until the shallow marshes warm up.
We have a lot of cob fans on TPL, I'm sorry to say, I'm not one of them. To each his own.
First was some Watch City Cigars Elf Dandruff.
Second was Meistermischung Nr. 22
and Third, I opened another tin of The Untouchables.
Practicing for the first New Orleans Pipe Club meeting since February of 2020.
New Orleans Pipe Club meeting:
GOOD LUCK Brother...😊
so then, horse shit it is.
So, instead of throwing that Horse Shit out, how about sending it to @opipeman to try out? If he does not like it, maybe he send it on down the line to someone, so on and so forth until it’s gone, or someone really enjoys it🙂
Hey, that's a great idea. We should all do that
Thank You no!
Ok, so a hard NO from @opipeman. Maybe someone else would like to smoke the $#!+ out of it?
The New Orleans Pipe Club held its first meeting in two years! At one time, we had a total of 15 pipe smokers attend. Three had to leave before we took the photo.
Excellent!!! Looks like a great group too.
at the top and bottom.
The last time I bought Sea Dog was back and 2018 and I smoked one and put the other in my cellar where it has been sitting forgotten. I'm tempted to open it and do a comparison between the 2018 and 2019 batches.