Fishing at Sadam's place.

RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE FROM OUR FISHING BUDDY JADE MILLER Cpt OVER THE WEEKEND.

We managed to get on a flight down to another base where Sadam had a very nice palace as well as several lakes that are feed by the Tigris River and were stocked with fish for his family only.

After arriving at the other base we met up with a few NCO's from one of the other companies in our battalion and they took us over to Sadam's old boat house. Now sure I could have taken pictures of the boats that are still left in there from when he was ousted, but I had more important things to focus on. FISHING.
We immediately started seeing small carp and the ugliest looking catfish in the world. I assembled the vintage travel rod that my fellow fisherman Mike sent out to me and went to work with a Gulp earthworm on the bottom. I managed to catch a couple of the ugly catfish which were no more then 4 inches in total length. Pictures of these things do not even turn out they are so ugly.

After a while we switched over to where the canal enters into the lake and started seeing some much larger carp cruising around. On with the corn nibblets and we started off with some smaller carp and I managed more catfish. Jim managed the next catch and it was an Asp, not the snake. An asp is like a hybrid between a bass, crappie and a trout. The picture did not turn out due to poor backlighting.
I managed to get a carp on that put a serious bend in the rod. The rod is an old glass spin/fly combo. It was doubled over for a fat carp that would probably tip the scales at over a pound. What it did not have in length it made up for in girth.

I managed to get an asp and it was somewhere between 12 and 16 inches in length and put up a great fight.

Jim closed the evening with the largst carp of the day.

The two guys we were with caught several small carp and catfish. They said we needed to be there in the morning when the bite was really good. They have caught carp over 24 inches so far. Hope you enjoy the photos.
Mom, don't worry, helicopters are very safe.

Jade JADE P. MILLER CPT, OD Commanding

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King
"By profession I am a Soldier and take pride in that fact, but I am prouder to be a father." General Douglas MacArthur