Sup everyone!
Just today I went lizard fishin' with my friend at my school. To give you a little info on what I've been doing leading up to this point and before I explain what lizard fishing actually is:
I've been trying without success to catch Western Fence Lizards aka blue belly lizards for the past month by using the old hand method which basically means sneaking up on them, slowly reaching out with your hand, and with speed + luck, hopefully catching a lizard. Well, that method sucks and I didn't catch squat. So, after much trial and error with that, I tried the pit fall trap method, which is digging a hole in the ground, putting in a tall container with some bait (crickets) and hoping to come back the next day finding a lizard in it. That worked for me in the past, but during this time when I really wanted to catch them, it didn't work (isn't that always the case!?).
So, I decided to look online for some advice and found that there is a much easier way to catch these fast and fidgety creatures. All that's needed is a long blade/stem of grass. What you do is get a green one so that it's still strong and flexible, then you tie a slip knot at the tip of the grass. The trick is to slowly go up to a lizard, slip the knot (lol) through the lizard's head, and then yank. The knot will tighten with the tug and the lizard's pull, but will not be tight enough to choke the lizard or harm it. The beautiful part is the lizard doesn't get frightened by the approaching blade of grass because they're used to getting smacked in the face by them in their natural habitat. Well, I went lizard fishin' today and hooked--or should I say 'noosed' 7 western fence lizards and hand-captured an alligator lizard to top it off
I only wanted to snag 3, but I stopped at 7 because I didn't have enough room to house that many. I kept 3 and released the rest. I also kept the alligator lizard.
Well, without further ado, the pics:
First up is the habitat. This is an area in between my school and the beach. It's an area almost nearly surrounded by the university's man-made lagoon and the beach.
Here's what the blade of grass/slip knot looks like:
And one of the catches:
Much better than real fishing! I love seeing what I'm going to catch lol
My friend and I named this guy "Godzilla" because he was the largest one and I thought it was going to break my line!
The little alligator lizard. I've been trying to catch one of these for over 2 months!
Check out the prehensile tail!
Western fence lizard in its unfinished setup:
