Johnsfolly

Dan Loved the video. How do you not get torn up by the nettles? I have to get back down that way and have you show me how-to properly fish the Spring River. You have it figured out!

Dan Congrats on the win! I am glad to hear that they raised $4k for the event. Looks like you will be the favorite in next year's event.

I love the fishin dude photo with him his glasses and his fish! Looks like he had a good time!

Ai - thanks for a great post. I have not tried to change the direction while I am retrieving the bait. Since I do most wade fishing I usually target a straight retrieve downstream along a piece of strucure like a log or a boulder gravel seam or along cover like water willows. The other retrieve may be cross current where there is a drastic change in water depth from deeper water to the shallow. They can't help but blast the bait before it escapes.to the shallow water. I love seeing multiple wakes chasing down my baits. My favorite walking bait is the Excaliber Spit'n image that I hand paint. I don't think that ths bait is still produced. I haven't used too many others.

Wrench What's the limit on shiners? I may have to catch 200 to 300 to reach a 12 lb limit. In a lot of rough fish tournaments in Britain they keep all of the fish that they catch in a giant net and weigh the entire days catch. They often have hundreds of fish over a single day.

BilletHead We are about a qurter mile south of I-70 and about two miles east of the Rt 63/I-70 interchange. Storm has swirled over us. Started by going east and now is coming towards us from the SE. We were sitting out front watching the storm. Not very strong and no heavy rain. There was some cool lightening. When it shifted from the SE we started getting wet and moved back inside. Now the slight rain is dissipating. I am hoping that it will continue through the night.

I bought some cultured oyster mushrooms yesterday. With the dry weather haven't even thought about hunting for any mushrooms in the woods. We have been somewhat successful in fending off the chickens from our raspberry canes. Able to pick a few every day. No great numbers but nice to eat some fresh fruit without having to pay for it elsewhere. Today we did pick that Cherokee purple tomato from the little mater that could. Also a few cherry tomatoes as well. This is about as ripe as we let cherries get in our yard. Looks like we are about to get some more rain today. Definitely need it.

I love fresh crawdads. Looks fantastic!

Great fish photos! Also a great question! My only answer is that it depends. As you know I have to run a fair distance from home to fish some of my favorite waters. In most cases they could be numbers waters or possible big fish waters. I will go to one or two spots on the Current where I am likely to catch a 18+" brown and go home with that memory if I do hook up and land one. I also love to fish places like Little Dixie lake just to catch 30 to 40 7" crappie just because you can catch that many in an hour right at dark during the spawn. Also with my microfishing for new species I am satisfied after researching a likely stream to actually catch that species even if I had to drive 400+ miles round trip. As Ham said we all love to fish. There is nothing better than fooling a fish and feeling that tug on the line. Of course then there are the pictures.

Actually grilled Vienna sausage with grilled pearl onions matched with sauted baby patty pan squash with baby carrots followed with a microgreen salad sounds pretty good. Must be lunch time.

Chief if you read any of my posts you will know that I would have to start grill training with something small like Vienna Sausage and grilled pearl onions.

Love to see your daughter holding those fish. Keep them fishing if you can. Congrats!

You got to love grilled pork! Ness - here is what I used on my pork chops. I can't take credit for the glazes since they were store bought. I started by sprinkling with the veggie grill mix and then the Chinese five spice on both sides of the chops. I cooked the chops and glazed once I flipped them on the grill. The glaze was a 1:1 mix of the apricot/ginger and the Maggi sweet chilli sauces. Chief once that grill goes on the market, I would like to sign up for the training to get one for our house as well. Keep grilling.

BH - are you saying that its a magical grill or it sucks? I have got to eat those light carbs and steaks. I have to find where Chief picked them up.

Great report Ham! I loved my last trip there and would love to get back. If I could get the time, would love to have a OAF trip.

Looks great Chief. Also looks like your grill defies gravity. I need to learn that trick with ours.

Ever since we had a raccoon get into our chicken coop and kill my pet black silky "wooly bugger" we have been actively catching coons and what ever else ends up in our yard. I caught a small opossum this morning. I packed into the car and I brought along our kids .22 LR rifle and drove down to a nearby section of National Forest land to release the opossum and try for a couple of squirrels. I hadn't been out yet this year. I went about 250 yards from the car into a wooded creek bottom. I kicked up a young turkey on the way into the woods. It flew in the direction that I was headed. I headed into a stand of oaks and saw a squirrel up in the top of nearby tree. It was feeding on buds of some sort. I got a rest using a small sapling, but could not get a clear shot with rifle. During this time the turkey started clucking on the other side of the creek. I heard a second squirrel behind me and saw it in a walnut tree. No shot. turned back to the first squirrel still no shot. After about 25 minutes and moving to a couple of different trees in a effort to gain a better shot on the squirrel in that tree, I finally spooked the turkey which was in a tree near the one where the squirrel was feeding. If I had a shotgun I am sure that I would have taken that squirrel easily. I prefer head shots with a rifle than a bunch of shot from a shotgun. Too much meat damage. The squirrel must have had its fill and moved into the oaks surrounding me and headed towards where I has seen the other squirrel. I heard material dropping from the trees and thought at least one was in that stand of trees. Near the walnut were two large oaks and a couple of dead trees. The dead trees didn't look like good escape routes for the squirrels. So I tried to sneak in from the walnut tree side. There were several thin cedars that I used as cover. I got distracted when I found several ripe black raspberries. I picked a couple and heard a squirrel climbing up one of the dead trees above me. It was a young fox squirrel and it appeared to be eating the fungus from the trunk of the tree. I started hunting in Pennsylvania and there were only grays and little red squirrels where I hunted. When I got to MO and saw fox squirrels, I loved I idea of shooting a 2-3 lb squirrel. Then I ate a bunch. Now I typically don't shoot fox squirrels since they can be rather tough, but this one was a young one. I didn't have a rest, but felt pretty comfortable with my offhand position. This young squirrel didn't easily give me a shot opportunity. I now saw what may have been the gray squirrel that I was hunting all morning also eating the fungus. The young fox gave me a shot and it fell to the ground. The gray didn't know what happened, but headed up a long branch then turned and gave me a shot. It also fell to the ground. A couple of nice squirrels with a single head shot for each of them. I got them skinned and broken down. The fox squirrel was a young male that hadn't even had his testicles drop yet. Should be pretty tender. Looking forward to trying out the braised Aurora dish that Billethead posted recently with these squirrels. I can't wait until the hickories nuts are ripe this Aug, which is my favorite time to hunt squirrels. For now I will take what is provided.

Tonight we had grilled center cut pork chops with an apricot/ginger glaze with sweet corn on the cob and green beans with toasted almonds. The kids really liked the pork and I will have to make this one again.

The arcade on the boardwalk had to have over 5000+ redeemable prizes. They had a sports memorabilia kiosk with 50+ signed baseballs, 100+ baseball cards, and at least 30 signed pucks with most of them being Flyers and Rangers players. I don't think that I am a good enough fisherman to catch 15-20K fish in a single year. I target certain fish and bodies of water, which doesn't often equate to large numbers of fish on any given trip. Still hard to think about catching more that 1K fish from the bank in a year.

Buzz and Ollie - I agree with Bfishn that these are most likely cardinal shiners. They are one of the few minnows in the Elk that have that red breeding coloration and would create a spawning school like what is seems that you guys came upon. Pretty cool story. I would have loved to have dropped in a #12 hook with a piece of worm to catch some of those fish to really confirm what species they were. Were you guys fishing from the bank or a boat?

Here is the little tomato that could. I don't think that this plant has grown at all since we planted it , but has put all its energy into this tomato. Almost ripe. Our tomatoes this year certainly don't look as massive or as good as the Billethead's or Ness' plants. My wife works with the garden. Been a lot of issues that she has dealt with this year, we're happy to have some fruits and vegetables. I spend my gardening time on plants like my Schefflera that has been in training for the last 6-7 years.

I love the photos especially the ladyfish. I always think about Don Knotts in the "Incredible Mr. Limpet" when I see a ladyfish. I haven't had any problems with my Olympus, but would like to hear how they handle your warranty.

Travelled to the Jersey shore the week of the 12th for a reunion with my wife's family. The 20+ hour 2-day road trip out was unpleasant on my recovering body. When we got to the shore rental house, we were not real far from the boardwalk. The kids and my wife enjoyed the boardwalk very much. I had planned on trying for some of the minnow and inshore species around the shore. I wasn't sure when I would be able to get out to fish any of the inlets or the shore. On the day that the family was going to amusement park, I would not be able to go on any of the rides. So I got to go for my first fishing outing. I looked over maps of the area and found a couple of likely spots around some of the inlet bridges and seawalls. I fished a bridge between Nummy Island and Stone Harbor Island. The tide was coming in when I got to the bridge. I was fishing a small squid strip on a #12 hook with a couple of split shot about 9 and 18" above the hook. I first started fishing in between the rocks expecting quick fish action. There wasn't any response. I only started getting some strikes when I cast out beyond the rocks. After the third cast I was finally able to get a good hook set and reeled in my first marine fish of the trip. I was surprised that I held a juvenile black sea bass. I caught my first sea bass when I was a boy fishing wrecks off of the coast of Cape cod and always thought of this species as a deep water species. Well they were quite common inshore species as it turns out. I caught a couple more at this location. Near the shore I noticed a school of minnows. I was hoping to catch a mummichog topminnow on this trip. This looked like my chance. I switched to a #20 long shank hook and a minute piece of squid. I snuck through the boulders to get close enough to fish this school of minnows. I was able to lie upon a large granite boulder and drop my line in front of these fish. The fish were not shy and soon I had my first mummichog in hand. This was my eleventh new fish species that I have caught this year. I caught about half a dozen mummichogs before the sand gnats became unbearable. I left the fishing and the inlet and headed back to the rental house. I went out a couple of more times during this trip looking for new shore birds and caught more sea bass, but no new fish species. I spent time with my family, got to watch the Penguins win the Stanley cup, and saw a new bird species to add to that life list. Also my family played enough games on the boardwalk to get me a Rob Scuderi signed hockey puck for Father's day. All in all a great trip.

BH - Look's awesome! I have not yet gone out for squirrels this season due to work, surgery, and NJ vacation. Now you have put the fire under me to try out this recipe. I would prefer a couple of squeals (young of the young "veal" squirrels), but with the braising in this recipe a couple of old fellows would work as well.

Awesome photo. Is that the "Grumpy sculpin" photo?