Earthquake, Hurricane, and some yard critters

Today I experienced my third earthquake. The other 2 - one in PA, and one in IL - were very minor. Both felt like a train was passing by the house. Today's VA quake was a real one. I work about 45-50 miles from the epicenter of the 6.0 earthquake that hit VA today. The walls shook in the building for about 15 seconds (seemed like forever), stuff fell off of the top shelves, and I dove under the desk. People who were outside at the time said the building was swaying, and the cars in the lot were jumping. Not being a seasoned earthquake veteran, it was a little scary. But, now that it's over, it was actually pretty cool. (Since no one got hurt)

Now I see that Hurricane Irene is strengthening and is likely to hit NC on Sat. That will put it over my new house by late Sunday. YEAHH - 2 natural disasters in 6 days. Awesome.

So, after they closed our building for the day, I got home and sat outside with my wife to see a plethora of birds hitting the feeders. It was insane - hummingbirds, finches, cardinals, a titmouse, a nuthatch, and we saw a bald eagle and 2 ospreys overhead. I tried to get a hummingbird picture that was a actually identifiable as such - no easy task for me! So, here are a few pics from this afternoon.

What a beautiful day it turned out to be. Please click on teh pictures for larger images.


A juvenile 5 lined skink - apparently pretty well fed.

More Yard Critters

Short and sweet post - just a few of the critters I keep stumbling across in the yard. Btw - the spiders here are freaking HUGE!

I'll keep posting as I keep getting pictures. Cool weather is right around the corner and that means a few months of striper fishing!

Click on any of th ephotos for a larger image.

Starting over in Maryland

The move to Maryland has been about as efficient as I could have imagined, but I STILL hate moving. Aside from the physical hassles, though, there are parts of the move that have me very excited. I realize that going from Illinois to Maryland isn't exactly the ecological equivalent of going from the Amazon to the Antarctic, for example, but the flora and fauna of Maryland are substantially different from what we had in Illinois. And I am excited to discover and photograph all of it!

To begin with, we are now on an acre that is surrounded by mature hardwood trees. Shagbark hickory, tulip poplar - large, impressive trees. These trees are home to their own ecosystems that I didn't have in Illinois. We lived in a "cornfield community" - build the houses in a cornfield. No mature trees. Not much variation in the birdlife. We saw ONE squirrel in 7 years in our yard - and I think it was VERY lost! We usually had one hummingbird per summer meander through our yard. Here we had 4 at our feeder the first evening we put it out.

There were no lizards in our area before. Now the skinks are daily sightings. We have bluebirds in the front yard.

I am REALLY enjoying the diversity here. And that's just the yard - the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent River are each a few miles away and offer a myriad of wildlife to enjoy. I see a nest of ospreys every day when I cross the bridge on the Patuxent River. Bald eagles are common as are all the shorebirds.

I'll certainly get back into the original focus of this blog - fish and fishing - as I'm here longer, but for the time being, you'll have to be content with the yard critters.

Hope you enjoy the photos, and sorry for the long sabbatical.



The first week were in the house, my wife spied this 4' black rat snake crawling up one of our trees while we were sitting on the deck.



This orb spider is HUGE - it has to be 4 inches from front to back. There are some seriously big spiders here!






We have a big butterfly bush at the deck in the back of the house. It is loaded with butterflies, many of which are not familiar to me. I plan to post a bunch of butterfly pictures.

Finally, my plans include some hummingbird pictures. The ones I've taken so far are so bad I can't post them. Bear with me - we'll get some eventually.

Testing 1 - 2 - 3: Time to re-emerge from my hibernation

I have a few pictures to download, and I'll get back to posting on theis blog. I know there are MILLIONS of you out there holding your breath, just waiting to read the next installment of the never ending drivel that is Flowing Waters.

OK - probably not - but I'll be back soon anyway!

Joe

The last day fishing Illinois

The ponds we fished

I really didn't plan to get out again on Illinois waters after the final day on my ponds, but you never know how things will work out. A neighbor's mom and step-dad have become 2 of our closest friends since we located here in IL. He is a fanatical waterfowler - he is retired and hunts EVERY DAY of the waterfowl season. He is a member of a Hunt/ fish club nearby, and likes to get out every once in a while for some bass fishing on their club waters. I was given an invitation during my 2 weeks between jobs, and I managed to squeeze in one more morning on the water.

This is the second time I've been on this water with Reid. The ponds are bigger than the ones I fish - we fish these out of a 12' jon boat. The water is clear and has great weed growth. I always feel like we should catch more than we do, but it is a great place.





The morning we fished, it was sunny and clear, with a high of near 90. We got a few hits on Senko-styled worms, but I finally "unlocked" the secret for the day with a pearl Zoom fluke. Which is sort of interesting, because I almost NEVER use flukes! We ended up catching 16 largemouth. Most were small, but Reid got one nice one (see picture).

Spending a beautiful morning with a friend on a neat piece of water is about the best way to end your fishing career in Illinois. I think I 'll quit while I'm ahead!



Bluegill beds near the shoreline

A bittersweet evening on the ponds

Saturday evening my wife, son and I decided to go out to the ponds and see how things were looking. The bass should have spawned by now but would still be aggressive along the shoreline. the evening was nice (weather-wise) for a change - no tornadic thunderstorms, no cold rain. We went to the upper pond first. This is the bass and gill pond. We were the only ones there and the surface was calm. I decided to see if I could catch some bass on an old reliable lure. (More on that in a bit.)

The fish were right where I expected them to be - from 1' - 5' off the banks. And I could see by the swirls they were chasing gills away from their beds. I went with a topwater the entire time, and I really did forget how many fish I caught. All largemouth. Some smaller males and a bunch of nice , spawned out females. These fish would have gone another pound to pound and a half heavier a couple of weeks ago. Suffice to say I got around 20 largemouth - enough to tear up my thumb unhooking them.





Now - about the lure I used. You can see it in the mouth of the 2 bass I have posted here . The first person who comments below with the correct name of the lure - name of the bait and the lure manufacturer - will win a new Lucky Craft Pointer! 1 comment per person.

We decided to go to the lower pond and see what was happening there. This is the mixed bag spot - cats, bass, gills, crappie, trout, walleye. The way to find out who is hungry here by throwing a 1/16 oz. jig head with a 2" grub - everything eats it. Tonight was a really odd mixture of fish - maybe the strangest I've ever seen. I ended up with 14 walleye, 9 crappie, 2 gills, and 1 small bass. No trout or cats. A truly bizarre mixture, but fun nonetheless. I only fished here for around an hour and a half, until it got dark.





So - why the title - a bittersweet evening?? Well, I recently (last week) accepted a job offer from a different company and am in the whirlwind process of selling our house, buying a new one, moving the family, and starting a new job.

[HEY - that's right - some of you said you wanted to buy my house when I posted pictures from the pond across the street. Good bass fishing! Here's your chance!!!!]

Getting back to the point of the post - the ponds are located on a club property to a hunt club my current employer is a member of. When my last day passes - this coming Friday - I won't be allowed access to the ponds anymore. This may have been my last chance to fish these glorious ponds. Oh well you'll have to bear with me as I embark on learning some new areas and fisheries. I told you this would be a journey rather than a destination. And the journey continues!



The sun setting on the ponds, both literally and figuratively

Ponds, ponds, ponds

Sunday evening at around 6:30 - after spending a full doing whatever it is we all do on the weekends - I asked my wife "So - what do you want to do? It IS Mother's Day, after all" I was tired and really didn't feel like doing much of anything. Until ... her response - let's go to the ponds.

It's amazing how quickly I can spring into high gear when it involves something I want to do.

Within minutes we were driving to the ponds to get in an hour of fishing. The evening was beautiful and the ponds were calm. I had decided, even before we got out of the car, that I would spend the evening trying to entice bass on topwaters, even though I hadn't had a topwater hit this spring. Well, sometimes your intuition is just right. Sunday was one of those nights.

I started out with a 1/4 oz. white buzzbait and started fan casting an area of 2 to 2-1/2' deep. Had one blow up on the bait on the second cast but missed him. I'll spare you the play-by-play, but suffice it to say that the fish were ON. I landed 12 bass in an hour, from 7 pm to 8 pm. White buzzbait, Sammy, and a Lucky Craft wakebait - not sure of the model - that runs just subsurface and throws out a big V-wake. Its really close to a topwater because the visual strikes are just like a topwater - the bass blow them out of the water. The fish were a combination of egg-laden females and smaller , aggressive males. They were not quite up on the banks yet but, with yesterday's 90 degree temps, I wouldn't be surprised to see them tight to the bedding areas this week. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

And, yes Howard - it IS a nice shirt!!







I also tried something I had never done before - I tried to get some topwater strike video. Results were mediocre but i think I got a few good hits captured. I'll play around with those tonite and post them as a separate posting if they're worth watching.

The next 2 weeks should be gangbusters - get out and get after those fish! Here is a poor, low light shot of the field full of deer we passed on our way out.

Catching Dinner over Lunch

Even though it was fairly chilly today, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get after a few fish over the lunch hour. Jesse and I went to the ponds with the intent of catching - and keeping - some fish for his dinner tonite.

Started on the upper pond. Lots of gills, all just short of being prime filleting size. They were JUST a little smaller than we like to clean, so back they went. Small grubs were the answer on UL rigs. We got a fair number of bass - mostly males. Jesse got one egg-laden female that was probably 2-1/2 pounds, and I had a big fish break me off in the rocks.

30 minutes down, 30 to go. And no fish in the cooler.

The lower pond held a little bit of everything. Jesse continued casting grubs while I went to a small purple and white tube. ***Newsflash *** - trout like purple and white tubes. A lot. We caught fish pretty consistently for the next 20 minutes. Jesse put a nice crappie on ice, and I followed that up with a crappie, 'gill, and walleye for the box. I also got 3 trout in quick succession, and a bunch of undersized 'eyes.

So - I put 3/4 of the fish in Jesse's cooler. NOT that I'm a fish counter - I'm just saying. I'm thinking that a half pound of morels would be a nice gesture of appreciation.

Sorry no pics - didn't feel like pulling out the cell phone

FINALLY the ponds turn on

The ponds I frequent have been slow to give up their treasures this Spring. With the very late warming trend and a lot of cold rain, the spring seems to be compressed into a very short window this year. Which means - you better hit it hard when it gets good.

And I think it is poised to get good in northern Illinois.

My wife, son and I went to the ponds at 4:30 this afternoon. We fished the lower pond for about an hour and upper one for maybe 45 minutes. It was good - real good.

The lower pond is the one with the mixed bag of fish - rainbow trout, walleye, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, channel cat. The upper pond has bass, gills, and cats. Joey hung out and explored stuff on the lower pond, while Stacy and I threw UL spin gear with 1/32 oz. jigheads with 2" Lindy Munchies grubs. In the hour we fished, we landed 7 trout, 4 walleye, 1 crappie, a pile of gills. Hits were frequent and you never knew what was on the end of the line. Stacy suggested we try the upper pond to see if the bass were biting up there. Even though all we had along was UL gear, we went up to try the upper pond.

Well, the fish were ON up there, too. I threw a small (1/8 oz.) spinnerbait while Stacy and Joey threw 1/16 oz. Beetle Spins. the gills and pumpkinseeds were bigger than I have seen recently, and the bass were holding about 10'-15' off of the rock edges that they use to spawn. Most of the bass caught were smaller males, but I got a few nice ones, including one BIG egg-loaded female. An absolute blast on an UL spin outfit!! We probably landed 30 panfish and 12-15 bass.



(Sorry for the picture quality (or lack thereof) - its from my son's phone)

If you have ponds nearby, get out as often ans you can over the next month. It's FINALLY time to capitalize on the pond fish!

Easter Bass

Just a short note about a couple of bass from this afternoon.

The weather stabilized and it looks like another week of washouts ahead, so I walked across the street at 4:30 this afternoon to fish the subdivision pond. This is the pond that usually frustrates me but holds some good fish. I've finally figured out one pretty sure thing about the pond - when the water pours into it, the bass move to the inflow. Its really the only time I can consistently catch anything here.

The water wasn't at a high point today but it was still moving in pretty good. The fish I caught were tight to the inflow. Both came on a small swim jig, and I missed another one. OK for a half hour. Both the bass were nice and chunky - around 15-16".





Meow the cat says "I can't stand anymore of these fish pictures"

A FUN day of fishing on the FLA coast

I had the opportunity on Wednesday to sneak in a day of fishing on a 4 day travel week. A longtime friend and business associate set me up with two of the guys who work at the Lake Mary FL Gander Mtn store for a day on the water. Chris and Jerry couldn't have been more perfect fishing companions. Before we went, i talked to Chris and told him I didn't care what we caught or how we caught them - I just wanted to get out.


Jerry at the Bait dock


Chris tries for some mullet- no dice on this throw

We met at 5:30 and proceeded to to New Smyrna Beach on the east coast of FL - just south of Daytona. We launched Chris' Cobia and motored out to the inlet. We were greeted by swarms of bluefish. LOTS of bluefish. So many bluefish I was catching them on both the front and back treble of the Bomber crankbait I was using. Jerry picked up 2 nice Spanish Mackeral in the same area. I believe that, if we had stayed there , we could have caught 500 blues. Great fun on light spinning tackle. So - why didn't we stay there?? Yours truly gets a little (occasionally a LOT) queasy on rough water. While this was a very calm day, the combination of the outgoing tide and the ocean currents made the boat bounce around quite a bit. I could feel myself getting queasy and Chris graciously decided to leave biting fish and move into calmer water inside the breakwall. And - we all know Rule #1 of Fishing is: NEVER leave biting fish.


Porpoises following the boat


We moved into an area where Chris knew there were some nice sheepshead and starting throwing fiddler crabs into the rocks. It took a little while to get the boat anchored correctly in the strong outgoing tide and adjust the weight so we were deep enough, but we figured it out, and Chris got a big sheepshead.


Chris with a nice sheepshead


Jerry with a Spanish Mackeral


So - why didn't we stay there and catch more?? We had to help rescue a sunken boat. Yep - a sunken boat. We all watched as a boat with a man, woman, and an older woman (one of the folks mother?) motored out to our area. We remarked that the old fiberglass boat looked like it had about 4" of freeboard on the back of the boat. Then - the man anchored off the back of the boat. That boat filled up and sank to the bottom within a minute. The 3 of them were floating - no life jackets in site - toward another boat who grabbed them and pulled them aboard. We set off to pick up whatever we could of their floating remains -a few tackle boxes, a cooler, 2 oars. We gave it to them on the other boat and the Sheriff boat showed up, so we moved on.


Floating debris frome the sunken boat


We moved into an area where Chris had done well in the past. by the time our shrimp had run out, we caught: bluefish,Spanish mackeral, sheepshead, grouper, mangrove snapper, sea trout, ladyfish, pinfish (Jerry was the pinfish king), pigfish, and jack crevalle. We saw rays, porpoises, and 2 manatees. It was an absolutely great way to spend a day on the water with new friends. I can't thank these guys enough for taking me out.


Trout


Grouper


Mangrove Snapper


This is my favorite kind of fishing - go out and see what bites. Nothing fancy, no pre-conceived notions. Just going fishing. It was terrific.

The trip in review - Bass in Dixie

My Dad, son and I met in Birmingham at 9:30 AM on Thursday. This in and of itself was no small accomplishment - Joey and I were flying down from Chicago while Dad came from Baltimore with a connection through Nashville. I figured the odds of all the flights landing on time were somewhere between zero and 10 percent. So - it was a good way to start our trip. After a 2 hour drive we pulled into the property where we would spend the next couple of days. We unpacked, ate a quick bite, and got a boat down to the lake. This particular lake is about 40 acres. It is the same one I fished last year with Joey and his broken arm. The lake died in July 2006 - it oxygen depleted and all the fish died. My friend drained it, put in a bunch of subsurface improvements (humps, spawning flats filled with pea gravel, ditches)and restocked the ponds with F1/ Northern hybrid largemouth bass and brim. He added shad and crawfish, and let it do what ponds (and their bass) do. Which is grow. My son caught a bass just over 8 pounds there 2 years ago. That fish was not yet 3 years old. Last year I caught 2 that I estimated at 9 and 10 pounds (digital scale crapped out) So, this year I was thinking about 10-12 pound fish, and had reason to do so. The owner got an 11-5 here the weekend before I got here.

Our day started out windy, and a bit cool for Alabama this time of year. Tough boat control, and the wind made it very hard to fish worms. The best baits on these bodies of water have historically been 10" worms rigged Texas -style, 5" and 7" Senko-style worms rigged whacky style, spinnerbaits, and Rattle-type baits - Rattltraps, LVR's, Red Eye Shad. With the wind blowing, we opted for the LVR's and some rattling crankbaits (Rapala Clackn Crank). Dad started the action by hooking, and losing, a BIG bass. I estimated it at around 8 pounds. We found a good pod of fish and would catch a bunch, then loose them. Move around until we found them again. We hoped for the wind to lay down, but it never did. The low temp on Thursday nite was 39 - cold for this area. Our tally for Thursday afternoon / evening was around 60 fish. Instead of the digital scale - which failed last year - I went with a boga grip this year. Not accurate to the ounce, but very good to the quarter pound. My best this day went 7-1/2 pounds, Dad's was around 6-1/2, and Joey around 5. Nice fish by any standards. I was really hoping that the wind would lay down for Day 2. Friday was our whole day on the water - Thursday evening was just a warmup.


Dad's first good bass of the trip




Dad unhooking one of Joey's bass



Dad's best fish from Day 1 - 6-1/2 pounds




Joey's best of Day 1 - around 5 pounds




My best of the day, and the trip - 7-1/2 pounds


Day 2 dawned with the wind still ripping. We waited a little longer than usual to get out on the water - I wanted to let the water warm up little from the overnite lows. The wind stayed strong until about 11 AM, when it finally laid down and stayed calm.

This is a perfect opportunity to rave about a product that made fishing in the wind not only do-able, but productive and enjoyable. The boat we used had a Minnkota Terranova trolling motor equipped with an i-Pilot. You can see the remote device I have hanging from the lanyard around my neck on the pictures. This remote plots courses, controls the speed, and, best of all, has a 1-touch option known as Spot-Lock. When you press this button, the unit locks onto the GPS coordinate at that spot, and keeps the trolling motor within a 5' area of that spot, compensating for current and wind to keep the boat in that spot. It is a lifesaver in the wind. I can STRONGLY recommend this product!


Joey taking a morning nap on the boat





A few nice fish from Friday morning

Friday produced a lot of fish, but the fishing was sporadic. And we weren't able to find the really big fish. Please don't take that comment as an indication that the fishing wasn't good - I unhooked so many fish my thumb was bleeding! That's a good indication of good fishing. Dad boated a bass around 7 pounds, and Joey went on a half hour tear, taking 3 big bass from 4:30 - 5:00. Dad took almost all of his fish on the same lure - a 1/2 oz. Strike King Red Eye Shad in bluegill color. Joey got most of his on a Lucky Craft LVR in chartreuse. I fish everything in my bag. The most fun I had was when I got a buzzbait bite working around the timber on the islands. Nothing huge, but topwater is great no matter how big. Got a few on spinnerbaits, a bunch on a Rapala Clack 'n Crank, and a bunch on worms after the wind subsided. The sunset was a beautiful way to end the day.





Joey got these 3 within a half hour late Friday Afternoon




My best Friday bass



Dad's best Friday bass




Sunning turtles




A great sunset to end the day

One final note on the second day - in addition to fishing so hard that my tendinitis flared up in my left elbow (trust me - there is NO sympathy from home when I tell my wife I have tendinitis from too much fishing) I did manage to hook, and lose, the biggest bass I hooked on this trip - probably the biggest I've ever hooked. At the end of the day on Friday, we were coming back to the launch. There is a long dock and a small boat "house" at the end. One side of the boathouse has a sheet of corrugated metal on it to protect a boat from the wind and waves. I picked up a spinning rod that had a 7" Strike King Ocho on it and cast into the corner of the metal and the wooden dock. A bass hit it like a freight train and just tore under the metal. I could feel the line scraping the metal and knew I was in trouble. There was absolutely no way I could stop that fish with the MH rod I was using. After an all-too-brief encounter, the line parted on the leader. This fish was way out of the league of the fish we had been catching. I'd give it an honest estimate of 12 pounds and wouldn't be surprised if it was bigger. Tough fish to lose, but I was never in the game with this one. And - I was fishing 30# braid with a 17# flourocarbon leader.

We woke up Saturday - our last 1/2 day to fish - to an approaching storm front. Dark clouds, high winds (a few hours after we left, there were tornado warnings just to the North of where we fished) We decided to fish a different lake this day. I have taken 2 of my three biggest bass ever from this particular lake. It is loaded with bass and has a healthy population of big brim. The only problem I've ever had on this lake is working through the small (2-3 pound) bass to try to stick a big one. Saturday was pretty much like that.

We started off catching fish right away. All "cookie-cutter" sized - 2-3# - but lots of them. They were tight to the banks and hit anything thrown at them. Including topwaters. We caught fish pretty much at will, and lost count of how many we got. We also got some big brim - the ones that hit bass-sized crankbaits. I got a chance to throw a bait I had never thrown before - a Quad-bladed Strike King spinnerbait. The fish tore it up - they actually mauled and bent the arm so badly I had to replace it. Even with the wind, it was a great way to end the trip.

Here is a sampling of the fish from Saturday





Another great trip for bass, and I really needed to get away from the stress of the job. Now I can't wait for things to break loose on the area ponds and the local season to open up in a big way. I'm sure you'll be seeing more from me in the coming months as I key in on the local bass and panfish bites.

Oh yeah - the Cat part! My wife called Joey's cell phone and, in her best "cat voice", left him the following message: "Joey, this is Meow. I heard you were going fishing, and I want you to bring home some fish for me. Don't come home without my fish." When he listened to the message that evening, I asked him who it was. "Meow called me - she wants us to bring home fish" Never batted an eye.

And, as always - thanks for reading