Greetings.
Well, folks seem to be settled in for the week so I’ll take time to catch up. Last week was a tough, tough week for fishing. It began with a small mayfly hatch. Then we had a couple of bright blue, hot, no breeze whatsoever days. Needless to say it made for good perch, smallie and northern fishing but not so good walleye fishing. Bob B. was able to find a 24.5″ walleye, young Gavin released an 18″ smallmouth, and Cindy released a 12″ perch (photo???)–all of which have been added to the Conservation Awards page of our website. During their month-long stay, Cindy released a number of prime spawners: 19-23″. THANK YOU SO MUCH. Toward week’s end–Thurs. and Fri.–things picked up and folks were catching more walleye. In all honesty, though, I’ve seen more walleye in two days than I did all of last week.
Those hot, windless days always end in a tumultuous electrical storm. We had a big storm Monday evening last week, complete with hail and hard, hard rain. Once again our driveway bore the brunt of Mother Nature. Rebecca and I returned from town Tuesday to an unusual sight:
Gruper decided to build up the curb (or whatever that is) between the Bear’s Den and our house in an effort to control the water flow. It hasn’t been put to the test yet but I’ll bet it works just dandy! You can take the concrete guy out of Iowa but…
Here’s a nice perch photo (can’t remember whose):
In my continued effort to catch up on photos, I’ll start with Sonny and Kathy (who owe me an e-mail, by the way). They’re galavanting around somewhere (where???) in their motor home avoiding the heat of Georgia. They do love to fish:
Kathy got a pic of the May 29 snow that almost drove me over the edge:
as well as a mama merganser and her 14 babies
We saw a mama mallard and her very new babies yesterday. That seems like a late hatch(?)
This week’s weather is absolutely picture perfect: breezy, 80ish, a little cloud cover. The nights are perfect for sleeping and the days are perfect for fishing! Duane’s group had their annual spaghetti dinner outside last Friday evening:
I snapped a shot of a fine, young bull:
and another of a lovely damsel fly enjoying the flowers I received from Sandra in May (yes, reblooming beautifully):
This is the kind of weather and conditions I could handle year-round. If only…
OK. It’s time to catch up with Lori and Mary’s photos. This mother and daughter team both get some great shots! Not only that, they both enjoy fishing and the outdoors tremendously! Here they are with an uncanny set of catches–they each “caught” an old rod and reel while fishing:
Lori sent me some great bird photos! Here’s a gathering of fine-feathered friends–there are four different species in this pic:
Here’s a goose up close and personal:
and a duck photo that Mary and I both think belongs in a contest:
This next photo could be made into a poster with any number of clever sayings:
It gets better. Not only is there an egg on the dock, there’s one in the water just off the edge of the dock:
I guess Mama Duck kept moving the one egg around–not sure why. I’m certain she was very confused by the whole thing…
Lori also caught a great sky:
I think that was between storms that week. That was one of the two weeks when it rained and rained and rained. In between on a couple of evenings it would be beautiful for a short time, then rain or storm again.
Now onto Mary’s photos. Mary loves her family:
She also loves nature. I really liked this loon photo:
She was able to snap a great double rainbow during their stay. She said the pic doesn’t do it justice but I think it’s pretty darned cool:
She liked the muzzle on this young dump bear. I believe it’s one of triplets hanging out there this year:
I loved this next photo. To me, the rock on the right looks like a fish; the one on the left looks like the top of a pygmy headhunter’s head. Stonehenge, Canada style;)
I believe that’s plenty of sharing today. When I start talking about pygmy headhunters, it’s probably time to be done. I hope to have a favorable fishing report for this week. We have a large Arkansas contingent, and I know they’ve had at least one fish dinner so far!
I can’t leave you without this photo Mary took…simply breathtaking I say;)
