TOPIC: Gone Fishing !!!!

Ah Yes Tn,
That's the real world, Nature! not the artificial concrete jungle people live in, thinking that's real.

It has truly been a good spring guys.

I have been chasing this old tom for weeks now and finally got him within range of my old slam hammer (single barrel, 30\" full, 12 gauge).

I shoot 3\" - 5 shot for turkeys out of my old gun.

10\" beard, 1 & 1/4\" spurs - did not weigh him but I have a nice BIG pile of turkey breast meat in the fridge.

Yum Yum !

TNhunter

Awesome bird TN. Mature bird to say the least. We open up here in NY May 1st. Cant wait...

Awesome Looking bird, TNHunter!

I took the day off from work and hit the creek again this morning...

Caught 7 black perch and 3 smallmouth bass.

I got my line broken 3 times (hate that)... 2 of them were big smallies and the other a really nice large mouth bass. I got him in real close and got a good look at him but then my line broke.

I went to walmart this evening and bought me some 15 lb test (spider wire).. that has 4 lb test diameter... we'll see how that works.

I have been fishing a tube bait - craw dad lure (rigged weedless) and doing real good with it. Almost every fish I clean (caught out of the creek) if they have anything in their belly it is usually a craw dad.

TNhunter

Congrats on a nice bird.

Welcome to the forum , Pineknot!

Got out early this morning to fish a nice hole of water in a local small river...

Caught a blackperch and a nice small mouth bass. The river was still up some and running hard from all the rain we had earlier this week.

Something unusual happened this morning, a first for me.

As I was up to my belly in fast moving water... looked down the river and there he was. A bald eagle flying right up the river towards me. Looked like he was fishing too. When he got about 60 yards out he saw me and made a circle and went back down the river.

Wing span looked to be 6-7'. Impressive.

I have never seen one here in my county, but have heard others talk about seeing them down in this area the past 4-5 years. Cool stuff.

Got a lot of gardening to get done today. Looks like our cool weather is over for a while. 10 day forecast is showing mid 80's for highs with lows in the mid 50s to mid 60's for the next week or so.

Planting sweet corn and tomatoes today, and finishing up a strawberry bed.

TNhunter

TN,
You have been having some great days on the stream this Spring and I have not taken the time to congratulate you. I'm sure yesterday was special and you'll remember it for awhile. The same for the fish that you've caught up to now. I hope your son picks this up as a great sport and past time as well.

I do so much fishing that I don't think that much about it anymore, but I had a call from some friends the other day and we went to the Holston River close by and trout were feeding heavily on hatching insects. I stopped for a minute to show one of my friends how to fish a dry fly(which the trout were feeding on) and boy, did I hook a monster. It took several minutes to get him worn down and I got several pictures of him. This was one of the biggest rainbows that I have ever caught. He was as long as my arm and as big around as the calf of my leg. I thought you guys would enjoy the colors. The first 3 pictures in the middle row.

http://www.smokymountainflyguide.com/reports%2030.htm

Hugh

Hugh...

That was a nice one and a beautiful river to fish. It looked nice and wide but not too deep to wade.

When I was a kid there was no trout around these parts. The creek I fish most and the small river I was fishing this morning do not have any trout... but there are some streams not too far from home where they have been stocking them the past several years.

I never caught a trout around here in the creeks or rivers.. but my Grandfather used to have (back when he was living) a nice spring fed pond and he had some rainbows in it and some huge grass carp. The rainbows got up to 7-8 pounds - I can remember catching them when I was a kid on nothing but a hook at times. They put up a fight about like a good small mouth bass.

I got my strawberry bed finished this morning, and my sweet corn planted and another short row of spinach and romaine lettuce for greens. Going back to plant 6 tomato plants now... 2 brandywine, 2 big boy, 2 big beef.

I got them about 3 weeks ago as small plants and put them in a gal black planter with a nice mix of compost, garden dirt and bacto potting soil with some gypsum, bone meal, blood meal, epson salt and greensand in the mix for fertilizer.

They are HUGE now and ready to take off in the garden.

I learned years ago that it does not do much good to plant your tomatoes in the garden when the ground is still cool and you are still having frost at night or the danger of it.

Much better off getting small plants about 3 weeks before you know it is safe to plant out in the garden, and put them in gallon black planters with a good compost mix of soil and when the weather is nice you can keep those outside (in a sheltered area) and those black pots will heat up the soil and they will grow nicely... but if it turns cold, you can bring them back inside (under grow lights) for a short while, then set them back outside on those warmer sunny days.

It's a yearly ritual for me - a man will do a lot to get that first red ripe tomato a little sooner

TNhunter