Wow! What a weekend! There was a youth soccer game, a surprise birthday party, a church confirmation, a family dinner and a shrimp boil. What you are probably most interested in though is the fishing and turkey hunting that took place. Let's start off with the turkey hunting.
First of all, it was a beautiful morning. My buddy Corey and I heard turkeys gobble in the roost and on the ground. We had a coyote come in and check out our decoys and saw plenty of deer. We heard owls, saw an owl, and heard crows irritate turkeys. We saw one hen but never caught a glimpse of a Jake or Tom. It was a great morning to be immersed in nature and to be an unseen observer to animal behavior!
As for the fishing it was...odd. I couldn't figure out of bass were in the shallows because the pond I was fishing was high or if they were sitting on beds. Some bass that I caught looked healthy with full bellies but one looked a little thinner and might have already laid eggs. Regardless, I couldn't get a fly to them because of all the vegetation that they were in on a consistent basis. I caught a few fish on spinnerbaits and caught a few streamers. What made this situation continue with the theme of being odd was the fact that I hooked more bass on a small jig under an indicator when I was bluegill fishing. I only landed one of the bass out of the 7 that I hooked.
It was out of the ordinary to only land 6 or 7 bass out of the pond that I was fishing, but I did land 4 bass that were between 2-3 pounds and these fish had a purpose. My cousin that lives about a quarter of a mile from the pond has his own pond behind his house. In his pond, he has a bunch of stunted bass. I'm guessing that he doesn't have enough of a food source for these fish and that the pond would benefit from having fewer, but larger fish. We discussed me catching some big bluegill to maybe eat some of the bass eggs and stop them from reproducing but I couldn't catch any bluegill which was again...odd. What I DID manage to do was transport that 2-3 pounders I caught to his overpopulated pond.
I am completely aware that what I did is not a solution to the problem. However, I am hopeful that this was a first step towards improving the population of both ponds. The better pond now has fewer 2-3 pound bass competing for food which will hopefully help the big fish get bigger. In the lesser pond, hopefully the transplants will eat come of the smaller bass. This could cause the big fish to get bigger and the small fish to have a lower population. In other words, hopefully the pond took a step towards a better balance but more transplants need to be made. There probably needs to be A LOT of bluegill introduced to the pond as a food source as well if they aren't there already which I am uncertain about.
Aside from the hunting and fishing, Corey and I ate like kings, relatively speaking. I tend to just cook hot dogs over a fire, chow down on Doritos, and throw some mini donuts down my neck. Corey puts forth A LOT more effort than me. We ate steak burgers on Friday night and had a breakfast scramble on bagels on Saturday. Corey even made coffee on a Coleman stove prior to our hunt too. Since we fell asleep around 11:00 and woke up around 4:00, I made an exception for my anti-coffee policy. I'm not sure if I will get the chance to get back to the turkey woods or any farm ponds in the next couple of weeks, but the experiences that I got to enjoy will hopefully fill my spirit until the next adventure.
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