All About Pocket Knives

Wow, nice haul on the shrooms!! Still too early here, but I hope to find some when the conditions come together. Be sure to post some pics of your soup when you get it done!

Thanks Mike, will do. I love the leek, potato & morel recipe. I think it's the white wine reduction that makes it so tasty.

Trying a new form of pine.....

FATWOOD CHIPS

Went fishing last evening off the dock of a friend's on a relatively small lake with six or eight homes around it.

We were fishing for bluegill and shell cracker bream, as they are on the bed, which usually coincides with the 1st full moon in May around here.

I put a "weedless" half ounce jig and eight inch worm on a bass rod and made a couple of casts across a tree top and came out with this guy.

He immediately wrapped me around the tree and instead of trying to horse him out, I let him have his head for a minute and he unwound himself.

First time I'd been fishing in years. Felt good.

Two pictures of the same fish.

He was released back into the lake.

Charlie Noyes

Very nice fish and great pictures, Charlie.
It's nice to know that fish is swimming again.

Awesome fish Charlie. Glad to hear you are back at it. Reminds me of some 42 year ago fishing Dad's friends farm pond in KY. Dad pulled some monster bass from those small ponds with rooster tails as I fished bluegill and catfish. We dug our own worms. Not far from where TJ lives. Live in Florence KY for 2 years.
Thanks for posting and bringing back some old memories.
Congrats on a fine bass and a good decision to let him get bigger for the next trip...
Jerry

Fantastic fish Charlie! That would be a real trophy in my neck of the woods. Way to go bringing him in with the "finesse method".... sometimes it pays to let them do their thing for a bit instead of trying to force itl

RobesonsRme.com wrote:Went fishing last evening off the dock of a friends on a relatively small lake with six or eight homes around it.

We were fishing for bluegill and shell cracker bream, as they are on the bed, which usually coincides with the 1st full moon in May around here.

I put a "weedless" half ounce jig and eight inch worm on a bass rod and made a couple of casts across a tree top and came out with this guy.

He immediately wrapped me around the tree and instead of trying to horse him out, I let him have his head for a minute and he unwound himself.

First time I'd been fishing in years. Felt good.

Two pictures of the same fish.

He was released back into the lake.

Charlie Noyes

That's what it's all about !!!!!! Congrats Charlie !!!!

Knice fish Charlie!!

Congratulations on your very nice catch Charlie. I'm glad you got out there and did a little fishin'. It's good for the soul.

Thanks everyone. I need to do more of that.

Places that allow one to fish for a fee are few and far between now. Almost every county in Alabama has a county lake with public access, but they get a lot of pressure.

I no longer have a viable bass boat, it's sitting on flat tires in the basement and hasn't been out since 2005.

I need access to private lakes or ponds or stream fishing where I can wade.

Phil wrote: " It's good for the soul. "

Especially when you're fishing with your church's Minister of Administration and the director of your Bible study department.

He is a retired businessman that went into full time ministry after retirement. He and his wife built their house on this lake over twenty years ago. He knows how to fish it.

Charlie

Wow, that's a nice fish!

KUDOS on the nice fish Charlie!! Yes Sir!!! John

First day off in a long stretch, took to the woods today hoping to find some morels, no luck. Did get rained on quite heavily though...good thing I had my handy dandy $1.99 emergency poncho in the bottom of my pack! Too bad no morel photos to post up, but I did find this cool looking dead log completely covered with fungi...if you enlarge the pic you can see how it is totally covered on the entire topside of the log and branches. Call me odd, but I like that kind of stuff. Nature's art, just lying there in the woods for anyone to see, or not! Appeals to me much more than most any man made art...

313 Mike wrote:First day off in a long stretch, took to the woods today hoping to find some morels, no luck. Did get rained on quite heavily though...good thing I had my handy dandy $1.99 emergency poncho in the bottom of my pack! Too bad no morel photos to post up, but I did find this cool looking dead log completely covered with fungi...if you enlarge the pic you can see how it is totally covered on the entire topside of the log and branches. Call me odd, but I like that kind of stuff. Nature's art, just lying there in the woods for anyone to see, or not! Appeals to me much more than most any man made art...

Mike my friend, if you are odd for that than so am I. Art by Gods hand appeals to me much more than something someone made.
Very cool pic. I really love the outdoors as I know you do. Sad that nowadays most people are content with staring at their freaking smart phone all day and miss things such as this, in my opinion. See my signature for excerpts by Robert Louis Stevenson's poem "That Man is a Success". Not much of a poet but what a great poem, in my opinion. This particular part, "who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it"

Regards, Jerry

Cool pic Mike.
Mark

Great stuff Mike....thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the comments Jerry, Mark and Scott Hopefully I can get out tomorrow and luck into some morels. The woods have really "jungled up" already though, rough going getting through the thick stuff! And of course there are the ticks to deal with too this time of year. Found 4 or 5 crawling on me today, but I got them off right quick. I always spray my spring woods clothes down with Permetherin, and keep a bandana sprayed down with Deep Woods Off wrapped around my neck, wear high rubber boots with my pants tucked in, long sleeve shirt tucked in, then do a body check when I get home. May and June are the worst tick months here, after that they aren't as much of a problem. We kind of swap them out for the mosquitos though unfortunately. It all comes with the territory though, I am not complaining... keeps the tenderfoots out of the woods! ...and makes you appreciate the cold months all the more.

Only been out once so far this year. But got some good ones!
I think they are coming to an end around here.
Good luck!
Mark

Mike - very cool photo. I agree that nature is the best artist. Sometimes when I see an autumn leaf on the ground colored with brown and red I think that if I could produce something as beautiful as that one leaf, then I would call myself an artist indeed! I an also a fungi fan. Like to see them, love to eat them!

Ramrod - I would call that a feastful outing! Unfortunately we do not have morels in my area.

Goodness Gracious Mark! Outstanding haul. ..those are beauties! May I be so bold as to inquire what type of an area did you find them ? I hit the south facing hillsides today, in the area of standing dead elms and got skunked. Congrats on your big score

Mike, I like to look for elms too
For some reason, these all seemed to be on North or northwest facing slopes. Most were in areas that were not too thick with trees or vegetation. The grass was about a foot tall though so they were kinda hard to see. I would hunt forward then stop and look back and see that I had walked right by some!
Mark

I usually find morels on relatively flat ground around Ash trees, they seem to hate Oaks. I find the most late April after a rain shower.

Well....I knew the day would come. That is, the day the rain would send us scurrying like sprayed cochroaches!!!

I offered to let them jump in the car or have me put up the tarp.....they both yelled....TARP!

I did what I could do in 5 minutes and well, we sat in the tarp (about 20 yards from the car) until I yelled..."It's letting up, c'mon we gotta go!!!!!!"

I was soaked to the bone......but it was good!

That's great, Scott. You're a mighty fine grand-pa