Guess what?

I have just found out that I have no more download space available on Blogger unless I buy some more, and the prices seem a bit too much for me. So it's either I write without pictures (outdoor blogs need pics, do they not?) or go back to wordpress.

Which I have done. I am completely sorry to Bill and Dan for this. Some comeback, eh?

Here is where I'll be blogging at on wordpress. I have these first two posts already over there.

My apologies.

Casey

A Weak Duck Season So Far

It has been very sad, actually. Without going into too much detail, I have been wrestling with some personal issues and it has interfered some with the duck hunting. And just a few weeks ago, my dad passed away, keeping me out of the marshes and away from the creeks for any jump shooting of wood ducks for a couple of weeks. This year the ducks have been flying a bit safer than they normally would have been. The good news is, for the past couple of years, the big flocks of migrating ducks haven’t been showing up around here until after Thanksgiving. Weird how it works that I have the week after Thanksgiving off!

Trapper and I have managed get out a couple of times, though, with a grand take of three woodies. And any reader of this journal can just take for granted that I should have taken more ducks than I have. My shooting has been pathetic…

As far as the future of my duck hunting, well, here’s Ellie. A chocolate lab. She’s turning into a sneaky, slippery little thing, but she is a sweet girl and shows signs of being very smart and quick to catch on. Haven’t shot a gun around her, yet. She was born on Memorial Day of this year and I should have her out there getting used to gun fire by now, but…yep, I’ve had issues. Ah well, labs catch on very quickly.

Until next the time, take care -

Casey 

Quillback On A Sassy Shad

When it is reaching nearly 50 degrees this late in November, and you live in northeast Iowa, you get outside and try some fishing. Not the trout fishing – we’ll be catching them all winter as long as the air temperatures are near freezing. My brother and I thought we would try catching some smallmouth bass from a small river not far from where I live.

The water was very cold, very clear, and very shallow. Jigs started producing a few light hits, but all I could wrestle from the bottoms was a quillback carpsucker. A neat looking creature, though not known for it’s table quality. It felt very healthy in this cold water, and put up a halfway decent bout for it’s size.

I was able to find the stretches of river where the smallmouths were holed up at, but they weren’t having anything to do with my offerings. I think next time I’ll float a crawler through the holes. Pretty sure that’ll get ‘em. Worth a try, anyway.

I’ll be putting up some posts of recent outings here shortly, a little “catch up.”

Take care -

Casey