Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Lily Lake

Last weekend, Buttermilk (My fishing buddy) and I, fished at Greenbrier Lake, a small lake near my home. As you can see from these pictures it should be called Lily Lake because of all the water lilies. Can't you just see all those big, fat bass laying right under those lilies.

The water lilies were a small problem. There was a bigger problem, Milfoil. Milfoil is an invasive plant that is not native and grows just under the surface. What looks like open water is filled with milfoil. Most of the time, I would reel in a four or five foot long mess of milfoil, pick it off the lure and repeat the process over and over. Oh Yeah, weedless bait was no help.
The picture below, gives you an idea of how thick the vegetation was on top of the water. You could almost get out of the kayak and walk across the lake, but this is great bass habitat. Right!

Ooooooooh, Buttermilk proudly displays his trophy catch. A perch.

Believe it or not, Buttermilk is taking a picture of me holding a 10 lb largemouth bass. Not, we didn't catch any big fat bass, but it was a great day of fishing..............

Except for the Water Lilies and Milfoil!

This coming weekend, I will be in the Great Smokey Mountains fly fishing. Wish me luck! Always Remember: Get away from the big screen and get on a big stream!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Trolling & a Woolly Bugger

What does Trolling and a Woolly Bugger have in common? Nothing, except for my silly cartoons. Ok, I've been cartooning again and here's a few that I think you will enjoy, if you are a fishermen.
 
 
 
 

 
 

Friday, July 12, 2013

The return of Mr. Buck

I have a salt block near our house so I can take pictures of visiting wildlife. A few weeks ago, I posted "Strange happening at the salt block" inwhich I captured a photo of a buck with the begining of a nice rack. Here's a picture from that post.  

The other morning the same buck came back to the salt block. 

My how his rack has grown. It looks like he's up to seven points. Mr. Buck didn't seem too worried and cautious.

Dang, a quick glance and you would think it's a Reindeer.

Oh yeah, Mr. Buck has a girl firend or two following him around! I wonder why?

Hopefully, Mr. Buck will be back and I can take a few more photos. Remember: What's in your woods, river, lake, or, bay!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Copperhead!

The other day, I was walking on a beautiful Greenway Trail near Nashville and scoping out a new fishing hole. The trail was along side of the Cumberland River, Cheatham Lake. As I walked down the trail on a cool morning for July, I noticed a snake stretched out across the trail as my seventeen year old daughter was just passing beside the snake. I yelled Snake! Lucky for her, the snake didn't move. You know what, teenagers are just not very aware sometimes.
Anyway, as I neared the snake, I could identify it as a poisonous snake, a Copperhead. The Copperhead was not moving and appeared to be a sleep. Checkout the snakes cool pattern.
The trail was busy with occasional folks walking and I was worried that someone might not see the snake and get bitten.
I took a stick and encouraged the Copperhead to move on into the woods. He was stubborn and did strikeout a few times, but after further encouragement, he decided to slither on into the forest. We moved on and you cannot guess what happen next.
We came upon a snake hunter that had discovered two Cottonmouths. He said one was a female and the other was a male (females are smaller). I questioned him about catching snakes and he said he loved snakes and liked to take pictures of them and then release them back into nature. The snake hunter told me that this area was loaded with snakes.
The male snake was much more aggressive than the female, so the snake hunter tossed the male back into the woods.
Actually this day turned out to be a very exciting day. We saw three wild, poisonous snakes in one day. Remember: What's in your woods, river, lakes, or bay. Get out and find out, but be careful!