Who would I want to hang with?

OBN's latest writing prompt is to list a few fellow OBN bloggers you'd like to meet.  I would enjoy meeting just about any of y'all but there are a few who stand out.  Since the question was who you'd like to "meet", I disqualified any blogger who I've already met in person, which excludes... Clif.  Here are the couple that stood out:

Jay from The Naturalist's Angle.  It seems that since Jay found my blog, he has always had good advice, from choosing a flyrod to tips on fishing grubs on spinning tackle.  Plus, it seems like he prefers to chase warmwater fish on the fly, exactly what I'm hoping to be chasing this year.  I think we would have a good time and I would learn a bunch.

Dallas from Fishin the Ridge.  He and I have gone back and forth a little on our frustration over the reluctance of wader manufacturers to offer waders in big guy sizes.  It seems like although he might be more experienced than me in the areas of bass fishing and hunting, he's also a self-professed "fly fishing noob", just like myself.  His is the first blog other than my own that I'd found when the person was just getting into flyfishing.  I'm looking forward to reading about him learning as I'm learning some of the same things.

Ken G from Waterdog Journal/Four Season's Anglers Network.  I just stumbled across Ken's blog a little while ago, don't even think I've commented on any posts yet but I enjoy reading his posts, which seem to focus less on details and more on the experience of the day.  Pretty cool, check it out if you haven't yet.  I read he might be doing some guiding this year, maybe I'll have to schedule an outing.

So there you have it, just a few of the bloggers I'd like to meet.  Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the OBN meet up this year so I'll probably have to wait awhile to meet most, but maybe someday.

Hope you all are staying warm, I'm currently in the midst of enjoying some snow-related time off. :)  Have a good one.

Wow

Had 648 pageviews this month.

That might not sound like much to some of you who get all kinds of traffic but I've only had 2,055 pageviews since I started the blog last May.  My biggest month before this was 261.

I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks for reading, I appreciate it.

I'm gonna go celebrate with a beer and wait for our 12-20 inches of snow we're supposed to be getting by wednesday afternoon.  Woo!

Powerton 1/29/11

View from the entrance.

I woke up a bit later than I had hoped so I scrambled to get ready and get on the road.  Got pumped up to some death metal and got into the mindset to go slay some fish.  (Slay as in catch, respectfully handle and release unharmed.)  Got to the lake about a half hour after it opened.

The way Powerton is laid out is the warm water discharge area is about a half mile from the parking lot.  So I grabbed my pole and tackle and headed out along the raised retaining wall, wind whipping the mist up off of the lake and over me.

Got down to the discharge area and found about 20 anglers already set up, all baitfishing. (I assume for catfish, as the big draw for the lake is giant blue cats.  Didn't see anybody pull anything in in the couple hours I was there.

The mist was usually much thicker than you see here, it was like a scene out of a viking movie.  A big wooden boat pulling up and commencing pillaging wouldn't have been out of place.

I started out tossing a silver rattletrap that Grandfather-in-law Tom gave me for Christmas.  I worked down what parts of the shore I could, first burning it really quickly and then knocking it along the rocks on the bottom.  Didn't get any bites.

After about a half hour to forty-five minutes, I lost the rattletrap on the bottom.  At Clif's suggestion I tied on a white twistertail grub with a white jighead and started tossing that.  I felt like I got a few knocks on it but I missed every hookset.  Are you supposed to set the hook immediately with a grub or wait until you feel the fish pulling?  I was automatically setting the hook as soon as I felt something so that may be why I wasn't able to hook anything.

Another hour and a half later I decided to call it a day.  Cold was starting to get to me.  Even tho I didn't hook any fish, I didn't come away frustrated like I have in the past.  I attribute it to a couple things:

First of all I put all my gear in my backpack from last semester.  It wasn't much today but it was alot easier to just strap it on and forget about it than to have to pick up a big tackle box every time I wanted to move.  Alot less tiring too.  I think this'll help when I make some hiking trips to less-pressured water at Banner Marsh or Snakeden Hollow in a couple months.

Secondly, I brought a spinning rod rather than the baitcaster I used most of last year.  No dealing with backlashes or having to remember to thumb to reel before the bait hit the water.  Really simplified everything.  I let "being like the guys on tv" get in the way of just having a good time and fishing last year.

Finally, I was happy to just get out of the house.  A nice little walk and wetting a line was just what I needed. 

Don't think I'll be fishing again until the temps are up over 50 though.  Just too cold, it's distracting.  I'll try to get some shooting footage up soon, I have a few empty milk jugs that need exploding.  :)

Zombie...

As in, I feel like one.

Another week at the call center down, semi-annual performance review in the books.  It's been gray and cold out.  I didn't win the Hook & Hackle rod building kit contest Owl Jones put on. (Which means I'm in the market for an 8' Eagle Claw Featherlight in the next two months, let me know if you hear of any deals.)

I've been either in the house or at work 100% of the time for the past week and I'm over it.

So I'm heading out to Powerton, a local warm water discharge lake tomorrow.

Don't think I've ever pulled anything bigger than 4 inches out of there but a couple years ago it used to be a smallie hotspot and they stock stripers so I figure I'll toss some crankbaits and little plastic grubs just to see if I can pull in SOMETHING.  I'll give an update tomorrow afternoon on how it went.

Also, I took the advice OBN gave awhile back and just started a Facebook page for the blog.  Click the link on the left to "like" it if you'd like to hear my outdoors.  Right now myself and my beautiful wife are the only fans, it's a little lonely at the moment.

Have a good weekend, be looking out for a report tommorow!

Blogroll

I usually don't do blogrolls as most of my regular followers have been in the blogging scene alot longer than I have and I've seen y'all's pictures as followers on other peoples sites.  However, I have a couple blogs I came across with just a couple followers and I thought you guys would be interested to hear about.

On the River with the Viver:  This is my uncle's blog.  He's a pro walleye fisherman and he just started up this blog to "document the ups and downs of competitive angling". Check it out, especially if you're a fellow walleye fisherman,  I'm sure he'll have some interesting insights as to pulling up some big 'eyes as well as going pro.


R-Dub Outdoors:  Rory and I have had some conversation back and forth about that new show The Wild Within so I checked out his blog.  He's got some good reviews up on all kinds of different outdoors equipment.  Scope it out.


Well that's about it.  It's too damn cold to do anything but sit inside so I'll be just chilling and watching some UFC tonight.  Hope you all have a good weekend.

Doing some shoppin

So I got an email a few days ago from a company called CSN stores asking if I'd be interested in picking out a product from their site to review.  I've gotten a few offers like this before that just didn't fit the outdoor theme of the blog but I checked out the CSN website and it seems like they have a bit of everything.  Seriously.  From swing sets to gun cases.

From kayaks to kitchen fixtures.

From... well you get the idea.

Check out their website.  The really good stuff is in the outdoor recreation store under the "see more" tab on the far right.  I'm gonna go put some thought into what item would fit in best with the blog to review.  Expect the review ASAP.

The Wild Within, Episode Dos.

I wanted to let anyone who took my advice to watch this week's episode of Wild Within that it was pretty different from the first episode, in my opinion, not for the better.  My reasons for thinking so:

• Instead of hunting/fishing for food for his family (which I thought was the complete premise of the show), the host took on a challenge to follow in Lewis & Clark's footsteps, reliving part of their journey with time-accurate equipment.  This is still interesting but the whole "build a raft out of animal parts and sticks" thing has been done.  Also, the host is all about respect towards the animals he hunts but he spends this episode hunting with a flintlock.  Although he is very careful and doesn't take an irresponsible shot, using antiquated equipment puts alot of risk that you miss the vitals on an animal and cause it to suffer.  I probably shouldn't be criticizing this as I've yet to kill anything bigger than a squirrel but it stood out to me.
• They found a dead antelope on the side of a mountain half butchered.  Because the host has such a deep respect for animals, he gets irate and says something along the lines of "If I saw this hunter right now I'd be tempted to shoot him."  That is ridiculous talk any time of the year but right after the AZ shootings?  They couldn't edit that out?  Well whatever I guess, it's his right to say it and Travel Channel's right to air it.  I just wouldn't have said it and it turned me off of the show a little.
• (EXTRA PEEVE EDIT):  Knew I forgot something.  There is a lack of firearm safety a couple times in the first two episodes.  In episode 1, the host shoots at a deer with only it's head and neck sticking out over the edge of a ridge, nothing but blue sky behind it.  If he had missed, the bullet could have hit anything thousands of feet behind the mountain.  Granted, they're in the middle of nowhere but still.  In episode 2, they include a shot of the host on horseback with the muzzle of his gun pointed directly at the camera.  Two of the most basic firearm rules are to not point the gun at anything you aren't ready to destroy and be sure of the what's behind your target.  Everyone makes mistakes (I sure have) but these are potentially dangerous mistakes and I hope there aren't any more like these in future episodes.

That said, I'll still be watching.  Hoping the focus will go back away from era-specific challenges.  Oh well.  I'll probably keep watching even if it doesn't change.  Still one of the few shows that fishing, hunting, and shooting come together without being an infomercial or just the same old footage of big bucks getting shot episode after episode.

Has anybody else seen it?  Do you agree or disagree? 

Lemme know.