A Day in the Life of a Fishing Dog

This past weekend found me staying home for a change opposed to my usual weekend of chasing one species or another of our finned friends around. Friday and Saturday the wife , dog and I went camping at a local state park and spent the majority of our time hiking or just relaxing at camp. We had a great time and I could have fished but the thirty mile per hour winds just weren't conducive to breaking out the flyrod. The remaining part of the weekend was utilized trying to catch up on that long list of chores that needs to get done around the house. I've been able to put most of these projects off all summer using the analogy that it was just too hot outside for that kind of work , now I've got about two weeks to get something accomplished before I change things up and break out the new seasonal excuse...it's too cold outside for that kind of work.
Tuesday was the day that I'd planned to hit the water , a friend and I were set to make a second trip back to Pomme de Terre and throw some big flies for muskie all day. As luck would have it , that damned four letter word "WORK" got in the way and Richard had to back out at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. I hadn't touched a flyrod all weekend and needed a fix of some sort to take the edge off my attitude towards life in general, so I decided to throw the gear in the truck and hit a few local spots with the fishhound.

We spent some time searching for feeding carp in a couple of my favorite spots and were totally skunked , didn't even see a fish. I'd have to say my seasons pretty much over for carp fishing here in the midwest.


After realizing the futility in continuing our search for carp we decided to hit a couple of small lakes and ponds in the same general area and throw some deer-hair divers for bass.


Except for two small fish landed ,a couple of boil-ups on my fly was the most excitement we were able to drum up. Not a stellar day of fishing by any figment of the imagination , actually the fishing was good but the catching really sucked.

In the grand scheme of things the beautiful fall weather and company of my best friend more than made up for what the fishing lacked.


We did a little hiking , exploring some new water for next year , and just took time out to enjoy being outdoors instead of couped up inside, as is often the case during our long midwest winters.
Add some good eats to the mix (Joes favorite part of a fishing trip!) and you're left with the recipe for a great day in my book.



I don't normally like to speak for anyone else but I'm pretty sure if you asked Joe how his day went... he'd answer with a smile almost as big as mine .


Here's to beautiful fall days and unconditional best friends!!

Fall Bounty...Farm Pond Panfish

An injury to one of the family members , my wife's horse , had me out at the barn a couple of mornings and evenings this last week to clean and bandage the wound. Just so happens that one of my favorite little ponds is not far down the road so I made lemonade out of lemons and spent a few hours fishing a couple of the times I was out for doctor duty. The home waters are cooling off quickly and the fish seem to be responding by eating just about anything that you put in front of them. It wasn't a bad way to kill a little time on a few beautiful fall days.


The bass were all small , but still fun on a 4 weight , and the gills and crappie were little porkers that'd obviously been on the feed bag for awhile. These were some of the nicest crappie I've ever caught anywhere , they don't look nearly as big in the pictures as they did in my hand but they were some real slabs.

Just enjoying this beautiful fall weather before the cold winds of winter usher in the next season , which around my part of the country brings with it waters that are more conducive to ice skating than fishing.