YB15's 2004 Hunting and Fishing Journal

[The_Kat]

March 27th, 2004
11:17 P.M.

Today I went fishing, caught a bass, and that water was clear up to my....................A$$$%#^........knees.

Today was a typical Spring day for my area. The wind blew on and off all day, and the clouds blazed across the sky. I went fishing around 11ish and caught several fish, mosly crappie and few bass. I kept 4 of the bass and about 30 of the crappie for our fish fry tommorrow. The funny thing is, I didn't start keeping them until I caught 15 or so fish and remember to keep them lol.

Another funny thing happened today as I woke up. I went in to do my morning "duty" and happened to look out the window at just the right time to see a long beard walking down the fence right by my house. This guy was 35 yards from my bedroom lol.

I have two longbeards staked out this year. I have got them patterned for the last 12 days down in the valley really close to my campsite. If all goes planned I will call em up and have a chat in about 2 days. Ya know.........introduce them to Mr. Guage.

I am in the process of trying to find myself a decent fish/ski boat for the summer. The hard part is finding a decent one for a decent price. Dad burned my little two man up last year in a grass fire, and we are trying to fix the huge hole. So maybe here in a couple days, I'll have my pond hopper back.

I have also came along ways on my hunting plot plans. I have three new box blinds built and 2 new ladder stands. I am late on getting my ground broke and seed in, but I have to wait until I get enough money to do all that. Anyways I thought I should get my 2004 journal going. I hope lotsa people look it over.
YB15

[The_Kat]

March 28th, 2004
10:16 P.M.

Well today was alot lot yesterday. I woke up alot earlier, about sevenish, and headed out. I was greeted by rain, and I hit one of my special holes. It wasn't so special today, I only landed 4 fish. Jenn's dad called around 11 and said he had a good pond to hit so we drove about 25 miles to Calvin to a really nice looking lake-pond. We only caught three, all nice fish. I thnk the rain is why we did bad. I would love to get my boat on that pond. It's really nice, and you can tell that with good weather that would be perfect.

We stuck it out, and went to his grandpa's farm to fish hs ponds. We tore it up there, and the clouds FINALLY broke and it warmed up. I caught the majority of the fish on my beetle spin until a whopper broke my 17 LB test Trilene. Then the rest were caught on various spinners. We fish at some other ponds until dark, catching very little. In all we ended up with 16 total Bass in the basket to take home. The biggest weighed 4lbs. Buck ( Jenns Dad ) caught it. Sure did taste good too. Nothing beats beer battered fish especially when you go fishing all day long. From 8-6 thats all I did was fish.

When the rain was letting up, we heard an old tom start gobbling back on this hill. LOL, I still can't get over the tom I saw on the pot. Just 2 more days and it's Go Time!
YB15

[The_Kat]

April 4th, 2004
10:32 P.M.

Today was pretty boring. The time change is kickin my butt and I am all messed up. I will be for the next week or so. Our baseball team won our Conference championship. I hope we continue to get better. We play rivals Wetumka tommorrow. Things tend to get hairy after the games with them. I really don't feel like getting into a fight, but theres a good chance of it tommorrow lol.

I did manage to go fishing today. Dad bought our 4-wheeler a battery, so I drove it to the ponds. I started off in my honey hole that I went to last week, and still didn't catch much. I saw a ton of turtles, and am beginnng to think that they may be the culprit for the slow action. I may take a .22 down there and thin em out. The only fish I caught worth eating was only about 1.5 lbs.

I left there and went to my big pond at G-mas. The crappie were biting, but the bass didn't wanna cooperate. The fish were swirling, but just not interested in my spinner. I really didn't feel like taking the time to see what they would bite. Like I said earlier, the daylight savings is kickn my butt, so I felt lazy.

I talked with griz today, and theres a chance I may get to go down and turkey hunt with him. It seems we always get something planned out, and then I have to back out for a reason or another. Hopefully not this time.

Dad and I fixed my boat today. He burnt it up awhile back when we burned our land off for ticks. It had a big hole in it, but we patched it up good. I gotta paint it again, and re-carpet it. It's nothng special just and aluminum row boat with a little 5 HP engine on it. Makes hitting wooded lakes a lot easier.
Thats All for Now!
YB15

[The_Kat]

April 11th, 2004
7:32 A.M.
Easter Sunday!

I am a bit backed up on my journal. My computer and home internet service is acting up, so I came up to grandma's to catch up.

On April 9th, at around 3 o'clock, I headed out on my first turkey hunt of the season. I went down to the valley where camp is, parked, and got myself all ready. There were some mean looking thunderheads back to the west that were coming my way. I knew I'd have to have a short hunt.

I headed up the valley making a few short calls with my Old Boss Hen call. Soon I had turkeys calling back. I chased up the hill toward the direction I heard the calls. All this time, I am calling as if I was a walking turkey. Within 15 minutes or so, I had found my birds. 3 toms, 2 longbeards, and 1 jake. I sat down, and got ready as the birds made their way to me. It had started to rain, and even thunder. The birds gobbled with the thunder.

We played this game of strut-sideview-strut for about 20 minutes, until they lost interest, and began to leave. The storm was now on top of us, and I was getting soaked. I told myself that I was either going to kill a turkey today or I wasn't, so I stood up slowly, and then took off at a dead sprint right into the birds. They didn't have much time to think before I was in close, and since they were all three toms, I picked a head and shot the one closest to me as it was running. He rolled up on the ground in a heap of feathers, as the other two fled for their lives.

As I walked up to the bird, my worst fear was upon me. Outta the three birds, I shot the jake. Call it faulty planning, or just bad luck, whatever the case he was no monster. But he was my first gun kill turkey, and I was as proud of him as anyone could be. I was just sorry that I let my RT.com team members down is all.

His official score ( thanks dogdoc ) is 32. He weighed 18lbs, with a 4 1/2" beard.
His spurs were both 1/4 inch buttons. He was taken with my Winchester 12 guage pump shotgun that my grandpa bought me. I was using 6 shot 2 3/4 inch remington shells.

So I guess you could call it a lucky hunt, a tragic hunt, or even a once in a lifetime hunt. It's all in the eyes of the person hunting I suppose. To me it's a mix of all three since it was my first turkey kill with a gun, my first outting of the year, and it was a jake when there was two mature toms with him. Oh well, another day another dollar,eh?
YB15

[The_Kat]

April 18th, 2004
10:50 A.M.

Computer and phone line problems continue to plague my house this past week. You'd think that SBC being the "great" company they are would come and fix it. So once again I am up here at grandmas so I can catch up on the forums and fill you guys in on my past weeks activities.

As far as the outdoors goes, I don't have much to talk about. I have been so busy playing baseball all week long. I did manage to go ride around my place some yesterday before I had to play ball. The grass is greening up and looks pretty in the woods were we had a fire. I saw one swinging tom up on the hill exactly where I shot my bird last week. This tom was much nicer and a more mature bird. He was in full strut when I spotted him, but he soon spotted me as well and shot outta the clearing.

I also saw an injured buzzard in my field, so I put him out of his misery. His poor wing was broke so I am sure he woulda died anyway. I felt kinda mean afterwards though, I hate killing things unless I am going to eat them, and to me, buzzard sounds gross.

You all know I have been playing alotta baseball lately. Two weekends in a row of nothing but it. This week was a bad one though, we lost two in a row and got 4th place in our tourney outta 12 teams. We haven't been playing well as a team at all. Defensive errors on routine plays are killing us. I pitched yesterday giving up only three earned runs, but due to errors in the field they had 9 runs to our 4. Was the first loss on my record this year, and a rough one to boot. My shoulder is hurting something fierce, and it's my fault. I was really mad on the mound, and I was putting everything I had into every single pitch which is a rookie move, but my temper got the best of me so I didn't pace myself. I only got 5 K's which is pathetic. But you simply can't win them all.

My uncle joe is cmoing out to our house for a visit. Hopefully he and I can go catch us a bass or two this afternoon. We'll see.......
YB15

[The_Kat]

April 18th, 2004
3:38 P.M.

Got bored, so I jumped on the 4-wheeler and went riding. I stopped in the valley and made a few clucks, with no responses. It's windy here. It has been for the last week, it hasn't stopped not once! Storms are supposed to be moving in here sometime or another this week. My garden could use a good shower to get kicked off.

I also went down the the deadwoods ponds at G-Ma's and dropped two lines in the water with some liver. I figured that some cats may bite with the drift into the bends of the pond, but no luck. I didn't even get a nibble. I saw a snake, which I will admit made me do a river dance sideways lol. Man I hate them mean ole hissy things.

It sure is greening up around here. It's pretty amazing how quickly spring comes on, or around here it does. I mean overnight this place gets lively, then in a week you swore the 4-H club had been here and painted the whole world green lol. Green grass means money for me, so I can't complain. My lawn buisness pays me well, and with my new vending job and hay season I should live pretty well this summer. Maybe a new gun, or even a boats in store for me. I have also thought about purchasing a small tractor and disc pair for myself. Eventuall build up to a brush hog, rake, and bayler as well. I know alotta people make good money by doing tractor work for people. If I was smart I'd invest in that, but it's hard to work work work, and never have anything fun to show off with.........I am growing up though, because I am starting to realize the importance of money.
Well thats all for now,
YB15

[RDNKHNTR77]

Baseball has been cutting down my outdoor time too. We have games almost every day and I go out before schol sometimes and weekends are very hectic. Ive been out 3 times before school and 2 weekend days to scout and shed hunt. Plus our team dropped our first three to really tough teams but won yesterday 23-2 to a team our middle schoolers could beat. Good luck with the rest of your season!!!!!

[The_Kat]

Well we won the district championship today. Winning our first game 14-0, and the championship 12-0. Not the best teams in our district, but a win is a win. Storms have been moving in and out like they are on a conveyer ( mispelled? ) belt. I have two moving in now that have a bit of rotation, so I best git off here. Stay safe out there all you okies!
YB15

[The_Kat]

April 27th, 2004
9:17 A.M.

Yesterday Jenn and I went fishing in my boat. I finally got a battery for my trolling motor and it seems to work pretty well. That little boat can scoot for just having a trolling motor on it. Jenn outfished me easily. She caught 5 crappie and 2 perch. I am glad she didn't catch a big one, because the little guys gave her some trouble lol. Everytime we'd anchor up, she'd get hung up and I'd have to go get us. Now I am not whining, but they may have been the reason I went fishless. She had a good time though, and thats all that mattered to me.

Prom was Saturday. Of course I took Jenn, and she looked beautiful. I cleaned up alright too I suppose. I have pictures on a Cd, so I should be able to post them as soon as I get some time. I also have some of those storm pictures from the other nite to post. I have some good ones of a lowering wall cloud as it past over my house.

We got our regional pairings finally for baseball. We are pretty much finished as it looks. We face the #3, #7, and # 20 team in the state. It's a tough break, but I guess you gotta face the best to become the best. Maybe we can pull some disney out of our backsides.
YB15

[The_Kat]

May 5th, 2004

9:49 A.M.


We didn't make it out of regionals. In fact we lost both games, and was the first to exit the tournament. We played ok, but we were simply outclassed I suppose. We wre on top of the #3 for four innings, but they finally rallied for 13 runs lol, so it was kinda useless.

I have been fishing a lot lately. I still am not catching any big fish. I am catching numbers of fish, but no size. Dad and I found a 2.5 horse outboard that needs some work on it. It was in our barn. I can't wait to get it going so I can use it instead of a battery powered trolling motor.

I have a fishing tournament this weekend. My friend Cody and I are teaming up to go win it. I gotta work though, so we will get a late start. He says we can win it with his ponds, and if not, I have some good places we can hit.

I got several jobs that opened up as well this past week. I got three new lawns, all three pay over 100$ every two weeks. Looks like I will be busy, but at least I'll have plenty of $$$.
YB15

[The_Kat]

May 11th, 2004
10:07 A.M.

Jennifer and I went fishing Saturday with Cody at his ponds. They were some real nice ponds. We caught some pretty nice fish, but not alot of them. We fished there until to about noon. Then we met Jennifer's dad, and went to Calvin to fish a large pond. It was filled with lily pads, and looked great. We didn't do that well, but we managed to catch a few nice fish. Jennifer caught the catch of the day with a nice large 4 lber.

We got a great sunburn to go with it. The fish tasted great cooked in beer batter that night. I also got another job. I will be working on a game ranch. The guy is really nice, and loves to hunt. The place is his weekend escape, and I am taking care of it while he is gone. The pay is nice, and I have more hunting/fishing rights to his property.

Sunday I fished a bit. The fish still were not biting all that well. I managed to land a few, but still no size. The boat started leaking again, so I have to patch it. I plan on getting carpet in it once I get the leak fixed.
YB15

[The_Kat]

May 13th, 2004
10:08 A.M.

Last night was kind of hectic. everything that could of went wrong did. First my belt broke on my mower. Then the brush hog wheel fell off. Then I was hauling off some limbs I cut, and got a long gash on my stomach. Then this morning I have a flat on my truck. I guess it's my time for bad luck. I have to work everyday til Sunday. I have two lawns that I HAVE to get cut. One has to be done by today. Lets just hope nothing else goes wrong.

I am rigging up a bunch of jugs for my ponds. I am gonna set about 15 different ones out so I can try to get myself a big ole' catfish or two.
YB15

[The_Kat]

May 16th, 2004
12:06 P.M.

I went fishing today. I set my jugs out yesterday and caught nothing. I learned a lesson though, chicken liver falls off a hook easily. I need to get some treble hooks for the jugs so it doesn't fall. I caught some perch today that I will make cut-bait out of. Thats all I could catch this morning. I have been trying to catch a catfish for a long time now, and no luck. I know they are in there, I have seen them. Any suggestions on baits, or home made stink baits?

I got that yard I was talking about done earlier. I replaced the belt and got it all done in the rain! It was terrible, but I had to get it done. After we got done mowing dad loaded that lawn mower and flipped it! He didn't know not to stop on the ramp once he got going, and he did. Well when he took off again the wheel grabbed and slid the ramp out from under him. He went over backwards, but I caught him and pulled him off before it hurt him. My mower on the otherhand had to be re-compressed, and blown all out. We got it running again though. I have two yards to do this week, so I shouldn't be to busy.

School ends the 21st here. Tommorrow can be my last day if I want it to be. I may come back for the fun days, but I haven't decided yet. I sure am gonna miss my friends who are graduating. Next year is my last...........kinda scary in a way!
YB15

[Gator]

YB, if you have alot of turtles in your ponds, don't waste your time with cut bait, them turtles will eat it all up! Been there done that!. How old are these ponds? How big? If you have any flathead cats in there, use live perch, but you better have a big jug!! I have had 30lbers pull gallon jugs 3 feet under water. You may just try some store bought baits, or go with live worms, or even crawdads. Good Luck!

[huntinsonovagun]

Man, you have had a heck of a spring!!!!

I hear ya on the part about graduating next year....I will graduate this friday. Now that it is here, I wonder where all those 12 years went Almost sad, but in a way, it is a whole new beginning. I am looking forward to college and meeting new friends....I just hope I can find a place to hunt!!! (I have decided on Rogers State College in Claremore). I am definatly excited about next hunting season though.....ready to get a wallhanger with the bow. I can't wait for the okie get together either....hope we can get a few more people this year. Holler at me some time, and don't work too hard....I know how that can be.