It's gonna be 90 again today so I up and made an early visit to the local. I hit the water just before dawn and let's just say, the fishin' and the catchin' were pretty good. I fished for about 90 minutes and had continuous action. I caught a handful of sunfish and 7 smallies - two of which gave the drag a little buzz. I also got to observe a couple of wildlife moments. The longear sunnies are spawning now and furiouosly guarding their redds. I saw one somehow bite an interloper head on. He got a mouthfull of lip and for several seconds, they were locked together. They spun round and round in that position. Their chromatophores lit up and they put on quite a show. I must add the larger of the two might have hit the tape at 5". On the wooded path back to the Jeep I heard what sounded to be a rather large bird in distress. I rounded a bend in the trail and immediately found the source of the cries. Laying accross the trail was a hen woody flopping and trying to get away from me. All she could manage was a few pathetic wingbeats which carried her maybe 5' further away. She put on quite a show. Trouble was the brood didn't get with the program. As soon as she flopped and floundered down the trail, 8 chicks came out of hiding and followed her! she'd stop and freeze and they'd again hide in the weeds until she "kildeered" off again... This went on for a couple of minutes until we got to a point where the trail branched. She flopped one way and I took the other. All in a quite a show...
fish on,
rivereddy