EdB

Erik, Hope it's your gall bladder and you can get better quick and get out of the hospital.

I didn't have my scale and we didn't weight it. I'm thinking it was around 19 lbs, mayby a chance it could have hit 20.

Rigel just got home from his first year at college. He has been fishing with me since he was real young. Here's a pic from a few years back at Ludington.

I love my wife, she gave me the green light to go fishing today. We went to St Joe and had a great day on my buddies boat. Started in 45 ft of water a mile north and went north. Slid out to 50 ft of water as we went. Rigel got it started with a nice king at sunrise. We got a couple lake trout and then 2 more kings in the next hour and it died in there. Hit the fish on silver streak blue dolphins on riggers at 35 and 40 ft. A tin can dodger and blue bubble fly took a laker on the other rigger at 45. Had about an hour dry spell, pointed it west and had another hour dry spell. That's when you start to second guess your troll but we stuck with it. When we got out to 78 ft of water, we hit a double and then 2 singles by the time we got to 85 ft of water. All nice kings. Green dolphins on a 10 and 7 color core were good out deeper. We were in the 11's north. Went dry as we trolled out to 95 ft, turned around and went back to 80 ft of water and Rigel got another nice one. Green glow mag DW on a full core. Worked back in to 75 ft. and got a douple with a king and steelie, both hit on green dolphins again, had one on a wire low diver out 135ft and it went twice out there. Turned back out and worked that area over, Rigel got a nice tuna at 12:30 and we ended the day 12 for 17 at 1:00PM. Here the catch. Good luck if you can get out in the next few days!

Great pics, nice job on the fish!

That's a good start to the season, way to go Ken!

Bet you got a nice fight out of the 16lbr!

Nice job during the slowest part of the day.

Thanks for the report!

Nice king, we'll probably fish St Joe tomorrow.

Nice job!

Thanks for the report!

Nice catch!

Way to go Matt, I like splitting up the spread against my buddies too!

Had the oriole's come back this week. We have had a few on our feeder and eating the half orange and grape jelly I put out for them. Wish I could say I took these pics but they came from a friend. She used a set of binoculers on front of her camera. Not sure how she aimed it but they came out good. Thought you might like them.

Nice catch!

That's what you get on mainstream media now. I think showing respect to his body was probably the right thing to do from a diplomatic point of view but personally, I would not have a problem if they cut his head off and kicked it into the sea. The best part about all of this is he got to see it was a US soldier who put a bullet in his head.

Congratulations!

That's a another real nice one!

Have lot's of fun with her!

Nice catch, they are going to fry up good!

I had the 2nd general hunt here in the Waterloo area. Looks of cool and damp weather like the first week. Opening day started good and I thought I’d be done early until a hen sneaked in behind me, saw me working my slate and started alarm putting while I had a gobbler getting close in front of me. After that it rained. Tough hunts on Tuesday and Wednesday with more rain, wind and birds that did not want to gobble much. Thursday dawned with pouring rain and high winds. I had the day off from work and the rain was going to end so I waited till it did at 8:30AM to head out and make a day of it. Got set up and the sun broke out briefly around 9:30. When that happened, 4 different gobblers sounded off in 4 directions all around me. I’ve seen this happen lots of time after it rains, birds will sound off when the sun breaks out for the first time at any time of day. If your hunting rainy weather and see it’s going to break, get out there for it. None of these birds where close and I’d normally make a move on one of them but I decided to sit tight and see what developed. A couple of them liked my calls and responded a few times but it got windy and cloudy and the woods got quiet. Looked like it was going to be another tough hunt like Tuesday and Wednesday. I struggled with the urge to move but I had a good set up with a great view and decided to be patient. It was early yet and I figured the birds where still henned up. The damp windy weather wasn’t the best to try to find responsive birds either. Since I knew I was in a good spot, I wanted to stay here till at least noon. I’m glad I did. At 10:45, a gobbler answered back to my occasional loud yelps. It was still windy and I was throwing out some louder than normal calls just to be heard. I finally found a hot one for the first time since opening morning! I’d call, he would answer and then he gobble 3-4 more times on his own between my calls. He was still a long ways off and I’d normally move closer but I could tell he was coming. This bird really liked the loud yelps and was moving closer with every call and kept up with his hot gobbling. I toned down my calls when he got inside about 200 yards and he kept gobbling to my clucks and purrs and gobbling on his own. He kept coming and I finally saw him at 60 yards. As he went behind a big tree and brush pile and I made one last cluck, cluck, put down the call and got tight on my gun stock. He stopped and gobbled 4 times at 35 yards. I let him keep coming into a wide open spot at 20 yards, gave him a mouth putt to raise his head and shot him. It was 11:20AM and he had gobbled about 25 times during the hunt. Couldn’t believe it for the weather we had. I used a new Quaker Boy hurricane box call made to work when wet. You don’t use chalk on it. I picked it up when I saw how lousy the weather was predicted to be. I never did get it really wet to see how it worked then but it sounds good dry. This tom really liked it. Henned up birds are tough but when their lonely like this one, they get a lot easier. Another nice Waterloo gobbler down! He had a 10-¼ inch beard and a 1 inch and 7/8 inch spurs.

Great hunt and pics Adam, sure have been tough conditions this spring for turkey hunting, well done!

I thought the Schwartz's came from Germany. Wish my great great Grandpa would have married an Indian so I could own a casino and be a super citizen with special rights in the greatest nation in the world.

That's a mounter for sure, what a nice "wall" eye!