banded woodie

got a nice surprise this morning for the early teal/wood duck opener.

girls gone fishin

getting ready to head out


digging for worms


the snake egg we found while digging for worms




a couple of nice bluegills




fern and fish head


cleaning fish


surf and turf southern style. quail, bluegill (like grandmommy used to make it), cheese grits and baked beans


the girls enjoying their bounty

took the girls out bluegill fishing today in the neighborhood that i grew up in. we had a great time. they caught a mess of fish that they wanted to eat so i cleaned em up and took em back home to pair with some quail i had in the freezer. nothing special, just pan fried like gram used to make when i was their age. the snake egg came home as well. we will keep it to see what hatches, something else i used to do when i was young.

1st on toho

fished a central florida bassmaster tournament and took 1st place honors with 25.5 pounds. missed big bass by 6 ounces. heres a pic of the two 7 pounders i had.

bfl prefish #1

i have my first bfl tournament next week and vince and i went out yesterday to do some prefishing. we caught a ton of fish. several in the 4 pound range.

snipe rally 09

attended the annual snipe rally yesterday which was held this year in gainesville florida. we had a great time. it was nice to shoot with old friends and new ones.

goodwin

went over to the tm goodwin reservoir this morning with old fat slow and one of his boys, jim. i was going to "walk on" at broadmoor but they were kind enough to share their permit with me. ofs and i shot eight ducks between us including a fulvous whistling duck each. the fulvous was a first for me so that was an extra special treat. jim forgot his license and was unable to hunt but seemed to have a good time despite the fact. thanks guys for a great time in the marsh!

more bbwds

should have known this was going straight to the mouth. had to snatch it up before finn got a mouth full of feathers.


fern was not sad for the death of a duck but mad that lyla had one of "her" ducks.

decided to stick close to home today since i had to be at work in the afternoon. the three hour drives and all nighters are taking a toll on me. met a new duck hunting friend, klint from right here in lakeland florida. we ended the day with a nice bag. klint got two bwt hens and i shot 4 bwt (3 drakes, 1 hen) and two black belly whistling ducks. had a great time!

black bellies

i went to sta 1 this morning with caretaker. neither one of us had ever shot a black belly whistling duck before so that was the target. caretaker had scouted a spot and it payed off. what a fun bird to shoot. it is amazing how well they respond to a whistle. the total bag for the day was 9 bbwds and 3 drake blue wings. after the shoot we had breakfast at the local taco stand. thanks for the invite caretaker! i had a blast.

duck weekend

quackbob and i had a duck hunting filled weekend. saturday morning we drove over to broadmoor for a morning permit hunt. we meet up with oldfatslow and his oldest son craig. we had a successful hunt shooting blue wing teal and a mottled. its always a pleasure shooting with oldfatslow and his boys. after that bob and i headed north to the st johns to shoot snipe. we didnt have much time but we managed a few snipe and watched a beautiful sunset in the marsh. after we loaded up in the dark we headed down to clewiston and found a roach motel for the night. the next morning we grabbed breakfast and headed down to sta5 for an afternoon hunt. we managed a nice mixed bag of blue wing teal, green wing teal, mottled, ringers and my first ever widgeon. sta5 was a real treat. what an amazing place to hunt and what an awesome weekend of duck hunting.

alabama gadwalls

today i joined the scearce brothers and crew for an alabama gadwall hunt. what a show! we had lots of birds working the spread early but only few committed to the decoys. these were my first gadwalls so it was a real treat. we ended the day with seven gadwall which we took home and ate for dinner. the chattanooga crew are first rate and i had a blast with them in the blind. thanks again daniel for the invite!

foggy hunt

lots of fog but no ducks

cold front

good for the ducks not so good for the fish. vince and i took my boat out for its first real fishing trip on kissimmee. vince was a punk and caught the first bass on MY boat! it was the only fish we caught.

st johns snipe

bob and i went over to the st. johns river yesterday to do a bit of duck hunting. we each shot our mottled duck but that was about all we saw flying. so we decided to make a snipe hunt out of the trip. bob had never been snipe shooting before but he proved up to the task. he not only shot his first snipe but he got his first limit. nice job bob. we had a great time and i think bob is gonna be a sniper for life.

bacon wrapped blue cheese bbq duck

8 duck breasts
1 bottle of everglades wild orange marinade
1 block of blue cheese
2 packs of bacon
1 jar of bbq sauce ( I prefer cattleman’s)

cut duck breasts into bite size pieces and marinate in everglades wild orange marinade for 24 hours. wrap duck and a small slice of blue cheese in a half piece of bacon. use a toothpick (soak in water so they wont burn in oven) to hold the ingredients together. spray a cookie sheet with pam oil and place duck on top. cook at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 45 mins or until bacon is crispy. dab bbq sauce on duck and put back in oven for 3 mins.

mirrored citrus vinaigrette salad

mixed greens
roasted pine nuts
dried cranberries
diced star fruit
blue cheese crumbles
bacon crumbles
everglades wild orange marinade mixed with olive oil

wine

mac murray ranch pinot noir wine

new ride

took the family out for a test drive the other day and had a picnic in the middle of lake hunter. of course i couldnt resist taking a few casts.