Hooked for Life

A few days ago we bought Caleb his first rod & reel.  It was a Mickey Mouse combo and looked deadly.  He spent the first couple days practicing off the deck, perfecting his jigging and casting.  Then yesterday we put his newfound skills to the test.

He was fishing the buggy bottoms of the East Fork Des Moines River in Kossuth County.  We were on a camping trip visiting an old friend and his family.  Caleb's first fish was a respectable, yet catch-and-release sized channel catfish.  He caught it on a Mickey Mouse combo with a 12" steel leader, two split shot sinkers, and a gob of worm on a barbed hook.

Patiently waiting.......



Reeling in the monster

Caleb's First Fish....a channel catfish!

Food Plot #1 and #2: DONE!

I got both my plots planted a few weeks ago. The 1st particular plot is my favorite spot to hunt even though its really not a very productive stand.  I think the allure comes from the sights and sounds of hunting this stand, it makes me feel like I'm hunting in a place like you see on the hunting shows and DVDs. 

It's in a small seven acre block of timber but it feels bigger than that.  My stand sits along a winding creek in a tall straight ash tree.  On the other side of the creek is a hard wood ridge and beyond that is crop fields.  In front of the stand is a 1/4 acre clearing I've maintained a food plot in for the last 5 or so years.  I've had white clover, turnips, winter rye, and I even made an attempt at corn which failed miserably due to the severe drought last year.

This year I'm going back to the ol' bread and butter: clover. This year presented some challenges that stood in the way of getting the plot done.  Namely getting to the plot with equipment.  The flash flooding we've encountered this year silted/mudded in the creek crossing and I could not get across with the tractor and disk.  So I loaded up the garden tiller in the truck, used my loading ramps as a makeshift bridge, got across, and got after it! 

Here are a few views of the plot.  You can see my stand in the first pic in the really straight tree behind the tiller off the edge of the plot. The other two pics are from my stand.  

After I got it all tilled up, I cultipacked it to prepare a nice firm seedbed.  My dad had some leftover red clover seed and he came down and broadcasted it onto the plot with a bag seeder.  I then used the same seeder to broadcast some 10-10-10 starter fertilizer and then I cultipacked it again to press the seed into the soil.  

Here's the finished product!  We've done our part and as they say, "It's in God's hands now."  

I got in about a 1/3 acre of soy beans the other night. I used my 6 year old ATV to pull my 60 year old planter. I spaced the beans apart in 30 inch rows and after they emerge I'll give them a shot of roundup to kill any weeds and then broadcast some purple top turnips, dwarf Essex rape, ground hog radishes and some 20-10-10 fertilizer into the beans. Hopefully it all turns out well and I'll have good late season plot to hunt!

The Solon Albino

Well it's no secret anymore that there is an albino doe living west of Solon near the McBride golf course.  Yesterday I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of her and snap a few quick photos.  The zoom isn't the greatest on an iPhone so the photos aren't be best.  Recently there have been several articles about the deer with better photos than I have so you might have some luck doing a google search.  

It's pretty neat to see in person considering the odds are something like 1 out of 100,000 that a deer will be born an albino.  I definitely don't think I'll see another one in my life time but you never know.  

Stay tuned to the blog, both my brother and I should be making some posts about food plots and sharing trail cam pics in the coming weeks!