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Friday, June 11, 2010

Road Trip, Girls Camp, and Smallmouth Bass

I guess I will work backwords since I can remember the second half of this week much better than the first for some reason? Funny how that happens, its like I can remember yesterday and the day before so clearly but things start fading out fast as I move farther back into my memory files.

Sunday we skipped church and headed out to State Farm Park over in Bloomington to spend the day with some family and friends. My cousin works for state farm and once per year is allowed to invite a large group of people out for the day. I am telling you that place is really kind of cool. Its only for state farm employees, but has like the coolest water park, volleyball courts, soccer fields, mini golf, basketball courts, baseball diamonds, etc in the state. We got rained on of course, but still had a great time. If I lived in bloomington I would get a job with state farm just to become a member there.

Saturday we got the lake and everything whooped into shape in anticipation of a couple hundred junior high girls, counselors, etc that were scheduled to come out and swim for the afternoon. We got done with everything about noon and just as the busses started pulling up the rain started coming down. They all came into the pavilion in hopes of waiting out the storm, but after an hour of singing songs and performing skits and terrential downpours they decided it best just to head back to camp. Plus it had cooled down about 20 degrees and even if the rain stopped it really wasnt warm enough to swim any longer.

So if finally stopped raining late Saturday afternoon and a couple of our friends and their children were out for the evening. Tea and Kenzi had never caught a fish before, so I knew just the spot to take them fishing and catch that first fish fast enough to keep their attention spans. They each caught a 2 lb smallmouth bass on their first casts:




So even though they both caught super awesome fish in less than 45 seconds of fishing, I realized I made a mistake with the first time fisherwomen. We actually caught too big of fish for their first ones and they didn't like that as much as you think they would of. Looking back they would have much rather caught a 6 inch bluegill than try struggling with those prized gamefish.

Friday must have been horribly boring, cause I really cant remember it at all. Must have all the office blah and phone calls blocked from my memory.

Thursday we were down in Galatia, Illinois building a floating dock for a client. We took a little road trip down south and stopped at several places for various reasons. This floating dock was a 12x12 main dock with a 6x11 gangway. We had the floats and hardware direct shipped to Scott and he picked up the lumber locally from our material list. When we pulled up to his amazing property at 7 am we scarfed down some eggs, blood sausage, regular sausage, and pancakes and then went to town on the dock. Six hours later and we had the dock completely built and installed.




Scott's lake is going to produce some monster bluegill over the next couple years. Seriously remember this post about one year from now and you will see some pics of some mega bluegill.

At 2 pm we were on the road and headed for Brownstown, Il. We dropped off some materials to a client and then were treated to a fried chicken dinner at the local diner! I have known Fred and Connie for a few years now and they are just simply good people. 7 pm and we were on the road headed for home.

Wednesday, man this is kind of weird working backwards, but its too late now to stop and change things up. Anyhow wednesday we headed out super early in the morning with a load of smallmouth bass for a guy in Altamont, Illinois. Aaron built his 3 acre pond 2 years ago and stocked it with fathead minnows. I am telling you there are so many fathead minnows in there that as the smallmouth swam out of the bucket they started opening their mouths and attacking baby fatheads of all sizes. That was the coolest thing ever to watch. Look for great things from that pond as well.

Then we headed out towards Carmi, Illinois for a consultation with a private subdivision 20 acre lake. Its a fairly shallow lake, but produces lots of fish. The lake is so shallow that they actually are going to put in a few fountains for aesthetics, but also to move some water. Typically I dont recommend fountains for aeration, but this would be just one of those situations until they do some dredging in the future.

From Carmi, Allen and I headed over to Harrisburg and a rendezvous with the comfort inn. The monotony of the evening was broken up with a visit from Morelli's pizza delivery man and some youtube videos of the elmwood tornado. That tornado is like something that you see on TV all the time, but nothing like you ever think happens to our town sort of thing. After we watched several of the home videos of the tornada I actually had some time to kill. I didnt have my computer so there was no work to do and no kids to take care of and just really plain and simply for the first time of 2010 I had absolutely nothing to do for 2 whole hours before going to bed. That was a weird feeling, and I didnt know what to do. I did find out that oil is ruining my favorite fishing spots, the cubs are well below 500, and Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference, and our government is trying to force universal healthcare and all kinds of other stuff that wont apply to them onto us????? Despite all the doom and gloom out there in the real world that I would have been much better not paying attention too, I still enjoyed my free time of nothingness.

Tuesday again I dont really remember, but I can probably just make something up like it probably rained a whole bunch and everything was a muddy mess.

Monday I did a consultation for a guy in Fulton County looking to transform his mucky, weedy backyard one acre pond into the gem of a fishing hole it used to be back in the day. His property is pretty unique, because there used to be a drive in movie theatre with concession stand there long ago.

Then I headed over to Herbst Landing in Canton for a pond consultation. The folks the own the Farmington Pizza Company have renovate the old country club and turned it into a really good place to eat! They have like 10 lunches for less than $10 and less than 10 minutes or something like that and also have a nice menu of steaks and seafood and stuff for dinner. Oh yeah, they also have a 3 acre pond that the restaurant is overlooking. I taught their maintenance folks how to maintain the pond for the year.

I havent eaten there yet, but do know that farmington pizza company is actually Brook and my favorite place to eat. The Herbst landing menu is different, but still has to be good. I probably will still like the pizza company better though, because I am more of a pizza and beef sandwich type of guy rather than a steak kind of guy. If anyone eats at the landing, let me know how the food is and also what the pond looks like!

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