This bass came back on July 1, 2013 and tipped the scales at 5-10.

Well, sort of. Somewhere in that neighborhood at least.

You see, at that point in time I had never caught a six-pound bass. I had one over the seven-pound mark and another as close as you can get at 5-15, but the whole six-pound range had eluded me. So, when I saw this one surface as I battled it to the boat I sure thought that it could be the one.

And when I lipped it and pulled it aboard, I was feeling even better about obtaining the mark. A closer look and a highly calibrated sense of guesstimation fine-tuned over close to thirty years of handling bass told my brain that this catch had made the cut.

Then I put it on the scale.

As I released the bass and let gravity do its thing on my battery powered weighing device that is billed as accurate to within an ounce, it went completely haywire. Over six-pounds, under six-pounds, going blank, lighting up and randomly flashing various combinations of pixels that told me absolutely nothing. Frantically, I turned it off and on several times hoping to resolve its electronic funk but all to no avail.

What to do next ran through my head as I shot a few pictures and released the bass to fight again. A true moral and ethical dilemma in a pursuit rife with, well, fish stories. And this was the epitome of the fish story. Flying solo, no one to confirm the weight, the bass could be as big as I wanted it to be even with a photo as they often provide a fair amount of wiggle room. Just look at the eyebrow raising weights on some internet reports or chuckle at fish held to the camera at arm’s length in glossy publications and it’s apparent that fish stories are still alive and well.

Tempting, of course. Honest, not really. The cliché fisherman whispering in my ear said the fish was at least six pounds. My conscience hollered otherwise. While observing the electronic confusion that was the demise of my scale, it was a brief flash of a readout at 5-10 that stuck in my brain.

Two more shots of the catch in the interest of full disclosure and to help you make your own guesstimate

And 5-10 is what went into the log and the fishing report. Still looks like it could be six though, what do you think?

Oh yeah, here’s a 6-2 from 2017 that made the mark, an interesting fish story for another day (got a lifetime of ’em).  Moral of the story when comparing bass though is that I think I sold myself short on the 5-10.  Water under the bridge but still wonder every time I tell this story.

Talk to you later. Troy

 

Among the items in the tagline for the blog are “fun”, “family” and “foolishness.”

Check, check and check on this photo of my nephew, Bryar, and a giant s’more from several years ago.

Let’s run down that list starting with “fun.”

Fun is camping and we still kick it old school as we roll out the tents, cook over a fire and live out of coolers and picnic baskets. And, of course, those picnic baskets house the parts for the traditional campfire treat, the s’more.

Family is pretty much the crew that I run with almost exclusively and not only includes our bunch but also extended family as displayed below.  My folks often stop out and my siblings either join up for the trip or visit which means a whole batch of cousins in the youngest generation.

Foolishness comes with the territory when you can potentially have up to eight kids from ages six to sixteen around the campsite. And this giant s’more is right on target, although if I recall correctly those super-sized marshmallows were actually the brainchild of one of the “big kids.” My wife, Julie/Aunt Julie, is more than adept at enhancing the menu and initiating some silliness. She’s also prone to extending our family for these outings as our current record is taking six kids along for an overnight. Hey, we gotta bring two tents anyway, so why not fill ‘em up. Honestly, I used to view such an idea as daring, perhaps even bordering on that foolishness concept, but Julie’s got it all under control and it gets easier as the kids (and s’mores) get bigger.

Talk to you later. Troy

Today’s featured pic represents another outdoor pursuit that I dabble in on occasion with only mild success. Nowhere near the amount in the postings that appear every year of folks with mounds of fungus on picnic tables or filling truck beds. Nope, if I get a few dozen, I’m feeling like an overachiever. But hey, my meager finds work just fine for frying up a couple batches of the annual treat that occasionally convinces me to give up a few hours of fishing time.

This photo comes from 2009 and features a neat cluster of ten morels that even I couldn’t miss when tromping through the woods. Here’s a look back at the find via an excerpt from an outdoor report that I submitted to family and friends back on April 29, 2009.

“I actually found a couple dozen during a few hours roaming Little John on 4/29. Fifteen good sized ones came from one spot including ten that were growing together in a clump. I’d never seen that many clustered so close together and considered leaving them so someone else might also enjoy the spectacle. Okay, maybe not. I did take a photo to share the find with others and then picked them so I could also share them with my family. Considering my past morel history, I guess it’s already a banner year.”

That clump was the first of two cool finds in 2009 as the picture of my girls above is a collection of morels from the following evening (April 30, 2009) that I found in a neighbor’s yard when we lived in Galesburg, Illinois. That batch easily outdid my haul from the wild.

Another story for another day. Perhaps deserving inclusion in a new blog banner down the road. Talk to you later. Troy

Happy Groundhog Day.

But that’s no groundhog, or more appropriately, woodchuck, as noted in the Illinois trapping regulations.

Nope, that’s Dad and Brent with a 60-pound beaver from November 6, 2002, the first day of running traps for the season. And it was only the beginning as 2002 turned into a record setting year in terms of beaver catches. Depending on what version of the record book you look at, we caught either 19 or 20 beaver that season. Whatever the true result, it was a stellar haul, several of which are detailed in the pics below.

11/7/02 Richard, Troy and Terry Jackson, 47 and 39-pound beavers

11/9/02 Terry and Brent Jackson, 60 pound beaver

11/16/02 Terry and Brent Jackson, 34-pound beaver

11/17/02 Terry, Brent and Troy Jackson, 34-pound beaver

If you have never seen the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, the story revolves around a fellow who is strangely caught in a time loop that finds him reliving the same day over and over. Well, that was kind of the vibe in 2002 as the hits just kept on coming. And beaver can be odd critters, often a little spooky when you get to tromping around their stomping grounds. Which is another aspect of those 2002 catches that was just weird. At the end of many days on the trapline that year, it seemed like we’d seen the movie before.

And one final note to that woodchuck in PA. As trappers we left your kind alone, so how about doing the right thing and moving this whole winter deal along and going with the early spring route instead?

Talk to you later. Troy

Before electing to hit cyberspace on my own last May, I fed my writing habit for about seven years on pair of other outdoor websites (Prairie State Outdoors – April 2010 to March 2011 and Heartland Outdoors – April 2011 to May 2017). So, one of the neat things when putting together my own place was getting to design the layout. Nothing too fancy given my modest skills and a penchant for frugality but with some welcome input from my wife, Julie, I think it works just fine.

One of the visual aspects that we opted to include was the scrolling banner that graces the homepage and hits visitors with a collection of 28 pictures. Now, I’ve got tubs and albums and CDs and hard drives crammed with outdoor pictures dating back over 50 years so selecting those for the banner definitely took some time and thought.

Tough decisions, but boy was it fun shuffling through all of those choices when designing that piece of the website (and four more pics adorn the “About” page as a bonus). With a 50th birthday on the horizon as I kicked off the website last May, I wanted the pictures to convey the enjoyment that the outdoors has provided for me and those family members that I have shared it with over the years.

Of course, I’m biased, but I think we did a darn good job.

Lots of people, lots of pursuits, lots of smiles and lots of stories in that banner, which was the aim.

And since there are 28 pictures and 28 days in February, my latest stunt is a closer look at each of the pics, one a day, every day.

A project in the vein of Rod Stewart’s “Every picture tells a story don’t it” and the standard “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I actually did the latter of those once upon a time for my five favorite outdoor pictures.

But, I digress.

For the “Blog Banner” project I will attempt to contain the rambles although I will be guilty of throwing in more than a few supplemental photos along the way.

And…we’re off. Talk to you tomorrow and the next day, and…Troy