As you know, I bury lots of fish carcasses in the garden as fertilizer. Although fishing in our lake has been super poor, my neighbor has been doing well at other lakes so I get an occasional load to bury. However the last two times has resulted in a critter digging them up overnight. I buried them deeper than usual to no avail so tried another trick – burying them and putting a brick on the spot. In the past that has worked but when I went out this morning, the bricks had been cast aside and the fish dug up. This is going to be war.
My indoor garden is going strong. It’s on the kitchen counter to take advantage of the lighting under the cabinets so my bride is not wild about the whole thing. The current population is 22 tomato plants, 6 green peppers and 4 eggplants. They’re all seedlings that germinated in the last couple of weeks and are too weak to withstand the rigors of the great outdoors. I planted the seeds when we were having an extended run of global warming and intended to move them outside as soon as they germinated but global warming was replaced with polar vortex………… On top of that we’ve set a record for rain in January and on into February so my best judgement tells me that kitchen belongs to the seedlings. It seems symmetrical that they start their life in the kitchen and end up there as din din.
Finally broke the dry spell with the bass below. Got him/her off the dock using a live bluegill for bait. It weighed about 6 pounds. I decided to let it go to keep the population of big ones higher. The next day, using the same technique, caught one about 4 pounds so I’m definitely onto something. I used to fish this way quite often in the winter a few years ago but for some reason got away from it. I enjoy it when it’s warm and sunny after a cold morning start – take a good book or the WSJ and just enjoy the day. If you catch a fish, that’s a bonus. The rod and reel I use are my oldest bait casting outfit. The reel has to be at least 50 years old. It’s a knockoff of the famous Ambassador 500 marketing exclusively by Sears under the Ted Williams brand name. That dates it back to the 60’s. I wouldn’t be surprised to find this is the only one of it’s type and age still landing an occasional 5 pounder. 
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