The Spring in Pictures

Once again, my good intentions have run afoul of reality. Last time I posted, I mentioned that I intended to pick up the pace a little bit on this blog and try to do better than one post a month. Unfortunately, it hasn't exactly worked out that way. This spring has been a very busy time, and there are a bunch of blog posts that I meant to write, but somehow they never got done. Rather than write up a bunch of separate blog posts about things that have already happened, I figured that since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'd let the pictures from this spring do most of the talking for me. School is out for students on Monday, and for us teachers on Wednesday this coming week, so hopefully the fishing and blogging will both increase, but this time I've learned my lesson. I'm not making any promises. 

Anyway, on to the pictures! I've tried to put these in chronological order, more or less.

Rainbow Trout Triple Threat

I've done a little bit of fly tying off and on, but it seems to really have slacked off with the start of warm weather. I'm a little afraid that I'm going to be tying a half dozen here and a half dozen there before fishing trips this summer just to keep up with what I need.

The Front Yard Oak Tree

Early this spring, we had to have the big water oak in our front yard cut down. It had been lightning struck not long after we moved in to the house, and it made it another year or two but was starting to die and large limbs were falling out. I hated to cut this big tree, because my grandparents planted it around sixty years ago when they built our house. I hated to see it go, but at least the wood will help warm the house this coming winter.

Opening Day Tom

One of the blog posts that I fully intended to write that never got completed was about opening day of turkey season. I was lucky enough to harvest a nice tom around 2:00pm on opening day, and it was one of the more exciting hunts I've ever had for turkeys. 

Trent's Turkey

My hunting partner (and brother-in-law) Trent also had success on opening day, harvesting a nice tom late that afternoon.

The garden not long after planting

In between the craziness that is turkey season around our house, we managed to get our garden planted. This year we're trying potatoes for the first time, and it shouldn't be long before its time to dig them and see how we did. We also planted corn, squash, zucchini, sweet onions, cabbage, jalapenos, cayenne pepper, bell pepper, banana pepper, cauliflower, cantaloupe, tomatoes, cucumber, watermelon, and the sweet potatoes will be planted as soon as the ground dries out enough to plow one more time.

Trina with a bream

My wife Trina has gone fishing with me a few times so far this spring, and I'm ashamed to say tends to out fish me most of the time.

Monster Bream

Lots of rain and lack of time have conspired to keep me off of the trout and smallmouth streams these last few months, and what fishing I've done has mainly been at a small pond that is tough to fly fish because of it's size and location in the middle of the woods. I'm not going to complain about the rain, but it does seem like the rivers have been blown out any time I get a chance to go here lately. I'm itching to break out the long rod and chase some trout, and I'm hoping to make that happen one day soon. In the meantime, I'll take my fishing wherever and however I can.

Backyard Visitor

This deer has been an infrequent visitor to our backyard for the last three years. It's always amazing to see her, and it never ceases to amaze me what can be seen just outside our windows.

Dragonfly

This dragonfly thought my wife's fishing rod would make a good spot to rest on a warm afternoon at the pond.

The Garden

This is a more recent picture of the garden, and hopefully shows some progress. I can almost taste those fresh tomato sandwiches and fried squash! It won't be too much longer now!

Blueberries

And one last picture from our little backyard orchard. I would've liked to post a picture of our cherry tree hanging full of ripe cherries, but unfortunately the birds beat me to them this year. The apples, pears, and peaches are all coming along, and the new blueberry bushes I set out earlier this spring are putting on some new growth.

All things considered, its been a busy but rewarding spring around here so far. I've missed writing on the blog, and hopefully there will be some interesting things to blog about in the near future. I feel fortunate to be able to do all of these things, and I still find it amazing that other people occasionally stop by here to read my ramblings. If I can stay off the river and out of the garden long enough to sit in front of the computer, there should be some new blog posts up soon.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Signs of Spring

While I truly enjoy blogging, I must admit that I've had a hard time lately keeping up with my own goals for updating this blog more than once or twice a month. To make things even harder, with Daylight Savings Time in full swing and the onset of warmer weather, it's been hard for me to find the time to sit at the computer and write about all the outdoor activities that I have been involved in. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm complaining, that's not my intention at all. With that said, I'll try to do a little better at keeping things current on here.

Rainbow on a Triple Threat

There are several things to me that herald the arrival of spring around my area of North Carolina. One of the first signs that spring is closing in is the end of the small game seasons, and the stocking of the Delayed Harvest trout waters in our state. I try (although it doesn't always work out) to trout fish year round, and my preference is for wild trout when I have the time to get to the places where they live, but with a Delayed Harvest stream in a state park only 25 minutes up the road, this time of year I tend to take advantage of the opportunities that I have close to home.

Trent's Brook Trout

  After rabbit season closed, and we had some warm days, I began to really get the urge to go check on the Jacob's Fork, and hopefully catch a few trout in the process. I will admit that I figured my odds were improved by the recent stocking a few days before, so I headed up to South Mountain the first Saturday of this month to give the fly rod a workout and scratch my fishing itch. The fish didn't seem quite willing to hit a dry fly yet, but my brother-in-law Trent and I did manage several fish on streamers and nymphs.

Delayed Harvest Brook Trout

It seemed to me that the NC Wildlife Resources Commission had stocked larger trout than usual, and we saw several large fish in the pools as we worked our way upstream. I had success fishing black/gold/tan triple threat streamers and a hare's ear bird's nest nymph, with about half of the fish coming on each. This trip was just the first of hopefully many to come as the trout fishing will only get better for the next month or two. Hopefully a trip to a wild trout stream will be in the cards before long.

Planting Potatoes

After I got my trout fishing fix, it was time to try to get this year's garden started. I had planned to try a few new early crops in the garden this year, along with the usual onions, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and leaf lettuce that I normally plant in early spring. This year I decided to add potatoes and English peas to the early crops. I was afraid that I wasn't going to be able to get the garden plowed in time, because we've seemed to have an unusually wet late winter this year. Either that, or it's been dry long enough that this winter seemed wetter than usual. As a gardener, I would never complain about rain, but I will admit I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to plow until May! Finally we had several dry days in a row and I was able to get the garden tilled and planted.

I always get excited when it's time to plant the garden, and my wife was overheard making the comment to the owner of our local hardware store that I always get a little bit ambitious when it came time to plan out our garden. I guess I'm guilty as charged on that one, because I'm always thinking of new vegetables to try or new things to do with our garden. I really think that it must be something that gets in your blood, and I'm sure my grandfathers' are partially to thank for my love of gardening.

Speaking of being ambitious, my uncle gave me some blueberry seedlings that were left after he finished pruning and thinning his bushes, so I added 9 more plants to my blueberry bed that already had six bushes. As I was out checking on the new plantings the other day, I noticed our peach trees were starting to bloom and the apple and cherry trees were budding.

Peach Blossoms

I'm a little nervous that last night's below freezing temperatures may have harmed the peach blooms, but for the time being all I can do is wait and hope that there will be peaches to pick this summer. The muscadine vines have been pruned, and I think our little orchard is in the best shape it can be at this point. Now it's just going to take patience and a little help from Mother Nature.

Spring is one of my favorite times of year. The garden is started, the fish are biting, and the turkeys have been strutting and gobbling as their mating season approaches. It's a busy time for me, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Walking in the Woods

I think that it is good for me every now and then to just go for a walk in the woods without any specific purpose in mind other than just being there and observing nature. As a hunter, a lot of my time is spent in a tree stand or trying to find a place to set up to call a turkey. This often means entering the woods before daylight and leaving after dark. In between, there is a lot of sitting and waiting. During deer season I'm always conscious of limiting my travel between the stand and the truck so that I minimize the scent and disturbance factors. I tend to travel the same paths, mainly because I know them well enough to quietly move in and out of the woods. During turkey season, scent isn't an issue but movement definitely is.  Once again, I'm slipping in and out of the woods with as little travelling as possible so I hopefully don't spook any turkeys that may be in the area.

Turkey feather

In the summer months however, in that brief time between the end of turkey season and the beginning of archery deer season, I don't feel quite as worried about traveling through the woods. I still try to be aware of deer bedding areas and turkey roosting areas, because I don't want to feel like I have pushed any animals out of their regular haunts. It's during this time of year, usually in the middle of the day when animals are hopefully not as active, that I like to go for a walk and just take a look at the woods. It is always amazing what is there in plain sight, if only I will take the time to slow down and look. Over the years, I have found shed antlers and even whole skulls of bucks, box turtle shells, turkey feathers galore, other bones of various small animals, rubs and scrapes left by bucks I may never have seen, dusting areas used by turkeys, and tracks and other sign from all kinds of animals.

Coyote?

I also enjoy seeing wildlife that I might otherwise miss if I'm hunting. There are always birds of one species or another in the thickets and brush in the woods. I can identify a few species, but there are many more that I am still learning. Squirrels are almost always out and about, and occasionally I will see a chipmunk or two. If I hang around late in the evening at the family farm, there are a couple of owls that may make themselves known. I have seen both of them at one time or another, gliding on silent wings or perched in a tree. More often I know they are there by their calls right at dusk. There are bullfrogs around the pond, again usually identified by their calls, but sometimes one will jump off the bank into the water if I walk too close. If I'm really lucky, I might see a lizard doing his best tree bark impression.

There is a lizard here somewhere......

I don't necessarily take these walks to scout for deer or turkeys, but it seems like every time I'm in the woods I learn something new. I have found some of my best spots to hunt by not specifically looking for them. Going for a walk after deer season, I tend to find new areas that have rub lines or scrapes where a buck has marked his territory. It is also a good chance to see if areas that were used in previous years are still seeing deer activity. Sometimes I wind up kicking myself for not scouting better before the season when I find a particularly good area or set of rubs, but I file this knowledge away for next season. It's a thrill to find these signposts left behind by the bucks, or to find a tree with feathers and droppings around it that indicates a turkey roost. I'm far from being a great woodsman who can read and interpret every sign, but I do feel like every walk in the woods teaches me a little more about the world around me.

Fresh rub on a pine at the end of last deer season

 On these walks I get that same sense of wonder and discovery that I've always had since I was a child. As a hunter I would love to harvest a Boone & Crockett buck, or take a long spurred tom, but these walks help remind me that this is not the ultimate reason why I hunt. I think it all comes back to the fact that I've never lost the curiosity I had growing up. It's the same reason I turned over rocks in the creek when I was young, or spent time collecting the nymph shucks of cicadas. The natural world has always held a fascination for me, and I hope that it always will.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Turkey Trials

I enjoy all types of hunting but if I had to pick my absolute favorite type of animal to hunt I think turkeys would be it. I started turkey hunting seriously when I was in college, and got my first turkey during the 2005 season. This ignited a passion for turkey hunting that I still have. Since that first turkey, I have been lucky enough to take two more, but I have spent much more time getting outsmarted by these birds.

My first turkey

To me, the appeal of turkey hunting is the challenge. As a turkey hunter, I not only have to avoid being seen, but I have to make a turkey act against his normal nature. When I'm turkey hunting, I mainly use calls that imitate the sounds of a hen turkey with the hopes that a tom will come to the call. However, in nature the tom normally gobbles and the hens come to him. Add to that the fact that turkeys have excellent vision and already the deck is stacked against the turkey hunter.

This past turkey season reminded me why I enjoy this sport so much, and also just how trying turkey hunting can be. I spent the majority of the season after one particularly wary gobbler, but at the end of the season both my tags went unused. This gobbler had the frustrating habit of gobbling hard early in the morning, and even answering my calls almost every time. However, the old tom would often sit in the tree until all the hens had flown down and then wait until they came to him to leave his roost. The farm I was hunting on had an abundance of hens, and only two mature toms and a jake. The other tom and the jake must have both been subordinate birds because they rarely gobbled and never answered a call. This left the old boss tom free to woo his hens without any worry of competition. This also made my job as a hunter that much harder, because I had to compete with 13 or 14 real hens who would run to the tom whenever he gobbled. To make matters worse, I had several pictures of him strutting by himself on my trail camera before the season opened. I think this old turkey was taunting me!

Showing off

On the other farm I hunt there were several toms, but they had the habit of roosting on the farm I hunted one day, and then moving across the road to another property the next. Of course they never seemed to be roosting where I could hunt them on days that I hunted that farm. Occasionally I would be able to get a tom to answer a locator call late in the evening so that I knew he was roosted on the right property, but even then it was a challenge hunting them. This particular farm is mainly open pasture and rolling hills, with scattered blocks of woods. If I didn't get in place very early before sunrise, there was a very good chance I would be spotted walking across the fields. This happened to me one afternoon as I was walking to my hunting spot. I topped a hill and a tom was staring at me from about 80 yards away. He made tracks getting out of there, and that was the end of the action that day.

Where are the turkeys?

It was more of the same throughout the turkey season for me this year. I never seemed to be in exactly the right place at the right time, although there were a few times that I thought sure I would get a turkey. I wouldn't trade any of the time I spent in the woods even though I had to eat my turkey tags instead of turkey breast at the end of the season. The ability to be outdoors and see the woods come alive at sunrise and hear a tom turkey sound off from his roost is something that will never get old. If I hunted only to kill a turkey, I would have quit long ago.

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph

Poults

I went to check on a trail camera the other day, and was treated to this sight. It looks like the turkeys have hatched and are growing up!

Hen and four poults

I apologize for the poor pictures, they were taken with my phone out of the truck as I was driving through the field. It's been my experience that the turkeys aren't as spooked by a vehicle as they would have been by me getting out to make a picture. I really need to start carrying a better camera with me everywhere, especially since I'm writing a blog!

Hen and one poult

I was glad to see the young turkeys, both as a hunter and as someone who enjoys nature. I wonder if these poults were fathered by that wise old gobbler that I never could call in? If so, the turkey hunting might get a little more difficult down here!

Thanks for stopping by!

- Joseph