Hit the river for 30 minutes the other day after work. Just had to get out and blow off the stink of the office. Threw a floating Rapala minnow and a 1/64th ounce Crappie Magnet. I drew the attention of a half dozen green sunfish before I starting hitting the couple deep runs that I could cast to before my wading room ran out.

Surprisingly enough, I had this tiny channel catfish follow my stickbait to the riffle of rocks I was standing on, take a swat, and get hooked! Perfect size for my 30 gallon aquarium, but I let him go to grow up. Anyways, devoid of size but not devoid of relaxing for a couple minutes.

As the temperatures have warmed up and the fishing reports have hit a fevered pitch, my time to get away and hit the water has shrunk in the opposite direction. With longer daylight hours, I’ve been putting in my free time towards home improvement projects – lawn, garden, painting, downstairs bath renovation and trying to keep up with little Miss Raelyn. With the decrease in outdoor recreation, so too has the number of blog posts. Hopefully I can get out some morning this week before work as there are plenty of rivers/creeks around that could potentially provide a quick dose of action. Anyways, didn’t want you all to think I’ve abandoned the blog, just buried at work and trying to get things whipped into shape ASAP at the new house. Expect trickled posts for another 3 or 4 weeks at which point I should be able to get back in a normal flow of things.

Most hunters are familiar with the concept of building points to win lottery tags in Western states for big game like mule deer, elk, moose, mountain goat, and sheep. Many play this “game” and invest countless hours weighing options in the springtime before sending in their checks and waiting to see if they get a rebate check back in the mail or that coveted tag for a highly sought after unit.

Though preference points and lottery draws are far less common in the East, the highlight for white-tailed deer is, without a doubt, Iowa. Opening the 4th of May, the application period stretches until June 2. Most units require 2-4 points/years to ensure drawing and once a tag is drawn it will cost roughly $600-$650 including each $50 preference point plus the final cost of the tag. Many hunters might scoff at this, but consider the numbers – only 2,100 nonresidents pick up a bow in Iowa each year. The numbers alone should suggest that this is a hunt worth waiting and paying for…and the numbers don’t lie. Iowa is at the top of the heap and should be on the application list for those interested in an exceptional deer hunting experience.

I’m starting to lose faith in my fishing skills. These Ohio fish are beating my tail left and right. With conditions and Internet reports screaming of an unfair advantage for the fishermen and a decided underdog status of the crappie population, I headed to Hoover Lake with intentions of filling 5 or 6 freezer ziplocks with fillets. 3 hours later, I dropped off my couple keepers with a guy wading in the shallows and limped into the office to lick my wounds and contemplate how the morning crashed and burned. Honestly…not sure. Targeted willow bushes, targeted woody cover, targeted flooded timber, drifted jigs down the creek channel, just couldn’t unravel the mystery. With a messy weather system coming into town tomorrow, it will certainly be next week before I get out for attempted revenge. Until then, I’ll do some more homework and see if I can figure out a successful strategy for next time!

Brought the sun up Saturday morning at one of the local lakes. It was my first time taking out the canoe as I finally got it registered with the DNR. Trying to target crappie, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out a pattern as they didn’t seem to be around the outer edges of the willow bushes or laying shallow on woody debris yet. I finally got on a little pattern of dropping a jig next to wood in about 5-7′ of water. It would get about halfway to the bottom, the line would twitch, and a crappie would be on the other end. As the sun warmed things up, I had to leave but it looked like many others were looking for crappie in the shallows with decent success. Now, 4 or 5 days after the fact, things should be prime and shallow water catches of crappie should be the hottest bite for the next couple weeks. I ended up filleting enough for supper with a 15″ channel cat thrown in. Hoping to get back out at least a couple more times and fill some freezer bags!