Contrary to popular opinion, I draw a LOT of clean, family-oriented cartoons.
Here is just one example from the current issue of Kansas Wildlife & Parks magazine.
Category: Outdoor Sports
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Kansas Wildlife & Parks magazine
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Pike on a fly rod
What’s the old saying? Even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in a while? My long-time fishing buddy and fellow Heart Of America Fly Fishers member Bill Lindley boated this 42.5″ northern pike on a 7 weight fly rod recently.
Where? Someplace between Nebraska and Canada. Wish I had been there to slap high fives with him … after he washed his hands of course. Pike are really slimy.
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Heart Of America Fly Fishers
I always look forward to our One Fly Tournament. The last few years it has been held at Lake Of The Forest in Bonner Springs, KS. This is a very old residential lake surrounded by homes and is full of fat, sassy bass and bluegill.
This year we were joined by some veterans from Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing.
A light rain fell all morning with temperature hovering in the low seventies: a fisherman’s dream. As usual those who arrived early and fished from kick boats or float tubes were the most successful.
The idea is to use one fly all morning. Theoretically if you lose your fly you’re done for the day. Small prizes are awarded for the biggest fish and the most fish and it’s all done on the honor system. Yes, some fishermen are actually honorable. This year the biggest fish award went to a guy who caught a 21” bass (that turned out to be “only” 19” when measured). The award for the most fish went to someone who landed an astounding 63 bass and bluegill. All fish were released.
The morning was capped off with a delicious picnic lunch, lots of bragging and probably some lying. But I didn’t hear ANY bitching.
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My first banded duck
I don’t remember what year it was but it had to have been in the sixties. That’s a ’63 Ford Falcon in the background. Don’t remember where I shot it . Probably the Marais Des Cygnes Waterfowl Management Area near La Cygnes, KS. Could have been John Redmond Reservoir near Burlington, KS.
I’ve been duck hunting since 1964 and I have eight bands on my lanyard now. You see guys in magazine ads with duck and goose bands hanging down to their knees. Do they plink birds with pellet guns in parks? It might be believable if they were old geezers like me who have hunted for years, but they all look like they’re in their 20s and 30s.
No way!
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Outdoor Writers Of Kansas Conference
The recent OWK conference gave photographer Jon Blumb and I a chance to explore the Flint Hills area near Emporia, KS and catch a LOT of fish.
We spent Monday May 4th with guide Bill Hartman fishing a ranch pond for crappie and bluegills from float tubes. Being a terminal geezer and a rooky float tuber I had trouble getting into and out of the tube and I never got the hang of steering with flippers. But once I got seated I found it to be a very comfortable way to fly fish. Our supply of crappie filets was down to zero but now, thanks to Hartman, the freezer is full once more.
While Bill and Jon filleted the fish I sat in Bill’s truck, mesmerized by the solar powered hula dancer on the dashboard. She obviously has a sustainable power source and leaves a tiny carbon footprint.
After cheeseburgers at Jay’s in Emporia Bill took us to Noel Lyons’ amazing antique fishing tackle museum. Among other relics of angling days past was a casting rod made from a Sherman tank antenna. You don’t see THAT every day!
If you want to get off I-35, see more of the Flint Hills, and do some warm water fly fishing Bill Hartman is your man. Check him out at http://www.flyfishkansas.com.
Tuesday we spent four hours on Melvern Lake with Rue Armstrong of the Topeka Bass Club. Between the three of us we boated and released over forty smallmouth bass. The lure of the day was something called a Wacky Worm Rig. I had never heard of it but the funny looking rig quickly made a believer out of me.
Some photos courtesy of Jon Blumb.
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Tweener Time
Once again it’s “Tweener Time”. A Tweener is a cartoon too filthy and degenerate for outdoor publications yet too outdoorsy for Playboy.
For you non duck hunters…so-called dabbling ducks – mallards, pintails, teal and others -tip up to feed on edible stuff in the water like invertebrates, seeds and plants. When you see a dabbling duck doing this it is not mooning you, it is eating.
Diving ducks such as scaup, canvasbacks, and redheads dive completely under the water to find their food. What we call “trash ducks” such as mergansers eat old tires, discarded condoms and oil that has leaked from drilling platforms.
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Canada geese nest in strange places
Today I walked up to one of our duck blinds and a Canada goose leapt from the roof. She actually had a nest up there. Goose nests are not much better than dove nests, only bigger. Just a little pile of sticks. No wonder skunks, raccoons, foxes, coyotes and black snakes eat most of the eggs and goslings.
Also lots of blue wing teal and a few shovelers still hanging around. They’re the first to come down in the fall and the last to leave in the spring. They must like it here.
Couldn’t get a very good photo. Use your imagination.
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It’s Tweener Time
As the sun pulls away from the shore and our boat sinks slowly in the west it’s Tweener Time once again.
Remember? A Tweener is a cartoon that is a little too risqué for outdoor publications but too outdoorsy for Playboy. It’s in between.
This Tweener is special because it’s about crappie. How many cartoons have you seen about crappie?
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Bluffs along the White River
Located just upstream from the confluence of the White and Buffalo rivers in northern Arkansas, these majestic bluffs never cease to amaze me as I boat with guide Miles Riley up toward Buffalo Shoals for some excellent trout fishing. As I look up I used to imagine an Indian standing up there with a bow and arrows looking down on a wagon train passing below. Now I imagine a redneck standing up there with an AK-47 guarding his meth lab. Seriously, if you like beautiful Arkansas scenery and good trout and smallmouth bass fishing check out Riley’s Station. http://rileysstation.com .
