Lazy Sunday Afternoon

I am very uncomfortably sitting here during my 2 hours of rest (kid nap time) on this lazy sunday afternoon. My back aches and my legs still hurt from a long day of work (fishing) on Saturday; and I just had to take my belt off and unbutton my shorts to see if that helps alleviate some of the pressure being caused from devouring a few too many donuts and sandwiches from lunch at church......

God sure did know what he was doing when he created this day of rest. By the time Sunday afternoon rolls around, it takes about all the energy I have left just to stick the pacifier back into the boy's mouth when needed and also to switch between the Cubs game and the PGA during commercials. Multi tasking at its finest..... Here is a typical Sunday afternoon picture:

All the rain this week sure made things a bit more complicated than needed, but we worked around it and were still able to keep checking things off the list and get some stuff organized as well. All of our office duties have been officially turned over to Holly and she is untangling the mess I have created over the last 6 months. She works Mon-Thurs 8-4 so if you need to pick up anything you dont have to try to track me down anymore.

Anyhow at the crack of dawn on Monday Allen and I delivered a load of fish to a client's 20 acre lake in Fiatt and then headed over towards Cuba for an electrofishing survey for a 35 acre lake. This lake was completely full of 3/4 pound bluegill and one pound bass.

The owner graciously donated 240 of his surplus 13 inch bass to the Hooked On Fishing Park's handicapped pond. After the survey Allen ran them over to the fishing park, and I headed out to meet a guy from Southern Illinois who came all the way up to get some smallmouth bass and yellow perch for his new pond. Casey called the next day and said the seniors from skyline drive and an AC nursing home from Eureka already started catching those bass the very next day!

Tuesday I think I have completely blocked from my memory because I most likely was stuck in the office all day long due to the rain. Oh yeah, in the evening I headed out past Metamora for a consultation with a nice couple who's new one acre pond just filled up. They wanted to learn about water, weeds, fish, aeration, and docks. They now have a gameplan in place.

Wednesday we were supposed to Electrofish and Trapnet at Oak Run, but it was too cold and rainy. Instead I went to a meeting that evening with the sport and fish committee to gather all the information about the lake as humanly possible. We have rescheduled the surveys for Wednesday afternoon of this coming week. Once we gather all the data about the current fish population, go through all the data about the history of the lake and the fish population surveys we had them fill out, we are going to combine all that info with the direction they want the fishery to move towards to come up with a 5 year management plan. The plan will help them determine annual fish stockings, daily fish limits, vegetation control options, and habitat enhancement improvements. Very fun project!

Thursday I had a pond consultation in Princeville, and put together a vegetation management plan for an association near kickapoo. The rest of the day is a blur cause I cant remember anything else. (must have been working on some tax stuff and other office organizing junk)

Friday we installed some fish feeders in Lewiston, put in an aeration system in Hanna City, and then I delivered smallmouth bass to Cuba. Here is a pic of the smallmouth bass going into this awesome lake.

After delivering the smallmouth I headed out to stay at our lake for the night to get ready for my fishing trips on Saturday. I ate dinner and spent some time with the fam and rigged up some more rod holders on the pontoon boat and got all my gear together.

Saturday at 8 am I met up with Jeff, Chuck, and Ron. They donated a bunch of money to the Children's Advocacy fundraising auction and in return we took them out on a guided fishing trip. They really wanted to catch some crappies, but instead the only thing we could catch was some bluegill, trout, smallmouth, largemouth, yellow perch, and a whole bunch of walleye. We still had a lot of fun and caught a ton of fish, but was disappointed in not being able to get them boys some crappies??? Hey, take notice that only 2 of the 3 fishing in the group are in the following photos and also take note that the majority of the photos are of Ron. Ron came into this trip with absolutely no fishing experience or equipment. He just simply learned how to use the fishing rod, listened to all of my instruction and just did exactly what he was told to do.

After lunch I took out Matt, Kent, Zac, and Jesse Snyder. They purchased their guided trip from the Peoria Christian School fundraising auction. Both Zac and Jesse attend PCS and they were fish catching machines. Especially Jess, she outfished all of them boys put together!

We had a handful of broken lines on some huge fish, and also lost a 30 inch northern at the boat, but still managed to fill up the livewell with a bunch of walleye, trout, perch, giant bluegill, and naturally of course the crappie decided to cooperate as well- go figure.

By the time I got everything cleaned up it was dark and I still needed to load up the electrofishing boat to pull back into town. The trailer ball hook up thing was about 8 inches lower than the hitch receiver thing on my truck and the jack that raises er up was broken. I tried lifting that trailer with all of my might but couldnt get it up high enough and over enough. That boat is just too heavy. I broke two 2x6's trying to use them as leverage to lift the trailer up and over as well. I was sooo close to getting that hooked up myself, and sooo determined as well. Eventually that determination turned quickly into frustration and I realized I just needed to give up before I did any more damage to my back, pulled a hamstring, or threw something unnecessarily!@#$%!

Next week we are putting some miles on the truck headed to Metamora, Dallas City, Metamora, Champaign, Dahinda, Secor, somewhere in northern Illinois, and then south of Cuba. Working on some really cool projects next week! Might be another lazy Sunday afternoon on the 23rd.