Waterfowl Biologist Meeting

Last night I had the opportunity to host a bunch of waterfowl biologists from the entire Mississippi flyway down at the Hooked On Fishing Park. They came from like 14 different states from Alabama all the way up to Canada. Some Ducks Unlimited biologists and other US Fish and Wildlife people were there as well. Altogether we had about 50 guys come down to the park just to hang out, do some fishing and of course EAT! A great break from a bunch of meetings and seminars.

Here is about half the group standing together.


They are all in town meeting for a week solid about hunting seasons, limits, conservation, habitat, and all sorts of stuff that directly affect how we manage our flock of birds in the flyway. It was extremely interesting to spend some time with these guys and get some inside information not typically available to the public. I am sworn to secrecy so I can't mention anything about stuff like the new 90 day duck season proposal and 5 goose bag limits.....just kidding.......

Anyhow Chef Todd outdid himself with this feast! With the help of key park volunteers Charlie Bracket, Bill Johnson, Todd Clanin and Brett Erickson, he pulled off a wild game feast of epic proportions! He basically cooked all this food outside in 40 degree weather with a big grill, a turkey fryer, a deep fryer, and a generator powering roasters.

Chef going to town on the big grill:


While some of the guys were out fishing and catching rainbow trout, largemouth bass, and big bluegills; Chef and co were cooking away under the pavilion, and the rest of us were gobblin it down as fast as it would come hot off the press. I feel kind of bad, but I was pretty much camped out under the pavilion near the food the entire evening and only snapped one fish photo. He caught a monster rainbow right next to the pavilion so I finally ventured out from my laziness den and snapped the pic quick:



I snapped plenty of food photos though cause they were near my home base! On this plate there is antelope, mule deer, and whitetail to munch on.


Chef's secret homemade duck egg rolls:


Eggroll after spending a couple minutes in 400 degree grease:


Todd Clanins famous pulled, smoked pork butt. We had 4 different barbecue sauces for this meat!


Homemade goose gravy! Was supposed to be duck gravy, but we brought the wrong package of meat so it became goose gravy and by golly it turned out way better than this puky picture looks!


She was the only lady biologist and is from Michigan. From what I could tell she probably caught more fish than anyone until she lost her secret mepps spinner to a big fish. Cheff loaded her up with about 2 platefulls of food.


Duck eggroll, Chef's famous cole slaw, pulled pork sandwich, elk stuffed mushrooms covered with grilled bluecheese sauce and jalapeno mashed potatoes smothered with goose gravy!



Jeff Lampe's first plate. I don't think anyone had just one plate! There was always hot food coming off the press all night long!!


Grilled Elk stuffed mushrooms!


Fresh sweet chili glazed trout


I didn't get any pics of the fried yellowtail snapper fillets or several items that I have since forgotten about without picture documentation, but you get the point.... I had a early breakfast meeting this morning with a mennonite pastor at Bob Evans and didn't have much of an appetite for some reason? I choked down some pancakes, but definitely didnt go for the usual gravy and meat breakfast!

On another note, event planning for our annual Hooked On Fishing Fundraising Banquet at the new Metamora Fields Golf Course is going great! So far we have sold 38 tables of 8 to many friends of the park and several key area businesses. I have about 8 tables left and hope to fill them very soon!

Just this week the following businesses have stepped up and helped us out tremendously by donating items and sponsoring tables- Cefcu, Prairie Home Alliance, Lone Wolf Concrete, Rocke Brothers Masonry, Noah Herman Sons Builders, Presleys Outdoors, Sun Foundation, Heights Finance, Kaiser Electric, Bob Grimm Chevrolet, Timber Creek Land Company, Midwest Land and Habitat, Fort Transfer, FW Boland Plumbing, Carver Lumber, Dust Boss, Bobby Smith Remodeling and Roofing, The gang at Led's Shed and Heartland Outdoors! I know there are more businesses out there with a passion for outdoor education!!

I can't thank these businesses enough for their support of the park and also the entire community! I still have a handful of individual tickets left for $75 each and like mentioned earlier about 8 tables and then we will have the banquet hall filled to capacity! If we can fill those tables, the sky will be the limit for the fishing park this season!!!