Well, I'm back and I DO have pics, but can't figure out how to get them from my e-mail to my pictures folder. It probably doesn't help that my buddy has a MAC and I'm running Vista on this laptop.
Anyway, when he was showing me the property, we saw 3 boars, at 250 or so yds, all 200#-250#, mohawk on their back tusks all shiny and all, but since we weren't "hunting" I neglected to bring the rifle. All that was in the truck was a 17 HMR Savage. Those were the only hogs we saw all weekend.
I was able to take a Cormorant @ roughly 100 Yds with the .17 HMR as it sat on a dead tree about 2' off of the water. He has a permit from the State or Feds to do that, and he's right at 200 birds for the year to date. One 3# LMB that I caught had a stab mark on it's right gill plate, and 3 stab marks on it's left side. That was the first time I shot a .17 HMR, and I'm surprised at how accurate it is. The bird was dead before it hit the water. I caught 6 or 7 largemouth Bass between 2# and 4# on a 7 wt. Orvis Fly Rod and Reel with a popper that had a 1/0 or 2/0 hook (barb pinched down) AND I also caught an 11" Redear Sunfish on the same popper. His mouth was big enough that I could lip him like a bass. He was hooked from the inside out, that was the biggest Redear that I've caught. Who said they don't feed on the surface? It looked like the BG and RES were bedding right outside of the smartweed patch. We went to a different pond and played with some 10" bluegills on a 1 weight and 4 wt rod, and things got interesting when the feeder went off and the channel cats started slurping down the pellets. A 3# or 4# channel cat on those little rods are a BLAST to catch!
Unfortunately most of the fish that I caught were caught when the camera was back at the cabin. If anybody can figure out how to get pics from an e-mail to here I can either send them the e-mail, or take directions on how to do it. There is one pic of a CC and I took pointers from Bruce on the technique.
The ponds were up a good 4' the week before and they were still going down when we were there. His ranch hand neglected to move one of the Texas Hunter feeders and it was completely submerged. The feeder was retrieved, and the food was dumped out. I took everything apart and cleaned out EVERYTHING when we saw that his ranch hand only turned it upside down and dumped out the hopper. It sure was a smelly mess after 2 days in the heat with wet food around the fan and thrower! I put a new battery in it, and dried out the controls for a day in the hot truck. He was surprised when it worked, and even more surprised that I was able to straighten out the lid after he drove over it and parked with the rear tire of the Suburban right in the middle of the lid.
Good thing he had a hammer and an old anvil in the pole barn! He's letting it dry out for a week (timer on and running for a week with the feeder empty to try and get it all dry) before putting it back out on the pond. I like the design of the the TH Feeders because the internals are really easy to get to and relatively easy to clean out if the food gets wet.
He called me yesterday and said that they took the boat to the other side of the pond and he landed a 6.5# LMB on the popper - it figures!
When we talked before I went down there he said that they didn't have many snakes, just some copperheads and water moccasins. Well, did we see the snakes! Luckily we only saw one water moccasin, and that one was in the road as we drove home from the Italian Restraunt in Sulpher Springs. BUT, non-poisonous snakes? They were ALL over the place. There was one that took delight in swimming from one side of the pond to the other a few times a day. I don't know how big he was, but a good 5"-6" of him was up out of the water (head and front of his body) as he swam.
Lots of Wood Ducks, Whistling ducks, turtles, deer and other small birds. The beaver in the big pond were chewing on Cedars and Hackberries, luckily he had fencing around the elm trees that were near the pond.
