As the year progressed, we did some really fun things. Debbie and I, with daughter Ashley, drove to the left coast and took a look at a school in San Diego. We were able to meet up with JHAP and JWHAP for dinner one night and spent some time with Patrick Simmsgeiger and his wife, Maria Angel, long time Pond Boss advertisers. As we made our journey, we traveled up PCH and hit all the small towns up the coast all the way to Malibu. Then, we motored across California, into Arizona, where we made a quick stop at the Grand Canyon.
While we had plenty of wonderful fisheries management projects, travel seemed to highlight the summer.
Dr. Dave Willis, Head of the Natural Resources Department at South Dakota State University and Dr. Brian Graeb, fisheries professor, made their way to LL,2. We caught some nice stripers in Lake Texoma and then took a tour of several or our better projects, plus some time at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center, near Athens. We did some fantastic brainstorming and decided to bring some students to Texas to some field work and help with a genetic study we were in the midst of designing.
We caught a few stripers.
Good catch!
Brian pulled otoliths from some of the stripers, just for fun.
We toured Inslee Fish Farm, the people who started the feed-trained bass craze years ago. They are true pioneers in fisheries.
Brian even went off the zip line at LL,2. We had a great time and came up with some good ideas.
We took a tour of the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center.
Talking about trained fish....these creatures will eat out of your hand.
We also spent some time in the electrofishing boat.
