Apple Cobbler

Apples are one of my favorite fruits and I could spend days cooking with them.  I love this time of year when most of the varieties are getting ripe and ready.  When I was first learning to cook my mother showed me a recipe for cobbler that is well suited to apples, peaches, cherries or any other fruit one has a notion to put into it, although my list here narrows it down to the ones I care to use in it.  I’ve seen blackberries, blueberries, and quite a few other variations.  I will eat them, but I don’t care for them. 

The Memories

She would say “A cup of flour, a cup of sugar, a cup of milk and a stick of butter.”  Melt the butter into a baking pan or glass baking dish in the oven at 350 degrees.  Mix the other ingredients in a bowl and when the butter is melted and the pan pre-heated pour them over the butter.  If you pour into the middle of the pan the butter will push out to the edges and upwards so as to keep the cobbler from sticking.  She would normally use pie filling from a can, but I have since preferred to prepare my apples myself. 

The Work

I prepare my apples in the same manner I do for most of the baking applications I use them in.  I peel and cut them into a pan with enough water to coat the bottom.  I cook them on a medium high heat and sprinkle in some white sugar, some brown sugar, some cinnamon, nutmeg and a splash of vanilla.  I cook them into a thick apple sauce and leave some of the pieces larger. 

The Mix

I pour the apples into the batter in the baking dish and spread them out towards the edges and as evenly as possible.  I then bake the cobbler in the oven on 350 for around 45 minutes or until the top gets a nice golden color and the sides develop a darker crust and begin to draw back from the sides of the dish. 

The Reward

A glass of milk or a scoop of vanilla ice cream tops off a bowl or plate full of cobbler nicely and warms the body up wonderfully when the weather turns cooler.  God made apples to grow in the soils in this area on slopes that are not well suited to other types of crops and he planted me right here as well, so maybe it’s a natural thing that I love apples. 

Proverbs 25:11

Pecans

I’ve always had a taste for pecans, but when I was living on the coast of NC I got the chance to really develop that taste and for certain I can say they are my favorite type of nut.  There were pecan trees growing in nearly every yard and on most clearings where there had been homes at one time.  The vast majority of these trees grew just a handful of tiny pecans each year.  I was very fortunate though and my next-door neighbors had quite a few very large pecan trees growing in their yard.  They were remodeling the house that sat on the lot slowly by themselves and thus were not living there and would not be for quite some time.  The major difference between these trees and the rest of the trees everywhere else I looked was that the neighbors had several rabbit hutches, and quite a number of chicken coops sitting under these pecan trees.  As one might imagine the trees were incredibly lush and green and were well fed to put out a mast crop like no others that I knew of.  They put out pecans in extremely prolific quantities and I must have been the only person who had any desire to gather and process them.  I asked if I could collect the pecans and they said they would not be using them for anything, and that I could have all that I wanted. 

 Processing Tasks

I commenced to gathering pecans in several buckets I had and soon filled up two five-gallon buckets.  I sat in the house shelling them out into a bowl night after night with every intention of using them for cooking or eating in some way or another.  I soon had the idea to put them up for sale as a shelled out finished product, and that turned into one of the best ideas that I had come up with in the struggling and strapped for cash condition we were living in at the time.  I don’t remember how many buckets I filled with the pecans as they continued to fall through the season, but I do know I spent every night for weeks on end shelling and processing pecans.  Since I love menial tasks of that nature it was absolutely therapeutic to me.  I enjoyed the actual work, I relished the fact that it was providing for my family and it also played directly into my nature that I was using something that would have otherwise have gone to waste. 

For Sale

I filled quart freezer bags full of pecan meat and sold bag after bag with no problem.  It turned into a way to put food on the table in more ways than one.  Not only was the revenue a very needed blessing, but I also kept the pieces that broke for my own family’s use.  I incorporated the pecans into so many dishes, I have forgotten all the uses I came up with.  My most notable and the one that turned out the best, and also, I was most pleased with was adding crushed bits into a crab cake mixture.  I thoroughly enjoyed the crab cake recipe that I came up with and ate them often, being the crab was free as well with a little bit of time spent on one end of a piece of twine tied to a chicken neck in the black water around the area. 

God's Provisions

I am so thankful God provided what we needed down there, not much at all that we wanted, but he always had something up his sleeve to pull out when I felt all hope was lost and the boat would sink.  The pecans were one of the biggest I remember, some of the others turned out to be curses in the long run in some ways, but several others were blessings as well.  I may disclose in the future some of the other means of supporting the family, but my scavenging and resourcefulness was put to the ultimate survival test when we lived there.  Necessity is the mother of invention they say, and there God caused me to invent quite a few new ways of getting through. 

Proverbs 13:11

Zucchini Bread

Truck farming as I once saw it called in a western novel that I read used to be a way of life for so many people in this area, simply to feed the family they would grow and the kids would all be charged with picking and breaking and hoeing weeds and carrying water and tending the garden in all ways they seem to need.  I sometimes miss parts of taking care of a garden, but not often.  I’ve had terrible luck as of late with my gardening attempts it seems, but I do still love the efficient and self-sufficient nature of a garden.  I had a great time pouring my mind into it and doing the work itself for the most part in the limited attempts I’ve made.  Zucchini and yellow squash were two of the easier plants to grow and after I got a vacuum sealer I quickly found they would keep very well in the freezer. 

Zucchini also has grown to become one of my favorite in quite a few dishes, but most of all I have grown fond of zucchini bread.  It tastes incredible, its full of zucchini, and it freezes really well and tastes just as good if not better after it thaws.  I’ve found quite a few recipes for it, and really have not had one turn out bad yet.  My last was as follows: 

3 cups flour                                                                                          1 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp salt                                                                                               2 ¼ cups white sugar

1 tsp baking soda                                                                                3 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking powder                                                                           2 cups grated zucchini

1 tbsp ground cinnamon                                                                    1 cup chopped walnuts

3 eggs

Preheat the oven to 325.  Grease two small 8x4” glass baking dishes over both the bottom and all the sides. 

Mix flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and baking powder in a bowl together well. 

Mix well the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla in a larger bowl.   Stir in all the dry ingredients mixing well as you go.  Mix in the zucchini and walnuts.  Pour mixture into the two pans evenly.  Bake in oven for around 50-60 minutes or until a fork inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Remove from the oven and let the pans cool completely.  Then flip over pans and bread loaves should fall out. 

Working the Garden

This has been one of the tastiest and warming ways to get green vegetables.  I’m certain God intended man to work the fields or tend to some sort of manual labor for at least a portion of his life and I fear the up and coming generation and entirely too much of this one does without the lessons which that teaches, if only that it can be unpleasant and can allow less tedious and strenuous work to be more appreciated.  So much goes unlearned and unnoticed without a stint as such in ones’ life. 

Matthew 9:37-38

Bird Dogs

Dogs have always had a special spot in my heart.  As a disclaimer I do not view them in the same way as many other folks do.  I am a very firm believer that God did in fact give man dominion over the animals.  I cut my teeth training beagles and coon dogs.  I loved to hear them open up after rabbits and coons, but it did not take me long to not enjoy so much when they opened up all hours of the day and night at home though.  Their training was not very intense, mostly just expose them to their quarry and let them figure it out on their own or from letting them tie in with the older more experienced dogs.  There wasn’t much in the way of handling other than coming when called and loading and unloading into the dog boxes.  I enjoyed and still enjoy running after these hounds and they will always stir something in me. 

Bird Dogs

Then I discovered bird dogs.  These seemed to be on an entirely different level.  They would handle to so many more commands, they would listen, they would retrieve birds, and find and lock down birds on point.  They became, very much a fascination and soon a love of mine.  I read books, fiction, non-fiction, instructional, magazines, and whatever else I could get my hands on about these special creatures.  I loved the spaniels that bounced around through the grass and flushed the birds, I loved the pointers and setters that locked down on the scent and became statues.  I loved the retrievers that swam after the birds in the water or retrieved downed birds in heavy cover.  The versatile breeds though quickly took my notice and I was determined to have one.  They could do several of the jobs that the other dogs could and that versatility and need for only one dog for all the work just seemed to fit like a glove. 

All Kinds 

Since then I have had several bird dogs, I’ve had a German Shorthair Pointer, I’ve had a Drahthaar, and I’ve had a Lab.  I have been impressed with all three and all three were wonderful dogs.  I had much more time with the shorthair and so became supremely attached to him more than the other two.  I have enjoyed shooting doves, woodcock, grouse, quail, ducks and geese over my dogs and they have located birds to shoot and found shot birds that I would not have been able to on my own.  Part of being self-reliant and self-sufficient and as efficient as I can be in my hunting ventures has included training my own bird dogs.  I particularly enjoy training puppies and watching them latch onto the lessons and grow as well as develop into hunting machines.  Sadly, I am without any bird dog at the moment, but I hope that will not be a permanent situation.

More to Come 

I will have another dog when I retire but living where I live and not having the freedom to travel to suitable hunting locations does not do justice to a dog and I will not be responsible for holding one back from achieving its potential.  I identify with a bird dog trying to make a living in this area of the world where homes now grow where once quail and grouse used to.  Rabbits still abound but are now racing in and out of neighborhood privacy fences and planted shrubs, feeding on manicured grasses and postage stamp sized garden plots.  These places will not return, nor will the birds return to them, and thus I must follow the feathers to a more fertile and less populated land eventually, where if a man doesn’t have a bird dog then he has shorted himself a huge portion of his potential.  God allowed man to domesticate dogs to have companionship.  Bird dogs took that to another plane entirely and give back so much more than simply companionship.  These dogs are amongst the very few who can actually “earn their keep” and not because someone simply says that they do.  These work horses are easy for me to identify with and I share a certain bond I feel. 

Genesis 1:26

Rabbit Hunting

Rabbit hunting was my very first taste of the hunting world.  I always feel the hardest tug at my heart strings when I think of it, and on the first day of fall this year I can’t help but feel it coming on.  I know quite a few cut their teeth on squirrels and some on deer, but my uncles and my cousins always had beagles, and we always had the best times chasing them as they chased rabbits.  My very strongest and fondest childhood memories are freezing my toes off in boots and clothes that were not nearly enough to fend off the chill as I traipsed through the briars and weeds after the beagles.   As I look back perhaps it wasn’t inadequate clothing so much as it was my body not having enough self defense mechanisms to stave off the cold.  I think it was also the first time I truly “toughed out” something without complaining or telling just how bad it felt.  I absolutely loved and treasured each time I got to go with my uncle, and even more so when we could steal away with my great uncle and my cousins. 

 Soaking It All In

I loved every aspect of rabbit hunting.  I loved the dogs, I loved riding in the trucks with holes rusted through the floorboards, and the smells of tobacco juice spit into Pepsi bottles.  I loved the burnt gunpowder that lingered long in the frosty air.  I even loved the smell of wet dogs as they went through the grass.  I loved getting up before daylight and the ill-fitting hand me down clothes.  I remember being too young to carry a gun and running after the whole parade with my green camo Bear bow and a couple of passed down aluminum arrows with missing and torn fletchings.  There wasn’t anything I loved more than hearing everyone yell as they jumped rabbits, and then one dog open and the others make a line for it and open then take off in a cacophony of racket that still to this day stands my hairs up and pumps my blood double time.  There wasn’t a single thing about it all that I hated more than having to stop for the day.  I never wanted to go home.  I was always proud to carry the rabbits that everyone else shot when I was younger, although sometimes one was about my limit in the back of my game vest and even then I would have to pass it along towards then end, but I couldn’t have been happier in this world than doing what I was doing. 

 Family

I remember hunting with my great uncle and his laugh that was so contagious it livened up entire rooms and everyone around within earshot.  I wish so many times that I had some way of recording it or hearing it again somehow.  I was too young to get to absorb all the wisdom from the sport he had accumulated over a lifetime of chasing beagles, and I still try to soak up every ounce of that same type wisdom from my uncle when we talk rabbit hunting.  I could not get enough of it and still to this day cannot.  I remember the lively nature of the bunch when the dynamics would change with the addition of several cousins and more dogs from their pack.  We could hunt the same fields with different folks and different dogs on different days and have absolutely night and day different experiences. 

                                                        True Pride

I believe my happiest moments to date are watching my boys soak in the same experiences that I had chasing behind the beagles and getting to pick up the rabbits as we get them.  I don’t remember being any prouder than when I told my youngest son to stay on the roads and edges with my uncle as I plunged into the briars after the dogs only to look back and watch a 4 year old fighting briars right behind me as hard as I was and not letting out any sign of pain.  He has since not let up and although I cannot provide him with the same amount of exposure to rabbit hunting as I was able to experience as a kid due to the astronomical growth of the area we live in and the exponential shrinking of the areas we are able to hunt, I still give him every opportunity I can to take to the field and get in on as much as possible. 

Goals and Aspirations

I love rabbit hunting above nearly any other type I pursue, and I plan to take it back up very seriously whenever I can move again to a place that will allow me to do so.  A nice brace of fast blue tick beagles with keen long noses and bright tail tips going through some thick briars in a huge vast expanse of thickly grown fields sounds about as close to heaven right now as I can imagine being.  God gave the rabbits a special place in my heart and though I have strayed from that I always come back to it in my mind and heart.  When times get tough I remind myself of my end goals and I think back on my roots and I know that problems in life are like those briar patches we have to sometimes bull through at the expense of tearing shirts, pants and boot laces, but the sum total of all the events is worth it. 

Genesis 1:30

My Top 5 Crappie Baits

I do not use a wide variety of crappie lures normally when I fish, I do generally stick to a proven few that have given me the most success.  I try to keep a few simple rules in mind.  The first is slow down.  The second is don’t stop using what works, and the third is don’t leave fish when they are biting to go find more fish.  I vary my approach up depending on what type of fishing I am doing, and what time of year, and according to conditions, light, temperature and all manner of other variables.  My system is by no means perfect, but it does seem to be consistent.  I have not had the greatest luck with shad or minnows.  I prefer artificial baits because they are easier to handle, there is no need to keep them alive, and they can catch quite a few crappie before having to change up.  Here are my top 5 crappie lures that I use.

                                                               Shadpoles

5.  Shadpoles.  I like the way the shadpoles swim with the tiny ball on the tail and the fat body that gives a little bit more meat than some of the other offerings.  The bonus is that these are super for catching bream of all species as well.  I do not hesitate to throw bream on my stringer or in my cooler when I catch them.  I like to sort through the packets and find the lures with the chartreuse color on the tail when chartreuse is what they are hitting.  This seems to have more of a success ratio than the ones which whatever other color is incorporated into the scheme extends all the way to the end. 

Crankbaits

4.  Crankbaits.  I like crankbaits in the warmer weather when crappie tend to be more active and will pursue their quarry more.  These also offer a slightly bigger morsel and trigger more of a reaction bite most of the time.  I have quickly become a fan of these in the summer time and quite enjoy the strike they produce.  The downside to these is that they attract quite a bit of attention from green carp and other nefarious and non-target species. 

Slider Grubs

3.  Crappie Slider Grubs.  These I fish under a small float generally and my main reason is because they tend to work best under at least a 1/16 oz head which is normally the heaviest I fish.  The 1/16 oz heads cause the baits to move faster than I like however, so the float is a great way to slow them down and produce strikes.  Also, it keeps them in the strike zone once you find it and as a bonus they generally are situated on a larger hook which keeps the fish on better. 

Baby Shad

2.  Baby Shad.  Baby Shad, or whatever other variation of name they go under depending on which brand.  I do not see any difference between the way the brands catch fish.  I find that these are great and almost always a winner in so many situations, and there is such a huge variety of colors that there is nearly no condition they won’t conquer. 

Panfish Stingers

1.Panfish Stingers.  My go to bait for crappie that are being finicky and that are early or late, or deep or shallow, or for trolling, or for shooting or jigging has to be the panfish stinger.   These are some of the smallest baits that I fish, and they come in a very big variety of colors.  They can be fished deeper with a slightly larger jig head because they are small and sink a little faster, but they can be fished really slowly with smaller jig heads when the fish want things in slow motion.  The tiny size and tail motion seem to do the trick as often as anything else I have found. 

Those are in my own personal experience my go to lures.  Occasionally I will use some others, but those are the ones that consistently seem to catch my crappie.  The colors may vary a bit, but I generally do not go wrong with white/chartreuse, black/chartreuse, or something clear with sparkles if I had to narrow it completely down to bare bones.  Its amazing to me the ingenuity that God bestowed on man to come up with ways to fool nature into becoming a meal.  These little soft plastics always give me pause when I think of how they work on a fish that is used to living its life eating live things in the water, and suddenly a piece of soft plastic surrounding a hard metal hook and weighted lead jighead comes swimming by and entices a bite. 

Romans 8:28

Pencil Drawing

Pencil drawing, probably the second thing that I found in life that I actually had a knack for started for me pretty early in life.  I found that I had a fair handle on the hand eye coordination game.  Drawing for school work came pretty naturally to me.  When I was in fourth grade, one of my friends who had just moved recently to the school showed me something that changed my whole perspective.  Sketching.  He showed me how to draw without pressing hard and making hard lines.  Within a few days I was sketching everything I possibly could and within a week or two I discovered that regular pencils weren’t even something that I was interested in drawing with because I couldn’t achieve the level of control that I desired.  I soon found that mechanical pencils would give me so much more ability to capture detail and soon I found that there were different sizes of lead for mechanical pencils and by middle school I even found that there were .03 MM lead pencils which suited me just fine. 

Animals

I began developing a love for drawing animals and about the same time began developing a dislike for art classes.  By the time I was in high school I had developed a serious distaste for art classes, and I only took two at the strong urging of my art teachers and several other teachers.  I had no desire to work with other mediums at the time.  I was not interested in color, I was not interested in three-dimensional works, and I was not interested in any sort of paints especially.   The main lesson I took from all my art classes was that in order to ultimately be successful and keep from infringing copyrights I should begin shooting my own photographs, which later became something I relished greatly and still do.  I got to a point I enjoyed that more than actually creating the artwork itself.  I also have quite a few photos that I can work from and intend to capture more in the future.  

Tough Lessons 

I once worked on a pencil drawing of a turkey that took me a span of nearly 4 years to complete.  I packed as much detail into it as possible and I poured my focus, attention and my best work into it.  Since then I really have not put that much into any pencil drawing, mainly I suppose because it taught me quite a lot about the way people think.  People ultimately like color much more so than black and white. 

More Lessons

I drew so many pencil works for so many girlfriends in the past and they are no doubt all lost forever.  I drew designs for t-shirts for clubs and drew many other pieces for other causes and other folks.  I drew a design for a website I used to have and even found it as a tattoo on a guy in Lincoln county when I worked there.  Completely random, I saw the bottom of the tattoo coming below his sleeve on his bicep and asked him what it was.  He said he had picked the design at random off the internet and was completely at a loss for what to say when I showed him that it was in fact my website.  That told me that there are most likely countless others through the nation and possibly the world who share the same tattoo.  Thus is life I suppose and I should leave things at that before I climb onto a rant.   

                                                        Growing

Since then I have discovered that I do enjoy working with color, mainly colored pencils although I have dabbled into watercolors quite to my own satisfaction, and with my work I tend to be hands down, my harshest critique.  I had to develop my own system for my colored pencil work and it means I keep hundreds of colored pencils on hand in a small shelf system, all of which are kept as sharp as possible and as many of each color as I can.  As soon as one loses its edge I pick up another continue.  All in all though, pencil drawing was my first real latch onto the artistic world, and I do still enjoy from time to time creating something that I can stand back and look at.  God created such beauty in the animals and fish in this world that it has always inspired me to try and recreate it as closely as possible.  I can only do renditions and nothing close to his handiwork, but I hope that in some way he is pleased.  

Exodus 35:35

Colored Pencil on Wood

When I lived on the coast the cost of living and the rate of income I had both left quite a lot to be desired.  In order to fill in the gaps I began doing all manner of art work to help pay the bills.  I soon found that people loved the wood burning designs, they also loved my pencil work, but when it comes to actually spending their money they tend to gravitate towards color designs.  I took a chance using some colored pencils on some of the wood that I would normally have worked on with my burner. 

The Difference

I discovered that it was comparable to the amount of work that the wood burning designs were, but were simply different in their execution, and easier in some regards due to the fact that the lead does not sink into the softer portions of the wood as the wood burner does.  The colors take somewhat longer to blend correctly and some are harder to achieve, unlike the wood burning which is only dark or light. 

The Customer

I suppose the old saying it’s not what you like, it’s what the customer likes applies there.  I showed my work in the Currituck Wildlife Festival and found out first hand that everyone loves and adores the wood burning and the pencil art, but without really admiring or complimenting much the color work somehow they just bought it hands down more than the other. 

Color

I suppose that’s got something to do with God’s use of color in the world, and in the animals that I portray in my art work.  He draws the human eye to these colors and paints the world around us in plenty of color variety.  While I can never equal his artistic touch I have tried to imitate and come up with some designs that are aesthetically pleasing and I suppose imitation is the truest form of flattery. 

2 Chronicles 2:7

Frog Gigging

When I was young and with much fewer tethers I lost count of how many frogs fell to my gig.  My cousin and I decided to go out and gather frog legs from all the ponds in our area with our newly gained driver’s licenses.  We struck a deal with a friend to use his old aluminum flat bottom boat for the small fee of a mess of frog legs, and we were in business.  We had no paddles, nor did he have any paddles to borrow along with the boat, so we used spades and shovels to motivate through any water we encountered.  We carried that boat mile upon mile through fields and woods to get it into all the farm ponds we knew of. 

Pay Dirt

Most of the ponds we gigged soon showed evidence that they had not been harvested in years due to the number and size of the frogs we were able to collect.  Flashlights came and went and I believe we ended up with the most success using my cousin’s old coon hunting light with the cord and large detached battery.  We worked at first to remove the legs from the frogs in the boat with a large skinning knife, but soon found that a hatchet or machete worked really well against a flat piece of lumber.  Several nights we collected upwards of 50 sets of legs and not nearly as much sleep.   We fought off many snakes and jumped many sleeping herons and other wading birds from their night perches as we worked each bank of each pond. 

New Equipment

Since then I have not gone gigging nearly as much, but each year I do attempt at least one foray into the frog waters to claim a small batch of legs.  I plan to do much more of this in the future, but my situation is thus at present that I am squeezed for time more so than anything.  My equipment has gotten much better and I’ve developed a one man system that is much more efficient, lighter and quicker.  I have a few head lamps and some smaller but brighter lights, I have a small kayak and a longer gig handle I’ve fashioned from bamboo. 

The Eating

I love frog legs, and I have since also come up with quite a few more ways to prepare them, one of those being a sauce piquant I will attempt to post a recipe for in the future.  I also try to bring frog legs to all the people who used to support my adventures growing up, from the friend who lent us his boat, to the various other folks who were always good to me along the way, who now may not be able to go out in pursuit of their own fresh frog legs.  I believe the very rarity of such an item and the knowledge of what went into getting them really leaves an impact more so than anything that could have been bought at any grocery store.  I hope that I will be able to continue to gig for many years to come, and I do plan to pass this knowledge down to my children and God willing grandchildren when the time comes.  I have scouted out a great many new locations that I have not yet been able to take advantage of since I’ve moved back home, but I will hopefully get to do just that soon and I will be sure and post further about any successful forays.  God’s bounty isn’t always easy to obtain, it isn’t always aesthetic, but if you have never had properly prepared frog legs, then you have not truly experienced this bounty at all.  I never thought I’d be thankful for a frog, but as it turns out the more time I spend not gigging the more I value each outing I do get to go on. 

Psalm 105:30

Slow Trolling for Crappie

Slow trolling crappie has been one of the toughest techniques for me to learn.  I am still by no means any kind of master at it, but I have seen my success rate begin to climb to the point where I depend on it quite often.  I have had success with it in the spring time, and I have had success with it in the summer time and also in the early fall.  The very nature of having to go that slowly is against my nature in general because I tend to be full blast at every waking moment.  Even jigging and shooting docks there are only a few slow moments when I am reeling in after casting.  When I am making my kayak go the same speed the lure needs to move that took a while for me to get into. 

Equipment

After breaking several long trolling rods, I have ended up with a trolling set up that consists of one 12’ rod and one 9’ rod on one side of my kayak, and on the other I have a 10’ and 7’ rod.   I had a more consistent set up, but I have an even more consistent track record of breaking the most expensive rods and so I have whittled things down to where I have the cheapest that I can find, and like a stray dog that you can never seem to get rid of, they tend to last and hang on. 

Sinkers

I like to use a ¼ oz egg weight unless the wind is kicking hard or I needed to drop the depth quickly, which I wrap my line through 3-4 times to hold it in place about 12-18 inches above my lure.  I continue with my artificial lure trend with my trolling.  I tie on a 1/16 oz jig head again unless the wind plays havoc or I need the baits to get down faster, with a simple knot that allows the jig to ride in the water upright and to swing freely so it doesn’t swim at an awkward unnatural angle.  I sometimes use my depth finder when the fishing gets a little tougher.  Whatever depth I begin picking up fish is where I adjust my lure depth to, slightly higher by a few inches to a foot.  Crappie hunt upwards so having the lure above that depth increases the likelihood they will eat what I float in front of them.   The lakes I fish are deep and so not too many of the color charts and depth charts that I’ve seen online work. 

Lures

I generally don’t play around very much with colors in the conditions and locations I fish.  I have excellent luck with black and chartreuse and with white and chartreuse, sometimes I’ll throw in a red or blue, but I haven’t had much luck with variety.  On a sunny day I’ll throw in a clear or white lure with sparkles.  In the late spring and summer, sometimes I notice the fish and the bait fish are darker because they have gone shallower in the water and so the darker colors seem to work well.  In the early spring and later in the fall the fish seem to be lighter colored and the lighter colors seem to be what they want.  I try to match the fish coloration to some extent, and the light conditions. 

Hem Them In 

One lake that I fish built my confidence up a great deal in.  I waited until later in the winter when the lake levels were dropped drastically.  All the fish were concentrated down towards the dam, and I was able to really hone in on what depths and areas and colors the fish really wanted.  Having a kayak meant I had the entire lake to myself and I raked in a limit on several visits. 

Slow Pace

Patience is a virtue I’ve heard it say.  Crappie fishing is about a slow presentation more so than most other fishing.  Usually I can achieve this simply by reeling slower, so patience in paddling or pedaling depending on which kayak I am in has become a virtue that I’m still working on.  God supplied us with an adaptable nature like nothing else in the world seems to have.  He supplied me with a personality that borders on obsessive when it comes to something that interests me or something that I enjoy and wish to learn.  All the finer points of crappie fishing I do not yet know, but my obsessive nature is putting me ever closer to them, and I will continue fishing as long as the Good Lord blesses me with strength to go, and freedom to continue.  I always say I am a meat fishermen, as I’ve heard it said about folks before who hunt for food.  I don’t find that to be an insult as I believe the term was coined to imply.  I’m a firm believer that God put us here to have dominion over the animals and thus I am not a catch and release type fisherman. 

Matthew 4:18

Apple Pie

I went to a restaurant years ago and one of the menu items there was apple pie with ice cream on top.  It was incredible.  I could have eaten a huge plate of it, but it cost an astronomical amount.  I decided that apple pie wasn’t that hard to make and began the experimentation when I got back home. 

Experiment 

I know from past experience that the refrigerated crusts from the grocery store are not that much lower quality than the ones it would take me quite a while to make on my own, and they are also much more uniform usually as well.  I baked the crust in the oven in a pie pan for 15 minutes on 350 degrees.  While it baked I began peeling about 4-5 golden delicious apples and 1-2 granny smith apples.  I cut the core out and chopped the apples into a sauce pan with a small amount of water in the bottom.  I heated the pan on medium high heat and sprinkled in some white sugar, a small bit of brown sugar, a splash of vanilla, a few teaspoons of cinnamon and about a ¼ cup of plain minute oatmeal.  I cooked the apples until some of the first ones in the pan were small and some of the last ones into the pan were still sizeable chunks.  I took out the pie crust that was baking and poured in the apples.  I smoothed them out until they were at the same thickness all over the crust.  I cut up the other pie crust that was left in the pack of two into strips.  I placed the strips across the top of the apples into a cross hatch pattern.  In the openings between the strips of crust I poured in graham cracker crumbs.  I put the pie back into the oven for another 15 minutes on 350 degrees.

Heaven Sent

With ice cream scooped over a slice of the pie it was pretty close to the pie they had in the restaurant and I end up making 5-6 of these pies throughout the apple season every year to eat myself and at least that many to give away or take to friends and neighbors.  I love the apples that God almost perfectly suited to grow in the area I live.  So many of the farmers around the area have so many different varieties and there are many places along the roads to buy them.  When the goldens are gone, the granny smiths linger on into the later fall and early winter before the frost finally softens them up and the recipe can be made completely with them. 

Psalm 1:3

A Crawfish Found Is a Crawfish Earned

This past spring  I went for a run in one of the parks that I enjoy near my house.  I noticed after getting into the parking lot that there were several really large dark red crawfish posturing towards vehicles and everything else that came their way.  I paid them only a passing bit of attention and continued into my run.  Along the way I could hear several women and effeminate men jumping and squealing or crying out to avoid the crawfish that had invaded the grass and trails and parking area.  I completed my run and got into my truck thinking about the crawfish.  Although I did not feel like staying out at that point when the sun had started beating down after my morning run, I do love some crawfish.  I proceeded to gather up my cooler that I normally keep in my truck and I cut the bottom out of a water bottle. 

The Cooler Trap

The cooler I used to get the attention of the crawfish as I swung it in front of them.  They would posture up with their claws in the air and begin backing away.  The water bottle I could hold by the cap end and they would back straight into it as if it was a rock crevice.  They were neatly poured into my cooler one by one and on to the next.  I gathered as many as I could find and all the while people thanking me for my service to the community.  I later contacted my friend who works for the fisheries division for the NCWRC about the crawfish.  He said they were an invasive and also thanked me for gathering them from the area. 

The Meal

When I returned home I rinsed them all off in the sink and I boiled them in a large pot on the stove until their shells reached that bright red that seafood gains once it completely cooks.  I shelled them out and since I’m not Cajun threw out the brains and head portion and kept the tail meat.  I boiled some brown rice.  I sautéed a chopped onion, chopped celery and chopped green peppers in some olive oil with some andouille sausage, and some chicken breast.  I mixed all these ingredients into the rice with the crawfish tails and added some Cajun spices and some pepper for my own rendition of jambalaya.  As it turns out sriracha sauce on top of that makes a mouthwatering addition that I’ve been incredibly pleased to have found.  Since then I have not been able to time another crawfish migration, but I really felt blessed God provided me with a free meal from the park after a morning run.  A little bit of work went a long way and made for a really nice dinner.  Sometimes God’s supplies to us are not obvious at first, but if we make the best of what he has provided then things will turn out just fine. 

Psalm 81:10

Bream Fishing

Bream are another species high on my list to pursue in the fishing world so long as I’m stuck as a freshwater fisherman.  I find them to be very tasty and extremely plentiful.  They put up a heck of a fight especially when you hook into a big one.  They have a few more veins in the fillets, but other than that they are fine on the table.  The limits are more liberal than most other fish, if you are in an area that has limits on them.  I sometimes focus my attention solely on them and a few trips per year I try to really fill up the cooler.  I have had good luck fishing them the same ways and with the same baits as I crappie fish with, and often catch them in my attempts to pull crappie from their haunts. 
Perhaps the most effective way I have found to catch bream consistently is with a black paddle tail grub with a chartreuse paddle tail or a shadpole bait with the little ball on the tail underneath a tiny trout magnet float.  I generally use a 1/16 oz jig head and some super glue around the collar to affix the soft plastic because the bream tend to be rough on baits.  I often lose the chartreuse tail as they normally like to strike that first and tear it off.

Strike Zone
Fishing this way keeps the bait in the strike zone throughout the retrieve and if its stopped can remain in the same zone and twitched.  When I first cast I let the bait sink until it nearly pulls the float under.  (The 1/16 oz heads are as much weight as the tiny floats can handle and still remain on top).  I then pop the cork back with as quick a twitch as I can and let it make that snapping sound on top of the water just before I begin reeling.  It sounds almost like a panfish hitting top water and attacking insects on the surface, and more often than not that’s when I will get most of my strikes.









Mixed Bag
Bream, Shellcrackers, Bluegill, all tend to have similar habits and stay in similar places in the water and I do not generally delineate between the species unless the limits on each require me to do so.  I shoot docks for them, I’ll throw into the same brush piles I pull crappie from, and quite often they will be in the shallows near the banks.  If they are on the beds, I like to stay a good ways back in my kayak and throw into the bedding areas with the same rig.  It may take a while to get the depth adjusted to where it works out, but this can be productive once its determined.  I have had more luck for bream in areas where there is overhanging vegetation than most other species, and they tend to like the areas where logs and other wood wash into the bends and the coves. 








Big Fighters
When bream are “on” then the fishing can be non-stop and action packed.  I love catching them and their fight almost never disappoints.  I’ve often heard it say if they weight 10 lbs then nobody could land one.  These have to be the most common fish in my area by far and I feel God put them here for us to enjoy and appreciate.  They fill ponds, lakes and rivers, and can provide some incredible fishing.  Many days fishing I have set out for crappie and with every intention of feeding my kids that evening with fresh fish only to find the crappie very finicky and tough to locate.  At that point God blessed me with a stringer full of bream to supplement my haul and nobody knew the difference at meal time. 
                                                                   

Luke 5:4-6