Rho's Boat!

Here are just a few photos of a Largemouth Bass that my young cousin Rho caught at Bass-O-Mania sometime earlier this year. It was a slow day, my uncle and I really struggled the day through catching not a single fish between us if I recall correctly. While fishing a bed of lily pads, which riddled the dam’s bank, a seemingly obvious hideout for the bass we were targeting, Rho (9 at the time) decided to cast his crawdad coloured lipless crank into the deeper water behind us. A short time after the plop he was screaming for mercy!  I thought he had got hooked up on the bottom but low and behold he seemed to be gaining line, and to our disbelief he had actually hooked into an absolute giant of a bass. I haven’t seen a rod bend like that in all the time that I have spent targeting bass.

A better indication of size.

Once he had eventually gotten the fish close enough to the boat I grabbed the fish by the lower jaw and lifted it from the water in awe. The beauty weighed in at no less than 2.4 kgs (+-5.3 pounds). Needless to say Rho seems to out fish us on every occasion, and I am certain that it must have something to do with the fact that, as older folk, we seem to think far too much about how to actually catch fish. I think that sometimes we need to just stop thinking about how to fish, and just fish.

Aaaaah, our new secret fishing hole… what a spot. A magnificent, unpressured body of water endowed with a thick perimeter of wide leaved lily pad fields, all surrounded by a beautiful landscape characteristic of the untapped Highveld. Oh and the fishing, well, it is not a particularly large dam but the fishing is simply phenomenal. Our recent excursion took us there on a day when most might have rather left their rods undisturbed in their dark cozy hideouts, and their lines high and dry. Put simply it was not the ideal outdoorsy day that we had been longing for the entire week leading up. None the less we braved the cloudy, near-cold, sunless-Saturday in pursuit of our large-mouthed fishy friends.

Bass Buggers's Bass

They obviously weren’t expecting us on such a near-miserable day as from the moment our lures began exploring the sub-aquatic dwelling of our aforementioned slippery friends, we were into the fish. Bang! The first largemouth bass took a dunebug Super Fluke with a distinctive thump. That was a little soon, I thought, but took a solid strike at it anyway and sure enough the first fish of about 1.1 kg’s was boated. Next it was “The Bass Bugger” Shaun Taylors’ turn. A weightless dunebug Dead Ringer was his weapon of choice, and obviously the order of the day for him as most of his catches were taken on this particular rig, with the odd exception of the few takes he managed with a dunebug Senko. For me it was the fluke which seemingly taught me a thing or 2 about fishing, the fish took it so readily it was as if I hardly had to make the effort of a cast. In fact there were times when we each had a fish on the line and in the boat simultaneously.

Dunebug Killer

An extremely soft cast towards vertical grassy structure near the bank, which was complimented by the lily pads seemed to entice the bite, with most of our catches being taken on the fall, and if not on the fall, then on the sloooow upward movement of the bait that we inspired with a gentle upward motion of the rod tip. All-in-all we took a total of 16 fish for the day, one of our better bassing days I might add, with most of the fish recorded around the 1 kilo mark. The largest weighing in at 1.4 kg’s and the smallest 500g’s.

An old Zimbabwean friend once told me that when all else fails, switch up colours to dunebug. Well I’ll tell you it is fast becoming my favorite colour, and in a situation where you are completely stumped for lure selection, I would turn to a weightless dunebug fluke, or light-texas rigged dunebug 7” worm of whatever variation you are confident with, whether it be Berkleys Powerworm, or my favourite Zoom U – Tail worm. A larger variation of this (that also proves to be a killer) is the Zoom Mag II worm. I have personally had much success on that Particular lure with a lightly jigged texas rig presentation. In saying that , it was not ONLY the dunebug lure variations which brought us success, the Aruka shad Lipless crank also demonstrated its bass attracting power…

Aruka Shad: Awesome

For those who either throw lipless cranks regularly or who want to experiment with that kind of technique for the first time, I would highly recommend the Spro Aruka shad, colour selection and size is purely up to you. Simply throw it into open water around structure, and crank it back. Once you become comfort able with that basic action, start varying your retrieve. A little jerk here, a pause there and the bass will be smashing your lure in no time, in fact I have even heard stories of this lure performing in winter. So give it a try, I know I will… Good bassing.

This Watercolor is 4 by 4, (inches ) A watercolor on gessoboard & is for sale for $30.00 Plus S& H.
I painted this in the deductive manner. That means: I painted it and before it dried I used a wet brush to pulled out the objects from the still damp paint. Then, I allowed it to dry and later filled in the objects with another light glaze of paint. In this case the lighter color of yellow green.

Asian Decor just seems to add a touch of sophistication no matter how you do it. The colors, the style, the designs.

So how can you do it in your own home?

Well before you start adding dragons and fans to your room, try adding some small touches to your walls to make an impact, create interest, and potentially give your room a catching focal point to really draw friends and family in.

This site has multiple designs with an Asian touch that I thought I would share with you to help get your creative juices going.

Asian wouldn’t be Asian without a bit of Bamboo. What I like about this pattern is that you can create traditional bamboo stalks up to the ceiling if you want, or for a more abstract look you can scatter these pieces around and really create an interesting wall. Add a piece or two to your shelf, or have them sprout out from behind your headboard.

The possibilities are endless!

Black bamboo wall decals by PAINTLESS design

Here’s another great design using Coi Fish and Lilly Pads. If anything is going to create a feeling of calm, Coi Fish will do it.

Coi Fish Wall Decals by PAINTLESS design

Dragonfly Wall Decals by PAINTLESS design

I have often said that the best photo opportunities are after a storm. Well today I proved myself right once again. The last two days hear in Warrensburg have been gloomy and somewhat chilly. Since I adamantlywatch the weather, I was prepared for this evenings clearing of the clouds. Around 5:30 I stepped outside of a school building and noticed a spot of blue through the clouds. I knew then, that the clouds were on their way out. I hustled to my car and drove to the near by park, Peartle Springs. I would have driven to my favorite spot, Knob Knoster State Park but I didn’t have the time. I quickly picked a spot to park and grabbed my tripod and bag and headed to the dam of one of the lakes at Peartle Springs. I was a little discouraged at first, the cloud cover was thick again. None the less I composed images, looking for intriguing lines and subjects. I got to test out my new lens I bought recently. Its an Olympus 28mm f/2.8 manual focus. If you are wondering how I used an Olympus lens on a Canon digital SLR, well you need to read this.  http://naturallycomposed.wordpress.com/mixing-the-old-with-the-new/   I like the manual functions for the reason that i have to think more about making my image. With auto focus, it is easy to never manually adjust your settings and hurry through the process of “making a photograph” as Ansel Adams would say.

Well, my patience payed off and I soon could see that the clouds were moving tremendously fast across the sky and that bright light was following it. I prepared for the burst of light that would soon expose itself. I knew it may only last a minute or maybe even less. I looked through my viewfinder, composing and exposing.  I saw how the Lilly pads created a diagonal line through my photo, leading the viewer on a journey through the water. I saw that the clouds were reflecting very nicely in the foreground. I watched and waited for the lower clouds to give way to the bright sky above….Waiting….Waiting….THERE! I pressed the shutter button and in a blink of an eye, the moment was captured. I knew it was the image I was waiting for.

The clouds soon covered the land again and the light faded. I was not discouraged. I had captured some good images and captured at least a few images that I would consider above the level of good. I am satisfied. I am tired. I have a mental image in my head, and an actual image on my screen. The day was a success.

MT

Lilly Pads/©Jason Savage

 Reading Flemming’s blog about him arriving in Australia and Darwin in particular this week has prompted me to look through a few images from my Top-end trip last year - a trip that I make each year. I can’t wait to return again before the end of the year !

 Whilst this is not the best scan you’d ever see…but that’s it for now – as I am having some real computer troubles lately and need to reformat in the coming days to achieve anything usefull (time pending of course! ).

twilight on the wetlands - Fuji Velvia 50.

Today we went Canoeing around Font Lake. The largest lake on Beaver Island. The lake was really shallow and there didn’t seem to be very many fish in it. There were 3 swans, a loon and many Lilly pads.

After canoeing we went to the rocky beaches of Lake Michigan near some sand dunes. We discovered a water snake in the shallows, which the dog tried to eat unsuccessfully about eight times.

And then of course there was another pleasant sunset over Lake Michigan. I over exposed this a bit to get richer oranges in the sky. You can see one of the other islands in the distance. There are at least four of them in the area and I don’t think anyone lives on them. We didn’t get the chance to explore any of the other islands. Maybe next time!

© 2008 by Jenn Lassa, all rights reserved.

7.5 by 8 inches 72.50

Watercolor on gessoed masonite, this painting can be turned in several directions, and it still looks good.  Thats the beauty of  water…

Koi like to be with other koi, they tend to all hang out together and when one strikes off to swim over to the other side of the pond the rest just automatically go with the Koi who has decided to move.  Often the largest fish will swim  will lead the other fish or so it seems, the smaller fish follow the larger fish hoping to be under the large fish’s protection.

Usually there will be one or two Koi who are loners, these fish seem shy and like to hide under Lillie pads or behind plants.  They swim out in the open but usually all alone.  It makes me think of how there are always people who would rather be alone rather than swim along with the crowd.

Waterr Saving Tip: Use the minimum amount of water needed for a bath by closing the drain first and filling the tub only 1/3 full. Stopper tub before turning water. The initial burst of cold water can be warmed by adding hot water later.

 This is the 768 Post for this blog… Its two years old and still going strong.

Okay, so technically this isn’t really called Lilly Pad Park, but it should be. I took this picture in a little park off the beaten path in Whitehall. There is a long boardwalk that goes into this field of lilly pads and cattails, it is near Funnel Field.

Looking at Lilly Pads makes it clear why Monet was so interested in them.