Mid-creek musings while sitting in the heated dock with my underwater camera, watching all the crappie swim right past my lure.
• Luckily, I got a new Garmin Striker 4 for Christmas.
• So now I can watch the fish not bite in multiple ways!
• I’ve got some submissions from readers to get to, but let’s start things off with a quick waterfowl update.
• The geese have all but moved out of the area in northeast Kansas in recent weeks.
• On Dec. 21, Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge, located on the border of Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, noted 25,520 snow geese and 1,012 Canada geese still on the wetlands.
• As of Monday, those numbers dropped to just 15 snow geese and 210 honkers. Duck numbers also dropped from 33,261 to just 9,840, though duck season is closed in much of the state at this time anyway.
• The snow geese will come back around in the spring, though, giving hunters some great late-season action.
• Currently, the only duck season open is the Low Plains Southeast Zone’s second segment, which opened back up Saturday and runs through Jan. 31.
• Elk City Reservoir noted 10,000 ducks and 10,000 to 15,000 snow geese in that area on Thursday. John Redmond had decent numbers, as well.
• Neosho Wildlife Area also reported 35,000-plus mixed ducks, mostly mallards, to go with 15,000-plus snow geese and 1,500 Canada geese on Thursday, but the report said birds were being extremely nocturnal and stale.
• The High Plains Zone duck season opens back up Jan. 22-31 and the Low Plains Late Zone’s second segment will run from Jane. 23-31.
• Norton Reservoir, located in the High Plains Zone in northwest Kansas, did note 49,897 snow geese in its count Monday, however. The regular season for light and dark geese is still open and continues until Feb. 14, so get out west and get some birds!
• The white-fronted goose season also opens back up statewide from Jan. 23 to Feb. 14.
• Ray Schroeder, an old hunting buddy who joined us on several snow goose-hunting trips, fared much better at Lake Shawnee in recent weeks with his grandkids than I have been.
• One of Ray’s grandsons, 3-year-old Gus Schroeder, of Raleigh, N.C., hooked himself a nice rainbow trout while fishing with Grandpa Ray over the Christmas holiday.
• I’m not lying when I tell you it’s a nice trout, either. It’s a solid two-pounder, by the looks of it, with a nice fat belly full of shad and minnows.
• Not to be outdone, Ray’s 12-year-old grandson Jordy Schroeder, of Auburn, caught a girthy trout of his own just a few days later with Grandpa Ray.
• This one looks even bigger, maybe 4 pounds. Looked to be full of eggs, too, which make for good bait.
• It was nice to hear from Ray again after all these years!
• I also received a nice thank-you email from Barb Doud, the grandmother of the Seaman High School junior who shot her first deer on the last day of the rifle season — a 10-point beauty!
• “Thank you so very much for printing the picture and recognition of our granddaughter Mackenzie Doud,” Barb wrote. “You made my day and the day of her family and many aunts and uncles. Mackenzie is on Cloud 9.”
• That’s why I love my job, right there.
• I’m always happy to see young people out there enjoying the outdoors, whether that’s hunting, fishing, camping, hiking or just laying on the trampoline watching the clouds, as I was prone to do when I was younger.
• To send me your favorite outdoors photo, email it to [email protected]. Don’t forget to include your name and city of residence, as well as the people in the picture’s name, age and city.
• If you want to tell me a bit of the back story behind the photo, too, that usually makes them even more special as a memory!
• I also received a really nice card from a reader from Holyrood named Evelyn Parker, which unfortunately I didn’t get to read until New Year’s Eve because I’ve been out of the office since COVID-19 began in March.
• Evelyn wrote to me regarding a column I wrote in February following the death of my grandmother, Bonnie Swader, who would have turned 77 on Wednesday.
• “Your summary statement needs to be remembered by all family members,” Evelyn wrote. “One doesn’t get another chance.”
• That sentiment has hit me harder in the past year than you will ever know, Evelyn. Thank you so much for the card, and I’m sorry I wasn’t able to read it sooner.
• Be sure to let all of your loved ones know how much they mean to you in the year to come.
• And for those you disagree with, especially in these trying times politically, just remember we have more in common than meets the eye. Take them fishing, and you might just find out you’re not so different after all.