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A couple of my offshore fishing buddies, Mike Luchak and John Billings, came to the ranch this weekend for our annual New Year’s hog hunt. The afternoon temps were almost 70 degrees and the wind was calm so we started out on the pontoon boat and spanked a few bass. John B started things off with a fish just a hair under 6 lbs.

We ended up fishing for about an hour and caught about 20 bass on spinner baits and topwaters.

Once the sun started going down we returned to the dock and started the campfire, along with a few adult beverages. Before we could even finish the first round, a sounder of hogs began frolicking around the feeder behind the dam. Mike L had brought his .270 with a new Thermion scope, so he was selected as the designated executioner for this group of pigs. On his first shot, 3 pigs went down. He was not trying for a two-fer or three-fer, but it just happened. Not a bad start with his new scope.

As we headed back to the ranch house, Laurel reported that a rather large boar had just shown up on the North Fence Line feeder. We decided to convince the poor lonely boar to take a dirt nap and proceeded to the NFL feeder. After another short night walk to the shooting stand, Mike L had put down his fourth pig of the night.

At this point our wives declared that it was 7pm and time to eat so we headed back to the house. Just as we were all enjoying a piece of Goode Company Pecan Pie, another lonely boar started snacking on the Northeast Feeder. This time it was John B’s turn. A few minutes later, the pig count for the night reached five.

That brought my overall pig death count for the year up to 26, not even close to my best year of 81, (but I had slacked off a little so my buddies would have plenty of targets). Now the problem will be how we manage to do better better than 5 piggies down at next years annual hog hunt.

It was March of 2020 when we first planted 140 grapevines in the Gibbons Creek Vineyard on the hill behind our ranch house. Between raccoons with a fondness for grapes, and 100+ degree temps for weeks on end, last year turned into a meager harvest of mostly raisins. But we learned from our mistakes. A new, fully electrified 6′ fence across the front of the vineyard, and lots of steel spikes installed below ground level around the rest of the vineyard allowed us to almost eliminate the loss of loss of grapes to the critters. Watering the drip irrigation for 3 hours every 3 days kept the grapes nice and plump.

Last week the sugar content of the grapes surpassed 20 brix, so it was time to schedule a grape harvest. Our friends Mike and Cathy Rape, Jennifer Deering, and our ranch hand Taren Parker met us at the vineyard at sunrise this morning. Temp were a pleasant 75 degrees (at least for the first 5 minutes) as the bird netting was removed from the 7 rows of vines. By 10:30am, we had harvested and crushed 820 lbs of Lenoire grapes.

Mike and Cathy have a wine making operation and were able to supply the grape crushing equipment and take the grapes. The crushing operation produced almost 100 gallons of juice and skins, which will now go through a couple of weeks of fermentation. We are hopeful that this will produce about 300 bottles of wine.

Looking forward to the tasting of this vintage next year.

I am about one week away from being out of commission for a month or so. Next Wednesday, May 3, I will be getting my left knee rebuilt. Since its pretty hard to use a walker on a pontoon boat this week was my last opportunity to spank a few bass. Fortunately, my buddy Bruce had planned on coming down this week long before the knee surgery got scheduled. We fished roughly 2 ½ days mostly with topwaters. And, for the first time when fishing with Bruce, I ended up with the big fish trophy.

I picked up a 6lb-6oz fish on a white topwater popper about 10am on day one as we were working our way up the east shoreline of the lake.

Just an hour or so later, as we were just about to pass from the channel into the upper end of the lake, I pitched the same popper up against the bank and had a big strike. As soon as the fish began shaking its head on the surface, I knew it was a big boy. Turns out it was the second largest bass I have ever caught, and weighed 8lb-6oz.

The next day, while fishing just 30 feet from where I had caught my big fish the day before, Bruce flipped a worm on top of a raft of coontail and had a big strike. This was another big fish, weighing 7lb-13oz on the scales. For a while we wondered whether it was actually the same fish I had caught less than 24 hours earlier, but a close examination of the fins showed that they were definitely two different fish.

At the end of two days fishing, we had a final tally of 160 bass and two sore right arms. Next week will definitely not be as much fun.

January and February are the best time of year for fishing at the Stout Ranch. First, the cold water temps kill off a lot of the coontail so you can fish any type of lure you want. Next, the water in the lake becomes crystal clear making it easier for bass to zero in a lure. Last, but not least, the bass are the fattest they will get all year as the spawning season is just a few weeks away.

Such was the case this week when my fishing buddy for over 50 years, Bruce Slaven, made the annual trek to Moody Lake for two and a half days of bass spanking. Monday afternoon air temps temps were in the 70’s and water temp was 53. As soon as we started catching fish it was obvious that the fish were in the best condition I have ever seen. Every bass we caught had a huge gut and weighed as much as a pound over what the weight chart would predict. I suspect that the fish kill I had in October 2021 thinned out the population so there is an abundance of food for the surviving fish. We caught a good number of 4-5lb class fish and ended the first afternoon with a count of 82 on the clicker. Not as many as were catching prior to the fish kill, but still respectable.

On Tuesday morning while I was preparing breakfast, Bruce went out on the floating dock and made a few casts with one of his mega sized bass baits. Suddenly my phone rings with Bruce telling me to bring the scales right away. Turns out he had just landed the second largest bass of his life and the second 10lb+ bass to be caught in my lake… 10.04 Lbs. Not a bad way to start the day.

Tuesday it rained off and on all day and the bite slowed down, however Bruce did manage another trophy fish of 7.01 Lbs on a regular size jerk bait. The final tally for the day was 55 on the clicker.

Wednesday morning the rain continued and the wind began blowing from the north. Fishing was quite slow all morning and early afternoon until about 3pm when the clouds began to thin out a little. We started catching 4-5 Lb fish in the middle of the lake using Texas rigged worms. It was getting colder and by 4:30 we were starting to discuss whether to call it a day when Bruce tied on the mega bass Ashari swim bait on for one last attempt at a big fish. It worked… his next fish was 8.30 Lbs. That warmed both of us up and we decided to keep at it a little bit longer.

Glad we did because he caught one more nice fish… this one weighed 9.90 Lbs. Our fish count for the day ended at 34 but neither of us complained.

The final tally for the trip was 171 bass over 2 ½ days of fishing.  Only about half as many as we usually get, but Bruce had caught 4 trophy fish including the second and fourth largest fish of his 70+ year bass fishing career.  I had been worried that we lost all of the jumbo bass in the lake in 2021 during the fish kill, but I guess I was wrong. 

One other interesting observation was noted in the fish we were catching.  Several had the tails of a recent meal protruding from their guts.  They were not eating bluegills, rather they had feeding on large shad, around 6 inches long.  No wonder the jumbo swim baits were so effective.  Once again I will be buying a selection of very large lures for our next fish spanking.

Just got back from an 8 day rafting trip floating over 250 miles down the Grand Canyon. It was hot, but fortunately when whitewater rafting you get wet frequently to compensate. The water temps in the river are normally about 45 degrees, but this trip they were closer to 60 due to the hot weather. The water started out clear but after a few downstream thunderstorms caused the side canyons to flood, the further downstream we went, the more the water looked like chocolate milk. Since we had no showers, we had to bathe in the river. Drinks were kept cool by dragging them in a mesh bag in the river. Our daily ice allocation was one cube each when we had an “end of day” adult beverage. We slept on cots, with Laurel inside a small tent, while I slept outside under the stars. Unfortunately, just after we arrived in Vegas, Laurel received an MRI report which confirmed that she had a tear in her right rotator cuff confirming the cause of her shoulder pain and leaving her with only one functional arm. My knees are still pretty sore from all the hiking and climbing needed to set up our campsite and visit some of the waterfalls inside the canyon. All said, despite our age related infirmities and rough conditions, this was the trip of a lifetime. There are no words to describe what its like to see the Grand Canyon this way.

After waiting about 5 months for fabrication, Pond King has delivered my new floating dock. A crew of 2 unloaded it off the truck and had it fully installed in about 3 hours. It is 40 feet long and floats to compensate for the changing lake level.

Laurel and I now have yet another nice spot to enjoy a glass or two of wine as the sun sets on the hills behind the ranch house.

The grape vines are growing 12-24 inches per week and almost every vine is producing grape clusters as you can see above. The heavy rains we are getting are not all that beneficial as they are washing off the fungicides and insecticides needed to protect the crop. We got about 3 1/2″ last week, and almost as much this week (so far). In another month or so, they should be nice and red and about ready to harvest. The lake is still overflowing the spillway.

Also picked up a new toy for the Toy Barn. This one is diesel powered, and actually has more carrying capacity than my F150.