Outdoors

 I failed to take a turkey this spring. First time in a long time that’s happened. Main problem? Allergies! Secondary problems? Birds henned up. But the real reason is ya can’t shoot ’em from a recliner.

Friends took birds: Kelly Creed, 26-pounds, 11-inch beard, 1 3/16-inch spur. Grandsons and kids took a couple of birds each. Seems everyone took at least one bird, except me!

 So you want to be a bass angler! Well, first you need a boat. Not just any boat, but a bass boat. Something in the 18-foot, on the short side, to around 21-feet in length. Cost? Around $40,000 to $60,000 or, in the neighborhood of $400 per month for 15 years!

Of course you won’t pull it very far with the family minivan, so you’ll need a truck, with a big gas guzzling V8 with lots of power and torque. Or maybe a big four-door,one-ton diesel. Of course diesel will cost more but you can’t put a price on cool!

 Guess I can brag on my grandson a little. Troy’s son, 6-year-old Silas, took a mature bird during Sunday of the youth season.

He took his mature gobbler at 25 yards and it scored 64.5, 22 pounds, 10-inch beard, 1 1/8-inch spurs.

Course Miller, Toby’s son who’s 15, took a gobbler and a coyote while hunting Saturday.

Don’t know who was more excited, my kids or their kids!

***

 I think everything is back to as normal as it gets for me. Last week I was fishing the Puddle Jumper Tournament on Springfield Reservoir. My cell phone rang and I saw it was my daughter Traci sending me a text. She was letting me know my oldest son was being flown to Somerset after a possible heart attack.

It didn’t take long to get off the lake, get home, unhook the boat and head to Somerset.