Fish Tattoo

Yess, it's a sunny day!  Time to head to the creek and enjoy some sunshine!

Unfortunately, I couldn't stand the scenery or smell of the spot I had hoped to fish, for someone had a bad day.

On a more pleasant note, this furry critter was out taking a stroll:

I decided to target steelhead in a different part of the creek.  It wasn't long before I had one riding the hook!  However, steelhead are WILD riders and bringing them all the way in is another story.

Jean and Jamie met up with me.  They decided to use conventional gear, as opposed to the fly rod.  They had some trouble keeping the young'ins off the hook.

Jamie is daring.  She talked Jean into going out on a limb (literally) and collecting tackle with her. 

After the girls headed out, I went hiking at Salt Creek in Valparaiso. 

I stopped by Winnie-the Pooh's house, but he wasn't home.



The fish all seemed to be on vacation in this stretch of creek too!

Under the bridges are always the best fishing spots!  No wonder trolls live there!

I could see fish!!!  Although, like ghosts, they can be hard to capture in pictures!

Okay, time to get serious!  I decided to switch to conventional as well, just for the heck of it! 

Yes, fish really are like ghosts! I could see the big steelie, but it didn't show up in the pic!

All I managed to bring in on a big ole fly was a bunch of creek chubs and little ones!

I caught a bunch of chubs and babies on the conventional gear too.  This young steelhead has already reached the rebellious stage, as one can clearly see from it's tattoo!

Does anyone know how to interpret fish?

Burrr

Spring is here, but we're still having days with a little bit of snow!  Granted, this pic was from back in April, however, today is a brisk day with temps in the 50's.  See that white stuff on the shoreline?  That is a mixture of foam and snow! 

Since the weather was really windy and hail was falling from the sky at times, I decided to stay in doors.  My buddy Chuck and I went to Bass Pro and did some fly tying.   We ran into a Jonas kid, whom I used to live near in the small town of Wanatah.

I feel sorry for the bunny.  :-(

We also ran into several members from the ole Duneland Fly Fishers!  It was nice catching up with so many folk's!

Chuck ya gotta open your eyes if you want to learn fly tying!  ;-)

I'm still not very good at taking close up pics of flies.



I'll have to work on that.  I didn't take many, as I was busy helping Chuck tie his first wolly bugger!

The next day, the weather was even crazier!  The sun was shinning, and for a moment it was a nice 70 degree day...  and then it wasn't!

I happened to be heading right into the storm.

Sleet fell from the sky.

That April afternoon, the weather had calmed down and a blanket of SNOW covered everything!

I'm hoping for more traditional spring weather.  What happened to light showers at night and 60-70 degree sunny days?  No more high winds and sleet please! 

Mother's Day at the Zoo

Hello and Happy Mother's Day! 

After church on Mother's Day we went to Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City, Indiana.  The line to get into the zoo was long.

Really, really long!  The end of the line almost reached the shore of Lake Michigan.  Good thing it was a low tide day.  ;-)

The kids and I thought up ways they could make this situation better.  Perhaps, having more than one person at the front gate taking admission fees would be a good idea.  An even better idea would be to let everyone in for FREE and Have Folk's Pay to GET OUT.  My kiddo's are smart ones!

Once inside the zoo, Troy was our tour guide for the day!

The mountain lion was the first of the critters we watched.  She was busy chillin.

Gladys was into petting goats!

The kids were not going to be convinced that these sun bathers were giant rodents!

Peacocks have strutted around this zoo freely, ever since I can remember.

And of course, the peahens do too. 

I'm not sure why this cute little monkey reminds me of Sophie, but she does:

Good ole Monkey Island is still inhabited by a few residents.

Oh look, the Castle!  The outside is so grand, if only the inside were as well.  Hey speaking of castle, guess who's going to Disneyland in a few weeks?  Yup, ME!!!  I can hardly wait!  The vacation I was planning to Hawaii got changed to California instead.  It will be good to visit Hub (my son who lives in CA).

I like your hair-do bird, butcha can't eat my camera!

The weather was absolutely gorgeous out!  70+ degrees with a cool lake breeze.

Wow, an hour at the zoo, and the line is still long!

The tower is what the kids looked forward to the most!

It's on a hill, and up the stairs...

And up MORE stairs!  Hey just you wait till you reach the tower, than ya only have 6 more stories to climb up!  :-)  Ughh!

Hey--Someone's gotta rescue the princess!      

Fun times, fun times!  Now if only there was a slide from the top of the tower to the Lake, then no one would have to climb back down!  ;-)

There used to another path, but it's no longer supposed to be traveled.

These two look so serious; I wonder what they were thinking about.

The aviary is full of parakeets. 

If only I coulda had the eagles land on the popsicle stick!

These little birds were really nice though.

The bigger birds were all enclosed in other pens.

Here kitty, kitty....

Umm, tortoises, apparently are NOT bashful and it looks as if deer have no shame either!

And the emu was keeping beat by making drumming sounds.  True story!

We got outta there!  ;-)

Troy's 10th Birthday!

Here's the Birthday Boy!  Troy turned ten years old the other day!!!

His buddy David came over to help him celebrate with some X-Box fun.

Playing video games is Troy's favorite hobby lately.

Troy and his Grandma--  Birthday cake and Gifts--  Troy had a Great Day!

Speaking of gifts, Bandit, Mom's cat, brought everyone lunch.

He's sweet like that.  ;-)  Umm, the mouse might not have thought so.

Did anyone notice Mom's new hair color?  I think the strawberry blond suits her!

 

Hey-- check out how cute I was with red hair!  :-)