Caught my first fish of the year

Three of them, that is.

I caught a cold and started feeling ill yesterday. Today was a sunny and warm day and I probably would have gone out on the bicycle if I felt better. But no fear – I don’t have to waste a perfectly good day. I can just go fish.

I’ve gone out a few times in the past several weeks. The last couple of times out I hooked one, but it got away, one hit the lure but didn’t bite, and I saw a couple of fish chase the lure. I knew there were fish (Dollies) out there, so it was just a matter of time.

On the first cast out today I hooked and landed one, a mid-size Dolly. After gutting and cleaning it, I caught the next one about ten minutes later – a slightly larger one. I gutted and cleaned this second one. As I fished I saw a couple of fish chase the lure without biting, and then another ten or fifteen minutes later another one bit, fighting more strongly than the earlier two. After landing it I saw that it was the biggest one of the day.

Three being enough to keep me fed for a few days, I went home to wash the fish and put them in the refrigerator. The small one will probably be my lunch today.

No wildflowers yet

I went out today on the Hungry Point trail today to see if there were any signs of wildflowers in the muskeg. Alas there was none. It was an overcast day with spotty showers and I got rained upon a good deal of the time I was on the trail. I think I still managed to get a few interesting images.

		Muskeg April 21, 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I took three of the images into Photoshop for more artistic interpretations. They are found in this album:

Selected Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sandy Beach to City Creek

There is a one-mile trail between Sandy Beach Park and City Creek. The trail was renovated last summer with new boardwalks, old brush removed, and path cut through fallen trees.

Today was a partly cloudy day and still a bit chilly, especially walking through the shaded forest. A bit of a shower started to come through just as I was getting back to the car.

I went out with a Rebel XTi with a EF35/2.0 lens. I’ve always found the challenge of using a single fixed focal length lens to be useful in exercising the artistic eye.

Sandy Beach Trail VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Here are a few selected images that I thought were the best of the bunch. They went through some Photoshop work.

		Selected Photos VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

High School Spring Concert

The Petersburg High School performed their spring concert last evening. Shelley is in the choir this semester. Here are four video clips of the choir performance.

Early this morning the music groups boarded the ferry bound for Ketchikan for the annual Southeast Alaska Music Festival.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday I was looking for skunk cabbage but did not find any. Today I went out the back of our house to a place where I know is a field of them during the spring season. I got there and saw shoots coming up, the tops of most eaten off by deer. There is still residual snow and ice around, but there are a few signs of new growth. In a month or so the muskeg should be filled with spring growth and blossoms. For now it is still barren.

South part of the island

Today started out bright, sunny, and dry. There was a pancake breakfast at the hospital so we went there. I did the mid-morning devotions at the Manor. I returned, had lunch. Then the clouds rolled in and heavy rains came down. I had planned to go out the road, Mitkof Highway, towards some of the southern recreation spots on the island for more videos, but the weather turned against it.

I ended up taking a nap and when I awoke about 3 p.m. the sun had returned. I decided to drive out and see how things were. I didn’t know if the rains would return or not. I was happy I went out as the rains stayed away, the skies were dramatic, and I was able to get some good scenic images.

Another Sunny Spring Day

Forecast for today was clouds and showers. It turned out to be rather wrong as the sky was clear and the sun bright after the fog burned off. I went around towards the city and harbors and captured some video clips as seen here.

Spring in Petersburg

It was windy, rainy, and just plain stormy last night. During the day, however, the skies broke apart with some showers and sun. I went out on my bicycle and took along a camcorder to test out both it and video editing and production on my new computer. Here is the result.