Pygmy

I haven't seen a lot of martens, probably 4 or 5, but the largest wasn't half as big as that fisher in the picture...The martens I have seen ( in Alaska and Colorado) were about the size of a fox squirrel...

Never ate a snapper I didn't like.....

Reminds me of myself when I was younger....<< GRIN >>......

Yeah....Back in the day I hunted fall birds with my springers and labs....The dogs scattered the flocks better than I ever could...Then the hunters would sit and call in the birds as they re-assembled.. My only problem was that my dogs were trained to flush/retrieve upland birds and waterfowl and were not trained to sit while a turkey was called up and shot.. So that meant after the dogs scattered the flock, I'd have to take them home or at least back to the truck and then go back and call up the turkeys...Usually there were 3 or 4 of us hunting together.. One time my dogs scattered a good sized flock..We were only hunting a couple miles from my house, so I took the dogs home after the break...By the time I got back, my 3 buddies had already called up and killed 3 birds...It took me another 20 minutes or so to call in and kill mine..

I had a set of digital and it seemed like I was always buying batteries..Probably because I wasnt smart enough to turn them off....Bought a set of dial calipers, and no more problems... I do hunting loads, and don't need to know case length in fractions of thousandths..

I do believe that #9 shot has very recently become legal in NY...However, I would be very surprised if it were to be offered in 16 gauge in the specialty TSS loads...20 gauge and .410 are hot right now.. 16 is "too much in the middle" and not many guns are being offered in 16 now.... Too bad.. It is an excellent upland gun and was a pretty damn good duck gun back when you could shoot lead... I currently have a Winchester M12 in 16 gauge that would flatten a gobbler every time at 35 yards ( full choke ) but I see no real reason to take it turkey hunting, since I have several 3" 12 gauge guns that will do the same thing at 45 yards...

Fun topic but I don't do pictures...Hehehe... Rem 11-87 SP 12 gauge with 21" BBL, Kick's Gobblin Thunder .665 choke tube and a Leupold VX II 1x4 scope.... I shoot Federal Premium 3", 2 oz. copper plated #6 shot or Win XX with the same load.. Some days when I feel nostalgic I carry my 1980 vintage Rem 1100 with a fixed 26" full choke vent rib bbl, double beads and the same loads..

I'm surprised the 6s or 7 1/2s did not outperform the 4s at 25 yards... 25 yards is a chip shot in turkey hunting....Most of the shotguns in my safe would kill a gobbler at 25 yards with skeet or trap loads...

That looks like a beaver meadow...It would probably be the LAST place I would expect to see a turkey... Think OPEN... Open woods without much understory, open fields, etc. Good luck...

Perhaps Custer had the right idea.......

I suspect those are immature bald rather than goldens...I see lots of them up and down both the Cohocton and the Canisteo valleys... Goldens are a possible, but a much less likely sighting here...

I see your buddy is wearing his snake boots....<GRIN>... Is your buddy's lease anywhere near Lumpkin, Ga. ?....

Hope she recovers quickly, Mike....

Seems early for leeks here Dogpatch...My garlic in my raised bed is only peeking up a couple of inches

She looks just like my sister-in-law....

Everyone who shoots at anything flying ( including cottontails "flying" through the puckerbrush) needs a good side by side AND a good O/U.....It is simply the proper way to do things...Life is too short to hunt with an ugly gun.....

GORGEOUS wild browns, Tacks......I assume they were hitting on the purple ninnyhammers, as usual...

Not to mention Key West trouser trout.....

Actually, considering the age of the tackle, I should really catch that fish swinging a pair of traditional wet flies...I have some in my box that I tied about 40 years ago..

I get to use bobbers if I want...I'm old and my tackle is older than I am....

Never had a snapper I didn't like..... Probably a good thing the ray broke off...You didn't have to deal with it....hehehe... Did you try eating eating any of the sea catfish ? I have always put them back because nobody seems to keep them, but after catching and releasing some more this spring, I did some reading on them and learned that some people had eaten them and said they were better eating than fresh water catfish...If I go back down next year I'm going to filet some up , fry them and try them...

What a great idea, Tacks..... I now have a mission....You take the pictures...

Nice pics, Jerry !! I have a photo of my Dad taken in 1937 ( he was 16) at Naples holding a 6-7 lb. rainbow..He had entered a fishing contest and that trout won him a 9 foot split bamboo fly rod and reel...I still have the rod and reel, and also have pictures of me fishing with it on a dock at Keuka Lake when I was about 4 years old, which would have been about 1954... It was the only rod I remember my Dad owning until my Mom bought him an open face spinning outfit in the late 1950s from the Western Auto store here in Dogpatch...

Best suggestion for New Orleans ?? Leave your wife home......Hehehe... JK, Mrs. Otto....

I LOVE it when you talk dirty.....