Rogue Mocha Porter

I'm a fan of micro-breweries as well as good food.  Before Christina moved back to Kansas we went to The Rusty Bucket in Columbus.  It's not a micro-brewery, but it does sell some of the best fish-n-chips I've ever tasted. 

This trip I ordered a Rogue mocha porter.  I was an instant fan.  It had a dark porter flavor with a hint of mocha taste to it.  It complimented the fish extremely well.

At the time I thought it was the best beer in the world.  It is still close.  For my going away present Shawn, one of my good friends in Columbus bought me a beer that cost as much as some cases of beer.  I don't remember the name of it.  It was aged in an oak whiskey barrel which delivered a wonderful oaky taste.  I drank that one and could taste the oakyness the rest of the night when I drank my other beers. 

I would  buy a case of Rogue Mocha Porter over the other beer for a fish fry, but if I was trying my first fresh caught ocean fish, after all these years of wanting to do so, I would buy the oak barrel, the Lamborghini of beers.

Wormy Dog Saloon

Summer fun at the cousins.  Gavin took a break from swimming to see if he could fit into the cooler on the deck.

Last night the nieces and nephews had a swim meet out of town.  I thought about going but taking a third vehicle up there to sit in the hot sun to watch other people swim didn't really appeal to me.  What did appeal to me was having time to myself.

I had lived in Columbus for a couple months all alone, then moved into a house with 15 people.  It is fun, but I was ready for some alone time.  I cooked a good supper, did the dishes, then vegged out on the recliner watching 3 TV shows at once for a couple hours.  I was flipping between man vs. food, the egyption job, and deadliest catch.  It's been a long time since I've had control of the TV.  Usually I can't find anything I want to watch.  Last night I wanted to watch everything.

The night before last Christina and I stayed home to cook supper while Cherish and Todd took the kids swimming.  Leo learned to swim.  He has been able to jump off the diving board and sort-of dog paddle to the side.  Cherish said he took off swimming after he jumped off the last time.

At the beginning of the season Gavin was deathly scared of the water.  You couldn't even put his feet in the pool.  Now he is jumping into the big pool off the side.

They are learning so much from their cousin's and aunt and uncle.  It was really a good move coming back to be close to family.

Tonight we take off for OKC.  Mizike and Kimmers have made plans for us on Saturday already.  I was hoping to get some fishing in, or make a trip to the Wormy Dog Saloon, but with this heat it will probably be better to spend some time at a small waterpark and grill some burgers at Mizike's parents house.  Maybe we can all slip out for some evening fishing afterwards. 

El Dorado Lake

Hot off the press is an article about the fishing at El Dorado Lake just north of Wichita.  Here is a link to the article.  http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/07/20/2108911/all-clear-for-better-fishing-on.html

In the article it states that El Dorado is experiencing some of its better fishing and clear waters.  I have been wanting to fish El Dorado for a while now.  It has lots of standing timber in the water.  It also has rock banks and bridges separating different sections of water.  The article stated that the walleye fishing has been really good and the walleye are thick for their size.  It would be fun to go there and catch some walleye to eat and do some bass fishing.  El Dorado is one of Kansas's top notch bass lakes.  I have read several articles about it's large bass and population of bass.  There has been quite a few bass tournaments scheduled there this year.

El Dorado Lake is about 120 miles, 2.5 hours, from Kiowa by the time you drive through Wichita.

This weekend I will be going to Oklahoma City again.  Mizike is going to be starting a part time job on the weekends after this one.  There may be a little fishing in the mix when I get there.  With 50+ lakes in and around OKC it would be hard for me not to fish.

Columbus Ohio Bans Night Fishing In City Parks

Fox 19 news reported that Columbus Ohio is banning fishing at night in their city parks between 11 PM and 7 AM.  They say it is from troublemakers that thought they would be safe as long as they had a fishing pole.  Once again a law is enforced because a few bad eggs ruin it for everybody. 

Realistically those people had ruined it for night fisherman in the city prior to now.  Most fisherman wouldn't even go into those parks at night to fish anyway.  There is too much crime.  Your chances of being robbed, beaten, raped, or vandalized were just about as good as your chances to catch a fish.

One of the reason's I moved away from Columbus was to get away from the crime.  It is crazy how bad the crime has gotten there.  My boys weren't allowed to play outside for fear of what could happen and was happening almost every day there.

Fishing in Jeopardy in South Central Kansas, North Central Oklahoma

A dust devil crosses the road in front of me.

This area may not have a lot of large lakes but it does have some good smaller bodies of water.  With the lack of rain and the overwhelming 27 days above 100 degrees already this year, these water sources are evaporating. 

Several rivers in the area have already stopped flowing and several have nothing but sand where water used to be.  Locals tell me they have never seen it like this.  The Medicine River is dry and you can't even see a pool of water as you drive across it near Kiowa, KS.

Lake levels are apparently low as well.  Over the 4th of July I heard that a couple of local lakes were closed to visitors due to low water levels.

This weekend we took a trip down to Enid, OK to check out the town.  On the way back to Kiowa, we stopped to look at Great Salt Plains Lake in Oklahoma.  What we saw there was beyond comprehension.  I had heard that the lake was shallow.  Now that the water levels are down the lake is not much more than a gigantic 8700 acre mud puddle. 

There were birds standing out in the water 200 feet from shoreline in 6 inches of water.  With the amount of lake there is there has to be some deeper areas that the fish can go.  Unfortunately, a lot of fish were unlucky enough to find that deep water.  The shores were lined with dead fish that likely may have died from getting stuck in too shallow of water or running out of oxygen from the combination of heat and low water.
                        

One of the Larger catfish that couldn't even float to bank as the water was too shallow

There was one catfish swimming through the water where we stopped.  It was a decent sized fish between 10 to 20 pounds.  Its fins were out of the water when it swam while it's lower side dragged against the muddy bottom.  It finally found its way from the dangerous grips of the shallows to a deeper channel that was still only a foot to a foot and a half deep.

The Great Salt Plains Lake is a beautiful lake.  It is large with lots of mature trees surrounding the Eastern end of the lake.  The Western end of the lake is just as spectacular with its salt flats.  Unfortunately the lake is unusable to any decent sized watercraft.  We did see a canoe coming onto shore.  The canoe had to be drug through the mud and shallow water about 50 feet from shore.

You can see the normal lake level

This area near the dam was only about a foot deep.

There is a auto tour trail North of the lake that is quite a spectacular drive.  It has some nice signs showing several different sized marshes.  The marshes were all dry as were most of the streams and rivers that flow into the lake.

The lake does look promising.  If it would come up around 4 - 5 feet it could be a very fun and usable lake.  That is if any of the fish survive these horrid conditions.

Too Hot to Fish?

Today Cherish has a swim meet, Todd will be going with her, so Christina and I will be watching 5 of the kids.  We cooked supper for everybody last night.  It takes a lot of food to put out a meal for 15 people.  We made some pretty good food.  We sauted chicken, mushrooms, snow peas and brocolli together in corn oil, then added it to parmesan noodles, the thin parmesean noodles out of a box.  Lastly we added sliced tomato to it.  We served it with corn and garlic toast.  We used 4 boxes of noodles and a whole loaf of bread.

Tonight should be a little easier since we are only feeding 7 of us. 

Tomorrow I am taking another half day of work off to try to get my drivers license.  Third times the charm.

I was considering going to The Salt Plains Lake in Oklahoma tomorrow evening to try my luck off the bank.  I heard it has catfish and Wiper and it's only a little over a half hour away.  I'm not sure I want to go over to the other house to get my fishing equipment though.

There's a wedding in town on Saturday that we will be going too.  At 110 degrees I would rather go to a wedding than fishing.  Ohio made me soft with those hot 80 degree days.

The Bass Scene in Kansas

As I was moving to Kansas I was looking at the surrounding waters to see where I would be fishing all of the time. The answer soon occurred to me, I won't be fishing all the time. There is not that much water close to where I live. I also have 2 boys that will be starting school, sports and other activities soon.

I won't be fishing every weekend like I did last year. I still plan to get in on some BFL action next season. Those tournaments will be 5 - 6 hours away. It will require me to use vacation, but I have to get back in the tournament scene.

I can't believe how many people I met in the bass scene the last two years. I met and hung out with lure manufacturer's, guy's that put together tournament series. I even got to hang out with and introduce my kids to this years BFL All American Champion at last years Regionals.

The bass scene was booming in Ohio. The fishing is awesome in Kansas and Oklahoma, but it seems like the bass scene is not as big here. We will see once I start getting into tournaments again. I didn't realize how many people in Ohio were into bass fishing until I started fishing tournaments and joined a club. Maybe the scene is just different here.