Fishing and Football

What a great time to live in South Alabama.  Saturday I was able to watch the Alabama Football team end the day with a shut out victory over the Ole Miss Rebels.  My daughter Emily helped me with a little camo paint job on the little river boat.  And on Sunday morning the temperature was perfect for a fishing trip on the Lower Mobile Delta. At 5:30 when I walked out of the house with a pair of shorts, t-shirt and flip flops, it was a little chilly and felt great.  We took Joe's Blazer Bay and launched at the public launch next to Shirley's Live Bait and headed north.

  Beautiful sunrise to the east.

The fish started biting as the tide began to drop out.  We picked up several Red Fish and some nice Speckled Trout and even put a bass in the livewell for a little extra color.

Blake with a Red Fish

Blake with a Speckled Trout

Mobile Skyline from the Lower Delta on the Spanish River.

U.S.S Alabama as viewed from the boat. 

There must have been 30 boats fishing in the deep hole just south of the Battleship.

We brought the fish home and cleaned them for a little fish fry out in the barn.  We could hear the pounding of the shot guns as many of our friends and family shot doves in the fields around our home. It was a busy weekend and I enjoyed spending a little time outside. Roll Tide Roll.

Joe cooking his "Birthday Eve Meal" in my barn.

The old camo boat Emily helped paint.

alakingfish@gmail.com

Questions or Comments

Shelby Byrd

Catfish Roundup

15th Annual Catfish Roundup

Our family and friends, with the help and support of our community and many volunteers, have a day of fun in the sun for some very special people.  It's called the Baldwin Catfish Roundup and it is a chance for many people who spend the majority of their lives inside to enjoy some fresh air and a shot at catching a fish.  This is the 15th consecutive year that the Roundup has been held on a private pond located in Stapleton Alabama.  My grandmother Jeanette Grimes Cabaniss started this event to honor her beloved husband who had built her the fishing pond on the back side of their farm.  The event started out small with 250 volunteers and participants and has grown to over 1200 now.  It takes a lot of work to organize an event of this size and we have as many as 6 meetings a year to help organize the troops.  We have a live blue grass band,  the "Unknown Bluegrass Band", that donates their time and talent to the event.

                                    

  This gets many of the participants out of their seat and up buck dancing.  Several clowns usually show up and perform face painting and balloon tricks.  And I mean real clowns not just a bunch of my kin folks but the cousins do plenty of clowning around as well.

 

We have several hundred fishing poles that we have to repair and keep in operation during the event.

Many of the participants have never been fishing and get a real kick out of catching that first fish.  Visitors come from many different states and places.  Some of these include many of our country's veterans who live in veteran homes.  Others come from nursing homes and families come as a group to celebrate the outdoors and an escape.  We cook the fish caught and grill hamburgers.  Everyone who wants gets to participate in a cake walk and wins a whole cake.   They leave with a smile on their face and a free T-shirt and cake.  We have several groups who have been to all 15 events and it is a circled date on the calender for them each year.  

A large group of volunteers pictured above waiting to help unload the buses and find a fishing partner for the day.

If you would like to help with this worthy event then feel free to contact me

alakingfish@gmail.com

The Baldwin Catfish Roundup will be held on October 19, 2013 in Stapleton Alabama.

The event is always looking for new sponsors and volunteers and all donations are tax deductible if you would like to donate.  Come October if you hear twin fiddles and a steel guitar and the sound of people cheering and laughing it might be our family and friends having a grand time at the Roundup. 

Primos Ultra 35 Game Camera

I got my hands on a new game camera this week and plan to deploy it in Kentucky in early October.  I'm going to set the camera up and place some of the ConQuest Scent Products near by.  The camera is a Primos Ultra 35 Truth Cam.  This camera is a last years model and comes in at a good price point. Academy Sports has it on sale at $99.00 and it's regularly $119.00.  Primos now has a Truth Cam Ultra 46 that's priced around $150.00.  The Ultra 35 claims to have a 9 month battery life on the 8 AA batteries.  It also has a video mode that records audio as well.  And an HD Time Lapse Photo mode which might be fun to use in long range application where the motion sensor might not be tripped. 

Do you have a favorite Camera that you like to use at a value price? 

Questions or Comments?

alakingfish@gmail.com

Shelby Byrd

Kentucky Bow Season.

Its official, bow season has kicked off in many parts of the country.  September 7th was the opening day in Western Kentucky and some friends of the blog have already kicked the season off.  Rej Jones was kind enough to share some pictures off his game cameras.  These pictures where captured on his new lease in Kentucky.  I'm sure he will keep the interstate hot this season after seeing what the new property holds.  Many people don't see the benefits of game cameras but I feel it can only help in deer herd management to know how many and what caliber deer frequent your property. Its a good idea to place cameras in feed areas and on isolated trails.  Often the larger bucks will shy away from any human scent in feeding areas and it may be easier to get a picture of them on a trail when your scent dissipates a few days after hanging your camera.  Do you have any thoughts or successes you would like to share with our viewers?  

Good long tines on this buck

Keep counting plenty of points.

This buck has a forked brow tine

10pt.

Good Luck Rej maybe you will be sending in a photo of you holding one of these nice racks.

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

alakingfish@gmail.com

Shelby Byrd