Canyon Lake Fishing

by holySmith! on January 11, 2013

holySmith! The Boy and I have been doing a fair amount of fishing since getting the boat. Lately, we’ve been trying our luck at Canyon Lake. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to pull any fish out of there (yet), but we’re still learning the lake and how to fish it.

Part of the reason we haven’t caught any fish yet is because Canyon Lake offers a number of interesting distractions which tend to take you away from actual fishing.

Since our little boat can run in just a few inches of water, we can get back where the larger boats can’t. So we took off underneath the one-lane bridge which leads back into a small cove. The cove tapers off between two high canyon walls into a small stream that winds around about a quarter of a mile until you just run out of water. We jumped out of the boat to explore a bit, but it was windy and cold that day, so we didn’t stay long. (FULL DISCLOSURE: It was really a pee break).

Here’s a picture of Zach before we shoved off again:

canyon-lake-zach-boat

Once we were back in there a bit, a bright red spot caught my eye. It was a cardinal. Zach grabbed his Bloggie camera and I grabbed my camera. Of course, as soon as we did, the cardinal took off across to the other side of the creek. He was directly between us and the sun, so the pictures were totally washed out. That and I didn’t check my camera settings, which were all jacked up, and I just started shooting.

What I caught was a bunch of over-exposed shots, but I kind of salvaged one of the cardinal shots, right as he was taking off again. Had the camera settings been better, this might have been a pretty sweet picture. Either way, he had his wings spread and the sun was directly behind him–so that was kind of cool I thought.
canyon-lake-cardinal

I was a little miffed that he didn’t hang around though. After all, I was wearing a St. Louis Cardinals hat AND my 2011 World Series Championship red jacket, so clearly I was not a threat to him!

PS – I could have lied and said we caught a boat full of bass up there, you know. I’ll post pictures when I do.

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Arizona Bark Scorpion Fatso

by holySmith! on June 28, 2012

This is the world famous Arizona Bark Scorpion. This particular specimen was flushed out of his hiding spot when I was hosing off the patio the other day.

[Arizona Bark Scorpion who lived on my patio until recently.]

Scorpions are common here in AZ and in/around my house. When you encounter enough of them, they become less and less scary. But this one was different. This particular one is by far the fattest scorpion I’ve ever seen. Mostly they are smaller and flatter, but this guy must have been feasting on the local cockroaches or black widow spiders that live in our neighborhood. Or maybe he ate my neighbors since I haven’t seen them in a while, who really knows.

Generally, the larger they are, the less dangerous they are when they sting you with some of their potentially deadly venom. Unfortunately, they only need about a 1/16″ crack in your wall before they invite themselves into your house, so only the most dangerous ones tend to be inside.

I’m pretty sure this fatty couldn’t have fit through that small of an opening and I think he was just waiting for me to open the patio doors so he could come in and have a beer or whatever.

Given that these little bastards can cause some serious damage to people, especially kids, I make sure to eliminate the threat. Permanently. With linesman pliers. I also use vinegar (they hate that) and I have an LED blacklight flashlight for night inspections, just in case, say, holySmith The Parents are visiting from out of town and one or both of them needs to go out on the patio to have a smoke.

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holySmith The Boat

May 29, 2012

holySmith has a boat. It’s a Sea Eagle Sport Runabount 12′ 6″ rigid keel inflatable boat, to be more exact. It also has an electric trolling motor with 45lbs of thrust. We also have a small Humminbird fish finder, which is pretty handy. holySmith The Boy and I took it out for the first run [...]

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holySmith! The Update

October 5, 2011

2011 has been a year of change for holySmith! and you’d never know it by looking at this website because I haven’t updated it much. holySmith! has been busy. This is a classic case of the carpenter’s house never being finished. I spend most of my waking hours working on websites for one client or [...]

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There is another

March 2, 2011

If you want to learn the big news, watch this. I would have embedded it, but it doesn’t fit properly on the page.

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