Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge them.I fed today but I'll get back to what happened with that. First I'll tell you about what happened with Hotdog the snake. I get tired of seeing him trying to hunt and again and again missing. He sits in his little cement block house down there and every day he's there patiently waiting and hoping for a meal. I couldn't take it any longer... I caught two fish for him today and devised a way to get them down to him.
As you can see in the photos it was a real boner of an idea and was totally unsuccessful. I scared Hotdog out of his wits for one thing and he slid under the mud and hid for a half hour. Finally I hooked, the almost dead by then, fish around the tail and lowered it down with my rod intending to wiggle him when Hotdog came back from his hiding place. Well, the fish promptly fell off and I had to lean way over, almost falling in myself, and with the very tip of the pole I was able to kinda maneuver the fish over to the cement blocks. When Hotdog came out of hiding he was overjoyed to have found the fish and - OK you got me - so he might not have been OVERJOYED... BUT he SEEMED to ME, the OLD FISH WATCHER, at least kinda, sorta pleased - if a snake can be pleased - there (is that any better?).
Hotdog ate the fish and I caught him another which he also prompted ate. The second fish I just threw down there near him and he got it. Wish I would have done that the first time...(The next day) I had to stop to watch the Bionic Woman on TV so I didn't finish this post last night and am continuing it now this morning (Thursday).
When I was very young my mother allowed me to have pet snakes along with other pets. I don't know if my father had a thing to do with it or not but my Mom wasn't afraid of anything I don't think except the big giant Florida cockroaches. I'm not afraid of too much myself and a little old snake surely won't bother anyone. I can't remember what day of the week the maid would come but my mom would put a cover over my snake cage. I know we lost at least one maid when she peeked under the cover... I believe she said that snakes gave her headaches? Bahahahha.... I'm certain my mother will read this and correct me if my memory is wrong...
The little neighbor girl from across the street came over last night and looked at these photos and the first thing she said is, "Why does everyone look so little?" She was talking about the photos of the fish and turtles and snake and all. In this photo of Hotdog she said that the fish looks like a tiny little minnow. I told her I think one of those cement blocks is about 16 inches long and that "minnow" I caught for Hotdog was a small one but was about 5 inches long.
What I think is happening in these photos is this... I am standing up on a bank and the grass is growing up near me. From the camera's point of view the grass looks like it's right there at the water's edge so it makes the fish look tiny. I took a photo yesterday to illustrate my point and also to show just how low my pond is this year and to show my little sitting spot where I feed and look down into the water. I need to get better chairs don't I? Nah! I'm the only one back there! The little green low thing you see behind the chairs is a hammock sitting place for my dog who always goes with me. I can keep it back there and water will run right through it. It's a handy thing to have.What I'd really like to have right there where I feed is a ramp of some sort that goes about 15 foot out from the bank and down into the water. If it's a ramp then it wouldn't matter how high or low the water is and I could just adjust myself up and down the ramp. I have rolled things around in my mind on how to do it but I just don't know exactly the best way - if anyone has any ideas for a good DIY project PLEASE email me. Now would be a great time as the water is so low and I'd rather not put my toes down in the mud.
Well, back to feeding. I got all my hot dog chunks together and loaded them with the Purina gamefish food... If they won't eat it outright then perhaps I can sneak it to them... I have sneaked pills to dogs like that and wormer to horses and donkeys in bread sandwiches... You can smash bits of that stuff pretty easily into pieces of hot dog as it's hard. It does take a lot of time but so what. I suppose I could be in the house dusting or cleaning out the tub...You know some of those ole bass would take those chunks, roll them around in their mouths a few seconds and out would pop the Purina chow... Jeez... They are like incorrigible brats pushing their peas off to the side... I'm going to call Purina - see if I don't. I feed Purina to my dog, cats, even my husband's "pet" Ole Slick (the slick tailed "cat" that visits the porch at night) and they seem to be perfectly happy so I'm not knocking Purina but I just think they can do a bit better on fish food. Even the bluegill who will eat just about anything will take the food but spit it out a dozen times before they will finally take it. On the other hand if I throw in just a piece of old bread they act like piranhas (one time I fell into the Amazon river and broke my foot way out in the boonies and thought I was going to get eaten by Piranhas - I'm still here - whew). Can't they make feed that at least tastes as good as a plain old bread crust? Maybe they could make a softer feed? I dunno maybe it wouldn't float. I'm sure they do the very best they can - they dang sure are experts and have been doing it forever grumble grumble... I'm still going to call..
Now this last little bit is about Meanandlean as he is always up to something. It seems I am always focusing on him but I'm really not it's just that he's the one right now that seems to be the one doing things on the feed lot down there. What he's up to now is this:
When I first got down there to feed there were about ten large bass and a bunch of little ones waiting for feed way up in the shallows (they had been hanging back lately). It was cloudy at the time and I couldn't tell if Meanandlean was out there or not. I couldn't take any good photos because of the clouds so I didn't bother - later it cleared when I fed Hotdog. I was busy loading the hotdogs and feeding and fed for about 15 minutes or so and then suddenly noticed all the bass had swam way out. I knew they hadn't been fed enough as I had more than half of my feed left but who knows with them? Anything could have set them off like a bird or something that I didn't see.
Well, I looked down and around the shallow end there squinting and searching around and guess who was down there looking up at me? Yep - the ole creep himself - Meanandlean... He had chased off all the other bass. I guess he thinks he's really something now that he's all fat and sassy. He never used to do that when I fed and he would always come and always look up at me but never chase the other bass out of the shallows. I think he did this once before the other day though.
I fed him some "worms" and then tried some chunks. He ate a few of each but spit some out at times too just to remind me who was in charge I suppose. At times some of the other bass would try to come in and he'd run them back out. Some would make it in when he wasn't looking but he'd see them eventually and turn and make a run at them. He's only about an inch bigger than most of them except for La Torpeda and she's a good bit bigger than he is. I have seen him chase even her before though. I starting throwing food way out to them so they could eat. Meanandlean would take some chunks from me when he felt like it and sometimes he would just leave them lay. I could see that the other bass were antsy and looking and wanted to run in and grab the hot dog chunks. A couple of times a bass did run in to get a chunk that Meanandlean had sitting right in front of him that he wasn't going to eat. Just as the other bass was about to get it Meanandlean would suddenly find it tasty after all and eat it. He's awful... I've seen dogs do that a lot but I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought a fish would ever do that...
It's 12:36 PM here and I haven't even cut up food. It's cloudy so won't be a good photo day. I gotta go!
