Move cows....MOVE!

My day yesterday started about 0545. I had to meet one of the technicians that work out here, named Mike, over by Carlton's house at 0620 to do another quail call survey. Shrek and I left the office about 0600 but I miscalculated how long it would take me to get there and I was running late. Couldn't get the gate onto the Three Lakes unit to lock shut so I had to make it look like it was locked and hurry on. About a half mile from where I was supposed to meet Mike, I noticed something in the middle of the road. As I approached, I saw that it was about 40 cows, some of which were laying down in the road. Unlike other WMA's I've been on, Three Lakes allows rachers to keep cows and have them roam around the area. The cows, knowing I was late, mocked me by refusing to budge from the road. I rolled down the window and blared the horn at them. "Move cows! Move! Move!". I inched Shrek closer and closer to them, threatening to bump them should they not get out of the way. Reluctantly, and with what seemed like amused grins, the cows slowly walked off the road and let me pass.

The quail survey actually took a little longer than expected thanks to some completely flooded roads. At one stop I was forced to open the door and crawl onto the tool box in the back to avoid stepping into knee deep water. After the quail survey I checked up on some bluebird boxes that I've been assigned to. After I got back to the office, I got help from Tina, the head biologist out here, and we went to go band a box of bluebird chicks.

I then got the exciting task of spraying herbicides to kill invasive plants. The sprayer is attached to a four wheeler so I pretty much had to just drive down the road, spray the exotics, flag them with orange tape, plot the GPS coordinates, rinse, and repeat.After work, I had enough time to go put the kayak in for some fishing. I tried some ponds near the turnpike that Mike had showed me earlier that morning. I launched in the first one and was having absolutely no success. Just when I was a few casts away from hanging it up and trying the next pond, something pulled my foam spider under. With renewed confidence that I might actually catch something, I switched to the grasshopper fly my dad tied and began getting strikes. I finally managed to hook and land a very nice bluegill. With some continued casts around the area, I soon landed the biggest bluegill I've ever caught on the fly. It actually pulled the kayak around. Luckily, I decided not to keep those two fish because I only caught a few small ones after that. I soon noticed it was getting late, so I loaded up the kayak and tried the other pond before it got too dark. The second pond had lilly pads all over it and within a short period of time, I landed a few small bluegill. Just a
s the sun was setting, I caught two bass in two casts. One of the bass was large enough to keep. I had to quit fishing since the sun had set by then.

Today wasn't exactly spectacular. I went and sprayed exotics for 4.5 hours since I was closing in on my 40 hour/week mark (I get no over time). Finished up work at 1330 and I'm thinking about going fishing again.