A Full Day At My Sportsman's Club

Initial Fishing Outing

Yesterday morning the 15th I got up at 04:30 to go fishing at the club pond. It's about 3 acres in size and has a stream feeding it and an outlet to maintain water levels. It is stocked with trout, but there are plenty of bass, yellow perch, and large bluegills in there, and that's what I fish for. All my tackle has crimped barbs on the hook because I do catch and release. I grabbed a quick shower, got dressed, and went outside to get the chickens out for the day and the coop cleaned. I made a commuter mug of coffee, grabbed my gear, and headed out to the club.

I got there around six, and had a line in the water by 06:15 while it was still kind of dark. Being that this was my first outing of the year, I spent some time the night before making sure everything was ready to go. The line on my reel was changed late in the season last year so it was still good. I use Sufix 832 Advanced Superline. Its a fine braided line and I get the dark green that disappears in the water. 20lb test for the size of 6lb monofilament.

I have the remains of a 600yd spool I bought a few years ago and not knowing what was left I bought another 300yd spool at Cabela's a couple of weeks ago. I have more than enough now. I also have a line winder device so it places line on my reels in the proper orientation so it pays out smoothly. The line on both of my reels gets replaced when it starts to look faded or become worn. While at Cabela's I purchased a replacement floating bass plug for the one that I lost late last year. 

Fishing at that pond in the morning seems to have a small window of activity, at least in my experience. In the dark before dawn.... nothing. After dawn and until the sun comes over the horizon and starts hitting the area is when I have my best success. I was fishing from the rocks and was casting left and right parallel to the shore. I tried a couple of different lure setups and nothing. I began using my new floating plug lure smeared with minnow attractant, and felt what I thought was a clump of weeds I snagged. I reeled it in expecting to have to clear my lure and instead found a large and healthy smallmouth bass. It had swallowed my lure and had the rear treble hook stuck a few inches down it's gullet. Luckily I had my long arm hook remover in my pocket, and holding the fish securely, reached in and down and easily backed the hook out of it's flesh. I took a good look at it and sent it on its way. It swam away in a flash obviously no worse for the wear. I smeared on some fresh attractant and started casting along the shore again, This time I got a big hit retrieving my lure from the left and boy was it fighting hard. It was pulling my line and turning the spool in the wrong direction so I tightened the drag a bit while I continued cranking. About 8 feet from shore and BLOOP! it was off the hook and gone. Oh well, that's just the way things go with crimped barbs. I went back to casting. About 10 minutes later, I got another solid hit from the left and started reeling it in. This time I landed a largemouth bass around 11 inches long. It was hooked solidly in the lip and easy to remove by hand. I took a good look at it and then sent it on its way. Back to casting left and right along the shore. WHAM! from the left side again, another large fish putting up a good fight. It broke water about 12 feet out but I could not tell what it was. Just like before, about 8 feet out and it got away. I wondered if maybe it was the same fish. I continued casting for another 15 minutes or so, but the sun was several degrees over the horizon and it was getting really bright. At about 07:20 I called it quits and went home for breakfast. I was happy to have what I deemed a successful morning of fishing in such a short time.

As the weather warms a bit, I will be heading out in my kayak, and if I can get someone else to go with me we'll get out in my motorized canoe. Life jackets are required to be worn here until June 1st, so on my last shopping trip to Cabela's I purchased a lightweight auto-inflating life jacket that will be easier to wear than the one I currently have. This will be especially necessary on cool mornings while wearing an extra layer for warmth.

An Afternoon At The Range

A month or so ago, I stopped by the salon my wife goes to in order to solicit a donation for the sportsman's club upcoming kid's fishing event. The woman that owns it is also a friend of my wife and I and was more than happy to donate to the event. While we were chatting for a while the subject of firearms came up when she asked about the club facilities. It turns out, she has had her Kommiecticut pistol permit for years, and hasn't done any shooting since she got it. Thankfully she doesn't carry a firearm because that would not be a good situation. I offered her an outing at the range and some one-on-one instruction. She told me she is usually available on Mondays and Fridays, so I told her I'd get in touch when it warmed up a bit and I had a Monday or Friday off. The weather forecast for yesterday was sunny with temps in the 70's and I had a scheduled day off, so I texted her Saturday afternoon to invite her to the range. I could read the excitement in her replies. Initially she was not going to bring any of her own firearms she would just use mine. We agreed to meet at the clubhouse at 13:30 so she could fill out the guest waiver which is good for the rest of the calendar year.

I spent the morning after breakfast getting everything together. I thoughtfully picked out a variety of firearms and associated ammo, targets, and miscellaneous equipment. My range bag had most of what I needed, but I also packed my range tote box with my toolbox/cleaning supplies, spotting scope, tripod, and a can of white spray paint. I hate the idea of having to shut down shooting a particular firearm or an entire range day for the want of simple tools or a cleaning rod, so I usually bring the tote, but sometimes just leave it in the truck. I brought seven handguns and three rifles in appropriate carrying cases. I bring ammo in this Bass Pro Shops marine dry box pictured below. It comes with three smaller matching ammo can style containers that go inside, but I use those for other items. The dual latch box holds my reload trays and commercial boxed ammo fine.

Good sized at: 18-3/8" x 12-1/8" x 8-1/4"

I met her right on time in the clubhouse parking lot. After she filled out the form, I handed her the one page list of club range rules to look over while I went inside to file her waiver. When I came out we quickly went over and discussed the rules which are pretty simple. We also discussed The Four Rules of Gun Safety. She followed me down the road to the range in her vehicle. It took a good half hour to unload my truck and get things set up the way I like them. Our handguns stayed in the cases, but the rifles went on the rifle rack with chamber flags at the rear of the range enclosure. Shooting benches were used to hold the handguns, range bags, ammo, and target supplies. We set up two target stands at defensive range of 7 yards with two targets on each stand. When instructing new shooters, it is important that they put rounds on targets. Once they get some confidence you can start moving targets back farther and farther.

I let her choose what to shoot first, and she wisely agreed on my 1935 vintage S&W K-22 Outdoorsman in .22LR. She brought her boyfriends semi-auto S&W 22A-1 and a new box of Winchester .22 ammo but wanted to start with my six shooter. I demonstrated how to open the cylinder, load it, unload it, and fire it on single or double action. I explained how I zero my guns and drew a diagram of what a proper sight picture should look like. She put a couple of cylinders through and was on paper, but high and to the right. I explained that meant she was anticipating recoil and pulling the gun to the right when she pulled the trigger. Once she settled down she was hitting in the black close to center. She then began shooting double action and did quite well. It is a statistical fact that overall, women are better marksman than men. What impressed me was her technique shooting double action. Most people creep the trigger back and try to hold on target waiting for the hammer to drop. She did the proper single motion pull of the trigger. We went down range and I stood in front of her target to show that all of her shots would have counted as center mass hits. We then moved on to her boyfriend's S&W semi-auto. I showed her how to load the magazine and put the gun in battery ready for shooting. I fired it first to see how he had the sights set and so she could see how it functioned. The sights were set for a zero hold. She then fired several mags at the second target on her backboard. She did as well with the semi-auto as she did with my revolver. We replaced her targets and wrote what gun was used on which target so she could show her boyfriend. Time to go a little bigger.

We looked at all the handguns I brought and I explained what each one was. We decided she would start with my 5-shot stainless Rossi M-88 in .38 Special. It is basically an exact copy of a S&W J-Frame Model 60 because when it was made, Rossi and S&W shared the same parent company and shared designs. The gun is only rated for standard .38 Special, not +P which is how I load my home brew .38 SPL ammo. I fired a cylinder full first, a couple of rounds on single action and the rest on double against one of my two targets at 7 yards. She then took the gun, loaded it up and let loose. She said it was pretty powerful, kinda scared her a little, but she REALLY LIKED IT and fired a couple more cylinders doing pretty well. After that was my Ruger GP-161 in .357 Magnum with a 6 inch full lug barrel. I showed her how to open the cylinder, which uses a push button instead of a slide latch. Because the gun shoots .38 SPL and .357 Magnum, she stopped me and asked about the numbers used for the different calibers and what they meant. After a brief explanation, I loaded it up with .38 SPL and fired a cylinder, half on single and half on double at the 25 yard steel plates to demonstrate. She took it and loaded it up and fired it a couple of times. I then loaded it with my .357 Magnum target loads to demonstrate, smacking the plates at 25 yards with every shot and with authority. She was amazed at the flames out the side and I reminded her that was why I explained where NOT to put your fingers when firing a revolver. She declined to fire any magnums and I told her that was her choice, no pressure to do anything she was uncomfortable with.

We then moved to shooting the S&W Governor, which shoots .45 ACP with moon clips, .45 Long Colt, and .410 shotgun shells. She quickly caught on to using my Moon Clip Tool to load a full moon clip, and my L-Cut 1/2" copper plumbing nipple to unload empties. She fired a couple of clips right on target in double action with no problem. I then loaded 3 Federal 000 Buck .410 shotgun shells for demonstration. Each one of those shells contains (4) .30 caliber round balls that group nicely from the Governor at 7 yards. She went and loaded a full cylinder of them and lit them all off in double action punching a lot of holes in her target. We were then going to shoot my SR9c in 9mm. I demonstrated loading a mag with my Uplula loader, and fired all 10 rounds at the 25 yards plates again. When it came time for her to load up, she said she was done, and that those shotgun shells kinda did her in making her arm sore. With that, we were done and packed everything back up. We stopped at the clubhouse on the way out to socialize with a few members that were there and to enjoy a cold brew. Man, that ice cold PBR tasted SOOOOO good. Hopefully the next time we get together, it will be a foursome including my wife and her boyfriend.