And then God said, “Go home.”
I fished today at Lake Moomaw with long-suffering fishing buddy Alfie Hammerstrom (to my right) and new-suffering fishing buddy John Kemp.
It was 42 when we got to the lake. That was also the best water temp we could find.
We started out drifting for trout, moved to trolling for trout, then started casting jerkbaits for bass and pickerel. Alfie caught a 2.5-pound largemouth, which finally broke the ice.
It started to rain, but we all had rain gear.
We had some good laughs, such as when, while watching me haplessly flail with my lure retriever to unhook Alfie’s snagged Rapala X-rap, John said, “Prepare to deploy the lure retriever retriever.”
It wasn’t needed as moments later I snapped Alfie’s line.
Then it started to thunder. That was that.
Lake Moomaw has been a cruel mistress to me. She is so beautiful, and occasionally spectacularly productive. But then she treats me like dirt.
I can’t stay away.
March 2, 2012 - 5:29 PM
What, no swimming? Moomaw is one place I’ve never had the oppritunity to fish or actually see. I always hear good stories about it,but a story is about all I have of it. Sorry the weather ran ya off.
Sounds familiar
Fortunately, by the historial standards of many of my past adventures, the suffering was relatively mild. No blood was spilled, it was only heavy rain, not hail,it was to cold for stininging and biting insects and there were no “favorite home video moments” on the boat ramp ! Mark, you did a great job navigating through the flotsam,jetsam and trees floating in the lake.
It was worth the trip to see Lake Moomaw above full pond,something I had not seen previously. I am accustomed to seeing Moomaw dowm 15 or 20 feet this time of the year.
Fine line between dedication and stupid. From the looks of the picture,
its a close call.
Sammy Bass says something that I agree with! Glory be!
Kevin-You are missing out. It’s worth a trip even if you don’t catch any fish.
Karl-I was thinking the same thing!
John-Look at it this way, the next time we do this it has to be better, right?
Sammy
I think you and I have crossed that stupidity line before when it comes to hunting and or scouting land in 50 mph gusts.
I wanna go!
Mark, I think I’ve dated a girl like that before. Bar chicks……. such a mistery.
Two-headed Trout Raises Eyebrows in Idaho
http://syn.verticalacuity.com/varw/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.discovery.com%2F.a%2F6a00d8341bf67c53ef0168e8271f30970c-pi
If you want to furrow a few eyebrows, tell your friends about the two-headed baby trout born of wild fish caught in a polluted Idaho stream (above). If you want to get them really riled up, explain that a major mining company linked this disturbing mutation to selenium pollution from one of its own mines — and still had the audacity to assert that those selenium levels are safe.
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The questionable integrity of this company’s scientific research, which Leslie Kaufman detailed last week in The New York Times, has fueled a much broader debate over what levels of selenium pollution should be allowed in U.S. watersheds. Federal agencies, environmental groups and one of the nation’s largest private companies are at odds, and Kaufman’s portrayal of the details is both intriguing and disturbing.
“In my research, I have seen lots of malformed baby fish, but never one with two heads,” David Janz, an aquatic toxicology professor at the University of Saskatchewan, told Kaufman. “Selenium is emerging as a pollutant of global concern,” he said. “We need to be careful here.”
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As is the case with many essential nutrients, the dose makes the poison: Too much selenium can trigger hair and fingernail loss in people, as well as and numbness in fingers and toes (which is why it has been regulated in drinking water since the 1970s). It is even more dangerous for aquatic, egg-laying animals. Kaufman cites an incident in California, in the early 1980s, when excessive selenium in agricultural runoff plagued waterfowl with grotesque birth defects, including missing eyes and protruding brains.
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So, how much is too much? The mining company at the center of the current controversy, J.R. Simplot Company, has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for special permission to allow selenium in creeks near its Smoky Canyon phosphate mine, in Idaho, to remain at current levels, even though the concentration of that element in at least one local waterway is 70 parts per billion, or 14 times higher than the federal limit. (And that’s apparently after a $3.5 million clean-up effort.)
What is more, Simplot’s scientific consultants argued (in the same draft report that included photographs of the mutated fish) that brown trout can support selenium levels of 13 to 14 parts per million in their tissue. But that’s double to triple what any of the federal agencies deem appropriate, Kaufman explains:
“The E.P.A., since 2004, has said that a standard of 7.9 parts per million in fish tissue would be enough to protect all but 20 percent of aquatic populations from chronic deformities. But scientists at three federal agencies — the Forest Service, the Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service — contend that standard is based on flawed science. Scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Service have estimated that roughly half that amount — 4 or 5 parts per million — would be a safer standard.”
Simplot’s request for exemption from the federal standards is currently under review with the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Kaufman says. If the two-headed fish don’t stop it there, the EPA will have final approval.
Photo:
A deformed baby brown trout bred from wild fish caught in a creek near Smoky Canyon phosphate mine in Idaho.
Credit:
J.R. Simplot Company
I remember playing in the 1-A Baseball State Championship all the way back in 1990 up in Hot Springs and the baseball coach took our entire team fishing at Lake Moomaw. We just got to fish from the bank but a few of us hooked some fish, great times and great memories. It is a beautiful lake and would like to return up there some day and maybe take my boys.