Yes dear reader – The Fabulous Sportsmen’s Camp Blog has finally decided to throw its full political weight behind a candidate on this primary election day eve. We here at the Sportsmen’s Camp Blog have been intensely lobbied and courted by the candidates but have accepted no bribes or inducements to arrive at our decision. After much deliberation we have decided to endorse Barak Obama. I believe he will energize the electorate to achieve a true mandate and to provide the coat-tails necessary to achieve his goals. I also realize that either of the candidates will be fine choices but think that Hillary will energize the “great unwashed poor conservative” electorate and cause a much closer election. So it may be said that my decision is geared more to facilitating greater change.

Its been eight years since the elephant brought the circus to town – the economy has been wrecked, the government bankrupted, the middle class has been ruthlessly raped, we’ve been embroiled in an illicit needless war, they have  presided over the worst terrorist attacks ever and used them to erode our basic rights and shit on the constitution and haven’t brought the perpetrator to justice. That is to say the elephant has left a giant pile of dung as well all the garbage from the corrupt circus. It will take a long time to clean up but there is something we can do now - an anonymous donor has agreed to bankroll a small contest. Its The:

 Why we should Impeach W Bush before he leaves office Contest.

The winner of the contest will receive a 12 pack of Labatt 50

Just post your comment as to why W should be impeached tried removed and incarcerated.

Or post your comment as to why W is a great president – if you should win you’ll receive a 12 pack IC Lite.

The contest will be impartially judged by me and the anonymous donor.

The winner(s) will be announced in the next blog.

So enter early and often – try working both sides of the issue but hell go for it! The odds of winning are better here than in any other contest!

Ran like a wahoo! Bulldogged like giant Goliath grouper all on 4 pound test line! The first day of trout season has come and gone. It was rough sledding – the fish were biting lightly and tentatively. The Big Run was on the low side and running cold and a major cold front had moved in overnight dropping temperatures from the upper sixties to the upper forties with overcast skies and some stiff breezes. Not exactly what I would consider optimum fishing conditions for the first day of trout season.  Given the poor conditions I pulled out all the stops and got up earlier than normal – 11:30 AM! I thus was on the stream about a half hour sooner than normal! I was forced to thread minnows the entire time fishing to make every bite count. But I did have a trump card up my sleeve – I had an ace “fish spotter”!! Tom Pitts was visiting for the weekend and would shadow me where I was fishing and point out trout that were invisible to me from the opposite side of the stream. Now I have to figure a way to train Baxter TWD to do that! It took me about an hour and a half to get my limit and there were no overages on that count. Normally I catch between 20 and 30 fish but this first day I was happy with 5! Two of the little devils were browns and the rest were rainbows. It was delightful to catch them in the swiftly flowing stream and have them work it all against me. I also was breaking in my new carbon fiber fly rod. Its good that I had it – because it is considerably more sensitive than my old fiberglass rod. Two of the nicer rainbows actually had the temerity to take line from me on the several runs that they made!

I just got back from fishing now and here are some of the fish I caught this afternoon of the second day of trout season. The conditions were a little better today after getting some overnight rain and having fewer people tramping through Big Run. It was nice and drizzly so it effectively kept the dilettantes away. I ended up catching 11 trout today and had some good tussles from the larger rainbows. Overall ~90% of my fish were caught on threaded fat head minnows and the preference seemed to be with the natural colored minnow over the goldie minnows. I also caught ~ 4 on meal-worms and 1 or 2 on salmon eggs. And everyone should know that the only salmon eggs on earth are Mike’s Cheese Bait – Accept no substitutes, you can smell the difference!

Janet got the last of the troublesome Keys Pictures saved to the Kodak program and I have presented a select few below.

Janet got these great shots of the dolphins by random rapid-fire pictures in the general area where the dolphins were pacing the Raging Queen. Great shots!

One of the denizens of the iguana hotel along the our canal.

 Lazy lounging jiblets mocking the captain and luffing it up - “You want what pulled up?? Ha Ha Ha!”

Ahhhhhhh run for your lives!

Yes I am now substitute teaching. But don’t worry about it – I wouldn’t dream of indoctrinating anyone. It has been fun and very interesting thus far. But, get this, my first assignment was 2 days of teaching music to grades 2 through 6! Yeegads how can these teachers do this stuff for 20 plus years! I don’t believe it! Its a good thing I don’t have a handgun or I would splatter my insufficient brain mass onto the nearest wall after a scant few weeks! My hat is off to these teachers! Since then I have been teaching only high school biology, science, and drivers ed. I am scheduled for English, industrial arts and history this week. Its actually a lot of fun but I really think they should begin classes at 9:00 AM, not 7:30 AM.

In the news:

Its great to see China getting beat up in the media for their illegal annexation and brutal subjugation of the sovereign state of Tibet. Its about the only good thing that will come out of Beijing hosting the Olympics. When I was a wee bairn I read The Third Eye by T. Lobsang Rampa (and many of his other books) and was fascinated by Tibetan culture and theology. The books should be classified as fiction but were still a great read and opened doors to a lot interesting ideas. Besides Baxter TWD says “Free the Tibetan Terrors!”

Keys picture update:

Janet hasn’t (again) moved the pictures from Ryan’s email to the Kodak program – so I haven’t posted them. I will when she gets to it. Dolphin pictures!

Weekend Update:

My sister (the smartest person on earth if I weren’t alive) will be turning 42 this Friday!!! I may not have the number right (its +/- a couple years) but keep in mind I am 3 years younger than her. We’re going to a new brewery up in Venango to check out their handiwork. A purely fact finding mission I can assure you. Hey quit rolling your eyes!

Trout season begins this Saturday – the biggest Holiday of the year! Tom Pitts is reputed to be coming down for a visit and for holiday observances. It will be a great time – getting up at the crack of noon – putting on my hip boots and walking down to Big Run to catch a plethora of the finny little devils from the watery confines of rocks, pools and boulders that I have known and befriended for more than 40 years - wait I mean 30 years – yeah that’s the ticket – I have to maintain internal consistency with above referenced (lies er I mean) age! I’ll release most of them and probably eat three or four. You will all be regaled with wonderous tales of massive tarpon-like jumping and surging trout as well as fintastic pictures

Master Baxter TWD calls me now, he wants to go for a walk – must go walk – must go walk….