Thursday This n That

Welcome to the first day of March.  Onward!

I went fishing Monday.  Because of all the rain, the lake is muddy and has stuff floating on it.  So, there I am, standing on the bank and casting a lure when I see something swimming by about 5 ft off the bank and shallow enough its top fin was sticking out above the water.  At first, I thought it was a pike because I've seen pike swimming in the shallows before.  Then I noticed it had a weird nose.  Then I saw it had big spots on and near its tail.  Paddlefish?  Those things can get huge and this was only a couple feet long, so maybe a baby paddlefish?  But paddlefish don't have spots.  Hmm...  Sturgeon?  Nah.  I did my best to memorize the fish and went on about my fishing.  Later, I determined it was a gar.  Either a shortnose gar (which we aren't supposed to have here, but ya never know) or an alligator gar.  I'm kinda glad I didn't catch it.  I'm not prepared for catching a gar.  Those things have rows of wicked teeth and a testy temperament.  Anyway, the poor thing did not look like it was feeling well.  All that mud in the water probably drove it shallow so it could breath. 

I also saw something huge splashing in the river.  That could've been a paddlefish or a big catfish.  Like I said, it's hard to breath in all that mud.

We had like 7+ inches of rain last month making it the wettest February on record for this area.  It's not quite as bad as last April/May but if we get too much more rain, it will be quite floody around here again.  Our wet weather creek was running quite well.  I love the sound it makes.

Speaking of sound, the spring peepers are awake and singing.  I love spring peepers.

I got my edits for Early Grave back from the AWE yesterday.  Woohoo!  This book is gonna be awesome.  I'll start on them today.  Back to her by the 16th, back from her again around April 6th?  That should put the release day around the 20th of April.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.

Anyway, that's it for me today.  What's on your this n that radar today?