So what's everyone doing for the holiday weekend? Has all the world troubles affected your plans? Tom is coming home for 4 days, he'll get here around 3 am July 4. As of now we just want to spend time together on the farm. He hasn't been home since June 9 and then he was here for only 28 hrs. There have been quite a few new critters added since his last visit. All those ducklings and Casey my newest senior rescue dog. She's 11 yr old and a purebred Brittany Spaniel. Surprisingly, she pays no attention to the poultry and is a good old dog. I think we'll grill out most days since we have the grill on the porch even if it rains we can still use it. Maybe we might try to do some fishing in the pond although many of the fish are catfish which neither of us likes. Any ideas how to get rid of them without killing off the bass,crappies & bluegill? There's a fireworks display in the next town (11 mi away) that we can see from our porch so with some bug deterrant slathered on we'll probably watch it while sitting on the swing with a big glass of iced tea. Nothing too exciting but just enjoying the quiet life together will be nice for a change.

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), June 29, 2002

Answers

No cohestive plans. It's just me and the youngest, so it would be good to find a gathering where she can be with other kids, not just boring ol me. Guess we will go watch the "big" fireworks, then amble down to the river and shoot off a bunch.

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), June 29, 2002.

since catfish are bottom feeders, you can use alot fo lines, right on the bottom, baited with, cornmeal and bacon grease, (has worked for me), or something, bacon maybe, use a smallish hook, so they will swallow is, but use a strong line, in the morning, pull them in, rebait the ones that "got away"

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), June 29, 2002.

I think that fishing them out might be a good way to go. You could set a trout line type set up and place it on the bottom so that the catfish would be more likely to strike on the bait, this way you would not need to put in a lot of individual lines.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), June 29, 2002.

Thanks for the catfish ideas. I'll be making some of the local folks happy, they all like catfish and that pond is full of them! Last fall my son caught one that weighed 11#. If I get them out of there then this fall when the fish hatchery truck comes to town I can add more bass & bluegills. I tried stocking it last year but the catfish ate them.:(

-- Kathy Aldridge (beckoningwinds@yahoo.com), June 30, 2002.