Farm Ponds and Training Camp

First I want to thank all of you for your comments regarding my blog.  They have been incredible and have been a motivating factor for me to continue putting information out there that seems to be interesting to most all of you.  I wasn’t much of a English student in high school or college.  Early on I eliminated English teacher from my list of potential career opportunities.  Many of my teachers and professors would be shocked at your comments regarding my writing style.  Thanks again for logging on.

Now for these early days of summer and my favorite kind of fishing, farm ponds.  They come in many different sizes, from a  one acre pond to a 50 acre pond (small lake).  What I like most about fishing them is that I know the fish are there, it’s just how many laps around pond before you start catching them.

Recently I took a trip down to Oklahoma to see my dad and visit with my sister and brother in-law.  My brother in-law is now retired and he has access to several great ponds and loves to fish.  Our first morning we fished on a 18 acre pond and in 3 hours we caught and released 42 fish, yes we kept count, he is charting each summers catch.  It really is a good idea, you can collect some pretty good data about the pond.  Time of the year, water temperature, outside air temperature, wind direction and the type of lure and tackle used.  I think it helps plan your next trip to that pond so you can maximize your opportunity.  That evening we went to a 50 acre sand pit that had some pretty deep water, for a farm pond, 35 feet.  The third fish I caught was a 7.2 pound black bass (large mouth).  No question it was exciting.  That fish pulled our little two man bass boat around in circles several times before we landed him.

Red Shad 7 inch plastic worm was the magic bait.  I love to worm fish, it is what I have the most confidence in and I really believe that has a lot to do with being successful in fishing.  I know a lot of very good and successful pro fishermen who throw nothing but crank baits and swear there is nothing better.  As far as I am concerned it takes a little bit touch and feel to become a good worm fishermen, that includes you ladies as well.  That little tap you feel on the rod and then seeing the line move across the water,  it is awesome.  There is just something about it that is challenging to me.   I just have a hard time forcing myself to pound the water with a crank bait over and over and over!  The other great aspect about fishing farm ponds, when the fish start hitting top water, you can pretty much count on them doing it all around the pond and there isn’t anything more exciting, even us serious plastic worm fishermen would admit to that.

The farm ponds are absolutely the best place to get the young kids excited about fishing, for the mere fact they will catch fish, blue gill, catfish, crappie or bass.  A little success on the farm ponds will get most kids really excited about fishing and the outdoors, so take one if you can.  I promise, you will get as much fun out of it as they will.

NFL training camps are just around the corner.  Most of you are hearing about the mini camps or OTA’s going on around the league.  Being a player in the NFL today is a full time job.  I can remember my rookie year we had no off season training sessions (organized) and only one mini camp before going to training camp.  When I was playing our training camps lasted almost two months before we played our first preseason game.  In those days we played 6 preseason games, so add another 6 weeks to training camp and we were there over 3 months.  Most guys came in out of shape and played their way into shape by the time the season started.  Today there is so much competition at each position that you can’t afford to be in anything but incredible condition.  They have what are called OTA’s (off season training activities), which are supervised workouts with the coaching staff.  They also have unsupervised, all volunteer (ha) work outs that begin shortly after the Super Bowl.  Today’s NFL player only has two weeks of training camp before they start playing preseason games so they have to be ready to play from day one.  The off season programs the players are involved with today are essential for both the players and the organization.  Because of the limited time in camp the team doesn’ have a great deal of time to evaluate the players who are marginal and competing for a job.  Obviously it doesn’t give the players much time to impress the coaching staff either.  The big difference between the players of today compared to the players during my years is that these guys are being evaluated year round.

You are going to start hearing a lot about contracts and the signing of all the draft choices and un-drafted free agents.  It is a critical time for both management and the unsigned players.

My next blog I will talk about the consequences, from both sides, of not signing your top draft selections.

As always I look forward to hearing your comments.

The Outdoor Quarterback!