Hello friends and Hivians. I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Today I'm going to take you to a place I visited Friday Morning. It was a beautiful morning and nature gave and showed me some amazing things.
The place I visited was Cold Springs Park which is located just outside a very small town in Iowa called Lewis. It's one of many places that offers good fishing opportunities in my area. I left the house at around 7:00 and arrived at this place at about 8:15. I made a stop at the gas station to get gas, ice and some protein bars.
I visited here last back in June, I think. I must say the atmosphere this time was much better. Also the whole time I was there I had the water to myself. A feeling that really tells you that you are one with nature.
I knew exactly where I was going to set up upon arriving. The bright morning sun had an affect on this decision. I set up near a restroom building and the tree behind it was where I was at for quite sometime. The tree offered great shade and was also a great view point of the pond overall. It was really cool taking in the ambience of this small place. So many shadows were casted and there were numerous reflections on the water. This really added to the experience but it wasn't the only thing.
Before I tell you more about the ambience of this place let me tell you about a particular piece of equipment. What you see above is me drinking through a drinking tube of a CamelBak. It's a piece of equipment I recently found cleaning out my garage. It's more or less a water pack on your back. This thing is so darn convenient being out in the elements I was happy to find it.
Carrying a water bottle or any type of water container around is a pain. If I had a water bottle it probably would have stayed put on the picnic table I set up at. I filled this water pack with 2.5 L of cold water and added ice to it as well. I ended up drinking all of it in my 3 hours there. I guarantee I would have not drank that much if I only had water bottles. Also the water in the CamelBak stays cold for quite sometime, much longer than a water bottle. So how many times did I use the restroom building? I didn't at all but I had to stop three times on the drive back, hehe.
The other day I showed some American Yellow Lotus plants in another post from a lake near me. I didn't expect to see different Lotus plants here. If I knew of this my fisherman mind would have probably went somewhere else. I'm glad I did come here because I caught a lot of fish near them. The big difference here is you could fish in many different areas alongside them. I tell you the smell near them is a quite pleasant for your nostrils 👃 No yellow ones today but an assortment of white and pink ones which gave off Mother Nature's decorative skills.
A few close ups of the flowers. It appears these will be here for a few more weeks. Many have bloomed yet there continues to be more to come. Aren't they just beautiful with the yellow middles? Which one do you like better?
So the lotus fishing relationship went well for me. I just tried to cast anywhere from 6 inches to 18 inches from the edge on the sides of the pads. I seen evidence that one unlucky angler casted into them and lost their bobber (2nd photo yellow bobber). I shook my head because it was about 10 feet straight ahead from shore. It's best to fish the edges not in front of them to prevent this.
I casted hundreds of times and only once did I land on a pad. It was just a few inches from the edge and I didn't lose anything. Actually I just pulled it lightly off the pad and it fell to where I wanted it at. Than seconds later I hooked a fish, not bad for a foul cast, right? Haha.
My first three catches were these little guys. Now I didn't catch them by the pads but rather when I was getting ready to pull my jig out of the water. I changed tactics by reeling in faster when I got to the end of the shoreline. It's fun catching fish but these little ones aren't all that exciting to catch, hehe.
Later on I seen this little guy hopping in the grass. I decided to catch him and give him a little photo shoot. I had to be quick because he already hopped out of my hand three times before. I seen a few of these on the pads along with dragon flies, butterflies and something I don't like wasps. I wasn't able to capture anything on the pads and wasn't going to be patiently waiting for an opportunity because some fishing needed done :-)
So a decent hall today I ended up keeping 14 fish and caught around 40 in total. I share these catches as these were caught during the end of my fishing trip. It was getting hot and the sun was definitely making me think it was time to get going.
I also caught a fish I haven't caught this year yet and that was rewarding in its own right. The last picture is of a Red Ear Sunfish or a hybrid of one with a male blue gill. Typically they grow bigger, fight a little bit more, have a bigger mouth and don't reproduce if they are of a hybrid specie. I only caught two of these which were of decent size.
What an amazing and relaxing time at this small pond doing what I like to do 😊 I hope you enjoyed my brush with nature as much as I have. Take care, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the weekend.