Marvin Sparks 2011
I just returned from an annual bass fishing tournament in southeast Ohio . The bass seemed to be in prespawn , were skittish and not terribly protective of their beds yet.
Jim's reworked signage looks good.
The weather cleared Thursday afternoon for scouting and mushroom hunting.
A morel mushroom hiding under a leaf, on top of a rock.
Pond view.
A 2 year repeat with Tony getting the most weight. I managed to get big bass with a 5lbs 15 oz lunker. Over half the group skunked out.
My big fish
Two timer Tony.
Keith and Jim doing an excellent job of preparing fish and shrooms before sunset.
Marvin Sparks Classic 2010
A private fishing tournament held in a undisclosed location in Southeast Ohio. Tony won first place with 4 fish weighing in @ 17 lbs 1 oz. I had the second biggest fish @ 5 lbs 9 ozs , with Decker bringing in a 5 lbs 12 oz lunker ( Decker graciously bowed out after showing up late for weigh in).
Tony taking trophy from Rick.
Unofficial Big Fish.
Very nice haul of fish.
Ummm Mushrooms.
Good Eats.
Total Weight
Another trip to Zaleski
Did a quick overnight @ Zaleskis south loop. Walked in 2 miles in the dark through a thunderstorm and made camp. I'm in process of reviewing and testing out a new Garmin 60cx GPS. It has a cool feature of calculating distance and time. My trip was 11.3 miles , moving time 4 hours and 30 minutes. Moving average 2.4 miles an hour. Stopped 1 hour 26 minutes overall average 1.9 miles an hour. This did not include camp time or lunch. I did stop a few times and go off trail looking for produce.
Picked up some ramps and 2 measly dried out morels.
RECIPE ?! Rays down and dirty ramp soup.
Ingredients.
Ramps cleaned , roots removed.
Morels , preferably more than 2 shriveled up , soaked in brine.
3 cups of Beef broth
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Cut up ramps as desired, I like to keep the bulbs intact , dicing the stems and some of the leaves. Julian morels.
Heat vegetable oil in cast iron skillet. Saute leaves , stems and morels. I leave bulbs out to get a firm , almost raw bite.
Deglaze with beef broth and add bulbs. Serve and enjoy. Total cook and prep time 10 minutes.
A few things that would have made this better. A slice of bacon and rendered grease to saute. A few cloves of garlic. Homemade broth ( I used Tones beef base and half a cup of cheap beer).
2003 Marvin Sparks classic
Total weight : 1st - Jim with 18 pounds 10 oz also wins big bass with 2 lunkers over 5 pounds.
2nd - Tony with 9 pounds ... guestimation , 3rd- Ray with 6lbs 14 oz
Honorable mention to Terry for the team shroom effort.
An empty pond with no fish
Jim with Big Bass
Jim with 2 Bigums
Jims Bass
Trophies
Fillet Table
Terry's shroom haul