Adventures in Arizona

Night ride 4

2010-09-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

9/19/2010

So I went out for another night ride on my bike looking for critters. And I must say I had a very successful evening. I was driving down Bush Hwy along the Salt River when I saw something in the road. I turned back and found this baby Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake. Very tiny. So I grabbed a stick and moved him off the side of the road. I continued on and soon came across another small snake on the shoulder. I took a picture or two before I realized it was a Mojave Rattlesnake. Now I've briefly mentioned this before, but there are about four ways you can tell the difference between a Diamond-backed and a Mojave. I know most people could care less but for those who find this interesting, here it is. The Diamond-backed is pictured above and the Mojave below.

1. Look at the tail: They both have black and white stripes, yes, but there is a difference. The Western has roughly the same sized black and white stripes while the Mojave has smaller black stripes. Still, this can be difficult to determine by itself.

2. Look at the head: They both have two stripes on the side of their face. One in front of the eye and one behind. The eye stripe behind is the difference. On the Western, it is more vertical and crosses the lip. On the Mojave it slants more and does not cross the lip. You can tell in the picture of the Mojave very well that this is the case. Look further in the post for the larger picture of a Western to see this feature better.

3. Look to the Diamonds: Now it is true that they both have diamonds. Odd that only the Western is called the Diamond-backed. But if you look at the coloration of the diamonds, the Western has a "salt and pepper" look to it. The scales seem to be dark and light. In the Mojave they are a more solid color. I agree, this is not the easiest way to determine the species.

4. Look back to the head: This one requires you to be the closest to the snakes head, which is why I don't recommend it as a determining factor. But if it's dead or something and you are checking, look at the scales on the top of the head from the eyes back. The Western DB has very small scales covering the entire head up until the eyes where it still has several scales at least between the eyes (or the supraoculars (scales above the eyes)). The Mojave has a plate like scales from its eyes back to the middle of the head. So the scales are much larger and therefore fewer in number. (Information expanded upon from my book A Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles in Arizona).

I continued riding and went up to Usery Park and back. On the way back I stopped for a snake. It was a baby Gopher snake DOR unfortunately. My next stop was the Salt River parking lot by the bridge. I walked down to the river and saw what I call the Wild Horses of the Salt River. There were 6 of them including two colts that I haven't seen before. I decided to cross the bridge and hike down closer to them on the other side of the river. In total I saw between 6 to 8 skunks from the river to the parking lot. I drove across and parked and was about to place my hand down to jump over the concrete walkway railing when I saw a bark scorpion where my had was about to be placed.

As I was making my way down to the river I kept seeing the kangaroo rats everywhere--really small ones too. As I was walking between two large trees I heard one on the right so I was looking at it and heard another one to the right. As I turned I realized it was actually a large Western DB! I took these pictures and then, as I had been wanting to taste rattlesnake, I killed it (sparing you the details). It was still moving for quite a while without the head as the muscles loosen up. So jumping ahead, I skinned it at home and prepared it for eating the next day. From an article I read, I put it in the freezer covered in salt water. This morning I thawed it out and then marinated it in Teriyaki sauce. Then this evening I grilled them and they were...quite delicious. Much better than I had imagined. Even my mom, who thought they wouldn't taste good at all, liked it. I searched for recipes but ended up just mixing a few together and it turned out well. You can find some videos on Youtube that show you how to skin them. Next time I want to tan the skin too. We'll see. And maybe make my own video showing how to skin them.

I made my way down closer to the horses and as I was shining my light I saw a bunch of eyes at water level moving around. As I got closer I realized they were raccoons. A whole family. I never would have thought I'd see them right down at the Salt River. But there they were just fishing in the night. The horses were right behind them on a small "island" of grass. On my way home I stopped by the place where I had seen the Mojave and sure enough he had decided to cross and got run over. But I was able to get a closer look at the features that distinguish it from the Western DB such as the plates on his head.

Evening Finds 4

2010-09-17T23:07:00.002-07:00

9/15/2010

Let's see...13 snakes in 2 hours. That is how our night went. It started off with dove hunting as usual, though dove season just ended so no more of that for a while. As the last two shots were made by my brother before we called it quits, as the sun was going down, the snakes came out. My brother was reaching down to pick up his shell when all of a sudden he reached back and said, "Snake!" It was a baby Diamond-backed rattlesnake! (See above). Less than a foot long and maybe as thick as a dime. The snake quickly scurried back into his hole. (Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera so we took pictures and videos with our phones but they aren't very good. So I apologize for the poor quality). I headed on over to grab my backpack from where I set it down earlier, and saw another rattlesnake coiled up by his hole. Then right near my pack I saw another rattlesnake. All the same size, probably just born this summer. Going back to meet my brother I saw the same one coiled outside his hole and then just past that my brother saw another one and then another one. Five baby rattlers in all within about 20 minutes of looking and not looking.

We continued to look. I found and injured a small lizard and we tried to feed it to a snake but it was only interested in getting away from us and back in its hole. Then I saw a Long-nosed snake in its red splotchy phase, but it went down into a hole. I put a bone next to the bush so we could look later. Then my brother yells that he found a larger rattler (See right). So I went over and it was still a young snake but much larger than the babies. Then I noticed it might be a Mojave so we checked a few features on it and decided it was. We tried to feed the lizard to it by pushing it toward the snake with a stick but the snake just struck the stick and then we let it go on its way. We decided we'd make a loop to the water hole and back and keep looking. Shortly after heading over there, we were walking and I looked down and noticed that my brother had stepped right next to a coiled up Diamond-backed rattler about the same size as the Mojave. He didn't rattle or anything. But then we prodded him into a nearby Creosote bush. We split up and kept moving. I came across another DB rattler and then saw what looked to be a dead snake or lizard in a bush. So I got a stick and poked it and dust flew off it and it ran off. It was a huge Desert Spiny Lizard. Much larger than a quarter in diameter.

We met up again at the water hole where we had fed the DB a week before in its den. My brother didn't find the snake but at the bottom of the den he found and retrieved two baby snake sheds. Going around the corner to where we had camped before, we saw a Sonoran Desert Toad, Woodhouse's Toad, and another coiled up DB rattlesnake. As of this time that was 9 rattlesnakes and a Long-nosed snake. On this trip we were planning on catching a Desert Banded Gecko to bring home as a pet and had seen quite a few but not as big as we had wanted. Soon after that I caught a decent sized one and we started the walk out. We soon came across another Long-nosed snake of the same coloration and a larger size (See above). I grabbed it before it made it into a hole and we took some pictures of it and then tried feeding the dead lizard we had gotten earlier to it. He grabbed it, coiled up and ate it! We let him go down a hole and then found another small gecko. The snake was coming back out so we tried feeding it again. Normally we wouldn't feed snakes geckos because they are cooler but we had seen like 15 or so in the last hour. The snake didn't seem interested so it moved to the base of another bush. As it did this another snake, a baby Gopher snake, came out of the bush (See below). The Long-nosed snake then snatched the gecko very quickly and ate it. It was such a docile snake and very pretty. We continued on.

We got back to where the baby rattlesnakes were and grabbed our packs. Then I was showing my brother where I had seen the other Long-nosed snake and sure enough, there he was heading back to the same bush. I quickly grabbed him and we tried to feed him a small gecko we had just found as well but he wouldn't take. Instead the gecko ran into a very small hole and we left as the snake followed. Right after that we saw our last snake of the night. Another baby Gopher snake heading down a hole. Just a little bigger than the previous Gopher but still very tiny and skinny. Well that just about wraps up the evening. A crazy night of snakes all in about 2.5 hours. We will definitely be checking that place some more. We would really enjoy a Long-nosed snake as a pet but we'll see.

Evening Finds 3

2010-09-13T03:04:00.002-07:00

9/12/2010

As we are walking to and nearing the water hole that we like to shoot near for another evening of dove hunting, I noticed something, which I thought to be a Spiny Lizard, poking its head out of a nearby hole under a Creosote bush. I walked closer and saw it was a snake head! Most likely a rattlesnake from the looks of it. I found a stick and nudged him out, which is when he started rattling a little, but he came out and curled up at the base of the bush. From there we took pictures like the following. A beautiful pose in defensive position with its tongue out. We decided that this was a Mojave Rattlesnake. Due to its greenish coloration, smaller black stripes on its tail, eye stripes following the jaw-line, and the single palette. We let him be as we went along our way only to find other hunters at the water hole so we headed back to our next favorite spot. Upon doing so we looked back for the snake and it was gone. So we carefully looked in the surrounding bushes and finally heard it rattling as it was going down into a nearby pack-rat's nest, where we left it and started hunting.

After finishing our hunting we broke out the UV flashlight that I had just bought to look for scorpions along with our normal flashlights for snakes and such. We quickly came across 3 or more very young scorpions of which species I'm not sure. But then after circling one creosote bush we saw what were were hoping to find--a Desert Hairy Scorpion. We wanted to catch one and keep it as a pet. The bigger scorpions just seem cooler! The following are a picture of it normal and then under the black light. Now tell me that isn't cool!

After seeing many more scorpions, including two more large hairy scorpions, we made it back to our car and headed home. On the same road that we previously saw the javelina and adult rattlesnake, we came across a baby rattler. Slightly smaller than the mojave found earlier, this was a Western Diamond-backed Rattler getting ready to cross the road. So we brought our BB gun out...and helped it off the road. Here he is in strike position after being startled by my brother's quick movement. Then just after that we saw a toad on the road. We shoed it along across the road and then I consulted with my handy guide book and saw it was a Woodhouse's Toad.

P.S.

Pheww! All caught up with my adventures!! :)

Night ride 3

2010-09-13T02:42:00.000-07:00

9/11/2010

So my other brother wanted to go out herping tonight so we took the car. We went driving down Bush Hwy again but nothing was out. We stopped where we had seen the Desert Hairy Scorpion before and looked around seeing a smaller Sun Spider and this little bird (pictured above). We got really close and my brother touched its tail feathers and then a little after it flew up into the tree above. After driving for a while we stopped to hike out where we had been quail hunting before. We walked for a while and didn't see anything but the very common kangaroo rat. But then finally I came across this little guy. So I yelled to my brother that I had found a baby king snake. So he rushes over but on his way over I picked it up and realized it was a Long-nosed snake. We handled him for just a bit and then let him go on his way. That was a very nice find. Only my second live Long-nosed snake I've ever seen. We headed back to the car after a little more hiking and then back home without anything else unusual. But the snake definitely made the trip.

Evening Finds 2

2010-09-13T02:11:00.002-07:00

9/09/2010

Another evening hunting but with an added twist--we were spending the night out there, looking for more snakes after hunting and then hunting again in the morning. So we made our way out, keeping a careful eye out for any snakes or other animals. Saw a few lizards darting back into holes as we walked by but nothing crazy. We checked out our rattlesnake den and sure enough he was still in there. After hunting the evening we got our flashlights out and went for a late evening walk looking for animals. We brought along a BB gun to try to get a kangaroo rat to try to feed to the rattlesnake. Very quickly we saw what we at first thought to be a kangaroo rat but turned out to be a large toad. After consulting my handy-dandy field guide book I found out it was a Sonoran Desert Toad. We found there to be a whole lot of young ones all around the water hole. We put a few down the rattlesnake den but he just rattled at them and let them be. We continued on and after a short walk we came across a Desert Banded Gecko. I do prefer them over the Mediterranean House Gecko that lives around your house in the city.

We didn't find anything else even after a short drive up and down the road nearby. But we did manage to get a kangaroo rat and so we headed back to the rattlesnake den. I pushed the dead kangaroo rat into the den with a stick and the snake went right up to it and smelled it. Then I moved it a little bit more and the snake took it. Then we preceded to film it as you can see here.

After that amazing experience we were heading back to camp to sleep and came across another gecko. That finished out our night pretty well. The morning went by without any animal sitings but we had a good hunt as well.

Evening Finds 1

2010-09-13T01:38:00.002-07:00

9/08/2010

What started out as an evening of dove hunting turned into a night of animals to find. While hunting near a water hole, I came across a hole in the ground. I thought it might be a den for some small animal but I wasn't sure. Then I looked further in and a rattlesnake started rattling at me! It was a young Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnake. We looked at it for a while but then the dove started flying so we let him be for the night. After we finished hunting we were heading back to our car when we came upon a 4.5 foot long Gopher snake lying in a ditch all spread out. It shook its tail against the ground trying to imitate a rattlesnake. It also hissed and posed in a striking position just like a rattlesnake. And with its splotchy pattern it also can look similar to a rattlesnake which is why some people kill them just because they are scared. We put a dead dove down to see if he would eat it. He looked interested several times but just wouldn't take it. I touched it a few times but he kept turning around and hissing. But finally I was able to pick him up and he let me handle him. So my brother and I each held him and then let him climb up into a tree where he stayed as we left.

As we got on the road we soon saw a dead javelina in the middle of the road so we moved it off to the side. We had been by that road 3 hours earlier so it had just happened and probably within 2 hours. Rigor mortis hadn't set in yet so we were pretty sure it hadn't been too long. But we kept going. Just past that a ways was a dead rattler on the side of the road. It looked as if someone had already drug it to the side of the road and cut off the rattle. It was a fairly large Western Diamond-backed rattlesnake.

Springerville

2010-09-09T00:55:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went up to visit our family just across the boarder near Springerville. Our little cousins love to catch horny toads. This is one of them. Actually a Greater Short-horned Lizard. Next we caught a Ornate Tree Lizard. It was male as can be seen from the bright coloration on the belly. After a night ride on the quad, we got back to the house and found this toad on the ground. It turns out to be most likely a Mexican Spadefoot. We also saw some Elk coming in on the dirt roads. One bull at least out of three that we saw.

Night ride 2

2010-09-09T00:44:00.003-07:00

8/29/2010

A few days before this I went out riding my bike at night down Bush Hwy to look for animals. This is known as herping (Herping is a term often used by professional and amateur Herpetologists to signify searching for reptiles or amphibians), Though I was in look for any kind of night animals. I really wanted to find some snakes. So I set out and unfortunately my battery in my camera shortly thereafter ran out so I don't have any pictures from that ride, but I do have stories. I saw many kangaroo rats and rabbits along the dirt trails just past the B-line on Bush Hwy. I stopped to look at a rat that just ran across the road and a rabbit hopped out of a bush and hopped directly at me while my bike was still on and light shinning right at it. So I just sat there and watched it slowly hop away. I drove down to Butcher Jones at Saguaro lake and saw a skunk so I sat and watched it eat an entire prickly pear fruit, then wander off into the trees. And last and not least I saw a deer on the side of the road. It was a nice mule deer buck with velvet still on the antlers. Probably a 3X3 or 4X4. I couldn't quite tell as it bounded back into the desert away from the road and my lights.

A few days later my brother came out with me on his scooter. Boy did we get to see a lot this trip. Before we even got to the salt river we saw a snake on the road. Unfortunately, like others that night, it was DOR (dead on the road). It was a nice sized California King snake as you can see from the picture. We took this trip to see animals of any kind, whether live or dead, and also use it to clean up the roads. We moved anything we found on the road off of it so that it wouldn't get any more desecrated by cars and make a mess. We got back on our bikes and immediately turned around after seeing something small on the road. It was a Praying Mantis up close and personal. Just past the first salt river parking area we found another snake on the road. This one was also DOR and so we moved it off and got a picture. This was a Long-nose Snake. These look similar to the king snakes but have some distinguishing characteristics. These have black bands on white but the bands do not wrap all the way around the belly. There are also white or cream patches on the sides of the black bands near the belly. This one happened to still have some of its red in it from that phase. They can become even more blotchy with more red and less of a noticeable stripe system.

Next on the list we saw a coyote on the side of the road running off into the desert and just down the road found a young coyote pup DOR unfortunately. The poor little thing. But we were able to get it off the road so it wouldn't be run over any more. And along with that we saw a dead Javelina. This is the 3rd javelina I've seen DOR along Bush Hwy. It is a heavy crossing area for them on either side of Saguaro lake there. We noticed a scorpion traveling across the road so we stopped and after a shot time were able to find it again. It was a Giant Desert Hairy Scorpion. Our plan now is to find at least one of these and keep it as a pet. We could put in a black light to turn on at night seeing as they are florescent under those lights--a neon blue. We saw several more skunks down by Butcher Jones area and headed home. Coming back out we saw something small once more crossing the road. It was what I believe to be a Camel Spider (Upon further research I found that this is called either a Sun Spider or a Windscorpion). A creepy-looking little bug.

Then we neared the spot where I moved the Long-nosed Snake off the road and it was back on the road!! Another animal must have moved it back on. Then not 20 yards away, as we were driving away, we saw another snake. A live snake! It was another king snake similar to the first but slightly smaller. It crossed the road and went off into the trees. A great end to a great night.

Dirt Bike Riding: Florence Junction 2

2010-09-09T00:11:00.004-07:00

8/13/2010

We went back to the same location between Florence Jct. and Florence to do some more trail riding. Along the way we stopped to gather some more prickly pear fruit. I've mentioned them before and they are very good to just eat out on the go, though kind of tedious to get around the little glochid spines. This time I wanted to try to make something out of them so before we went out I gathered a few recipes found online and decided I needed at least 20-30. We gathered them and kept riding. At home I made a very good dessert dish that everybody thoroughly enjoyed. The following is the recipe I found and used to make this dessert. There are different ways to prepare the prickly pear juice that I've found but I kind of combined a few and did it my own way. I sliced the ends off so I would have something to touch with no glochids. Then I sliced off the skin with a serrated knife so there were no glochids left on. Then gathered them all in a bowl and put them in the blender. I blended it so that there were no more chunks. I suppose some water could be added though they are juicy enough to blend up nicely. Then strain the broken up seeds out and there is your juice to use in the recipe. Next I want to try cookies and jelly, and of course this dessert again.

Desert Dream Delight

1. Crust: 1 cup flour

1 stick butter

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix together and press in 9" x 13" pan.Bake at 350 degrees F until brown. Let cool and add second layer.

2. Mix: 8 oz cream cheese

1 cup poudered sugar

1 cup Cool Whip (large carton)

Spread evenly over cooled crust.

3. Boil: 1-1/2 cup prickly pear juice

1-1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix 1/2 cup corn starch and 1/2 cup water to make a smooth paste, add to boiling mixture gradually, stirring constantly. Cook until thick and remove from the heat. Combine 4 beaten eggs and 1/2 cup lemon juice. Stir into mixture. Return to heat and cook stirring constantly until it bubbles. stir in 4 tablespoons butter. Remove from heat, cover, and cool until lukewarm. Pour over cream cheese layer. Spread evenly. Top with remaining Cool Whip.

--Nancy Hutto

As we continued to ride I stopped abruptly when I saw a white lizard run between bushes. I got off my bike and pulled out my camera hoping to get a shot of what could have been a Desert Iguana. I noticed it stopped and realized it was just a Zebra-tailed lizard. A species that is much more white than the pictures and previous lizards I had seen. Can you spot it in the picture above? The picture to the right is a close-up of the lizard. While I was looking at this lizard my brother and friend noticed another and followed it into a pronghorn cholla. I came over and snapped the following picture. It was a Desert Spiny Lizard. It's amazing how their armor scales protect them so well they just run along on cactus spines.

Animals of Prescott

2010-08-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

8/6-9/2010

This weekend I went up to a camp in Prescott with my friend's church for a nationwide conference. While up there I had a few run-ins with different kinds of animals, some that I have never seen before which was exciting. On the first day I was walking around the camp with a friend and as we were nearing the cabin at the edge of the property, he yelled, "What is that!!" There was a short snakish thing scurrying toward a hole under the cabin. I immediately ran at it and stopped it from going under. Then we got some pictures of it and noticed it had tiny legs. My first thought was a skink, but then I remembered another similar lizard that had another name but I couldn't think of it at the time. After that I got my reptile book out and found it to be the Madrean Alligator Lizard.

That night in the cabin a large beetle was wandering around. I got some pictures of it, the rhinoceros beetle. Then I went outside and saw a skunk off in the distance. I ran inside, grabbed my camera, and followed the skunk through the forest, taking some pictures as I went.

The next day I was wandering around the forest where the alligator lizard had been when I heard a squirrel barking at me and making lots of noise up in a tree a little ways away. I kept walking and it stopped. Then I went back to the same spot and it went crazy again. Every time I walked on this little plot of land it would yell at me. My guess is he hid something there or I was near 'his' tree. On the last night a few of us were left gathered around the camp fire at the amphitheater. Then I saw something scurrying under the top bench. So I went up and it was a tiny mouse. So I followed it taking pictures until it stopped and then I got the following one of it.

Rabbit Hunting

2010-08-25T11:33:00.001-07:00

8/03/2010

Today my two brothers, friend, and I went rabbit hunting on Four Peaks rd. We noticed they were doing some construction where the old dirt parking lot and bathrooms had been. It seems they are filling it with various desert plants. There are rows of agaves, pronghorn cholla, saguaros, etc, which will look kinda strange for so many desert plants to be grouped together but we'll see what they plan on doing with it.

We went out with two .22's and two 20 gauge shotguns and paired up so each two had a rifle and shotgun. We ended up getting two cotton tail rabbits to add to dinner the following evening. I do need to find a better recipe for cooking the rabbit because they are a tough meat. Something that would tender them up and make them better would be great. If you have any methods of cooking rabbit, please leave a comment. It would be greatly appreciated. I didn't post any pictures of the rabbits because they were kind of gruesome and I know some people reading this blog wouldn't appreciate it. But the view around there is amazing with Four Peaks and Weaver's Needle in the background.

As we were heading back to the car to head home, I saw a whitish blur on the ground. A lizard! Twice in the surrounding area I have seen a white blur but never got close enough to distinguish the species of lizard. I had been hoping it was the desert iguana, known to be quite fast and a white/grey color. It is still a possibility but after going out riding the next week (in a different area) I saw a very similar blur but was able to identify it. I will post that story later. As for rabbit hunting we will probably go out again soon if not for the main purpose of dove hunting which starts Sept. 1-15. Hopefully I will have some good stories from hunting during that time.

San Diego

2010-08-13T15:52:00.008-07:00

7/24/2010

It has been too long since my last post but I now have more stories to write about. At the end of last month my family went on vacation to San Deigo. We went snorkeling in La Jolla cove and kayaking near by as well.

On a side note, before this trip I had an old digital camera and a new SLR, Nikon D40. The camera is great but it is too large for hiking trips and such where you have to lug it around. So I looked into buying a new small camera and got the Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. The camera has 12MP and 720p HD video. Along with this I got a $20 underwater camera case from amazon.com (Underwater Camera Case). With this I was able to take some cool shots while snorkeling.The image and the video are of the California Garibaldi fish. They were quite abundant and fun to watch. Groups of them would swim together and if you snapped your fingers they would come to you. We asked the kayaking guides why and they said it was because the Garibaldi fish make a clicking noise to communicate with each other.

7/26/2010

A couple days later we went to Sea World. In order to see all of the park in one day--one long day--you have to be diligent and wise in your planning. You have to plan to be able to see all the shows, break for lunch and snacks, and have time for the rides in between. It can get quite hectic but we managed. I've always loved Sea World because of all the animals and it was fun getting to see them all again. I haven't been there in ten years.

7/27/2010

The next day, and our last one in San Diego, my brothers and I went on a deep sea fishing adventure. We headed down the coast down into the seas of Mexico because that's where they had been catching fish pretty regularly. On the way out we saw several pods of dolphins swimming around and sea lions all around the boats when they stopped. We ended the day with 9 sand bass and 1 barracuda between the three of us. When the sand bass would hit, they would hit in schools and many people on the boat would reel them in. Unfortunately for the small boat with many people on board, it was common to get lines tangled and hard to determine whose fish belonged to whom. But it was an exciting trip. The first picture is of a couple sand bass and the second of the barracuda. Unfortunately we didn't put in for the jackpot because my fish was the largest on the boat. Oh well. We ate some sand bass when we got home and boy oh boy was it good!

Hiking Wind Caves

2010-07-12T03:18:00.001-07:00

7/10/10

Today a friend and I hiked the Wind Caves at Usery Park located south on Ellsworth Rd. We began our hike shortly after 8 with a cloud covered sky and slight chances of rain. A beautiful day for a hike and some geocaches. Shortly after the hike began, we were in for a pleasant surprise. There on the path was a desert tortoise! How often does one get to see one in the wild? This was a rare opportunity so we stopped to take pictures and watch it on its way. After sitting for a while it got comfortable with us around and so it got up and moved along. It moved quite a bit faster than what I had thought they could move. Here is a short video clip of the tortoise walking down the trail. We named him Terry The Tortoise.

We left it on its way and continued on ours. Almost to the wind caves we found one small geocache in a rock crevice. We reached the wind caves and continued up to the peak. After some rock climbing and rocks covered in gnats, we were near the top looking for another geocache.We found it and then headed back down a different way. Doing a little rock climbing down and some more hiking we reached the wind caves again only to leave once more on the trek back to the car. On the way down I found another large geocache and was looking for a small one that I couldn't find. I did see a few holes in the rocks that could have been desert tortoise dens. Walking back to the trail led me to another discovery, however. A snake slithering through the bushes. Immediately I determined it was not a rattlesnake so I followed it around from bush to rock to bush. As I was getting my camera out, ready to take a picture, it went under some rocks and then I could not find it again. I saw the whole body at one point and my thought was that it was a whipsnake. After getting home and looking it up, it was in fact a Sonoran whipsnake (check out Sonoran whipsnake or another picture for more details). I also noticed on the way back that almost every Saguaro cactus with lots of fruit on top had a white-winged dove perched on top eating the fruit. As we walked by a bird would fly off almost every one. Back at the parking lot, finding one more geocache would end our day's adventures. Just in time too as the sun finally poked through the clouds and we started getting toasty.

Dirt Bike Riding: Florence Junction

2010-07-12T02:05:00.003-07:00

7/09/10

Today my brother, friend and I went dirt bike riding near Florence Junction on the way to Florence. It was a nice day with some cloud cover. Shortly after riding I noticed some snake tracks in the path. I made note of where they were so we could check on it on our way back. Heading on we saw two large jackrabbits running near the trail and then off into the desert. As we were riding, I noticed that the prickly pare cactus had its fruits in bloom. All year my brother and I have been waiting for them to bloom after reading that they are good to eat. So now was our chance. You have to be careful with these because they have many glochids on them, each with tons of tiny hairs that are a big nuisance if they get in your fingers. So we carefully removed one from the end of the pad. They are redish pink in color on the tops of the green pads. I cut a hole in one and squeezed the oozing liquid and seeds out into my mouth. I sucked the liquid from the many seeds and then spit the seeds out. The flavor was pretty sweet and good. Because there are so many seeds they are a little annoying but not bad. They remind me of pomegranate because of the seeds. And a good source of food if you are lost out in the desert at this time of the year. I had read that they taste like kiwis and watermelon but my brother thought they tasted like cherries. I think they all have some credence. We took three with us and headed back to the truck to put it in the cooler.

On the way back we stopped at the snake tracks. We followed it into some holes around a creosote plant and out of another. There were three different tracks either going from a hole along the path to the desert, or the desert to a whole, or right across the trail. But there was no sign of the snake. It was most likely a rattlesnake or a gopher snake. Both would easily eat the Round-tailed Ground Squirrels in the area. After some more riding and grabbing some more prickly pare fruit to take home we called it a day.

Cabin: Day 5

2010-07-12T00:39:00.001-07:00

7/05/10

Today, with no fishing in our plans, we slept in until the sun was thoroughly warming our beds through the windows. After eating some breakfast, my friend, brother and I left for Munds Park to find some geocaches there and along the way. We easily found 3 geocaches, all in ammo cans, before reaching Munds Park. They just required a little short hiking on relatively flat ground to reach them. Once reaching Munds Park we stopped by Odell Lake. This lake is a private lake for the residents there. So we parked along the street and started looking around. There were many muggles (those who don't know about geocaching) out fishing so it was difficult to look too much. But we did finally find it in a log. It was a nice very small cache, the size of a small pill container and camouflaged.

Then we headed further in to the park near the I-17. We stopped at a gas station and crossed the street to where the geocache was supposed to be. The clues said it was in plain sight but well camouflaged and close to the golf sign. Our friend and I looked in a tree and I jokingly said, "Look! Here it is. It's well camouflaged...it's a rock." There was a rock in the branches of the tree. Of course that wasn't the geocache so we kept looking. Then as we were about to head back across the street to the truck, I said, "You know what guys? It's probably in one of those fake rocks that people put their keys in." Well there were a bunch of rocks and broken pieces of concrete at the base of the stop sign so my friend kicked one over as we headed back to the car. We turn around to see my brother crouched down displaying a shocked face. It was there in that rock. There was a small screw on cap on a small cylinder mounted inside the rock. What an amazing find. We were very excited about that one. Then we headed up to find one more back in some neighborhoods before heading back to the cabin to pack up and head home.

And thus ends our cabin adventures.

Cabin: Day 4

2010-07-11T22:27:00.001-07:00

7/04/10

The day started for me and my brother at 4:30 in the morning. We got ready and were out the door at 5. Driving by the field by the cabin, we saw that the elk from the night before were still there. As we got to Upper Lake Mary, there was an elk just off the side of the road. We turned around and drove by it slowly taking some pictures. It wasn't scared at all and just kept walking, eating and looking at us. As you can see the elk was a nice velvet. After taking some pictures we headed down a little further to a pull off to go fishing. The sun was still behind the trees and we began our day of fishing. The plan was to be done and back to the cabin by 10, hopefully with some fish.

As we began to fish, we noticed lots of flies of some sort flying around and little fish picking them off the top of the water. The small fish were probably perch and they were jumping at any fly that hit the water. On a few occasions we noticed a larger splash which may have been a pike grabbing itself a morning snack. Our hopes were high, seeing as there was plenty of food for the pike to be in the area. Pretty soon I had a small pike on my line and brought him in. Normally I wouldn't keep one as small as he was, seeing as he was probably under 2 lbs. But after fishing the day before, and that being the size of the fish we caught, we decided to keep it. Shortly after I had another fish that was slightly larger so I kept it. Just then we walked into the sunlight as the sun was slowly rising. The flies were ever more abundant in the light and the feeding fish just the same. The noise from the flies was as if a hive of bees was nearby. You could watch a fly keep bouncing off the water while several minnows followed in close pursuit. If the fly landed for too long it was a gone, followed by a small splash as the fish retreated. Just after that my brother caught one even larger than mine so he put it on his stringer. And just after that my brother pulled in another one even bigger and over 2 lbs. Then I caught another one but it was even smaller than our smallest so I let him go. So we had 5 fish before 8 and continued to fish and we arrived home before 10 like we had planned with a lovely addition to our 4th of July meal later that day.

After eating some brunch at the cabin, the whole lot of us took a hike to this burnt, dead tree. The plan was to push it over. After a couple hours of trying, mainly by a sole person's determined attempt, the tree was still standing. As this was going on, a few of us went around pushing down smaller burnt and dead trees. We had a very interesting experience in doing so, which it's story will be posted later. After all of this we headed home and had our 4th of July dinner.

After dinner my friend, brother and I went out to look for the geocache that we couldn't find the day before because it got too dark. There was also another one close by up on that hill that we wanted to find as well. We were able to drive half way up so it was a short hike to the spot and after looking for quite a while we were unable to locate it once again. Heading back to the truck we stopped by the second cache up on the hill. My friend found it giving a wild exclamation. We then headed back to the cabin, once again feeling defeated for not finding the geocache. I also realized I had lost my pen up there. Now there are two objects that seemed to be lost.

Cabin: Day 3

2010-07-07T09:17:00.002-07:00

07/03/10

Once again my brother and I got up and left for another lake, Upper Lake Mary, at 7 in the morning to try to catch some fish for dinner. This time we made sure to bring food. We got out there and had 3 fish within the first hour. All about 2 lbs. We didn't want to keep anything that small because the week before that was the smallest size fish we had caught. So we would keep anything well over 2 lbs. After catching another fish the same size and letting it go we decided we should just keep the next one so we would have something to eat and then keep anything larger that we caught later. So we kept the next one I caught which was just over 2 lbs. After another 3 hours, we didn't catch any more fish but had just a few bites. We decided to call it a fishing day and look for some geocaches in the area. After fishing Lake Mary, we looked for two geocaches along the lakeside. We found one right away in a rock pile. There were many coins in there that were advertising for trackable geocoins so we took one with us. The next one we found had been there since 2001. At one point it was the 49^th oldest active geocache. So that made it exciting to find.

Next we checked out 8 more near and along Ashurst lake road. Five of them had already been found on the same day and after finding one we saw some more geocachers looking for the same one we had just been to. We went back to the two at Ashurst lake that our friends had looked for, but now we had a few more geocaches under our belt and had some more idea what to look for. So we found them both very quickly. Five of the geocaches were all from the same person in the same camo containers. In one at Ashurst lake there was a bouncy ball so we traded a fishing lure for it. After getting back to the cabin and eating some food, along with the one pike we kept, three of us decided to look for several geocaches that were near the cabin. On the short drive over to them, we saw 8 cow elk on the side of the road and then 3 deer before we reached them. Our friend had never heard of geocaching so he didn't know what to look for. My brother looked 30 feet away and saw a stump and said, “It's there!!” and ran over there, lifted the stump and there it was. My friend was shocked. “How did you know it was there!!” he yelled. Then we checked out another cache on the other side of the road. We found it fairly quickly and traded another lure for a small dinosaur toy. That way we could keep trading things by transferring them. The next one was .18 miles away straight up a mountain so we headed for it. Boy was that a hike. We describe the steepness as our toes against our shins and our chest a foot from the ground. After finally getting to the top it was getting to dark to see so we had to head back down the very steep hill, though fortunately we found the trail so it wasn't as steep. In the field right before the cabin we saw some elk grazing out in the field. It was getting dark and we could barely see them. So we took the spotlight and walked out into the field. Shining the light at them we saw more than 20 sets of eyes. They headed away from us into the tree line and we finally made it back.

Cabin: Day 2

2010-07-07T08:52:00.006-07:00

7/02/10

My brother and I wanted to fish Ashurst lake which was near the cabin. So we went out around 9 and walked around the entire lake fishing as we went. Right off the bat we realized we forgot to pack any food. There was a geocache right near the water so we tried to find it but had no luck so we continued fishing. --Geocaches are hidden containers around the world that people hide and post the GPS coordinates online so others can find them. It's like a huge treasure hunt. Once you find them you can tell stories about them online. There are more than 1,000,000 geocaches hidden all around the world-- After a little while with no bites, I said if we caught any pike we should trade it to some campers for some food. The goal, however, was to bring some fish home so we could eat them that night. My brother said, “What would they think if we came home and they asked if we caught anything and we said yeah...but we traded it for this granola bar....and it was good!!” Anyway, we kept fishing. We came into a very shallow cove with lots of weeds. After fishing it for a little bit and my brother getting caught on several rocks, I said it was too shallow and we should move on. But he threw in his line so I did as well. Then a 5 lb pike grabbed my lure, came to the top so I could see its back, and then spit it out!! Trying several other lures gave no other response from the fish. At the end of the cove a small pike the size of a 5 inch Rapala darted at my lure and then back down.

By this time we were getting pretty hungry. Then my brother found an unopened granola bar on the ground. It was the best Oats 'n' Honey bar ever. Then shortly after eating I had another 5 lb pike grab my line, and after coming to the top, spit it out once again!. Soon after that we were back on the other side but still down a ways from the truck. A truck drove by on the lake road with kids waving at us. It was our friends. They brought us food! We ate our fill of PB&J and some cookies and then continued fishing. We sent them out to find the two geocahces near the lake but they returned with no success either. Then I started getting lots of bites from small pike all under a pound and a half. I had one bite twice and then pulled it just out of the water before it spit it out and fell back in. Then I finally caught one after it bit twice as well. It was 8 inches long. Shortly after that, after a few more bites, I had another fish--an 11 inch pike. Then my brother saw a 5 lb pike surface and dive back down, seeing the entire body come to the top. But once again we couldn't get it to bite. Sadly this ended our day of fishing and we headed back to the cabin to have some blow gun competitions.

Cabin: Day 1

2010-07-07T08:48:00.001-07:00

7/01/10

This last weekend, Thursday through Monday, I was south of Flagstaff near Munds Park staying in a friend's cabin. My two brothers and I stayed with some friends up in their cabin and had some fishing and hiking and geocaching adventures. Geocaching will be explained later. On Thursday we drove up to the cabin and had hot dogs cooked over the inside fire pit.

Urban Lakes: Red Mountain and Water Ranch

2010-07-07T08:38:00.002-07:00

6/30/10

Today I tried out two urban lakes. One in the morning and the other in the evening. In the morning my brother, friend, and I went to Red Mountain Park Lake. My brother and I got there as the sun was coming up, picked a spot and started fishing. My friend was coming later. As soon as I threw in my line I had a bite and the bite continued with no fish. Finally my brother hooked one. It was a small bluegill. My friend came and after an hour we had 7 fish all together. Nothing big enough to keep. We tried a few more locations before I had to leave and my brother and friend continued to fish. They went back tot he first spot and 3 hours later they had caught a total of 51 bluegill.

That same evening at 7:00, my friend and I went to the Water Ranch lake by the greenfield library to try for some catfish with stinkbait and worms. We got there and wanted to be near the bridge on the library side but it was crowded so we went to the other side to fish. My friend caught two very small bluegills and later caught a couple crawdads. The lake was very shallow on that side and so my four pound line got caught several times on rocks and broke. Other than that we didn't get a bite so we left around 9 something. Later this weekend my friend went back during the day to look around the lake and fish and noticed a lot of dead catfish floating around the lake. I'm not sure what killed them but that might slow the catfish bite at that location.

24

2010-06-27T14:11:00.007-07:00

The following is the account of me and my brother over a 24 hour period of fishing.

1600 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After a two and a half hour drive up to Flagstaff, we stopped at Walmart for some nightcrawlers to use as bait. A man in the parking lot asked if we have seventeen cents to help him buy some JB weld to use on his motor because he had an oil leak. I was looking for my wallet as the man was telling us a story of a large pike he once caught at Upper Lake Mary. Then out of nowhere the rain began to fall...hard. The man ran back to his truck as I found my wallet had been in my brother's pocket. As I ran toward the store, I grabbed a bunch of change out of my wallet and gave it to the man, who was very grateful. After I had gotten the worms and forgotten to get the Storm Live Crapppie lures for fishing, I returned to the car to find the rain had subsided. Burger King gave us a quick meal before heading out to the lake.

1700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We arrived at the lake and got our raft blown up and everything ready and took it down the short hike to the lake. We filled up the raft with too much stuff and headed out toward a cove across the lake that we liked before. After rowing for a few moments we realized the cove had some fishermen in a boat in it already. So we threw anchor and started to fish.

1800 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After several minutes of nothing, my brother put two worms on his other pole and lowered it below the boat near the bottom of the lake. Shortly after he reeled in a baby perch. He decided to leave it on the hook to use as bait for a larger pike while still having the second worm on as well.

After seeing this might be the way to fish right then, I put two worms on my second pole and lowered it down. After a very short time my pole bent way down and I grabbed it and started fighting. Realizing I had only 4 lb line on this pole I made sure to fight gently. Was it a large perch or a pike. As soon as this thought came into my mind I saw the pike come near the top and get tangled with our anchor line. We netted the fish, got everything untangled, and put it on the stringer. We tried this method, while always fishing with our other poles using lures, for hours with no success.

1900...2000...2100...2200 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

The sun set creating a beautiful picture over the tree line. It began to get chilly so we started putting layers of clothes on. We set all four poles out; two with bobbers and worms, and two with anchovies and worms below the boat. The boat was starting to get a little flat so we pumped it up with the pump that we bring with us and I read a few chapters in Eragon using my head lamp. Once we were fully clothed in wool socks, thermal pants, sweater, jacket, beanie, face mask, and gloves, we tried to get comfortable, and would continue to try for the rest of the night. The raft we were in, with our tackle box, cooler, fishing poles, and backpack full of miscellaneous things we needed, left us less room than you could fit being in the fetal position. All night we were scrunched up, stretched out, cold, shifting, and waking up due to various body parts falling asleep from laying on them awkwardly. After a brief time of this kind of "sleep" (call it what you will), we decided to change the already changed plan. The plan for the weekend had been to visit with our church group who was camping up near the lake and then continue on to the lake. Then we would fish the night, all day Saturday, the night again, and then come home sometime on Sunday after some more fishing. We left late on Friday so we decided to go straight to fishing. At some point early in the night we decided if we didn't catch much in the morning before we went back to the car to eat breakfast and return our heavy clothing, we would leave that night after maybe trying Lower Lake Mary for some trout.

2300...0000...0100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Come 1:30 we woke up hoping that it would be much later. Unfortunately it wasn't. There was a full moon so it was very bright all night long. We had a small spotlight that we would use to look at our bobbers whenever we would wake up to check for any bites. I was looking at my bobber, which showed no sign of fish playing with my bait, when I heard a loud splash near the shore. I shined the light in that direction and saw two eyes glowing by the trees. Then I saw two large bodies coming up from the water back toward the trees. They were elk. At least three and they headed back into the forest. We went back to sleep.

0200...0300...0400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

We woke up for the last time at 4 in the morning. The moon was falling over the trees and the light from the sun was soon filling the skies. It was very cold in the morning as we still had no more fish and began fishing with lures again, waiting for the sun to warm us up.

0500...0600...0700 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

For the next few hours we fished back in the cove we wanted to fish the previous day. The only thing we caught was a tiny perch. I was bringing in a jerk bait and when I stopped reeling for a moment, my bait jerked. I thought it seemed a little delayed but I kept reeling it in. I brought it in and on the tip of the lure was a tiny perch the same size as my lure. --Back in that cove in the trees there is a Osprey nest. They have signs in the parking lot about this bird. It lives in this area during the summer and goes to South America during the winters--. We fished out the cove but caught nothing else. My brother got out and walked the edge of the cove. He saw some old bear tracks as well as the tracks from the elk that we had seen several hours earlier.

0800...0900 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

More boaters were out now and one entered the cove as we left it. We fished along the shoreline and eventually loaded our other poles with worms again and dropped them down. As we made our way slowly back across the lake fishing both methods as we went, we caught a few small perch. The wind began to pick up and we were pushed to the shore a few hundred yards from our car. So we began to fish from the boat while against the land. There were weeds everywhere but with our 20 and 30 lb threaded spiderwire line we could pull our lines through anything. We would fish one spot and then push ourselves along the shoreline with our oars and fish again.

1000...1100 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

My brother got a bite and brought in a nice pike just larger than the one from the previous evening. We put it on the stringer as our hopes went up that we would not go home with just one fish. My brother got out of the boat and began fishing from the shore as I stayed in the boat fishing from just off the shore. Then I caught one. We could tell it was much larger than the other two and then shortly after that my brother caught another one just larger than his last. At this point we were excited for fishing more of the shore but are stomachs were yelling at us. We had only had a few snacks while out on the boat all night. We decided to pack everything up except the backpack with some of our fishing tackle, eat and then fish the shore till it was time to leave.

1200...1300...1400 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

After eating and packing up we went back down and fished the shore north of the truck. Very quickly my brother brought in another one. We had left the stringer with the four other fish back in the water near the truck so we got out another stringer for this one. It seemed to be about the same size as the other three, not including my larger one. We left that stringer there and kept moving. After a little bit I had a bite but nothing more. Then my brother brought in another one of the same size and while he was putting it on another stringer I caught an even larger one from the same spot. Then a little later I caught a small one that we let go and another keeper of almost the same size as the majority of our fish. We caught them all on either the Storm Live Crappie (the ones that I forgot to get at Walmart but we had only two of), and after the tails came off of those, the Storm Live Walleye. We tried other Rapalas and such but could only catch them on the Storm. And in fact the small perch caught on a jerk bait was also a Storm brand.

1500 *beep BEEP beep BEEP*

Then we headed back with the four. Three about the same size and one larger. We thought this was about the same as the four we had before but when we looked at them all together, the three newer ones were all bigger than the three previous ones and the new large one was bigger than the previous large one. Then we brought all of our 8 pike up to the truck and packed up the rest of our fishing stuff. The following are the pictures of the largest fish and then all of the fish together. The fish were 1 lb 15 oz, 2 lb 5 oz, 2 lb 10 oz, 2 lb 15 oz, 3 lbs, 3 lbs, 3 lb 11 oz, and 4 lb 6 oz.

And this concludes the story of our 24 hour adventure.

Up North

2010-06-24T23:24:00.003-07:00

My brother and I are headed north. Tomorrow we will leave to go up north of Payson to where our church group is camping. We will hang out for the day and then head up to Upper Lake Mary below flagstaff. Lake Mary is a great lake for pike fishing, but it also has bluegill, perch, crappie, yellow bass, and channel catfish. We will do some night fishing out on our raft and then fish all of Saturday and then fish the night again and then fish Sunday and come home sometime then. When I get back I hope to have a fantastic story to share along with some photographs of some beautiful fish. If not then at least some beautiful scenery. Hope everyone has a great weekend and get out doors!

Superstitions: Flat Iron

2010-06-23T12:37:00.007-07:00

I love hiking! I hate going up but I do it so I can run down the mountain. This post is about Flatiron in the Superstition mountains. If you haven't hiked it and like to hike, you have to do it. The view from the top is amazing. You can see all of the valley. From the bottom it can look like a daunting task ahead of you, but in the end it is worth it. This picture is a view from the bottom. We are headed to the top right plateau.

This next picture is at the half way point. Much closer at last.

Once at the top you can see for miles! A blooming agave cactus in view as well.

As we began our hike back down we looked off into the distance and saw a mini dust devil. At least it was mini from how far we were.

Taking a closer look shows how large it really was.

On one hike, after nearing the top, a police helicopter circle above us and then we believed it landed on the top. I was with 3 other friends so I ran ahead to the top where I could see what was going on. I looked over and saw the rotors spinning slowly and a man standing near the edge with what looked like a camera. Then he got back in the helicopter and they flew off back toward Phoenix. It seems odd that a police helicopter would fly up there just to take a look at the scenery but then again, who knows.

On a different trip, while eating snacks at the top and cooling down, we saw a couple further up on the plateau. Then all of a sudden my friend says, he just proposed to her!! I'm thinking No way! That is so cool. But we couldn't tell for sure so for the rest of the time we were trying to decide if they actually got engaged or not. I made the comment that it would be a horrible experience if you proposed at the top of a mountain and she said 'no'. That would be the worst hike back down a mountain ever!

After coming down the mountain one trip, we were running along the base trail back to the car. As we neared the parking lot, we were interrupted by a sharp rattling sound. There was a Diamondback rattlesnake on the side of the trail. I stopped immediately to grab my camera while my hiking buddy (a girl) started doing a crazy fleeing dance right into me. I had to stop her because the most logical thing to do in a moment such as this was to return to the snake and take pictures. And that is what I did. The snake was simply heading back off the trail into the bushes. What an exciting experience; one that gets your heart racing even more than running down a mountain.

So now about the logistics of the hike. The change in elevation is 2781' from a low point of 2080' to a height of 4861' at the peak. To get there you take the US 60 to Idaho Rd (Highway 88). Follow the signs to stay on this road. After a while you will make a right into the Lost Dutchman State Park, which has a sign for it. You have to pay for parking when you enter. It used to be a worker in a booth but since the state of Arizona had to stop funding some state parks, the city of Apache Junction has taken over and put in a manual booth. You pay the 7 dollars for the day into a little packet and put it in the box while taking the tear-off tab with you in your car. Make sure to grab a map at the pay station. Park in the Saguaro parking lot. To get to Flatiron, head up the trail and take Jacob's Crosscut. This will lead to Siphon Draw Trail which heads right up toward the top. There are also many other shorter trails on the map that you can take if you want a shorter hike at the base of the mountain. The hike to Flatiron takes on average around 5 hours hiking time to complete. This doesn't include resting time at the top to eat a quick re-energizing snack and to enjoy the view. I have done the hike in just over 3 hours minus the time at the top. Make sure you have plenty of water for this hike as it is a very challenging hike.

I hope this was helpful to all and hope to see you out on the mountain!

First Hiking Entry

2010-06-23T12:30:00.004-07:00

For my hiking posts, I would like to share with everyone my experiences on various hikes around the state. This will include pictures, descriptions of the difficulty and the estimated time it should take to hike. If there are any hikes you are wanting to go on but don't know much about, ask me in a comment and I can tell you about it. I will begin with some past hikes I've been on and then make posts about any present hikes I do. Hope you enjoy and I hope this gets you out hiking some of Arizona's great mountains.

Previous Salt River Trip

2010-06-23T01:44:00.006-07:00

On June 2 I went fishing at the Salt River with my brother. I caught one small bass on a rainbow rapala after fishing for an hour or so. My brother had caught a bass before that. I found a spot where I could see quite a few bass swimming around just out past some trees. A big one and a smaller one were swimming together around one spot. I tried many lures, with a few bites, until I finally caught the smaller one a rubber helgramite. It was 13 inches and I decided to keep it. Then I tried just about every other lure until I got back to the first one and finally caught the other bass which was a nice 15.5 inch bass shown here.

I was fishing from the edge of the shore with a thick tree line surrounding me. I saw there might be another spot I could fish from just to my left so I crawled on my stomach under some low branches and got there. I barely had room to cast my line. There were two fish around one spot just out a ways. One was HUGE!! It was the biggest bass I had ever seen at the salt river. Had to be over 20 inches. But there was another smaller one swimming with it that always took my lure. I eventually caught the smaller one but it was the same size as my first fish so I decided to let it go. But he still kept biting and wouldn't let the larger fish bite. So when I caught him again I decided to keep him. I went back and kept fishing for the big fish. I hooked him!! I was reeling him in when all of a sudden he spit the lure out! Oh boy was that a disappointment. After that he swam around more and was more skittish and wouldn't bite again. I did however see another large one swimming further out, so there are more large bass at the salt river. While fishing in that spot I heard something and looked across the river and up on the rock ledge and saw two bald eagles. They just sat there the whole time I was fishing. That was a neat experience and would have loved to have some binoculars or a camera that had more zoom.

Several days later I went back with my friend hoping to catch this monster. Unfortunately there was some more moss around and the fish wasn't in the same spot. I tried fishing around the area while my friend was situated with a bobber and worms (both night crawlers and meal worms) in a large eddy. I caught one small bluegill on a rubber helgramite while trying to entice a bass. I crossed the river and saw some bass and bluegill around. I tried fishing for them and got several bites but nothing would bite hard enough to hook. While fishing in a small cove I looked out to my left and saw a monster bass swimming right by like he owned the place! This was just across from where I had seen the other two large bass so it could have been one of the same ones. I cast out in front of him but he just swam right on by. I eventually gave up and headed back to my friend to fish for some bluegill. I caught one first cast with a meal worm on bobber and was going to keep it but it fell out of my hands back in the water. My friend caught 4 bluegill total and we called it a day.