Things are just about completely leafed out. Except of course my apple trees which are at LEAST 2 weeks later that the native trees.






The visitors to the feeders are just about only this squirrel,


And these birds:












I also did get out to do some kayak fishing last week. Caught some rainbows of nice length (18, 18, 16, and 14 inches), and they fought vigorously, but they were the skinniest trout I have EVER seen. And I've seen A LOT of trout. These are the only pictures I could get.


I had only a 75-300mm lens on my camera, and it was REALLY difficult to play the fish AND get pictures. Actually, it was easy to get pictures: I got plenty like this.


The minimum focal distance for the 75mm was too far to get pictures of the fish (in focus), once I had it to the kayak.






Paul

Love fresh rainbows!

You may recall Nancy Reagan's slogan: "Just say no to drugs". I apply that to farmed/hatchery fish. These fish had been planted a couple of weeks before from one of the ADF&G hatcheries. I don't eat hatchery fish. I just 'play with them'.

Honestly, hatchery fish have had little in the form of 'drugs' applied to them. Some, but a TINY bit compared to "farmed" fish - especially salmon. "Farming" fish, (any animal, really), requires a fairly heavy load of drugs to fight off the effects of 'crowding'. I don't want or need those drugs. Hatchery fish, because they are 'going out' the MINUTE they are of the size desired, generally have the minimum amount of drugs applied. Drugs cost money, and fish hatcheries are ALL ABOUT minimizing the cost per fish of producing a "plantable" fish. Nevertheless, I can TASTE a hatchery fish, and I don't care for them. They're not terrible, but I can taste the difference between hatchery and wild, and greatly prefer wild: psychologically, and gustatorially.

So these fish were released. And since they were all hooked in the 'nose' and jaw, they were 'none the worse for wear'. Maybe someone else will enjoy eating them.

I will repeat though, they fought REALLY well, especially for hatchery fish, AND they were the skinniest fish I have EVER seen. When we caught arctic charr shaped like this on the North Slope, we called them "sea snakes". I wish I could have gotten a good picture of them.

Paul

The wild Brookies we caught in the Colorado Beaver ponds were the best on Earth! The wild Cuts weren't bad either. Above 10,000 feet they ate zooplankton and scuds (freshwater shrimp) and flies. The Scuds turned the meat red like salmon. Cuts could be fooled easily on spinners too. I watched my Dad one day(when he smoked) opened a pack of Luckies and a piece of the foil fluttered into the water and wham.....a Cut devoured the foil. Dad then carefully pinched off another piece and attached it to his fly. After about 5-7, 4 pounders, the tin foil was all gone!

Brook "trout" are actually "charr" (Salvelinus genus), while cutthroat trout are actually "trout", (Oncorhynchus genus). I MUCH prefer charr to trout both for eating and "fight". Beauty too! I find all the charr 'prettier' than any of the trout. Although true golden trout (Oncorhynchus aguabonita, not the Frankenfish "golden" created in hatcheries), are right up there on the beauty scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_trout. Still, EVERY charr is spectacular to my eye, and among the best to eat of freshwater coldwater fish.

Paul

PS - Here's a way to tell if the fish you caught is a trout or a charr: Charr have a 'dark' body with 'light' spots, trout have a 'light' body with 'dark' spots. There are, of course, other taxonomic differences, but the "light on dark/dark on light" spot check is the best field characteristic.

Paul