11-10-2009 Surf and Turf Dinner (Quail & Bluegill)

Dad cooked a fantastic meal of Quail in onion soup and deep fried bluegill with cracker-crumbs. We're going to have to have dad practice a bit more, one Quail was great but they are not very big. You need at least three to have any sort of meal. I made sure to suck every little piece of meat off that birds scrawny little bones. That kept yelling at me, "you're going to choke on those!" We were a little short on bluegill too, we just did not catch enough for three people to eat well. It's going to have to wait till next year for the next bluegill season. I cannot wait for the next surf and turf dinner!

11-08-09 1st Winter Fishing at Bartlett Lake

Yet another beautiful day fishing! Looks to be the last warm fishing day of 2009...and the fishing was tough! They were biting but we had to work hard for every fish. Bartlett lake is down well over 50ft. making it very hard to find our old favorite spots. I did not have any good luck with my trolling rig, got 4 or 5 bites but never caught any of them. We ended up catching six hybrid bluegill and one bass. The funny thing is, last time we were only catching green sunfish and this time we're catching only hybrid bluegill. Odd!

We did have a bit of drama early in the day! While reeling in our very first hybrid of the day a 4lb. bass came up and ate it! Dad fought the bass for awhile before the bass let it go. But he wasn't done, the bass came right back and attacked the hybrid bluegill again! I thought for sure we had him this time! Wouldn't you know it, the first time in my memory we forgot to bring up the net from the back of the boat. Dad tried his best to get the bass out of the water but I guess the bass did not want it that bad and let the bluegill go right as dad lifted him out of the water. We couldn't believe it, what luck! :-\ That poor bluegill was all chewed up. We decided to let it go, figured it's luck was better than ours that day! I cannot believe we did not land that fish! BUMMER!

Dad and I broke open a fresh 2007 MRE and we even ate the jalapeno cheese spread. I have to say, the 2007 cheese spread is way better than 2005 cheese spread! lol I guess not all cheese ages well. We ate the chicken with salsa and Mexican rice on the boat while I used the sonar to map the bottom of the bay. The MRE even came with cappuccino!

I think we will be pulling the boat out for the rest of the season and spend our time fishing for crappie off of marina.

I almost forgot, one of the mountains behind the lake was completely on fire! There was no moon out tonight, so you could see the whole mountain top glowing orange. It was both and scary and awesome to see!

11-07-09 The Arizona state fair with Norman, Bob, Danny and without Renee

The weather was fantastic! Sunny with a little clouds and no wind. I had my first BBQ turkey leg, it was good but a little tough. We were even able to watch an arm wrestling competition while eating lunch. On our way to the commercial building I found a 'fry anything' stand. I was a bit surprised at how expense of those little greasy balls are! I got the deep fried Oreo cookies and Norman got a deep fried moon pie. I ended up sharing my fried Oreos with a drunk guy sitting at a table. He had one mean Mustache! On our way through the commercial building I found a stand selling and old style candies. They had this odd style candy we have seen on TV called "mellow cups". They looked just like a Reese's peanut butter, but instead of peanut butter in the middle they had marshmallow and coconut. They were not good! It's no wonder you never see them in any of the grocery stores! Norman and I bought our obligatory fudge before meeting up with bob and his son to watch the demolition derby. Holy cow, it was busy! We got in the disabled line an hour and a half early but the line was already full. We were lucky to get anywhere close enough to see the actual demolition derby. The demolition derby was good and Danny had a great time. Nothing like burning rubber and radiator fluid in the air!

11-07-09 Dads 1st Hunting Trip w/ Rick

Dad had a great time out bird hunting w/ Rick. They walked all over the hills behind Bartlett chasing them damn little birds. Got off a bunch of shots but the quail were a little to wiley! Rick hit two birds but was only able to find one and dad gave another bird a hair cut. Rick even took dad to some ancient Indian ruins that aren't on any map. Dad is looking forward to going out again but needs some better equipment and training. I think we will make a trip to the range and get some clay pigeons shooting in. We'll be eating that one little quail and our 5 fish this week...

10-31-09 Halloweens Bartlett Lake w/ Austin

The weather could not have been BETTER but the fishing was rough! Austin Whipple was w/ dad and I this trip (4th guest, 2nd non-family). We casted, trolled jigs and crankbaits for 2 hours. Not even a nibble! Dad had me pull into an old favorite rocky point and try for some bluegils. The spot didn't let us down! Dad caught a nice greengill (in the bluegill family) right off the bat! We were on the fish for the next 2 hours. Caught two dozen gills (7 keepers), 2 small catfish and a nice 1.5lbs bass. Dad was throwing a red-tailed fly w/ a small spinner blade (the fly idea came from rick) and a fuzzy micro jig. Of-coarse, we had to be off the water by 4pm (Ma didn't want to be alone Halloween night) right when the fishing was getting good! I literally caught the bass as dad was preparing to leave, bummer. If you look closely at the `dead fish` pic you'll see a purple rubber worm w/ hook. That was inside the bass's stomach when I caught it! He coughed it up in the cooler. Weird! We'll be back next week and out til after dark. Looks to be warm all week, good for big gills!

Bartlett Lake October 17, 2009

Another fantastic day on the water w/ Christina and Rick & I managed to NOT turn dad into a human boat-bumper! We got out on the water late with the intention to stay out past dark. Rick drove us straight across the lake to some islands and bays. I rigged up a new slow trolling worm spinner rig that I had been working on all week with great hope. I trolled it along slowly for a good hour while dad and Rick casted for bass before my rig got hit! Dad quickly grabbed the pole and pulled in not one but TWO large bluegill on one line! The rig got hit another 10 times over the next 2 hours but only hooked one more big gills. The rig needs some refinement to catch those darn short bits. We'll be running two improved rigs next time! Dad caught a few little fish and Christina & Rick got skunked. I was able to park the boat in our slip safely w/ no excitement. We fished on the marina til 8pm w/o a single bite. We ended up 4 bluegills.

Bob Jung
Sounds like lot of friggin work for 4 stinkin bluegills! We used to catch them with hotogs and a hook!

October 14 at 9:55pm

Another fabulous day! Woke up late to Windows Update totally f*cking up my PDA custom software, took 4 hours to fix AND SOME HOW! deleted every contact on my PDA. Got the insurance certs & maybe picked up a job! (Meeting at 10am tomorrow, wish... me luck!) Nice drive home and then my lift blows a fuse while im still in the van! That was fun getting out ;-p Unfortunately, the main fuse blew and my van is 100% dead! So I had it towed, AGAIN! Fortunately it didnt blow in BFE or Adam would have got a call. Spent the last 5hrs putting everyone back in my PDA. What a week!

BTW it's only going to cost $50 to fix my wrecked boat! Yay!

Van Update 10-15-09: Wasn't a fuse! Where the lift was spliced into the main power had loosened up over the years, arked and burned through the wires! EEK! Only cost $89, luckily...Wire fires freak me out! That's how my last boat burned up.

Bartlett Lake - 10-11-09

Had an interesting day on the water, caught 2 1lbs bass casting a fat crawdad crankbait. We trolled a multitude of crankbaits well over 2 miles w/o a single nibble. Did manage to hang-up at 36ft & at the same time obliterate my favorite crankbait in the trolling motor! I was backing the boat up to retrieve the bait and totally forgot about the other rig. Ran the damn thing over and pulled the line w/ crankbait right into the propeller. Stripped about 100ft of line off the pole. Ended up breaking off the other line, also. BTW the crankbait I lost was the same one dad caught the 5lb'er on two weeks ago, bummer! It was a beautiful day! Slightly overcast, southeast breeze and lite boat traffic PLUS the boat ran flawlessly! Did run into one problem, I'll cover in part two...
Bartlett Lake 10-10-09 (Part 2): I was parking my boat in the wet slip like a had 100 times before when my bloody remote control totally crapped out. Unfortunately, I was aimed at the dock, about 20ft out and going 2mph! Doesn't seem fast but hitting a dock at 2mph w/ a 2000lbs boat is really going to hurt. I started hitting the button and yelling, "IT WON'T STOP!" Dad straddled the rail and braced his arm and leg to stop the boat. We hit pretty darn hard! Dad got knocked back into the fish-finder so hard he busted it right off. He got a bit squished! Luckily, no broken bones but he did tweak his back, arm & shoulder. Dad was sore Sunday morning but we're hoping no permanent damage. Hell of an end to a nice day on the water! :-\ BTW Dad cooked up a fish, tasted great!

Johnny Jj
Good for you man. I think its the chair man. Must have fish magnets on it. I still have never caught a fish in AZ.

Melissa K
What a "fish" story Ryan. Glad you guys are alright.

Isis R
OMG ! How frightening! Are u and your Dad ok now ?

Bob J
Where's the video? That's what we want to see!!

Tony P
You should be a writer. Hope you are both alright.

Ryan K
Thanks, dads doing better ... just a bit sore! I was fine except getting my ass chewed for wrecking the boat (again).

Bartlett Lake Dads Big Bass September 13 at 12:56pm

Bartlett Lake 09-12-09 (part II), The Bass! We drove to a bunch of islands on the east side, 1st cast Rick has a 3lbs catfish on a spinner. Dad was throwing a HUGE diving crankbait on my stripper pole. As we moved over a shallow reef Dad hooked in...to a powerful 5lber+ largemouth bass and the fight was ON! Rick grabbed the net, I held the boat in position & yelled a bunch of orders lol WATCH THE DRAG! and Christina

Bartlett Lake 09-12-09 Big Bass

Bartlett Lake 09-12-09 (part III), and Christina cheered us on! The way the drag was pulling & the pole was buckled over, I was really conserned we'd loose it. It was a true fight, dad would take a few ft & the bass would pull it right... back. Dad faught it beautifully & Rick netted it on the 1st try! The bass was hooked on the side of its mouth/head, those new big circle hooks did their job. Christina was hit the was hit the same time as dad but missed the fish. She was hit another 2 times but no luck! After they left we caught 1 more cat but let it go...Fun day! Boat worked great despite getting SOAKED in a nasty storm that damaged the marina!

Bartlett Lake 09-12-09 (more pics)
5 new photos

Bartlett Lake Rick's Catfish September 13 at 12:42pm

Went out to Bartlett yesterday (9-12-09) w/ Christina & Rick, had a great time hunting for bass but got into a mess of catfish. Rick was killing'em at the marina! Caught one on the 1st cast & a monster cat on a spinner his 1st cast off... the boat. He was 5 for 5, not one lost fish! Dad caught one 1lber cat after they they left BUT caught a huge!! bass from the boat!Read More

Bartlett Lake 09-12-09 (cats)

Fishing - 7-26-09 & 8-9-09

Howdy folks! Haven't done a fishing update in quite a while!

Was out fishing at Bartlett both 7-26-09 & 08-09-09, boy was it hot!!! We did go out on the boat but stayed behind the marina using the trolling motor. Fishing was slow...The trip before was very productive, so we had great hopes for a few spots we found. We were catching fish (mostly small) but we had to work hard for each one. 07-26-09 we finally found some big blues using a red-tailed minnow lure. Problem was, the wind really picked up around 12/noon (same on 8-1), casting a wet fly was tough in the wind & holding the boat steady was near impossible! Every time we got on the fish the boat got SLAMMED and I had to fight my way back. We ended up trotting in the bay & eating some warm Lunchables (yuck!) before going in...We really need some more MRE's!

Both trips we left early 2-5pm and didn't do any dock fishing for crappie. We'll start crappie and bass fishing again, soon.

Bartlett Lake 08-09-09

Bartlett Lake 07-26-09

Willey Coyote June 28 at 9:36pm

On the way home from the lake we had a bit of an incident! Dad forgot to stap my backend of my chair down, oops! Some how I made it outa the mountains but it wasn't to last. Dad put the brakes on hard and I did a Willey Coyote into the back of his drivers seat smashed between the wheelchair and the seat. My feet rest got bent down & smashed. Luckly, I'm ok! More of a ride then anything..lol

Kristina M
Glad u r ok! Oh my...reminds of the first time I strapped my god kids into their car seats, looking in the rear view proud of my accomplishment as we rounded a corner, and I watched them tilt, then smack right over onto each other! Whoopsy!

Dustin G
glad your ok ryan... but that had to be an experience of a lifetime and i bet it hurt like hell

Adam C
I bet you were wishing you coulda landed in my lap this time...

Ryan K
Luckily but chest strap didn't pop off!

Ryan K
Adam! You Wish! I got the black-eye!

Isis
how scary this must ha e been !

Bob J
SURE he forgot! lol

Melinda G
Sounds like you had quite the adventure!!

Bob J
That pales in comparison to the time you almost went over the edge at the Grand canyon though!!

Jean H
Well if that had to happen better your dad than Norman. Glad your OK.

Tobi R
I know I am a day late, but that reminds me of a time when your head was face down in Adams lap once upon a time!!! LOL your dangerous in vehicles!!! Be careful!

Lorelei Mellor B
What are we gonna do with Bruce :)! Glad you are ok, how's ur dad!

Ryan K
Jean, Norman did one better! He lowered the van lift BEFORE i got on it at the Venison. I took a header, ass end up, balanced on my feetrest, hanging by my seat belt. Now that HURT! :-p lol Begining of a crazy week, I'll tell you about Studio 51 some day!

Jean H
Studio 51 sounds like a private conversation. Call me. Jean

Bartlett Lake June 28 at 9:22pm

FISHING REPORT: Had a great day on the water, my fixed trolling motor worked great! It ran stronger now then it did new. I held the boat in some crazy winds. A few times i ALMOST hit the rocks but not one growler. We caught many bluegil and catf...ish, brought home 14 keeper (13 gils & 1 crappie). We used an underwater cam under the marina, even found the cable we keep hanging up on.

Bartlett 06-28-09
Ryan Kinnear
At one point a bass investigated the cam, stuck his eye right up aganist the lens. It was pretty funny, we named him Wilber. And, No, we didn't catch Wilber.

Trolling Motor June 26 at 9:19pm

Got my trolling motor back! Ya me! Going out to the lake tomorrow, trying out my motor and catch some fish. I also bought a new gun rest today. Going to build a killer (literally) rig.

Bartlett Lake Grand Slam June 15 at 3:12pm

I hit the "Grand Slam!" fishing this weekend, I was HOT.. Caught 2 bass, 2 cappie, mess of bluegil & a catfish! I lost 1 under the dock. Rick and Christina stopped by, Rick caught a bunch of gils and some carp (I think the carp won th...is round, break'n off 3 times.). Dad's bite was off! A 2lbs bass threw his jig at the net, he didn't get 1 bite for 5 hours, broke off something big BUT caught one HUGE 2lbs crappie.

Bartlett Lake May 31 at 4:52pm

A Wale of a Tale! Had an exciting day at the lake; windy as hell, destroyed my $800 trolling motor, broke a pole & lost a VERY big fish. Oh, I forgot, we got stuck on the 101 between I-17 and Cave Creek for 1 hour! Two WHOLE miles in an hour. All-in-all, was a pretty good day!

I did hook into something BIG! It doubled my pole over so far that my arm was lifted up twice! I thought I was going to loose my pole! The line went out so fast it burned dads hand. What ever it was it broke my line! Bummer! Dad & I both lo...st another large fish on the marina cables. No crappie that night...

Bartlett - 05-30-09

Tc R
Your the master fisherman. I need some lessons. We didn't catch one fish at Woods Canyon Lake this last trip.

Ryan K
The weather you guys got can make fishing tough!

Tobi R
I got stuck there today too! Guess I should have checked the freeway closures before I headed out on the road!

Ryan K
Ya, it blew! Why do the jack-up that stretch ALL THE TIME?

Andy K
Hey Ryan, sounds like a bad-ass time. Good work on the fish, albeit a tad more expensive than you might have thought!

Ryan K
lol, Fish ran about $25 / ounce ($400/lb)! They are going to taste GREAT!

Nancy W
Sounds great Ryan. Can you take my kid with you some time...he loves to fish (Sean). :-)

Christina P
A bad day fishing is better than a good day working... or something like that.

Bartlett Lake May 25 at 10:48am

Had another great day out on the lake w/ Christina & Rick! It was overcast, calm & best of all, the fish were biting! We caught 50 bluegil or so and kept 25. The others were to small :-\ Christina caught a bunch plus 2 or 3 keepers. Rick... landed a real nice one on a top water fly using the fly pole. Very cool! Dad and I caught 3 crappie later that night. (Dad caught 2, I caught 1)

NRA SHOT SHOW & Ted Nugent May 17 at 2:08pm

My brush w/ Ted, "Nugent, that is!" I was rolling down the NRA convention hall at a pretty good clip. I heard dad say something, when I looked up four police and a few groupies where headed straight at me! One cop side stepped the the left and Uncle Ted directly in my path! He had to jump out of my way, any closer and i'd have hit him.

Ryan Kinnear
I was close enough to feel the breeze as the went by. Good thing I wasn't tackled!

Seven Springs, Carefree May 15 at 7:55pm

Got back from Seven Springs, Carefree. Had a great morning, not so great drive in! Antibiotics, codine, MRE's & 16 MILES! OF DIRT ROADS didn't set well with my stomic!

Seven Springs

Tylissa Wagner
Sounds like a long day! Are you sick?

Ryan Kinnear
It was good up to the 45min drive out! :-} I had some weird sinus infection i couldn't shake the last 2 weeks but I got over it thursday. Probably wasn't wise going out that soon after being sick BUT (ask adam) I tend to do alot of unwise things!

Fish Fry April 28 at 9:49pm

FISH FRY! I think i've met my mercury quota for the year this week! Looks like I have 3 more days of leftovers (started eating them Sunday). Terminator 2 aint got sh*t on me! ;-p

Bartlett Lake w/ Rick April 26 at 11:42am

Had another great day out on Bartlett Lake, Rick came out w/ us! We drove ALL the way up the lake, into the verde river as far as we thought it was safe. Until we saw running water. Didn't catch spit! Dad & Rick casted their arms off! I drove the trolling motor, holding in that crazy wind was tough! The boat was repeatily pulled off anchor but we didn't ground once.

We trolled crank baits out while some jackass wakeboarded in the no wake zone. Rick drove the boat all the way back to the marina. Did a great job dodging boats, skiers & keeping the boat facing the waves. Dad got to see what its like riding in the back and took some pictures.

On the dock April 26 at 12:18pm

We did have great luck fishing around the marina! Caught 15 keepers, 12 bluegil, 2 crappie and 1 catfish. Dad had left to tend the boat while Rick & I kept fishing. As soon as he left I hooked a catfish and rick helped me pull it in. The line broke as Rick pulled the fish out of the water. No worries, it happens.

Rick kicked ass! Landing a fish that I hook while holding the line isn't easy, AT ALL! Crappie make it even harder w/ thier paper thin mouth! Rick didn't hook any crappie :-\ but his fly was killing the bluegils.

Bartlett Lake Sea Monster April 19 at 8:30pm

Bartlett Lake Sea Monster was sighted! Damn thing swam under the dock and our lights! Scared the crap out'a us. It was headed for the fish basket! Dad ran after the basket and saved our fish!

Bartlet Lake April 19 at 8:06pm

Had a great day out at the lake. Christina & Rick met us out there. Christina caught 5 bluegil, not sure about everyone else but we came home w/ 22 nice fish. Took dad 1.5hrs to clean! We're having a fish fry Sunday.

Oh, I did catch a 1.5lbs catfish On My Own! Set the hook & held on! Can't reel & dad was 100ft away chatting w/ a drunk rich guy and his 25yr old daughter SOOO I called him on the phone! We saved the Catfish for Rick.

Bartlett Lake & Bill C April 6 at 8:58pm

I had a great time fishing w/ Bill (Adams dad). It was windy as hell, the 30min drive up the river froze my ass off & we didn't catch shit BUT I didn't crash my boat, fight w/ dad & Bill had a good time! Dad and I did catch a few ...fish later that night. So, all in all it was a good day!

Bartlett Lake March 29 at 2:11pm

Fished from the marina the rest of the night. We ran into a marina member both Christina & I went to highschool with. Sarah manned the net & helped dad land a 4lbs bass. I caught 5 bluegil & no one caught any crappie. We gave the bass... to Sarah & her husband. Her mother-in-law wanted a fresh fish dinner for her 78th bday (which was today). I did get a pic!


Wall Photos

March 29 at 1:57pm

Operation "Adam's Dad" is a GO! Boat ran great! Dad (my dad) cleaned all the crap off the pontoons & clean up the boat. You could eat off the floor, if you didn't mind fish scales on you food. lol Boat ran GREAT! Got her up to 22mph (which is fast for a pontoon boat).

March 28 at 9:21am

I'm heading out to Bartlett Lake to get my boat ready for hot weath. You shold see the alge bread growing on the back! ick Hopefully nothing was damaged in the wind storm :- The dock got all twisted up!

March 15 at 8:41pm

just ate fresh fried bass row (egg sack). Not the best thing i ever ate, could have used more salt! That bizzare foods guy must have some odd taste buds.

Ryan: The egg sack itself is kinda gross

Christina : You are one crazy eater. I thought you were going to wait to eat that.

Bartlett Lake March 14 at 11:24pm

Dad and I caught 9 bass, 4 bluegil & 1 catfish at bartlett lake! Well dad caught all but 1 little bluegil but I yelled alot!

Bartlett Lake: March 8 at 8:42pm

I did go fishing, caught nothing! Well, I did catch a bluegil. Dad caught a bass & Rick a catfish. Christina was skunked!