Fin and Feather Saturday

I met my Dad, brother, friend Brad, and Dad's friend, Mr. Elmo yesterday to have a relaxing Friday and Saturday at our friend's hunting/fishing lodge entitled 'Fin and Feather.' This is the same place I had my bachelor party a little over a year ago. It a very comfy lodge with a professionally managed pond that is home to some trophy bass. The owners are extremely hospitable and generous with there getaway place.

We had a fairly successful trip fishing wise. Everyone caught some fish and lots were of good size. As part of the pond management scheme, only bass smaller than 15 inches can be kept. This allows the big fish to get bigger because of less competition for food. Also the bigger bass supposedly don't taste as good. Matt won the biggest fish of the weekend at 22 inches. (They didn't have a scale in the boat to weigh it)

Matt's boat found a cottonmouth, sunning on a tree limb slightly emerged from the water. I also brought along my Savage Arms .270 that I got from some of my groomsmen almost a year ago. I still had not shot it so that's why I had brought it along this weekend. I realize this was probably the most inefficient gun for the task, but it was all we had. We crept up to the cursed animal and I loaded the rifle. I sighted him in and fired a round. An explosion of water erupted around him and he did not budge so I assumed I had hit him. We got even closer to inspect and he was in fact still alive. I put another round in and soon after he began to slither away. I quickly pulled my rifle up and shot again. I did not miss this time. Part of the snake was propelled from the tree several feet and the rest of his maimed body  tried to slither away. His floated up to the top a few seconds later. Brad applied several whacks to the head with the paddle for good measure. He disappeared from sight after that, but he couldn't have lasted much longer. I'm glad my first shots with the rifle were serving a purpose. It was a nice way to end the testosterone weekend.