I really dont like yotes… I saw a pair kill a fawn in my backyard a few years back… the doe was there but she could not help.
I got my 17 HMR out in time to teach one of them how to take a dirt nap.
They do have nice teeth.
TNHunter
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yotes have cross bred with the grey wolf to the north in Quebec here. the hybrid is the worst of both. they devastate the deer when they yard up in the winter. in years of deep snow they force the deer to jump off their trails and because they are lighter than the deer they can catch them floundering in the snow. ive shot quite a few over the years while ice fishing. they push them on the ice because deer cant run on it with their hooves.
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I like you better all the time, Steve! ha. Actually, I think quail have more fat on them that the ringnecks I’ve had. But ringnecks are very rare down here and I’ve only had them twice- and one of those was at a restaurant so they could have come from China for all I know. (sadly. I’m only half kidding about the China thing!). The wild one I had was good but a litte bit tough and a little dry. Quail taste a little juicier. To me they taste a lot like a chicken thigh no matter which part of the quail you take meat from.
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That bluegill photo literally made me smile. I’m a 50 year old man, and even if I live another 50 years I will never forget my dad taking me to fish for those and doing it exactly as you described. Dad was never much of a sportsman so he didn’t know much about fishing with lures, casting rods, fishing for game fish, etc. But he knew as a child I loved to fish. I remember every moment. First we’d get the obligatory coffee can and go to an old leaf pile and dig up a bunch of red worms. Then he’d take me to a local spot and put one of those old style pastic red and white bobbers on above a 1/8th ounce lead sinker, then a few inches below that would be just a plain hook. We had those old green closed faced Johnson reels and he’d help me flip mine out there so I didn’t get it in a tree. Then he’d hand me my rod and tell me to keep my eyes on my bobber. When I’d get a bluegill he’d always act like it was the biggest fish in the world and he would “help” me get it in and then tell me all day what a great fisherman I was. ha. MAN…remembering that is both a little sad and also a great joy. Fortunately dad is still alive but approaching 90 so yo you know the end is coming. 
But yea, the point is that bluegill/brim are a LOT of people’s first fish and fight hard enough that I enjoy catching them to this day. I bet some of the rest of you have very similar stories to the one I just shared. Fishing with dad…everyone should be so lucky in life.
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@thecityman My dad was not a fisher men. A long time ago I took my 6 year old son bluegill fishing. We ran out of worms so I broke off a string from my cut off jeans and tied it to his hook. He caught one on the string!
Around here we are overrun with deer and rabbits. I hear the coyotes at night, but have yet to see one.
They’ve got to eat too.
No they taste more like chukkar. Really good, sweet and tender.
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What a great story! And I totally believe it…when bluegill are feeding, they really go crazy and will try to eat anything they see. ANd I love that you took your son fishing like that - 40 years later he will be telling his friends about that trip with his dad just like I was just doing above.
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Well, that’s the answer then. I’ll just have to get me some bobcats.
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i have similar memories with Dad and the red and white bobbers except fishing a beaver dam for brook trout. Dad was a avid fisherman but simplified the techniques for us as kids. nothing like watching a bobber go under! we fish black crappie in spring during spawning with bobbers and berkley gulp. great fun!
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I noticed a Coopers hawk (I think) at the bird bath when looking out the window. The cellphone picture is digitally zoomed so not very clear.
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Nice open space back yard.
That’s great. BTW…even us grown ups down here love a good spring crappie fishing day! I often use those little white doll fly jigs or a little hooktail with a tiny spinner. On the right day you can pull out huge crappie almost as fast as you can get one off the hook and the jig thrown back in. And they fight like crazy too. And taste great. Yea, some people almost act ashamed to crappie fish- as if real fisherman down here only go for large/smallmouth bass. But crappie are FUN, Limit here is 20 per day!!!
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black crappie are invasives accidently stocked into a lake up here by the state. no limit. were mixed in with largemouth. when spawning we can fill a cooler.
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have similar pics of mine except holding huge stringers of salmon and trout. 
i just got my repo. mount of my p.b 8.lb 6oz. landlocked atlantic salmon caught icefishing jan. 2020. my p.b lake trout was just shy of 15lb. my fishing buddy got a 18lb laker through the ice…
If you look close at that 9 lb bass my Grandfather is holding… you can see a chain pickerel (pike) sticking out his mouth. It had been swallowed tail first and that big bass had digested about half of it, but the head and all was still poking out his mouth.
And it ate a black cream worm my Grandfather was fishing with…
The string of bass my father caught, could well be the largest string of bass ever caught in the State of TN. I have never seen one that came close.
Top 10 bass weighed 79 lbs 15 oz.
The whole string (17 bass) weighed 113 lbs 14 oz.
They have some pretty good bass string pics at Bass Pro shops here in TN, but none that comes close to that.
The largest bass my Dad ever caught weighed 11 lbs 13 oz. I have the mount.
He caught a 10 pounder the same night.
TNHunter
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I so wish we had something big enough to take down deer. We are overrun by deer, without enough hunting pressure to reduce or even manage their population. I’d gladly put up with the extra fencing we’d require to protect our livestock, if it meant something was killing and eating baby and adult deer here on a regular basis.
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them bucket mouths are some hogs for sure! none this far north but ive caught some in s. Maine. my buddy caught one down there 11lbs while i was loading our boat. was casting the lilly pads near this old tree stump and that thing hit his frog. up till’ then no one had ever caught a large in there. only smallies. bucket bios were busy and must have introduced them there. now theres no more smallies and very few pickeral left in there. the huge white perch population has been completely eaten out of existence .
Nice fish! That’s a spotted sunfish, AKA stumpknocker. Same genus as bluegill but different species. Very common in Florida creeks and rivers.
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