Cast and Blast

There was some casting for sure but the only blasting was done with the shutter of my camera. I fished this morning and got some bass I was happy to catch. What made me even happier was that unlike Monday the wind gods let me fish. The wind was going a bit but conditions were fishable. The bass did not respond to the topwater early and I thought it was going to be a bust of a topwater day but when the tide bottomed out they got on the feed and helped me out with a few bites. More important than this morning's bass bite was yesterday's bird bite. I found some cooperative birds of prey and a bluebird and got some pretty good shots. They won't win any contests or get me a check from a magazine but I am pretty happy with them. Western bluebird, black shouldered kite, Red tailed hawk and Swainsons hawk. If I got any of those wrong let me know. You might be tired of seeing birds and bass but I am not so there could be more coming.


http://i.imgur.com/RL1ZHWy.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/PZezcKW.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/TUxvFGt.jpg
The second and third shot are the same fish. I don’t want it to look like I caught more than I did.


http://i.imgur.com/FwgSZsG.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/OhYNNe5.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/WHROc9r.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/VEY6iiJ.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/gBc1xMg.jpg


http://i.imgur.com/p2RjlOQ.jpg

Nice Bass! Lovely images!

That shot of the kite hovering is special.

The kite was actually lifting off of the top of the tree to fly away. He went straight up. He looks like an angel rising to heaven. My camera shoots six frames per second and that shot might be 1/4000 of a second shutter speed. I am new to this and have found the motions birds go through are amazing but you don’t see them unless you freeze the movement. When they start to move hold down the shutter button and follow the bird and you never know what you will get. I underexposed the shot because the bird was so bright which is why the sky is dark blue.

All great photo's, John. The kite in mid-launch is terrific!

Vaughn

The last two batches of photos have just been outstanding!! Love raptors. The bugs on your hat (divers) look good. Do you use a desiccant to keep them from becoming soggy or just change them??

I really like the raptor shots. They are amazing when you see them up close in a photo. If I was a rodent I would be terrified.

No desiccant. If they get soggy I get out a dry one. I usually don’t have so many soggy ones but I am trying to use up old ones which tend to get soggy faster and when you are not getting many bites you want a fresh one on that makes a lot of noise and bubbles.