Yep, we have a back up pump sitting right on the stairs, pretty much ready to go if needed. It's a manual thing tho' so we can't leave it.

.... and astorm is rolling in right now. [:@]

Good luck with the sump pump endurance test.
Unfortunately, you'll need to be on watch most of the night down there.
Stuff is going to keep coming down forseveral more hours, and then it has to soak in too. [:-]

The good news is, I went out to visit DPCA tonight just before dusk. I got mydaughter outon the Bobber for about a half hour, and she got to see me shoot a fish for the first time. I only got shots at 2 because the lightwas so poor, and only connected on one of those. The one I missed was over 15 pounds (of course), and we must have scared up over 50 within 100 yards of the launch in less than4 feet of clear water. This was with bad weather rolling in, the wind blowing 15 mph, and the sun already set. Should be good shooting for anybody that can make it.

Jessie's first trip on the bobber! See post below; I was technically challenged.

2nd try at uploading...

3rd and final try... Success! Well worth the effort for a picture of such a pretty young girl with a carp.

Thank you Sir-Fishpoint for posting the pic for me.

I was trying an experiment when I got that fish, a 20# bow with a hand-reel.
Checking to see if somebody can still pull in fish with a very light bow.
There is a guy I work with that had a bad shoulder injury, and he's dying to try bowfishing, so I'm testing the lower limits to see if it'll work. Of course the only fish I got was hit toward the tail, so it wasn't a very good test of penetration, but I got him in the boat so it counts. My coworker will be very happy to hear of the success.

The arrow is way too stiff for that weak of a bow, but I just had to do it. Now that's 4 different bows I've shot fish with this year, and it's not even April yet. [:-]

Anchious to hear how it went today in all the wind. I have been cleaning out the garage, and had to close the doors to keep from being blown away. Today is Honey do day, so I can go play next week with Mr. Extreme out in iowa. They have a nice river that runs through their town, and so far it is not high and muddy. My son in law works for Exide and is getting me two new military batteries for my 24 volt toller. The two that I have only last 4 hours and are toast. So they will become back up's. These military ones are suppose to have unreal reserve power. I would tell you the price i am getting them for but would have to shoot you. Did I say really, really cheap. Put I am paying the employee price. Not what you know, but who..

WINDY was the best way to describe the weather up here too Johnny.
While Christine and Kendall went shopping for a backup sump, Steve and Robowcaught up on some work, some non-members went to a 3D shoot, and Mark S was out of town, a small group of us braved the breezes and really earned the whopping 2 carp that made it into the canoes. Nice shooting Jason.

The wind made paddling and slow drifting a challenge, and the cloud cover gave us poor visiblity. The water is very clear, but much of it has a black bottom of muckthat makes fish tough to see against the dark backdrop without a bit of sun.

While JRW and Fishpoint paddled to a location and then fished from shore before moving on to the next spot, Diana and I cruised the shoreline and anchored upwind when we found activity. We spooked up many fish, often within arm's reach of the boat, but just couldn't see them before we ran them over or passed them. [:@]

Not much shooting thanks to the weather, but everybody seemed to enjoy dinner and meeting some other club members that they had previously only talked to on-line. They got to meet my wife, daughter, and ferocious beast of a dog. I had a great time trading stories and sharing some venison with friends. Have to do it again soon.

We're really bummed that we missed it.

The sump pump finally got to ten minute intervals and we went to the store. Just got back a bit ago. (haven't even had dinner yet)

Glad you guys got some fish.

We missed you guys too.

It would have been fun to see that 18' pontoon blowing toward the far end of the backwater. You might have had to power up the outboard to get back.

Oh, at one point Judd's IB club hat blew off and drifted away. (almost lost my own several times) We later managed to rescue it from a muddy cove about 100 yards away.