Chuck Zimmerman, Page 5

Slaying Spanish Mackerel

It’s salt water fishing season in the Gulf of Mexico!

I took Paul and his daughter, Mary, and her boyfriend Gatlin out on a trip to catch king and spanish mackerel. We did good on the spanish with almost 4 limits. We lost two large kings though. They were biting early before turning off.

We mainly fished over a wrecked ship only a mile or so from the mouth of Pensacola Bay. These fish were schooling and we fished them with artificial lures on light tackle. Talk about fun.

Mackerel is an excellent and really healthy fish to eat. I smoked some and made some awesome dip using: cream cheese, chopped leeks and green onions, pepper, worcestershire sauce and lemon juice. As Gary would say, Dayumm Good.

May 23 opens red snapper season in Gulf state waters with a new 70 day season. Can’t wait to get out on top of them.

Next week the whole club team will be at the Pig for work days in preparation of hunting this year. See you from there next.

Schmacon – Beef’s Answer to Bacon

Beef bacon. It’s not new. But if you’ve tried it before it seemed to be lacking in flavor or consistency. Now there’s Schmacon, Beef’s Answer to Bacon. I have tried it and I like it. See my casserole recipe using Schmacon below.

I recently interviewed the inventor of bacon, Howard Bender. I published the interview for my weekly podcast on AgWired.com. Howard has a Kickstarter campaign going to raise funds to develop his retail sales efforts. Support him here.

You can listen to the program here: Schmacon the Un-Bacon

Now let’s focus on the casserole. I think this will be an excellent addition to the Pig’s hunt days menu.

Here are my ingredients:

1 bag of shredded potatoes
1 pound Schmacon (beef’s answer to bacon)
1 can of sauerkraut
Stir fried red, yellow, green and orange bell peppers, red onion, sweet onion, garlic
different shredded cheeses (cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan)
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 cup of Water
Spices: Everglades seasoning, Mrs. Dash, Dill, Paprika
pats of butter bottom and top

Once the peppers, garlic and onions were tender I blended all of this in a bowl. I used about a cup of each cheese. On the spices I just shook enough in to “feel” that it was enough.

Then I sprayed olive oil on a glass casserole dish, added some pats of butter, poured the mixture in, topped with pats of butter and paprika. Then baked it for about 45 minutes at 325.

Boom. An explosion of flavor in your mouth. This casserole is good as a stand alone meal or for breakfast with eggs. Try some.

The Bubba – Yeti Challenge

After purchasing a new Yeti 20 oz. Rambler I had to find out if it could beat my Bubba Hero Tumbler 20 oz. So I loaded them with ice and water, set them on the kitchen counter and waited.

At 27 hours, the Bubba showed its superiority with several small cubes of ice left while the Yeti was out of ice. The Bubba actually took another 2 hours before the ice melted. I think that’s a fair competition don’t you?

I like them both but now I know that the Bubba which is about half the price of the Yeti was the better purchase.

Fish, Fish, Fishing

I’m in one of my busy road travel seasons for the ag industry. Every once in a while a cool opportunity comes up that beats the crap out of sitting in a conference room watching powerpoint presentations!

That happened this week in Bonita Springs, FL. The convention had two inshore guided boats set up with room for one more person to go and I got asked! Took half a second to say YES.

We fished Estero Bay with live shrimp mostly on a popping cork. Unfortunately, we had a storm front move through the night before so the water wasn’t real clear, etc. However, we caught fish. Our boat brought in several short redfish. I had one that was 17 1/2 inches. We caught one small mangrove snapper. This was fishing along mangrove walls. Then we ended up fishing a boat dock. We caught a bunch of sheepshead like the one I’m holding. They are not easy to catch. We call them bait stealers. You are either fast on the trigger or you’re hungry.

The best luck I had all day was when the other boat caught a 27 inch red and they didn’t want to fly home with it. They gave it to me and I double zip locked it with some ice and brought it home. It’s going on my grill tonight skin side down. Redfish on the half shell. One of my favorites.

End of 2014/2015 Deer Season

The final days that Pig members hunted were not productive. No more meat in the freezer. We saw some deer but were not in a position to shoot. This is because we’re still learning the land and deer movement since this property was clear cut and is starting to grow more vegetation, etc.

But we have seen some fantastic deer and learned more about their movements which will be beneficial later this year. We also learned a lot about food plots and those will be much more productive this fall.

Our shed is almost complete as you can see in the picture. A few more work days and this will be a very comfortable place to camp out and hunt from.

A Crystal PigSet

It’s getting near time to get back out on the Pig. Most of our group is planning on a stay between Christmas and New Year’s! We can only hope for some good weather since we all know that no forecast more than a day in advance is even close to accurate!

We’ll have to use some different tactics in the winter and we’re still learning our property. I’m hoping to do some quality time still hunting bottoms and edges of the property since so much of it was clear cut for the old stand timber. The pines are growing but they’ve got some years before they really become a factor.

The photo is from my last hunt trip. We have some beautiful (Sun) PigSets!

Final Touches on Barn & Paul’s Big Buck

This weekend Paul, Eli and Luke worked on the final step in finishing our pole barn – roofing metal. Shade and protection from rain with a large area for cooking and relaxing. Yeehaw.

The Pig is a work in progress just like getting to know where the deer are and their habits. We’re learning it slowing but surely.

While the guys were out there this weekend Paul scored a little buck.

He said it’s a six point but I’d love to know what Joe would think of that!

I think you should write him a comment about that big rack in his hands. All I can say is, “He’ll eat pretty good!”

Joe’s First Buck

Joe is currently king of the Pig. Here he is with his first ever buck. A nice 6pt. That smile says it all. So far Joe is the only member with a buck.

The rut is not on yet. We saw a lot of deer, a lot of small does to be precise. We kind of lost count. All four of us hunting harvested a doe to get some meat in the cooler and while we were hunting, some meat in our bellies!

We hope to be back out in November during the rut so look for some more hunt updates at that time.

I’ve started a photo album for the hunt here: 2014/15 Crystal Pig Hunt Club Photo Album. That’s hunt life in pictures.

Joe Gets a Doe

It’s deer season at The Pig (short for Crystal Pig Hunt Club). On opening day Saturday Paul, Luke, Joe and I were on location. We all got a doe that day! Now, it’s time for a buck. We’re not in the rut yet. We’ve seen over 30 does and only 2 bucks so far.

In the pick, Joe gets his first deer, pictured with his Dad and my brother Paul. You want to talk about excited. He got it with his first shot too.

So, we’ve had some good fresh venison on the grill and in a stew and I think some more recipes are coming.

Now back to the hunt.

Building a Pole Barn

Our last major project of the year prior to hunting season is the building of a pole barn. This week the poles got planted and next week the frame, rafters and metal roof goes on. The barn will house our RV with lots of extra room for shelves and a cook area.

Of course there are lots of little projects we still want to work on including some more stands at key locations. However, we’re ready to spend some time in the woods on the CPHC with a gun! It’s getting close and we’re getting excited. How about you?

Are you going deer hunting? Got any questions? We’ll try to answer them. Feel free to post in comments.