Garden update & the arrival of Menhaden

My initial thoughts were that my garden wasn't going to do much. As I mentioned earlier, I had to haul in dirt so I thought I might not have enough, or the right kind of topsoil. For the first 3 weeks nothing grew much at all. But those fears have been allayed now. While we were away last weekend a friend stayed at our house and graciously watered the garden. We returned to find that his TLC and the warm weekend weather had resulted in lots of growth. We have immature peppers and tomatoes and I think I'll have to cut back the cucumbers some because they're threatening to take over. I haven't done too much except water regularly and add a couple of plant food treatments. Unless something drastic happens, my mini-agricultural cost/benefit analysis is looking pretty good.

On the fishing front, as I was mowing last night I glanced out at the water to see big schools of surface bait fish on our side of the Magothy. It's the first time I've seen them. In Tennessee, we called these schools "shad," but here they are referred to as "Menhaden" or somtimes "bunkers." I think they are a very similar species. Since there were fish feeding in the schools, I grabbed my spinning outfit and started casting a small spoon from the dock. I was rewarded with some of the biggest White Perch I've caught yet. From what I'm learning, rockfish will move into the river soon to feed on these schools. When that happens I don't know how I'm going to get any yard work done! -S