The winter months outdoors have been slow for me. I am now ready for spring and the turkey hunting and fishing that comes with it. The highlight this last month has been an ice fishing outing on Lake Wilhelm for crappie and bluegill.

Like most of the hardwater anglers in PA, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of solid ice so I could get out of the house and do some fishing. The reports of two, then three, and finally four inches of clear ice couldn’t come soon enough. Some folks say that two inches is thick enough to hold fishermen, but personally, I’m not comfortable until there’s at least four inches.

Last Friday I stopped by to see my Friend Shirley Grenoble to talk a little “turkey”. Shirley has been hunting turkey for over 40 years now. She is an avid outdoors woman and outdoor writer for the Altoona Mirror and contributor writer to the Pennsylvania Outdoor Times. Shirley has written for various magazines and newspapers over the years. Her knowledge and experience are impressive to say the least.

Needless to say, it feels like a long time since I have had a chance to actually write a field journal. As you know we were very busy providing internet coverage to the Eastern Outdoor Show this year, which took up a lot of time. One of the great aspects of the show was getting to meet people from the website.

By Jimmy Patterson, Hollidaysburg Pennsylvania

I actually got my feet wet..literally..this past weekend. Saturday we had a really good day on the ice. Catching over 30 fish mostly large mouth bass, a few chain pickeral and some rainbow trout.

By Luke Austin, Sarver, Pennsylvania

I moved to this new area in June, I used to live about 10 miles south of this area (suburbs) and I moved up here to find lots of fields and woods. It was a Thursday evening after wounding a buck that Tuesday and never finding it I decided to hunt a new area by my house.