Cooking With LSP

 

Wow, you're gonna do that, cook with LSP? Good luck, brother. So they say, but it's not hard. Get out in the field, shoot some dove, clean the birds and let the diminutive breasts rest in brine overnight. Easy.

Next step? Buy some jalapeno peppers, they're cheap, slice 'em in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon or something, just don't wipe your eyes, obviously. Then fill the hollow pepper halves with cream cheese. Behold the evolution, well done, you've got this far.

The next bit's intuitive. Fillet the meat off the doves and place it on the cream cheese filled peppers, then wrap those bad boys in bacon. Yes, bacon. Secure the little rascals with toothpicks then put them in the oven at around 400, maybe 425's better, your call, there's no "rule."

Then lo and behold, 20 minutes later, delicious poppers. Stand back in amazement and fall upon your scoff.

Like a Warrior,

LSP

Cooking With LSP -- Bringing Home The Bacon

"What?!? You cook with LSP?" you snort indignantly, "That''s the stupidest thing I've ever heard and quite possibly dangerous." Not so fast, punters. Sure, cooking with LSP can be dangerous but nothing ventured, nothing gained. To prove that, I brought home the bacon.

That's right, bacon, and jalapeno peppers and Philadelphia cream cheese. Don't settle for less kids and note, this is a bare minimum, you're supposed to have dove breasts from the birds you've shot that very day.

Well, I didn't have any dove because I've been babysitting an aspiring Cadet, but whoever said life'd be easy? No one. So make do and get those poppers going. 

It's not hard, slice the peppers in half, scoop out the seeds, fill with cream cheese, wrap with bacon and skewer with a toothpick. Perhaps your toothpicks are anodized titanium, very tactical. Or maybe they're wood, whatever, your call.

Then throw those bad boys in the oven for around 20 minutes until the bacon is right. You'll know by the aroma and the sight of the rashers reaching sizzling perfection. Don't overcook, don't undercook. You'll know when it's right.

Next step? Pull those perfect poppers out of the oven and behold the awesomness of bacon wrapped around the cream cheese filled morsels and count yourself a lucky man. And then?

Eat your scoff like a warrior. And that's cooking with...

LSP

Opening Day

"Mornin', looks like Summer's back," I called out to my neighbor, through the humid miasma of a Texan September 1st. "Yeah, happens 'bout every 100 years," he growled. "Sure, it's like a war," I replied, hauling an empty trash can behind the compound's perimeter. And that was the start of Opening Day, but not the finish.

A few hours later we were in a dove field, somewhere in Texas, setting up. Rigs parked, decoys out, shooters positioned strategically and then wait, in the sweltering heat. No birds, just heat and steam rising up from the waterlogged ground.  Then things changed.

Clouds rolled in from the North, along with thunder, complementing the sound of distant shots. Somewhere, not too far away, birds were coming in and there was action. Would it come our way?

Cooler weather certainly did, a big relief, and with it, small groups of dove, in twos and threes, came barreling over the treeline at the decoys as lightning arced from the sky, and the guns blazed away like the flak towers of Old Berlin. All against the far-off barrage of thunder.

Pretty dramatic, and the shooters down the line got the best of it, downing 8 birds in fairly quick succession. Good work, boys. It was slower from my position but still, not bad. I shot enough to get the adrenaline up, as well as missing enough to guard against the sin of pride.

Then, as dusk set in, we fell back to HQ to grill up some poppers and sausages and I tell you, a good day was had by all.

Get out in the field,

LSP

Topwater

Heddon Tiny Torpedo

Fishing with topwater lures can offer explosive action and big fun, no doubt about it. Bass will attack that twitching bit of plastic, hitting the lure like steam train before pulling it down into the depths, and the fight's on. 

The emphasis here is on can; a lot of the time, if you're me, poppers, torpedoes, spooks and the like produce no action at all. Still, the other day at Lake Whitney I had good success with a Torpedo and decided to read up on the subject. I found this article helpful, here's an excerpt:

Wham! When the strike came, I stifled my jerk reflex and waited for the fish to pull the bait down. Then, when I felt tension, I set back, and in short order a surprised three-pounder was flopping in my net.

Heddon Spook

...Most every brushpile harbored bass, and my Tiny Torpedo and that stay-put, irritating retrieve were the keys to catching them. Those fish never hit when the lure first gurgled into range. Instead, it was the twitching that changed their mood from neutral to aggressive. By tantalizing them long enough, the lure triggered their instinct to kill the "helpless prey" even though they weren't hungry.

So this is the object with topwater lures, to present bass with a vulnerable, unaware "creature" that is an easy target, then allowing nature to take its course.

You can read the rest of it here and learn something about the why, where, when and how of topwater lures. For me the why's simple, sheer excitement at the ferocious, leaping, impact of the Bass. 

Lake Aquilla, The Challenge Is On!

Nothing like it and while I'm no expert, the success I have had makes me want more. A lot more.

Fish On,

LSP