The first quarter of this new year has come to an end, and it nearly took all of it for us to have a few warm days and finally give us a hint of what the spring is going to bring us.

Though we still have a few days before the Easter holiday arrives, maybe the cool is mostly gone, though it is never truly gone until Easter has come and gone.

The Deep South will show you that Easter cool snap.

Turkey season is in, and the success of the hunters seems to be running at least equal to last year and somewhat ahead in some areas.  The hunters have been out in numbers. I just stopped by a store that the hunter already had his gobbler, his first and I’m sure he will hunt until he gets his limit. They were going to fry the turkey breast and make turkey salad out of the legs and thighs. I have never eaten turkey salad made like that, but it can’t be bad and would definitely be filling. It would be fairly healthy eating and even a fried turkey breast if the right oil is used is not so unhealthy. I can think of a lot of foods that we eat and enjoy regularly that would be less healthy.

When my wife or my mother seasons stuff, they usually use a piece of pork, most times smoked, but for lack of that I have seen my wife use a couple of strips of bacon. It is not as healthy as it could be, but does have a great taste.

This one guy I know seasons just about everything he cooks with smoked turkey legs. It tastes all right, but he always has to use a big pot or the turkey legs won’t fit in it so he cooks large amounts. He is in his 70s, so he may be doing it as a healthy diet or he may do it because he likes it.

Most of the stuff we eat in the South is done so because we like the taste of it.  That is why we eat so much stuff fried. Anything fried is on a southerner’s diet and can’t be that good for you. He tells me that folks in his family live to be up close to 100 years old, and he hopes that he is not the one to interrupt that family tradition.

I really don’t see why he wants to live for that long.  He doesn’t hunt and he doesn’t fish. He eats no wild game and I have never seen him eat a piece of fish that didn’t come from an eatery.

He used to go fishing with his wife and he would sit on the river bank with his pole unbaited. He never caught anything and that was the way he wanted it.

Well, he did catch something one time, a ticket. The game warden came along and gave him a ticket because he didn’t have a fishing license.  He didn’t take the ticket all that good and went to court over it. He told the judge the deal and got it thrown out of court.

I asked him about his wife and fishing, which she liked to do. He said that he didn’t bait her hook, didn’t take the fish off her line and didn’t dress the fish when they got home. I guess that is one of the reasons he has been divorced for nearly 20 years.

He really doesn’t know what he is missing.

The weather is trying to change for the better and that in itself will improve the catching part of fishing.

We have been fishing for the three months of 2010 and now with the warm sun bringing on the water temperature, we will begin catching fish when we are able to go to the lake.

Bass are bedding and are giving themselves up to most anyone that makes the trip to the lake. Some river fish may have bedded, but I think that April may be their big month with a few hanging over into the first of May.

We have had so much cold and with it lasting so long things are behind where they would be on a normal year. The river water is constantly moving, so it takes longer for it to warm up enough to get to a temperature that the bass will bed. Same way with the panfish. But it won’t be as long as it has been.