Give Blood
Ellis Blogs 3-19-2015
Give Blood
Just a quick mention that you save lives literally when you give blood or platelets. When you give enough, the Blood Centers of Wisconsin will call you on the first day you're eligible to give again and remind you they would appreciate it if you could find time to donate. On occasion, I receive a message, from a real person no less, who will tell me, “We’re at crisis level with your blood type (A-Pos). Can you come in?”
Of course I can, and so can you. I started this when my taxes told me I was kind of a cheap-skate with yearly monetary donations… mostly due to not having any money. What a great way to help others and build the old self-esteem at the same time. Plus, they feed you lots of cookies and chips before they allow you to leave. Think about that.
“Mr. Ellis, you’re going to have to pack away a bunch of these snacks or you can’t leave….”
Well twist my arm.
I guess I’ve always been an excellent blood giver. Six gallons or so in recent history and maybe 10 gallons from age seven or so to I’m guessing 12 when brother Jim would pin my shoulders down with his knees and beat the tar out of me. Is that politically incorrect? Okay it never happened…and I don’t have those scars on my face.
Anyway, give blood. It’s a life saver.
You know, obviously where you are physically dictates what you fish for. Springtime is always fun to watch what messages come over our OWO “wire” and who is chasing what. Brother Jim Ellis, or the blood-letter-outer if you prefer, has been in the Florida Keys with wife Colleen catching a bunch of ocean fish including Bull sharks like this one. Colleen found this black duck showing off and snapped his photo for us.
(Note to Jim: “I really hope you’re having fun and I certainly hope you don’t fall and crack your head on a rock…a sharp rock")
I was so intrigued by OWO writer Gary Engberg’s account in the March-April issue of last-ice bluegills on the Madison Chain that I tried to bribe him to take me last week. He had just hung up the “creepers” after that warm spell sent two of his friends through that black ice into shallow water, something Gary warns about in the article if you were planning to venture out. He had been taking fish to 10-1/2 inches prior to raising the white flag and yes, I am reserving a spot in Gary’s boat on the open water.
Friend Roger Mayer fished the Milwaukee Lakefront hardwater with Super Guide Eric Hataja and found some beautiful cooperative fish. Roger’s photos will speak for the guide’s work, and his own work later in the kitchen.
Hooksetters Guide Phil Schweik as usual has hard water action going his way in mid-Wisconsin near Wausau, as you can read in “Inland Fishing” on this site, along with the reports from maybe a dozen of our other experts. I also talked to smallmouth guru Roger LaPenter on Chequamegon Bay at Ashland this morning and he said they still have “lots and lots of ice with fishermen still working it…..”
The walleye and steelhead runs are coming, again dictated by where you are in Wisconsin and when the Mother Nature (GOD) and water temperatures send fish scurrying to spawn.
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Thanks for connecting with On Wisconsin Outdoors. Shoot straight.
Dick Ellis