Best of times (what to do.. what to do)

Now that I've seen my daughter, son-in-law and four grandchildren off I am set to retake the hill.

Only thing is, I don't know whether I should be fishing or hunting.

Maybe there is time for each (or both) but rising super early and working an eight-hour work shift taxes the body and mind though not the spirit if I attempt to cram too much in one day.

I want very much to listen for gobblers in the morning but that job requires rises of 4 a.m. and a 45-minute drive to the turkey woods in Ashtabula County. There, I'll sit and call to try and get a response from a willing tom turkey.

And I might spend a few hours in a pop-up blind that I've set in a field over-looking a wood lot.

This will be the last opportunity for hunting until September 1 when I'll be after doves and Canada geese, though I might steal a day or so in June while in search of crows. I don't know.

What I do know is that I also have this serious itch to go carp fishing in the Chagrin River. Just yesterday my elder brother, Rich, caught a 30-inch carp while fishing the stream, using Spoon-sized Shredded Wheat for bait.

The fish was good for his third Fish Ohio qualifying species. I want one, too.

For that matter I have a hankering to row a boat around a farm pond of some acquaintance. There, I'll be casting to largemouth bass, crappie and big bluegill-sunfish.

Oh, yes, I was hoping for one more go at the Chagrin River's steelhead, if the fish are willing.

But if I want to go fish AND turkey hunt I'll either be tired for the former or else ill-prepared for the latter. It's almost impossible to do justice to both if done on the same day.

Still, I'll try and likely lose sleep or my hunting/fishing edge in the process. For that matter my wife, Bev, will probably stay clear of me, knowing that I'll get a little feisty while attempting to juggle both pursuits.

May is such a delightfully terrible month for those of us who like to both fish and hunt.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com