Ben's Blog

Crater of diamonds

2009-03-31T22:28:00.004-04:00

Brothers John and Bill, and friend John Paxson enjoyed a great trip to Murfreesboro Arkansas to hunt for diamonds in Crater of Diamonds State Park, and to fish Lake Greeson for crappies. The trip was a novel christmas present from John to me, and John made all the arrangements.

John P. purchased and used his magic cast iron pan to keep us well-fed, we caught a mess of crappies with Capt. Jerry and first mate Owen, and Bill kept all-night vigils for tornados! No-- no diamonds were found on this trip, although we suspected that Bill was hiding some in his shoes, rather than have to share them!

Picture album at:

this!

Favorite meal-- 1 1/2 pound t-bones with mushrooms and onions, bought by John, cooked by Paxson!

Thanks John!

Harker's Island Albie Blitz

2009-01-25T19:36:00.011-05:00

Harkers Island Albies- 2008

Friend Jim Kosa was kind enough to invite me to join him on Harkers Island, North Carolina to fly fish for False Albacore, affectionately called fat albies, or little tunney. Jim booked early and hooked up with Brian Hoarsely, considered by most in the area to be second only to his wife Sarah Gardiner ! Jim chose Halloween weekend, because it is peak of season, and there is a wonderful pigpick barbecue for all fisherman that Saturday night.

On the way down we were excited to see that Brian had a featured article in Saltwater Fly Fisherman magazine- great pics and a real good buzz about these spectacular fish. A relative of the tuna, the albies are not edible, but are extremely fast and quite beautiful—metallic green missiles chasing anchovies in the blue waters of these lower Outer Banks islands.

We stayed at Calico Jack’s Hotel, this east end hotel was owned until recently be renowned local guide, Donnie Hatcher—Donnie was a kick at the community Pig Pickin, telling us about his favorite method and flies for catching monster reds in 8” of water!

Breakfasts were memorable at the Fish, Hook and Grill (two eggs, grits, sausage patties and coffee- 4.50) along with a waitress, the 70-something wife of the cook, who was known to over or under charge even-handedly.

We had a warm greeting and finger licking by Marley the dock hound, and were blessed with the nicest dawn in two weeks—

This was a beautiful trip highlighted by the catch and release of a half dozen albies each, dozens of blues, sightings of dolphins, whale, ocean sunfish. And the first albie blitz of the season—schools of the green bullets, in rolling seas 3 miles from shore. Which also meant that Ben was soon on his knees praying for solid ground.

We heard later that squalls and 60 mph winds arrived two days after we left! Guess we had that good old Hungarian-Italian luck going for us!

Thanks Jim- great trip!

Rainbows - Have a great day, unless you decide otherwise

2008-11-17T09:55:00.006-05:00

Received this email and photo from our "Italian" friends (Adrienne, Nick and Leo) this morning:

We woke up to a dreary, rainy Monday morning. In the usual scramble to get out of the house (chasing Leo's naked splendor from room to room to get him dressed, searching for a missing shoe and finally finding it in the toy tractor's rear cargo space, remembering to look in the mirror before I leave with banana plastered to my cheek...) I glanced out the window and saw the view attached. It took my breath away. I put the mad rush on pause, grabbed my babe and the camera and thought - oh, what a beautiful day!

The only thing rivaling this beauty are pics of the aforementioned "Leo"-

Man Plans, God Laughs

2008-11-10T22:43:00.005-05:00

I think this is the obvious maxim for 2008. I started listing supporting evidence and events, and quickly realized they are many and obvious.

It's ok though, He is just chuckling and letting us know He has other ideas.

Hopefully "this too will pass" takes place in 2009.

Sunrise at Haleakala, Maui. Some say you can see Pele behind presenting the sun.

Colombia River Sturgeon

2008-10-21T22:34:00.004-04:00

August 27- 28, 2008

My brother Bill has been on the front line facing the challenge of this very difficult real estate market and really needed a break…. Sounds like a good rationale, ‘err I mean reason for me to plan a fishing trip!

Bill and I have previously had success on bait for tarpon in San Juan, alligator gar in Texas, and sharks on Sanibel Island--
A little web surfing brought me to this video on youtube:
You tube video-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYNd0oDD114&feature=related

As a young boy I had a Disney book about the tale of Hiawatha and the Giant sturgeon, based on Longfellow’s poem about Hiawatha. The concept of a giant fresh-water fish towing the great Hiawatha in his canoe was too cool for me.
A very unique fish- check Wikipedia-
So Giant Sturgeon sounded right up my alley!

A little research led me to Capt. Dennis Hull, who fishes the Colombia and Williamette Rivers for Giant Sturgeon, keeper sturgeon, Salmon, and steelhead- www.NWFish.com
Check out his blog there. I contacted Dennis and booked two days of fishing the end of August.

What a great choice! We met Dennis at the dock—his boat newly painted, clean, efficient, all the riggings…. More important, the guy just plain knew his S**t.

He told us they brought several 6 to 10 footers to the boat the day before—to which we chuckled and thought we just might have heard that “shoulda been here yesterday stuff “ before. Twenty minutes later we were a mile upstream, baits in the water, eagerly watching our line tips. Dennis complained the action was slow as a half hour went by, then some major tugging started on the left rod, which was softly slipped from the holder, walked to the stern, then pow – a major pull to set the hook. Battle on!

Dennis released the boat from the anchor float and started up his 8 HP trolling motor to follow the fish—line screamed from the reel and the 80 lb. rod bent like a willow! Dennis had the drags cranked down to almost dead tight, and I levered all my weight and strength, pumping and reeling furiously for the first fifteen minutes… before I realized I was expending way too much energy too quickly… this was going to be a marathon, no a sprint!

Bill and I gaped as the giant sturgeon ran several hundred yards and decided to leap fully from the water; it was unimaginable that a fish so large could be so acrobatic!
Forty-five minutes or so later – with superb boat jockeying by Capt. Dennis, we had the fish at the boat, my hands in its rubbery, toothless mouth, as we measured it up around 10’ along side the boat.
In the U.S. it’s illegal to pull the fish’s head from the water, or to get in the water with the—length and girth estimates the fish around 450 lbs! I was ready for a deep tissue massage and an oxygen tent!

Less than 20 minutes later, Bill was into his first giant—a magnificent sturgeon which proceeded to leap three times in a row, then once more on the way to the boat—measured up by the skillful and lucky angler Bill in 10 minutes! Figures the younger strong guy gets the fish that wears itself out.

Fighting these fish is like tying a fishing line to a young steer and reeling it in— then when you finally get it to the boat, it proceeds to circle, dive under and otherwise attempt to tangle and cut off your line (a six foot piece of braided nylon mason’s line).

We have pictures of the five fish we caught day one, and the 6th on the second day at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bciliberto/PortlandSturgeon82708#

The largest nearly 13’ long and estimated 700 lb, we think we hauled over 3,000 lbs. of sturgeon in the two days, on a river surrounded by world class beauty!

Many thanks to Capt. Dennis for a remarkable and memorable trip in the Colombia Gorge!

Micro rod Smallie!

2008-08-22T21:40:00.003-04:00

What a great night-- Cydney got me a J. Austin Forbes micro fly rod for Christmas, which i just started using the last couple days. I've been wet wading in the Neshaminy cause the water level is too low for the kayak. The rod makes panfishing a blast-- it's 30" long, check it out at http://www.jaustinforbes.com/micro.html.
You really get to feel the take and it takes some delicacy handling the fish.

Last night i caught 50+ fish up to 10" , 5 young smallies , couple Largemouth, rock bass, sunnies, bluegills, all fishing the undercuts and tree overhangs.

Went back tonight, a little earlier so i could get further down stream. Caught another three dozen or so fish -- then found a tree fall in the water and started fishing the leaf scum line---- caught 5-6 fish, then bam- the beauty in the pic grabbed my epoxy minnow fly and ran me in and out of the tree for ten minutes-- what a beauty! Went right back in after the pic and caught it's slightly bigger twin brother, then another an inch shorter, but fatter.

three terrific smallies on a micro rod, on a beautiful evening, fishing the stream i used to practically live on when i was a kid.

Packed up my rod, and made it back to the truck at dusk, grateful for a wonderful, memorable outing. Never dreamed I'd have so much fun with such a tiny rod!

Wine, wine, Wineberries!

2008-07-11T13:05:00.002-04:00

Morning runs are special this time of year-- at 2.1 miles there is a large patch of wine berries, and i grab a dozen to enjoy on the last mile. They are a special combination of sweet and tart.

Thanks!

Brick Oven Lunches- #3 in the books!

2008-07-03T18:23:00.004-04:00

We had our third Brick Oven Pizza lunch on Wednesday-- 10 visitors, 12 pizzas and 4 stromboli-- big hit, a great time and very well received! Everyone got along famously! I'm trying to make it a regular thing when I'm home this summer to have a weekly lunch.

Note the serious discussion of world events above after consuming the pizzas-- some heavy duty thinking going on!

Attendees included Judi Bayer from Worth & Co., Don Billingsley, Gene Levin, Larry Sternthal (I'm told his reunion story was a real hit), Ray Thibodeau , Greg, Don Geary,Carl Mangione and Peter Rotelle.

The evite system seems to work pretty good for the invitations- http://www.evite.com/pages/archive/eviteDetails.jsp?eventID=RFVRSDEBLCKTBOUCQQTN&src=evitedb

so far over 30 people have come for lunch, and 50 + for dinners! Next up Saturday night for 12 or so!

I thoroughly enjoy the oven, baking pizzas and bread, from building it to watching people chew!!!!

Autumn's Big Day!

2008-06-19T21:19:00.003-04:00

Congratulations Autumn!!!

Sorry the rain sent us packing, but your pics look great! 2008 Central Bucks west grad off to Penn State- Berks!

Good luck at college, and hope you have a wonderful Summer!

Wavewalk Hits the Neshaminy Creek

2008-06-11T21:06:00.004-04:00

Cydney dropped me off at the Castle Valley Park 7:30 for my first outing on the Neshaminy with the W kayak. I plotted out a 2 1/2 mile drift to the Bridge Valley Park where she would pick me up at 2:30. http://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=DKUS,DKUS:2006-36,DKUS:en&q=castle+valley+pa

Used a set of steps as a launch access-- it was a magnificent morning- 75 or so, much cooler than it has been.

Around every bend it was just beautiful-- accessing the sections of the creek which few see, the fishing was good, but i spent most of the time getting used to the drift-- steering , hopping out to pull through shallows, avoiding rocks (the rocks are in FRONT of the ripple in the water).

Saw hawks, deer, huge gray owl chased by blackbirds, two swans, and no people until i landed at 2:30! large turtles, scads of bass, sunnies, carp... everything was beautiful. Actually got back to a place-- Deep Ford-- which has been off limits for 50 years from shore, went there with my dad when I was seven!

Quite a day- caught couple dozen fish, got comfortable in the W, felt like I had the whole creek to myself...... sweet!

E S H Foundation

2008-06-10T23:06:00.003-04:00

Our small foundation-- check out www.ESHfoundation.org - has made some very interesting and supportive contributions. legal aid, NOVA victoms support, Montessori school program, Delaware Valley College walkway, Habitat fo Humanity, local fresh food pantry and a pledge to the Bucks County choir!

We are trying to "leak" the word out, so we don't run out of money too quickly!

Greg's Graduation

2008-06-08T16:06:00.005-04:00

Congratulations Greg!

Seems the time went by very quickly while you were at Central Pennsylvania College.

http://www.centralpenn.edu/

And how about those trips! Ireland, England, Australia, Japan...New Zealand, I think they really helped you succeed, along with Dr. Sands and Mrs. Hepner!

Quite an accomplishment, everyone is proud and glad for you! Job well done, including your internship at Worth & Co.

Good luck at Wagner Cat!

Love ,

Dad

"W" Kayak- Fun and a Back-Saver

2008-06-08T07:39:00.002-04:00

Tried fishing-- carp on a fly-- last year from sit-atop kayaks, but in no time my chronic back issues reared up and i spent 4 months in PT!

Working from an inflatable boat ( http://www.seaeagle.com/FoldCat.aspx ) got me through the summer, but its a little bulky for chasing carp.

as my back improved i bought and tried a Flatstalker -- first one in Pennsylvania-- http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=qMnVsliKheE

not bad, but still a little heavy, and i fall off once everyone 6 outings.

This winter i found the W -- wavewalk catamaran kayak. My PT thought it looked like a much better setup for me-- you straddle a bench, can stand or sit, or ride like a horse. Bought one two months ago and I am delighted-- the manufacturer added me to his web page:

http://wavewalk.com/Fishing_Kayak_Review_15.html

too cool-- now i just need time away from the oven to use it !

Had a fine outing with jim Kosa and Ray Thibodeau at Baylor's lake, and some luck at Nockamixon. Want to do a float down the Neshaminy (back to boyhood ) soon!

Picasa Web Albums - Ben - 2008_Wood Bur... - 000_0072.jpg

2008-05-16T18:54:00.000-04:00

Picasa Web Albums - Ben - 2008_Wood Bur... - 000_0072.jpg

Wood burning Oven Link

2008-04-02T04:58:00.002-04:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/bciliberto/2008_WoodBurningOvenConstruction

Above is link to the oven ppics in progress. Coming along-- expect May completion. Real help from Ivan!

My Vail Bench

2008-04-02T04:55:00.001-04:00

as this is an oft used expression for me, i was pleased to find this bench on Vail, on the way to Grand Junction with Greg.

Benny's Brick Oven- Part 1

2008-01-29T18:15:00.000-05:00

Been a while getting back here!

Ok- the project for the year:

Build a brick oven and learn how to bake bread and pizza in it!
This one grrew out of seeing Lew french's masonry work on the Sunday Morning show (Paxson called me to watch it while it was on)-- his work is amazing!
Thought I'd like to do a masonry project again this year (since y back is feeling good for a change). In looking for projects came across an oven, thought how i like baking, ... and we are off!
Here's Lew french's book:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781586854430&itm=1

Sarah ordered the book for me for christmas, but it's been out of print ... ok though, cause i have a long way to go before starting the stone work!

Found out that a mason and baker named Alan Scott is the guru of brick oven construction:
http://www.ovencrafters.net/

and that Alan and Daniel Wing wrote an invaluable book called the Bread Builders http://www.chelseagreen.com/1999/items/breadbuilders

which has details on construction of a barrel vault oven and great bread baking info.

Forno Bravo ovens, which sell ovens -- provides a free plan for building a pompeii domed oven:

http://www.fornobravo.com/

There is a great debate over the pros and cons of the two oven types-- i decided to go with the pompeii oven (guess it's my heritage).

Researching the ovens, and bread and pizza baking has been a delight! there is so much information online...

i joined the yahoo brick oven group ;-):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/brick-oven/

and the sour dough bread group:

rec . food . sourdough

After a month of thought, Cydney and I decided on a location next to the garden for the oven and planning and execution got underway!

2007 Adventure Highlight of the Year!

2007-12-21T06:30:00.001-05:00

Tarpon in a Kayak- sanibel island-- oh, with a visitor!

The adventure of a lifetime let alone 2007 was fighting a huge tarpon for 2 hours in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks to Shane -- and God, for a safe return and great memories!

Ben’s Sanibel Island Tarpon Tale

Brother Bill and I went to Sanibel Island Fl. Wednesday for two nights of shark fishing from the beach—a lot of fun in itself. After fishing Wednesday night, I decided to expand my fledgling kayak fishing skills by fishing the swimming buoys along the Gulf beach with my guide Shane. Shane, 21 and a junior in college, was born in the area and has had luck fishing for “triple tail”- sort of an ocean sized sunfish hanging by the buoys.

Starting at 7:00am we paddled ¼ mile out to the buoys, then from buoy to buoy on the flat water with no luck. In the distance, maybe a mile or so away we could see twenty or more fishing boats of all sizes circled up – Shane surmised that the were all around a large pod of tarpon. As Shane detangled my latest snag from a buoy, still no triple tail to be found, we looked at each other and said what the heck—it will be a good exercise paddle to head over and watch these guys live-lining baits for the tarpon.

So off we paddled, under the hot sun, light breeze across the mirror-like water. As we neared the first boats, maybe 200 yards, Shane dropped a 3” bait buster artificial out the back of his kayak, trolling behind him as we neared the boats—what the heck, why not. Not one minute later the line screamed off the reel, Shane hooked him up and an absolute monster tarpon jumped couple hundred yards off… handing off the rod to me, I was shortly off to the races, leaving a nice wake as the tarpon towed me parallel to the beach away from the boats. I reeled furiously gaining line as the kayak skimmed the surface easily.

Jump after magnificent jump followed—seven in all—over the course of the next 2 hours. We put both kayaks and a drift sock on him to slow him down, but the tarpon proceeded to drag us through the line of boats, rod doubled up, kayaks in tow, to the chagrin of the fishless power boaters. Amazingly after two hours we were still within a mile of shore – twice as the leader appeared, he had torn off more line and performed amazing jumps within 30’ of the kayak. The best picture, rolling a rod length away—spectacularly beautiful!

At two hours we were about one mile out; I was sweat-drenched, muscles burning and determined to get one photo while hanging on to this monster! At this point, he turned away from the shore and begin working us out further. His seventh jump, as I reached the leader splashed both of us! Shane threw the gloves in my kayak and urged me to get one on when I could, telling me how to slide my hand up his gill and one into the corner of his mouth—lol, yeah right!

Over two hours gone, for the third time we again debated cutting him loose; we agreed 15 more minutes tops. By this time Shane estimated we were over 2- 2 ½ miles out, 15-20 ft water—the boats were barely in sight. Shane was holding on to my kayak, I was really struggling with the rod. The tarpon was clearly visible 4 to 6 feet under my kayak… over 6’ long 150 lbs. or so. Breathing hard, drag tightened and palming the spinner spool I was trying to force the tarpon up yet again when Shane started shrieking…..

“oh, my God, Oh my God< cut the line cut the line, it’s a hammer head..” I turned my head to look toward him—at the back of my kayak 6’ away, to see a tawny dorsal fin, coming up between our kayaks, with a huge tail fin 4 ft behind the dorsal fin! The hammer’s head appeared wider than the kayak under the water. Lined up between our 14’ kayaks, he appeared to be 10-12’ long. The dorsal bumped against Shane’s kayak as we separated, the tarpon pulling me off to one side as I contemplated how to cut the line with no knife.

I saw the paddle as I flashed on just throwing the rod over, and the carbon blade made short work of the line as the tarpon had it at high tension.

By this time we were 20’ distant and separating , the hammer-head’s fin and tail cutting the water behind Shane’s kayak, turning half a figure eight. As I sat frozen in my seat, holding my paddle, Shane began paddling furiously as the shark effortlessly followed him, surrealistically like a scene from Jaws or something. I was screaming to Shane to stop paddling, he was yelling that the tarpon was under my kayak, and the hammer head fin and tail sliced the water behind Shane.

Seconds later there was a swirl from under my kayak as the tarpon bolted, and the shark quickly swerved and turned from Shane, fast and going deep.

There were a lot of Thank You God’s said over the hour it took us to paddle back to shore; certainly a trip I will always remember.

Baby Mackenzie Lally!

2007-11-18T07:58:00.000-05:00

click on the x to take you to the sprint photo-- not sure why it doesn;t just pop up!

Travels

2007-10-30T04:57:00.000-04:00

We are lucky to spend a fair amount of time traveling. Here's some links to photos of recent trips.

Estes Park- Rocky Mountain National Park:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bciliberto/RockyMtNatlParkBests

Big Sur- San Francisco, Santa Barbara:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bciliberto/2007SanFranToSantaBarbaraBests

I like to use the Yahoo trip planner to plan the trips-- it's free, you can copy events and stuff from other trips-- easy to use and fun to plan with. Here's my plan for the Big Sur trip:

http://travel.yahoo.com/trip-view-1027619-big_sur;_ylt=AmOcq7VAnh6dfAp7CGu9gzebItAF

I have travel plans for Santa Barbera, estes park, green bay, bermuda, philadelphia... posted.

Welcome

2007-10-30T04:45:00.000-04:00

Hi !

Welcome to my Blog-- feeling my way on how to use this, all new to me. Gonna try to get a picture up.

Here's Cydney and me in Big Sur from June.

See if this works......