My Wednesdays and Thursdays are actually Saturdays and Sundays

As one of the many readers of my Outdoor Page, you probably work some type of a Monday-Friday work week.

If you do work Monday-Friday each week, then you probably also look forward to your Saturdays-Sundays for an opportunity to escape to the Great Outdoors to have fun.

When those precious Saturdays and Sundays roll around, I would guess that you enjoy such activities as fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, photographing, four-wheeling, biking or whatever.

Unfortunately, because you fall into the mass of the greatest number of people with the same work days, you undoubtedly "enjoy" those activities in the company of many others who are also escaping to the outdoors on their weekends.

I don't. As a retiree, I can escape to the Great Outdoors anytime that I desire and anywhere I desire. And, I often do.

It doesn't really matter to most retirees (including me) whether it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday. In our retired world, every day is a weekend day. Time is endless for us.

However, in my world as a retiree, there has been an interesting evolution.

For you see, my Saturdays and Sundays are my Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Let me explain why.

- On Friday-Sunday, I normally do anything other than go into the outdoors. I learned a long time ago not to plan any major outdoor activity for that period of time. That's when I can expect to encounter large numbers of normal working people also playing in the outdoors. It is just too darn crowded with too many people. So, I try to avoid Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays like the plague.

- My Monday mornings are normally jam packed with all kinds of computer-related activities associated with creating and preparing the information needed for that following Wednesday's Outdoor Page for the Nevada Appeal.

- Monday afternoons are normally spent mowing and trimming my lawns or other related activities around my house.

- Tuesdays are absolutely and unbelievably hectic in my world.

- Tuesday mornings, I prepare the final information and lay out the page format for that Wednesday's Outdoor Page.

- Tuesday afternoons, I quickly switch hats. I spend the entire afternoon getting ready for that evening's live telecast of "The Outdoor Recreation Show" on Carson Access Television Channel 10.

- Tuesday night is tied up doing that live show at the TV station.

So, by a matter of simple elimination, you can see that the "fun" part of my typical week quickly narrows down to just Wednesdays and Thursdays (those are my Saturdays and Sundays).

That's when I, too, have a ton of fun doing a variety of activities associated with the outdoor world.

As a matter of interest in the world of retirees, Tuesdays-Thursdays are when there are the fewest number of other people having fun outdoors. On those three days, the peace and quiet is heavenly for "us retired folks."

Let me give you an example:

Last Thursday, while most of you were busy at work, I wasn't.

I was busy having a ton of fun fishing.

Bud Higgins of Douglas County (another retiree) and I drove to Walker Lake for a day of peaceful fishing for Lahontan cutthroat trout.

How did we do?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

First of all, because it was a Thursday, we only encountered a total of six other boats on that huge lake.

Secondly, there were just a handful of shore fishermen scattered here and there along the west shoreline. So, we basically had the entire lake to ourselves.

We began to troll at about 8 a.m. and we normally bet $1 each on the first fish, the most fish and the biggest fish of the day.

Unfortunately for Bud, he was afraid to make our usual side bets. I win virtually every time we fish together and he was getting "gun shy."

All he wanted to do was just bet on the biggest fish of the day. That's too bad because he caught the first fish 15 minutes later. If he had made all three bets, he would have won with both the first fish and also the most fish.

For the day, he caught seven and I caught six. However, of my six trout, my largest was also the largest of the day for both of us. It was a beauty at 5+ pounds and 26 inches. So, he passed on two bets that he could have won and lost on the only one that he made.

Oh well, "you snooze, you lose."

The secret to our success was two-fold: knowing where to fish and what to use.

The "where to fish" was easy. We trolled the deep water right in front of "The Cliffs" on the west side of the lake. We were trolling 40-50 feet deep in water that had a depth of 60-80 feet.

The "what to use" was even easier.

Higgins stayed almost exclusively with either silver Trout Teasers or a large, silver Flatfish lure.

To quote someone close to me, "I, on the other hand," used a small, F-4, silver Flatfish lure. And, most surprising, later that morning, that tiny lure produced that 26 inch cutthroat.

So, for the day, the money score was Quilici $1, Higgins $0.

Geez, it's hard to be humble, even if it was just a Thursday (my Sunday).

Come to think of it, if anyone is interested, I'd be glad to trade Higgins for a new fishing partner, but I'd sure hate to pass up that easy money.

Any offers?

- Bet Your Favorite Pigeon

Bet your favorite pigeon that he can't tell you who is a licensed sport fishing guide at Walker Lake.

If he answers, Bob Tompkins of the Gun and Tackle Store in Hawthorne," he might have been one of Tompkins' many successful clients.