Doc

The internet is full of catfish bait recipes. I just took a look.

What a great Father and son adventure. That is a trip that he will remember all of his life. Wherever you decide to go, take plenty of pictures and be sure to share them with us here. I would love to see pictures of that trip. Even if you don't get a single fish, the hiking and camping will be a fantastic thing to experience.

I need to have that recipe.......lol.

Thanks for the info. I am a catfishing newbie. I only have caught 1 catfish in my life, That was out of the Barge Canal over by Port Gibson. I remember the meat as being white and delicious. So I would like to find a more reliable source close to home. I could use all the advice I can get. I am confined to shoreline fishing only because I have no boat.

I'm thinking of booking a guide for a half-day fishing trip on Seneca or Canandaigua Lakes this coming summer. Are these guys really worth the money they charge? Anybody had any experience with these kinds of charter fishing trips on these two lakes?

Where can a guy go to catch catfish in Western New York from the bank? This coming summer, I want to target catfish, but maybe that's not a realistic goal here in NY.

Are the fish in the canal safe to eat? Anyone know? I am thinking of trying a few spots along the canal to see if the fishing is any good. But there is no point to it if I can't eat what I catch.

He's big. He's heavy. He's old enough. That's a nice rack. If you get a chance, you'd better take him.

The older I get, the more I appreciate these detailed records. They actually bring back a lot of the hunts that otherwise would have been forgotten. It all sounds like a lot of work, but it didn't seem be as I was accumulating the data. And it gave me something to do in the dead of winter. I kind of like record keeping. The above spreadsheet had so many analytical features that it was consulted for years before I went out hunting. Certain weather conditions helped me figure out which of the stands would be the most likely to produce. It all was pretty useful. I can see where strict records keeping would be useful in your dog-training activities. I'm sure there are other things that lend themselves to detailed records.

I used to have a listing of DEC stocked remote ponds in the Adirondacks, but I have lost track of where I put it. But I would suggest that you maybe snoop around the DEC web site to see what they might have. Between some kind of such listing and the online topo maps, you should be able to find a good time. Are you looking for just a day trip, or are you going to include some camping along with the fishing?

I wonder how many of you keep a log of your hunts. Years ago, (1982) I chose to use an Excel spreadsheet to record my hunting activities. How many of you keep some kind of hunting log as a way of recording the details and memories of your hunts. I chose a spreadsheet because of the analytical capabilities. Hunting Log Spreadsheet From 1982 through 2010, I kept a massive spreadsheet that recorded and analyzed every stand ever created in my hunting area around the valley and hill top (114 different stands). It takes in a huge amount of acreage and a massive amount of individual hunts. From this data, I could sort out what stands were most productive, and which weather and dates they were productive in various deer sighting. What areas were most productive and when and under what weather conditions and times of day. Below are the headings of each hunt that I went on and the kind of data I collected. Each hunt was recorded in a notebook and then transferred into the spreadsheet over the dead parts of winter. It was kind of a fun activity which taught me quite a bit about my hunting area and the deer movements in that area. It has also served as an interesting set of memory joggers that are fun to review at times. Log number: Numerical order tracking number for each hunt. Date: Date of the hunt Location: Written description of the spot where the deer encounters occurred Number of deer sighted: Self explanatory. Time of day: am or pm Weather: Raining, clear, cloudy, snowing, Temperature: Warm, cold, hot, moderate Wind Direction: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW, Variable Wind Velocity: Calm, windy, breezy, light Entry Direction: Which way did the deer come in from (N, S, E, W, bedded) Exit Direction: Which way did the deer run (N, S, E, W) Hunter Action: None, shot, passed Results: None, Deer spooked, Deer walked on, Kill, Miss, Wound Hunting Style: walking from stand, walking to stand, standing, still hunting, Hunter: Me, my Brother-in-law, sons, other Bucks: How many bucks encountered Does: How many does encountered Unidentified: How many unidentified deer were encountered Location Code: The entire hunting area was broken into 9 different large areas Stand Number: every stand had a number and description in another spreadsheet Closest Stand: When walking and deer were encountered, what was the nearest stand number? Moday: A sortable number involving the month and the day. Used to pick specific dates of encounters. Uphill: Notation used to analyze uphill movements and encounters Downhill: Notation to analyze valley bottom movements and encounters Sidehill: Notation used to analyze deer movements and locations on the side-hill of the valley Remarks: A place to note oddities of encounters Year: What year did this encounter take place. Used for sorting purposes. It was all a fun activity, but took in so many years that I found that human and natural changes made some of the analytical conclusions no longer accurate or useful. So I discontinued it in 2010. There were things like a couple of massive ice storms, logging operations and new hunting cabins and residences and posted land and other interruptions that messed up past observations. So as an analytical tool it began to lose its value. However as a record of individual hunts it is still fun to go back and read about those 28 years of hunting details.

Broad daylight, and the deer have checked the calendar and the hunting regulations and are once again comfortable grazing in the front yard again. How on Earth do they figure out when to come out from deep cover. How do they know so quickly that hunting season is over and that the human scent all around my house is no longer something to fear? They look good. Everyone has got all their legs, and they are still rolling in fat.

Ha-ha-ha-ha.......we still have a functioning dial phone. It was a riot watching my nephew trying to figure out how to use it. It is kept mostly as novelty now, but it still works.

That is the excuse I hear all the time from those that are just plain too lazy to vote. They have conjured up this stupid self-fulfilling excuse simply to keep politics from interrupting their lives. And yes, they are the reason why NYS is in the mess that we are in. It never seems to keep them from whining about the state of the state though.

No, we are not "powerless", just apathetic. We cannot get our people to the polls. If we were ever able to unleash the majority that I am convinced that we have, this country would have a re-birth in a lot more areas than just gun issues.

But Micron does not make guns. That is what determines the effort put into attracting business. NYS has specific biases on what kinds of companies they want to attract and hold. Guns?.........Not a politically correct product and must be driven out.

The well-defined tracks at the left look very much like domestic cat. The tracks on the right look much older and of a different animal that the ones on the left. It is helpful when trying to identify animal tracks in the snow to take two pictures. One up close and then pan out a bit so that the pattern is shown. Also, if you can include something that everyone is familiar with in the photo to give a good idea of size. I don't see any indication of claws and the tracks have no oblong features to them like a fox would have (usually a bit longer that wide). So I am still going with domestic cat. The set of tracks at the lower right look a lot like squirrel and because of the small size I would guess a red squirrel. The upper right doesn't have enough definition to tell, for sure, but if I had to guess, I would say it is probably from that same cat, from an older time. I sure would have liked to have seen 8 or 10 of those track in a line to see what the pattern looked like.

Well yeah......we all learn what people we can talk politics to and which ones we can't......lol. It's just like here on the forum. Some people you can have calm political discussions with, and some go completely berserk during a political discussion. Use discretion depending on whether you value their friendship or not.

Okay, so now take the next step and put all that into an Excel spreadsheet. That is where all historical and scientific data belongs. Millions of ways to sort, find, and massage and analyze the data that you accumulate. That is the system that I use to record all the hunting data that I have accumulated over the past 40 years or so. It should work well with gun performance and reload-recipe data too. Just imagine: Bullet manufacturers, weights, styles Powder brands, weights, etc. Case manufacturers comments about case sizing and techniques Primer I.D. Any notes about pressure signs or potential malfunctions Overall bullet length Trajectory Chronograph notes Group size remarks You might even want to include cost data for bullets and components And of course that all important "Comments" column What have I forgotten? there must be something. Oh this might also be a good place to record your inventory of reloading equipment: Powder scales, tricklers, presses, etc., etc. Anytime that I have data to record, Excel is my tool for that. Keeping a good back-up procedure guarantees safe keeping of data. For best records safety, back-ups need to be stored someplace other than where the computer is located. What do you think? Good idea or pain in the neck?

I don't know how many will agree with me, but It seems to me that hunting was a lot more fun back then. Most of the strategies came from one's own reasoning instead as from a video or seminar from some supposed "expert". The hunt was all about me vs. the deer, without any concern for who I was going to beat out in some nonsensical scoring system. It used to be that the conversations at the Monday morning gatherings at work among all the hunters (and there were a bunch of us) centered on that 4-point buck that somebody flung an arrow at, or the huge tracks that someone found on the trail that they were watching. Getting a deer with the bow was a super accomplishment......Any deer, buck or doe. Now the workplace gatherings to discuss hunting activities don't even happen. Nobody wants to hear about any of it. And if you do talk about a deer that you get the first thing asked is, "What did it score?" If it happens to be a doe, everyone goes back to work without comment or the conversation switches immediately to the new tractor that somebody bought to work their food-plot, or the new lease that they managed to lock up for their own hunting. It's a whole different activity with hunters now being pressured to compete against each other. We even have rules and regulations for keeping score in our inter-hunter competitions. Altogether different attitudes now. I have to wonder how much effect these new attitudes of hunter to hunter competitions have on the declining hunter participation.

You have all winter to build a nice hickory long-bow, and then you'll have a 100% homemade traditional outfit to take a deer. What a thing that would be, to hand make your own traditional, historic hunting equipment from scratch and then take a deer with it all.

Yes, that is what kept the deer moving all day long. Unlike today where everybody just sits in a tree like an owl all day, people without the assistance of space age hunting clothing and fabrics had to start moving. And with hunters everywhere moving, the day became a constant massive deer drive that kept the deer on their feet. We may have had fewer deer back then, but they were on their feet and making themselves more available. It was exciting.

Careful..........I am looking for a list of accomplishments and activities and finding none.

My deer hunting started at age 16 in 1960, so I experienced the same things talked about above. Posted signs were something that the small family farms never wasted time putting up. The farmers back then were happy to see hunters thinning the crop-scavenging deer. Trespass was an unheard-of word. Begging for permission to hunt land was also unheard of. You could still hunt as far as your legs would carry you without ever seeing a sign. Opening day of deer season was a forgiven absence from school and pretty much expected. Hunter safety classes were held in the school bus garage on school property.....With actual guns .... Imagine that! There were no how-to-do-it videos, and only magazine articles if you happened to be a kid with enough cash to subscribe to them. How on earth did we ever get a deer? Tree-stands?.... Only 2 x 4's nailed into trees but more likely just some dead logs and brush dragged up into a ground blind. Fred Bear wrote about those in the archery magazines. Camouflage??? That was for use in wars, not deer hunting. Some old red and black checkered coat was what identified you as a hunter and not a deer. Bow hunting was done in blue jeans and whatever shirt or coat you had available. State parking lots were filled to overflowing. Cars and trucks lined the roads. Farmer's driveways were filled with cars. Antler scoring ..... I guess the systems might have been around back then, but I never heard of such nonsense until more recent years. Food plots to condition the deer to come to your gun or bow. Who the heck ever did that? Hunting was a whole lot different than today with all our new-fangled things that you HAVE to do and own to get a deer. And yet somehow we did actually get some deer. Yeah, there were a lot of times when we didn't. But hunting was more about the pursuing than the harvest. The kill was the bonus that came on top of the hunt. And you know what, with all these primitive deer-getting rules and gotta-haves, hunting was a lot more fun and there was no worrying about recruiting the next generation of hunters. That simply was the nature of humans back then, not something that you had to bribe kids with by creating special seasons. We all waited in anticipation for the proper age when we were allowed to hunt. Very different world back then. Oh, and by the way, something else we didn't have back then was locks on our doors.

Next election, do a little personal poll by asking acquaintances if they voted or not. Be prepared for some of the most creative excuses that you have ever heard. That will give you a little idea of why we are where we are.