wolc123

I got no time for those. I did a lot of that when I was young but have not touched one since crossbows were legalized in 2014. My shoulders feel so much better now. I am 56 and have less shoulder pain now than I did in my 30's when I bow hunted. I can literally row a boat all day long (that's what I am doing right now in fact), without a lick of pain:

I am rationing my jigs and trying some other baits this morning. They like the Zara puppy:

Definitely a shooter. I am guessing 3.2 years old based on body size. I see 3 points on each side, plus he likely has brow tines, making him a nice symmetric 8. The problem with those spindly racked bucks around my area, is the ratio is so scewed from heavy antlerless pressure from farmers with nuisance permits. The remaining bucks always knock the crap out of each other fighting for the few does which make it to the rut. He would likely be down to just 5 or 6 points by the time I could get my crossbow on him. That is not a big deal for me, because it's mostly about the meat anyhow. It looks like he is packing plenty of that. I have yet to find a good recipe for antlers. As you are well aware, my favorite time to kill a buck, is when it is 6 months old, but 3.5 is second best. Hopefully, I can nail one of each this year.

I should have quit while I was ahead or at least re-tied or loosened my drag. What would have been number 70 got to keep my lucky jig. It jumped a couple times right after the hookset, then pulled rather easily to the boat. Apparently, it was saving its strength for a deep dive that parted my 6 pound test fluorocarbon line, right at the knot. My next 1/8 oz bucktail jig only lasted for two more bass, then I lost it on a snag. I only have 3 more. I hope they will last me through the next two days. The count is up to 7 bass on the current one, which I just caught after supper. I have plenty of 1/16 and 1/4 oz jigs, but they dont work quite as well.

I have not bought a new Chevy pickup yet in this millennium, but my last one from the previous is still going strong. I just used it to haul a load of pine branches to a dump at the end of an Adirondack logging road:

How are the white perch for eating ? I should have quit while I was ahead this morning. I went back out when it stopped raining. What would have been smallmouth number 70, on my lucky 1/8 oz bucktail jig, got to keep it. It only looked to be about 16 inches long. A couple jumps after the hookset, then it came in easy to the boat. I guess it was saving its strength for that powerful deep dive in close that broke me off at the knot. I should have re-tied or at least loosened my drag a bit. Up to today, all the bass I have caught have been rather docile, with the water temps in the 60's. Now that it has hit 70, they are on top of their game.

I caught 8 smallmouth before the rain this morning up at my in-laws Adirondack place. Last year, at this time, they were all suspended out over deep water. Now they are along the shoreline, because the water is cooler. This was the longest one today at about 16". The previous one was a bit shorter, but fatter and fought harder. I noted the tail of someone's senko sticking out of its gullet as I was unhooking it. I was able to extract that with my needle-noze pliers. That was the 65th bass that I have caught here on the same 1/8 oz bucktail jig. When the rain let's up, I will go back out and see if I can get a few more with it. It is still in pretty good shape, except for some brown powder-coat paint wore off the bottom of the head. I bent the barb down for about the last 20, which makes it easier to release them. They were getting lots of air on the fights this morning. They all fought way harder than those I caught earlier this year (lots of them on Memorial day weekend when I was trying for perch, and limit on opening day on the upper Niagara).

That was a cool show, thanks for posting. Not really a huge surprise to see Chevy win America's toughest truck, over a newer Dodge and an older Ford. I never owned a Dodge. My only Ford is an old tractor, that was likely designed by Henry himself, back in the 1930's. My wife's previous mini-van was a Ford. She traded that in on new Toyota, shortly after it's alternator started on fire.

I have only bought GMC and Chevy pickups and they have always treated me well. Dad worked GM, so the employee discount also made them the cheapest for me. That said, I haven't bought a new pickup since 2000. That one is still going strong. It is a 3/4 ton, regular cab, 6.0 liter 4x4. I gave it to my father in law, who put a plow on it and uses it to keep about 5 miles of Adirondack roads open around his retirement home. I was so impressed with the powertrain on that truck, that I picked up another low mileage used one from Florida, of the same year, but 2wd with an extended cab. It dont have a spot of rust on it and I dont use it in the winter. It is mainly my boat tower and camper hauler. I have bought a couple new Chevy SUV's and a car since then, that were/are my daily drivers. They have also treated me very well. I can honestly say, that in more than 40 years of owning only GM vehicles, I have never been stranded on the road or required a tow. I would have to be nuts to consider another brand. My 2000 Chevy 4x4 pickup did give me a close call around 6 years ago. The rear driveshaft rusted in two, just ahead of the universal joint, at the boat launch near Alex bay. I reached under and pulled out the hanging shaft. I shifted into 4wd and ran it over to a mechanic as a "front wheel drive". He welded me up a new shaft. My father in law has also welded the frame and replaced the starter on it. I hope to get another 40 years or so out of my current 21 year old Chevy 3/4 ton Silverado. As long as I keep the road salt away from it, that shouldn't be a problem.

I wonder if anyone has studied the number of raptors that are killed by wind turbines, compared to those that die from lead poisening, caused by foraging on gut piles. I think a lot more raptors would be saved by banning wind turbines.

You can see that it is tree bark if you zoom in.

The RR corn that I cultivated and sprayed last week really jumped after that the rain that we had recently. It looks like it made "knee high" well before the 4th of July. It the gly took out most of the weeds. I try and keep my venison as "organic" as possible, so I use very little gly. I usually get more than 2 seasons out of a 2-1/2 gallon jug. I only use it directly on the corn rows. The cultivators do a good enough enough job of getting the weeds between the rows.

In that situation, I might be inclined to try frost seeding some tall white clover over the 100 X 200 area, sometime around next March. As long as the spoil ph is not too acidic, that might do ok, and deer like it more than any other type of hay. It wouldn't hurt to spread some lime, good and heavy, over the area this fall Obviously, that isn't going to help you this season, but should surely improve the draw next year. Being a real cheapskate myself, I would just go with white clover from a local co-op (Rineharts is the cheapest place I have found it in NWNY), but this might be a good place to spring for some expensive stuff like that from Whitetail institute. They have spent a fortune developing a clover blend that is most attractive to whitetail deer. You dont need to worry about tillage for frost seeding, and a little local research should help you locate a lime spreading service for reasonable cost. Any of that effort will have the side benefit of improving the quality of the hay that the farmer cuts next year. If your soil ph is ok now, you could get a thicker clover plot, and possibly some deer action on it this fall, if you tilled and planted the area with white clover, around August 15. Tillage could be accomplished with a rototiller, if the ground ain't too rocky. A spring tooth harrow like this would only work if you sprayed the area with roundup first, to kill off the existing vegetation, or plowed and disked. It doesn't sound like that would be an option for you.

I used to do that further west, on Silver lake quite often. I usually tipped the jigs with tiny minnows, of the type that you could get a big scoop for 3 or 4 bucks. The pike love those big black and white bucktail jigs. I love the feel of a big pike smashing a jig. There is no missing that, unlike a bass, which are often very subtle on their pickups.

I liked Jimmy Griffin the best. Many years ago, after he was done as mayor, he was running for some higher office, possibly Erie county executive. I have lived most of my life, on the edge of the tiniest village just outside of Buffalo, in Erie county's oldest town. My family was among the earliest settlers here, long before the Civil war. For a few years, Buffalo was actualy a suburb of our town. Those positions reversed a couple centuries ago, when the Erie canal finally put Buffalo on the map. After that, Buffalo enjoyed a heyday that lasted quite some time. It looks like that is all over now, and the surrounding area, including our town, is now where the real action is. During his campaign, Jimmy stopped at the tavern in our village (it's only business now, other than our Lutheran church), and bought me a Genny cream ale. He remains the only politician that I have ever met, besides an uncle who served as our town supervisor back in the 60's. I was a young kid, during the blizzard of 77, when Jimmy was on TV, and told folks to just grab a 6 pack and stay home. They just dont make them like that anymore. Buffalo could use a mayor like that again. I am sure that he wouldn't have closed SBH to boat launching on opening weekend of bass season like the recently defeated mayor just did. Hopefully, he learned his lesson and the incoming mayor will do a little better. I never liked big cities, and the only time I have gone into that one is to launch my boat or when I have had free hockey tickets. We are currently seeing a mass exodus from big cities across the state and country. Covid has caused the city folks to wise up and vacate those hell holes. That is why NY and Rochester have also descended into chaos, and why real estate values have skyrocketed out in the country.

I remember pike being pretty good fried (similar to walleye), but I always liked bass better grilled, broiled or fried. Bass also don't taste as good, if you let them die before you get the meat off of them. A good livewell goes a long way towards making bass taste great. For several years, there was a local guy up near Alex bay, who would clean my pike in exchange for the Y-bones . Pickled Y-bones are quite the delicacy up there. He would take off all the meat in one big slab and then use a straight razor to remove the parts with the Y-bones. I half learned a method that removed the meat from a pike in three pieces, but I often missed a few bones . That, coupled with my preference for bass, has caused me to release all pike for quite a few years. Personally, I am very thankful for all the folks who like eating walleye, perch bluegills, crappie, and pike more than bass. That leaves more bass for me, and they are way more fun to catch, compared to those others. Maybe just a little more fun than pike. I have eaten a fair number of muskies. They only had to be 30 inches long, for many years on the upper Niagara, and we took multiples above that size quite a few times. I think they had to be 44 inches minimum, when I caught the 48 that I mounted. That was about 20 years ago, and I have yet to catch a larger one. We get a few in the upper 30's and lower 40's every year, usually on little 1/4 or 5/16 oz bucktail jigs. There are a few drifts, where I know there is musky around, when the bass action slows down. On the afternoon when I got the 48, we had hooked smaller musky on the 5 previous drifts, on that stretch of river. All but one 37 incher broke off our jigs on 8 pound mono. I had a heavy-action, bait cast outfit with 14 pound mono onboard. I doubled the last 12", tied on a big 1/2 oz weedless jig with a huge rubber trailer. The 48 hit that on the very next drift. During its first big run, we had to fire up the big motor to follow it around a bridge pier. After that, it was clear sailing, all the way to the falls. It took weeks for that smell to leave my boat. Muskies are ok on the table, but I prefer the taste of pike. It might be psychological, because the musky is a much smellier fish than the pike, especially in mid summer, when the water is real warm. I know muskies like eating smallmouth bass, because one ripped a 16ish incher off my line during a bass tournament a few years ago. Here's the smelly bastard:

They are a lot of fun. The best part is the strike, usually much harder than a bass. I used to fish for them a lot, in my younger days. My biggest was a 40 incher, up in the St Lawrence, maybe 30 years ago. My wife asked me stop to keeping them, about 15 years ago, when my brother in law choked on a bone from one. They took him to the hospital in A-bay to try and remove it. The trouble is, those pike bones don't show up on x-rays. He spit it up at breakfast the next day, when he was eating an Orio cookie. They are also fun on big red tail or golden shiners under a bobber. There is the anticipation of wondering how big they might be when the bobber first goes down, and feeling how heavy they are when setting the hook. I prefer the feel of the strike when they hammer a bucktail jig, tipped with a plastic shad tail bait or a perch minnow, and I am now way too cheap to buy pike-sized shiners. We still get a fair number by accident, when throwing spinnerbaits or weedless jigs for largemouth, and sometimes even on crayfish imitating smallmouth jigs. They always get released now though, because the bones ain't worth dealing with, as long as you can get plenty of bass. This was the big one that went for a big chartreuse willow leaf spinnerbait, in Lake of the Isles, back around 1990:

Hopefully, the new mayor will be a little more accommodating for the bass fishermen next year.

It sounds like you have reached the point in your life where you finally got your priorities right.

The wrinkles give it some character and make it look a little more comfortable. Maybe that's not the look you wanted. I remember an incident, many years ago, on the upper Niagara river. A buddy of mine had just bought a fancy new speedboat with a spotless, plush white interior similar to that. He still gives me crap about the rancid, big floating sheepshead, that somehow found it's way into his boat from the direction of mine. I was watching where I was going, and not my crew. They had gotten into the beers and apparently scooped up and tossed the bloated dead fish. I guess the cleanup took considerable effort, and his boat never smelled quite right after.

That one looks like it will take quite a snow load with all them trusses. Did you get them before the current tripleing of lumber prices or did you make them from the logs that you cut ?

That looks like some damn good eating right there. Bass are way underappreciated as table fare. I will take them over perch and walleye as long as they are baked, broiled, or grilled, and the fillets are still twitching when removed.

Baked smallmouth bass fillets. The stuff I ate was vacuum sealed from the freezer, caught in the Adirondacks, last Labor day weekend. I vividly recall getting that limit of 14 inchers, on a topwater bait, in 7 casts that morning. I never even started my 5.5 Evinrude. They all hit from the dock, or as I floated a few yards out. My wife and kids had fresh ones, from the Upper Niagara river, that I caught on opening day. I had to work a bit harder for those, motoring across the river and about a mile upstream. It took me a couple hours to get that limit, and I probably burned 2 gallons of gas with my 70 Johnson. They were much bigger on average, but fought less in the 63 degree water. That was good, because we forgot the net. This was our first fish bake in about a month, since we used up the last of last year's vacuum-sealed Lake Erie / Upper Niagara bass. Those are supposidly safe for women and children to eat. Those from the Adirondacks, and the St Lawtence, not so much. I tried a few bites of the fresh stuff and couldn't detect any difference in taste. It was all delicious and I cant wait for leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow.

We put in at Isle view park. We got there at 6:45 am and there was only 4 other trucks and trailers in the parking lot. We did not have to wait at all to launch. The fog was thick and visibility on the water was about 25 ft. I motored slowly over to the Grand island side, then upriver, about a half mile past the south bridge. The fog started thinning out during our first drift, right along shore. No bites on that shallow drift. It took us three more drifts out a little deeper (15-20 ft) to get the limit, and we were out by 9:30. There was no one at the launch then, except for a student who was working on a clean boat/stop invasive spread project. He asked us where we launched prior and I replied that was the first of the year. He asked where I would launch next, and I said most likely right back here. That launch gets very rough, if there is heavy boat traffic, but that was not a problem on Saturday morning in the fog and cloudy weather. I guess this will be my new opening day spot, until the airshow moves back to the falls.