wolc123

I think that is my newest drill. I remember my grandfather buying it, around 1980. I have a couple of hand crank ones, that might be from the 1800's, and a couple other much older, metal electric ones, which might be from the 1940's or 50's. I can't stand battery operated drills, although I will admit that my father in law's Dewalt worked well on an ice augers last weekend. He knew enough to bring the batteries in the house to warm up before I needed it this year. Last year, they were all outside in the cold and I had to use my old hand crank auger. The rain stopped now, and I am out on a stand waiting on the squirrels. It is warm enough, but still a bit windy. It was nice to see my folks anyhow. Ma has soup for supper, and with some luck, it might have crock pot squirrel for lunch tomorrow.

I dry the fillets with paper towels, prior to vacuum sealing. I like 12 - 15 inch bass best for eating, and it takes about one paper towel per fillet that size, to get them dry enough for sealing.

Usually, I prefer outside winter sports on weekends in February, but mud season has arrived a bit early this year. Too rainy and windy for squirrel hunting. I may get out, on the last day tomorrow, if the weather cooperates. Today, I am making a couple larger platform stands to replace a small hang-on, over at my folks place, and a small metal ladder stand, out back here at home. I had enough leftover pressure treated framing lumber and maintenance free decking, up on my hay loft, to make them each 42" square. Each will get 3 foot barnwood sided walls, after I get them up about 7 feet. They will get lag bolted to the trees, and a couple pressure treated 4 × 4's for front support. Those won't become available, until I use up a little more firewood, which is stacked up outside on them. Each of the stands I am replacing is too small for comfort and lack good shooting rails. These new stands should greatly improve my range capability, thanks to the 3 ft wall/rest, and make for a more comfortable, longer lasting hunt.

Those are my favorite fish to catch, and almost my favorite to eat (I prefer largemouth bass by a slim margin). I dont care for fried fish and perch and walleye get too dry baked, grilled, or broiled. Bass has just enough oil in it to keep it moist through those healthier cooking processes. I have caught bass in NY state on every month but December and March, but I only keep them during open season. The half dozen smallies that I caught last weekend, while ice fishing for perch, got released (the one in the photo twice). One key to making bass taste great, is getting the meat off of them, and vacuum sealed, while it is still twitching. I have worn out about 6 live well pumps in the last 30 years, keeping them that way. Lunch today was leftover Lake Erie smallies, along with my favorite lunch beverage. That also works great for washing down raw walleye cheeks. That's the only part of those I really like.

It is good to hear they got them Remington lines fired up in time to cash in on this seller's market.

Everything tastes good with Genny. My wife baked fish today. Her and the kids had Lake Erie smallmouth, and I had the last of our "Lake of the Isles" largemouth bass, that has been vacuum sealed in the freezer since August, washed down with a Light. It was damn good and I am looking forward to the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. I got to wash it down with water there though.

Like so: I always liked the natural skull finish but Red's camo dip is pretty cool.

The NY state parks have done a terrific job on the unisex bathrooms the last few years. Never have the bathrooms been in better shape or cleaner. That makes it much better for tent camping and those with small truck campers like me.

What time did you guys start and what was the temperature? I was out this morning, on a lake almost exactly the same size, up on the NW corner of the Adirondack park. I got a late start today (10 am), because the temp was -5 F when I got up at 6:30. I decided to stay in my in-laws nice warm "hut". I should have got out earlier today. The action was fast, the first 15 minutes, but then dropped off to nothing. I lost 3 fish on tip ups, as I was setting them up, and landed one smallmouth bass, around 14". I caught 2 more smallies about that size Saturday, and one decent perch (my mother in law got a fish sandwich from that), and three more similar sized smallies Friday afternoon. That is about an average take for a long weekend up there. On Saturday, they had an ice fishing derby on a much bigger lake, a few miles to my west, that drew over 500 participants. An 11 pound Northern pike took top honors there. It was tough walking conditions out there Friday and Saturday, but everything was froze up good this morning. My father in law has that same drill. It does a very good job. On Friday, when I drilled 5 holes, we had 12 inches of snow, on 1/2 inch of ice, on 6" of water, on 12" of solid ice. That made for a sloppy mess drilling the holes.

One 12" perch finally hit the little fake Chinese jigging Rapala at sunset. It might make enough for a sandwich anhow. I hope a few more show up tomorrow morning.

This one is a little on the hoppy side:

That was at least the second time that I caught the same smallmouth bass on two consecutive days. It is not that surprising on this litte 100 acre Adirondack lake. The other one was even dumber, because it fell for the same lure (1/4 oz bucktail jig) both times, but the lake was many times larger (Erie). I knew that was the same bass, because it only had one good eye, and I saw the wound on its lip from the first time. I caught it on the same shoal on a Saturday and Sunday. I suppose that it could not afford to be too fussy about what it ate, because it was half blind.

I am thankfull that my in-laws (in St Lawrence county) have had thier second shots, and my parents (in Erie county) have had thier first. They are all in their 70's and 80's and none had any side effects from the Mederna vaccine.

I usually go for non-fiction on WW 2, or the Civil war. Currently, it is "15 Stars" about Ike, Mac, and Marshall. There were some interesting ties between those three Generals. It is not bad, but I am more looking forward to my next one. I found an old 1st edition of Ike's "Crusade in Europe" at a local flea market.

I stuck it out outside on the ice for an hour and a half in 17 degree weather, trying for perch. I finally caught a smallmouth on a rainbow colored, Chinese imitation jigging Rapala. I caught and released the same bass yesterday, along with a couple more, on a tip up, baited with a fat head minnow. If you zoom in, you can see my "tag" (gold hook) in his throat. It is easier on me and the fish, to cut it off and re-tie, when they swallow it deep. Now, I am inside my inlaw's heated "hut", watching the tip ups thru the picture window. One more smallmouth so far. It is easier to stay hydrated this way. I dont always drink beer while ice fishing, but when I do, its Dos Equis.

I have my doe picked out for early ML season. I had 3 encounters with her during that week last year. I saw her and her fawn an hour ago when I was out on the lake ice fishing. She was a few hundred yards away. If you zoom in you can see her on the lead, behind the tip-up.

With the new "holiday" ML season, I am going to have to bump up my corn acreage a bit this year. I never had to worry about it lasting past mid December before. The coyotes helped me keep the coons out of it last year, allowing my 4 acres to last until then. I dont know if I can count on that this year, because my neighbor has taken out quite a few coyotes with his traps. I guess I will be doing some extra corn planting this spring and some extra coon trapping this summer.

I liked it. That made me feel better about the two misses I had one last year.

My wife wants one like that now.

I like the idea of spring deer scouting while fishing. I always wondered if there was brook trout in the little steam up where I hunt. I think I will bring my fly rod with me, over Memorial day weekend this year, and try and find some.

I have one of those big Gerbers also. It has a stainless steel blade and is made on Asia somewhere I think. It was inexpensive and I bought it about 5 years ago, when I misplaced my Sharpfinger. Maybe I will use it someday. I found my lost knife before I needed it again. The Gerber is way heavier, so it is very unlikely that I will use it. Most likely it will end up as a gift to someone. I always carry an old Gerber folding saw in my pack. It gets lots of use trimming branches and cutting pelvis bones on deer. I always open them up, to make sure everything is cleared out good. That saw has held up very well. I also have a Gerber multitool that has served me very well. I trusted the name, based on the service of those two tools, but the Asian manufacture of the big knife caught me by surprise. Besides the heft, that is another reason why I have not used it.

I am glad to hear that you guys are planning on giving it a go this fall. I hope to be up at my inlaws, 30 mi NW of Lows location, this year again. I was not quite fast enough on the draw to get a shot at the big Adirondack buck that made this scrape on opening day of rifle up there last year. The deer dynamics are changing a bit up there. In prior years, I would see an average of 6 antlerless deer for each antlered one. I missed a small buck up there, during late ML in mid December. Those were my last two deer sightings up there, and odds are, they are both still kicking. The browse line, all the way around the lake, indicates that the local deer population is good. Your chances of getting a buck over there might be better than you think, not that it matters much with that kind of scenery. Best of luck to you and looking forward to the photos and videos.

That is my favorite. Thankfully, I still have my "made in USA" one. I will have to be more careful with it, if they have now offshored. I do use another old classic Buck 110 up in the northern zone, but only because my father I'm law gifted it to me. He usually arrives near the scene of the kill with his ATV, before I finish gutting. He would be offended if he caught me using another knife. I prefer the Sharp finger, but the Buck 110 aggravation (it dont hold an edge as well and is a pain to clean) is a small price to pay in exchange for the free room and board at a primo hunting/fishing spot. It is going to be a long time till I might need a gutting knife. Hopefully, the weather and fish cooperate this weekend and I can use the other fancy knife that my father in law gave me on some perch or brook trout out of the ice holes. It hasn't seen any action up there since last Labor day weekend on a quick limit of topwater smallies:

That is my favorite. Thankfully, I still have my "made in USA" one. I will have to be more careful with it, if they have now offshored. I do use another old classic Buck 110 up in the northern zone, but only because my father I'm law gifted it to me. He usually arrives near the scene of the kill with his ATV, before I finish gutting. He would be offended if he caught me using another knife. I prefer the Sharp finger, but the Buck 110 aggravation (it dont hold an edge as well and is a pain to clean) is a small price to pay in exchange for the free room and board at a primo hunting/fishing spot.

Keep up the good work.