wolc123

For my first 35 years, all of my fish was fried. Perch, walleye, and calico (crappie) are better that way than bass, because there is less oil in the meat. They are also not as good baked or broiled for the same reason (they dry out too much). Fish oil is very good for you, from a health standpoint, and baking and broiling are healthier cooking methods than frying. That is why I have been mostly sticking with bass and baking/broiling the last 20 years. Besides being healthier, they are a lot more fun for me to catch than walleye, perch or crappie. The older one gets, the more valuable time becomes, so I look to squeeze as much fun into what time remains and I seek to extend that time as long as possible. These days, I will take baked bass over fried walleye or perch any day of the week and twice on Sundays. To each their own though, and I am glad that so many folks prefer golf or fishing for walleye, perch, trout and salmon. That leaves more bass for me. I got to admit that trout and salmon fishing on Lake Ontario is lots of fun and I have done a fair amount of it. The power runs of those kings are great and the aerobatics of the steelhead is always spectacular. I can be on lake Ontario in a half hour and I would certainly do a lot more if it, were it not for the health advisories against eating those fish and if I could safely feed it to my wife and kids. If and when I do manage to go again, I will try that gill-cut trick. I could wack them over the head with a club and let them bleed out in the transom well to keep the boat's carpet clean. Keeping the boat clean is important to me. What I like the best about trout and salmon trolling, is having the ability to drink a beer or two during the process. That is a no-go for bass fishing, because the first thing alcohol takes away from a person is the ability to detect the strike. That is a non-issue when the rod is in a holder and the fish hooks itself. Bobber fishing for perch, crappies, or pike also has that advantage (being able to drink a beer).

I have heard of others doing that with bass and they say it does get rid of the red in the fillets (which I usually trim out of the larger fillets before freezing), after killing them with the club. I wonder if that would result in that same awesome fresh-fish taste (complete lack of "fishyness") that I get from bass that were very much alive when dispatched, compared to if they were just left to suffocated on ice. I don't think it would be worth the risk to find out. I also like the livewell, because it lets me cull out the big ones. As far as the taste comparison between the livewell bass and cooler suffocated walleye goes, we did that last week. I used our last pack of lake Erie walleye (from June 2019) for the wife and kids, and a pack of St Lawrence largemouth (from August 2019) for myself. My wife baked all of it in the oven. The bass was way better than the walleye but I think that was more due to the fact that the bass were from fish on the smaller side (12-15"), while the walleye were from fish in the 25" range (thats about what they averaged on Erie last year). The walleye definitely had a hint of that "fishy" taste, while the bass did not. Much like big lake Ontario trout and salmon, those big Erie walleye make for some impressive photos but they are certainly nothing to right home about on the table after they have been in the freezer a while, even if they were vacuum sealed. I think I will release those I catch by accident this year, if I won't be able to eat them right away. In 2018 we ate a big walleye the day after catching it, never having been in the freezer, and it was a lot better baked but still not as good as the smaller bass. We should be good now until the third Saturday in June anyhow, because the last six packs of vacuum-sealed fish in our freezer are smallmouth bass from the Upper Niagara (caught in September and October 2019). It will be nice not to have to separate it, for the wife and kids and myself anymore, when baking and serving. They were not overly impressed with their last fish dinner (big, fishy, 8-month in freezer, walleye), but they will surely love the next few.

Fortunately you don't need to take the bow course because NY state law still considers the crossbow to be a muzzleloader. You do have to sign the little card in the rulebook (or available on-line) and cary it with you when you hunt. If and when they open up all of bow season to the crossbow, they will also require the bow course. I doubt we will see that happen anytime too soon however. You do have the best two weeks of bow season to use it now, in the southern zone, plus three days a month earlier up in the northern zone, prior to the early ML season up there. Personally, I have had more success, in just (6) years with my crossbow, as I did in the previous (30) years with my vertical bow. It is that much of a superior weapon for deer hunting. Not needing to draw, with a deer in close, and having the ability to shoot from a rest with a telescopic sight makes it way more lethal.

I walked to the back of our back 40 today, and it looks like it is drying up pretty good. I might be able to start some spring plowing soon myself. Last spring is was too wet and for the first time in well over 100 years, we did not grow any corn on our farm. That meant that there were no deer here either, after the first shot was fired on opening day of gun season. I don't know if I am thankful or sad that the factory where I work is considered "essential". It would be nice to have a little more time for field-work, but at least they asked me to switch to second shift for the next couple weeks, so I will have a few more daylight hours available. We make critical machinery for power generation and the Navy, and they still need that stuff during the crisis. With all the bars and cafe's closed last week, the crowding around the microwaves was pretty intense at noon on first shift last week. I walked to the far back corner, where the range is, to get a big office chair out of my blind back there. The only thing I saw out of that last gun season was a monster, red coyote. I carried my Ruger 10/22, with the clip loaded with yellow jackets, just in case he showed up today at the tail end of the season. No sign of him, but the wheat back there is looking pretty good, and there are lots of deer tracks in it. The damn chair must weigh 50 pounds, and it was a pretty good workout carrying it all the way back, strapped to my back. I don't own an ATV, and it is still a little too muddy to drive a tractor back there.

Maybe someone will figure out how to do that on-line.

I always try and use the fish, in the order that it went in the freezer, but it is not so important if it is vacuum-sealed. Every once in a while, I loose track of a pack or two, which I find later when I thaw out the freezer. It still tastes the same as fresh stuff does, when it is thawed out and cooked, even if it has been in there a year or slightly more. The vacuum-sealer really makes a big difference. I use to just freeze the fillets, in zip-lock bags filled with water. Back then, it was a lot more important to use it faster. Being frozen in water, it also took a lot longer to thaw out and cook. It also never tasted quite as good as the fresh stuff, even if it was only in the freezer for a month or two. Prior to vacuum-sealing, I dry the fillets with paper towels. Speaking of fish, I am going to bring up a couple of packs right now and put them in the fridge to thaw for tomorrow or Friday's dinner (St Lawrence river largemouth bass for me and Lake Erie/upper Niagara river smallmouth bass or walleye for the wife and kids). I eat about as much myself as those three combined do, including the leftovers which I always take to work for lunch the next day. Per the NY state health advisories, men over 50 (like me) are good to go on the the St Lawrence stuff, but not women or children. That is why I always make sure to mark the packages with contents, origin and date. The wife and kids started liking fish a lot more after I started using the vacuum sealer.

The afternoon rush-hour traffic on Transit road was less that half of the usual, so Covid-19 ain't all bad news. It is also nice to get to spend a little more "quality" time with the kids after school, instead of just hauling them back and forth for sports, while they are on their smart-phones, and spending all their "free-time" on homework. I got to watch two movies with my daughter the last (3) nights. Watching "Guess who's coming to dinner" was today's homework assignment for her high-school film class. We helped the local economy a bit today, getting a new toilet installed in the kids bathroom, and a new beer-fridge delivered (Home-Depot got a little boost anyhow). It has got to be tough on the bars and food joints though. I can also relate to the slow-down in auto service. My car is getting close to being ready, but the miles are piling on less than normal without all those extra school runs.

Our freezer is in good shape, with plenty of venison and even fish left, but I can't wait until October when hunting really is "in" season, and I can sit down to a fresh surf and turf special like this ("oysters" and tenderloins): - and even the beer tastes better at that time of year

Prayers sent

Not sure about antlered ones, but this was my biggest button since joining forum anyhow. PA chart says field dressed nearly 100 pounds and about 50 pounds edible meat. That was in 2018, and we just finished the last vacuum-sealed roast. That sure was some fine quality eating, which I always try and save for special occasions.

There are lots of good places for canoeing up there and the scenery is as good as it gets. Our girls, who were around 6 years old at the time, lust loved Buttermilk falls. They liked hopping around on the rocks below the falls. We took them on a few canoe excursions to nearby spots during the week we were up there. They "helped" a bit with little paddles in the center of our 17 footer, with my wife in the bow and me in the stern, with the big paddles. It was late July when we were up there, there were no bugs around that I can recall, and the weather was nearly perfect. One day we made a shore dinner of smallmouth fillets in a frying pan over a little one-burner Coleman stove.

Last week's squabble between our illustrious Senator and the Supreme court was very encouraging. The end is now in sight for the tragic executions of about 10X as many totally innocent lives, by abortion doctors in the USA, as were carried out by the Nazis in German concentration camps. It seems that some people (like our Senator) are not too happy with the job Trump has done so far. No President, in my lifetime, has accomplished more good than Trump has. His effort to stack the Court and end abortion is the greatest proof of that. It was great to see our own Senator proudly displaying his true colors. This should help eliminate any confusion some Christian voters might have about who is good and who is evil.

He was also the dirtiest scoundrel of the war. There is nothing honorable about killing unarmed black solders who were trying to surrender with a sword. He should have been hanged for war crimes and probably would have been, had Lincoln not been killed. After the war, Forrest became the first grand wizard of the KKK. If I knew where his grave was, I would piss on it.

A side benefit of destroying all that money will be helping to control inflation.

stout but slow

I traded my old Starcraft 14 ft rowboat for a 17 ft Wenonah Spirit canoe about 20 year ago. When our girls were younger, I often took them out on the Erie canal and Tonawanda creek. It was always fun. On the canal, when power boats passed by, we would sometimes give that universal "slowdown-wave" as they passed us, making a wake. I always got a kick out of it when folks on shore give me that wave when I am cruising along in the canal or lakeshores in my own powerboat. I usually give them a standard wave in return. The look on their face is always priceless, when they think that I think they are waving at me and not telling me to "slow down". Sometimes that is followed by high-pitched yells, threats to call the police and turn me in for violating "no wake" laws, etc.. Patience is a virtue, which I often find myself lacking, so the canoe don't suit me so well for fishing. I have only fished out of it three times, and they were all memorable. The first time was on Goose bay, for largemouth bass, up on the ST Lawrence river. That was the first time I used it and I ended up capsizing and loosing my tackle box. I did not realize how tippy those things were, and the importance of keeping a low center of gravity. I was sitting in the center of the canoe, on a swivel chair that was mounted on top of a cooler that I planned to use as a "live-well" (I am not a catch-and release guy). Fortunately the water was warm and I was close to shore when the accident occurred. It took me a few years to work up the courage to fish out of it again, but one year we took a week vacation to Long lake. We drove up to a rented cabin, with the canoe strapped to the top of our mini-van. Every morning, sleek bass-boats with big motors on back, would work the shorelines for bass. I tried that a little from the canoe, with limited success. If there was anything above a slight breeze, it was very difficult to manuver, especially against the wind. On the second morning, I decided to paddle out to the middle of the lake (actually not really a lake, but a "wide" area on the Raquete river). The fishing was a lot better out there. Those "unmolested" smallmouths went for my bucktail jigs, and I ended up catching plenty for a few meals. I gave some of those jigs to a kayaker in the next cabin (who hadn't been having much luck himself) and he ended up catching a few nice smallies. Later in the week, I was floating broadside out in the middle (using a 5-gallon bucket as a drift sock), with 3 or 4 bass on a stringer. I noted a powerboat coming at me with what looked like a sail up front. It was an elderly couple, and the "sail" was actually a towel or shirt the woman in front was holding up for shade or something, between a couple of oars. The old fella in back had the outboard at wide open throttle and the sail was completely blocking his view of me. With the fish and bucket in the water and attached to the canoe, there was no way I could move out of the way. I took a deep breath and yelled at the top of my lungs, just in time to avoid being cut in half like JFK on PT 109. The last time I fished out of it was about 10 years ago, on Cuba lake. That is a small lake, ringed with cottages, and usually crowded with powerboats. We were visiting friends, who had a cabin on the lake. I brought along the canoe, once again strapped to the top of our mini-van. I tried a bit of fishing at mid-day, but it was a no-go because all the wakes from power boats made it terribly uncomfortable. Towards evening, when the traffic died down, it was ok. I ended up catching a very large smallmouth on a jig, across the lake from the cabin. It was cool how that bass was able to spin the canoe around. It was way to big to eat and I did not have a camera to take a picture. I tied a string thru its lower jaw and towed it back the the cabin for a photo. That bass kept pulling the canoe, almost like an electric motor, all the way across the lake (never in the direction that I wanted to go however). After the picture was taken, I was able to release it relatively unharmed, and it swam away looking perfectly healthy. My most frequent use of the canoe these days, is on those occasions (every other year or so), when mother nature blesses us with "lake-front" property. When the floods come, The girls and I can paddle from our own deck, to my uncle's "lagoon" next door.

Same here. Others may differ however.

That is what I always used to do, but the fillets never tasted quite as good as fresh, and it took a while to thaw out all that extra water. The fillets that have been dried with paper towels and frozen in vacuum sealed bags taste exactly the same as fresh after 8 months in the freezer, and are much quicker to thaw out and bake and eat.

I do that also, especially on the larger ones. Keeping them alive until filleting is not that difficult and a big plus, is that it lets you release the larger ones unharmed, so that you can replace them with smaller, tastier ones. Most fishing boats have live wells these days anyhow. I use mine a lot. I have worn out and replaced about 5 live well pumps in the 30 years that I have had my boat. The vacuum sealer is also very important for making them taste good. It honestly tastes the same if it has been frozen in those for 8 months as it does the day it was caught. I always dry the fillets with paper towels prior to vacuum sealing.

There are different advisories for different waters and depending on your age and sex. For example, it is ok for women and children to eat bass from Lake Erie and the upper Niagara river, but not so from the lower Niagara, Lake Ontario, or the St Lawrence river (men over 50 are ok to eat those however). I am not a catch and release guy (I believe that is mostly just the sensless maiming of a fine food source). What I do is separate and mark the vacuum-sealed freezer packages. My wife and kids get the Erie & upper Niagara river stuff, while I get the St. Lawrence river stuff. I can be on the Upper Niagara or Lake Erie in a half hour from my house and my family has a camp on the St Lawrence, so those waters are where all of our fish comes from. I much prefer eating (and catching) bass over any other fresh water species, but I save the walleyes and perch that I catch (by accident) for my wife and kids because they like them. We eat fish from those waters (mostly bass), about twice per month on average. That keeps everyone happy and healthy and stays within all the state recommended guidelines. I also mostly target and keep smaller bass (12-15" long) because they taste a bit better and have less chemical buildup in them. The reason most guys don't bother with bass is they have no clue how to care for the meat. You cant just throw them in a cooler and let them suffocate and die, with the guts in them, like you can with perch and walleye. They have to be kept alive and as fresh as possible (an aerated live-well works wonderful for that, and lets me cull out the big ones (over 15"). The fish should be dispatched with a small club between the eyes, and the meat removed and vacuum sealed while it is still twitching. If it is not twitching it wont taste as good. Bass meat has more oil in it than walleye or perch and that keeps it moist when using healthier cooking methods like broiling, or baking. Walleye and perch are better for frying but that is not such a healthy way to prepare fish.

It all depends on your soil type, regarding what tires are best. My dad has an older JD CUT about that size (model 770 I think). It is a 2 wheel drive and does ok for light foodplotting work (bush-hog, disk, drag, cultipacker, etc) with turf tires. His ground is high, well-drained and mud is never an issue. I don't think it would do so good at my place however, which is all dark, mucky, low-lying soil, and poorly-drained. I usually need 4 wheel drive with loaded R1 tires, if I want to get my spring tillage done on time. Some years with heavy spring rains (like last year), even that did not work. I could not get any spring plantings in last year for the first time ever. If you don't have to deal with mud, you might be fine with 4 wheel drive and turf tires. If you do need to deal with mud on occasion (or snow/ice), then a set of tire chains for the front and back might be a good option. Turf tires with chains will provide significantly better traction in any conditions than R4 (industrial) tires without chains.

Have to wait till October-fest time for more of those. None around at Spring Bock time.

yes sir

That is my favorite at this time of year. I am enjoying one of them as a type in fact, along with the last of the pickled deer heart that my wife made me for Valentine's day and a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich. Not a bad combination at all. She is out of town for a few days so I have to "fend for myself".