wolc123

I am thankful that NY state has been letting us get out there with a crossbow for the best two weeks of southern-zone archery season for the last few years. That weapon is a lot easier on the shoulders. Hopefully, they will open up the whole season soon as that would make filling DMP tags much easier for me.

Our 15' diameter pool has a 1" grid pattern on the inner liner. The water level looks like it is up an inch from today's rain. The 5:30 local news just showed our town got close to an inch, so I guess I can use that as a rain gauge. One thing is for sure anyhow, rain makes corn and corn makes venison. Just in the nick of time with that storm, as my corn was starting to look pretty thirsty. We should be eating good next year, thanks to that inch we got today. It sounds like there is more on the way. Even if we don't get that, I am very thankful to the Good Lord, for the inch He just gave us. That should be plenty to result in an adequate meat supply next year.

The green screamers go good with the silver ones ^ Whoever is up for the next silver screamer on my boat gets to wear a belt with a big plastic plate to keep their belly from getting bruised by the rod butt. Didn't your charter captain offer you one of those ? I remember some sore bellies along with the sore arms after reeling in a few like that. v

Walleyes, from lake Erie at least, taste a lot better when they are caught early in the season. The size of the fish is less important than the time of year they were caught. I ate a very good flavored 7 pounder this spring. Later in the summer, when they suspend under the zoo-plankton, the meat takes on an algea-like flavor, that I do not care for. From about July 1 thru early fall there are lots of better fishing options. It makes perfect sense that Stone will soon move the boat to Ontario. If you are going to catch something not worth eating, it might as well put up a good fight like the kings and steelhead out on Ontario do. Also, Like Rob said up above, walleyes are a lot more fun taken on light casting tackle than they are on heavier trolling gear. All that is just side-shows when it comes to fishing. Only the smallmouth bass has it all, great eating (after you figure out how to care for the meat) and better fight pound per pound than anything that swims.

I hope we get some rain to soften up the ground a little bit. I think you would have trouble pulling one section down two notches in the dry, concrete-hard ground we have out there right now. Good luck with it. I pulled a two-section one around ok, a couple notches down, with my dad's Polaris Ranger last fall when the ground was much softer after lots of rain.

An ATV is not really designed for ground-engaging work, like an Ag tractor. You would really be taxing the drive-train of your machine, if you tied to go deeper than about two notches on the depth settings on both sides. If you removed one side, you would have the ablility to work the soil a lot deeper.

Rye might stand up to browse pressure better than wheat, on a very small plot, since deer do not like it as much.

That would probably work a lot better on an ATV if you could split it in half and just use one section.

What difference would that make ?

Winter wheat is cheaper than rye, easier to locate, and the deer like it better. The down side is that wheat uses more nitrogen. I like to use a mix of wheat, white clover, and soybeans on my late summer / early fall plantings. It is hard to beat the attractiveness that wheat/green soybean combo gives from the start of NY bow season, until the end of ML. The clover really don't kick in until the next spring, after you chop off the wheat. Clover and soybeans do not need any nitrogen. If you plan on following up with brassicas or corn the next year, then rye might be a better choice (as long as your neighbor has no wheat) because corn and brassicas need all the nitrogen they can get. I usually only plant them on plots that have been in white clover for at least 3 years. Wheat is nearly as tolerant of acidic ground as rye. If you do go with rye, and your neighbor has wheat, you might be able to coax the deer to your side of the fence if you add some soybeans to the mix. That "happy time" will end after the first hard frost however (kills the soybeans), but some brassicas would hold them for you then.

Those are a pain to clear from the lines, but at least they do not effect the taste much on salmon. I hate what they do to flavor of mild fish like walleye however, making the fillets take on the flavor of algae. That, and the dismal (driftwood like) fight of the walleyes caught on trolling gear are the main reason I always switch from Erie to Ontario about now. We can all see by the sweat on TF, that this is the time of the year when the kings are the strongest.

I use (3) basic types. The enclosed blinds all have very comfortable, cloth-cushioned, swivel office chairs. Those are easy to garbage-pick. As I find nicer ones, I throw out the old ones. Open platform blinds have weather-proof plastic swivel chairs or soft-padded swivel boat seats. From the ground, my favorite is a hammock-style seat that straps to a tree and has an adjustable pedestal. That thing is very easy to carry, extremely comfortable, and swivels 360 degrees. The more comfortable you are in a stand, the less likely you are to fidget and alert an approaching deer. Having the ability to swivel 360 degrees, with as little movement as possible, lets me capitalize on most of the deer that sneak up from behind, and that I hear before I see. I picked up a three legged folding stool at Aldis last year that I do not like, and may never use again. It is not very comfortable and does not provide 360 degree shooting ability. One advantage is that I do not need to find a tree to strap it to like my tree-hammock seat. It is also relatively easy to carry but not as easy as the tree hammock. Also, it is faster to set up than the tree hammock, and would probably work better in the rain as it does not collect water off the tree like a funnel as the tree hammock does. I will probably keep it to use in combination with a tree umbrella on rainy days, where my tree hammock seat has failed miserably in the past.

That is exactly what I do with my rifle, slug-gun, ML, or crossbow. While laying on that rail, I have it pointed in the direction where I think it is most likely that a deer will appear. When seated on the ground in my tree-hammock seat (swivels around 360 degrees), the gun is in my lap. That allow my hands to be in a muff when it is cold out. While still-hunting between spots, the gun is aways in one or two hands (I wear light gloves and alternate hands in a muff when it is cold). The only time I use the sling is while dragging a deer carcass, or before or after legal daylight, when it is unloaded. Deer are notorious for showing up when and where you least expect it, so it always pays off to be ready. My sightings are usually few and far enough apart that I need to capitalize on almost all of them or we would be forced to eat a lot more store-bought chicken.

I might enter if you modified the rules to allow up to (4) bucks, as long as (2) of them had antlers less than 3" and were legally tagged with DMP's or an "antlerless" ML/bow tag. I assume these would count for just 10 points, just like a doe, and not get any extra points for antlers points over an inch long.

Very good replacement pick with a pro-life, pro-2nd Amendment conservative. Hopefully, Trump and Pence get a few more picks like over the next fifteen years, so that we can be rid of the Liberal nonsense for the foreseeable future. It is nice to see Americas's future of right-wing Christian values being so well secured. It did not take Trump very long to make America great again.

I watched about a third of it last night. It was ok and I may or may not watch the rest. Steve said the ending is lame, so probably not. From what I saw so far, I would not advise watching it with kids.

I ran the boat in the driveway earlier today with the garden hose "ears" on it, to get some stabilized, ethanol-free gas into the carbs. I have a big old barn that needs tearing down, so we can put up a new pole barn, and those projects will probably keep me off the water for a couple months. I spent the next few hours packing the boat, camper, pickup, (3) farm tractors, (2) lawnmowers and various other tools into the remaining barn (built in 1883) like sardines. It is too bad that my great,great grandfather did not build those barns on higher ground with better drainage or I might have been able to save both of them. My own fish supply is very good, but we still need a few more packs of "healthier" stuff for the wife and kids. Hopefully, the Lake Erie smallmouth will cooperate starting around mid-September.

I am not much of a cook, but the wife is working today so dinner is on me. I am going with one of the few recipes that I have down pretty good (and the kids love). Spaghetti with meat sauce (venison of course). The grind supply is holding up pretty good with what looks to be a deer and a half or so left in the freezer. We have to start hitting it a little harder so that I have more incentive to hunt this fall. Just three more months until northern zone crossbow season opens.

My wife and I ate them once when we were camping. We were very hungry and could not find the bass, walleye, or perch that day on Lake Erie. They were not bad but they have very little meat on them (very similar to a bear in that respect). Lots of bone and maybe 10-15 percent of total weight is usable meat.

What time of year was that ? I tried in the pool below the falls with my fly rod with no success in late July that year. Most of the fish I caught on that trip were smallmouth bass further down river (out in the middle of Long lake) on bucktail jigs with light spinning tackle. We took the kids up to the north pole one day (that was about a one hour road trip from Long lake). I also tried the fly rod in a nice looking trout stream on the way up there, but all I caught on a dry fly was one little smallmouth bass.

The smallmouth bass fishing was pretty good on a small, 100 ft deep Adirondack lake for the last three days. It was neat seeing them transition from the bottom, along the shoreline on the first day, to suspending over deep water on the last. One exceptionally strong eighteen incher, taken late this morning 10 feet down over 80 feet of water on a 1/8 oz bucktail jig, put up the "fight of they year" at this point. We took a handful of larger ones out on Lake Erie and the St Lawrence river earlier this season but none pulled that hard for that long. I would have swore it was the elusive 23 incher that I was after, but my trusty tape measure don't lie. My father in law wants a big one for a wall decoration at his lake house up there. He was a little pissed when I released a 22 incher a couple years ago. I have not been able to break 20 inches up there since. I told him it would have to be 23 for me to keep and get mounted, but I would probably settle for 22-1/16". It is a little trickier catching them with those jigs when they are suspended than when they are on the bottom. I tried various store-bought crankbaits to no avail. Almost every time I threw that hand-tied jig near a spot where I saw fish chase minnows up to surface over deep water, a bass would pick it up soon after it hit the water. The thing I like best about fishing for suspended bass with jigs, is that you don't loose them on snags like you do when they are fished around the rocks and sticks on the bottom. That is good for me this year, because I only killed two deer last season and my bucktail inventory is not that great. I do not get nearly the satisfaction out of catching fish on bait or lures that I have to pay for. I am cheap but "free is always best". I was able to land around thirty over the three days, all on the same jig. Four or five were "long distance released", when they jumped and threw the jig. We secured my annual food supply of bass the week prior, up on the St Lawrence, so it was all "catch and release" for the last three days in the Adirondacks. I bent the barb over with the pliers to make that easier. Surprisingly, I lost a slightly lower percentage like that than I did up on the river without the barbs bent over. As a pure meat guy, I am not a big fan of "catch and release", which I consider to be the senseless maiming of a fine food source. It is not all about me though, and the pursuit of a fine, native wall-decoration for the house, where the family and I are always provided free room and board, was the least I could do. It is a dirty job but someone has to do it. He also wants a bear rug and we scouted out a few spots to go after one of them up there this fall.

My favorite usage of soybeans is adding them to a mix of broadcast wheat, and white clover, planted in late July or early August. Soybeans are most attractive to deer in the early green growing stage and they act like candy, drawing deer from all over to your plots. I see little value in spring planted soybeans because their attractiveness is minimal during the "brown-out" stage, which usually coincides with NY archery season. Why not plant them late and get the maximum attractiveness when you can legally kill the deer ? Another advantage of the late planting is that it is always easy to score free leftover seed at that time from local farmers. I never pay for RR corn or soybean seeds but soybeans do not keep nearly as well from year to year due to their higher oil content.

If you are fishing for smallmouth on lake Erie (or any water that has been scrubbed clear by zebra mussels), clear flourocarbon line is your best bet. It has a refractive index that matches water making it invisible to fish, plus it does not stretch like mono does, giving you a much better "feel" of the strike. I have one reel loaded with spiderwire and with that, I usually use a flourocarbon leader (double strand if there is pike around). I use that mostly around heavy cover for largemouth and/or in stained water. I would also avoid the "tinted" flourocarbons. My brother in law was using blue tinted Stren flourocarbon, while I was using clear Berkely "vanish" last week up on the St Lawrence (which was clear enough to see the bottom in 30 ft). On the five days we fished I caught roughly 5X as many smallmouth as he did. By the last day, when I had my limit in under an hour, he was ready to toss his rod in the river. Good luck out there today. If the bass do not cooperate, the walleyes probably will. Erie seems to be really infested with them this year, with the average size of the prevalent year class being perfect for eating (about 22") right now.

"I'll take a Genny cream"

The meatball/grape jelly/bbq sauce/crockpot deal sounds good. I would skip store-bought meatballs (no telling what the ingredients are in them) and make my own from ground venison with a little egg added to help them stick together when baking.