wolc123

Leviticus 11:17 (KJV).

It is good to see you back here Chef. I don't know if there is an "animal heaven", but I am certain that there is a "people Heaven". The Bible very clearly states the way to get there ... Faith in Jesus Christ. If I eat a fish, bird, or animal, and "I am what I eat", then that action would create a shortcut for at least part of that "food" to get into Heaven. I also verified that the cormorant is indeed on the "unclean" list, in the King James version of the Bible, however that is "Old Testament stuff". Because Jesus Christ bore the penalty for all past, present, and future sins of His believers, we can now get away with eating things like pork, cormorants, snakes, etc, and still get into Heaven. Interestingly, modern medicine has also determined that a lot of the stuff on the "unclean" list is really not that good for you. As a chef, I am sure you are aware of that. Two things that are very clearly on the "clean" list, per the Biblical definitions, are deer and bass. There are many examples in the Bible of Jesus providing fish for multitudes of people to eat. One nice thing about the internet and search engines, is that you can quickly find the Bible chapters and verses that contain all this information without reading the whole book. Have you got any good bass recipes ?

Depending on the wind, we will be on Lake Erie, or the Upper Niagara river. The target will be my favorite fish, the smallmouth bass. Hopefully we can find some "good-eaters" in the 12"-16" range. This one, from last time out measured 19-1/2", which was about 1/2" too short to legally keep then and a lot bigger than I like to eat. I wish they would go back to 15" minimum, for that early lake Erie season, like it was for a few years.

Many years ago, when we had cattle on the farm, we fed a lot of red clover, pasture in the summer and hay in the winter. Since the last of them left, more than 30 years ago, I have only planted white clover for the deer. That is until my nephew gave me the bag of red last year. I don't think red clover is a perennial, and it probably does not fix nitrogen as well as white, but if I can kill a button buck on it this fall I sure will plant it again. How well the deer can digest it is not my primary concern. Nothing is tastier or easier for me to digest than a button buck.

Why is everyone picking on FSW ? Someday he might taste a button buck and then he really will have sampled the finer things in life.

That's a good one and from my favorite brewery, but it is a little late in the season for it now. Here is a better one for the summer, and the yellow can goes better with the yellow fish: the

It would be cool if they took out some drag up in the air. I have only experienced that in very short bursts with steelhead.

If they taste anything like the diver ducks then they would not be worth eating. The Bible has a section which tells what type of animals, fish, and birds are best for eating. I think the cormorant is listed as "unclean" and on the "do not eat" list. In China they train them, put bands around their necks, and use them in place of a rod and reel. Just like a coyote, I would only eat one at gunpoint.

I am glad that I was able to put your mind at ease. I do admit that I was very tempted to try and take down a cormorant or two last Sunday. It probably would have been tough to bring one down with the 8 pound test and light action spinning rod that I was using. I think that the NY state DEC should consider some measures for getting them under control. They are also a big problem at my second favorite NY state fishery (the St Lawrence river).

Hopefully it makes tasty deer also. My nephew gave me a bag of some kind of pasture mix that I put in last spring and this year it looks like mostly red clover. I hope the button bucks like it. As you know, antlers don't do a whole lot for me.

The difference is, when a human eats a fish (or deer), that sends them directly to Heaven. The Good Lord created fish and game for man to eat (vegetables are what "real" food eats). He did not make them to be "senselessly maimed", which is what I consider "catch and release" fishing to be. You would be better off playing a fishing video game than doing that. I am sure I will get jumped on for "catching and releasing" a couple dozen bass on that Sunday, but I was targeting walleye and/ or 20" plus bass (legal keepers). One good thing I can say about the cormorants is that they do increase your odds of taking a 20" plus bass in the Buffalo area of lake Erie right now anyway. I believe they will cause the fishery to suffer in the long term though, if they keep eating all the little ones.

The main purpose was not for my enjoyment. That would just be a nice side-benefit. The goal would be to get rid of the bird that is eating the small fish that I would prefer to eat myself. I stopped short of doing it, because I am not sure it would be legal, and I don't like to break the law, and He probably would not like that. It is All about the meat for me, whether we are talking about fish or deer. As a "catch and release guy" I know why you might not get that. Some of us are born killers while others are born fighters (the catch and release folks). I did release that Heron relatively unharmed in Disney world, but I was unable to get my big purple plastic worm off of it's neck before it took off. It was an interesting fight but it ended quick as the 30 pound test on my Garcia Ambassader 5500 with the drag tightened with a pliers brought it right down (I was set up for fishing for largemouth in the weeds). I was just learning to cast at that time and that particular cast went a little too far, wrapping the bait around the Heron's neck. Have you ever caught a bird ?

I am too cheap to use anything but my own hand poured and tied bucktail jigs (all I need to buy is the hooks). Lures and bait is expensive and a pain to deal with. About 20 years, I hooked and lost the largest walleye I ever saw, very close to that round house. That is part of the reason why we went back to that spot on Sunday. We considered trying to hook a cormorant as they swooped overhead last Sunday, so that we could enjoy the "aerial battle". I did that by accident when I was a kid, down at the Disney Fort wilderness campground in Florida, with a Great Blue Heron.

Has anyone else noticed this trend ? We were out last Sunday for about 8 hours and landed about 25 smallmouth bass, the smallest of which was 16" long and the largest 19-1/2". I was hoping for some walleyes and maybe a "keeper" bass (must be over 20" at this time). We started at 7:30 am, off the windmills in about 30 feet. I did see one walleye that looked to be about 18" caught in another boat (there were about 50 out there), but we had no luck in that spot. We moved to Seneca shoal, where there were 5 or 6 boats drifting, but no luck there either and the light East wind died off completely soon after we got there. Next we moved down closer to the mouth of the Niagara, where the river pull was enough to move the boat in the "dead calm" conditions. We started catching bass on nearly every drift, as well as a 26" walleye (the only fish that we kept), a sheephead that probably weighed 10 pounds, and a silver bass that was also quite large for that species. I was thankful for that big walleye, which produced enough meat for my family of four along with leftovers for me at work the next day. The big ones taste a lot better early in the year, before they start suspending under that "zoo-plankton", and the meat takes on that unpleasant flavor. I noticed a ton of cormorants nesting on the "round-house" water intake and the little island between it and Canada. We could smell their crap as it hit the water while we were drifting by and it smelled just like rotten fish. I wonder if that might be where all the small fish have gone. I always liked fishing around Buffalo Harbor on opening weekend of bass season, but that outing convinced me to head further West the this year, where hopefully there will be more of those tasty young 12"-16" bass available.

Yes.

That is why it is good to see that the current trend in deer hunting, with the members on this site anyhow, is more about the meat and less about the antlers. Remember the recent poll, where those who said meat was more important, was more than double than those who said antlers were more important.

Whenever our power goes out (which thankfully does not happen too often), I run the first extension cord from the generator to the sump-pump, and the second to the freezer. It probably would not be a bad idea to can some venison "just in case". Maybe I will get the wife a pressure cooker for Christmas this year. If you have access to one, or even a real old-fashioned canner, you might try that with some of your extra that is thawed out now. I would be more comfortable doing that than re-freezing it. Any canned venison that my mother or friends have made thru the years has been spectacular.

Sorry to hear about that. We would be forced to eat a lot more chicken if that ever happened to us. I usually check on our basement freezer every day when I am home. It is a 1981 Montgomery-Ward upright that has survived two floods where the motor and condenser was completely submerged. The new ones might use less electricty but I don't think they would be that durable.

I get most of my fertilizer from Rinehart's in Middleport. 15-15-15 starter was about $10 per 50 pound bag this year. Urea may be similar in cost there. I only sprung for (3) bags of starter this year, which was just enough for the 3 acres of corn that I planted today. I had (4) acres worked up and plenty of corn seed, but it looks like I will need to plant that last acre with turnips at the end of the summer. I will broadcast it with buckwheat in a couple weeks, to keep the weeds under control until then. Standing corn and turnips makes for a killer combination during late ML season. I don't use any Urea on foodplots, because I only plant the stuff that needs a lot of nitrogen (like corn and turnips), on ground that had been in white clover for at least 4 years. That way, most of the nitrogen is "free", having been "fixed" by the clover. The clover has the additional benefit of providing food for the deer at night when they do not need the cover that the corn provides. A problem with heavy application of Urea is that it acidifies the soil, forcing you to start chasing your tail with heavy lime application. A clover/corn rotation is a far more economical way to get your nitrogen, providing you have about (4-5) acres of white clover for every acre of corn or turnips. That usually works out ok for foodplots, but not so for agricultural production, which is why there will always be a good market for Urea and lime.

What about some quieter shoes or no shoes ? Crocks are pretty quiet against an aluminum hull. That is what I use all summer on the 12 and 14 foot aluminum boats up at my in-laws place. I think your biggest problem with attached foam or rubber mats will be finding something that holds up out in the sun. Cutting pieces of indoor/outdoor carpeting and just laying them down between the seats when you go fishing might work ok and would make cleanup and replacement easy.

As a pure meat hunter/fisher, it would be very tough to top NY. With liberal bag limits and plentiful game and fish, we have it very good. There has never been a year that the Good Lord has not blessed me with plenty of "free" protein, to supply my family of four. Based on some of the reality shows I watch, that are filmed up in Alaska, it looks like they struggle more to live a subsistance lifestyle up there. I can't imagine any of the lower 48 where it could be much easier. I even appreciate our somewhat disfuntional politics and high taxes, because it limits the crowds and keeps our "secret" safe from too much hunting and fishing pressure. Also, sharing the wealth with the less fortunate is not always such a bad thing. If someone forced me to move at gunpoint, I would probably head for PA because that is about as close to NY as you can get. It would be a very big step backward from the way things are currently however. NY may not keep all the trophy hunters real happy, but it sure is good for us meat guys.

Depending on what zone you are in, early bear season may open on September 8 or September 15. After you take one out, the rest will vacate the area. If it is on a foodplot, you should have easy access to the carcass with an atv. Bears less than 200 pounds are very good eating, but they only yield about 15 % of body weight in edible meat, the rest consisting of fat, bone, hide, and guts.

My ground finally got dry enough to plow this afternoon. I just finished about an acre and a half and hope to get another two and a half done tomorrow. Four acres of corn lasted until mid-February last year, so I could probably cut back a little. As long as it lasts through the end of ML season I am happy. Too much is better than not enough though. Hopefully, I can get the planting done over the next couple weeks. I also picked up some buckwheat, which I am going to plant on the four acres that was corn last year. It is good for weed control and building organic matter in the soil. It also has cool looking white flowers and the turkeys like it.

Happy Birthday