wolc123

A little bit of both I suppose, as the older they get the longer they are subjected to the pollution. Either way, the smaller they are the better, from that standpoint. Unlike the pros, when I am bass fishing, I often move from larger fish, trying to find smaller “eaters”. The 12-1/8 inchers are the best. That said, I don’t often have the time luxury of being too choosy, so I usually quit fishing as soon as I have my limit of 12-20” (formerly 15” bass pre goby).

Yes on both counts. Kring point State park on Goose Bay. My brother and sisters have a cottage across the bay from there. I pick up my brother in law at their dock each morning. I get a slip for the boat at the state park. I can also pull it right up to our campsite, on a secluded cove. Originally, we were on an interior site this year, but a recent cancellation gave us a waterfront site for all (4) nights. The kids love the state park. There is a nice beach, a good swimming cove, and an ice cream shop that they can ride bikes or skateboard to. The He/She state park bathrooms were great two years ago, but maintenance was lacking last year. It will be interesting to see the status of those this year. I usually shower over at my siblings place (after I finish cleaning fish), so I am not as affected by the manual labor disarray at the state park. We seldom if ever go camping without the boat, and the truck camper works good with that. My wife did say that she would like to do a little more camping, with the new camper. Maybe we will hit Gettysburg next summer, if gas prices come down.

Out with the old, in with the “new”. My wife drove by a truck camper that was for sale this week and took down the number. We picked it up this morning. The last few years, we have only been doing one camping trip a year (up to the St Lawrence River), and that’s coming up at the end of this month. This camper is a little bigger than our old one (10” wider). It has a built in toilet and water tank, air conditioning, and an oven, all of which our old one lacked. Everything seems to work on it, so hopefully her and the kids will be a little more comfortable this year. I still get to sleep out on a tent, so I don’t disturb them when I get up early to go fishing. That was a lot better since I got a cot last year. Air mattresses and sleeping on the ground sucks. I will miss this old camper. My favorite part about it was the heater with a thermostat. It was great for hunting in cold weather. It was so much better than my first truck camper, which had a propane heater, but no thermostat. You had to guess how cold it would get, and set the dial on a number, one thru five. I was always way too hot or way too cold in the morning. I never got a deer, the day after sleeping in my first camper. I killed my first one, in the Adirondacks, after sleeping in the second one. It’s a lot easier to outwit a deer, if your brain hasn’t been fried or froze the night before.

Approx year 1986 8 ft Sunline truck camper. $ 1500 OBO. 110 volt AC Power inverter and gas/electric fridge don’t work. No water tank. 12 volt wiring and lights work. Propane heater with thermostat works. Sleeps (3) comfortably. Has mostly been stored inside. Interior is in good condition. Some minor damage on outside. I had it on a 3/4 ton 8ft box pickup, but it would probably work on 1/2 ton 6-1/2 ft box truck with tailgate down. Located in Northern Erie County. Works great for hunting.

Duplicate.

These bass were all from the upper Niagara which is relatively pollution free. All the heavy chemical work was done downstream, in Niagara Falls. One meal a month of those and bass from Lake Erie are ok, for even women of child bearing age and children. Not so for bass from the Lower Niagara, Lake Ontario, the St Lawrence River, and Adirondack waters. Those are only ok for one meal a month for men over 50. I typically keep (24) quart-sized vacuum-sealed bags of bass each year, marked by location and date. That gives us all the full recommended allotment of fish each year (I eat as much as my wife and our (2) 18 year old daughters combined). Most of what I eat comes from the St Lawrence and the Adirondacks. I have not kept any bass from up there yet this year. I will hit the St Lawrence at the end of this month and the Dack’s Labor Day weekend and during early ML weeknight October. There is no more “toxic” Adirondack or St. Lawrence bass left in our freezer now, so I hit the wife and kids supply, which were caught, along with this 20-1/4 incher (released because larger than optimum eating size, last September). The best thing to happen with bass in the last 20 years, has been the tremendous forage base provided by the invasive round gobies, and the resulting increase in growth rate. Prior to their arrival, I realeased most bass over 15”. A 20 incher, caught today, is as good eating (and about the same age) as a 15 incher prior to the gobies arrival. Polution gets worse in older fish, so the gobies have helped a lot in limiting the effect of that, from fish consumption.

“Free” meal tonight (except for the beverage): Upper Niagara River smallmouth bass and the first summer squash of the year from the garden. Delicious

Cool, I love carrying the 30/30’s up in the Adirondacks. Hopefully, this will be the year that I finally get a shot at a deer with one.

I’d be more inclined to see if the food network would want to sample some hoagies made from button buck back strap, cooked medium rare. That gives anybody a real appreciation for the whitetail deer.

I think Mike Pence would have the greatest margin of victory in the general election, especially if he can establish a strong truce with Trump during the primaries. I can’t see many registered Democrats voting for any of the other candidates that have been mentioned. Pence would also have more appeal to those in the middle. At the rate the Democrats are loosing control of the country and the world, the only question is if there will be anything left to govern by 2024.

Arrow, no way. 150 gr Federal Classic, fired from a rest from a 50 yard range at a standing buck, with a scoped 30/06, yes. Best shot and cleanest kill that I have ever made. You been drinking or is it the dope ?

I picked one of those up at Aldis ($ 13 I think) a few years ago when they were also selling pop-up blinds for about $ 30. I lost it the first year I had it. It seemed odd that they sold a stool that was too low for the pop-up blind that they also sold. I will probably get another, just for rainy days when the tree hammock don’t work so good, under a tree umbrella. The tripod chairs are quicker to set up and take down than the tree hammock, but bulkier to carry, no swivel, and far less comfortable. They are a little more versatile, in that you don’t need a tree in the right spot.

I did a bit at 9:00 am this morning. I watched a big old doe disappear into some grass that is currently over 7 ft tall, right in front of one of my new tree blinds. I was going to bush-hog that strip over the next few weeks. Seeing that she seems to feel comfortable there, I think I will leave it until next year. That will save me some high-priced diesel fuel and might help me kill her during the upcoming early September antlerless gun season. Here is a picture that I took of her, a few weeks ago, when that grass was at least a foot shorter: Hopefully, she will be the first of many that I kill from this new chair I just finished putting together:

The goal should be to maximize the votes for whoever the Republican candidate is. The best way to do that would be to keep Trump in the mix until the last possible moment, then pull the “bait and switch” to a candidate with his endorsement. This is what we are seeing play out right now. The immediate goal should be to oust as many Democrats as possible, during the mid-terms. Keeping gas prices above 3.43 per gallon, should be sufficient to get Republican majorities in both the Senate and Congress. The only uncertainty is whether or not the current democrat controlled incompetence will result in all out nuclear war sometime soon.

This is the one that I had in my big poplar tree blind last year. It also swivels, but does not have height adjustment or arm rests. It does have a storage box below. I usually use it for sighting in my guns, back at my range, and I keep shooting supplies in the box. I am going to set up my pop up blind, near my range, after Labor Day weekend and I will place this swivel box chair in it then. The solid bottom is nice for setting on the dirt, compared to individual legs or castors. I can’t recall ever shooting a deer from it, but I will give it a try from the pop-up blind, during the early September antlerless gun season this year. I am going to plant a turnip/radish mix plot back in that area at the end of this month. Maybe the radishes will draw some deer to that area. I can only hunt that corner with an east or a north wind.

It’s been a few years since I caught one. If I do this year, I might release it for that reason (and to save the 2 22’s) I don’t think they do nearly the damage to the corn as the coons do

I use one off those for ice fishing, but no where near comfortable enough for me to hunt deer from at my age. The only time I actually hunted from one was for about an hour, prior to my shooting of what might be my largest bodied buck ever (from a comfortable, cushioned swivel boat chair). That buck had a 43” chest girth (besting last years 9 point by about 1/2”) but an unimpressive busted up rack. It was the last week of archery season, and I sat on that bucket in a brush patch, on the edge of a clover plot. I just couldn’t get comfortable, so I moved to the upper deck of my two-story blind in the adjacent woods. That blind is super comfortable, but I had never killed a deer from it. I found the upper deck covered with about a foot of fallen leaves. There was a fresh buck scrape about 20 yards away. Apparently, the hefty 3.5 year old thought that I was a rival buck. (5) minutes after my clearing out of those leaves, he charged in and took my crossbow bolt thru both lungs. He was also the last deer that I killed from that blind.

My opening day of southern zone gun season stand is a hang-on with a non-rotating seat. Since it is fixed, I can’t do nothing about the wind. I do have it positioned, such that the primary, swamp-edge deer travel route is on my strong side. A couple years ago, a group of three antlerless deer strolled by on my weak side, within 40 yards. I sure wished I had a swivel seat then. Fortunately, they were on my strong side on their return trip, an hour or so later, and I was able to drop the fat lead doe with my 16 gauge Ithaca pump. That fixed chair is reasonably comfortable, but someday I will probably replace that cheap hang on stand with a big comfortable elevated blind with a swivel chair. I will not do that, until I sit thru an opener with no deer action (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it). For the last (4) seasons, I had good opening-day action from this stand. Any change that I make, might alter the deer pattern and put a stop to that.

What do you do if a deer comes up from behind or on your weak side with that ? I always try to guess where they will come from, and position accordingly, but almost as often as not, I guess wrong. With a swivel chair, or the tree hammock, I can silently turn for the shot. I can easily think of two bucks, where exactly that happened. One was a photogenic 9-pointer, that snuck thru the woods behind me on the day after Thanksgiving last year just after sunset, as I watched over a clover plot. The other, was that infamous Texas heart shot Adirondack 6-point, that snuck up behind me as I sat in the tree hammock chair. Each of those would have likely survived a bit longer, if I had not had an easy and quiet rotating chair.

Damn, that is a big one. No wonder all the neighborhood kids are always on it. I remember growing up, we had an 18 footer and our neighbors had a 24 footer. That one always took longer to warm up. We would run over and jump in that, then run back to ours, and it felt like bath water, in comparison.

The older I get, the more comfortable I like to be while deer hunting. Usually, I garbage pick the chairs, that I use in my blinds. Last summer, I found a super comfortable one at a barn sale, and I paid $ 8 for it (the guy was asking $ 10). I only bought it because I have never sat in a more comfortable office chair. It has adjustable height, back rest and arm rests. It is padded with weather-proof covering. The swivel turns silent. Best all, I killed (3) deer from it last season establishing a new record for me from a chair in a season. It’s definitely my favorite hunting chair now. Here it is, when I pulled it after spring turkey season. I almost got a turkey off it, but it was a hen, nor a tom, that I called within range and they are protected in the spring. This tree hammock is my second favorite. It is more comfortable than the $ 8 chair, but it cost me about $ 30, and I never killed more than 1 deer from it in a season. I got a mature doe from it last year, that I have been trying to kill for the last (3) seasons, up in the Adirondacks. It is almost too comfortable, resulting in my dozing off in it a time or two. It is super light and easy to carry. Like the swivel chair, it allows easy 360 degree around shooting. I have to be careful setting it up now, because the latch on the tree strap is broken on one side. If you latch it with the broken side up it will dump you on your rear end. Piling up leaves under it at least cushions the fall if that happens. It also don’t work too well with a tree umbrella in heavy rains - you get a wet butt. When I am hunting from it in the Adirondacks, with the tree umbrella (light rains only), I hang my orange hat up above so that it will be visible to shooters on adjacent ridges. Not sure if that’s legal, but it beats getting shot by someone who sees movement under the umbrella. This is my newest hunting chair, that I garbage picked a couple weeks ago. The lower section, with height adjustment, castors and swivel, is in like new condition, but the cushioned seat was damaged. I cut off a cheap plastic lawn chair, with back and arm rests, and replaced that. I will probably carry in a padded seat cushion, when I hunt from it. It will go in my poplar tree blind (one of (2) new elevated blinds that I put up last year). The one over at my parents place in a cherry tree got the $8 chair.

The heavy usage definitely minimizes the vacuuming needed, especially with a smaller pool like ours (15 ft dia). I am only on my second chlorine tablets in the floating dispenser so far this season. I did have to repair the top on that dispenser with a little jb weld though.

That .22 ammo would be great for dispatching trapped coons and possums. Accuracy don’t matter for that. I hold the barrel right next to their heads. That has been my biggest usage of .22 ammo, the last few years. I have been doing all of my target practice with a BB gun, for about 5 years now, to conserve ammo and to minimize aggravation of the neighbors . I give coons a single .22 shot, to the intersection of a x formed between the eyes and ears. Pussoms get that, and a second shot, behind the shoulder. They have a little pea brain that is hard to hit consistently, and they will play their name, if you miss it. The double lunger always does them in.

Cottonwoods are the worst. We have a bunch of them upwind of out pool and have the same trouble. This year haven’t been as bad, because I didn’t set the pool up until June 21, due to the cool spring. That missed the bulk of the cotton drop. I am only on my second filter cartridge so far. I change it when the pump discharge slows to a trickle. I’d love to get rid of them poplar trees, but my wife likes to sit on the back deck and listen to the sound of the wind thru the leaves.

Catch a skunk in a box trap and take it for a ride out to the country.