wolc123

Very little, because the Democrats will do just about anything to reduce gas prices, in attempt to limit their losses in the mid-term elections. They may even get the Keystone pipeline opened up again. Gas will most likely be below $3 per gallon by November 1.

Definitely true, and I would rate their eyes and ears about equal. Their eyes can be fooled, if you move extremely slow. All you need is wet leaves or heavy wind to fool their ears. Their nose is tougher to work around, and is without doubt, their main defense.

Most of the bass we eat comes from the Upper Niagara river, Lake Erie, and the St. Lawrence river. A big change in those places, the last 15 years or so, has been an increase in growth rate, as a result of the massive forage base provided by round gobies. That increased growth rate has resulted in tastier bass with firmer meat, because they are younger on average, at the same length, as they were prior to the arrival of the round gobies. A 19 incher these days is still relatively young and tasty. Prior to the gobies, I used to release most bass over 15”, but now I only release the ones over 20”, in these goby-infested waters. Sometimes, in the old days, it took a while to weed out the big ones, and get a nice limit of 12-15” eaters. Now, I can usually get in and get out quick, keeping the first 5 bass that I catch. I only released 1 over 20” last year. Reaching greater size at younger age also minimizes the mercury and other chemical meat contamination, which builds up as the fish get older. This is the 20-1/8 incher that got to go back last year:

Happy birthday.

That’s BS. Jesus’s first miracle was turning water into wine and He’d have never done that if alcohol was bad for you.

No, bass isn’t a good fish to fry, because there is too much oil in them. Maybe that’s the issue with your crappies also. Fish oil is very good for you, and keeps the fillets moist through the healthier cooking processes like baking (that’s how my wife did these), broiling, or grilling. I think bass is a lot better than fish with less oil it (perch, walleye, etc) when cooked that way. Summer bass taste the same as those from cool water, if you keep them alive and in tip top condition. I wear out more livewell pumps, than I do fishing reels, in order to keep them that way. If you can feel the fillets twitching, after you remove them, you know they will taste good. They get “mushy”, like you describe, if you let the fish die in a cooler. You can get away with that with perch and walleye, but not bass. I am only a half hour from the nearest boat launch, but if is real hot out, and I have a full livewell, I’ll throw a few blocks of ice in there for the drive home. As soon as I get home, I put the garden hose in there, to give them some cool aireated water. Many times, I’ll have 15 bass to clean (if I take out a buddy and his kid), and that garden hose keeps the later ones as fresh as the first one that I fillet. The harder it is for me to “catch” them, out of livewell, the better they taste. They only get mushy, when they are floating belly up, before you fillet them. I didn’t loose a fish “early” last year. They all expired from a quick knock on the head by my shilalah (wood hammer handle), before I took of their meat quick with my fillet knife. A vacuum sealed is another key item to making them taste great out of the freezer. I dry the fresh fillets with paper towels, then vacuum seal. If you do that, they taste exactly the same, after a year in the freezer, than they do the day that they were caught.

Made a sandwich from the leftover smallmouth bass from last night, along with a side of asparagus for lunch:

I understand that. Most of my motivation for deer hunting and bass fishing comes from my appetite. I love eating both, but don’t care much at all for turkey (store bought, farm raised, or wild), or any other white-meated bird except for ruffed grouse. I may or may not give turkeys a shot this spring. One of my issues with that, other than the bad eating, is all the bugs in the woods at that time of year. The lakes and rivers are much more hospitable then. I did manage to kill a hen wild turkey in the fall, a few years back, and that was a bit better eating than a few spring toms that friends have given me a few times. I’d still rather be up north at that time, pursuing deer with my crossbow and ML.

I finished up the last of our vacuum-sealed St Lawrence river largemouth bass tonight, and my wife and daughter had Niagara river smallmouth. We still have plenty of that left in the freezer. I will have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow. After that, my next fish will be Adirondack smallmouth (not recommended for women and children, just like St Lawrence largemouth). Upper Niagara smallmouth is supposedly safer for them to eat. My wife baked it in the oven and had asparagus as a side. It was very good.

I think FDR was good. He made some good moves during WW2. Kennedy, not so much. My biggest gripes about him was getting tangled up in Viet Nam; and the bay of pigs fiasco. I respect Carter as a hunter and a strong Christian. Johnson was so so, but better than most of the Dems who have served after him. It is still too early in Biden’s term to call him the worst, although he is off to a good start. I give that honor to Obama, because of his dismal record against Muslim extremism, and his allowing ISIS to get so strong and control so much global territory. I’d also rate Clinton as so so, maybe just a tad above Johnson. He didn’t do too much damage while he held reigns. Truman was very good. He saved more lives than has any other President, through his use of the two Nuclear bombs. Had we needed to invade Japan, it would have likely cost millions of American lives and tens of millions of Japanese.

I don’t think that Bill has killed any deer, so maybe it was turkey balls.

Casting modern baitcasters is a piece of cake, compared to grandpa’s old Pflueger Nobby that I learned on:

I have more trouble with line- twist tangles on spinning reels than I do with backlash on baitcasters, but that’s probably because I use spinning reels about 4x as much, as I use baitcasters. That said, it seems that the spinning reel line-twist issues are minimized, if I manually close the bail after a cast, rather than utilize the self- close feature. Not reeling against the drag helps also. Not needing to worry about reeling against the drag, is a major advantage of a baitcaster. Both types have their place for sure.

Knock on wood, I have never damaged a vehicle I was driving with a deer. I have had dozens of close calls . I have made slight contact with a couple, driving back and forth to work. Coming home late last night, I had to get on the breaks pretty hard, to miss one that crossed onto our property, right near the house driveway. I have been a passenger in two vehicles, that others were driving when deer were hit and killed (one was a school bus), and I have picked up quite a few others have struck, including a couple that I had to dispatch with my knife. They taste the same as those I have shot, and some have had less meat damage. In my younger days, I was a “regular” at the local tavern and I acquired two deer off the same bar stool. I remember one time, when a young kid came in all upset, because he just hit one with his first new car. I asked what was wrong, and he told of the big dent in the side of of his new car. I asked where it happened and he said “up the road by the yellow house by the bridge”. That was my grandma’s house, so I quickly left and snatched up that tasty button buck. My brother in law, who was a state trooper at the time, got me a carcass tag.

I always use a spin caster for smallmouth, because they are much better suited to the light (1/8 - 1/4 oz) bucktail jigs, which are my primary bait. The reel handle is on the left and I cast with my right. My line is 8 lb fluorocarbon. I prefer a bait caster for largemouth, with 10 or 14 lb mono, and heavier baits. I cast right, and switch hands because the handle is on the right. I like the bait caster reels for them, because they work better as a winch to force the fish out of heavy cover. That said, pound per pound, largemouth pull about half as hard as smallmouth. Rarely do they take any drag out, whereas the smallmouth often scream it out of the light spinning reels. I like both species about equally and each has something that I like better than the other. With smallmouth, the good is the better fight, better local availability, and lower cost of baits (I make my own jigs and only need to buy the hooks). Smallmouth are also tougher and live longer in the live well as the oxygen gets depleated. Largemouth are slightly better tasting, and easier to clean (I am not much of a catch and release guy, and I like bass on the table more than any other fish that swims in fresh water). The key to making either species taste good, is to keep them in top condition and make sure the meat is still twitching when you remove it. This was my last open water bass from last year and I can’t wait to get back out there after them. I caught a few thru the ice last month, but they aren’t much fun in cold water, which saps all of their strength. Once he water gets up to about 60 degrees, I don’t know of a better fighting freshwater fish (pound for pound).

I usually use olive oil, but it don’t make much difference. The pepper is key ingredient.

I have been a Braves fan that long also, since that is when we first got cable tv and all the games were on TNT. I couldn’t watch any other teams on TV, but always followed the Yankees (my second favorite team) on the radio, with White and Rizzuto broadcasting. I

I didn’t save any from the three bucks that I killed (two of which were “antlerless”) last season, because it was dark when I gutted them. Removal is a delicate operation, that is best done with good lighting. The only deer, that I killed in the morning last year, lacked the oysters. She did contain a fair amount of milk though. Hopefully, I can get one or two bucks in the morning this year. My odds of that would improve a lot, if that new crossbow law gets passed.

Don’t know about the hair, but pepper is the secret ingredient. Use plenty of that and they taste better than sea oysters. If you decide to give them a try (most folks don’t have the balls to try them), don’t forget to make a slit thru the outer membrane, or they will explode in the frying pan.

The Braves are my favorite and it was awesome when they won last year. Those Astros fans looked a little distraught after a big Braves grand slam:

Just bumped this thread because Enigma asked to see a picture of my buck (on bbb’s 7 year itch thread), and someone just asked for a 2022 live thread on the 2021 one, so I figured I would kill two birds with one stone.

Let her roll.

Sounds cool. With global warming kicking in harder every day, it make sense to move north, rather than south for retirement. That’s my plan, but I am only going as far as NY’s Adirondacks. I imagine when folks start to realize that in a few more years, you will see property values rise faster up there, than than they do down south. The best time to buy up there might be right now.

A low venison supply is always my biggest motivator to hunt. I have been giving venison away, mostly to folks at work, and they really appreciate it. I am banking on that early September gun season, and I sure hope they have it again this year. My goal is to get down to just one deer in the freezer by mid-September, so that I will be motivated to hit them hard then. There’s about (3) in there now, so we got a lot of eating and giving away to do between now and then.

It seems to me that the deer population in my home wmu (9F) is way too high. I am hoping they have the early antlerless gun season ages this December and that I will be able to hunt a little more of it than I did last year. If they do, I am going to try to kill (4) mature doe with my dmp tags. I will keep just (1) one for myself, and give the other (3) away. I don’t need more than that, since I probably have two years worth of vacuum sealed venison in the freezer now, at the rate we are using it. Butchering (1) fat doe a year is about all I can take. That take me almost twice as long as bucks for me to process, because it takes that long to trim out all the fat. It seems that the deer population is just about right or slightly above optimum in my northern zone spots (wmu 6c,6f). I will try my best to fill my antlerless ML/bow tag up there, but hold out for a buck with 3 or more points on a side. I use a butcher up there, because my in-laws are clean freaks, and would never want me to cut one up at their place. At home, a buck will need 4 or more points on a side, for the first half of the seasons. After the midpoints, I will use my buck tags on a 3” horned unicorn, if I get the chance. I rarely see any deer after the midpoint of gun season. I filled 4 of my 7 tags last season (technically the last one was this year), and I would be very happy if I can match or exceed that number this year, but one deer is all I will really need. The venison donation will take all they can get and I am not doing anyone any favors, by not trying to fill tags in the overpopulated areas where I hunt.