left field

You guys keep fishing the WB and BK. Leaves more EB for me.

If that’s the case, coconuts may be the ticket.

Good advice. I helped them shock, collect and pitt tag trout on a Beaverkill trib a few weeks ago and the fisheries head said to stop by. I need to get the stocking permit from them anyway.

Don't panfish quickly overrun a pond? I'm meeting my excavator this week to go over some other stuff that will require a mini. Maybe we'll dredge the pond deeper as long as we don't pierce the dam.

The scuttlebutt is that it will be rough. One of the camera said that he never saw a lake freeze so completely in 24 hours - open water to 2" thick. Canada lures you in. Polite and unassuming to your face but a cruel bitch at heart.

Because the pond is so small and clear I’d rather not look at a stump. I do have a dock and was going to build out a series of stones over concrete blocks.

All my excavator money is going to redo our road. But I may be able to dig it a little deeper. Property lines mean that it has to stay the size it is. The runoff is a bitch. Sadly there’s nowhere else it can go unless I lay in 60’ of culvert across the spring inflow which doesn’t seem like it will work. As it stands, the runoff goes under my driveway, joins a spring which goes around my spring box then joins the outflow from that box to feed the pond. I may have to do the work and stock next year as the fish pickup is next month.

I have to think so. They would spawn but once the fry hit a certain size they would be eaten. They did well for 4 years so I thought they got enough food, but I guess not. I'm thinking that 15 6" bass and 300 minnows might be okay. I may also build some structure for the minnows to hide.

I have two very small ponds - 20'x20' 6' deep and 30'x30' 8' deep. Both are spring fed but the larger also deals with driveway runoff and can get silty. The smaller has two LM bass and hundreds of fathead minnows and possibly some other minnow. The larger had 13 LM bass and no minnows. This year there are no bass in that pond. I believe someone fished it out. I noticed that the DCSWC offers bass and fatheads (and trout in the fall). All you need a DEC pond stocking permit. The question is - what to stock and how many? I'm concerned about putting any bass in the smaller pond (though there was a third one two years ago) as it might upset the balance. The larger pond could take a good number of bass and minnows. Love to put trout but I doubt they would survive. Any thoughts?

Who is at the apex of consideration here? Is it the wolf? The rancher? Nature lovers? Government? Hunters? People who kids and pets are apparently being snatched up by wolves? The Spotted Owl?

Confidentially, I was hoping they would leave the brothers who won to die there. Christ, they were annoying. Check out media subforum on bushcraftusa. Many of the former contestants and winners post there and comment on the current season.

I remember that guy. Seemed completely out of the blue when he tapped, especially when most of these people say they're doing it for their family. Not as bad as the military guy who tapped within hours after being dropped off after seeing bear scat I will say that almost all the women have the right attitude to go the distance. Mental toughness and the ability to laugh. And they really seem to know their flora. Nicole is a great example of this. She ate: Limpets Chum salmon Spiny dogfish Kelp bass Blennie eels Mossy chitons Red rock crabs Marine isopods Banana slugs Admiral boletes King boletes Chanterelles Spiny wood fern roots Silverweed roots Plantain Yarrow (mostly in tea, for medicine and under my arms) Spruce needle tips (for Vitamin C in tea) Licorice fern roots Enteromorpha (green algae) Fucus (rockweed) Nereocystis (Bullwhip kelp) Macrocystis (Giant kelp) Salal berries Huckleberries Hemlock Tree cambium (not so tasty) Salicornia (Sea Asparagus)

Could be that the fish are turning off due to the impending weather change. Or they're just not interested in a paracord fly. Spolerish V V V Eat a muskrat or not? Tough call.

Can I ask where you got the 150 million in total losses number? I can't find this anywhere. Not sure we're getting anywhere here. I think it is a good idea and if it costs money in terms of compensation and/or means that some ranchers have to alter the way they run their animals, so be it. I have heard wolves late at night in Algonquin. It's life changing.

Travel tip - if you find yourself driving across Kansas for what seems like weeks, do not go out of your way to see The Official Wizard of Oz Museum. Trust me.

I watched my MiL fade away. A brilliant mind that blew away in the wind like so much chaff. The day she died, we cried and celebrated. I’m sorry I don’t have better or kinder words. It’s a horrible disease. Best of luck.

I remember that guy. The foot pedal washing stand so he didn’t have to bend over was amazing. It’s interesting that once you source water, food and shelter, it’s the long dark teatime of the soul that gets you. But this season it looks like weather will be the obstacle.

Fan of the show. Like the self shot concept. A couple of seasons ago it was hard to watch two people pulled who were on the brink of starvation, especially the guy who had stockpiled smoked salmon. Reminded me that many people who die of thirst while lost do so with water in their canteen. Looks like a good season.

Fan of the show. Like the self shot concept. A couple of seasons ago it was hard to watch two people pulled who were on the brink of starvation, especially the guy who had stockpiled smoked salmon. Reminded me that many people who die of thirst while lost do so with water in their canteen. Looks like a good season.

Thanks for all that, Dinsdale. More research is needed. Any idea why nearly every one I look at (at least the older ones) has a carved cheek rest for a right-handed shooter? I rarely recall seeing one without the rest. In a certain era they beat the “sinister” out of people so maybe that’s why there are no left-handed drillings.

Very nice. I’ve been admiring Sauer drillings for a while now.

Ranchers have been compensated by friends of the wolves to the tune of 1.5 million. There are many sides that seem to be in opposition and even the science is unsure. Add in politics, money, legacy, emotion; and you have the makings of a situation that make a single broad sweeping solution complicated. Is your simple solution letting ranchers determine what the number of acceptable wolves is? If they’re anything like the “the only good coyote is a dead coyote” farmer down the road from me then I think it’s a nonstarter. i have no idea what the federal cost is for reestablishment, but I don’t mind my share. I’ve known too many people to love them unconditionally; and I’ve experienced too many animals to hate them for their nature. I live a few blocks from the park. It’s a bloodbath these days now that squirrels and starlings have lost their fear of man.

If you combed your hair forward and over your face they may think you're walking away from them.

Perhaps you could offer your services to the affected parties. That kind of no-nonsense straightforward thinking is just the type of thing needed to resolve this complicated decades long issue.

And if the rancher who runs 1200 head of cattle on 130,000 PUBLIC acres realizes that he's going to have accept some losses. The wiki page has some good information about the challenges, successes and failures of wolf reintroduction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_reintroduction My bottom line is that I am happy wolves are back. The balance can be worked out if all parties are willing to work together. (That's the old hippie in me talking.)