Today I did morning and evening blast and no cast as we really did have to do the winterizing.
Some landscapes with gun and dog. My Brother took these so no claim as to composition or real pic value. Some shotgun pron.
and no boyds but me & and the dog had a good time.
The one on the top is my grandfather's Winchester 12 gauge model 1897 total take down made in 1913.The one on the bottom is my uncle's 1985 Montie Ward WesternField 20 gauge. This is the same Winchester as above with two ducks and my grandfather in 1958.
No woodcock or grouse were harmed in the production of this blog post.
Decided to flip the day and fished first and then did the bird hunt this evening. In an an effort to work on the south shore coaster projetc we went after the lake runs this morning. Hit one of the U.P. streams with one of the greatest stream names ever.
Some dead stuff on the stream bank.
We brought home some Lake Superior Coho. And this evening the shotguns were exercised. The woodcock and the grouse remain unscathed.
Drowned iPhone 3G Reincarnated as Beautiful Fishing Lure From Gizmodo
It's the circle of life, really: man drops iPhone in river while fishing, iPhone dies, iPhone is torn apart, iPhone becomes fishing lure, iPhone catches dinner. Life goes on.
Day 2 results much similar to Day 1. Grouse flushed with none accidently flying into the direction that the birdshot was flying. The day was warm and the dog got a work out. Here he is lying down on the ground drinking from his bowl refusing to make eye contact with me because he is so disappointed in one half of the team.
As usual the cast portion of the day went much better.
With no grouses to bring home I took a couple of trout for the old man back at the cabin. There are essential vitamins and nutrients in fresh caught brook trout that are very beneficial for 86 yr olds.
under the "time to close the U.P. cabin" category I did the late night north woods run after work Tuesday. Headed out Weds morning with the dog and the shotguns, left the camera at home, and the hunting was good but the shooting was bad, which is our traditional family way. Spent the afternoon on stream.
a rock ledge in the cedar swamp off of the river, with a free flowing seep, and seep where it goes into the main channel.
"Unlike Matt and Arma, who had been fishing most of their lives, I was a rank novice with a decidedly ambivalent attitude. My sole previous experience consisted of a two-day course in freshwater fly fishing at an exclusive upstate resort that had left my head swimming with indigestible biological minutiae and my sought-after quarry swimming unscathed in their natural habitat."
I don't really care if this guy doesn't like fishing. But how about printing something by someone who "likes, uh, can write". I mean... "serendipitous" ? WTF ?
If I happen to die a happy man, it will be in no small part because of the serendipitous seafaring expedition I took with Arma and Matt on the afternoon of our feast at the American Hotel.
YASUHIRO: Hamano was three-years-old when his father took him on a fly-fishing expedition. In the secluded woods off Kyoto in the shadow of the Mist-Catcher Mountains, Hamano Sr enunciated his philosophy of ‘Nature-vision-concept’ to his wide-eyed son: One could not exist without the other.
You could not sustain a concept without vision, for example, which, in turn, needed Nature in order to be nurtured. Hamano Sr also introduced his son to the Zen-like mysteries of fly-fishing, and the intimate connection it bears to the environment ethic.
Years later, when he had made a mark as a multi-faceted savant in architecture, fashion, design, photography, as well as philosophy and active adventure sports Hamano Jr rediscovered the principles he’d learnt as a budding fly-fisherman.
“Every mountain stream has its resident rainbow trout with its own ecology,” he told us in Mumbai recently. “There could be as many as 700 sorts of insects in various forms floating around for you to use as potential bait to snare this wily fish,” he ruminated. “Which one to use and how, would be something that the wannabe angler has to negotiate between his hands, head and the all-encompassing field.
“Yet these very fishermen who are the most sensitive to these natural cycles have to ultimately transcend their fishing rods, and turn into guardians and sentries of the rivers and Nature herself,” he emphasised. This flows out of the philosophy of the Tendai Sect which is akin to concepts of ‘deep ecology’, and is rooted in the idea that Buddhahood, or the capacity to attain enlightenment, is intrinsic in all things.
“Masters like Kukai and Saicho, for example, preached that plants, trees, rocks and everything else in this world has the quality of Buddha and will eventually reach Nirvana. In other words, everything in this life is equal in Nature, and therefore fish and men are equal as well,” he explained.
He also narrated the story of birth of Zen when the Buddha wordlessly held up a flower in an assembly. Nobody except Old Kashyapa reacted: He alone smiled, as Buddha smiled back.
The Master’s gesture can be interpreted as an invocation to use your hands for creative activity, rather than the mind. The philosophy is reflected in his projects such as Tokyu Hands and Friends of Rivers. It also explains why the Crow Tribe chief Mickey Old Coyote named him ‘Travelling Wisdom’ in Montana.
The public will get a rare chance to see a lab that uses the Mississippi to study, and maybe save, the state's troubled waters.
By TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune
Last update: September 17, 2008 - 11:23 PM
"It's not trivial how you do this because you have to understand how the plants, fish, microorganisms, sediment and water that make up the entire ecosystem work and interact with each other," he said.
To study a natural system, yet one that could be controlled for experiments, scientists constructed the experimental stream in a limestone spillway used decades ago to divert river water away from St. Anthony Falls. They filled the former spillway with 5 feet of soil, seeded it with native plants and engineered a 165-foot stream.
Testing for Drugs in the Tennessee River By: Lauren Gregory
Water in the Tennessee River isn’t going to give you the wake-up jolt that a cup of coffee does.
But it has enough caffeine to do that — and more — for the tiny wildlife living in and around the Tennessee River, according to researchers who found the presence of caffeine and a number of other drugs in the local water supply.
Caffeine exists in a high-enough concentration to force-feed a typical baby mayfly the equivalent of 26.6 cups of coffee a day, according to Sean Richards, associate professor of biological and environmental sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Caffeine was found in more than 93 percent of about 160 test samples of river water.
Meanwhile, Dr. Richards said, that mayfly also is ingesting a cocktail of at least 12 other common drugs, including several antibiotics, antidepressants and substances designed to lower human cholesterol levels. While the amount of drugs in the water is tiny by human standards, they one day may have a serious impact on the environment — and on humans, as well, he said.
After taking drugs, people excrete the excess through urine, sweat and other body waste.
Antibiotics in water pose resistance risk
The issue of drugs in the water supply has surfaced in national media reports and congressional hearings in recent years. But Dr. Richards’ study, conducted with UTC associate chemistry professor Steven Symes, marks the first time Chattanooga’s water has been brought into the discussion.
The data about pharmaceutical concentrations in general are still few and far between, according to Dr. Symes. Researchers across the country have been able to study the issue for only the past decade as technology improved enough to measure the quantities of the drugs, which are recorded in parts per trillion, he said.
A landmark study published by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2002 and an Associated Press investigation last March delved into the issue, Dr. Symes said, but neither included any studies in Tennessee — despite the fact that historically, the Volunteer State has had one of the highest rates of prescription drug use in the country.
“We noticed a lack of data in the Tennessee River Valley,” he said. “We folded that with the fact that we know we’re very unhealthy, and we take lots of drugs.”
The team received a $251,720 grant from the National Science Foundation that allowed it to purchase the equipment needed to spend 21/2 years analyzing river water samples from Knoxville to Chattanooga, including the spot where the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant redeposits water into the river.
The scientists said they have yet to make the leap from testing river water to testing tap water that area residents might drink. But studies from other areas showing drugs in drinking water, combined with the testing on the supply from which Chattanooga’s drinking water is drawn, are troubling because they could prove a barometer for what’s to come in the human realm, Dr. Richards said.
“If you’re taking all these drugs at once, in really low concentrations, for your entire life, does that sound like a good thing? I don’t think so,” he said.
Staff Photo by Meghan Brown The Tennessee River flows downstream from Nickajack Lake near South Pittsburg, Tenn., on Thursday. Many Tennessee towns in the river's watershed are looking to the river to solve their water shortages due to drought.
“Everyone’s worried about pesticides in the water, but the amount of pharmaceuticals that get dumped in the water via just taking them is going to equal or exceed that of pesticides,” Dr. Richards said. “You have to wonder what it’s doing to the ecosystem. If we’re upsetting the balance in any way, it can’t be perceived as a good thing.”
If you fish or hunt, and vote, I would ask you to think about the last eight years when selecting your candidate for the upcoming election.
"It seemed inevitable that bad things would happen when President Bush and Vice President thingy Cheney packed the top posts at the Department of the Interior with lobbyists who had spent their careers representing the very industries they were now being asked to regulate. But it was left to Earl Devaney, the department’s inspector general — and the busiest gumshoe inside the federal bureaucracy — to demonstrate just how bad things could be."
" The White House can take no comfort at all. The people it brought to Washington to run the department had no interest in policing the oil, mining and agricultural interests they were sworn to regulate and every interest in promoting industry’s (and their own) good fortune. The most notorious of these was J. Steven Griles, a mining industry lobbyist who really ran the agency for four years and who later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
The fruit of these terrible appointments was aptly described by Mr. Devaney two years ago when he appeared before a House subcommittee. “Short of a crime,” he said, “anything goes at the Department of the Interior.”
It now appears that crime could be part of the mix. "
Steve Schoenwald of Hinckley receives some fly fishing tips at Wade Lagoon from Case Western Reserve University Professor John Orlock. Orlock is teaching a class on the sport - and art - of fly fishing.
To understand the great lit erature spawned by the sport of fly fishing - books written as long as 500 years ago - pick up a fly rod and learn to cast and catch fish.
So says Case Western Reserve University Professor John Orlock.
Orlock is teaching freshmen the art of fly fishing and quite a bit more this fall with his course "Reflections on the Water: The Metaphysics, Sport and Literature of Fly Fishing."
On Thursday morning, Orlock had a dozen young men and women waving fly rods and casting a small fluff of orange yarn into the still waters of Wade Lagoon, dappling the reflection of the nearby Cleveland Museum of Art.
"The course is an examination of fly fishing with an integration of academic skills, providing an introduction to outdoor life," said Orlock, who, not surprisingly, is an avid fly fisherman. "Fly fishing, like no other sport, has been responsible for a proliferation of great literature."
A part of the college's SAGES (Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) undergraduate program, the course has been a collaborative effort, said Orlock. Molly Berger and Peter Whiting, deans of the College of Arts and Sciences, encouraged Orlock. So did steelhead trout fisherman Bill Siebenschuh, chairman of CWRU's English Department, as well as college librarian Bill Klaspy.
Klaspy, also a fly fisherman, is guiding the students through a wealth of literature on the sport.
Ray McCready, president of Orvis - a leading maker of fly tackle - donated rods and reels. The equipment prompted Orlock to offer the course twice each year.
Orlock pointed to Stephanie Jackson, a student from Moon Township, Pa.
"On Monday, she couldn't make a cast," he said. "Now, she's showing a lot of skill."
A great help, said Orlock, was a session this week with George Vosmik, a local master of fly casting and fly tying who has taught hundreds of people the art of fly fishing over the years.
A smiling Xi Chen of Solon, who had never fished before, was adeptly making roll casts.
"It's my favorite class," said Tyler Smith of North Ridgeville. "Maybe because it gets us out of the classroom. But it has been fun, learning to fly fish and reading a lot of great books."
The course reading assignments include:
Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It," which became a popular movie credited with rejuvenating the sport.
"Uncommon Waters: Women Write About Fishing," edited by Holly Morris.
And, of course, the ever-popular "A Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle." The book, penned by Dame Julianna Berner in 1496, was the first on sport fishing.
"There is such emotion in fly-fishing literature," said Penny Tucker of Stanton, Tenn., co-instructor of the course, as she collected rods and reels at the end of the class. "It was hard not to tear up at the end of 'A River Runs Through It.' "
A burning question is whether a sport can be considered art.
Orlock has the credentials to make such a determination. The former head of the theater department at CWRU, he was awarded the Samuel B. and Virginia C. Knight Chair in the Humanities in 2000. He's also a playwright, whose works have been featured at such major theaters as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Play House and the Focus Theatre of Dublin, Ireland, among others.
"Fly fishing is like dance," said Orlock. He points out that the great fly fisher Joan Wulff was a dancer before she took up and excelled at the sport.
"I thoroughly enjoy fly fishing, and fly fishing literature," said Orlock. "Introducing both to students has been a terrific experience. I believe it is an introduction for them into a new and wonderful world."
Freshwater fish in N. America in peril, study says
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Wed Sep 10, 8:05 PM ET
WASHINGTON - About four out of 10 freshwater fish species in North America are in peril, according to a major study by U.S., Canadian and Mexican scientists.
And the number of subspecies of fish populations in trouble has nearly doubled since 1989, the new report says.
One biologist called it "silent extinctions" because few people notice the dramatic dwindling of certain populations deep in American lakes, rivers and streams. And while they are unaware, people are the chief cause of the problem by polluting and damming freshwater habitats, experts said.
In the first massive study of freshwater fish on the continent in 19 years, an international team of dozens of scientists looked not just at species, but at subspecies — physically distinct populations restricted to certain geographic areas. The decline is even more notable among these smaller groups.
The scientists found that 700 smaller but individual fish populations are vulnerable, threatened, or endangered. That's up from 364 subspecies nearly two decades ago.
And 457 entire species are in trouble or already extinct, the study found. Another 86 species are OK as a whole, but have subspecies in trouble.
The study, led by U.S. Geological Survey researchers, is published in the current issue of the journal Fisheries. Researchers looked at thousands of distinct populations of fish that either live in lakes, streams and rivers or those that live in saltwater but which migrate to freshwater at times, such as salmon that return to spawn.
Some vulnerable fish are staples of recreational fishing and the dinner plate. Striped bass that live in the Gulf of Mexico, Bay of Fundy and southern Gulf of St. Lawrence are new to the imperiled list. So are snail bullhead, flat bullhead and spotted bullhead catfish. Sockeye, Chinook, coho, chum and Atlantic salmon populations are also called threatened or endangered in the study. More than two dozen trout populations are considered in trouble.
About 6 percent of fish populations that were in peril in 1989, including the Bonneville cutthroat trout, have made a comeback, said lead author Howard Jelks of the U.S. Geological Survey. But one-third of the fish that were in trouble in 1989 are worse off now, said the Gainesville, Fla., biologist.
The study includes far more species and populations than those that are on the official U.S. government endangered species list.
Jelks said the number of species in trouble was close to double what he expected and that means people should be "considerably worried."
The biggest cause, Jelks said, is degraded freshwater habitat, both in quality and quantity of water for fish to live in. Invasive species crowding out native fish is also to blame, he said.
Fish "live in a freshwater habitat that's pretty much under assault by people," said Duke University marine biologist Larry Crowder, who wasn't part of the study. "Things are tanking all around us. When does it have to be bad enough to get people's attention?"
Many of the species in trouble or already extinct are small minnows and darters whose absence is little noticed, but they play a vital role in the food chain.
Hardest hit is Mexico where nearly half the fish species are in trouble. One in three species in the United States are in peril — up from about one in five in 1989. About 10 percent of Canadian species dwindled. In the United States, the most vulnerable populations are in the Southeast, not counting Florida.
In the U.S., 263 fish species are in trouble or are already extinct, and nearly 500 have no problems.
The number of fish species and subspecies in North America that went extinct rose from 40 to 61 since 1989.
Anthony Ricciardi, a McGill University biologist who was not part of the research, found that about 10 years ago freshwater extinctions were happening at a faster pace than on land or in the sea. And yet few people notice, he said.
"A lot of silent extinctions are happening," Ricciardi said. "What we're doing is widespread, it's pervasive and it's rapid."
The Kennecott Eagle sulfide mine project is looking like is it is going to happen in Marquette County. All that is left is the ruling by the state supreme court. I figured I should get up there one more time, as i haven't fished there in a while. Saw some of these along the way.
So I had along my handmade map to get us out there from Big Bay. Don't know why but the Triple AAA road is really well known in the U.P. Say - "I'm going up by the Triple AAA" and every one knows where you're going.
The trackless forest primeval, the Yellow Dog Plains, headwaters of three great watersheds, the Salmon Trout River, The Yellow Dog River and the Escanaba. It look pretty good from the map book even.
But the Google tells a different tale. The MDNR, and the MDEQ haven't yet met a logger they don't like. Lots of good toilet paper there yah know. Notice the interesting pattern of cutting and how it looks so much like the Escanaba River state forest outline ?
On the ground the jack pine plains don't look so bad, but its one of those things. What did it look like before it had been parcelled out, and parcelled out again, and parcelled out again.
The rivers that cut through the forest were super pretty.
Caught a ton of these little guys. There were alot of foot prints on the bank. A lot of expensive new cabins along the river, too.
Packed a righteous snad for dinner.
So I imagine I'll be posting about the acid rock runoff flowing into these streams, putting three watersheds at jeopardy, including one with the last moderately healthy run of coasters on the south coast. I have some pictures to look at now.
