Fishing

Pumpkinseed



Tree609


Dragonfly




Tree609

Cruelty to Animals

The joy went out of fishing for us today.

I turned over a garden bed while Willow plucked worms out of the rich earth and added them to her fishing can. Early afternoon we headed over to the pond.

There was a truck parked along the road, and the Firebird hesitated. A woman was coming up over the stream bank and crossing the road. I could see someone fishing on the dam, so I said, "It's all right, they're not at the cove," and we headed to our favorite spot.

The kids got a few nibbles and we could see the guy on the dam wasn't having much luck. Then he was joined by two women and another man, returned from the stream. The two guys both had poles going, and pretty soon they started reeling in fish. I could tell they were small ones-a couple medium sized bass that didn't look like keepers. A couple times I could see the guys arm jerk after reeling in a fish. I never did see him release any, but he might have been setting them into the water next to him.

Then the kids saw a fish rise and jump within casting range, and got rather excited as they thought the fish were really jumping. The Firebird noticed that the fish rolled belly up and then would flop. Then we saw another. Willow started flipping out.

"They're killing the fish, Mommy, you have to do something!"

"Oh no, they caught another one *sob* YOU HAVE TO SAY SOMETHING"

Between the flopping belly up fish and my crying daughter, I could stand it no more. Willow wanted to go with me so they could see how upset she was. I told her to stay put with her brother.

I made my way over to the group on the dam, and said,"Hey, how's it going? I'm glad to see you all are having a good time and catching a lot of fish, but a couple of the ones you have caught have floated back into the cove and my daughter is crying and very upset. If you have to rip the hook out, could you please just chuck them over the dam so they don't float back into the cove? We like to fish here a lot and don't like to see dead fish floating in the cove."

One of the women kept nodding and saying, "ok" and the guy she was with glanced at me a few times with dirty looks. I didn't notice the other couple too much during my speech.

I went back to the kids who wanted to leave, and I had been planning to leave, and then thought better of it and said we should stay, mostly because I didn't want them to move over into the cove and continue their antics.

The Firebird opted to leave, and a few minutes later the foursome left too. By then the closer of the two flopping fish had drifted a little closer to shore further up, so I walked over for a better look. I could see they were small pickerel, what a lot of people consider "trash fish", since they are very bony.

The belly of one looked a little odd, but by that time I started worrying about repercussions-meaning retaliation towards me for speaking out. They had seen us arrive and the Firebird leave, and knew where we lived. So we left- Willow was too upset to fish anymore.

It was only a little later I realized what I had seen. I had thought that the flopping fish had swallowed the hook and the jerking arm was the guy ripping the hook out, which is a death sentence for the fish. That is why I cut the line if they swallow the hook and I can't easily remove it.

That is what the fishing regulations say to do, claiming that the hook will rust out quickly and the fish will be fine. Just cut the line as close to the hook as possible.

But the facts started adding up: that both fish were pickerel, and I had also seen him reel in small bass, the mark on the belly, and the fact they were using lures and not worms (worms more likely to be swallowed) Horrified, I put it together. The guy had deliberately sliced the fish in the stomach and tossed them back. Yep, to die sufferring. That bastard.

I spent some time afterwards wishing I was a big tough guy and had realized when I was still there. I would have punched the guy and pushed him into the pond.

Yes, I know we harass the fish catching and releasing them, and we torment the worms by impaling them on the hook-so are we much holier than he?

In my own defense, I will say that I cultivate the worms-I feed them compost and aereate the soil. Every year there are more and more in the garden. I am very selective about the ones we take-and make sure to leave plenty where they are. As soon as we get home, the remaining worms go back into the garden.

The fish we care about too-I have tried to teach the saplings how to catch one in a way that hooks them correctly. I wet my hand before touching the fish, since I was told years ago a dry hand takes the natural oils out of the fish and harms them. I try to remove the hook as quickly as possible and enjoy watching them swim away more than watching them come in.

I don't care what kind of fish we catch since we let them all go anyhow. I don't really like pickerel myself,(think slimy alligator with fins) but I feel what that guy did was outright cruel. Makes me wonder what other things a person like that is capable of doing? :(

Ramblings

Yesterday I decided to undertake the task of supporting the house. The house is supported by cedar posts that are four feet in the ground. At the time they went in, I tarred a ring around the posts where they protrude from the ground. That is the place where wood eating bacteria are the most prevelant-the first few inches of earth.

I told the old timer who sold me the posts, and he claimed that should make them last 40 years. That was ten years ago. Last fall I checked them and was greatly alarmed that they had started to rot out at that location.

I immediately brought in a carpenter friend for consultation, and he believed there was still a lot of strength in them, but it was neverless an issue I needed to address.

When the power was put in here, a new pole was placed at the road, and the company told me that I could do whatever I wanted with the old pole. I figured that old pole looked pretty good to back up the posts under the house.

So I called on my carpenter friend again to drop the post for me. Although I had seen him handle a chainsaw, he seemed a bit hesitant when we got down the road with my small saw. Just then a mutual aquaintence drove by. One of his side jobs happens to be logging, so we-me mostly- coerced him into dropping the pole for me. He used his own saw, much larger than mine, although grumbled about the possibility of hitting metal.

We had the pole roped off and the first helper and I put tension on the rope so it would fall the correct way, and not on the line or the road. It came down with a crash, and the top cracked. Still, there was quite a usuable length left, and we left it for another time.

Unfortunately I lost the help of my carpenter friend shortly after that-after ignoring my repeated rebuffs of his physical advances I finally had to use cruel words and nearly physically kick him out of my house one evening.

So the post job fell to me alone, and in true procrastinator fashion I finally decided to undertake part of the job yesterday. I braced off one of the three supporting beams with two more posts-lengths I managed to cut off the good part of the pole with my little chainsaw.

That was easier said than done. I needed to support the pole in such a way the piece I was cutting would drop free and not just cave in and trap the chainsaw. But I coulnd't budge the pole. I spent some minutes wishing a nice strong guy would show up and give me a hand, but the road has never been quieter.Finally I found some lengths of hemlock I could handle, and jammed them under the pole in such a way that I could cut it up without getting the saw stuck.

Although the pieces I cut off were just around three feet in length, the post is 8-10 inches in diameter and the things were beastly heavy.

I managed to end over end them off the power line and into the back of the car to get them up to the house. The Firebird and I took turns with the sledgehammer sliding them into place. The Willow had helped me measure, and I added 1/4 of an inch to each length to make sure they fit tight. And they did-we really had to pound on them to force them into place.

Two more beams are left to brace off-which will each require three posts as they are the longer beams. And most of the work will have to be done under the crawl space-which the Firebird is NOT going to enjoy!

NOT today, Zurg. ;)

While I was prepping the location for the posts yesterday, I found an ENORMOUS bullfrog. I was stunned. We have quite a toad colony around the house, but it seemed like an odd location for a bullfrog. (The batteries needed recharging on the cam so no pix.)

Anyhow, the frog had to be relocated due to the work, so I put him in a bucket and the Willow and I headed down into the marsh. I thought that would be a better place than the pond. We had to hike quite far into the marshgrass to find a small pool of water for him. We found huge moosetrack while we were there!!!! That did alarm me, as it is not far from the house, and moose will be going into rut anyday, if not already. I have seen a video of bull moose in rut attacking a car!!!So I really do NOT want to come across a bull moose in rut!!!!! EEKKK!

We released the bullfrog and headed back, and I remembered two years ago we brought home twenty or so bullfrog tadpoles from a friends vernal pool. They had about twenty billion tadpoles, so I did not feel too back about taking a few for the kids (and me).

Well, we had them right where I found that frog yesterday!!!!! I thought most of them had died, but a few a the end we took to a friends and released in his small pond. So, maybe that is how we got a bullfrog living next to the house in the damp spot....LOL.

After all that was done, I had promised to take Willow fishing. The Firebird didn't want to go, so he stayed home to listen for several phone calls I was expecting. I took the cell phone with me as back up.

Willow and I found that the water has dropped enough the dam is dried, so we decided she would fish from there. It was so lovely!!! It is very nice to be able to cast from the dam with the branches cut back. The early bright red maples are turning up the pond, and the sun was behind us, so it made a postcard view.

Right after we arrived the Firebird showed up to tell me I had missed a call-of course-and not wanting to head back to the house, I made the call from the dam on my cell phone. I guess it is easy to tell I am an old-timer, because I am still amazed that I could be sitting outside in such a wild location making a phone call!!

The fish weren't biting very well-until Willow got a big hit. I coached her through setting the hook and landing the fish all by herself. Her reel was screeching several times. She landed a big largemouth bass!!!! And the tiny hook was set perfectly-just a flip and the hook was out and the fish was freed. I was so proud of her. That was a big fish for that little tiny Barbie pole! LOL.

She was just reeling in her last cast when we saw the Firebird coming back. He had my cordless phone from the house!!!! I took it from him and there was blaring static-of course!_ and I shouted"call me back in ten minutes!!!" and couldn't even end the call it was so far out of range!!!

On the run back to the hosue, I explained to the Firebird it was a cordless phone, not a cellular phone, and it had a very short range from the handset in the house!!HE was very apologetic!! I found it ironic in the generational difference that I am amazed a cell phone works out there and he just assumed the cordless would too...LOL

I think the most amazing thing is that when I finally did get the call through, the caller told me he could hear me when the Firebird turned the cordless phone over to me at the top of the dam!!!

Another icon of "Can you hear me now??" HEHheheh.

Happy Full Moon

Tree

Another Full Moon is upon us. I have enjoyed watching it slide past my window behind the computer every evening this week, paired with a bright planet that I spent some minutes trying to find online with no success.

Thursday and Friday one bizarre event happened after another.

Yesterday morning I was collaring and graining my goats, and noticed that Sir Nicolas, who I tie last, had his head stretched up against the wall-his usual place, but the unusual fixed position of nose to sky caused me to wonder if he had bracken poisoning. Goats are supposedly not susceptible to bracken poisoning, but the symtoms include staring up into space.

I kept collaring goats, and when I got to Nic a few minutes later, I immediately saw the problem. The poor guy had caught his beard on a nail head and could move. The hair was snaggled around and around the nail. Quicly I called the Willow to stay with the goat, and sprinted off to the house for scissors in knee high rubber boots-through the kitchen to the scissors and back through without taking off the boots-sprinting back through the yard and a voice in my head saying "never run with scissors" ack!

No, I didn't trip and stab myself; I ran right up to Nic and with one quick snip he was free, staggering slightly and having a quick drink of his own pee...(boy goats do that a lot). I checked him for dehydration and he was fine-ate his grain, but walked, didn't run, down to his hay afterwards...

He stood right there snaggled while I tied seven other goats, and never made a sound.

Poor chap, good thing I check them twice a day. Actually I don't do a head count at night, but I think I might start now.

Later in the afternoon, our fishing trip was delayed by pond visitors-no boat;I saw a large man with an unruly child and a dog, and I had a bad feeling. After sulking a few minutes, I decided to go ahead and dig the worms with Willow, and by then they had left, so fishing was back on.

Imagine my suprise and disgust when I realized they had FLEA BATHED the dog on the shore...the whole area reeked of insectide, with just a handful of soap mixed with dog hair on the saturated ground. I know from past experience the odor of flea shampoo and the fact that the label states quite clearly NOT to introduce it into any waterway as it is toxic to fish and pondlife.

Moron.

It didn't stop the fish from biting, though. The Firebird caught two small sunfish and lost a huge one to a snapped line after the bobber disappeared and the drag on his line started screeching. The Willow had some great casts on her own. I wore shorts this time, so I didn't mind wading into the weeds after three or four miscasts.

She landed a pumpkinseed and another good sized-bass-a bit smaller than the day before. Hooked in the jaw again, and this one I couldn't get out so I cut the line close to the jaw and let him go. I hate to leave a hook in, but the site of the jaw bleeding had her nearly in tears, and I just could not seem to get the hook free.

Today Willow helped me give Peko a bath-in our tub with a five gallon bucket of warm water and Pantene shampoo. He was such a crazy happy dog afterwards-racing around the house like mad. Now he is all shiny and smells good.

We passed on fishing tonight and made a pizza run as the sky was darkening. We passed right under a wicked storm cell on the way home-me praying to get home before it hit. I had never seen such an odd sky-it had cracks running through it, and rolls, and things that looked like small funnel clouds...sorry no pic; although I had the cam I was booking it to get home.

The Firebird turned on PBS to catch emergency broadcasts..and three seconds later, there it was. Yes, we had passed right under it, but it was headed away from us. Thank goodness.

I grew up in thunderstorm country, but seeing two foot diameter oaks snapped like matchsticks last summer has left me with the desire to be home when the next one hits.

Fishing

We agreed that the highlight of our day ( I'll spare the bad parts) was fishing at the pond this afternoon.

Some of the garden weeds were annihilated in the search for plenty of worms, and we headed over. First cast the Willow caught a small largemouthbass, about 6 inches. The Firebird had plenty of bites but didn't land a fish. His cast is really getting there. Except when he shifted over to the right hand side trying to get near the weedshoreline, and got hung up in a tree. Yup, our mystery man missed one. I managed to get the line to snap beyond the bobber, at least. I had only brought three spare hook set ups and one extra bobber. I had forgotten the swivels, though, so I had to knot his line directly to the hook leader.

The Firebird gave up shortly and asked permission to wander to the dam, which I granted. Imagine my suprise when he returned in exuberant spirits exclaiming the he had clung to a tree and put a foot in the water rushing over the top of the dam. :- AcK! TG he did not go over, although the water is not that deep yet, that could be life threatening at certain times of the year, as it is a long fall to rocks, sure concussion and probably drowning. Well, he has been informed not to do THAT again!

So he took up tree climbing, while I tried not to watch. I love to climb trees, but I was afraid I would start flipping out if I could see what he was up to.

I took over his pole and landed a small 5 inch sunfish-or sunseed as the Willow calls them, a combination of Sunfish and Pumpkinseed. Cute, huh?

Well, the Willow and I kept on, she likes to fish as much as her Mom. :D

I made most of her casts for her-she is coming along, but it can be a tricky fishing spot what with the trees, and weeds close by on either side. I had my hands full a few years ago between baiting both their lines (something I still have to do), casting, unhooking fish, and rescuing casts from weeds and trees and retying line...that is why I don't have my own pole. Usually I have to announce that I am smoking a cigarette and if they need anything they will have to bait their own hook or wait five minutes. LOL. Then of course one will land a fish as soon as I get the smoke rolled. hehehe.

I gave Willow a good cast and told her to watch it, as they were hitting as soon as the line hit the water, and then I saw her bobber go down. Like, out of site down. We had been working on how to set a hook today, and she nailed this one. I kept waiting for the bobber to reappear, realizing that she had something big on there, and the line started to head to the weeds on the right. UH OH. She was standing on that side, no time to give her direction, so I snagged the line in my hand and started hauling it to the left, hand over hand while she kept reeling. My line was in the water on that side, and sure enough, when the fish couldn't break right, it broke left for the weeds on that side.

The Firebird was watching the whole thing from his perch in the tree-me running back and forth on the shore, hand-hauling line, Willow reeling like mad, and then he shouted, "I see it, it's HUGE!"

Then my line was snagged too, but I had the fish in close enough the Willow could bring him in the rest of the way without it making the weeds, trailing lines and weeds. He must have turned to run as soon as he hit the hook, because the teeny tiny hook I had on her pole was sunk in his jaw. hard up in the side. What with the worm slid up on the hook and the tiny shank, and the jaw flexing as I tried to get the hook free, I thought I was going to have to leave the hook in. The fish was very good, quite still as I cursed myself trying to hurry to get him back in the water as quickly as possible. Finally the hook was freed and I slipped him back into the water and he swam slowly off.

He was probably just under a foot long.

Peko was having a fit! Everytime we caught a fish, he barked like mad. Although he loves balls, he wan't too concerned about the bobbers flying into the water, but a FISH!?!? It was funny.

After the bass swam away, I called it an afternoon, saying, "Well, we aren't going to top THAT!" and both lines were hopelessly tangled-nothing I wanted to fix sitting on a damp log.

Thunderstorms rolled in shortly afterwards, and another torrential downpour at one point.

I guess the rain isn't keeping the fish from biting. ;)

Sorry no pix-I left the cam home due to threat of rain. I had my hands full, anyhow.

good fishing

Tree 608

I heard the loon calling over at the pond this morning. Later, I took the saplings over with new poles and worm and bobber technique.

Yup, they were biting. Final score: Little Willow, 3: two pumpkinseed and one large mouth bass. Young Firebird: 2 Largemouth Bass. This is one of them. We catch and release, although the pumpkinseed had my mouth watering...LOL