Crippled Caddis

<You cant fix Stupid.> And so concludes the thread with the ultimate defnitive answer!

< No more walking to town on Saturday after choring was done.> Was it uphill in both directions?;o)

jcoberley wrote: <I would say their on the incress.> A couple of years ago my Thunder Bay buddy wrote to me in early April decrying once again that the 'Greenies' in Toronto had caused an explosion in the Black bear population by lobbying for elimintion of the Spring bear season a couple of years earlier and warning that in a matter of a few weeks that the bears, just coming out of hibernation famished, would start eating people. Less than 2 weeks later he forwarded a newspaper article to me about a couple of unarmed hikers being attacked, killed and partially eaten. If anyone recalls much the same thing happened in the Denver/Boulder area some years ago when the Greenies halted hunting Mt. Lion with dogs. So the lions started eating pets and hikers. Sometimes justice is swift. CC

Terry: Bogart that thing and get back to work! No wonder the firms you work for keep going belly up! Hope you know I'm just boosting you Bud! Your virtuosity with lyrics impresses this old word juggler! Maybe you oughta try it as a songwriter? I know it takes a while to break in, but look at it like this------you're overdue for a break! CC

Yep----we were absolutely covered up with the Hummers a few weeks ago then the majority mysteriously disappeared. Prior to the disappearance we were having to refill the feeders (8) every 3rd day. I've suspected that they went further North where there was a better supply of flowers that were unaffected by the late frost. Still getting a few, but only refilling @ once a week now here in N. Ark. just South of Mammoth Spring.

gf wrote: <Still the odds of being attacked are extremely thin. Odds are several thousand percent better that a person will be attacked by another human than by a black bear.> Absolutely correct---the most dangerous animal in the woods are human! The only dangerous encounter I've ever had while camping was with some freak spouting strange nonsense who followed my wife back to camp on one of her photo walks. A camp hatchet and a bad attitude convinced him it would be healthier in another zipcode. Oddly enough one of my almost daily e-mail buddies is an ex bear-hunting guide and outfitter in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He is half Ojibway, raised on a remote reservation largely by grandparents who still abided by traditional methods. He is very much a Black bear expert and over the years has shared a lot of his accumlated knowledge about them with me. The cardinal fact for this thread is that, unlike Grizzlies who will make attacks and then often go away if the victim 'plays dead', a Black bear will simply eat you as you lay there. His earnest advice if attacked by a black bear is to never quit fighting it because it can sometimes be discouraged if the defense is vigorous and unrelenting. This from a man who killed one with a 5 shot .38 caliber revolver when it was stalking his 5 year old son. With the last round in the chamber. He now carries the same defense weapon as I do, a SS Ruger Security Six with a 4" barrel in .357. Unlike myself he has taken several bears with his. I hope to never fire mine with evil intent, but it's nearby at all times when outdoors.

Drew wrote: <That would be a blast. Any way of actually targeting them, or is it most often chance that causes one to hook and catch one on a long rod?> Geez! That question aroused a memory of an article in an outdoor magazine (maybe Outdoor Life---maybe NOT!) 20-30 years ago by Byron Dalrymple (anyone remember him?) about targeting Channel Cat with (IIRC!) Woolly Boogers on the clear, spring-fed streams in the Texas Hill Country. Dunno how you'd run it down but then I'm not a good 'Googler'. I've picked up a few by sheer accident over the years---mostly on nymphs and Boogers IIRC. CC

'Clean' farming practices that have virtually eliminated hedgerows and overgrown fencelines has been one of the worst things that ever happened to our small game and upland gamebirds. Not only did the fencerows provide unexcelled habitat but it also provided cover for migration, breeding and rearing and a diverse plant community that produced a bounty of food for the native species. The introduction of Fescue has hardly helped as it doesn't provide usefull cover as do native plants and grasses. Like gonefishing I have given up Quail hunting and for the same reason. Even though I have planted a lot of food sources for small game and birds, built brushpiles and allowed as much overgrown brushy areas as I can prevent my wife from mowing we simply have too many coyotes in the area. I saw a pair of Quail cross the backyard a couple of weeks ago but I've only seen a single rabbit so far this year. With the increase in coyotes I no longer see the occasional Bobcat and it's been several years since I've seen a Fox even tho we used to have a vixen who annually raised a litter in the little cave under a rock ledge on the face of the bluff. I blame most of it on the big ranch which borders me on two sides. @ 20 years ago they sprayed a defolient that killed all the deciduous trees, followed in a few years by bulldozers that piled the dead trees into huge windrows that were burned over a period of several years. After that the coyote population exploded, we started seeing more Bobcats (for a few years) on our own wooded acres and the Fox disappeared, dispossessed by the Bobcats IMO. The ranch is now a picture from some country magazine. But it is a green desert for wildlife. As to the songbirds I too have noted hearing fewer Whippoorwills and Poor Wills' Widows of late. But we still have a diverse group that nest and rear fledglings in the few acres around the house. I composed a list several years ago that I've lost but a partial enumeration would include Jays, Doves, Summer Tanagers, Indigo Buntings, Chickadees, Titmice, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Cardinals, various Woodpeckers including the Pileated, Phoebes, Wrens, Nuthatch, Barred Owl, Hummingbird, Goldfinch, Bluebirds, Crows, Brown Thrasher, Catbird and more that don't spring immediately to mind. Nor include the species that prefer the aquatic environment along the river at the foot of the bluff. I suppose that we're still among the fortunate in that respect. CC

Davy wrote: <In the UK the common house sparrow is not seen on a regular basis unless you live in the areas they choose to frequent. They are typically not a bird found in woodlands or very rural areas, but frequent more so around built up areas and farm yards.> Yep----that's the same bird. They are an urban bird, habituated to manmade architecture. I've never seen one out in the woods and fields. The male wears a disctint gray and brown 'cap' and a black bib while the female is easily confused with any number of indigenous species, being quite plain. <The demise of any indigenous species is largely the result of habitat loss, in some cases the introduction of invasive species and in other cases such as DDT or the use of chemicals that reduce the available food source.> That is a virtual universal truth. Insofar as 'trash' species I had an exellent example here last week. A Phoebe had built a nest on the bowdeck of one of the canoes I store inverted under the rafters of the barn shed. I left the shop to go to my 'beerbox' which is an old refridg under the shed. One of the babies from the Phoebes' nest was on the ground in front of the beerbox. I backed up and looked up at the nest. Sure enough all that was left was a single huge chick, the result of a Cowbird sneaking one of her eggs into the nest. When the Cowbird hatchling outgrows his nestmates he pushes them out of the nest. I just hate that!

A lot of interesting viewpoints. While I readily admit that I was raised in the South in the 40s & 50s of the past century and exposed to the prevailing opinion that Carp were 'trash' fish I learned that popular opinion is often just that---opinion, and often not based on fact. As a Sophomore in high shool during our Summer break a friend and I had a great Summer vacation by catching Carp on doughbait using flyrods on a new COE lake and selling them (unlicensed of course) on the street in a part of town our parents had warned us to avoid. We had a LOT of fun, caught a LOT of big, strong fish and earned enough for gas money to go again the next day before my friend neglected to hose out the trunk of his Mothers' '54 Chevy we were using to transport ourselves and our catch to market. The oder that quickly developed in the heat of a Texas Summer caused us to lose the use of her car and no doubt diappointed our regular clientele who were often waiting when we arrived with a trunkload of produce. A bit later in life a flyfishing buddy, as a joke, brought me a booklet published by a couple of 'professional' Carp tournament fishermen in Austin, Tx while I was recovering from a minor operation. Their enthusiasm for the sport, transmitted through their writing, infected me and after I was once more mobile I practically had to hold a gun on my fishing buddy to try out the techniques extolled in the book. The venture was highly successful and I cleaned and cooked the fish following the directions in the book. They were unexcelled as table fare and my wife went so far as to say, "You can quit bringing those Bass and Trout home". Subsequent research and reading brought the realization that our culture was possibly the only one around the globe that failed to recognize that the Carp, termed by 'Father Walton' as the 'Queen of the Waters', is one of the more challenging of aquatic quarrys. From both my own experience and my reading I now wonder why we have allowed ourselves to ignore with disdain such a challenging sport specie. Carp are quite possibly the most intelligent of the freshwater fishes. They aren't easily fooled by artifice, when hooked I am convinced that they are the strongest thing that swims freshwater in their weight class, they will wreck inappropriate or poorly maintained tackle and are a true challenge to bring to hand. One of the more difficult and challenging ventures in freshwater angling is sight-fishing for large Carp with artificials----flies or jigs being about the extent of what will work when presented with a level of care that makes dryfly fishing for big Brown trout often seem like a sport for the unintiated. I started calling them "Freshwater Bonefish" well over 30 years ago for the reasons mentioned in the preceding paragraph and I still find myself marvelling that sportsmen will max out both their credit cards and their wifes' tolerance with expensive trips to try for Bonefish in exotic locations yet ignore a fish easily their equal in their own backyard. Truly an amazing dichotomy! So tell me again why they are 'trash'.

gf wrote: <Since they decided that the MO Wildlife Code is a permissive code you are not allowed to kill anything if there isn't a specific listing for it in the code. It has bee a few years ago but I knew some people who were fined and their shotguns confiscated for shooting them. According to the agent there is no season or limit on them therefore they cannot be killed even if they are a nuisance. I don't know if the code has changed since then.> Im not a MO resident but Starlings are an imvasive species and therefore NOT Federally protected. As are the 'English Sparrow'. Both are detrimental to native birds and should be eradicated whenever and wherever possible. If the MO authorities protect them then they must be the only state in the union who do so. Can someone either verify or invalidate that? FWIW----for those who want to take on the invasive species raiding their birdfeeders I'm something of an airgun specialist so if you have questions regarding 'urban sniping' of invasive species I can probably handle the pellet-gun part of your curiosity. CC

Good news! You don't have to be a tyer to make foam spiders. At the recent Sowbug get-together I watched Rich Vogel (at least I think that's his name) who has written so many of the warmwater articles on FAOL make spiders without using any thread at all. He simply threaded the foam body onto the hook like putting on a worm. He them threaded his rubber leg material into a big-eyed needle and 'sewed' them thru the body as well. I asked why he din't glue everything together and he said he just found it easier to pull the body back up the hook if it slid down and that it was easier to him to save the fly by rethreading leg material back thru the same hole if got lost or broken. I still think I'm gonna use Superglue on them when I 'get-a-round-to-it. ;0) CC

jc wrote: <Just a thought and I know nothing about building them. But I was thinking I have seen some built with skin.> Try this <http://www.blackdogkayaks.com/>

Terry wrote <As far as specifics, you're right, Tom... There are a "bunch" of materials used and my objective would be to look at several of them to find a "good fit" for the canoe. I like the foam insulation (styrene) with a fabric (glass or other composite) cover idea. If you used the right cover material, I would say it would be good in about any water.> OK----here's a material choice you may not have previously considered, but it was 'invented' by one of the "'Godfathers' of the homebuilt aircraft world, Molt Taylor. Check it out. CC <http://members.cox.net/paperboats/>

A study found on the Missouri game & fish site reveals that @ 65% of a Smallmouths' diet is compose of crawfish. Might be worth thinking about. The same study surprised me with the fact that the diet of Goggleyes is 76% crawfish. Need more Rebel Craws & brown & green jigs in my box! CC

jcoberley wrote: <could it be this one. smile.gif http://www.boatingbuddy.com/sierra-marine-...?page=index> Nope--that's a reseller of Sierra Marine parts. The address I gave in the post above yours is the Sierra Marine home page. A lot of the better auto parts stores can order from Sierra and usually get the parts in overnight depending on how far they are from one of the distribution centers. NAPA stores are one of the major chains that are a Sierra dealer and there's at least one more major chain store that I can't recall. Or you can go to the website I posted and order a catalog for yourself. When I did that last year there was no charge----can't testify concerning current practice. CC

jd wrote: <Hey CC, what's the website address for the Sierra Boat Supply? Did a google and did not come up with it.> Sorry jd----the notify of answers feature must not be working. <http://www.teleflexmarine.com/sierra-us/>

Terry wrote: < Mandatory riparian zones (15 ft or more) on any stream of certain size or larger.> 15 feet doesn't even BEGIN to be enough. That would be a mere token to satisfy 'the letter of the law'. It might be sufficient to screen the source of the problem but is far too meager to provide filtration effect to runoff. Nor do the carefully manicured and well-fertilized sloping lawns of residential 'riparian zones' suffice in any manner. A large, thick and highly diverse concentration of vegetation is required to provide a riparian zone that is effective----the bigger the better! A quarter mile of set-back might be enough if it meets the vegetation criteria required for effectiveness.

Wayne wrote: <If I remember right they started showing up on the north side of the Red in the early 70's,> Sometime in the late '80s I was fishing the lower Mt. Fork below Beavers Bend. I took a trail down to an obscure section of river and when I got in sight of the pool I wanted to fish (for trout) I stopped to watch to see if any rises were going on. As I stood there I noted a 'Dillo down near the edge of the water. As I watched he started up the path towards me. I stood still to test the near-sightedness I'd heard of. He got to me and started sniffing my wading shoes. Musta been something in them that smelled good (cheese?) because the little sucker started trying to dig my feet out. I lost my curiosity at that point and gave him a gentle boot to send him on his way---those dang digging claws on his front feet hurt! Another 'Dillo experience on the Mt. Fork happened a bit downriver as I was hiking back upstream toward camp in the rapidly dying light at dusk. I heard a rattling in the leaves to the side of the trail and stopped to watch as a 'Dillo prepared his bed for the night. He would stand on his hind feet, gather dead leaves into a wad on his belly with his front feet and hold them there as he hopped BACKWARDS to the hole he'd selected for his bedroom. When he arrived he'd push the leaves into the hole then push them in front of him as he too descended. I watched 3 cycles of this activity before he decided he had enough and failed to re-emerge.

What you have is a real fun fishing outfit! Line it up with new line and let it take you to a brim pond or bass creek and see how much fun you both can have. The reel is nothing less than a rebadged Pflueger Medalist, one of the icons of flyfishing in America. The rod is desireable from 2 aspects---it is shorter than the average in the glass era which makes it more pleasure to use and it uses a lighter line than the vast majority of glass rods. Congratulations on the rediscovery and if you don't like it I will be pleased to furnish my shipping address.;o) CC

mtb wrote: <didnt he say that they are moving north at a rate of 7.5 miles a year or something like that> I was raised in the country (back when it actually existed () in Dallas County Texas in the '40s & '50s of the past century. While I can't recall the exact date I DO recall that the arrival of the Armadillo in North Texas somewhere in that timeframe was greeted by great surprise as prior to that time they were thought of as a Central/South American oddity. Shortly after I bought my property in N. Ark in the mid '80s a local woodsman/hunter told me with the same sort of surprise that greeted them in N. TX in my youth that he had just saw his first Armadillo in the woods. In point of fact he asked me to verify his identification. So the little semi-armored critters are moving fast in terms of adapting to new territory. Since I recall that learned opinion at one time was that they would never be able to survive cold winters North of the Red river I've started to question the 'wisdom' of the 'experts' in that regard. They may soon be surprising outdoorsmen in Canada at the rate they are moving North. CC

gf wrote: <The problem with carp is there is such a huge amount of red meat vs white meat. By the time one trims the red meat there is very little edible meat left, so a person is likely to starve to death before enough carp can be cleaned to obtain even a meager portion of edible meat.> OK---I hope no PETA-philes are reading this. To properly process a Carp to eat you need to cut off the tail with a cleaver or hatchet while still alive and hang them by their head to 'bleed out'. (Do this over your wife's flowerbeds for a bumper crop of blooms the following year) When bled out fillet them just as you would a bass, then lift out the band of red flesh along the lateral line by undercutting it with a vee notch. You can fillet out the Y bones along the backbone or score them before cooking---your choice. Soak overnight in a weak saltwater bath in the fridge for the final touch. There will be little loss to 'red meat' by this method and the flavor will be enhanced. When I prepared a big bunch this way my wife's comment after her first dinner of Carp cooked just like Catfish was "You can stop bringing home those Bass and Trout". Yep----they're that good!

gf wrote: <You guys are making my brain hurt reading your posts.> You gotta don your waders when Terry & I start trading ripostes! ) <Havent heard from you for a while CC. What have you been up to? Chaising the gals again?> I can dream! ;o) Been attending a couple of meets. Antique outboarders on Pomme de Terre a few weeks ago and a big model airplane get together at L. Rock last weekend. (where I picked up another old outboard!) With current gas prices tho my running is finished until either gas gets cheaper or I wean my van. I need someone to come and hold a gun on me and make me put the boat in the South Fork and do some fishing before it gets too hot to be fun. Other than that I've been spending a lot of time out in the shop tinkering with the old outboards or putting off finishing some rods I started over the Winter. I guess when it gets too hot in the shop I'll come inside to the AC and finish the rods.

Terry wrote: <One avenue you might consider would be using the materials used in the home built aircraft industry.> You gotta be more specific than that. Airplanes are built from everything from wood thru the most advanced composites. One of the favored techniques is fiberglass over foam and that has been used in boats also. So I'm thinking (yes---it does hurt) that forming the basic shape of the hull from the 1/4" foam insulation that is used under vinyl siding and glassing both sides might be a viable method. At least for less hazardous waters.

<darn... now my BRAIN HURTS!!!> Must be like those phantom pains that amputees suffer in missing limbs.