jdmidwest

Could not find a straight piece of balsa of the right size? Probably the rocker helped the walk action.

Or a big batch of chiggers...

Mashing the barbs down helps. A good pair of pliers usually shakes them off over the water for me pretty easy. Trout are pretty fragile, letting them bounce around on a gravel bar does not help them. Probably worse than hooks.

What caused the little trout to die on the gravel? Did not catch that one.

Turkeys can inflict damage when they are crippled. I have been spurred and thumped with a wing. The thump with a wing feels like a baseball bat in full swing hitting you. Sucks when it hits you on the calf of the leg or a knee. I have walked up and stomped down on the head with a good heavy boot to finish off. That final flopping can get pretty serious. And like my boss found out, sometimes they are not as hurt as they appear and long from dead. Shotgun blasts at close range are just too messy and ammo is expensive. I usually carry some low brass stuff with me for a snake or a cripple turkey now. Deer are dangerous, the hooves can get you bad too.

Had the turkey won, they would have found the victim dead from a gunshot in the field with murder weapon nearby. That would have been a cold case forever, nobody would have guessed what killed him...

Is that a tree hook for a boat?

Sullivan got hit with golfball size, got 6 cars at my friends house. Farmington was hit with baseball hail.

My favorite was the minnow harness, a wire snap pin looking thing that has a blade in front. You stabbed a minnow on the wire and closed and it made a swim bait with trebles off the thing. If I can find it I will post a pic. One of his guide books had a way of preventing bed bugs at camp. Put the legs of the bed into coffee cans filled with DDT, that would take care of the bed bug problem. I collected the whole series and they set in my library of outdoor books. I took the time to read them all.

True story, you can't make stuff up like this one. Boss comes in late to work this morning packing a shotgun into the office. Not an unusual start to the day around there, guns are a favorite thing to discuss in the morning at my office. He points out how dirty his new Beretta is and starts a conversation with myself and the other salesman. He grabbed a hunt on the way to work this morning at a local family farm. Hops out of truck and finds a gobbler about 50 yards out in strut. Pulls down on it with his new Beretta and its new Indian Creek custom choke and lets loose. Gobbler down and flopping. Not a clean kill, so he sprints out to the bird. Not being as faithful to the gym anymore, he is out of breath when he reaches the gobbler and lays the gun down in the open field probably to get the phone out for a glory photo, that part was hazy. He assumes the turkey is dead at this point since it has stopped flopping. The turkey sees a large man running at him and decides to flatten out to make it look like its hidden. It seizes the opportunity of distraction, get up and runs its neck thru the sling of the new Beretta. It catches the gun and the turkey is in full throttle across the open field and has a head start. Boss realized turkey is taking off, with his shotgun dragging behind it, and takes pursuit, still out of breath from last sprint. Somewhere in that chase, he remembered something vital to the story. The gun is still loaded and in the excitement, the safety is still off. He altered his course and got the bird and the gun. Rattled, he left the beard on his truck cover and it blew off somewhere on the way. All he could really remember was that goofy bird running along with that shotgun bouncing up and down behind it. The gun had blood soaked sling where it attached to the buttstock and pieces of turkey skin and fat. Mud on the stock from the field and in the vents of the custom choke. I am pretty sure that really happened.

Outdoor Life did an article on George Leonard Herter many years ago and I started collecting more of his stuff. I have a collection of his books, some lures, some reloading equipment, fly vises, and a Herter Single Action Revolver in 22 lr. He was the sportsman of the past.

I clip my tails and salt the butt, then hang to use for a trap. Work pretty good for the nosey ones.

If that does not work, harass them until they leave. Shoot but don't hit the bear, it will be scared and run off.

That was a 1980-90's thing around here, Taum Salk and Perry County lakes had them. Never knew if they put them back in Taum Salk after it flooded out.

Roundabouts or homeless? Both are a scourge on society....

Maybe it will teleport to a better place.

Even the bass are getting dumber like people. I caught a big Goggle Eye one time 4 times off a bed with the same fly one day long ago when I had more time. But it got wiser finally.

Or it blew out a hole somewhere and relieved the pressure.

https://water.usace.army.mil/overview/nwk/locations/hast Maybe the Warsaw tornado screwed the gauge.

That is what I am seeing on everything. Been topped at 738' for a while. Wonder if it activated the overflow on the north side? Corps site shows top of flood at 739.6'.

That's a stretch, Yuengling Light Lager is pretty weak. I prefer Golden. Did I ever mention tourneys should be banned? Fish for fun.

Dabblemont must have taken to spoonbill fishing. Or, MDC just tagging for easy ID.

Mosquitoes any day over Buffalo gnats, they suck....

They get me around the ears and neck. I wear glasses so they must protect the eyes. I get huge welps that itch for days then get hard in center. 100x worse than a tick or mosquito. Like you, I have nets for my head. They are a month early this year, usually peak around Memorial Day. Not sure where they came from, but I wish nature would delete them.

Ticks are getting infected by foreign disease, invasive species bring it in. Over population of carrier species, fur bearers, armadillos, otters, etc. Lots of critters that were not here 60 years ago. And a buttload of deer, cameras show them suffering badly from them. Seed ticks always welped me up as a kid. When I mashed a tick in my fingernails, it smelled like the herbicide they sprayed powerlines with. My farm was covered with cows, hogs, chickens, and dogs as a kid. Fields were cultivated and pastured. Woods were pastured also and open. Now, nature has let things grow up and I mow and brush hog, underbrush getting thicker. I never get into seed ticks, mostly yearlings or mature adults. Buffalo gnat attack tonite when I mudded in tomato plants. Those viscious critters arrived a few years ago.