nboucher

I once spent two February weeks by myself in a cabin off a pond in New Hampshire. I was snowed in just about the entire time and had to get around on skis and snowshoes. The cabin had electricity & running well-water & a wood stove for heat. It was an amazing experience, but what I had the most trouble with at first was how loud the silence was. I know that sounds odd, but we are so used to ambient sound that when there is no sound at all for an extended period, you can actually feel it in your ears. I started talking to myself to break it up. This is nothing compared to Into the Wild, of course, but it was stranger than I expected. I also got to spend a week once in the weather station on top of Mt. Washington in NH, also in February. That was a blast. The crew up there was great. We had to go out every hour or so and rap the ice off the anemometer so the crew could get accurate windspeed readings. Once we did this when the wind was just over 100 mph; any exposed flesh would be instantly frostbitten. Another guy and I would go off for short hikes during the day. You had to have an ice ax with you at all times because you regularly got blown over and you needed the ax to arrest your fall. The sunsets alone made it worthwhile, though. Once, at winter mountaineering school, I met and hiked with Guy Waterman, who with his wife, Laura, was kind of a legend in the NH White Mountains. They lived off the grid and did more to maintain the trails up there than anyone. When he as about 70 or so, he was diagnosed with a fatal diseaseI don't remember which, but I think it was cancerand he discussed with his wife how he wanted to die. One winter morning, he said good-bye to her and set off to hike up Mt. Lafayette, his favorite mountain. His wife knew what he was going to do up there, and she knew she couldn't stop him. When he got to the top of Lafayette, he found a comfortable spot in the snow and ice and he lay down, went to sleep, and died. His wife called some friends, and they went up and got his body. Not a bad way to die. A writer named Chip Brown wrote about about Guy's life and death in a book called Good Morning Midnight. Here's a link to it: http://www.chipbrown.net/midnight/reviews/newyorktimes.html

Interesting comments. Far from being bothered by anti-anglers, I'm always surprised how supportive most people are over my fishing addiction. I work at a university and live in a town that I'm sure has a lot of anti-hunters and anti-anglers, but not a single person has ever tried to discourage me. No doubt a few think less of me because of the time I spend on the water with a fishing pole, and there are a few people with whom I sense I should just avoid the subject, but the vast majority of people at least pretend to be interested in my fishing stories. I think even people who are squeamish about fishing like to see their friends and acquaintances doing something that makes them happy. Heck, I've even had one family on a pond I fishpeople I'd never spoken to beforeoffer to let me keep my kayak in their garage so I wouldn't have to haul it over every time I go fishing there. I think the loudmouths get all the publicity, but I'm convinced that most people are tolerant and friendly at heart. Except for jet skiers, that is.

Went out to my local pond here in Southeast Mass yesterday from 2:30 to 4. Was in a kayak, and it was blustery and the air temp was dropping, but I just had to wet a line for the first time this year. Water temp was 44. Tried a jig for a while, but got nothing. Switched to what has become my favorite early spring bait: a gold Husky Jerk. Very soon after, I landed my first LMB of the year: 3lb, 10oz. Caught a second, much smaller LMB shortly afterward, then headed home. That HJ (any color with some flash will do) has produced some quality fish early in the season for a few years now. The key is to work it slow: let it sit and then give it a twitch to show the flash. That's usually when they hit it. Once the vegetation comes in, I put it away until next March . . .

Let's do it. This summer. I'll even take you to Fenway.

Best baseball around is the Cape Cod league. You gotta get up there.

Dominick, long time not talk. Your post saddened me, because you're an old-school fan and have been around game for a long, long time. Baseball needs exactly your kind of fandom right now. Every complaint you have is right on. I couldn't agree more. But baseball is the best game ever invented, and when that first batter steps into the box at the top of the first, all that BS falls away, and the game on the field is as magical as ever. To me the best analogy is with democracy. Sure the politicians are crooked, lazy, self-interested, paid off by lobbyists, etc., but it's still the best form of government ever invented, and I ain't walking away from it. Don't let the *** win, man. Don't walk away.

I fish out of a kayak a lot and out of a canoe some. I prefer a kayak, though there are pluses and minuses to each. The big enemy of both is wind. If you fish alone, the greatest challenge is not getting blown out of the strike zone. Kayaks have the advantage of being lower in the water, and so are not quite as susceptible to wind as a canoe. However, a lot of people feel more cramped in a kayak. My kayak has a fish finder hooked up to it and a rod holder for storing my rod out of harm's way when I'm paddling. I also have a drift sock I can toss over the side to help control for wind. For solo fishing, a kayak is easier to control, in my experience. Norman

http://www.fws.gov/okefenokee/ You'll have to canoe, but you'll never forget it. That time of year you'll probably hear gators bellowing. It'll creep you out. If you don't want to canoe, Everglades National Park is fun. The campsites at Long Pine Key campground are great.

Too bad about the credits, but an enjoyable show nevertheless. Glenn, how often are conditions that tough out there? Norman

Couldn't you just see a basement remodled by Krenov. It would be full of beautifully made but totally useless objects d'art. Give me a Sam Maloof rocking chair any day. Very funny. Krenov has his place, though I don't quite understand why he is as influential as he's been. I suspect it's because he was such a great teacher. His students seem to revere him. Maloof is great, and I really like George Nakashima, whose Soul of a Tree is a really nice read with great photos (to get back on topic here) . . . Of course, when it comes to finishing a basement, Norm Abram is still your best bet.

Couldn't you just see a basement remodled by Krenov. It would be full of beautifully made but totally useless objects d'art. Give me a Sam Maloof rocking chair any day. Very funny. Krenov has his place, though I don't quite understand why he is as influential as he's been. I suspect it's because he was such a great teacher. His students seem to revere him. Maloof is great, and I really like George Nakashima, whose Soul of a Tree is a really nice read (to get back on topic here) . . . Of course, when it comes to finishing a basement, Norm Abram is still your best bet.

I love to read. When I was a boy, all I did in my spare time was fish and read, sometimes at the same time. I'm on a Mark Twain kick and am reading his stuff that I didn't have to read in school. Finished Roughing It not too long ago and am now reading The Innocents Abroad. The guy has me laughing out loud. I'm also dipping into the anthology published by Sports Illustrated titled Great Baseball Writing, which contains some of the best baseball features SI has ever published. Great stuff. It's my spring training. Finally, I'm always reading some kind of woodworking or carpentry book. Am working on James Krenov's A Cabinetmaker's Notebook and Remodeling a Basement (not by Krenov), which is my next big carpentry project. About Hemingway and Faulkner: Both are great great writers, but they are very different. Hemingway's sentences are short and direct, while Faulkner's are long and convoluted. IMHO, Faulkner's the better writer, but some of his books can be rough going. If you haven't read his short story, "The Bear," it's a good place to start. Both these guys were obviously excellent sportsmen. Norman

And Rondo's taking it to the hoop a lot more aggressively this year.

Anyone see the game last night? Better game than the Christmas Day matchup, but lousy officiating. KG fouling out was key.

Joe Paterno has always prided himself on the grad rate for his players at Penn State, too.

This might also help: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1146627073

I can't believe I find the time to watch these shows, but I can't help myself. I like Zona cuz he's a Yankee and so represents that us Northern folk can get pretty excited about bass fishing, too. Bill Dance himself couldn't believe how well he was doing with those big cats. At one point in the show, Zona asks him why he is so good, and Dance appears befuddled by his own skill. "I'm lucky," he says . .

I was on the Fork trip two years ago, and want to reinforce what others have said about how much fun these trips are. The company is great, and all that time just fishing is the best teacher of all. Due family stuff, work, and lots of time renovating some rooms in the house, I haven't been on the boards much over the last year. But I just checked the Southwest site and there are indeed some great deals on flights to Nashville right now. I still don't know if I can get awayI've promised the family a big family trip this yearbut I'm sure going to try. Norman

Sure, but drilled here doesn't mean the oil stays here. The market is global, and oil companies will maximize their return. Look at what's happened with timber: our best logs now are loaded onto ships and sent to markets overseas. Forcing raw materials to stay in the U.S. smacks of protectionism, which is a very unpopular word among a lot of people. America First and Free Enterprise don't always go together. As for Avid's suggestion of turning the oil business into a public utility, if health care reform can be labeled socialism, imagine what fun the pundits will have with that one! No, the real problem, IMHO, is that sloganeering now passes for thinking, and political slogans pass for real thought. Which is why there's such a shortage of new ideas out there. Both parties make sure they are ridiculed into oblivion before the ideas can gather any traction. Okay, are we getting political now??

Proud to be a member. Maybe we should get hats.

Just skimmed this thread quickly at lunchtime, but it seems to me you guys are forgetting that more than ever the market for oil is international, not just national. To the extent that gas prices in the U.S. are based on oil pricesand the correlation is not an entirely direct onethe skyrocketing demand for oil in Asia is here to stay and will only grow. Free markets in a global economy will mean more short-term volatility in oil prices and permanently higher prices in the U.S. The relationship between supply and demand is becoming much more complicated. Don't forget: oil companies exist not to provide U.S. consumers with the lowest possible gas prices but to return the maximum financial return to shareholders. Which means a lot more global speculation and a rush to meet demandin Asia.

Experiment. I often begin with a Zoom horny toad to see if I can get any topwater action around pads and other cover. If it's not there, or after it dies down, this year I've been switching to various plastics, often a baby brush hog, a Lake Fork creature, or a Zoom 6-inch lizard. Because there are a lot of lily pads on my home water, I'll usually put a one-eighth-ounce tungsten bullet weight ahead of the plastic to allow it to drop into holes in cover more easily. If none of that is working, I'll switch to crankbaits at various depths to cover a lot of water and to get me information on where the heck the fish are that day. My home water is a fairly small pond; on bigger, deeper water I've had success using a Carolina rig as a search bait. The key is to try various things to figure out how the fish are positioned on a given day. I was out Sat. afternoon, for example, and the bass on my pond were as shallow and tight to cover as I've ever seen them. I had to cast near dropoffs in structure, right to the edge of vegetation, which was in flower. Maybe the flowers were attracting insects, which were attracting baitfish. All I know is that I practically had to hit the bass on the head with my casts, but once I hooked them they were feisty, acting almost like smallies . . .

Not online much these days, so it took me awhile to see this good news. With BR growing so quickly, it's great to see Muddy and Avid back to bring it some continuity. Great to see your posts again, Avid.

The body has been retrieved. 39 years old. Rest in peace.

Last time I was at my local Bass Pro Shop, there was a largemouth in the aquarium that had jerkbait hanging from its lip. (Somebody demo-ing a lure?) I watched it for a few minutes, and it acted no differently than the rest of the fish in there.