Gator

You and me both, Rob. This was to be the year that I pushed out to 50+ yards to practice...I figured shooting 50 would make 30 a chip shot. Then I got some poison ivy below my eye. Next thing I know, my eyes are tearing and I'm on steroid eye drops. Luckily, poison ivy doesn't itch on me, it just looks like crap. Anyway, I'm lucky now to be able to group them tight at 20 yards. There's always one arrow that's off, although Keith mentioned that I should mark that arrow and determine if it's the same one that's off each time, which is a good idea. I'm where you are at 35 yards, okay but not great. 50 isn't even on the table. Hopefully the eyes will calm down and I'll be able to shoot further soon.

Thiaminase breaks down thiamine, which is more commonly called vitamin B1 and is an essential nutrient. Alewives are high in thiaminase. Trout that eat alewives can experience vitamin B1 deficiencies, which leads to reproductive failure. It's species-specific and depends on how much of the diet is comprised of alewives, among other things.

I will probably have ~20 chestnut seedlings left after plantings. They're not the strongest of the lot, but if anybody wants to try some fall planting of containerized Chinese hybrids, let me know. I highly advise if you do plant them to tube them or they'll be deer chow before the winter's over. If nobody wants them then I may heel them in rather than throw them away, but with my clay soil I'm not even sure they'll survive and I'm reluctant to plant any more than I already have. I'm in Rush, NY.

I'm going to play devil's advocate. My way of thinking is that if you need to make an immediate impact, you alter the variable with the fastest turnover. Let's stretch the facts to make a point. If Kings only lived for one year, then any reduction in stocking would obviously make an immediate impact on their prey, right? But for long lived species, reductions get diluted by the existing pool of eating machines that you can't easily control. So, if we have an immediate rather than long term problem such as DEC suggests, kings are the logical target. Doesn't mean I like it...but I find it hard to argue with their reasoning. Like you, I'm hoping for a best case scenario and a good spawn this spring. We were lucky enough to be graced with good king fishing for a long period this summer, but many other ports didn't apparently fare as well. And when they were gone, they were gone. I think there's some merit to the idea that the populations themselves have become more stratified, which makes keeping track of numbers that much harder...

I get what Brian says about detail. You can spend lots of time on the water and not do much catching if you're not paying attention to details...RichS: I'm not saying that's the case for you, just saying. Unfortunately, I know that it is in fact the case personally. I love my time fishing and hunting, but it's about defocusing for me. I spend enough time sweating the details at work that I'd go nuts if I couldn't unwind at play. Of course, my friends probably think that I'm anal about details...they should work with me I have enough experience to know that small changes to a pattern can make a big difference, but if I'm taking some shots my feeling is generally, "this is good enough for me". I know that I could catch more fish paying attention to small details. Brian has a unique ability to fine tune, be it trolling or ice fishing, and it pays off. For those who want to go the extra mile, climbing on board somebody's boat who is very successful and seeing what exactly they actually pay attention to can be a fantastic learning experience. Sometimes it's not just about recognizing he possibilities but about being able to prioritize the possibilities on the fly and dial it in that makes the difference between a good day and a great one.

I put in ten Dunstan last Spring, bare root from Chestnut Hill Tree Farm. Nine leaved out, 90% not bad. Three of the tubes got knocked over and the trees browsed over the winter. However, the remaining trees, which looked great last fall, didn't continue growth from the main leader. Some of them resprouted from the roots, but it's not vigorous growth. I have clay soil, and even though I selected the site for good drainage, chestnut don't like wet feet. So my experience with Dunstans has been less than stellar. I have hope for the Chinese that are going in this fall.

Yep. Wrap, tube, fence. Fertilize. Spray. Done that. Got to have good stock and a little rain though. It's all fun. Agree on Saratoga. Missouri's state nursery is fantastic too.

We put in Keiffer Pears from Lowes this Spring (Grow Your Own brand), and for <$20 each they look fantastic. We also put in Asian Pears from the Garden Factory and all but one died. I think that they must have taken recent transplants and dumped them in large pots...most of the substrate fell off when we were transplanting. Nothing beats a good root system. Anyway, I need one more this fall to pollinate the remaining tree. Otherwise,the hundred or so chestnut and red oak that I propagated since February (as per the pics) will going in, along with a bunch of containerized stuff from Jim Engel at White Oak Nursery. Most of what I planted last fall from him has survived the drought, so he has good stuff. My main objective is to increase diversity on the property. As for food...there's bunches of wild apples, so I don't lack for soft mast. Half of the place was a tamarack plantation though, so there's not much else except some silver maple, pin cherry, black cherry and stupid ash that's going to be a pita over the next few years.The other half is thick with dogwood and has a bit more diversity going. It's a nice piece of property, but not without it's challenges.

I read about Miscanthus on one of the forums. It seems worth a shot if you need fast cover. I'm in a different boat. I have tons of cover, but I could use more food, specifically hard mast. Given tree's slow growth, It may be a few years until that happens... Like 30. And only if my oaks and chestnut grow. Maybe my grandkids will reap the benefits someday. More likely though the trees I plant now will end up harvested to make way for a new China Buffet or some such thing! I guess you do it cause you love it.

It will make the time that you do get to spend in the woods that much more special. I love hunting, but it's funny how the things that we prioritize change over the years. I used to be a dyed in the wool duck hunter. I'd start practicing calling months before season, plan the Northern and Southern openers well in advance, hunt 4 days a week in graduate school. Opening Day was sacrosanct. Then life intervened. I'm not saying that those times weren't precious. I look back and it makes me feel good. But i hardly duck hunt now for various reasons (lost a dog, lost some spots, friends stopped hunting, etc...) and it's not the crushing blow that I thought it would be. Bowhunting has filled it's place, but even with new land last year I recognize that bowhunting too is not the end all and beat all. I mean, yeah, it's worth giving up sleep, food and work for two months, but other than that? Seriously though. Prioritizing your wife will pay off dividends long after bowhunting has lost some of its luster. You chose...wisely.

Awesome shot, Rob! I'm looking forward to this thread. Last year was my first hunting our new property and I spent most of my time learning about deer movement patterns and how to most effectively access different areas. I also found myself thinking about habitat work when I should have been paying attention to deer...I never figured that I'd get so into it, but it turns out that I really enjoy the effort, even when I know that most of it won't pay off for me in my lifetime. That having been said, this Spring was a bust. We lost a significant portion of our conifer plantings, although the shrubs (ninebark, arrowwood, etc...) have hung on. I probably won't know the real extent of damage until next year, when it's apparent whether or not the "survivors" took up enough energy to leaf out in the Spring. The bottom line is that putting ~1600 plants in the ground--and protecting most of them--may have been a waste of time. And I'm looking forward to planting hardwoods this fall and more stuff next Spring. Crazy, eh? I have ~100 hybrid Chestnut trees that I've been growing since February that are currently in Rootmaker 1 gallon pots and will get planted and tubed/caged as soon as the autumn rains start in September. Other than that, I'm trying to increase diversity with a laundry list of stuff to replace the invasives that have met their demise at the end of my chainsaw. With the help of a dab of Tordon. I haven't plotted yet, but I may recruit some of the expertise that I know is on this forum to help next year in establishing some small kill plots. Just too much to do and not nearly enough time.

That's cheating! There's nothing that doesn't taste good wrapped in bacon! We used to cut 2 liter soda bottles in half at an angle and paint them gray and black. You could make lots of decoys that way, and they were really light to carry. I'd hate to be a white pigeon. Easy target in a flock...