Gator

Can I be your nanny?

This is almost the same boat as Nothing But Net, and I can attest that it's a great fishing platform for Lady O. The Wellcraft hull can run through a three foot chop at 25 mph without beating the crap out of you. And I've launched ours myself at the Niagara river without an issue. Good luck with your sale! I'm sure it won't last long.

Steve Pearce's confirmation hearing to head the Bureau of Land Management is today. This is a guy who (along with Mike Lee) tried to sell off public lands to private interests, and his primary mandate appear to be, "Drill, baby, drill", with mining a close second. The line below is an admittedly biased take on his hearing by The Wilderness Society - but not in a partisan way. In fact, there's a quorum of hunters and ex-military joining conservationists who oppose his nomination. Makes for an interesting stew. https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/questions-steve-pearce-guide-senators#

I don't think either side has a monopoly on crazy. If you want to understand the justification for just about any major initiative, right or left, follow the $$$. No matter what, the economic divide is going to widen.

One of my buddies asked me if I wanted to go fishing "yesterday", because yesterday is the only time anyone seems to catch fish.

Yep. You can't rely on blind trust But we can't disbelieve everything, right? So we apply standards to assess the information's credibility. I love the "Ingredients List" Analogy, also known as "The CRAAP Test" Just as you look at the ingredients list, nutrition facts, and expiration date to decide if a food item is healthy, you should examine a source’s CRAAP factors: Currency (Expiration Date): Is the information up-to-date, or has it expired? Relevance (Nutritional Value): Does it directly answer your question, or is it just filler? Authority (Manufacturer): Who created this? Are they an expert? Accuracy (Ingredients): Is it supported by evidence, or is it fake? Purpose (Marketing): Is it trying to inform, sell, or persuade?

Exactly!!! I think the both of you are making the same very good point. Statistics don't tell the whole story and they can be manipulated to support an agenda as easily as not. Science, like everything else, has both good and bad actors. There's good science supported by a preponderance of evidence and bad science that's not. There are predatory journals that will publish virtually anything for a dollar. And then we have pre-publication servers like BioRxiv that folks cite as if it's peer reviewed; it's not vetted yet and shouldn't be treated as the gold standard in the field. All of this goes to support why I LOVE skepticism. I wish more people were skeptical, followed the data, thought deeply, and measured their response according to the rigor of the premise supporting their conclusions. There's a central scientific principle regarding the impossibility of knowing absolute, final truth which dictates that scientific ideas can never be proven "true" with 100% certainty; they can only be supported or falsified. Nevertheless, we do need to believe in something, or we'll never advance. Hence, we judge the reliability of the information supporting our arguments. Like the Last Knight said to Indiana Jones: "Choose wisely". And if anyone wonders where the lies, damn lies, and statistics quote came from, it wasn't a scientist. It was Mark Twain!

Woody, I'm not sure why you seem to have so much trouble with me...I have no clue who you are...but just to be perfectly clear, my comments about statistics are well known jokes. Copy-paste and Google them to confirm. They aren't offensive in any way, shape or form, and certainly weren't directed at any individual. I really have no idea what you are taking about "running your mouth". So as far as I'm concerned, we don't have a problem. Now, if you start disparaging my Quarter Pounder dreams that might be different and we will have an issue! Just kidding, Maybe.

I prefer a quarter pounder with cheese. I gain five pounds during early bow season based on my strict adherence to a "Mickie D's diet". As an anecdotal aside, we were fishing Nantucket Shoals two years ago when that big wind turbine broke off into the ocean, floating around as a 200 foot hazard just under the surface and making Nantucket beaches unusable for weeks (fiberglass shards washing up). It was quite a thing. You could hear it go...we all went, "WTF was that!?!" I am not a big fan of wind or solar. I'm also not a fan of the commercial harvesters. The board that sets limits for marine harvest is a political entity that only marginally bases their decision-making in science. Mostly it's the rec fishermen who get the short end of the stick. As for the "lies" comment...which I don't pretend to understand...did you know that studies show 70% of all statistics are made up?

I love a great discussion, particularly involving statistics (there's lies, damn lies, and statistics lol). But this train got derailed somewhere. Imma finish me morning coffee and deposit a loaf of my own....the price of which has been the same for 58 years. And then maybe I'll think about outdoor decisions. Meliora, my brothers.

Yes, sir!! My wife and I love it. The bits on the business of drilling are my favorite part. The female characters drive me nuts though. Sheridan also does Lioness, which deep dives into Special Ops and provides some perspective on the politics around oil and narcotics. Similarly a great show.

Whatever you buy him, I hope it will be the first of many!!! His future wife may curse you though...

It's not political to point out a fact: follow the money to identify the agenda. You'd don't get high up in the political food chain without making compromises, but more and more those compromises seem to be around ethical boundaries. Right, Left, it don't matter. The system is dysfunctional if not broken, and appears more and more designed to serve a select few. And I don't think that there's any doubt that wind and solar are making those select few very rich.

You and I have talked about this before, but I don't understand why we aren't employing more nuclear. I recall hearing that NYS, albeit slow out of the gate, is planning on developing a Gigawatt of nuclear power - unfortunately, it will be 2040 before this initiative pays off. We're not Japan; we aren't going to have earthquakes and Godzilla lol. Well, apart from that one across the lake this week...

I know that's true! The push for wind and solar power is NOT BENIGN. There's a bunch of fly by night outfits looking to make a quick buck and ignoring all else in the pursuit of $$. It makes me sick to pass by some of these projects and remember that what we've lost is gone for at least my lifetime. And our state subsidizes their greed...

Snow on the ice such as it is makes for no bueno on my knees. Prior to the snow I fished Oneida with good success off Chapmans last Wednesday, and managed to reach the deeper water on the South end of Honeoye Saturday evening just before the storm. A chartreuse jigging rap got hit consistently with a bunch of big perch and three walleye coming to the hole. All released, and no, not into hot oil

Somebody should jump on this.

Individual embroidered satchels custom made for me by a one eyed Trappist monk in Saskatchewan

I like this stuff, Rob, but wonder whether you have some idea for rod socks to fit ice fishing rods? Scotty and I were just talking about this over the weekend. The woven tubing is okay, but if you leave a jigging rap attached to the hook keeper, you're catching it. I've also seen neoprene socks for ice rods...they seem bulky. I don't feel like there's a great commercially available solution yet.

As usual, the depth and breadth of your experiences continues to astound. I hope you appreciate that you are living your best life! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Great Googly Moogly, Manny! My wife said that buck must need physical therapy from having to hold it's head up. Congrats on the buck of a lifetime and a great shot. You DID sight that gun in well! And nice synopsis of a season. Nothing wrong with passing on big bucks. I tell my guys shoot whatever makes you feel good, or not. Unfortunately, over the years I've seen a bunch of big bucks I've passed get hit by cars, but as much as it sucks, it really doesn't impact what's a very personal choice.