chowder

I'll be back out there after waterfowl/turkey/bow season,etc winds down with my little 165 Alumacraft which will be sporting a new full canvas enclosure and a new Raymarine AP.Till then happy trails to all! -Andy

Med size lakers from the Fingers are very tasty IF they have been kept cold from start to finish. I smoke the larger lakers , and all L.O. lakers & they are awesome that way! There are several different strains of lakers and this does impact the flavor some but the biggest way to insure good eating is to gill and gut and ice promptly and to remove the mudline after filleting or pick up your blade a hair when doing the skin side so you leave the dark meat w/ the skin. -Andy

Sorry for your loss Ray. I know how you feel because we lost our awesome dog also named Riley last May 3rd. Here is what I wrote for our Riley to celebrate his life: A lament for Riley Riley has died and I buried him under the new,fresh grass of this morning, the third day of May. I buried him next to the old cow bones he so loved to paw through and roll in. All Riley asked of us in life was to be allowed to run carelessly across the street to smell deer at twilight and bark at the moon.

Get a couple Daiwa Excelers. I have multiple spools for these reels and use them for everything from river fishing to small mouths. The Excelers have an excellent drag and they have held up very well.

Way to go!

I'm 6'2" 220lbs & the eliminator just seemed too short but we'll do some revamping before ducks, next weekend it's turkey time anyway!

Didn't hit em quite as good today but still wound up with a nice bunch. We got a pair of the Final Approach Eliminator blinds on sale for $90 bucks last week and although they certainly made things much drier and more comfortable we need to do some work to get them right for us. Ours are 'Prairie' which will work nice w/ stalks once we get onto the corn pieces but for grass the way we rigged our burlap covers made it take to long to reset so our best flock wound up not committing. I need another one and I do want another light weight unit so I'm looking at the Avery Power Hunter. The Power Hunter looks like it has a better head cover for taller,bigger people which would be good for me. -Andy

Sorry to hear about the motor issues Ken. Good to hear you are back on the water! -Andy

Great pic!

It seems a bit hard for me to accept that we really need to divide the state into one set of regions for geese and another totally different set of regions for ducks.

Never shot this stuff before but wow, it's AWESOME! 2 man limit in 1 1/2 hours this morning.Took a while to find the last two but overall we found these loads in BB to shoot well out of these 'I-drive' auto loaders thru a a mod. choke for field geese.Getting the smoker ready now! -Andy

Forgot to mention that if I'm taking an archery hunt seriously I always brush w/ baking soda. Another thing to remember about all this stuff is that humid,low pressure, conditions greatly facilitate a white tail deer's olfactory senses, while dry,high pressure conditions diminish their ability to pick process scent. Back when I targeted mature bucks exclusively I noticed that several bucks I hunted would simply avoid moving very much at all on very dry days.

Tighten the screw to engage the worm gear more aggressively. If this doesn't solve the issue then email Tuna Tom. You may have to replace the worm gear pack and you will want to use his aftermarket kit-way better than original! -Andy

Very thankful for BW's attention to detail on the flasher hardware,fly rigging & hooks. Our big fish this fall ripped the dipsy so hard I thought the rod holder was gonna tear out of the track & then later it tried to pass the boat and things got very dicey as me & my son were passing rods back & forth trying to get the beast to net. An epic father & son bonding event -THANKS!

Shower w/ 'Dead Down Wind' (DDW), dry yourself w/ a towel that was washed in DDW. Put on clean understuff washed in DDW. DO NOT PUT ON YOUR CAMO LAYERS YET. Keep a scent free towel on your seat & drive to parking spot. Toss down a non scented mat and put on the rest of your costume (I try to keep fresh face masks & gloves (yep, washed in DDW) for my earliest hunts (or till I've killed a couple & don't really care as much!). I'm also careful to; a.) -put on a 2cd pair of scent free socks after parking. b.) always leave your boots wrapped in scent free plastic bag-never wear anywhere except to go in to stalk or stand. c.) keep outer layers in one scent free bag and inner layers in a seperate scent free bag. Keep back pack in another scent free bag. Wash these parts of your costume regularly, especially if it's warm. WALK IN WITH THE MINIMUM ON, this keeps perspiration & scent to a minimum. Rest of stuff stays in back pack till you cool off (good idea to put on a head cover asap & prepare for shot opportunity asap) d.) spray down boots, bow,arrows etc w/ DDW Next step is to proceed to stands or stalking area in a manner that avoids allowing your scent (especially foot tracks -that's right , remember YOU STILL STINK!) to deter prey that may travel to or from your hide. NEVER hunt a spot with wind traveling towards your preys most likely travel route.ONE TIME DOING THIS AND THAT SPOT IS SHOT FOR HUNTING MATURE BUCKS - THEY DON"T MAKE VERY MANY MISTAKES! IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE A LOT OF PREP & WORK - IT IS, and that's why I don't carry on like this very much anymore. But when I did I was able to target and kill mature bucks on a fairly regular basis as long as I kept the protocols the same and hunted productive territory smart & often. Now I hunt much more with my kids and although we follow as many of these guidelines as often as possible, I am no longer a big buck 'nazi' but I am a happier man. Good Luck! -Andy

Hey Scott, am I supposed to handle getting my crew's name plate for the LOU-ALL trophy? Not sure where/who to get in touch with. Thanks, -Andy

Early on here in 7M we have lots of fairly small groups w/ a few adults & a lot of juveniles. We can usually get em in w/ a pretty small spread. If you can take the adults when they first commit, it's often 'game over' for the whole lot!

Heartbreaking story but it's why we keep going back for more. Thanks for sharing! I was in Juniors getting our 34+ out of the freezer when you guys were parked with the boat out front. I recognized the boat's name & tried to get out & introduce myself but you had already pulled out and around to Woody's. Hopefully you will even up the score with that fish or another one. -Andy

Great Pics and description of the action. Great job of picking the situation apart! -Andy

I Just did 10 fish like this and they came out awesome! Fillet kings & remove skin n' bones (I cut fillets in half so they fit on my grates) This Brine recipe will cover two 20lb salmon that have been filleted & cut in half if you soak em in a large turkey roasting pan. I refrigerate the brine and use it on at least 2 more fish as long as it's not too warm out or you have room in the fridge for the brine pan. ok, mix up the following; 3 qts water 1 cup sea or kosher salt 1 cup molasses 1 cup sugar 2 tsp Cayenne pepper 2 tsp Coriander 2 tsp Paprika 6 Bay leaves Brine the fish for 2 hours Set the pieces on the grates & grind fresh coarse black pepper on them Dry the fish till pellicle forms (about an hour or 2) + start drinking beer Now get the smoker going. Smoke fish w/ alder or apple wood @ about 200-215 deg. 4 big fillets take 2-4hrs depending on outside temp. DON'T OVERCOOK! I do like my gas fired, water smoker because it can be left alone while you go out & find more people who will go & get beer and then come back to help you with all this 'work'. Repeat process till all the salmon is gone except the fillets you are gonna either grill or batter & deep fry or bake. I vacuum seal my smoked salmon and freeze it. Usually serve cold w/ sour cream & some kind of good crackers.

Those who like things simple will like this one: Fillet out a nice coho, remove skin n' bones slice the fillets the long way & then in half and put in a zip lock bag shake up a jar of Dinosaur Grill 'Mojito' and pour a goodly amount in n' over the fish Squeeze the air & mix the marinade well into the fish, leave em in there most of the day I find that a gas grill w/ plenty of BTUs turned up to 2/3 works best to sear the fish I rotate the fillets to keep them cooking evenly. DON'T OVERCOOK!! serve w/ sweet corn and dirty rice. forgot to add that another nice variation on this theme is to use Peppercorn Parmesan Ranch dressing instead of the Mojito. Actually, on more delicate fish like a FLX atlantic, I prefer the white sauce.

If you are going to use this setup on L.O. you should have 900' of 30lb power Pro for backing, maybe you could get away with 600' if you like to tempt fate. I don't think you are quite gonna get 500' copper + the backing on that 55 series-that might be your problem. Maybe like 400-420' tops. Also, I'd replace the factory clicker pawl w/ one from Tuna Tom at some point too, they can have a habit of whimping out if you use them a lot. My 2 cents anyway... -Andy

Great looking rig Scott, enjoy it -Andy

Looks like a top notch day for a top notch crew! Way to go Vic,Tom,Dustin,Joey, and Hank! -Andy

Big Dave, our pop up was in Site 23, the last site on the dead end driveway(good thing I used to drive tractor trailer cuz it was really pretty tough backing up in there) . Next year all the LOU folks should tie a piece of lime green surveyors tape to their boat & trailer - I kept thinking to myself that I was probably walking by fellow LOU members day after day! Chris- Boys have first track meet next weekend + they are all about hammering on the geese now! I'll call you about getting on the bows in couple weeks.