As we try to work out this bliog thing I'll be making posts on our Pets Unleashed blog, too.
The latest one is on the impact of this winter on deer and wild turkeys.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Friday, January 30, 2009
Preparing for the bad guys
Every Thursday (or sometimes Tuesday) evening you can find my wife, Bev, and me at Atwell's Shooting Range on Chestnut Street in Painesville.
We go there to punch holes in paper with our .22-caliber handguns - Bev's Browning and my Smith & Wesson.
It's all part of a weekly get-together with other handgun owners in an informal - but organized, if that makes sense - effort to become as familiar as possible with our shooting pieces.
The indoor program is a defensive-style shoot, using a variety of targets that in one way or another mimic a human torso.
Center-fire pistol owners fire a 25-round course while those of us who want to keep ammunition expenses down by using .22-caliber handguns fire a 50-round course.
They are timed courses and include both aiming and point-and-shoot ("rip and grip") handgun handling.
In one portion the target is "running" toward you.
The latest class is also doing the shooting in low-light conditions as a means to replicate when could happen in your home if you were to confront an intruder in the dark.
Scores are kept but only so that participants can see if they are improving.
All of which is developed and administered by Ron Paul Duning, the gunsmith at Mentor's Gander Mountain store.
For those who complete 10 of the $10 per session round, an invitation to a really great end-of-season party is in order.
While the shoots have proven helpful in developing our shooting skills and increasing our confidence level, Bev and I participate because it's just plain one heck of a good time.
You can stop by Atwell's after 5 p.m. on either Tuesdays or Thursdays. The latter typically sees smaller crowds.
New shooters are always welcome, and Ron Paul is the perfect host and helpful instructor who stresses safety and is always willing to share his considerable firearms handling knowledge.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
We go there to punch holes in paper with our .22-caliber handguns - Bev's Browning and my Smith & Wesson.
It's all part of a weekly get-together with other handgun owners in an informal - but organized, if that makes sense - effort to become as familiar as possible with our shooting pieces.
The indoor program is a defensive-style shoot, using a variety of targets that in one way or another mimic a human torso.
Center-fire pistol owners fire a 25-round course while those of us who want to keep ammunition expenses down by using .22-caliber handguns fire a 50-round course.
They are timed courses and include both aiming and point-and-shoot ("rip and grip") handgun handling.
In one portion the target is "running" toward you.
The latest class is also doing the shooting in low-light conditions as a means to replicate when could happen in your home if you were to confront an intruder in the dark.
Scores are kept but only so that participants can see if they are improving.
All of which is developed and administered by Ron Paul Duning, the gunsmith at Mentor's Gander Mountain store.
For those who complete 10 of the $10 per session round, an invitation to a really great end-of-season party is in order.
While the shoots have proven helpful in developing our shooting skills and increasing our confidence level, Bev and I participate because it's just plain one heck of a good time.
You can stop by Atwell's after 5 p.m. on either Tuesdays or Thursdays. The latter typically sees smaller crowds.
New shooters are always welcome, and Ron Paul is the perfect host and helpful instructor who stresses safety and is always willing to share his considerable firearms handling knowledge.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Lake Erie's 2009 fishing forecast
The experts with the Ohio Division of Wildlife says we Lake Erie anglers will have a good fishing season this year.
Walleye fishermen will be catching fish that mostly originate from the really huge 2003 class with these fish averaging 18 to 26 inches.
These walleye will be assisted by fish from the 2001 year class (23 to 28 inches) and the 2005 year class (17 to 20 inches).
For the lake's perch jerkers, the outstanding fishing seen in 2008 will continue into 2009. The catch will largely consist of fish from the 2003, 2005 and 2007 year classes and will range from 7 to 13 inches.
Once again the bulk of the lake's jumbo perch will be caught right here in the Central Basin.
Expect only fair smallmouth bass fishing, however, as stocks remain below Wildlife Division desired levels.
Many of those bass that are caught, though, will average 15 to 22 inches.
Steelheaders should see another good to excellent trolling season on Lake Erie as well as in its tributaries during the species' autumn runs.
Lake Erie's white bass continue their march toward greater acceptance by anglers. An excellent white bass fisheries is anticipated with many fish running between 10 to 1 inches, based upon good hatches between 2003 and 2006.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Walleye fishermen will be catching fish that mostly originate from the really huge 2003 class with these fish averaging 18 to 26 inches.
These walleye will be assisted by fish from the 2001 year class (23 to 28 inches) and the 2005 year class (17 to 20 inches).
For the lake's perch jerkers, the outstanding fishing seen in 2008 will continue into 2009. The catch will largely consist of fish from the 2003, 2005 and 2007 year classes and will range from 7 to 13 inches.
Once again the bulk of the lake's jumbo perch will be caught right here in the Central Basin.
Expect only fair smallmouth bass fishing, however, as stocks remain below Wildlife Division desired levels.
Many of those bass that are caught, though, will average 15 to 22 inches.
Steelheaders should see another good to excellent trolling season on Lake Erie as well as in its tributaries during the species' autumn runs.
Lake Erie's white bass continue their march toward greater acceptance by anglers. An excellent white bass fisheries is anticipated with many fish running between 10 to 1 inches, based upon good hatches between 2003 and 2006.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Pennsylvania hunters get to use crossbows
Sportsmen long accustomed to Pennsylvania's often antiquated and tradition-bound hunting rules may be pleased to know that the state's Game Commission has gone kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.
The commission's board gave final approval today (Tuesday) to allowing the use of crossbows by anyone during the deer and bear archery hunting seasons.
Previously, the state required only handicapped persons could use the horizontally held hunting tools.
Limitations on broadheads apply but they're matters that a crossbow hunter already deals with.
A catch to the rules is that the prohibition on the use of telescopic sights continues, though red-dot type 'scopes can be used.
Crossbows also will become legal implements during Pennsylvania's early muzzle-loading-only antlerless deer hunting season and the late season flintlock deer hunting season.
The board also reserved to itself the right to vote on the matter again before June 30, 2012.
Pennsylvania's general archery deer hunting season will be Oct. 3 through Nov. 14 and Dec. 26 through Jan. 9.
The state's general deer hunting season will begin Nov. 30 and end Dec. 12.
Other antlered and antlerless seasons will exist, depending upon Wildlife Management Units.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com
The commission's board gave final approval today (Tuesday) to allowing the use of crossbows by anyone during the deer and bear archery hunting seasons.
Previously, the state required only handicapped persons could use the horizontally held hunting tools.
Limitations on broadheads apply but they're matters that a crossbow hunter already deals with.
A catch to the rules is that the prohibition on the use of telescopic sights continues, though red-dot type 'scopes can be used.
Crossbows also will become legal implements during Pennsylvania's early muzzle-loading-only antlerless deer hunting season and the late season flintlock deer hunting season.
The board also reserved to itself the right to vote on the matter again before June 30, 2012.
Pennsylvania's general archery deer hunting season will be Oct. 3 through Nov. 14 and Dec. 26 through Jan. 9.
The state's general deer hunting season will begin Nov. 30 and end Dec. 12.
Other antlered and antlerless seasons will exist, depending upon Wildlife Management Units.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
jfrischkorn@news-herald.com
Monday, January 26, 2009
Let's go fishing (or not)
Sure it's cold. Even bitterly cold.
But that's not stopping some die-hard steelhead anglers.
The bulkhead seawall area at the end of Erie Road in Eastlake has seen considerable fishing traffic with enough parking spaces cleared for around a dozen vehicles.
Problem is, the steelhead fishing there has been really, really slow.
At least you don't have to worry about being ticketed for fishing. Eastlake's mayor Ted Andrzejewski said Monday that the city's not contemplating issuing citations.
Meanwhile, John Sima, head of Eastlake's port authority realzies that while the seawall officially closes November 1 the place still attracts a lot of winter trout anglers.
The fear is that someone is going to slip on the ice and fall into the lake; hence the city warning.
Steelheaders are doing better at FirstEnergy's East 72nd Street plant in Cleveland.
Here, the steelheaders are fishing the short hot-water discharge slip and are catching trout by using either jigs tipped with minnows or else casting spawn sacks.
A few walleye are being caught here, as well. These fish are hitting Rapala Husky Jerk crankbaits.
Stream fishermen are concentrating on the Grand River area below Harpersfield dam in Ashtabula County.
Unfortunately, on the best days the dam is over-crowded with up to 25 anglers spread out along the structure's face. That's way too many fishermen for my tastes.
Another problem is that you can walk downstream to the high shale bank and fish but that area's been taken over by some really poor sports.
Mentor's Bob Ashley has fished there and been hemmed in by pushy fishermen who let their floats and lines drift aimlessly through everyone else's water space.
They're obviously newbees, too, since they've been observed fishing with their spinning reels turned upside down.
It was a lot more fun steelheading 10 and 20 years ago when there were fewer trout but far fewer anglers fishing for them.
My plans call for a second ice fishing outing on Thursday for bluegills.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
But that's not stopping some die-hard steelhead anglers.
The bulkhead seawall area at the end of Erie Road in Eastlake has seen considerable fishing traffic with enough parking spaces cleared for around a dozen vehicles.
Problem is, the steelhead fishing there has been really, really slow.
At least you don't have to worry about being ticketed for fishing. Eastlake's mayor Ted Andrzejewski said Monday that the city's not contemplating issuing citations.
Meanwhile, John Sima, head of Eastlake's port authority realzies that while the seawall officially closes November 1 the place still attracts a lot of winter trout anglers.
The fear is that someone is going to slip on the ice and fall into the lake; hence the city warning.
Steelheaders are doing better at FirstEnergy's East 72nd Street plant in Cleveland.
Here, the steelheaders are fishing the short hot-water discharge slip and are catching trout by using either jigs tipped with minnows or else casting spawn sacks.
A few walleye are being caught here, as well. These fish are hitting Rapala Husky Jerk crankbaits.
Stream fishermen are concentrating on the Grand River area below Harpersfield dam in Ashtabula County.
Unfortunately, on the best days the dam is over-crowded with up to 25 anglers spread out along the structure's face. That's way too many fishermen for my tastes.
Another problem is that you can walk downstream to the high shale bank and fish but that area's been taken over by some really poor sports.
Mentor's Bob Ashley has fished there and been hemmed in by pushy fishermen who let their floats and lines drift aimlessly through everyone else's water space.
They're obviously newbees, too, since they've been observed fishing with their spinning reels turned upside down.
It was a lot more fun steelheading 10 and 20 years ago when there were fewer trout but far fewer anglers fishing for them.
My plans call for a second ice fishing outing on Thursday for bluegills.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Boat show navigates troubled seas
On Wednesday the Cleveland Boat Show at Cleveland's I-X Center played host to a mostly seasoned, old-timers crowd, though the aisles were pretty clear of foot traffic; typical for a mid-week afternoon matinee.
That gave me ample elbow room to look at the many boat packages - many of which were steal deals of outstanding value.
Whether it is an aluminum model for near shore angling or a more powerful 'glass version for blue-water walleye fishing, there are good prices to be had.
The problem with purchases is, says Boat Show officials, that the banks aren't letting loose on credit so that people can actually buy the recreational boat of their choice.
Pity, too, since, the only way the economy will recover and grow is if people have access to credit and feel comfortable in spending money.
Other Boat Show thoughts include that the event is smaller by about 25 percent this year with a really compacted Angler's Alley.
I also think that the $8 parking fee charged by the city is pretty high as is the $2 for a coat check.
At least the talk on Lake Erie walleye dynamics by Ohio Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist Travis Hartman was worth the 45-minute sit.
And in all fairness to the dealers displaying their wares, the general impression is that attendance is as good as could be expected for an economy that just can't seem to recover.
When economic conditions improve, I predict, then expect a watershed of people wanting to upgrade their boat or jump into the water with their first-ever boat purchase.
Question is, just how long it's going to be before we begin to see a turn-around in that economy.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
That gave me ample elbow room to look at the many boat packages - many of which were steal deals of outstanding value.
Whether it is an aluminum model for near shore angling or a more powerful 'glass version for blue-water walleye fishing, there are good prices to be had.
The problem with purchases is, says Boat Show officials, that the banks aren't letting loose on credit so that people can actually buy the recreational boat of their choice.
Pity, too, since, the only way the economy will recover and grow is if people have access to credit and feel comfortable in spending money.
Other Boat Show thoughts include that the event is smaller by about 25 percent this year with a really compacted Angler's Alley.
I also think that the $8 parking fee charged by the city is pretty high as is the $2 for a coat check.
At least the talk on Lake Erie walleye dynamics by Ohio Division of Wildlife fisheries biologist Travis Hartman was worth the 45-minute sit.
And in all fairness to the dealers displaying their wares, the general impression is that attendance is as good as could be expected for an economy that just can't seem to recover.
When economic conditions improve, I predict, then expect a watershed of people wanting to upgrade their boat or jump into the water with their first-ever boat purchase.
Question is, just how long it's going to be before we begin to see a turn-around in that economy.
- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
A listening walk (revised)
From time to time I take what I call a "listening walk."
As much as anything it is an excuse to be outdoors for a casual jaunt.
Tuesday's listening walk was a trip to the Club, a hunting-fishing-shooting parcel in Ashtabula County that me and about 500 other people are members.
On this afternoon I was the club's sole visitor, due in no small measure to the heavy slug of snow on the ground.
With my two Labardor retrievers as companions, we walked from the dog training clubhouse west to the 100-yard shooting range and back and then to the gate and back: A distance of about one mile.
Jenny Lynn and Berry often ran out of the track plowed Sunday which left a narrow guage of cleared snow.
The dogs often ran off to the sides, becoming buried up to their chest or even back in the fallen snow.
I looked for signs of deer or other wild critters, though I found none.
Not that I was surprised by the lack of hoof print activity.
It's been a tough January.
So far this has been the ninth snowiest January on record with 10 days yet to go. A total of 25.5 inches of snow has fallen this month and measured at Cleveland Hokins International Airport.
Clearly, this is the time of year that tests the mettle of wild life. It seperates those animals that will likely survive and those that will die.
It becomes the suvival of the fittest, leaving the genes of the strongest to prevail and continue the species.
Conditions likely will only get worse, too. The warm-up today will be quickly followed by a period of intense cold. That weather condition will lay down a heavy covering of crust on the deep snow.
It's tough enough for animals to plow through several inches of snow. Add a couple inches of hard crust and the chore becomes one of desperation.
Turkeys will struggle to scratch for food, state biologist Damon Greer says, and so will deer.
Even predators stand to lose. If the rabbits, mice and the like cannot get out, then hawks, fox and coyotes will go hungry. That is why we're seeing more daylight sightings of fox and coyotes while hawks are spending time hanging out around bird feeders.
All of which is a concept that is a hard nut for humans to accept, we being bent to want to help all creatures great and small. So we toss out bird seed or corn for the rascals and try to pamper them with cover and places to rest.
But nature in general and winter in particular are cruel masters on wildlife. There is only one retirement plan for deer, song birds and the like and that is death. There is no such thing as wildlife dying of old age in the field or forest.
These things I have seen on my various listening walks and where either piles of bird feathers or clumps of rabbit fur lie and where a fox, coyote or hawk prevailed.
None of happened on this listening walk, however. All I had was the gay sight of snow blowing across the Club's open fields and covering the trenches made by the snow plow.
But I know that at some other listening walk I'll run across the signs of the survivors or those critters that spent the winter huddled asleep in some burrow.
There's a lot to be said for taking a listening walk as it brings to mind the mortality of the woods and of ourselves.
As much as anything it is an excuse to be outdoors for a casual jaunt.
Tuesday's listening walk was a trip to the Club, a hunting-fishing-shooting parcel in Ashtabula County that me and about 500 other people are members.
On this afternoon I was the club's sole visitor, due in no small measure to the heavy slug of snow on the ground.
With my two Labardor retrievers as companions, we walked from the dog training clubhouse west to the 100-yard shooting range and back and then to the gate and back: A distance of about one mile.
Jenny Lynn and Berry often ran out of the track plowed Sunday which left a narrow guage of cleared snow.
The dogs often ran off to the sides, becoming buried up to their chest or even back in the fallen snow.
I looked for signs of deer or other wild critters, though I found none.
Not that I was surprised by the lack of hoof print activity.
It's been a tough January.
So far this has been the ninth snowiest January on record with 10 days yet to go. A total of 25.5 inches of snow has fallen this month and measured at Cleveland Hokins International Airport.
Clearly, this is the time of year that tests the mettle of wild life. It seperates those animals that will likely survive and those that will die.
It becomes the suvival of the fittest, leaving the genes of the strongest to prevail and continue the species.
Conditions likely will only get worse, too. The warm-up today will be quickly followed by a period of intense cold. That weather condition will lay down a heavy covering of crust on the deep snow.
It's tough enough for animals to plow through several inches of snow. Add a couple inches of hard crust and the chore becomes one of desperation.
Turkeys will struggle to scratch for food, state biologist Damon Greer says, and so will deer.
Even predators stand to lose. If the rabbits, mice and the like cannot get out, then hawks, fox and coyotes will go hungry. That is why we're seeing more daylight sightings of fox and coyotes while hawks are spending time hanging out around bird feeders.
All of which is a concept that is a hard nut for humans to accept, we being bent to want to help all creatures great and small. So we toss out bird seed or corn for the rascals and try to pamper them with cover and places to rest.
But nature in general and winter in particular are cruel masters on wildlife. There is only one retirement plan for deer, song birds and the like and that is death. There is no such thing as wildlife dying of old age in the field or forest.
These things I have seen on my various listening walks and where either piles of bird feathers or clumps of rabbit fur lie and where a fox, coyote or hawk prevailed.
None of happened on this listening walk, however. All I had was the gay sight of snow blowing across the Club's open fields and covering the trenches made by the snow plow.
But I know that at some other listening walk I'll run across the signs of the survivors or those critters that spent the winter huddled asleep in some burrow.
There's a lot to be said for taking a listening walk as it brings to mind the mortality of the woods and of ourselves.
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