End of the trout season.

Escanaba River Bank

Went out to lil' camp at the end of the day for the end of the trout season. Fished until dark. Had a couple of strikes, and hooked one but could not land it. Thus endeth the trout season.

Last cast.

Finally, a little sun

It lasted about 15 minutes.

Catching snakes

That is what Dad calls these little pikes.

Cool, gray, cloudy, windy.

But its the best weather we are likely to get, so we are fishing.

Sunset Shag Lake

click to enlarge

Gryff mobile blog departs...

...after four days of Cast & Blast fun.

We also got a little work out of HDW. The dock is out.

Drive safe.

Final Blast

I did not join the blast portion of the "Cast & Blast" yesterday.

Reportedly, the day three tally was -
6 Grouse Flushed / Three shots fired in anger.

The running blast total into day four:

Grouse 17
Hunters 0

Day Four - tried some new ground:

No flushes. No shots. But fantastic color.

Interestingly enough, upon return to camp, on the driveway into camp, standing by the side of the road, was the biggest fattest grouse we have ever seen. We stopped the car. He looked at us. We looked at him. He slowly sauntered into the woods and disappeared into the brush.
Unscored.

John McCain says horse shit during Debate

Somehow MW missed this on the DWSUWF blog....




UPDATED: 9/27/08 10:18 PM EDITOR'S (MW) NOTES:
As I said in the comments: "Obama is talking horse shit. McCain identifies it as horse shit. Sounds like straight talk to me."

Consider: If Obama wins the the election, he will have a potential 100 seat Democratic majority in the house and a potential 60/40 filibuster proof Democratic majority in the Senate. It will be the greatest concentration of power in a single man and single party in the United States in the lifetime of any one reading this blog. Why people would trust this much power to one man and one party is beyond me, but hey - Obama has the "youth vote" - who knows what hard fought freedoms these kids are willing to give up?

If you have any doubt whether single party Democratic government will be just as corrupt and just as wrong headed as single party Republican government, just look up the history of the 92-94 Congress.

Since one of the first things the Democrats will do is undermine free speech guarantees in the Constitution by passing some version of the "Fairness Doctrine" I just thought it would be a good idea to get ahead of the curve now, and provide some Divided & Balanced ™ YouTube coverage of the debate in this post:



Original Posters Note: (Roy) 9-29-08, 10:37 am EST

As I said in the comments, John McCain is 4 more years of a cowboy presidency. He does not have the cool head and good judgement to make thoughtful, rational decisions. His "straight talk express" does no good if he proclaims every thought that is going through his head. Simple truth--the Republicans have made things really bad over the past 8 years in power, John McCain supported it, and there needs to be radical government action to fix these problems. The grid lock of Divided Government will not solve the problems we face today. Lets look at the competence of McCain's #2.



UPDATED: 10/19/08 FINAL EDITOR'S (MW) NOTES:
The past is prologue. We have seen One Party Rule before. The young generation ignores the past at its peril, and is doomed to repeat it.

Meet the New Boss...

More critters

After Sasquatch cleaned the salmon, he threw the gills in the river.

Just minutes later, the crayfish closed in.

New waters - new fish

We wanted to try fishing some unexplored waters, so I hired Sasquatch, a Yooper guide I had used in the past. He has a bit of an attitude, but he knows his stuff. He suggested we go for lake run salmon in a Lake Superior tributary.

The Laughing Whitefish is narrow and shallow, with deep pools where Sasquatch believed that trout and salmon lurk. He was using a fly rod and a streamer. I do not have the skills to use a fly rod in such tight quarters, so I was using a spinning rod. We took turns casting into the pools as we came across them. At one such pool, created by a beaver dam, I took my turn and threw a few casts before launching the spinner into the upper branches of an overhanging tree. As I waded into the middle of the pool to untangle my line, Sasquatch said he would meet me further downstream and disappeared into the woods.

After a brief struggle and a few broken branches the tree relinquished my spinner. I waded up to the middle of the beaver dam, and saw there was another pool on the other side. I cast to the other side of the pool, and as I began the retrieve two shapes came out of the shadows and followed the lure. The fish struck as it approached the dam. After some splashing and cursing and fumbling to get the net detached from my vest, I landed it. A beautiful silver gray 20" salmon. Sasquatch later identified it as a Chinook or Coho. The whole thing was surreal. I never would have believed you could pull this kind of a fish out of a little stream like this.

My first ever.

Please indulge me as I over-document the progression from river to dinner:

In the river.

Formal portrait.

19 1/2 inches

Lightly marinated and seasoned.

Planked on the grill.

On the dinner table.

got two...

One more would be nice.

Explored some new Escanaba terrain...

... for the cast part of the cast and blast.






HDW has some skills in the "C" part of the "C & B".

Grouse Hunt - Day 2 Tally

Six grouse flushed (three by dog, three not by dog, five heard but not seen), no shots fired. Another successful hunt.

We broadened the hunt to try a nearby tree farm...


...and walked the edge of a clear cut parcel.

Today's Tally:
Grouse 6
Hunters 0

Cumulative 2 day score:
Grouse 11
Hunters 0

At Ishpeming Wilderness Sports

Getting Grandpa's shotgun checked out. It is a Winchester Model 1897. We learned that the gun was manufactured in 1914. Both the guy behind the counter and a collector in the store said the gun was in excellent condition. Consensus opinion - don't shoot it, except with very light target loads.

George Neumann with his Winchester 1897 shotgun at Shag Lake in 1961. I think he would be laughing at us for worrying about whether we should use the gun or hang it on the wall.


My brother took this shot of gun and dog. The Winchester1897 is on top. We subsequently got on the intertubes and learned a bit more about Grandpa's gun:

"Winchester's pump action repeating shotgun is an American Legend. Everybody knows the 1897 Winchester ... The 1897 Winchester has had several nicknames, such as the old thumbuster, and the widow maker but the old 97 is the one that stuck... it was catching on slowly before the first World War. It was still fairly popular but they hadn't sold thousands and thousands of them before the first World War broke out. In 1917 the United States joined World War I. When the U.S. Army went to war, they were scarce on weapons. What they did take was a little bit of their American styling and realism with them. They had been observing the war for the first three years and they realized how brutal trench warfare was and how much you needed close range fire power when you were in a trench... the 1897 trench gun was very effective. The nice thing about the 1897 - it was very effective when you were panicking because you could empty a five shot magazine, boom, boom, boom, boom boom, a lot more fire power than any bolt action rifle. Every time you pulled the trigger, twelve pellets of double ought buckshot came flying out the muzzle. If you did not have time to reload you always had eighteen inches of cold steel on the front.

This gun was hated by the Germans, who would kill any man on sight if they found him with a shotgun. They complained to the Hague and Geneva Conventions that we were using inhumane weapons. Up until that time they had never thought of using a shotgun in combat. Shotguns were for shooting grouse, pheasants and quail, bird shooting, gentleman's weapons, usually side by sides, very ornate, beautiful works of art... GI's who saw these things in action, however, came home and flooded Winchester with demands for them; they wanted them to hunt with. Police departments flooded Winchester with requests but wanted theirs made without the heat shield and bayonet lug on them. The 1897 Winchester became the symbol of the American hunter and the American policeman. If you saw the police doing a raid in Chicago on a bootleggers establishment, the first man through the door was armed with a 1897 Winchester. No one messed with the guy with the 1897. One guy called it the street howitzer. You could sweep out a room real quick with one of these.

Also, during the time of the Great Depression, you might be able to afford a 1897 Winchester whereas most people could not afford a fine grade double shotgun. This was a workingman's gun. GI's liked them. That's one of the reasons why the 1911 .45 and the 30.06 rifle cartridge took off so well - GI's used them."

From Wikipedia:

Unlike most modern pump-action shotguns, the Winchester Model 1897 (versions of which were type classified as the Model 97 or M97 for short) fired each time the action closed with the trigger depressed (that is, it lacks a trigger disconnector). That and its six-shot capacity made it extremely effective for close combat, such that troops referred to it as a "trench sweeper".

Critter Challenge

Last year, with the help of our loyal reader, we successfully identified a mysterious arachnid sharing our living spaces here at Camp Shag. Lets see how we do with this guy. This one is much bigger than the Thomasidae Bassadiana "Crab Spider" last time. We find one or two of these every day in the bathtub. Not sure about the affinity for pink porcelain, but there you go. Any guesses?

Shag Sunset

After the morning hunt, Harlan went to the river for trout to complete the daily cast and blast. Dad and I trolled around the lake. Warm and calm. We caught a bunch of undersized pike, and one beautiful sunset.

Apres Hunt - Day 1

Final Tally: Four grouse flushed. One shot fired in anger.

No animals were harmed in the filming of this blog.

Grouse 4
Hunters 0

Game one to the grouse. Stay tuned.

After a hot hunt, a dog needs to cool off.

It is hard work finding bird for these guys.

The Gryff mobile blog has arrived

Lil' camp color

Awaiting the arrival of HDW Mobile Blog

Blog collision is imminent. He should arrive well ahead of the rain.

Fishing expedition - first fall pike

Dad caught the first pike while trolling. A bit undersized, but it was the best catch of the day. We fished Mitchell, caught some bluegill, that was about it. Warm and windy today.

Shag Sunrise

We have wood.

Left a message for Dale Barnett at 9. He returned the call at 10. By 2 he and his wife were here unloading 2 cords. He is the most reliable guy in the UP. After we unloaded the pickup, we sat on the deck and drank a bud. He is an interesting guy. Navy man and Vietnam vet.

HW wants to move the stack into thewoodshed. I'll wait until he gets here.

More importantly, we can immediately return to our profligate wood-burning, global-warming-inducing ways.

NOTE: Verizon is refusing to accept mms uploads from my TREO now,even though it worked yesterday. So I am back to the old technique of downloading images and posting from my laptop. This means less timely but better quality pictures.

First catch

...of the fall trip

Not happy about this

The boat was not pulled out. It is full of stagnant water and stuck in the mud.

Morning at Shag

arrive at O:DARK:30 last night. Camp looked good. Got a fire going with barely adequate kindling. Watched the Packers lose on Sunday night football.

It is a bit early for color, started but not peaked yet. Maple tree on south has turned. Maple tree by lake has not.