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Into the Outdoors: Things to Talk About

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Wow!  Talk about hot weather. We have certainly had our share, although some relief is in sight. I like warm, but not scorching. It curtails outdoor activity, at least for me. The AC is just too inviting.

Brady’s Bend resident Lloyd Gaggini has been having a unique visitor at his bird feeder. A rare white cardinal is making appearances. The bird is pure white, except for a few pinkish feathers on its wings. These occur at a rate of about one in every sixteen thousand.

I have noticed a lack of insects this summer. I have seen almost no yellow jackets, brown wasps or, for that matter, flies. The same goes for mosquitoes. There is a logical reason for that. Bats are making a comeback, at least around my place, and they eat mosquitoes by the thousands. I have also not seen any junebugs. That’s fine by me, as I hate those things. I have seen more honey bees than usual, but I am still waiting for my first Monarch butterfly. I suspect that the weird weather has an effect on insect numbers. 

Here is some good news for some, and bad news for others. The Sunday blue law against hunting has been lifted, and Sunday hunting will now be permitted. I approve of this move, although I still oppose the Saturday deer opener. I have long thought that the ban on Sunday hunting was antiquated and needed to be done away with. I am a bit puzzled as to why some oppose lifting the ban, but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

As most already know, I am opposed to antler restrictions for senior hunters. If junior hunters are exempt, seniors should be as well. Ideally, antler restrictions should be scrapped entirely, but, failing that, it should be fair. Excluding seniors from exemption is simply unfair. A compromise might lie in alternating years between juniors and seniors. Or, exempt juniors for half the season, and seniors for the other. Personally, I would support banning the taking of antlered deer during the mentored youth hunting, a program about which I have many reservations.  

Prime catfish time has finally arrived. July and August seem to be the best months for these whiskery critters.  The river is starting to look fishable again, and, luckily for area anglers, it contains lots of catfish. Channel cats are probably the most common, followed by flatheads, which are also numerous. They can get huge. I have never caught a monster, but Allegheny River legends like Johnny Logue and Chick Kelly have done so.  

When I first started fishing for catfish, I was enamored by the idea of stink baits.  I came up with some truly gross concoctions.  In fact, I often gagged while baiting my hook, and I never caught even one fish with the baits. Eventually, I abandoned them, and I’m glad.  One bait stands out in my mind.  Many years ago, Old Bub brought a groundhog liver along as bait. When we cut pieces off it, it assaulted both senses of sight and smell. It quickly found its way overboard. Nowadays, normal baits, like minnows and worms, are the order of the day, and they work.  We’ll look more at catfishing in the near future.

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I have been seeing a lot of videos on You Tube wherein people are eating carp, and claiming it is really good. They cook it in small pieces, so that it is easy to remove the bones. It’s hard to imagine that meat tasting good, but they chow right down on it.  If I catch one, I just might give it a try. Then again, I may not.

The photo, which I found on the Internet, is so cute that I had to feature it. There seems to be a lot of possums this year. They are welcome to eat all the ticks they want.

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