Muskies Eleven
The muskellunge resembles the more common pike (no minnow itself) but greatly outclasses it in size and sometimes simply eats pike for breakfast.
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Call of the Frontier
The river that lay out on the western horizon was still an unknown to me – a long, mysterious meandering flow. The slow, deep, turbid waters of this flow seemed meant to irrigate croplands here in Crawford County, not to accommodate extraordinarily large spawning trout. But I was here to expand my horizons, to do radical new things and probe mysterious waters, here to challenge another frontier.
Read more "Call of the Frontier"Of Flowages and Fire
The ground was soggy as we sloshed back in on this early January day. We parked at a place that I’ll never reveal to walk in to a stream I’ll never name.
Read more "Of Flowages and Fire"In Pursuit of Fish and Simplicity
Hopefully, this simplistic explanation of the art to angling will enhance someone’s 2023, maybe just encouraging that someone to open the back door, pole in hand, and make for the crik down the hill. You may be amazed at what’s waiting for you.
Read more "In Pursuit of Fish and Simplicity"Tubular Bliss
For me, the joy of fishing arises from its variety. First, there is great variety in the species of fish themselves, especially here in Pennsylvania. Our fishes largely adhere to our major watersheds, the Ohio and Susquehanna but then also the minor watersheds: Lake Erie, the Genesee River, Delaware River and Potomac River, […]
Read more "Tubular Bliss"No Need to Starve
At the store there’s no 2% milk or the hotdog bun section is bare or our favorite breakfast cereal has all been consumed by the locust swarm – the shoppers who got here a little earlier than we did. Immediately, the mind turns toward survival snaring, the digging of choice tubers or the use of […]
Read more "No Need to Starve"Fish Feature: Gizzard Shad
This year I’m going to feature a variety of Pennsylvania fishes on my site, fishes that I have at least a little experience with, fishes that I know really swim here. I think there’s a lot more fish diversity out there than we sometimes give our state credit for as we reel in bluegills, bass […]
Read more "Fish Feature: Gizzard Shad"Hike Your Own Hike, Live Your Own Life
I don’t see wild places as too crowded. I’m generally alone when I’m in the woods. And I have no shortage of outdoor experiences to write about, only a shortage of time to write. I see people on social media and elsewhere complaining constantly about over-crowding and lack of opportunities though and I thought maybe […]
Read more "Hike Your Own Hike, Live Your Own Life"Serenity Now
I stumbled downhill through the persistent snow that still blanketed the forest floor here on the lake’s south slope. It wasn’t really easy to get the big sled down here without a trail but that’s what keeps this spot mine alone all winter long. I had little light left and I would reach […]
Read more "Serenity Now"Longing for Ice
When I was a little kid in Newfoundland, Canada, I followed dad on the adventures he thought we should go on – adventures to far off places and strange country that I now know were neither far off nor all that strange. We went up and down streams for mud trout, drove down to […]
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the dying fish 