Maggie's Farm

Re-posted from Nov 1, 2005. Was that trip a year ago?

Our bird hunting trip to the Adirondacks this past weekend was a delight, thanks to excellent, lively companionship, but no thanks to an unseasonably early dump of 16" of snow on Tues/Weds. Conditions up north were not ideal for grouse, or for walking in the deep woods and gnarly alder patches. Nevertheless, the mix of good guys, birds, dogs, guns, and tough-walking, leg-challenging woods, followed by excellent tobacco and moderate amounts of good alcohol, is always one hell of a fine combination for the average American male. And, as I always say, "Hunting isn't shopping." Especially the way I have been shooting this year.

On Saturday we headed east, close to Lake Champlaine, where there was no snow, and we had the good fortune to run into a couple of migrating flights of woodock (one flush every five minutes), which redeemed our trip, as did our gala game dinner Saturday night at our gracious hosts at The Hungry Trout, featuring trout, moose, woodcock, grouse, Canada Goose, venison and duck, accompanied by witty conversation and good stories, both the lies and the true.

Thanks to a pal's Citation, (next time you are in one, ask the pilot to show you how fast he can climb that machine, and then lean back) the trip was rapid and luxurious, with all necessary adult beverages. NetJets is one way to do it, but there may be better deals if you shop around, or so I am told - but I do not play in that league.

This photo from Friday, up towards the Canadian border, close to Dannemora, NY.

The crisis of depleted fish stocks in the north Atlantic has been slowly evolving for 100 years. The vast schools of "groundfish" - cod, hake, and haddock -are gone; the redfish are gone; the swordfish and big bluefin tuna are in a fight for survival.

The tale of woe is highlighted this week by a piece via the AP here, and another at the WaPo here.

It's the tragedy of the commons. And these commons" aren't really all that large. Most of the Atlantic is very thin in fish. They congregate, during their migrations, on the banks, like George's Bank, Stellwagen, and the Grand Banks, where their food is plentiful.

Government made it worse; federal subsidies for giant trawlers made it possible for fishermen to eradicate entire populations. And the significant commercial fishing lobby in Maine and Massachusetts - with their senatorial allies in John Kerry and Olympia Snow - adopted a "get it while you can" approach, and local politicians take the bait.

Trawlers not only scoop up entire schools, they also degrade the ocean bottom, and catch the bait fish which end up dead in the nets and thrown overboard - along with the dead undersized cod, haddock, and flounder.

The Bush administration, interestingly, has made some real progress towards unwinding some of the anti-conservation regulations in the Atlantic fisheries, but New England politics remains a factor: commercial fishing is "a way of life," despite the fact that it is now dominated by what you might call "Big Fishing." Bush has been a staunch conservationist about fishing in general, also here, most recently. This summer, he signed a bill creating the world's largest marine preserve.

I always have hoped that fish farming would ge a good solution. It's been successful in some ways in some areas - salmon, for instance, oysters and mussels. But problems with disease transmission sunk the cod farming attempts in Canada.

It may be far too late to rebuild the Atlantic fishing stocks. There is a tipping point at which restoration cannot occur. And it is a damn shame, because for us at Maggie's Farm, we care not only on conservation and stewardship grounds - we love to eat fish, and we love to go fishin'. We gain hope from the story of the Striped Bass, which is having a real resurgence since commercial fishing for them has been controlled.

I just finished a book, The Doryman's Reflection: A Fisherman's Life, by Paul Molyneaux. It's not a great book, but it gives a good flavor of what is going on from a guy who has seen the transition from the old to the new ways of fishing, and who understands the regulations, and the science too.

The concern about our fish is not wacky greenie hysteria, it's not crying wolf. It is as real as what happened to the Passenger Pigeon and the Buffalo. There is a role for government here (is that not shocking to hear from us libertarian-minded folks?), and it shouldn't cost the taxpayer a penny.

But, if done right, it will hurt the brave fishermen who daily risk their lives in the rugged and most dangerous occupation in the US. Sad, but necessary: these are not guys who could switch to an office job. The industry has succeeded beyond its ability to sustain itself.

John and some other Maggie's Farm buddies, standing in front of Class Action at Bud 'n Mary's Marina on Islamorada last Saturday. The fish are mainly King Mackerel, plus a couple of snapper. They released the sharks they caught.

Yes, it is still the Year of the Dog in the Chinese calendar, and we will make one last exception to our original desire to highlight sporting dogs, because this is a breed we love. I grew up around one.

Gentle giants. Males 130-150 lbs. Bred to do work both at sea and on land, the huge cuddly beasts pulled nets, rescued fishermen, hauled carts - and one, named Seaman, accompanied Lewis and Clark. Good choice. Interestingly, these dogs were probably of English origin, not North American, and are ancestors of the Lab.

Read about Newfies here. 

Our buddy last week, in south Texas, with a  265 lb. tusker shot with a 338 Win Mag at 85 yards. Pig goes to the local church for their summer pit barbecue. Wild pig is always in season, and no-one complains.

Vizslas, aka Hungarian Pointers,
are not only the most
frequently-misspelled breed, but, in my experience, the most eager, alert, energetic, and driven hunters I know for upland game. They are considered medium-sized, but I have hunted with some that were fairly small, which was good for getting under briar patches and alder thickets: I prefer the smaller bloodlines. 

They are said to be very tolerant of the cold, but I have seen them shivering and miserable after four or five hours in Maine sleet. But so were we brainless humans, who should have been sitting by the wood stove sipping brandy and telling lies.

Cuddly babies at home, they are lions in the field.

The svelte Vizslas have only come out of Hungary in the past 50 years. Excellent, loving pets, too, but they were born to run and need lots of space and vigorous exercise. I'd love to have one or two of these guys.

A sporting breed? Historically known as the "Water Dog," the Poodle is a product of Germany and the lowlands, where the poodle's assistance with duck trapping and duck hunting were essential. They were also very effective at fetching ducks from the marshes when they were in the moult. They love marshes and love to get wet and muddy, but do not love deep water and are not born swimmers, so when they chase something in the water, they often look as if they are about to drown. "Poodle" comes from German puddle, for good reason. Call them "Puddle Dogs."

The only challenge in training this brainy breed is the fact that they are more intelligent than most humans.

Some are natural pointers; all can be trained to be effective retrievers. Since they are hypo-allergenic, they are becoming more popular as field dogs for the allergy-prone, and some breeders specialize in this.

Powerful, often cantankerous, and protective of their master to a fault (they are known as "one-man dogs"), most of the ones I have known do not take kindly to strangers and need tons of daily exercise - preferably in the water. They love to retrieve heavy logs from heavy surf, preferably with ice in it. I think of them as professional hunting dogs more than as house dogs, but I have heard that some of them can be the latter, especially if female. But they are not really family dogs (I know I may get some flak for uttering this fact, but these are dogs for crusty old baymen, from the era of market hunting). Breed info here at AKC.

Despite the similarity in appearance, the Chessie is a very distant cousin of the Lab, via their common Newfoundland blood, as is clear from the differences in personality. (The Newfie, while a work breed and not a sporting breed, might be my favorite breed in all of dogdom. But they are tough to train, which we humans, in our anthropocentric way, term "stupid." Loveable, cuddly, loving and protective - but big and dumb, and they need about 500 acres for exercise.)

There are of course a number of Pointing breeds which contain that strange and fortunate DNA which causes them to freeze when bird scent is close, but in the US "Pointer" refers to many generations of breeding of the English Pointer. I have been told that the Show lines can make good family pets, but the Hunting lines seem to Live to Work, like your friends at Maggie's Farm.

Pointers are typically hunted with a bell or a beeper collar to keep track of their location. They are the classic dog for quail hunting, and are a more popular breed in the southern US than elsewhere: in the South, "dog" tends to mean Pointer, and "bird" means Bob White quail.

There are few sights as dramatic as that of a Pointer on point. Photo below is an example. This dog which hunted with some friends in Valdosta, GA in March, is pointing a covey of quail in the palmettos.

Here's an excellent review of all of the basic types of bird dogs.

This hunt story from this past winter, in Florida, came in over the transom:

Today, I had something very different happen to me at Burn's field.  This morning saw me sitting in my tri-pod, suffering thru 30 deg.  temps with a biting NW wind in my face. Sure, some of you have it colder, but, this is Florida!! Right about the time I started to begin a stalk hunt (to warm up), seven does filled the end of the field and I picked out the one safe shot and dropped her in her tracks. The other does ran off, then slowly returned to stay around another 45 min. or so. When the last one started leaving, I began to get down as no Bucks wanted to come out and play. Half-way down the ladder, I looked back into the field and saw my doe jerk!!! By the way, she was only about 120 yds. away, so, to see her move, something bad was going on. At first I thought she had only been stunned with a high spine shot and was starting to get up. Then, I saw another body along side of her and I thought the .270 has shot thru her and hit another deer that was bunched up after all. Then the object I couldn't make out, attacked the doe's head and was all balled up around it. 

    I quickly climbed back into the shooting chair, re-attached my steady stick, centered the mass outline on the doe's head and squeezed the trigger. Puff of hair, no movement. After getting down and easing over to the doe, attached you will see the huge male bobcat that was trying to kill my dead doe. He died instantly by my .270 injection, so quick in fact, he still had the death grip on the doe's neck. I've never seen or heard of something like this in my life. Even when I loaded the doe up on my carrier, the bobcat was still attached to her neck. While I didn't weigh the bobcat, the doe was in the 120 to 130 lb. range. You can see how the bobcat was almost as long as she is.

Most deer hunting injuries
are caused by falls from
tree stands, and the
conventional safety harnesses can leave you dangling helplessly in the air with a couple of broken ribs, while the deer gather around to laugh. Cabela's has a safety vest that is a true improvement.

A versatile sporting breed, the Pudelpointer is a mix of Poodle (aka Water Spaniel) and English Pointer.

I have a buddy who has two of them. Good family dogs, strong retrievers and pointers. Unlike Poodles, they like water retrieving. Unlike workaholic Pointers, they are family pets.

There are not many of them, so the gene pool is thin.

The less rare German Wirehaired Pointer (the Drahthaar) is a mix of Pudelpointer with several other German sporting breeds.

This site gives a good run-down on some of the German sporting breeds.

This is what a .28 ga. shotgun looks like. They are graceful-looking little pea-shooters used by good shots on small birds like quail and dove, and clay targets. The only smaller shotgun is the .410, used by expert shots on targets, also on starlings and pigeons around the barn. This one by Connecticut Shotgun Mfg. Co. This pretty side-by-side can be had for a mere $19,000. Too bad it's a little late for the hubby this V. Day.

And here's a nice new .28 ga side-by-side one from our friends at Griffin & Howe, for a reasonable $9950. Nice wood:

Last time, we did the Gordon Setter. The English Setter is a more popular favorite, an excellent family dog, and the finest of gun dogs.

Setters are members of the Spaniel family, with Spanish ancestry, as the name implies. Like most modern dog breeds, their blood lines were established in the late 1800s, but in the case of the English Setter, there are two lines: one bred for appearance and one for the field.

All setters retrieve, track, and point with a "set," a behavior which originally is thought to have been bred for bird trapping. More about the English Setter here.

Another classic versatile 
hunter.

What do setters do, and why are they called "setters"? They point in a crouching manner - "setting," and they will track, and retrieve too.
That is all very good stuff.

The Gordon Setter Club here.  

The Smell of Cordite in the Morning

It is time for one of our occasional free plugs for a good place. Wild Goose Lodge on PEI has been a loyal donor to our local Ducks Unlimited Chapter for many years, and everyone that I have spoken with about their trip has had a great time with Canada Geese. I look forward to my chance to go, because there are few adrenaline rushes like those that come with a flock of these giant (and delicious) birds cupping their wings to come into your decoys.

The Connetquot River

See photo of a stretch of the river posted yesterday. Had a fine introduction to the famed Connetquot River on Long Island, NY, by my dear pal N on Sunday, at an outing with the extraordinary but very low-profile Anglers' Club of New York.

This unique stream, about one hour from downtown Manhattan, is an oasis of peace in the middle of development-run-amuck suburban Long Island, and runs from the relatively stream-less central part of the island down to Great South Bay and the Atlantic Ocean through a splendid and wild 3400-acre park,  It is known for its sea-run Brown and Rainbow trout which can achieve impressive size. But it is also stocked, of course, as is every trout stream in the Northeast, by necessity.

The fishing is organized along English-style beats to which you are assigned, by reservation. High waders are essential. Fly-fishing only, barbless hooks only, and mostly catch-and-release. We did bring dinner home, though -  the big Brown, in photo, who barely fit in a net.

As a truly casual fly-fisherman, with borrowed gear, seven hours of casting of all varieties raised my level of technique quite a bit, which isn't saying much. Is it wrist, or arm, or just "feel"? Well, in the end, everything is just "feel", I guess.

The wine at lunch seemed to help, but the week of heavy rain in New England did not, as the river was overflowing its banks, and the color of strong English tea from the tannin so that when you were almost up to your armpits in the water, you had to watch your step by feeling your way with your feet through the October-cold water so as not to trip over a submerged log, and thus end your day - or your life. But challenging is always a good thing. Too much easiness not good for Indian brave. We did catch and release quite a few nice fish, despite the challenges. And how wonderful it is to spend a day literally immersed in God's creation. Baptism by trout.

The Snow Goose, seemingly endangered in the 1970s, has now become a threat to itself, due to a population boom which threatens its arctic breeding habitat and might be caused by the abundant food which farmers leave on their fields after harvest, along the Mississippi and Central flyways.

In recent years, I have seen their flocks block out the sun in Canada. It's referred to as a "tornado" when they descend upon your decoys in a field in enormous numbers. There are no large numbers in the Northeast, but they do gather in the Chesapeake and I have seen them flying over ski slopes in Vermont in the winter, and loafing on potato fields on Long Island.

This goose comes in a "blue" form, and various mixed-color versions, including the "eagle-head' - blue with white head. The blue version was once called a Blue Goose, but is now known to be just a color variant. The Canadian and US govts are doing all they can to encourage hunting Snow Geese, including a spring season and permitting electronic calls.

They are fun to hunt, if they chose your field, and if you hit them they "go down like a prom dress," as the expression has it: easy to kill, compared to other geese. The deeply frustrating situation is when they chose a field adjacent to yours, and you end up standing there like a dope in your dorky camo hat with earflaps and an unused pile of ammo while hundreds or thousands of them land out of range.

Daily limits of Snows are high in most areas. They are not exactly delicious like a Canada Goose, but there are ways to make them an enjoyable meal, and the rule is that if you kill it, you eat it. More about Snow Goose at CLO here.