I appreciate the voice of experience. I'm writing that one down.
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TOTALLY RANDOM POST II
- Thread starter minds_I
- Start date
I appreciate the voice of experience. I'm writing that one down.
don't forget, mosquitoes (BIG ones!) are the Alaskan state bird, and they are numerous beyond belief certain times of year...they've been known to drive caribou so crazy that they stampede into rivers and shit trying to escape...
fuck, flying drill presses!
i'll trade you some fire ants...damn things finally made it up here. keep hoping the armadillos will keep them in check...they've been found in every county in TN now.
Three Berries
Active member
Got a flood acoming they say. Time to plug up the drain pipe and break out the bucket shitter. 
moose eater
Well-known member
Scoured the local area for bait today. We use whitefish (similar to sheefish) as bait for lake trout and burbot, as it stays on the hook much better than herring. The skin's much tougher, as is the meat, so the bait doesn't get dumped as routinely when jigging.
Anyway, apparently no one the primary supplier's aware of in Mainland Alaska fished commercially for freshwater whitefish this year, so the primary bait supplier in Anchorage has none. And my local store has no herring, even. Locally they have octopus and squid, as well as cured salmon roe, but the fish we go after haven't ever seen an octopus, squid, or such in their freshwater lives.
Roe might work alright, but I'll need to cut up some nylon knee-high stockings, to make little 'purses' to place on the hook, so the roe stays on. And I already have some cured salmon roe here!
That said, and preferring whitefish or (maybe) herring, I guess I'll take a leisurely drive down to Delta Junction for bait. Nothing like a mid-week, 125-mile trip (each way) for some dead herring and lamprey eel (half-decent lake trout bait by any other name). The burbot are true scavengers, unlike the proud hunters that are lake trout, so the burbot will eat almost anything.
Scored a new thermal top for the coming trip to the lakes and mountains.
More snow on the way, after the 1/2 inch we were supposed to get last night turned into over an inch.
I think I'll burn some Goji OG #8, then head to the cuttings in the shop and maybe sort the hooks in the tackle box to make sure we've got what we need and what the law requires; greater than a half-inch between barb and shank for burbot, with single hooks only, and less than a half-inch from barb to shank for lake trout, but treble hooks are or were permitted for lakers.
Considering that burbot and lake trout are often caught in the same holes, and that some gear is legal for one, but not the other, I asked the Alaksa Fish & Game Biologist in that area last year if the trout and burbot are aware of what they are and are not supposed to be eating? I mean, I'd hate to get fined or worse because a fish had poor self-discipline.
Two Lane Highway - YouTube
Anyway, apparently no one the primary supplier's aware of in Mainland Alaska fished commercially for freshwater whitefish this year, so the primary bait supplier in Anchorage has none. And my local store has no herring, even. Locally they have octopus and squid, as well as cured salmon roe, but the fish we go after haven't ever seen an octopus, squid, or such in their freshwater lives.
Roe might work alright, but I'll need to cut up some nylon knee-high stockings, to make little 'purses' to place on the hook, so the roe stays on. And I already have some cured salmon roe here!
That said, and preferring whitefish or (maybe) herring, I guess I'll take a leisurely drive down to Delta Junction for bait. Nothing like a mid-week, 125-mile trip (each way) for some dead herring and lamprey eel (half-decent lake trout bait by any other name). The burbot are true scavengers, unlike the proud hunters that are lake trout, so the burbot will eat almost anything.
Scored a new thermal top for the coming trip to the lakes and mountains.
More snow on the way, after the 1/2 inch we were supposed to get last night turned into over an inch.
I think I'll burn some Goji OG #8, then head to the cuttings in the shop and maybe sort the hooks in the tackle box to make sure we've got what we need and what the law requires; greater than a half-inch between barb and shank for burbot, with single hooks only, and less than a half-inch from barb to shank for lake trout, but treble hooks are or were permitted for lakers.
Considering that burbot and lake trout are often caught in the same holes, and that some gear is legal for one, but not the other, I asked the Alaksa Fish & Game Biologist in that area last year if the trout and burbot are aware of what they are and are not supposed to be eating? I mean, I'd hate to get fined or worse because a fish had poor self-discipline.
Two Lane Highway - YouTube
moose eater
Well-known member
If you hustle, we still have time to put some gear together for you, and you can find a spot in the freight sleds to curl up for the ride out to the cabins; about 17 miles off the dirt road that we leave from.
You'll need a non-resident fishing license, and to convey the sizes you wear in boots, shirts, coats, vests, pants, hats, long johns, knee-high or calf-high wool socks, etc.
Shouldn't be any skeeters out and about yet (second week of March is when we'll be there, if all goes well), but seriously, I have seen them out when the snow is still on the ground, though the first wave of them being those that spent the Winter in the snow and ice, they're a bit larger than what comes later, and they tend to be much slower too.
But if you head up this way, be sure to look around for good bait. We seem to be low on the stuff in the State. Thousands of miles of coastline, tens of thousands of lakes, and no bait?? I think the Earth's Axis has finally flipped.
I'll Change Your Flat Tire, Merle - YouTube
That's a tempting offer especially since the second week of March coincides with 'sand fly season' here. I have spent some miserable hours donating blood to clouds of those flying teeth. In your eyes, nose, ears, hair and every bit of exposed skin was covered in black dots that smeared red with a stroke of the hand along the arm. It made filleting a cooler full o' fish into a blood letting.
No bait? That's when Fish Bites come in handy. The stuff is surprisingly effective.
https://fishbites.com/
I'll curl up on the freight sled, but please pack an ice pick to help me get out.
No bait? That's when Fish Bites come in handy. The stuff is surprisingly effective.
https://fishbites.com/
I'll curl up on the freight sled, but please pack an ice pick to help me get out.
moose eater
Well-known member
Never heard of the stuff.
I've had semi-liquid lures like Bait Butter (or something to that effect), but never really concluded whether they helped or not.
The Pro-Troll e-jigs with the e-chip on them, (mostly colorful lead jigs in the shapes of fish), those we've seen turn a slow day on the ice into a not-so-slow day.
But I'll try nearly anything once.
they sell "Gulp!" brand artificial minnow shaped baits here in several sizes. looks like a shad minnow but made out of ...well, i don't know, lol. but fish eat them used on a hook like a real minnow or for tipping a lead head jig. just as good as live bait in my experience over the last 5 or 6 years... Sassy Shad plastic baits good as well.
moose eater
Well-known member
I got a bunch of soft jigs and weighted swim baits this year, including a few from Savage Gear, and some others, like Bondy Bait. I think a couple of the larger lures by them went for $37 each. I thought about how many lbs. of fresh fish that might buy and told my younger son that when/if we hook up with the rocks again at Aishihik Lake, and snap another leader, it's going to hurt in the wallet a fair bit more than it did historically.
Bigger bait = bigger fish, and all of that, though I've seen relatively small lake trout go after a 7" (plus large treble-hook and ring/swivel length) Lucky Strike Canoe Wobbler (large 7" spoon), and hook up to it, despite the lure being almost half the size of the fish. When lakers are eating, they're EATING!
I'll look into both varieties of artificial bait that you and buzz mentioned.
Meanwhile I'll call around and try to find out who I know that has some subsistence-netted whitefish they can barter or gift for the cause.
Currently straightening out the cable/phone company's billing for them (another month I get to do their accounting corrections for them), as well as the health insurance company and the providers who seem to once again owe me money in refunds.
If I get just slightly more tired of Corporate America's more and more brazen attempts at theft, I may just singe their goofy thieving asses over an open flame and eat the bastards, just to put them out of my misery. Doubtful they'd taste very good, considering the diet of the average corporate-owned urbanian.
hash beers n stripclub later fuck everything else
Green Squall
Well-known member
I bought the mullet ones and the little baitfish kept eating the damn tails off. Not good for salt water fishing off the rocks, but they work in a pinch on a boat further from shore.
You know that stupid receptacle on a snowblower that you plug a female plug into for electric start? Well, mine fucked up. Wonderful. When I unplugged the cord yesterday after starting it to do the latest 6" (- something C of course) it came away with one of the brass male prongs. Yes, I can still pull the cord, but I am sure that I will pay for that with some level of pain. I guess I will find out tomorrow when I have to clear today's accumulation of blowing white shit.
moose eater
Well-known member
That was the Cosmos offering you better bait; the bait fish make good bait too, especially for us old staunch traditionalists.
There's very few sport fish that we can use anything other than the heads, guts, gills or fins for bait.
In Canadian lakes in the Yukon Territory that were listed as 'Quality Waters' (why would anyone fish anything BUT quality waters?), there was no fresh fish or fresh fish by-product permitted from other lakes, due to concerns over spreading of viruses, bacteria, fungus, etc. In those cases, we often used chicken thigh meat (dark meat has more oil in it for the scent trail), chicken livers, bacon, etc. (1 criminal minded fellow, a long-time friend of 45 years now, tried bison meat from a harvest he'd taken part in, but that was a bust), and we found we could place (on a treble hook), 2 chicken livers (one on each of 2 of the three hooks, and a piece of bacon on the third hook, & we could 'sculpt' our own little impressive critters out of various meats to entice the lake trout.
But I had to wonder re. the use of chicken meat from the store, and the additives they had us feeding the fish out of concern for the cleanliness of the fish and water. Though we weren't about to feed the fish organic chicken.
Gills and belly fat from other sport fish can work pretty well, in absence of lamprey eel or whitefish.
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well, that sucks. ever notice how relatively simple shit to fix waits until it is colder than hell or raining (or both) before it gives up the ghost? i swear that shit is possessed...
moose eater
Well-known member
Went to town to score some exhaust manifold studs and nuts for the exhaust manifold on the catalytic converter job we have coming up. The manufacturer of the vehicle provides no specs on the studs and nuts they use, because they know that if they did, you could obviously buy the studs elsewhere for WAY less than the $9 to $13 they want for each of the 5 studs, and the $3 and change for each of the flange nuts.
You'd think that parts would 1.) be available under their unique descriptions, and 2.) have some sort of master list that permits folks in outlying areas to make due, based on measurements and specifications. (I once returned to Alaska from a MASSIVE tour of the Western US & Western Canada, in my 1964 Ford F-100 short-bed step--side pick-up truck with a Chevy multi-carb fuel pump, attached with bushings to fill in the oversized bolt holes, and extra lock washers so it couldn't shift under stress. The Western Auto East of Three Forks had no fuel pump for my 223 straight-six Ford, but the bowl, fuel back-off pressure, fitting ports/threads, angle of the arm that contacted the cam, etc. were all the same, just those overly large pain-in-the-ass bolt holes.
I guess I'll phone some of the local machine shops Monday morning and see what they have on-hand for me, if anything. Hopefully it gets solved that way, or I may have to blow the date that we were going to do this job, and order some incredibly expensive studs and nuts from Toyota.
Still waiting on 2 exhaust flange springs to go between the catalytic converter and the forward-most piece of exhaust pipe.
Eggplant parmesan is in the oven, with a bit of a twist, laying thickly sliced organic mushrooms, gobs of baby organic spinach, goat cheese, and a bit of mozzarella, in between layers of left-over homemade pizza sauce and dredged and browned organic eggplant. Not quite vegan, but ought to be INCREDIBLE.
Slight pain in the groin area today, as though pressurized. Cancelled my last appt. with my primary care Doc and may or may not go in to see the urologist to see if I ought to be more concerned. Though I really don't care much for the fellow. And I'm nearly positive that if I croaked tomorrow, he wouldn't likely give a rat's ass.
Dinner time!!! Then more chores.
You'd think that parts would 1.) be available under their unique descriptions, and 2.) have some sort of master list that permits folks in outlying areas to make due, based on measurements and specifications. (I once returned to Alaska from a MASSIVE tour of the Western US & Western Canada, in my 1964 Ford F-100 short-bed step--side pick-up truck with a Chevy multi-carb fuel pump, attached with bushings to fill in the oversized bolt holes, and extra lock washers so it couldn't shift under stress. The Western Auto East of Three Forks had no fuel pump for my 223 straight-six Ford, but the bowl, fuel back-off pressure, fitting ports/threads, angle of the arm that contacted the cam, etc. were all the same, just those overly large pain-in-the-ass bolt holes.
I guess I'll phone some of the local machine shops Monday morning and see what they have on-hand for me, if anything. Hopefully it gets solved that way, or I may have to blow the date that we were going to do this job, and order some incredibly expensive studs and nuts from Toyota.
Still waiting on 2 exhaust flange springs to go between the catalytic converter and the forward-most piece of exhaust pipe.
Eggplant parmesan is in the oven, with a bit of a twist, laying thickly sliced organic mushrooms, gobs of baby organic spinach, goat cheese, and a bit of mozzarella, in between layers of left-over homemade pizza sauce and dredged and browned organic eggplant. Not quite vegan, but ought to be INCREDIBLE.
Slight pain in the groin area today, as though pressurized. Cancelled my last appt. with my primary care Doc and may or may not go in to see the urologist to see if I ought to be more concerned. Though I really don't care much for the fellow. And I'm nearly positive that if I croaked tomorrow, he wouldn't likely give a rat's ass.
Dinner time!!! Then more chores.
moose eater
Well-known member
The other day, when it was well below 0 f., my Honda track-drive HS928 seemed seized up. The pull cord wouldn't allow me to pull it, and I plugged in the electric start function you're referring to, and it still wouldn't turn over. I knew it had been running relatively well when I'd last shut it down, and that there'd been a LOT of very fine, cold, 'sugar snow' when I'd last ran the thing.
I didn't think it had seized, but you never know. My best guess was that the fly wheel had gotten iced, and if that was the case, I needed to figure out how to cause the greatest impact to free up any icing, without breaking anything. (Mind you, I would never do this to someone else's equipment, but I figured it would either free it up, or it would cause me to charge about $3,400 on the CC for a new Honda HS928.
Oil looked good (a little darker than I'd like, but the level was up), so I pressed down on the handles, and dropped the front of the bucket hard on the hardpack. Then I lifted the handles, and dropped it abruptly again, but this time on the ass-end. Each time the thing would turn over for the full pull of the cord, then seize up again. I repeated this about 3 times, with the banging of the thing hitting the ground echoing out of the barn at about 9:00 P.M.
Finally, on the 4th freeing event, I plugged the electric start cord in, and VOILA!! Four-cycle music!! And a late-night clearing of the driveway ensued.
My best guess is that what got iced up was the Bendix on the starter, or else the retraction spring on the Bendix was wearing out, and in that state, it was binding the flywheel, whether hand-pulling or electric starting.
A good ending, as I'm told that many here who put down a deposit on a new Honda track-drive snowblower this last year found Honda didn't manufacture or ship enough of them, so there's doubt as to whether I could even get a new one now.
