Have you people ever heard of trailers? You carry boats on them, cars on them, low cost manufactured housing on them... just about anything on them.
A lot of people don't have room to store a trailer. I know I didn't for a while, but I could hang my boat from my garage ceiling. It would have been $150/month to store it in a self-storage place. When I had my 3500 turbo diesel, I just threw the boat on the canopy and it was a great single-vehicle fishing trip rig.
Also see: - driving to work all day not having to park, pull through a drive-thru, back or run errands with a trailer; leave office at end of day ready to fish - simpler parking at the lake, too - no extra tag, fee and taxes for a trailer - don't have to worry about tire inflation / rot / puncture and associated costs - in addition to not having storage room as Nett mentioned, some neighborhood covenants prevent trailer parking in your yard / driveway - nobody ever asks to borrow your trailer
I may catch some shit for this from you guys but I confess to having 3 boats on trailers for which none of the registrations and tags are kept current. The fine for this infraction used to be less than the cost to renew the tags so I didn't bother, though I haven't checked on that in many years. Boat registrations are kept current but not the trailers. Never been caught, I'm knocking on wood. I've been through license checks and everything. They are maintained, bearings and tires every few years, lights are cheap and easy to repair. I think the overall cost of ownership for a trailer is a reasonable expense if you're using your boat as often as I do. If you have the room, I think it is money well spent. Perhaps a folding trailer from Harbor Freight, I helped a friend assemble one and it was a neat little thing. Below is a picture of the only boat I transport on a truck and carry to the water, a plastic and foam cored Snark.
Jon boat? Not sure. I like Old Town Penobscot or Discovery canoes for all purpose stuff. They weigh around 60 pounds and are much more durable than kevlar. Beats aluminum for portaging too. They strap on top of cars easily. A lightweight paddle makes your life a lot easier too. I'm on the way to Duluth, MN to stay overnight before heading into the Boundary Waters tomorrow. We'll have three full days on a big border lake. Hoping the fish are biting... can't wait to get back in a canoe again.
I stay in an apartment. Also I got rear ended several years back and my bumper got fucked up so I haven't been able to do a trailer since I never got it fixed.
My friend's West Siberian Laika Pavel, all geared up and ready for hunting. He trees and retrieves birds, and hunts moose and bear. Hell of a nice dog. My own dog, Maximus is West Siberian Laika on his dad's side (Mom was an English Shepherd) and he often helps in keeping my property free of feral cats, eats up the small rodents that seek to invade the house and will retrieve small game for me if I shoot it. Anyone else here hunt with dogs? I mean hounds, retrievers, spaniels, setters, spitz, mutts, curs, anything.
I'd post more pics of my lab Buck but y'all have seen him before... I adopted him last March and he's not perfect but still an awesome dog. Very soon we'll be able to chase pheasants again, but I still want to see him retrieving a duck for me this year. I just got home from my Boundary Waters canoeing/fishing trip and fishing was overall piss poor but the few fish I caught made it worthwhile. Started things off by hooking a nice 18" smallmouth just off our campsite on the first morning after paddling in. Knife Lake is big and deep, at least much bigger water than we're used to fishing in the BWCA, and bites were slow. We only got a few small pike and some bass (which are out of season and only catch & release by now so we couldn't eat them), and I witnessed my canoe partner lose a nice ~5 lb. pike at the boat while he took his sweet time with the fish grabbers at one point. It would have fed our group that night so I was pissed. There are lake trout in Knife and we tried fishing for them without luck. One day we portaged into Lake Sema, a much smaller yet still pretty deep lake. There we found the lakers. I'd never caught a lake trout before and we went there specifically to get some meat (pike), so when I reeled the first one in I was really surprised. We ended up catching four from 16-20", with a couple more following up to the boat. All were caught while we slowly trolled Mepps spinners along a steep incline that went from 20 to 60 feet. I caught the biggest one of the day, a beautiful 20" fish. It was one of the best tasting fish I've caught. Here's another surprise... after checking out a portage on that lake my canoe buddy tied on a big jighead and stuck an earthworm on it to see if there were any walleyes around. He flicked it behind us as we paddled out of a shallow bay and forgot to set the bail on his reel. After he realized it, he quick set it and immediately thought he was snagged up. Nope. This guy was on the line. Never seen a sucker like this in the BWCA before, and I bet my buddy leaving the bail open was just perfect for it to be hooked. I stalked up close to a few grouse, but could only shoot them with my camera. Could be a decent location for a bear hunt in the future too. This track was the size of my hand, which means it was huge. I just wish I saw it further than half a mile away from our campsite.
Great photos! I hear grouse is good eating. You keep mentioning portaging, what is the distance you typically cover? I ask because I noticed you aren't wearing heavy footwear in your photo.
Thanks, and yes ruffed grouse are good on the table. Nice white meat and they can be very challenging birds to hunt too. Our portages on this trip ranged from about 50 yards to almost 1000, and the longest I've ever done was nearly two miles. For some reason they are measured in "rods," which is equivalent to 16.5 feet. The portage trails range from packed dirt, to loose piles of slick sharp rocks, puddles of soupy greasy mud, and some are barely more than a cattle trail in the brush. I bring two pairs of shoes and try to let only one pair get wet. Never had traction issues (yet) but regardless you must be very careful about where you step. The reasons I don't bring heavier boots or Muck boots like other members of our group do are 1. packing weight/volume and 2. being wet. My Converses usually go in my pack and will take up less space than just one big boot would. Your feet are gonna get wet no matter what because we load up the Kevlar canoes in the water plus a nice rock to step on to get out of the canoe isn't always available. I've also seen guys in tall Muck boots go in water too deep too many times and it takes much longer for those boots to dry out, and besides that the Muck boot guys tend to complain about their socks being soaked from sweat anyways. I can put my old Asics running shoes or Converse All Stars next to a fire or in sunlight and they'll be dry before too long, and if they get a little singed it doesn't matter. This being said, if it were a colder weather trip (i.e. below freezing) I'd probably bring boots to avoid getting wet and then really cold.
I'm looking into picking up a bow sometime this year to try out bow hunting next October. Any advice on what I should look for when I shop around?
Go to a shop and shot them, and go from there. One that shoots and feels good for me, may not shoot and feel good for you.
I just bought my first bow (post back on p. 63). I researched for about a year and went to a local archery shop back in April, then ended buying the bow in August. The only advice you should really follow from online forums, etc. is where to find a good local shop who you can deal with directly, and some basic research on what you could be looking at based on your budget. As far as manufacturer goes, you really can't go wrong with any of the big name companies, so don't let any vitriol you come across sway you. Also, don't rule out a used bow, either. You'll be able to find flagship bows from a year or two ago for the price of some brand new entry level offerings. Just be really careful if you look at buying used online. Good luck finding what works.
I just saw that this morning. Honestly, I know feral hogs are doing x billions in damage a year, yadda yadda. You're not doing hunters or gun owners any favors in the eyes of people who could vote your rights away by pulling shenanigans like this. It borders on sadism and unethical behavior.
I am all for guns and people's right to use/have them but I watched that video and I couldn't help but think the same thing, hog hunting is fun and in the majority of the South a necessary thing. Using explosives to do it however strikes me as excessive and a good way to get more things banned, like Tannerite for example.
So I take it to understand that they set up some explosives and lured the hogs to the kill zone? If that's what happened that's indeed fucked up, even though I had the same reaction as the guys in the video.
I don't know maybe it's just a southern problem as hogs are a lot more common. Usually though my tannerite range isn't teaming with feral hogs. I really don't feel bad hogs are being killed I think it is just the forethought of setting up explosives to kill them for shits and giggles is what is off putting to me. The same goes for the dudes that strap up 50 cal machine guns and waste them from helicopters. You'll have a hard time convincing me they are just providing a necessary service with the best equipment for the job over say, just living out some Rambo movie fantasy for youtube.
Took a trip out in the kayak yesterday to try to catch some redfish. We ended up catching a few rat reds and a lot of small black drum. From the other kayakers we talked to on the water, it seemed like everyone was having a bad day. It's nice to know that we can manage a few small fish when everyone else is trying to put anything in the boat. With the weather cooling off the specs should be here pretty soon and that is when things will be lots of fun.