Idaho Fish & Game

Today was a "free" fishing day. I'm not sure but I think its a day when anyone can fish, license or not and I also believe its to get kids into the outdoors. I'm 100% behind that! Get the kids the hell away from the mind numbing TV and stupid video games! Turn off the damn cell phone and put your thumb on that Zebco, junior! Here are a few pictures I took yesterday evening on my daily walk. The boys and girls from Idaho Fish & Game were dropping net loads of trout into the local ponds at Wilson Springs. Some of the trout were 2+ pounder's!!  Sweet! I managed to get a few shots of them as they were getting accustomed to their new surroundings. By the way, I found out what species of Oriole is in the picture I posted Thursday, June 6 and updated the caption.

Idaho Fish & Game truck-the long handles are for the nets they use to transfer fish from the tanks to the ponds, etc.

Idaho Fish & Game truck-thats a standard oxygen tank on the back.

Freshly stocked trout. Some nice sized fish!

More trout.

The creek and some interesting aquatic plants.

More aquatic plants.

A wider shot of the creek. Its about 3 feet deep here. That water is very clean & clear!

Excellent habitat for fish, birds, etc. That's an ash tree growing across the creek.

Cattail arrow shafts

Today I harvested five nice cattail, Typha latifolia stalks. They were just ripe for the picking since all the leaves were about dead and turning brown, These should dry out soon and then the fun begins. I like to use cattail because they are light and most times need little "tuning", such as straightening. Cattail arrows are really easy to make and being light they shoot at a fairly flat trajectory from my bow which is a 35 pound pull. I keep my arrows at 30" length more or less. I have a 28" draw so this size works best.
First thing I did was strip most of the excess junk off the shafts and now I have them bundled, butt to nose, so it makes an even bundle. This bundle will set on my book case to dry. It should only be a few weeks since its warm and dry in my home. When they are dry I'll post a DIT article on arrow making. I use my own stone points and try to use found feathers.
Heres a link to a wealth of material on cattail arrow making at Paleo Planet:http://paleoplanet69529.yuku.com/search/text/?q=cattail+arrows&orderby=created_at&forum=&submit=Search+Forum#.TuWPOOyCmuI
Heres a shot of the bundle, well over 3 feet in length so I have room to trim.

World War Two Survival fishing kit

Heres a scan from Pacific Coast Sportfishing magazine that shows some survival fishing gear from world war 2. The hand lines and other gear in the photo at right go into the pockets of the apron like belt shown at top left. Left click on the photo to blow it up for better viewing.

For some photos of my home made hand lines see this link: http://ronsprimitiveskills.blogspot.com/2009/07/hand-lines-for-fishing.html