Dec. 9th and the subject of river ice

Posted by Greybeard on Dec 9th, 2011 in Fishing, News and weather | 0 comments

Dec. 9th on the river,

The low last night was 27 degrees and the high today 30.   At  9 am,  the upper half of the Au gres river,  from town halfway out to the Bay,  was thinly iced over.  Very thin ice,  a small stone would break through and leave ripples.   Though it was cold today,  the sun was strong for the second half of the day.   We lost a couple of hundred yards of the thin ice,  but now at 5:15 pm,  dusk,   the thin ice is moving downriver again.   With very cold temperatures forcast for tonight,  I sort of expect real ice in the morning.   The ground on the banks of the river,  is definately crusty!

More tomorrow.

Dec. 7th

Posted by Greybeard on Dec 7th, 2011 in Days of Old, Fishing, News and weather | 0 comments

Dec. 7th,  the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.   The date doesn’t seem to be getting as much notice this year as I remember from the past.  Could just be me though,  we are kind of isolated up here.  At any rate,  I haven’t seen much on the TV about it,  and the movie channels don’t seem to be running any WWII movies.

On another note:   It’s December 7th, and we haven’t had a ‘real’ hard freeze yet.  We had a few snow flurries,  and it seems quite cold,   but so far,  35 degree days have been the norm,  with the high twenties at night.    I’ve seen icy slush in the river one time,  but right now it’s flowing cleanly.   The wife and I have a little bet going about the river freezing.   I’m guessing Dec. 18th it will be solid,  with maybe a few flash freezes that melt away between now and then.   Ice fishing,  is going to be another story this year,    I’m pretty sure that will come after Christmas,  maybe New Year or later.  Just a guess, ya know?

As far as river fishing goes,  the water has been very clear,  and down quite a bit from summer.   There have been a very few Perch,  and not much else on our stretch of the river,  but I hear that last week they were catching WhiteFish from the docks up town. (Not one of my favorites)     I’ve hoping the river starts running clean again next year,  maybe the fish will come back.  Eighteen Days until Christmas!!!!

Carry on..

Posted by Greybeard on Oct 30th, 2011 in Fishing, News and weather | 0 comments

Not much new going on around here,  I’m still spending the very few hours of nice weather we’re getting,  outside and getting things ready for the coming cold.

Hoping to get in some more shooting and a little fishing,  but the prospects aren’t real good for that.  It’s currently cloudy, spitting rain, and 46 degree’s,  backed up by a mild but gusty breeze.

A side note:  I did hear that they are catching a few steelhead up at the Singing Bridge (East branch of the Au Gres River).

Catchin’ up after vacation

Posted by Greybeard on Oct 24th, 2011 in Fishing, News and weather, Shootist | 0 comments

Well,  dodging the bad weather and all,  I think I’ve got mostly everything winterized.   (For those of you who don’t know)  It get’s cold in the winter time here in Michigan,  and things that aren’t properly winterized,  usually don’t work come the next spring.   All the big items are completed,  boats, pumps, etc.,  just a few little things to do before the icebox get’s started.

I’ve tried fishing the river (AuGres),  a couple of times,  without any luck at all,  so I’m guessing that the muddy water is keeping the fish out in the Bay.   Since the boats are now all in the polebarn,  I guess all those Bay fish,  will last until next spring.

I did get out to the range the other day,  and ran 20 rounds of Black Hill match ammo through my DPMS LR-308.   All 20 rounds went without fail,  which is quite a bit different that using some of the other ammo I’ve tried.   I suppose I’m going to have to blame the ammo for frequent jams I’ve been getting.   I fired 3 rounds at 50 yards,  all which were touching nearly dead center on the bullseye.   Next I fired 8 rounds at 100 yards.  These opened up a bit,  to about the size of a tennis ball,  and still in the bullseye,  on the upper right hand portion.   Finally 9 more rounds at 200 yards.   Here’s where the trouble started.   The first few rounds were off the paper,   but I thought I saw a bullet strike high and to the right,  so I fired the last 5 rounds at the lower left hand corner of the Bullseye.    This got them on the paper,   and I had a pattern of 5 holes about the size of a baseball,   on the upper right hand corner of the target.      That finished off the box of ammo,  so I guess I’ll have to go back and finish sighting it at  200 yards.

I am wondering a bit though,,,   when I move the point of impact at 200 yards,  down and to the left about 5 inches,  how is that going to affect the point of impact at 100 yards?   It seems that it would move it out of the bullseye,   but how can the gun shoot pretty much dead on at 100,   and be 5 or 6 inches off at 200?

Bottom line,  I’ve got a way to go,  before I decide to drive up to Oscoda and try out their 600 yard range.

And for the record,  compliments of Jim Rink,  here’s a photo from Boskey Del vineyard,  looking back at where I took my picture from a week ago.

Another nice evening on the river

Posted by Greybeard on Sep 22nd, 2011 in Fishing, News and weather | 0 comments

This time with a bottle of Boskydel Rose du Chaunac and it was every bit as good as the other day’s Rose du Cru.   We watched the sun set with our bottle of wine,  some old world italian salami,  a couple of good cheeses, some olives and a small loaf of hard garlic infused bread.    I did a little casting for Salmon right after the sun set,  but no luck.   I did see a couple of them jump in the river though.

It’s sad to see summer leaving,  these past couple of evening sitting outside watching the sunset,  are probably some of the last few for this year.    The Sportcraft get’s pulled tomorrow,  and the Alaskan will likely stay in until near the end of October if it doesn’t get to cold.   Then,  it’s off to the depth’s of Michigan Winter.