Casey Allen’s gorgeous newsletter is here. Halibut! Perch! Groundfish!. Currents! Electronic fish! The link is below. Enjoy!
Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers Winter Newsletter
Reply
Category Archives: Recreation
TV Worth Watching: “Illuminated Wildlife” and other joys of “North Woods Law”
Those of you who read the blog regularly know that I have a high tolerance for junk TV, especially “reality”. I can watch reruns of The Profit or Save My Bakery.
But recently I discovered North Woods Law on Animal Planet. It’s about Maine game wardens tracking illegal hunters, rescuing lost fishermen and just generally being helpful. They rescue eagles from traps, find old ladies lost in the woods and arrest a lot of people for shooting guns out of automobiles. I didn’t even know that was a thing. When you watch North Woods Law you learn a lot about Maine, it’s geography, it’s people. It looks awfully cold.
A lot of it sounds just like Humboldt. They find a medical marijuana farmer cheating by growing an extra field. When they find folks with small amount of weed, they seem to cut them a break. A LOT of the hunters they deal with are drunk. Just like here. One of the charges they issue tickets for is “illuminating wildlife”. You’re not supposed to go into the dark woods and shine your headlights or anything else on them because it causes them to freeze in panic making an easy shot for a hunter. That “deer in the headlights” phenomenon is real! Sometimes their work is somber as when they recover bodies of missing fishermen. On Suddenlink this is all available on Channel 233.
There are half a dozen episodes left in the current season, which is the last one filmed in Maine. Why? Because of everyone’s favorite idiot Governor, Paul Le Page, who has never been known to walk and chew gum at the same time. Hizzoner objected to his state employees being filmed so the show is moving to New Hampshire. Read about it HERE.
Think I’ll go out and illuminate something.
END
ALERT! ALERT! JUNK TV ALERT! “BATTLEBOTS” RETURNS TONGHT AT 8pm ON ABC!!
Harbor Working Group to Present Forum on DREDGING
Talk about a timely topic! Their program on Wednesday the 27th will address the recent $7.5M grant and plans and projects for the Humboldt Bay Channels. Click HERE for more info. Fried chicken too! Ask them for a bib. See you at the Cookhouse!
END
Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers’ Fall Edition
That gorgeous newsletter can be found right HERE . Be sure to check out the article on dam removal and please patronize their sponsors. Thanks to Casey and the gang at HASA. Enjoy!
Let’s Talk About Guns
(PLEASE SEND YOUR SUPPORT AND PRAYERS TO THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO ARE SUFFERING GREATLY THIS WEEK.)
When it comes to guns, everyone’s got an opinion. What I am presenting here are not opinions, but statistics that were gathered by a gun enthusiast from South Carolina, Dr. John Rheney, who has been the outdoor columnist for the Orangeburg Times & Democrat since 1984. Click HERE for his complete article. They are followed by some California statistics from the State departments of Public Health and Justice. If you have information to the contrary, kindly post it with your sources or better yet a link. Enjoy!
Seven per cent (7%) of Americans hunt.
A survey found that 32 percent (32%) of Americans either own firearms or live with someone who does. This is down from 50% in the late ’70’s.
In 1977, a third of Americans lived in a household with at least one hunter. In 2014, that number had declined to 16%.
While the number of guns being sold has held steady or increased, the guns are being concentrated in fewer hands. 22% of Americans own a gun as opposed to 31% in 1985.
About 35% of men and 12% of women own a firearm. 31% of people over 35 years old own a firearm. Only 14% of people under 35 do.
Republican households owning guns: 50%. Democrats: 25%.
Whites are twice as likely to own a gun than other races. People with higher incomes are much more likely to own guns than the poor.
Here’s the Humboldt Anglers’ Summer Newsletter
The Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers have provided their beautiful and informative newsletter again. It can take a few minutes to download but it is definitely worth the wait. In the near future our salmon and Black Rockfish populations are in trouble.
END
SUPPORT THE LETTER CARRIERS’ FOOD DRIVE
Tomorrow, Saturday May 9, you have two painless opportunities to do something good for the community. Take that plastic bag that was left for you earlier this week, or any other bag, fill it with food for those in need, and set it out for your letter carrier to pick up tomorrow. Save gas! Save hassle! Help someone!
This is a huge undertaking. Last year’s NALC (National Association of Letter Carriers) food drive netted 43,409 pounds of food, which amounted to a third of all food donations received by Food for People last year. Food for People helped 12,000 people in Humboldt County last year, half of whom were children. 10% of our population needs help to have regular meals. You all know the statistics. They translate into hungry seniors and kids, among others.
Those of you who have the pleasure of knowing me know that I never give a party without setting out a can for FFP donations. One of my neighbors used to bring over all her expired food. She’s passed away now but when I think of her, that’s the first thing that comes to mind, that she was chintzy with the food drive. Don’t be that guy! Fill up those bags! (I use Grocery Outlet) and give till it hurts. Then to reward yourself cruise by the Zoo and enjoy the Brew at the Zoo from 4-8pm. Another great weekend in Humboldt!
END
Humboldt Saltwater Anglers’ Update
We are always proud to share the Humboldt Area Saltwater Anglers’ newsletter because a) it’s informative and b) it LOOKS so good. Here is the latest from this stellar organization. It takes a while to load. Good things are worth waiting for.
Fun in the Sun
As the cold November winds prepare to blast us into winter, wouldn’t you like to fly away to a land of perpetual sunshine? Someplace like Maui?
Well, two dozen California legislators have packed their swim trunks and sunscreen and have flown to Maui. These lucky folks are being treated to a five-day conference at the Fairmont Kea Lani Hotel in Wailea, where the rooms cost $350 per night. But they won’t see a bill. Their expenses ($2500 per lawmaker) are being paid by a non-profit called the Independent Voter Project. Who are they? They include:
Occidental Petroleum and the Western States Petroleum Association
Eli Lilly
the Altria tobacco firm
the California Cable and Telecommunications Association
the State prison guards union
the California Distributors’ Association tobacco and other products).
Just to make sure our legislators get enough rest, a mini-conference from Nov 19-23 will be held just down the road at the Grand Wailea. The sponsor is the Pacific Policy Research Foundation whose supports include Eli Lilly (again), PG&E, and Amgen.
Who attends these gatherings? That’s a semi-secret but legislators from both parties routinely show up as well as power brokers like former assembly speaker John Perez. The only people who don’t get a seat are you and me. Patrick McGreevy lays it out in the LA Times.
Every year they have these elitist parties with the public left out and every year people bitch about it, but here we are again. And Jerry Brown, who doesn’t make many mistakes, vetoed a bill that would have required nonprofits that pay for legislators’ travel to meetings like this, to disclose their donors.
But what good does disclosure do? These people have no shame. Next year they’ll do it again. Even with a series of recent scandals, they’ll do it again unless someone stops them. Write to Mike McGuire, write to Jim Wood, join California Common Cause.
Maybe next year we should crash the party? Or at least get them to hold it in-state? Box lunches at the Wharfinger should be good enough for those who are really doing the people’s business.
END
News From All Over
Here are some factoids with which to tickle your brain.
TOURISM- As the HSU survey in our last post pointed out, tourism stats are down in Humboldt County. However, our friends in Redding are feeling the same pain, according to the Searchlight -Record, no link available. Isn’t it puzzling or are tourists staying away because of the drought and fires?
CHINA- University of California officials have made no less than 20- that’s TWENTY- trips to China so far this year to woo Chinese students with their lucrative out-of-state tuition payments. Oh, yeah, they’re smart too. And haven’t fried their brains on drugs.
APPLE- now has 2500 workers in their Elk Grove location which started as a distribution center but is now hiring folks who wouldn’t know what a forklift looks like. 89 current vacancies, including one for “Mandarin Team Manager”.
100 OBJECTS- The State of South Carolina, which has imho the slickest tourism of any state, is sponsoring a promotion of “100 Objects” in Orangeburg County ranging from battlegrounds, old schools, gravestones, gardens etc. It’s sort of like “101 Things To Do on the North Coast” combined with a historical scavenger hunt. Any community could adopt this promotion except we’d have to lose the bland word “objects”. “Prizes?” “Treasures?” OK, I can see why they settled for “objects”. Still a good gimmick for a promotion.
SHERLOCK HOLMES- the stories by A Conan Doyle have fallen into public domain. Those of you who always thought you had a future writing screenplays, have at it.
OBAMA- one of his biggest financial supporters is the CEO of COSTCO.
OLIVES- due to the drought, this year’s olive crop is going to be down 45% from last year. Martini drinkers might want to stock up bigtime.
OYSTERS- Rumor has it that a major Marin County oyster producer will start operations in Humboldt Bay.
That’s all, folks, for this week. Stay safe and far away from the fires.