So there I was, ready to wax rhapsodic as spring returned, but winter threw a hissy fit.
Posts Tagged With: otters
Quill Gordon and the Nonesuch Mountain Meltdown
Categories: +The Neverwas Nonesuch Angling Society, Humor, Maple Syrup, nature, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: Humor, ice, maple syrup, nature, otters, quill gordon, Rural Life, snow, spring, Vermont
13 Comments
Game Camera Resolution
There is a bewildering variety of game cameras, or trail cameras as they’re sometimes known, available on the market today, and some of the most common questions from consumers regard the camera’s resolution. I would like to take a few minutes today and go over with you some of the more confusing aspects of pixels, mega pixels, etc.
I’d like to, but I’m not going to.
The resolution I am referring to is one I am making for 2013, and it is to use my game camera more.
One of the least expensive models at the time of purchase, it is very basic, but the first night I set it out it captured a few shots of a fisher snooping around not far from the chicken coop.
Since then, it has recorded the perpetrators of unauthorized construction activities …
even under cover of darkness.
Categories: Humor, nature, Rural Life, Vermont
Tags: beaver, game cameras, ghoti62, heron, Humor, mice, mink, nature, otters, photography, quill gordon, Rural Life, Vermont
13 Comments
Answering Some Mail
(At the top of this page is a tab that reads “Contact Quill” which will bring up a form you can use to send old Quill an email. A few readers have actually used it, and I’d like to share with you some of the notes I have received.)
*****
Dear Quill,
I subscribed to your blog, but this is not at all what I had in mind and now I regret my decision. How do I make the email notifications stop?
Signed, Disgruntled in Denver
Dear Disgruntled,
I am sorry to hear you are no longer gruntled, but how do you think I feel, having to look at it every darn day? Take a look at the bottom of your email notification; there should be a link that says “Unsubscribe”. Click it and follow the directions, and you will never again be notified that impotant pieces like “Careful With That Axe, Eugene“, “A Craft Project With My Friend, Eugene“, or “Eugene and the Dangers of Shatter Proof Glass” have been foisted upon an unsuspecting readership proudly published. ~QG
Otter, Fish in a Barrel Pond 3/10/12
*****
Dear Quill,
L.L. Bean’s very special Spring Fishing Expo and 100th Anniversary Celebration is this weekend. We’ll give you ten thousand dollars to stay away.
Signed, Freeport Chamber of Commerce
Dear Freeport Chamber of Commerce,
Your offer is tempting but, as much as I wanted to be there for what is sure to be a great weekend (including fly tying demonstrations by Don Bastian, a man with many stories that somehow involve him in his underwear, by the way), I must send my regrets for free. You see, I will be staying away for reasons of love.
My love of anglers.
I try to pretend I am an angler, just like everybody else, but I am not. I am an angler who, when others act on the urge to get away from it all, greets them when they arrive. I clean up after them when they leave, and then, on Sunday afternoon, I try to catch fish in a lake that has been whipped to a froth by them since Friday evening. I also take their reservations, which for the past month have been carefully regulated for fairness (only x number of nights per month, etc.). Starting March 16th, however, those rules are relaxed and anything goes. Someone must be here when they call, and that someone is I.
Freeport is safe this year, as I take one for the team, so everyone who can make it should attend. And be sure to say “Hi” to Don — he’s really starting to get the hang of tying those flies! ~QG Continue reading
Categories: Humor
Tags: beards, beaver damage, diary of a trout bum, Don Bastian, ghoti62, Humor, irene, mud season, nature, otters, quill gordon, unsubscribe, Vermont, Victor Salvo
18 Comments
A Story of Life and Death, Written in Snow (19 Photos)
(Important Disclaimer: There are places where ice forms many feet thick and travel on frozen lakes is perfectly safe for a good part of the season. In other places, especially during a winter like this one, ice conditions can change from day to day, even hour to hour.
The strengthening sun creates soft spots as melt water collects in the dips between expansion cracks, and a route that was safe in the morning merits a second look after lunch. Faint tracks mark yesterday’s trail, which puddled up and froze over last night, leaving a thin veneer over a foot of nothing but slush and at least a bracing dunk.
If asked, Quill Gordon will tell you no ice is safe, but if you do find yourself crossing a frozen lake, check ice thickness often and be aware of changing conditions.)
¦¦¦¦¦
An overnight skiff of snow on the ice is like a clean slate. Any tracks or other signs of activity I see are recent, laid down only hours before my morning rounds. Otters, mink and squirrels are common, and I saw the tracks of a fisher cat last week but, far and away, the most common tracks I come across are those of coyotes.
It’s the time for pairing off and denning up, asserting dominance and proving worth, and the coyotes have been plenty active. Most are travelling in pairs, but a big, lone male has also been out and about.
Categories: nature, Rural Life, Vermont, Winter
Tags: coyote poop, coyotes, frozen lake, ghoti62, ice, nature, otters, photography, prey, quill gordon, Rural Life, Vermont, winter
21 Comments
Teach a Man to Fish …
This story no longer lives here but there are just too many links to it for one man to strip out and those Error 404 Not Found notices aren’t very polite, so you are seeing this instead.
The short story “Teach a Man to Fish … ” has been converted to e-reader format and is now available for both Kindle and Nook as part of Quill Gordon’s Story Time, Tales of the Outdoors for Anglers and Others!
The Blurb:
“Invited to fish a secret, forbidden honey hole, Quill Gordon can’t resist. Rigging up his favorite antique rod, he envisions delicate casts to difficult fish, but when he arrives he finds that not everyone shares his definition of ‘sport’. Featuring Quill’s unusual friend, Eugene, and Eugene’s unusual fishing methods, an early version of this humorous short story first appeared on the blog The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond in September of 2009.”
The Links:
“Teach a Man to Fish … ” for Kindle (Amazon)
“Teach a Man to Fish … ” for Nook (Barnes & Noble)
The Cover
Categories: Fly Fishing, Humor, Stories About My Good Friend, Eugene
Tags: fishing, Fly Fishing, Humor, otter poop, otters, quill gordon
9 Comments
The View from Fish in a Barrel Pond 