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June in the Adirondacks

Now were starting to cook up here. There is an absolute explosion of life and activity up here. The insects are going crazy as they commence their brief life cycles, the eggs of the birds are now hatching coinciding perfectly with the hatches. Meals ready to eat are flying around at a steady pace and the fledglings are gorging on them.With the water temps now holding in the 60 degree range the trout are putting the feedbag on something fierce. This is magic time for a fly fisherman and being up here on one of our picturesque mountain streams will make up for all those crazy hours you put in or the insane commutes you endure each day. You can feel the stress evaporating away as you are enveloped by the positive ions emitted by the rushing waters. They claim on TV that a bracelet can do this also but I’m not buying it, like the song says ” ain’t nothing like the real thing baby”. These water temps combined with manageable water conditions in conjunction with golden yellow wild trout are the fantasies of a trout fisherman brought to life. New York is blessed with an incredible amount of recreational opportunities and in June they are all coming into play. Many of us avid fishermen fancy ourselves as pretty good golfers also to help further boost our overinflated egos. Well then I highly recommend a round at the Malone Country Club to let the air out of your balloon and serve you up a good sized slice of humble pie. Here we are in the middle of cow country, surrounded by venues that involve snow most of the year, trout streams stuffed with fish, biting insects the size of hummingbirds and here sits this 36 hole gem of a gold course. This is a Trent Jones/ Donald Ross design, built in 1909, that is a brute and will challenge even the most skilled golfer. How nice, trout fishing in the morning, 18 holes midday and back to the evening hatch. Life is good here in the mountains, come join us for a while.

New York State DEC Public Fishing Rights, Parking Areas, and Interactive Maps

Clipped from: www.dec.ny.gov (share this clip)

The NY Department of Environmental Conservation has a relatively new feature on their website that allows you to access pre-made Google Maps and Google Earth files for public fishing Rights and public fishing parking areas. But they can be hard to find…. so in an effort to make things easier for our readers, here they are:

• NYS DEC – Complete Interactive Map Homepage
• NYS DEC Public Fishing Rivers and Streams Interactive Map – Public Fishing Rivers and Streams Interactive Map
• NYS DEC Public Fishing Stream Parking Areas – Public Fishing Stream Parking Areas

We’ve also updated our resources page here.

Tight Lines!

ICE FISHING SAFETY!!!!!!!

Wow, we have has 3 people die here in the southern tier of NY this year trying to get out to ice fish. It has been so warm here that even I, the most devout of ice fishermen, have not even thought about trying it. We are fishing out of the boats and loving it. Yet after having two guys drown last week, a good friend of ours succumbed to his passion yesterday and today he is no longer with us. As I preached in my blogs last year, at first and last ice or any time for that matter,  use common sense. Have an emergency plan in your mind so that in case you do go in your brain will automatically kick in. I use a high quality spud bar for probing in front of me as I venture out. I carry a set of ice spikes around my neck. These awesome little devices have a spike, set in a handle, that allows you to push the plungers and expose the spikes. Many people whom have fallen through the ice are unable to pull them selves back onto the good ice. With a set of these you are able to stab them into the good ice and help you pull yourself back on to solid ice. I also wear an inflatable personal flotation device. I often anchor a high quality rope in good ice and around me if I am venturing out onto very sketchy ice. A friend is always nice but often it is tough to find some other dim wit willing to flirt with disaster along with you. Good hard ice will support an incredible amount of weight but springs, current, warmer ground near shore and a host of other factors can effect ice quality. First ice can be some of the fastest action of the season but it also can be one of the most deadly times for the predator, so ……… HAVE A PLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BABY ITS HOT OUTSIDE!!!

A heat wave covers the nation and I am already working on deer gear and preparing stuff for fall. Now is a great time to take it easy and work on some of  these projects with an ice cold beverage and a fan on you instead of waiting till late fall. Then you are in a panic as you try to sort everything out, prune and set stands, scout get the boat ready for walleye season…. You get my drift. Here at Papa Bears Outdoors it is a year round mission and over the years I have learned to prepare ahead of time so that these are the results.  Under the full moon the other night I went to pick my lovely daughter up from a friends house near where I do much of my hunting and the deer were everywhere. With the heat during the day they are on the move at night and it is a great time to take cool evening drive with the kids and incorporate a little scouting into the mix. You know quality time with the kids , bonding and oh yeah instilling hunting and fishing into their minds instead of Facebook and video games. Now in mid July most of the bucks have pretty much grown their racks, the fields have been mowed and it is good time to evaluate the boys. They probably will not be in the  same places come hunting season but at least you know they are in the area. I just love seeing one now that looks like he has a cardboard box on his head due to the mass and velvet. I had one in the front yard the other morning eating the neighbors bushes, he is a tank and looked to be a potential 140 class. He has been placed high on the removal list. I love these suburban bucks. They are hard hunted, used to people and if you can master fooling them then you can fool bucks almost anywhere. The mature eastern whitetail is the one trophy that most world traveled hunters don’t have on their walls. This is my brother-in-laws kitchen and he had never bow hunted till he met me. Now they have taken over the house. (BIG SMILE) STAY COOL!!!!!