Good morning. Have a great day! Rainy here this morning

[Clipper]

It is a drizzly, dark and rainy morning here. No outside work here unless the rain goes away and a bit of sunshine peeks out. Good day for inside work. Time for that second cup of Folgers and 15 or 20 minutes on the exercise glider since I won't be able to get any exercise outside today.

I might take a ride to Johnson City later for routine blood work at the VA. I did the online visit with my PC doc the other day and he said I am due for blood work and a routine urine test at my own convenience. They they have a remote lab set up just inside gate. I will get the blood drawn and give them a urine sample, and then while I am there I will visit my friend John's grave in the national cemetery.

Looks like a nice day is ahead for those of you in CNY. Enjoy the sunshine and blue skies. Be well and be safe.

[BHU]

Georgeous day here, bright & sunny & temps about 80. Same for tomorrow, so I think we'll do some fishing. We may head to Caroga Lake for a day at the state park out near Johnstown, about an hour away. Maybe bring the portable grill & have a picnic. I haven't been to that lake since I was in grade school.

I assembled the new tiller today which took about 15 minutes. Took it out back & put it to work & it worked like a charm. I only did a small area until I figure out what to do about getting topsoil. I figure I'll need about 1/2 a yard.

[Clipper]

I love Caroga Lake. I graduated from West Canada Valley and we used to have class picnics there and in summer they ran school buses to Caroga lake for swimming on occasion. My dad worked for Univac and they used to have the annual company picnic there. Free rides all day long at the amusement park, a catered picnic, and a gift for each kid, plus the swimming and enjoying the beach for the day.

I never have fished there but a friend had a camp there. I guess there is a little bit of everything in there from bass to pike to panfish. Let us know how you make out.

I fished a couple of times down the road farther toward Gloversville and Johnstown at a place called Peck's Lake. The fishing was pretty good, and the lake was always fairly quiet. Peck's charged $10 to launch a boat. Not a problem, but once when I went we could not find anyone to pay for the launch so we launched figuring we would pay when we came back in. Pretty soon a guy in a boat came out where we were fishing and told us we were trespassing and were lucky he didn't have us arrested for theft of services for launching without paying. He also said he could have had my truck and boat trailer towed. The guy was rude and a real prick. I never went back. I told him that I was going to pay him when we came back in, but with his attitude he could shove his launch fee in his ass and I we loaded the boat on the trailer, flipped him a bird, and left. There was no reason to be so rude. I had been there before and always paid. He was just a jerk. I told him he didn't need to be so damned rude and if he would have had my truck towed they would probably be dragging the lake for his miserable ass.

Have you ever taken Rt 10 from Pine Lake to Piseco? Once when we were camping at Sandy Point on Piseco a friend took me bullhead fishing one night at a little lake called Kennel's Pond. It is about half way between Pine Lake and Piseco on Rt 10. It comes up to the road, and you can drop a canoe in from the edge of the road. We caught a nice mess of brown bullheads on night crawlers. We camped quite often at Piseco, but I never had much luck fishing there. I went back to that pond several times after that but never caught anything but bullheads and panfish which was fine with me. Bullheads are one of my favorite fish to eat.

If you are ever tempted to fish Peck's Lake, DON'T unless you are ready for a rude dude and a $10 launch fee or expensive boat rental.

I really miss the fishing up there. There are so many lakes and places to fish for just about any kind of fish you care to go out for. Many of my happiest memories living in upstate NY was memories made fishing and hunting all over CNY. My dad and I used to hike to some of the remote ponds and streams in the Moose River Plains to fish. I remember once we toted a canoe on our heads for 2 miles to get to a pond we heard had native trout in it. After breaking our backs to get our canoe back there we found that there was a little john boat and oars tied up to a tree. It must have belonged to the state because we were the only ones way back in there. It is a great place to be an outdoorsman. I can't get motivated to do much fishing here and I haven't deer hunted since the first year we were here.

I am glad your tiller is doing the job for you. I absolutely love our little tiller. I had it out yesterday to break up the dirt piles from the sewer project so I could spread it. When the clay settles it is impossible to shovel without breaking it up with something. Stirred it up with the little tiller and then I was able to throw some around with a shovel and rake it off to ready it for seeding.

[BHU]

Things did not go well in Caroga Lake. We got a late start & left around noon. I wanted to take rte. 29 so we headed out that way. But instead of taking 29A l ike I should have, me with my head up my butt took 29 so we ended up God knows where. We finally stopped at a roadside stand, bought some veggies from a very courteous farmer & got directions. We  finally found the Caroga Lake DEC campground where we had planned to spend the day. We pulled into the entrance & we were greeted & informed by some young wiseass that the maximum number of people allowed were already in the park & due to COVID restrictions we couldn't enter. I bit my tongue & told him we were only there to fisn & picnic for the day & we had just driven 50 goddam miles to get there. Didn't matter to smart guy so I did a u-turn, flipped him the bird & left. So much for Caroga Lake. We drove down around Canada Lake but couldn't find a safe pull off to fish & the area where we looked was all private camps. We saw a sign for Peck's Lake so we pulled in & were greeted by a sign saying Private Property!, permits needed for day use area & fishing, violators will be towed & all that jazz. We turned  back around & left & it was nice to feel wanted. Lol. By this time I had had it. Got back on 29A, headed west & ended up in Middleville & fished the West Canada, fired up the grill & cooked some burgers, no trout.

All in all the day wasen't a total loss. We took a nice scenic drive, the weather was good & we got out of Dodge for a few hours. The Caroga Lake are is very scenic & hopefully next year we can give it another shot. But not this year. I totaly enjoyed your story about your encounter at Peck's Lake. I laughed like hell!