CB makes a bow and arrows

I fished the Fox on Sunday morning,  and although I didn't catch a single fish, it was a pleasure to be outside. My first wading trip was last Fall, and the majority of my wading trips have been in fairly cold weather (usually cold and rainy). This was one of the first times the water was pleasant, the breeze wasn't chilly, and I even rolled up my sleeves.

I saw a lot of wildlife- a couple of deer came to the river to drink, and seemed perplexed by me. Once they returned to the woods, I saw them watching me through the trees. Maybe if I'd caught a fish while they were watching it would have made more sense to them. I suppose just standing in the middle of a river does look strange.

Can you see the deer?

Later, in a different spot, I saw a bunch of adult geese with a many baby geese. I had no idea they were yellow when they were young- I would have guessed they were baby chickens if I didn't see them next to their parents. I wonder if they taste like chickens.

Geese and goslings (?)

A couple days later I fished the retention pond. The weather has been colder this week than last week, and the fishing has shut down for me. I managed to get one hit from a bass about a foot from shore- I reeled him in, and as soon as he saw me he simply opened his mouth and spit out the chigger craw. I didn't even hook him! That was one of the more crazy fishing experiences I've ever had. That fish was determined.

A few days ago I finished the amazing book "The Mindful Carnivore" by Tovar Cerulli. I think I might write a formal review of it, but not today. My summation of his thesis is that no matter what we do as humans, we hurt other living things, and there is no way around it. Even growing vegetables requires at the very least the killing of insect pests; apparently many farmers regularly kill deer to protect their crops.

The author went from being vegan to hunting because he wanted to face the death necessary for his sustenance head-on, without disguising it behind layers of plastic and styrofoam or words like "free range" or "organic." I'm no hunter, although I do occasionally keep fish I catch and cook them. I could relate to much of what Tovar wrote. This book was a great account of his journey from veganism to meat-eating, and his great respect for nature and all the life around him.

After finishing the book, and not wanting to go fishing due to the lack of action and colder weather, something possessed me to try and make a bow and arrow. I promise it has nothing to do with "The Hunger Games." If anything, it's more related to my current obsession with outdoorsy-ness. I also just wanted to see if I could.

I found some downed branches, took them home, cut off the bark with a knife, made notches for the bow string, for which I first tried using monofilament fishing line. I have a lot of it laying around, and now that I pretty much use braided line exclusively, I didn't mind using a bunch of mono for my bow. As you could probably guess, the line snapped fairly easily. I found some twine we had laying around, and using a "slip knot" (which I just learned) I was able to tie the line to the bow. I wrapped duct tape around the handle to prevent splinters and whatnot, and put some around the twine to assist in holding the notches in the arrows.

Then I took some sticks (which I thought were straight but are obviously quick crooked) added some cardboard for the "feathers" (don't know the archery term) and whittled the points down so they weren't completely blunt.

What I had was this:

Believe it or not, it works... kind of

And it works! By the time I finished everything, it was dark. This morning before I headed out to work I tried shooting my new arrows. I propped up a cardboard box, and was very surprised by the power of my new bow and the arrows I made. I was able to put arrows through two layers of cardboard from about twenty feet!

Aiming is difficult, and where the arrows end up is anybody's guess... I'd never shot an arrow before yesterday, except of course in Wii Sports. I really liked it there, which suggested to me I might like the real thing. I figured instead of investing money on something I might not enjoy whatsoever, why not make my own and satisfy my urge to make stuff from scratch in the process.

What have I gotten out of this exercise? If the zombie apocalypse comes, and I find myself in a forest with a knife and some twine, and maybe some cardboard, I might be able to construct my own bow and arrows. If I'm lucky I might confuse the zombies enough to allow for my escape.

Also, this might be an activity worth pursuing with some store-bought gear. Then I can be just like Katniss.

How I Got Into Fishing

Me, fishing

A lot of people are confused with my love of fishing.

Especially those who have known me a long time. My interests seem very incongruous if I really think about them, I suppose. Music, video games, computers, technology, Mexican food, cooking, fishing, kayaking. Then again, I try to like things I like and not worry too much whether they go together or not. My favorite type of music is probably hip-hop (the Mos Def and Common variety, with Q'tip and J-Dilla thrown in) but I also love traditional Cuban music, jazz, death metal, Les Baxter, etc. Genuinely, not ironically. There's something about west African mbira music that gets me going. And I'm a huge fan of anything that is released on Berlin's Kompakt label. I listen to contemporary country music on the radio- for enjoyment.

(...But I also do lots of other weird things, like when two songs accidentally play at the same time - like two youtube videos opened simultaneously - I like to just let them both play and hear what they sound like together)

I guess the point is, I like stuff and can't always explain it. That's how fishing is.

It doesn't really make sense. Sure, I can say the idea of little meals swimming around the lake appeals to my interest in cooking. And I like understanding the whole process of making something, like cooking beans from scratch, or carving wooden fishing lures, or writing a messy bash script that does something ridiculous on my computer.

But it doesn't really explain it. I love fishing, and I love other stuff, for no particular reason.

Me and a little fish

My new buddy Sam Bennett, who you may remember from such CB Fishes posts as this one, is putting together a new site dedicated to fishing the Fox River. Turns out it's called the Fox River Fishing Network, and I highly recommend you check it out! Sam invited me to contribute some posts, and the first one went up today.

As much as I've talked about learning to fish, my trials and tribulations, I haven't really written about how it all started. I still can't figure out the why, but I can certainly relate the how and especially the who. If it weren't for Mark, Rob, and Luke - my fishing teachers, my dog Walter, and Kevin Smith who works at Cabela's, there would most likely be no CB Fishes. CB would not fish.

So if you're curious how an indoor dude like myself suddenly developed a love for the outdoors, head on over to the Fox River Fishing Network and check out my post. While you're there, check out the other posts too- there's some good stuff going on.

Lately I've been expanding my outdoors knowledge; after so many trips to the Fox River, standing there in the water with nature all around me, I've started to get curious about it all. What are those tracks in the mud there? What kinds of birds are those? How many of these plants lining the river are edible? Last week I finished Bradford Angier's How to Stay Alive in the Woods, and today I'm almost done with the book The Mindful Carnivore by Tovar Cerulli. Maybe I'll write a review about it. It's an amazing book. If you eat food, are vegetarian, or are a hunter, or either or neither of those things, I highly recommend the book.

This is a carp that lives only a few feet from
the Itasca Metra station

That's all for now... if I get around to it maybe I'll share this past Sunday's trip to the Fox. No fish caught, but I stared down some deer for a few minutes. I made some more lures, bought a swiss army knife, and now I know how to get vitamin C and protein if I'm lost in the woods (pine needles and bugs, in case you were wondering).