Regulars (All)

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/17/12

2012 Rockfish Seasons

Fishing dates are balanced to save spawning fish

The trophy rockfish season — which ran April 21 to May 15 — was a good one. The first two weeks saw many big fish taken, lots of them measuring over 40 inches. The last week or so, however, proved a disappointment. Most of the really big fish had by then left our area of the Bay to return to the ocean. Fishfinder The average size of stripers taken the last several days of the trophy season dropped precipitously as the majority of big fish had spawned and...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/17/12

Clear Your Underbrush

Or hire goats to do the job

A Bay Weekly reader recently asked me how he could clear away the underbrush in woods surrounding his home without using weed killers. It can be done with persistence and perseverance. You don’t want to cut away any brush until you see mature foliage on the brush you desire to control. Mature leaves go from light green to dark green. The change is very noticeable in such perennial weeds as honeysuckle, poison ivy and trumpet vine. Keep Your Hoe Sharp A garden hoe...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/10/12

Caught by the Bull’s Horn

El Nath can’t hold Venus’ descent

Sunset reveals Venus ablaze high in the west, shining as bright as she gets at magnitude –4.7. And while the light of a planet is usually steady, but as the Evening Star nears the horizon, she begins to shimmer and dance as her light is refracted by Earth’s atmosphere. The planet is so dazzling that at first glance you could easily mistake her for a passing jetliner or even a UFO. Venus is in fact the Number 1 culprit behind reported sightings. Like a fall from...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/10/12

Success at Last

Victory loves preparation

We had been set up for less than 20 minutes when I had the first run. The clicker on my Ambassadeur bait caster began to chatter, slowly at first, then rapidly. I picked up the rig and switched off the mechanical alarm to eliminate its resistance. Thumbing the now-whirling spool, I steeled myself as a powerful fish continued off with my chunk of menhaden. Fishfinder The trophy rockfish season is progressing extremely well this year, especially with our recent spate of...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/10/12

From Pots to Your Garden

How to transplant bedding plants

Are you one of those gardeners who is much too careful about disturbing roots of bedding plants when transplanting them into the garden? If you examine the roots of bedding plants grown in cells or pots, you will note a layer of roots along the outside edge of the root ball. Vigorously growing plants will sometimes have a thick layer of roots surrounding the root ball and are likely to be root-bound. If these root balls are not broken up before being planted in garden soil,...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 5/3/12

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane!

No, It’s Super Moon

Saturday’s full moon is commonly called the Flower Moon the Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon. But you can call it Super Moon. Not only does this full moon coincide with perigee — its nearest monthly approach to earth — but this is the closest perigee of the year. As a result, the full moon will appear almost 10 percent bigger and brighter than normal. Thursday’s near-full moon leads Saturn and Spica by only a few degrees, appearing in the...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 5/3/12

Winning Is No Easy Game

Against a trophy rock, just a taste of success will set you ablaze

We hadn’t had a single bait touched for hours when we finally decided we’d had enough. I cranked in my lines for the trip home, as did my friend in the bow, Maurice. As I turned back to complain to him once again about our wretched luck, Mo’s rod was bent hard over and he struggled merely to hold on to it. His drag was screaming and feeding line into a powerful run as I scrambled to clear my rig from the water. The brute then turned and headed back toward...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 5/3/12

Whack Your Butterfly Bush to the Ground

Woody ornamentals need periodic rejuvenation to stay healthy and productive

It’s never too late to whack that buddleia down to the ground, even though it is flushing new growth. One of my butterfly shrubs was getting so large that in early March I cut the stump close to the ground with a chainsaw. Already the new growth is 18 to 24 inches tall with an abundance of young shoots coming from the roots. While I was lecturing to a garden club, a member asked me how to prune buddleia. I told her to prune it back as close to the ground as possible....

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 4/26/12

Sharing the Night Sky

Every night is Astronomy Day

Join the party Saturday, April 28, as people around the globe take aim at the heavens for Astronomy Day. This annual event was begun in 1973 by California astronomer Doug Berger, who organized a drive to set up telescopes along city sidewalks and other public spaces so that ordinary people could better appreciate the night sky. With four of the five naked-eye planets visible along with the near-first-quarter moon, the evening shouldn’t disappoint. Even before sunset,...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 4/26/12

Spring’s Freshwater Fighter

You won’t have to battle crowds to hook the toothy pickerel

My small Tony spoon with a lip-hooked bull minnow sailed out and landed alongside one of the many fallen trees angling out from the impoundment’s shoreline. I let my lure sink next to the tangle of branches for a moment, then lifted the rod tip of my small spin rod and began teasing the bait back. My line twitched as the minnow resisted. Then, within three or four cranks of my reel handle, I encountered a sudden resistance and set the hook, hard. Water erupted, and an...