Category: Podcast

Eric and Mike talk about car repair and how to save money by (safely) avoiding potholes, as hitting potholes can have an impact on bearings that is pricey to fix. Rick asks us to consider celebrating New Years on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) so you can have a party and still get to bed at a decent hour. The unseasonably warm weather brings up concerns about bears coming out of hibernations and affected jobs including its impact on the sugaring season (also known as sap season) for maple syrup and landscapers. Eric discusses how active the bees are due to the warm temperatures and how to feed your hives to get them through the winter. Discussion about this also took place on the Backwards Beekeepers of New York CIty Facebook page. Mike and Eric hear from a number of viewers writing or calling in on a variety of topics including: making virtual (such as in Evernote) versus  pen and paper lists, shopping at Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore in your area, the color a proper pickle should be, and beginner mushroom growing tips. Mike shares his favorite highlights from GardenFork’s Labrador Retriever New Years video show. Oh, and follow Mike on Twitter! @GFR_Mike

photo by click

Rich Gee, head of The Rich Gee Group – Executive and Business Coaching , joins Eric today to talk about what keeps us from doing stuff we want to do, but can’t seem to get going on. We also talk about eggnog and making plywood boats

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Wondering how to intern at a farm? What is it like to intern at a farm? How do i get an internship at a farm? On GardenFork Radio we talk with a former organic farm intern, Sarah, our new GardenFork Producer. We talk about how to find a farm to work at, what to expect when doing an internship, and what the interview process is like.

Sarah interned at an organic vegetable farm that has a successful CSA program, where she learned how to drive a tractor, use farm implements, and weed vegetable fields in the hot sun, when is the best time to harvest vegetables, how to harvest lettuce real fast without cutting yourself, succession planting, seeding lettuce in soil blocks and plug trays, building and modifying farm implements to suit a small farm. Constant problem solving in a challenging environment is how Sarah describes it.

We also talk about how to roast duck with the barest of kitchens and a dull knife, and what a corporate apartment is.

A big congrats to Daniel Delaney for having this video show, What’s This Food? named Top Arts Podcast of 2011 by Apple iTunes! You can watch What’s This Food on Daniel’s site here. You can hear Daniel Delaney on this GardenFork Radio Episode here.

photo by click

Mike and Eric talk about how to ice fish and other stuff this week.

photo by digitaldunee

A Broken Rice cooker, and how to fix it & how baking powder works are the main topics of this GF Radio show, but of course we veer into other subjects as well. We’ve posted the Rice Cooker Repair ,What is Baking Powder and Free Leaf Compost articles that started this topic for Rick, and we started a new category here called Rick’s Column. Rick talks about how a rice cooker works and how he fixed his rice cooker. You can buy inline fuses at Radio Shack, bring the old one with you, or search online.

Eric made a how-to video about making leaf compost, and here is a neat GardenFork.TV video about how to make a simple compost bin out of a few easily available materials. Rick plans on working the leaf compost into his vermiculture system, aka worm composting system.

BTW, to make baking powder, use 1 part baking soda to 2 parts cream of tartar. You can buy Cream of Tartar online instead of paying a fortune for a small amount at the store.

For those of you interested in working at GardenFork, here is the link to our internships page. We need a hand, and if you’d like to get some great experience, check out our internship page and see what its all about.

photo by Besela

How to fish for bass, bass behavior, and how to catch largemouth bass are the topic of Gardenfork Radio. Mike is a former tournament bass fisherman, and tells us how to find bass in a lake, and largemouth bass behavior throughout the year. Mike gives bass fishing tips and goes into largemouth bass behavior.

Bass:
Ice-out and spring:
After ice out, the bass are still very lethargic. They are cold blooded animals. However, as the water temperatures start to rise, they begin to move and feed after a long sleepy winter.
Places to look in the spring:
Northern sides of lakes, ponds, and backwaters. The sun is lower in the sky, northern sides of lakes get more direct sun. This is especially true where there are large trees, hills, and other tall obstructions on the south side of the lake.
Wind. In short, wind from the north is cold. It cools the surface and pushes it south. Wind from the south is warm. It warms the surface and moves it north.
Shallow water warms faster than deep water. Especially when the bottom is dark.
Stones. Stones on the shore will pick up heat from the sun and hold it. This is true of sea walls and bridges made of stone as well.
Late spring / Early Summer:
When the water gets up to around 57 – 60 degrees, Bass will start their spawn cycle. Some areas will close fishing to allow for the spawn to happen. To sustain a fishery, fish need to have a chance to reproduce.
Male fish will take up residence in shallow water, typically with a harder bottom, and they will use their body to clear out a circular nest on the bottom. They will become territorial around their nest and will do their best to keep it clean.
During this time, females will stage in deeper water adjacent to the nesting area. They will join the males in the shallower water, laying their eggs, and then moving back to the deeper water. Males will fertilize the eggs and stay with the nest until the fry are hatched. For a while, the male will aggressively protect the fry and will eventually leave the small fish on their own and recede into deeper water.
Usually, it’s during the spawn and in the post spawn where fishing will die off some as the fish are not up to chasing food because they are spent from the spawn. Any fish caught during the spawn are usually males and it’s usually a territorial and protective strike, not one for food.
Summer / Late Summer
Bass move into their summer patterns after the spawn. The summer pattern really differs from lake to lake, but there are some generalities that you can work with in order to identify the patterns on your lake / pond.
Oxygen is less soluable in warmer water. Backwaters that are shallow and baked by the summer sun have lower oxygen levels, so fish will avoid them.
Deeper lakes (20’+ usually) will stratify over the summer. Warmer is water is less dense and it remains at the top, cold water, heavy and oxygen depleted sinks and stays at the bottom. There’s a structure known as the thermocline. It’s where the water changes temperature drastically within a foot or two. On depth finders it will show up as a line. You can feel it when swimming in a lake. The oxygen level below the thermalcline is very low and you should spend your time fishing above that line.
Bass are averse to bright sunlight. If there is an area of clear water with no cover, it’s best to avoid that area.
Bass relate to things. The things could be trees in the water, stumps, rocks, underwater dropoffs or other topographical changes, and weed lines.
Weed lines form because plants require sunlight to live. The depth of a weed line will vary with water clarity. Muddier lakes have shallower weedlines and clearer lakes have deeper weed lines. Some times you can follow them in a boat visually. Usually a depth finder will be needed to identify the line. Once you gain experience, you will be able to do it by feel.
Bass will feed in the early morning hours and at sundown, when the sun is low in the sky.
Fish will prefer areas where there are shallow flats near deeper water. They can stay in the deeper water during the day, and easily move up to the shallower flat to feed.
During the summer, I will work the surface early in the morning. As the sun rises, I will work 3 – 5 feet in depth, and then move out to the deeper weed lines during the hot noon hours.
Fall
The sun starts to get lower in the sky, the days are shorter, and the air cools. The water begins to cool as well. Spring patterns begin to re-emerge, but without any of the spawn problems. Fish become aggressive, feeding for the winter.
Weedy cover begins to die. Where there may have been 100 acres of green underwater vegetation, you now have 50 acres of dead grass, 30 acres of green grass, and 10 acres of bare bottom. The bass will concentrate in the 30 acres of green grass making them easier to find — if you know where the green grass is.
Then there is the fall turnover, reuining fishing everywhere. The lake that stratified over the summer months changes. The surface water becomes cold and heavy. It sinks to the bottom, pushing warmer “middle water” to the top. Eventually this convective current makes it’s way to the bottom. The lake “turns over”. The thermalcline dissapears and water temperature is uniform, top to bottom. However, all of the crud from the bottom rides the current to the surface.
The lake becomes cloudy or muddy and the fishing suffers until the turnover is complete and the sediment settles again.
Fish become more and more lethargic as the water cools. You will find them near warm water and green vegitation.

photo by Jusben

Monica and Eric talk about using slow cookers in the fall, and what phone eric should buy, and who is your favorite dog, all on GF Radio this week. Plus zen thoughts about being busy.

photo by crass