Regulars (All)

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/23/11

Thank Heaven for White Perch

They’re the best fish around, and this year they’re about the only fish around

The perch I’d hooked stayed deep, which is always a good sign. Big whites (which are mostly black) are reluctant to approach the surface in a battle. The longer it takes to get a glimpse of a whitey on the end of your line, the bigger it usually is. The scrapper I had on was giving all the signs of being a good one. Fishfinder Look to the Eastern Shore from Love Point and south for the better bite on rockfish. Chumming with ground menhaden and fishing cut bait back...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/16/11

Awash in Daylight

Hidden amid the year’s shortest night, the sky beckons

With days upon days of scorching weather already, you might be surprised that summer begins only this week, on June 21, with the summer solstice. On this day, the sun reaches its farthest point north in the sky, 231⁄2 degrees north of the equator directly over the Tropic of Cancer. That morning the sun rises at 5:40 and sets 14 hours, 55 minutes later at 8:35. Although summer solstice does indeed provide us with the most daylight of the year, it is by no means the...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/16/11

Watering Without Waste

If you are watering your lawn and garden with an overhead sprinkler during daylight hours, you are wasting water. Especially from 11am and 4pm, between 10 and 20 percent of the water you apply by over-head sprinkler is lost to evaporation. Plant Now Looking for something to grow in the garden this summer now that the peas, cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi and cauliflower are harvested? Consider growing Swiss chard, summertime lettuce and okra. Swiss chard is a great substitute...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/16/11

In the Heat of the Moment

Hopping Scum Frogs over lily pads for bass and bluegill

We eased the canoe quietly up to within comfortable fly-casting distance of the shaded shoreline. A sparse blanket of fallen petals and pollen covered most of the water’s surface along this wooded edge. But I hoped the bluegills holding there could tell the difference between floating foliage and a tasty beetle. Fishfinder Go Eastern side if you want a chance at rockfish, the farther south the better. No one is sure quite what has driven the fish off the Western...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/9/11

Shrinking Summer Nights

The full moon is at its lowest, while the sun nears its peak

Week’s end finds the waxing gibbous moon high in the south at sunset, around 8:30. Thursday evening it shines to the west of golden Saturn and the blue-white star Spica, but the next night it has snuggled within 10 degrees of both, forming a loose triangle. Saturn and Spica are currently about a dozen degrees apart, but keep an eye on them over the coming months as the ringed planet edges eastward for an autumnal conjunction. By Monday the near-full moon appears low in...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/9/11

Chumming Up Action

How to catch early summer rockfish

This is turning out to be a difficult striped bass season. Dirty water coming down the Susquehanna River and into the Chesapeake has sent resident mid-Bay fish fleeing to cleaner currents and deeper water. Only over the last two weeks is the water clearing and the fish returning. Fishfinder It’s on and off and on again at Love Point on the chumming bite for rockfish. Limits of fish have been boated, though not yet regularly, but last reports were hot. The bite is...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/9/11

Paying it Forward

Meet the newest winner of the Francis R. Gouin Undergraduate Research Grant

Sarah Zastrow, the 2011 recipient of the Francis R. Gouin Undergraduate Research Grant, is a senior at the University of Maryland Plant Science department. Sarah will be working on a very interesting project comparing the rejuvenation of a forest destroyed by a tornado to the rejuvenation of a similar forest harvested for lumber at approximately the same time. In her studies she will be comparing rate of growth, species, changes in species predominance if any, decomposition...

Article - Sky Watch by J. Alex Knoll; by J. Alex Knoll - 6/2/11

By the Light of the Moon

Let the waxing crescent guide you through the heavens

As the sun sets near 8:30 Friday, look for an ever-so-slender crescent moon hugging the west-northwest horizon. Just two days past new phase, only about five percent of the lunar disk will be illuminated. To spot this sliver of moon, you’ll need an unobstructed view of the horizon, and binoculars may help you to pick it out from the lingering glare of dusk. The next night, the waxing crescent moon is higher above the horizon at sunset, and now more than 10 percent of...

Article - The Bay Gardener by Dr. Francis Gouin; by Dr. Francis Gouin - 6/2/11

Stink Bugs Are Feasting

Peaches don’t like them any better than we do

Perfect-looking peaches will be hard to find this summer. Stinkbugs are already spoiling the fruit. I started thinning peaches when most were the size of marbles. At the beginning of the peach-growing season, some of the fruit already had two to three sting marks on the skin. As the thinning period progresses, peaches almost the size of golf balls are showing three to four sting marks. Immature green and mature gray stinkbugs crawled on my arms and down my neck as I worked...

Article - Sporting Life by Dennis Doyle; by Dennis Doyle - 6/2/11

The Best Fish on the Bay

And the best lure for catching them

The sun was high in the sky when I arrived at my fishing hole. Easing my skiff up to the shoreline on my electric motor, I put a little extra sunscreen on my face and arms while the water settled. The day looked to be a hot one. A strong flood lapped high on the rock riprap along this likely looking stretch of white perch territory. Flicking my favorite spinner bait shoreward, I focused on working a series of short erosion jetties in hopes of securing a...