About "Catch & Research"

Welcome. I found my passion in ecological economics and fishing. They are all about pursuit of unknown and uncertain objects. I always enjoy the seemingly reckless pursuit itself. This blog is a record of my long journey in research and fishing. Your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Input-Output Analysis: Foundations and Extensions

Finally, second edition of "THE" input-output analysis text book is out! I received my order from the UK. Since its first edition was published in 1985, it has been almost 25 years. Miller and Blair included many updates in input-output field.



In particular, they include SDA. I was a bit disappointed because the coverage of SDA was not that long (13 pages). Oh, well, long-waited new edition is here anyway, so I am glad. I am sure that this textbook can help many students and researchers in input-output field including myself.

Autopsy at the shore

When I went fishing yesterday morning, I found fish bones spread around at the shore. It was large fish. Nothing much left, but only white bones. My curiosity urged me to start my own autopsy.



Without skull, total length was 50 cm. Including skull, it might be about 60 something fish. Decent size fish. It seems like carp.



After taking the picture, I found its skull nearby, and it confirmed that it was carp. I carefully inspected the skull, but could not figure out cause of death. I expected to find fish hook at its gills. Considering size of the fish, it was tool young to die naturally. Carp's life span is 40 to 50 years. I didn't count rings at its ear bone, but it look like 5 to 7 years old.



What killed the carp?
  1. Predator: there is pike in the Hudson river. I am skeptical about pike attack. Because there are plenty of small preys that pike munch on.
  2. Pollution or disease: Possible. I have never seen a dead fish at the shore though.
  3. Deep hooking: I think it is very possible. All fishermen are very careful not to hurt their catch when they release them. But sometimes, fish swallow hook, and it is fatal. From my experience, lure fishing has rare chance to deep-hook. I can set hook before fish eat the hook. But in case of bait fishing, there is greater chance of deep-hooking. To prevent deep hooking, I often use circle hook for bait fishing. I will write about circle hook in the future. For catch-and-release, we need to be more careful.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Lesson learned: drag setting for kayak fishing

Last Saturday, I went kayak-fishing nearby small lake. The lake, which is a famous fishing destination in this region, is always challenge to me: It is hard to catch a decent size fish. I thought clarity might be anissue: the lake is so clear that it is hard to fool fish. Thus, I decided to focus on deep section of lake where clarity is low. I used dark green color tube with 1/8 oz jig head. The result was successful. I could get continuous nibbles.

However, I could not firmly set hook or lost while fighting. It was frustrating. I solved one side of puzzle, but the other side still remains unsolved. Make long story short, the reason was at my drag setting of reel. I set drag as usual for typical lure fishing. But it was mistake. I should have set it firmly or set no drag. What I found was that because I was on freely moving piece of plastic, there was natural drag system. I didn't need to fiddle with my reel at all. Double drag system, my reel and moving kayak, made it harder to set hook and fight.

When I do not anchor my kayak, I will set no drag. It will help me to set hook. By the way, after realizing this, I nailed a largemouth bass. Not a monster, but it pulled my kayak around. It was a fun!

Sorry, no picture.