Lake Trout

Well, well, it snowed today here upstate New York... D%$# it! I really don't want to call it a season yet. I will go out one or two more times before freezing. During the off season, I decide to revisit dusty pictures of my old catches.


When: 04/25/2007
Where: Lake George, NY
How: trolling small minnow bait

It was my first lake trout and the only one. Capt. M and I went out Lake George on a still chilly Spring day.  We put tiny minnow bait and trolled around at the east side of the lake. I was in charge of watching rods, while Capt. M was controlling his canoe. I occasionally checked each rod for fish. After one hour, we reeled in and found big trout was hooked! I was a dumb. Actually, I brought an ultra light rod, and the rod didn't show much change of bending (as I insist).

It was a beautiful fish. Unfortunately, it was deep-hooked. Imagine that the fish was trying to swallow the tiny minnow bait for long time. It was exhausted and didn't give a good fight. I brought the fish home and later smoked it for picnic. Its flesh was pink and very tasty. It was quite close to Salmon.


By the way, Lake George was gorgeous at sunset! The view of high peaks from the lake at sunset is truly magnificent! If you live upstate New York, Lake George is definitely the destination that you don't want to miss. Ah, Lake George has also healthy population of large and small mouth bass.

Rod Tip Fixing Kit

I received a package from St. Croix. The rod tip fixing kit was simple, including new tip guide, glue and instruction.

I didn't know that it was that easy to remove the broken tip: put it on fire for a few seconds. Then, I cleaned up the tip part. I put new tip guide on the part. Well, I found that new tip was visibly short to my rod.

I called St. Croix, and they told me that there was design change (model TRS66MF2): tip part for newer version is shorter than older one. They promised to send me a new tip guide for my "old" rod.

If you have followed my posts, you may know that I am a budget angler. I try not to spend much on equipments. From my experience, in case of rod and reel, my recommendation is to buy low-end models from top brand tackle makers. Name brand provides reliable services, which you may need once or twice in your fishing life.

Update (11/8)
I received new rod tip from St. Croix today. Wow, it took a while. Its length matches with the original tip guide, but it is bigger than the original one at a glance. St. Croix seems not to have the matching part for my rod. If it is the case, they should have noticed me before I ordered. Very disappointed about my favorite rod maker. I will try the new tip guide anyway to see if it normally functions and worth for $5.

Broken Rod Tip Guide

I found something was wrong with my reel and rod. When I was retrieving lure, it made squiggling noise. At first, I thought that sand came into my reel. So, I cleaned my reel. But the noise continued. I also noticed that long portion of my mono line was badly scratched and even scraped. I thought that rocky bottom damaged the line.

Well, I was an idiot. All damage and noise were caused by a broken rod tip guide. The guide is made of ceramic and can be broken by careless retrieving.

I remembered that I lent the road and reel to a friend who was a fishing beginner while we were fishing together last weekend. He might damaged the tip guide.

Broken tip at a different angle. See the sharp edge.

I checked rod maker, St. Croix's website and found that they sell tip replacement kit at $5. Probably, this mishap happens often. For now, I decide to use braid line for the rod. I hope to fix it soon.

W Kayak

I visited Wavewalk to see and test paddle its W kayak in Sharon, MA, this weekend. When I first found W kayak while random web-surfing, I was totally amazed by its stability and fishing-friendly design. I could not put up with my curiosity. So, I contacted Wavewalk and set an appointment for visit.

When I arrived at the address of Wavewalk, I was first surprised by finding out that it was an one man company operated by CEO Yoav Rosen at his garage. Yoav originally invented and designed W kayak. Secondly, I was surprised by knowing that Yoav does not fish at all because I thought that W kayak was designed by kayak anglers for kayak anglers. Yoav told me that W kayak concept came from his original invention of water walking shoes. Very interesting.

Currently, W kayak is molded by a molding company in the Midwest, and Yoav does finishing touches on delivered intermediate products at his garage. He joked, "it is the most inefficient production line in the world." At his basement, there were many boxes of unfinished W kayaks.

My first impression of W kayak was that it was bulkier than I thought. But it was not that heavy when I lifted it. Thanks to its W design, it was easy for two men to carry. Yoav and I put a demo kayak on Yoav's SUV and headed to a lake nearby for test paddle. It was a nice day for paddling, sunny, not so windy... Yoav first presented me some techniques on the kayak. Then, I test paddled it. I will put more posts on W kayak later.

Zoom Swimbait

I found Zoom's new swimbaits at a local sporting goods store. I like Zoom's soft plastic lures; they are durable. I have been wondering why Zoom has never made swimbaits. They should have made swimbaits much earlier.



It is a slim long tail swimbait. It looks like Zoom put paddle on its fluke lure. But its body design is unique. I will discuss about it later when I have a field test. I am glad to find out that Zoom finally started producing swimbaits.

Catch & Release manual

When fish are hooked, chaos strikes, too. While fighting, I often forget proper actions for catch and release. Here, I summarized catch and release manual for myself.

Step 1. Determine whether keep the fish or not: I prefer selective harvest: not a giant, nor a dwarf. When I get action, I can determine.

Step 2. Fight quickly: For this, I need to adjust my drag to the maximum limit of my rod and reel setting.

Step 3. Grip under jaw of fish while fish are still in water: I use lip grip for this.

Step 4. De-hook while fish are still in water: One hand holds lip grip, while the other hand holds pliers. Before this job, I need to put my fishing rod down opening the bail arm.

Step 5 (optional for measuring). Lift out the fish while supporting tail part: It helps reducing excessive pressure to the jaw. I need to wet my hand to hold the fish.

Step 6 (optional for measuring). Put the fish on a wet ground: Wet surface protect slime coating.

Step 7. Revive the fish in water by directing its head against current: It allows water running through gills.

Step 8. Release the fish when it starts swimming

New Record Walleye, again, 26"!

I went fishing again to the Troy dam this evening. I fished at the shore. At about 6pm, it started raining. So, I cast Yo-Zuri crystal minnow for the last time, and bam! I got a crazy bite. First, I thought it was striper. No, no, it was giant walleye. Because I was using medium power tackle, I worried a lot about tackle failure or line break. Strong current gave extra power to the fish. I carefully fought for about 10 minutes. My rod looks like a toy beside the walleye in the picture. It was dark, and I could not get a good picture.



My walleye record increases by 2" to 3" everyday! Or, probably the walleye that I originally caught grew 2" per day and then was re-captured by me. Kidding. Gripper helped me to handle the toothy creature. After measuring and taking picture, I released it right away. I tried to revive the fish to my best, but I worry about it because of intensive fight time. I should switch to heavy gear when I fish at the Tory dam. I hope it get well and successfully breed.

New Record Walleye, Yay! (Yes, I didn't forget my camera at this time)

I got a phone call from Capt. M this morning. He suggested to go fishing to the Troy dam this evening. "I am in!" of course. Water was still rough and murky. It is never super comfortable to navigate rough river on a small canoe. But we did, in the hope of big fish. The risk-taking was rewarded with my new record walleye, 24"! I renewed my record in one day. I cannot believe this. Can you see the big bright eye.

At the time of sunset, fish kept attacking our lures. M caught 6 striped bass. One was a giant, about 36". I caught three walleye and one small striped bass. I have to confess that it is hard to beat Capt. M. I used swim bait (Shadalicious) and crank bait (Yo-Zuri). We spent three hours on water and returned when it got completely dark. It was one productive trip.

Record Walleye!

I went fishing to the Troy dam. Water got calmer, but it is still murky. I cast Yo-Zuri crystal minnow and slowly retrieved it over fast current. Near the shore, I got a strong bite. It was 21" walleye, my record fish! It gave awesome fight; at first I thought I hooked striped bass. It had fat belly and, of course, giant eyes. To my vast disappointment, I left my camera at home, what a d$^&. I measured and then released it. Although no picture, this record walleye seems to remain in my memory for long time.

Striped bass fall run

I went smallmouth bass fishing at Troy dam. Because of week-long raining, water was high and murky.



But it was still navigable, sort of. One boat is cruising out from dock.


It was high tide, so I should fish on top of tiny rock. I casted Shadalicious swimbait on 1/8 oz jig. My rod setting was 6'6" medium power St. Croix rod matched with 2500 size Shimno reel spooled with 12lb mono line.


At my third cast, I got a strong bite. It gave me real good fight. I thought that fast current gave some extra power to smallmouth. Then, voila! It was striped bass! Because my rod setting was light, it was probably more exciting.


It was 22" decent size bass.



What a handsome bass! After a few pictures, I released it. From this year, New York State requires saltwater fishing license to fish anadromous species at tidal river.

23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

Prof. Ha-Joon Chang talks about his new book, 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism. In this short presentation, he mentions very interesting things about economics nowadays.

Many academic economists today are not even interested in the real world. Actually, in deed, economic professions today (think) interest in the real world is the indirect admission that you are not very good. If you are very smart, you do really abstract mathematical modeling. If you are less good, you do econometrics, basically, manipulating statistics. If you are really down in the pits (???), then you are interested in the real world. That is a strange academic culture. (24:17-)

Well, according to him, I am clearly a third grade economist, and I am proud of that. It is worth-to-watch 30 minute presentation. I will definitely buy the book.

Proven Tip: Cork Stopper as a Hook Cushion

I have used cork stoppers as hook cushions, which I read about in an introductory fishing book. It is a good solution to handle and organize the sharp hooks. It is simple and cheap. Drink your favorite wine or beer (it may require you some money), and save the cork stoppers. Dry them fully, and put your hooks on them. A caveman can do.



Using cork stoppers makes it easy to organize a tackle box.



Couple of things to remember to use cork stoppers as hook cushions.

• Dry them thoroughly before use. Soaked cork will rust your hook.
• In the same reason, after using your hook, do not put them on the cushion right away. Dry your hook first.
• If you drop your tackle box in water, you must dry your hooks and hook cushions separately. The same reason of rust prevention.
  
• I tried to use plastic stoppers as hook cushions, but they were not as good as cork ones. Plastic stoppers are too tough. So, stick on conventional cork.
  

Fish Gripper

While kayak fishing, it is always risky to land ferocious fish which are hooked on crank bait. Because those treble hooks can hook myself, too. Ouch! I had a painful memory when I was landing striped bass couple of years ago. I tried to grab its mouth, but it shook its head at the very moment. It got my finger, but thanks god, I was using barbless treble hooks! It hurt but not that serious. If there were barbs, I don't even want to think about it. I was so lucky.

Since this experience, for my own safety, I exhaust fish before landing by dragging it over surface for a while. It is nothing different from chocking fish. It is not a bad tactic, but I always feel sorry for that. I also need to spend more time to revive the exhausted fish. You can consider to use a net, but a net takes space on already tiny kayak. Nylon nets also hurt fins of fish badly. Because nowadays I use mainly hard plastic lure, so I finally decide to have a fish gripper to reduce risk in landing.

I bought this Field & Stream's big game grip. Lately, I bought more Field & Stream's products than usual. But it was the only gripper at the store. More information is available at the linked web page.



So far, I am quite satisfied with it. Not only for kayak anglers, but for all anglers, I recommend fish gripper in general. It reduces all hassles in landing and handling fish.



Sponge grip makes the gripper easy to use with slimy hands. It was heavier than I thought. You need a bit of muscle to pull the trigger as shown in the picture above. A female angler complained about this. Durability of inner spring must be key review point. I will report about it later if I found any trouble.

Blue Crab in the Hudson

Weeks ago, I picked up a shell of crab. I have seen small crab shells at the Hudson shores, but this was relatively large. I measured it (12cm/5 inches) and took a picture of it in order to identify it at home. To my surprise, it turned out that the shell was Blue crab's. I didn't know that there are Blue crabs in the Hudson river. NYSDEC does even have a tagging program of the crab. I am not sure if crabbing is allowed in Troy dam section, but it must be nice to watch live Blue crab crawling around in the shallow water. Well, why lie... Yes, I want to catch and steam them to eat. Crabs are so yummy. If the river is not polluted with PCB, I might have started crabbing right away.

Reading at the shore

I went carp fishing this afternoon. I brought a book to read, and it was the first time ever in my whole fishing life that I wished no fish bite. The book was so interesting that I didn't want to be distracted. The book is Michael Sandel's "Justice: What is the right thing to do." I strongly recommend this book to anyone who lives in this time of chaos. It will refresh your sense of justice. Fortunately, carp cooperated until I left the shore.

Troy Fire Department's fire boat was the only distraction. It seemed that they were doing fire fighting practice. The boat's water gun shot out powerful stream of water in the middle of the river. It was so cool to watch.

Shadalicious (swimbait from Strike King)

I have heard good wards about hollow body swimbait but have not had a chance to use it by myself. One reason is that they are *&^%$ expensive! Typical non-hollow body swimbait are about $3 to $5, but they are over $7. As a budget angler, I thought that there was not enough reason to try them. When I received a discount coupon from a local Dick's sporting goods, I decided to buy one for test.

I bought a pack of Shadalicious from Strike King. It was $6.99 (4.5" long, 6 lures in it). I saw one of my fishing buddies using it, and he loved it crazy.



I tested it and concluded that it is worth the high price. It is well designed to collapse easily when bitten, but it didn't sacrifice any swim action. It swims like long tail swimbait, totally different from solid fat swimbait.


It is a cross-sectional view of the hollow swimbait.


At tail, there is small drain hole.


This lure can be hooked on typical jig head or weighted hook (shown in the picture above).


When rigged, it looks like this. If you use a screw lock attached to weighted hook, it will be easy to rig. But using this type of weighted hook, it was not easy.

Lure Monger (2)

New Yo-Zuri additions to my arsenal. I didn't have enough chances to test new lures except Pins minnow. I hope weather gets better soon.

Emperor Minnow (F230-C5): sinking, 2-1/2" (66mm), 1/4 oz (7g)



YO-ZURI. S
Its sinking rate is 6"-12"per second to 5'-7' deep.


Altima Pins Minnow (F242-T144): floating, 3-3/4" (90mm)
Personally, I like this lure most among the new lures. Very natural presentation.


One unique thing is that it has fishing light holder underneath.


This fishing light came with the lure.


I had a luck with this lure while trolling. Smallmouth bass ruined its rare treble hook. I removed bented hook.


Mag Vide (F657-HMD): sinking, 2-3/4" (70mm), 5/8 oz (18g)
This lure presents real tight wiggling action, which kinda excites me. I may use it for jigging, too.


View of back


Crystal Minnow (F10-HBL): sinking, 4-3/8" (110 mm), 1/2 oz(14 g)


According to its box, this lure features:
"*Action-tight wiggling *Swimming depth: floating-12-18", suspend- 4 to 5 ft *Sinking speed-1-1/2 to 2 ft /sec"


DUEL

Some Basics on Peak Oil (3)

Peak oil and the Hubbert curve are simple ideas, but raise a critical economic question: How will oil prices move after the peak? Some argue that oil prices will be still determined through the market mechanisms, and there will be no volatility of oil prices as demand decreases along with supply. This may be true in the long term. However, the problem is the decreasing supply. According to the Hubbert curve, the declining production slope is getting sharper, and it means that persistent price shocks are unavoidable; there will always be extra demand. According to some observers, energy price shocks caused by supply disruption threaten not only economies but also civilization itself (Hall, Tharakan, Hallock, Cleveland, & Jefferson, 2003). It requires policy efforts to mitigate adverse effects of peak oil. Rising oil prices and efforts to mitigate climate change are two major pressures on the world’s economies to reduce fossil fuel consumption. Now we face the problem of reducing our energy use to mitigate climate change and peak oil, while maintaining our living standard.

Development of alternative energy sources can be the ultimate solution of climate change and peak oil. However, alternative sources seem not to be available in the near future. It means that for now, the only plausible policy option we have is to adjust the structure of our economies to reduce fossil fuel use.

References Cited

Hall, C., Tharakan, P., Hallock, J., Cleveland, C., & Jefferson, M. (2003). Hydrocarbons and the evolution of human culture. Nature, 426, 318-322.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Some Basics on Peak Oil (2)

Figure 1.5 shows the U.S. crude oil production record. U.S. field production of crude oil, which includes Alaska and lower 48 states, reached its peak of 352 million barrels per year in 1970. Even with discoveries and production at new oil wells in Alaska, U.S. production did not recover its peak level even during two world oil shocks in the 1970s.


Another evidence of Hubbert curve is the North Sea oil reserve. The United Kingdom and Norway started their commercial production in the North Sea reserve in the late 1970s. Figure 1.6 shows total daily crude oil production of U.K. and Norway, two major oil producers at the North Sea. The production peaked in 1999 and then declined. Different from the U.S. curve, the North Sea curve shows plateau around its peak.


World crude oil production record does not show a clear sign of peak production until today (Figure 1.7). It is because peak location of Hubbert curve depends on total amount of oil reserve. Discoveries of new oil reserve may have postponed peak production. New technologies of resource extraction, such as deep sea drilling, also have increased production, which also has postponed peak production. As we have witnessed in the cases of mega-oilfields, technological improvement cannot solve the problem of absolute resource scarcity (Gowdy & Julia, 2007).


The key insight of Hubbert curve is that production curve of non-renewable resources has bell-like shape: After peak, total production eventually declines. According to the Hubbert curve, though we have successfully postponed peak production, a permanent drop in total production seems unavoidable.

References Cited

Gowdy, J., & Julia, R. (2007). Technology and petroleum exhaustion: Evidence from two mega-oilfields. Energy, 32, 1448-1454.

U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2009). Independent Statistics and Analysis: International. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/contents.html.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Some Basics on Peak Oil (1)

Energy is an essential factor in the production processes. Three decades ago, Georgescu-Roegen pointed out the central importance of energy in the economic processes. He emphasized that energy cannot be easily substituted with other production factors because of the second law of thermodynamics (Georgescu-Roegen, 1976). Fossil fuels are a finite resource being irreversibly degraded by the economic processes. Georgescu-Roegen (1976) concluded that energy could constrain future economic expansion, and that we need to re-design the human economy according to energy limits. However, most economists have not seriously considered energy as a constraining factor of production because energy sources, in particular fossil fuel, have been bountiful. In general, energy scarcity has been treated as a more or less unimportant topic in the mainstream economic literature.

Today energy receives some attention in the economic literature because of the challenge of climate change and public concern over peak oil production. In fact, there was a boom in energy economics after the oil shocks in the 1970s and 1980s, but the interest faded away when oil became cheap again. Some argue that global oil production seems to have reached its peak, which will cause energy prices to soar as we briefly observed in 20081. Peak oil was originally suggested by M. King Hubbert in 1956. Hubbert investigated production data of oil wells and concluded that there exists a bell-shaped production curve (Hubbert curve) of non-renewable resources. Then, he projected his findings to the national level and predicted US oil production would peak in the late 1960s (Hubbert, 1956), which later turned out to be accurate. Figure 1.4 is the original Hubbert curve, which projected US crude oil production peaking in the late 1960s.

References Cited

Georgescu-Roegen, N. (1976). Process analysis and the neoclassical theory of production. In Energy and Economics Myths. Institutional and analytic economic essays (pp. 37-52). New York, NY: Pergamon Press.

Hubbert, M. K. (1956). Nuclear energy and the fossil fuels. Drilling and Production Practice, 95.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Some Basics on Climate Change (3)

Social and economic effects of climate change are evident as well. Rising sea level is threatening existence of some island nations. The Maldives and Tuvalu both are planning national immigration to foreign dryland in the near future. Prolonged hurricane and tornado season, which is now believed to be caused by climate change, affects more regions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). There is no conclusive estimate of economic cost of global warming. According to the Stern Review, estimated loss by extreme weather alone will be about one percent of world gross domestic production (GDP) in around 2050, and will keep increasing as temperatures rise (Stern, 2006). Stern (2006) estimated a total of 20% of global GDP might be lost by climate change, if no immediate action is taken to mitigate it.

There are still skeptics about human generated climate change, but according to the best available scientific knowledge, anthropogenic GHGs are firmly believed to be the culprits of global warming. Over 70% of anthropogenic GHGs are generated from combustion of fossil fuel. Therefore, in order to mitigate climate change, a large reduction of fossil fuel use is required. The great human dilemma is that fossil fuel, which generates most anthropogenic GHGs, is the major energy source which has made current economic prosperity possible. Without fossil fuel, modern urban life, as we know, would be impossible.

References Cited

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: synthesis report. Fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Stern, N. (2006). The economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sternreview_index.htm.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Some Basics on Climate Change (2)

Anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions are blamed as a culprit of climate change. Global temperature has paralleled atmospheric GHGs concentrations. The use of fossil fuel has already altered the composition of the earth’s atmosphere. CO2 levels have increased from about 270 ppm before the industrial revolution to about 380 ppm today. Long term observation data at Mauna Loa station, Hawaii, clearly present the inclining trend in previous 50 years (Figure 1.2).


This increase of CO2 level is worrisome because CO2 level has never been as high as current level in the observable pasts. According to ice-core studies, there were long term fluctuations in CO2 level, but CO2 level stayed below 270 ppm in most time (Figure 1.3). Dotted arrow line shows current CO2 anomaly, which is unprecedentedly high.


For the past 800,000 years at least, CO2 concentrations have varied only by about 40 ppm around the average of 240 ppm. This small variation is associated with external shifts in climate from ice ages to very warm periods like today’s. Current CO2 levels are now reaching 390 ppm, far above anything experienced by Homo Sapiens. Astonishingly, most of this increase has occurred since 1990.

If the concentration level reaches 600 ppm in the 21st century, the average sea level will rise up to 0.4-1.0 meter through thermal expansion alone (Solomon et al., 2009). Even with current best global efforts to reduce CO2, its concentration is projected to be stabilized at 650 ppm, which means a 4°C increase of average surface temperature (Anderson & Bows, 2008). Other greenhouse gases are threats, too. In particular, methane, which has a warming potential that is 21 times stronger than CO2, is being released from permafrost and the ocean while surface temperature is increasing (Lawrence & Slater, 2005; University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2008). As it warms up, the ocean is losing its potential to absorb GHGs. These facts suggest that we might already be turning on positive feedback of global temperature systems, which requires more urgent and full-scale action.

References Cited

Anderson, K., & Bows, A. (2008). Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 1-20.

Barnola, J. M., Raynaud, D., Lorius, C., & Barkov, N. I. (2003). Historical CO2 record from the Vostok ice core. Trends: a compendium of data on global change.

Lawrence, D. M., & Slater, A. G. (2005). A projection of severe near-surface permafrost degradation during the 21st century. Geophysical Research Letter, 32. Retrieved January 29, 2009, from http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2005/2005GL025080.shtml.

Solomon, S., Plattner, G., Knutti, R., & Friedlingstein, P. (2009). Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. PNAS, 106(6), 1704-1709.

Tans, P. (n.d.). Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide - Mauna Loa. NOAA/ESRL. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends.

University of Alaska Fairbanks. (2008, December 18). Scientists find increased methane levels in arctic ocean. Science Daily. Retrieved January 30, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081217203407.htm.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Some Basics on Climate Change (1)

The effects of global warming are no longer a distant threat. Climate change is happening now in our generation. During the last century, the average surface temperature has increased by 0.74 ±0.18°C (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2007). Figure 1.1 shows the positive trend of global mean temperature since the Industrial Revolution.


Climate change does not only mean abnormal increases in temperature, but it does mean disturbance of whole climate systems which many species have evolved to adapt to for millennia. It will indiscriminately affect everyone and everything on earth, and the impacts will be enormous and last for over 1,000 years (Matthews & Caldeira, 2008; Montenegro, Brovkin, Eby, Archer, & Weaver, 2007; Solomon, Plattner, Knutti, & Friedlingstein, 2009). The time has come to worry about survival of human civilization. Global efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change are underway, but it is difficult to see many positive signs that these efforts are making a real difference (Anderson & Bows, 2008, p. 17). Is there any hope that we can succeed in mitigating climate change?

References Cited

Anderson, K., & Bows, A. (2008). Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 1-20.

Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). (n.d.). Global temperature anomalies. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts.txt.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: synthesis report. Fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Matthews, H. D., & Caldeira, K. (2008). Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions. Geophysical Research Letter, 35, 1-5.

Montenegro, A., Brovkin, V., Eby, M., Archer, D., & Weaver, A. J. (2007). Long term fate of anthropogenic carbon. Geophysical Research Letter, 34, 1-5.

Solomon, S., Plattner, G., Knutti, R., & Friedlingstein, P. (2009). Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. PNAS, 106(6), 1704-1709.

*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*

Self Rescue for SOT Kayak-Angler

I heard a horror story of a fallen kayak angler at a kayak fishing club. He went kayak-fishing alone in the ocean at night and fell at a sunken rock area. He tried to self-rescue himself but failed a couple of times because of tangled line at legs. After cutting all the line, he could save himself. Well, knife at PFD is the MUST!!! I always keep multi-tool, but after hearing this story, I decided to carry another folding knife handy.

He should not have gone night fishing alone at first hand. The ocean is a dangerous place whether it is calm or not. This incident alarmed me to learn about self rescue. It is embarrassing to say that I didn't have a clear idea about how to re-climb to up-side down SOT kayak. I found this very informative video at Youtube. I will do some practice next time I go fishing. Please, be prepared and stay safe!

Uses of Fishing Lures

I happened to find these "art" souvenirs in New York. I could not stop laughing at the store, Pylones. I have no doubt that one who make them is die-hard fisherman.

These keychains are actual fishing lures, which you can use in cases.
There were bottle openers, staplers and a couple more fishy souvenirs. But I didn't buy, because I probably can make it so easily with my lures... If you are not an angler and looking for a gift for an angler friend, they will be perfect!

New ultralight reel

I bought a new ultralight reel for my 5'6" ultralight blank rod. I was considering to buy another Shimano's Sonora, but Dick's sporting goods did not have one. I tested couple of reels at display and picked Field & Stream's Ravenna reel, which is a store brand of Dick's.

I know that someone despise store brands. But the reel was not that bad considering its price, $39.99 ($29.99 after $10 discount). A rumor, which I heard about Field & Stream's reels, says that they are actually OEM products of Pflueger. I could not confirm this rumor and could not find a matching model among Pflueger's reels. I could not find further information about this reel at all on-line. Strange... Anyway, so this post is going to be the first review of Field & Stream's Ravenna reel (model# RV-10).

Specification and Features

• Gear ratio: 5.5:1
• Line rating (lbs./yds.): 4/210, 6/170, 8/80
• Weight: 7oz. (I measured it with my fish scale)
• Graphite body
  
• Seven ball bearings
  
• One infinite anti-reverse roller bearing
  
• Even line wrap oscillation system
  
• Precision balance rotor
• Ported aluminum spool
  

What I liked most was solid feeling in reeling. Reeling was smooth but reel arm was not shaky. Definitely, my personal preference. Some prefers light feeling. Design and color were OK. Actually, better than Sonora's new orange color outlook. I liked that reel arm was big enough for my hands. I found that other ultralight reels had small reel arm, which sometimes makes reeling painful.





I spooled the reel with 4lb test mono line. I test-cast jig, crank, spinner, etc. and could not find any issue with it. I have not caught fish yet (it has been too warm...). I hope to catch one soon. Someone may question about durability of this "value" reel. At this point, I cannot comment on it. But from my experience of using other value reels, I think that modern spinning reels do not really have durability problem if handled properly.