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WINVENTORY! Or, how I spend the winter months...

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  I love fishing. I love Kayak fishing. I also love Kayak tournament fishing and the highlights of my tournament season are the SaC Kickin Bass for Troops Kayak fishing tournaments. During the season there is lots to keep me busy; Gear upkeep, Yak maintenance, planning, fishing, traveling etc... But when the view out my window turns to this; It's time to drydock my kayak like this; Which also means it is time for me to start my annual Winventory! Yep, that's right my winter fishing inventory. I start by emptying out my soft plastics from my KVD bags and laying them out. These are just what is left in the envelope bags. There are six baskets of backup and accumulated baits as well. I'll make a list of what I want to continue using and how much to replenish and anything new I want to try. Bait trays get cleaned and sorted paying special attention to my hook box. I make a separate inventory needs list for all that as well. Two of my absolute must haves are the Yamamoto 5"...
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  Winter Waters Words and pics by Eric J Goldstein Here in the Northeast, winter's cold winds are the herald of a coming hibernation. A stillness in the outdoor homes of birds, beasts and fish alike. Those lakes, rivers and ponds so alive and thriving in the warmer seasons begin to freeze forming a real and solid ceiling over the fish for whom winter means a stillness that marks the end of one life cycle and the promise of a new one to come. Every season has a beauty all its own, and while the fishing season is put on hold here in the Lower Hudson Valley of NY State the grandeur of frozen, sleeping winter waters is undeniable. Walk with me through the waters of my hometown as they transition to ice... Fast moving waters from the dam just up stream hold the ice at bay on this creek that became home to so many lake fish washed through with the draining earlier in the season. Many were rescued and we have hopes that those stranded survive the freeze. Can we comprehend having a d...

Friends and Neighbors

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I have a habit of talking/writing about our Service men and women as our friends and neighbors. I feel it's important to see our troops in that light. Because that is who they are, and that extends to their family as well. This was made real for me this year, this doggedly stressful and tortuous year when many of us may not be able to be with family for the holidays. For our Active and Deployed that is par for the course. That Socks & Cookies runs Kayak Fishing Tournaments to raise charity funds for our active military seems more than appropriate for how I met my friend and neighbor Dae Kim, father of First Lieutenant Rachel Kim. At the start, a full fishing season ago and more we would see each other at the banks of local fisheries and tag each other with an angler's wave of shared interest, (it's fishing so passion really), and wishes for good luck. Outside of a quick, "Any luck?", we didn't speak much. The following season, this past one we became infat...

Common Ground

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  Welcome. Welcome to the very first blog edition of Socks and Cookies. An amazing grass roots organization gathering and sending support, love and a bit of home to our active and deployed Service Men and Women. We don't know each other, (yet) and we come from many different and varied places throughout this great land of ours. But we share more in common than we realize. Not least of which is that we all feel grateful and blessed to live in the United States of America; Land of the free and home of our brave service men and women.  You see, I'm a born and bred city boy from none other than New York City. But I spent many of my summers growing up in the Catskill Mountains, upstate NY where I learned to fish and fell in love with the outdoors. What does this have to do with #Socks and Cookies? And what does a city slicker have in common with a Southern gal from Arkansas? Bring it in... I'm gonna tell you a story... I love fishing. I love all kinds of fishing; Standing on a b...