Panning Virginia's streams for gold
In rural Virginia, amateur prospectors brave the hot sun in search of gold in the region's hillsides and streams. It's no gold rush, but weekend enthusiasts say it's a hobby that can make some money, and also preserve a skill forged in the region's past.Duration: 01:40
Mountain Fish Fight! Spin vs Tenkara or Fly Fishing Rod
I spent the day on Big Tumbling Creek in Virginia doing a test to determine whether spin fishing would be more effective than fishing with my short Tenkara Fly Fishing rod (should have the same results using a 3 wt fly rod). I used a silver Panther Martin on the spin rod since it was cloudy and a dry fly with a nymph dropper on the Tenkara. The results were pretty definitive. What a pretty place to do the test!
The Kayak Hacks Fishing channel covers kayak, wading, shoreline, spin and fly fishing. It features interesting gear mods to make kayak fishing more comfortable, efficient and enjoyable. In addition, I share many tips, tricks and how tos for more effective spin and fly fishing regardless of whether you are fishing from a boat or on your feet. Please subscribe! Thanks!
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Wade and Shoreline Fishing the Potomac River for Smallmouth Bass -
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Wade Fishing the Rappahannock River of Virginia -
Wade Fishing the Rapidan River of Virginia -
Wade Fishing the North Branch of the Potomac -
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In short, you accept all risk of using any ideas presented in this video.
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It goes without saying that fishing is dangerous as a result of the fast water, slick rocks and other hazards that occur at random, unexpected places. You need to exercise caution, particularly in the spring when the water is high or during rapid changes in tide, before you fish anywhere. You should always wear a life vest when fishing. In addition, a wading staff will help you keep your balance as you walk on the shoreline or wade.
The bottom line is that you must make your own judgment in terms of acceptable behavior and risk and not rely on the opinions expressed here. The regulations governing legal access to fishing locations may change at any time and it is your responsibility to understand the law. Nothing expressed should be construed as encouraging you to trespass on private property or violate a regulation.
Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve's Canoe and Kayak Launch
The Brooke Road access area is now open to the public for day use. Birding and wildlife viewing are available along the shoreline trail, and a new ADA-accessible canoe/kayak launch facility is available for accessing the Crow's Nest Water Trail.
Freshwater tidal marshes, like those at Crow’s Nest, provide a number of important functions. Wetlands serve as a buffer during storm events and help minimize shoreline erosion. Of particular importance within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, tidal wetlands are capable of absorbing excessive nutrients associated with storm runoff before they reach the bay. Finally, tidal marshes provide vital food and cover for clams, crabs and juvenile fish, as well as provide cover and nesting sites for numerous bird and other wildlife species.
Wildlife: The tidal freshwater marshes at Crow’s Nest support an abundance of wildlife, including 49 species of fish and seven species of mussels and shellfish. Bird species such as the red-winged blackbird and Canada goose breed in the marshes. Numerous species of waterfowl, including tundra swans, overwinter in the marshes. Mammals and reptiles utilizing the marshes may include beaver, muskrat, river otter, eastern snapping turtle, red-eared slider and northern watersnake. Upland species such as raccoons, red fox and white-tailed deer will also utilize the marshes.
Vegetation: The tidal freshwater wetlands within the Preserve support a variety of species. Common species include arrow-arum, pickerelweed, wild rice and spatterdock. A rare type of freshwater tidal marsh dominated by American lotus can also be found within the Preserve. The most diverse marshes occur on more elevated locations while mudflats exposed only at low tide are dominated almost exclusively by spatterdock.
Suspense: The X-Ray Camera / Subway / Dream Song
The program's heyday was in the early 1950s, when radio actor, producer and director Elliott Lewis took over (still during the Wilcox/Autolite run). Here the material reached new levels of sophistication. The writing was taut, and the casting, which had always been a strong point of the series (featuring such film stars as Orson Welles, Joseph Cotten, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Judy Garland, Ronald Colman, Marlene Dietrich, Eve McVeagh, Lena Horne, and Cary Grant), took an unexpected turn when Lewis expanded the repertory to include many of radio's famous drama and comedy stars — often playing against type — such as Jack Benny. Jim and Marian Jordan of Fibber McGee and Molly were heard in the episode, Backseat Driver, which originally aired February 3, 1949.
The highest production values enhanced Suspense, and many of the shows retain their power to grip and entertain. At the time he took over Suspense, Lewis was familiar to radio fans for playing Frankie Remley, the wastrel guitar-playing sidekick to Phil Harris in The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. On the May 10, 1951 Suspense, Lewis reversed the roles with Death on My Hands: A bandleader (Harris) is horrified when an autograph-seeking fan accidentally shoots herself and dies in his hotel room, and a vocalist (Faye) tries to help him as the townfolk call for vigilante justice against him.
With the rise of television and the departures of Lewis and Autolite, subsequent producers (Antony Ellis, William N. Robson and others) struggled to maintain the series despite shrinking budgets, the availability of fewer name actors, and listenership decline. To save money, the program frequently used scripts first broadcast by another noteworthy CBS anthology, Escape. In addition to these tales of exotic adventure, Suspense expanded its repertoire to include more science fiction and supernatural content. By the end of its run, the series was remaking scripts from the long-canceled program The Mysterious Traveler. A time travel tale like Robert Arthur's The Man Who Went Back to Save Lincoln or a thriller about a death ray-wielding mad scientist would alternate with more run-of-the-mill crime dramas.
Calling All Cars: The 25th Stamp / The Incorrigible Youth / The Big Shot
The radio show Calling All Cars hired LAPD radio dispacher Jesse Rosenquist to be the voice of the dispatcher. Rosenquist was already famous because home radios could tune into early police radio frequencies. As the first police radio dispatcher presented to the public ear, his was the voice that actors went to when called upon for a radio dispatcher role.
The iconic television series Dragnet, with LAPD Detective Joe Friday as the primary character, was the first major media representation of the department. Real LAPD operations inspired Jack Webb to create the series and close cooperation with department officers let him make it as realistic as possible, including authentic police equipment and sound recording on-site at the police station.
Due to Dragnet's popularity, LAPD Chief Parker became, after J. Edgar Hoover, the most well known and respected law enforcement official in the nation. In the 1960s, when the LAPD under Chief Thomas Reddin expanded its community relations division and began efforts to reach out to the African-American community, Dragnet followed suit with more emphasis on internal affairs and community policing than solving crimes, the show's previous mainstay.
Several prominent representations of the LAPD and its officers in television and film include Adam-12, Blue Streak, Blue Thunder, Boomtown, The Closer, Colors, Crash, Columbo, Dark Blue, Die Hard, End of Watch, Heat, Hollywood Homicide, Hunter, Internal Affairs, Jackie Brown, L.A. Confidential, Lakeview Terrace, Law & Order: Los Angeles, Life, Numb3rs, The Shield, Southland, Speed, Street Kings, SWAT, Training Day and the Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour and Terminator film series. The LAPD is also featured in the video games Midnight Club II, Midnight Club: Los Angeles, L.A. Noire and Call of Juarez: The Cartel.
The LAPD has also been the subject of numerous novels. Elizabeth Linington used the department as her backdrop in three different series written under three different names, perhaps the most popular being those novel featuring Det. Lt. Luis Mendoza, who was introduced in the Edgar-nominated Case Pending. Joseph Wambaugh, the son of a Pittsburgh policeman, spent fourteen years in the department, using his background to write novels with authentic fictional depictions of life in the LAPD. Wambaugh also created the Emmy-winning TV anthology series Police Story. Wambaugh was also a major influence on James Ellroy, who wrote several novels about the Department set during the 1940s and 1950s, the most famous of which are probably The Black Dahlia, fictionalizing the LAPD's most famous cold case, and L.A. Confidential, which was made into a film of the same name. Both the novel and the film chronicled mass-murder and corruption inside and outside the force during the Parker era. Critic Roger Ebert indicates that the film's characters (from the 1950s) represent the choices ahead for the LAPD: assisting Hollywood limelight, aggressive policing with relaxed ethics, and a straight arrow approach.
The Great Gildersleeve: Fire Engine Committee / Leila's Sister Visits / Income Tax
The Great Gildersleeve (1941--1957), initially written by Leonard Lewis Levinson, was one of broadcast history's earliest spin-off programs. Built around Throckmorton Philharmonic Gildersleeve, a character who had been a staple on the classic radio situation comedy Fibber McGee and Molly, first introduced on Oct. 3, 1939, ep. #216. The Great Gildersleeve enjoyed its greatest success in the 1940s. Actor Harold Peary played the character during its transition from the parent show into the spin-off and later in a quartet of feature films released at the height of the show's popularity.
On Fibber McGee and Molly, Peary's Gildersleeve was a pompous windbag who became a consistent McGee nemesis. You're a haa-aa-aa-aard man, McGee! became a Gildersleeve catchphrase. The character was given several conflicting first names on Fibber McGee and Molly, and on one episode his middle name was revealed as Philharmonic. Gildy admits as much at the end of Gildersleeve's Diary on the Fibber McGee and Molly series (Oct. 22, 1940).
He soon became so popular that Kraft Foods—looking primarily to promote its Parkay margarine spread — sponsored a new series with Peary's Gildersleeve as the central, slightly softened and slightly befuddled focus of a lively new family.
Premiering on August 31, 1941, The Great Gildersleeve moved the title character from the McGees' Wistful Vista to Summerfield, where Gildersleeve now oversaw his late brother-in-law's estate and took on the rearing of his orphaned niece and nephew, Marjorie (originally played by Lurene Tuttle and followed by Louise Erickson and Mary Lee Robb) and Leroy Forester (Walter Tetley). The household also included a cook named Birdie. Curiously, while Gildersleeve had occasionally spoken of his (never-present) wife in some Fibber episodes, in his own series the character was a confirmed bachelor.
In a striking forerunner to such later television hits as Bachelor Father and Family Affair, both of which are centered on well-to-do uncles taking in their deceased siblings' children, Gildersleeve was a bachelor raising two children while, at first, administering a girdle manufacturing company (If you want a better corset, of course, it's a Gildersleeve) and then for the bulk of the show's run, serving as Summerfield's water commissioner, between time with the ladies and nights with the boys. The Great Gildersleeve may have been the first broadcast show to be centered on a single parent balancing child-rearing, work, and a social life, done with taste and genuine wit, often at the expense of Gildersleeve's now slightly understated pomposity.
Many of the original episodes were co-written by John Whedon, father of Tom Whedon (who wrote The Golden Girls), and grandfather of Deadwood scripter Zack Whedon and Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog).
The key to the show was Peary, whose booming voice and facility with moans, groans, laughs, shudders and inflection was as close to body language and facial suggestion as a voice could get. Peary was so effective, and Gildersleeve became so familiar a character, that he was referenced and satirized periodically in other comedies and in a few cartoons.