- [Narrator] Tonight on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories," navigating the ice in the winter months for anglers.

We'll share tips on how fishermen can stay safe this winter.

And job seekers everywhere need to know what employers are looking for and what mistakes to avoid.

We'll share that info with you.

Also, one musician creates a litany of original music by composing to the work of North Country Artisans.

Meet Gretchen Kohler, your stories, your region.

Coming up right now on "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories."

(light music) - [Narrator] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, Carthage Savings, the J.M.

McDonald Foundation, and the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

- Good evening everyone, and welcome to this edition of "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories," I'm Stephfond Brunson.

Tis the season for ice fishing.

If you pass by frozen waterways you may see fishermen out on the ice in their shanties, but what does it take to fish with ease on the ice?

WPBS producer Luke Smith has tips for anglers to nab the greatest catch safely.

(people chattering) - We are drilling 15 to 20 holes a day.

- [Luke] Shaun Kennedy is a seasoned fisherman and charter captain and he knows his stuff.

He's holding an auger, a tool that drills deep into the ice to prepare fishermen for a cold day of great catches.

- You've got a giant body of water or a bigger body of water and you're trying to get fish through an eight inch hole.

You can't fan cast like you can in the summertime where you can pick a part structure.

- [Luke] So, how do anglers stay safe above a frozen body of water?

It starts with a tool called a spud bar which tests the sturdiness of the ice.

- So, a spud bar is a metal tool that you can use to kind of check and make sure that the ice that you're going on is safe.

Basically, the most basic things obviously, is safety equipment will be the first thing.

So, I usually will have a spud bar with me.

I also usually will wear cleats.

Obviously you need rods, bait, and depending on where you're fishing that'll kind of determine what you're gonna use for bait.

- [Luke] Next, a tip that these experts hope all are aware of.

- Don't fall through.

- [Luke] Kidding aside, Shaun has actually seen it happen and it's more likely to happen than you may think which is why the thickness of the ice is so important.

- Ice fishing is safe when the ice allows you to go out on it so you need a certain amount of ice thickness that can accommodate people.

And even more ice if you're talking about bringing out snowmobiles, four wheelers.

In some Northern water bodies you can get trucks out on the ice.

So, a standard is four to five inches is baseline safe.

- It's one and a half inches with an average temperature of 20 degrees for 24 hours.

So, if it's 30 degrees during the day and it's 10 degrees at night, if it was 12 hours each way you'd have a 20 degree average temperature on a lake that's skimmed over with ice and no snow on top of it to insulate it, it would create an inch and a half of ice in 24 hours.

- [Luke] Next, anglers should have a PFD, or a personal flotation device.

- If you don't have a float suit and it's early ice, late ice and you're spudding out, you should wear a life jacket.

You know, a lot of people don't wanna spend the money on a float suit.

So, if you wear a life jacket at least if you fall through, you're gonna pop back up and you have a better chance of getting out.

Ice picks always around your neck when you're dealing with early ice or late ice.

- [Luke] Lastly, fishermen should have a sound shelter that keeps them warm and safe from the elements.

- There's many different kinds of shelters.

You can have uninsulated shelters, which are lighter weight, relatively less expensive, up to heavy duty, insulated shelters.

So they block the wind, get you outta the cold, you run a heater in it.

I mean, it can be 60 degrees in there, and you can fish all day long.

- [Luke] And fish all day, they will.

Season anglers know the best winter catches.

Perch and walleye are just the tip of the iceberg of fish you can catch here in northern New York.

- We live in an area where we're just spoiled rotten.

There are so many, there's such a great variety of fish species to target.

Here where we are, on the the shores of Sandy Pond, people often target yellow perch, northern pike, crappie, bluegills, pumpkinseed.

- [Luke] Being highly accessible and affordable, ice fishing can be a great way to get your feet wet in this fun pastime.

- Fishing is for everyone.

Ice fishing in particular is very easy for lots of different folks to access.

It's great to get kids started on fishing.

It's a very fun, novel experience getting all suited up in your snowsuits and heading out on the ice.

It's great additionally, because, if it were summertime, you'd need a boat to get to some of these areas and boats are very expensive, but when we have ice, you can access those just by using your own two feet to walk out there.

- [Luke] Stacy encourages anglers to carry their New York state fishing license before heading out on the ice.

In Sandy Pond, for "WPBS Weekly, I'm Luke Smith.

- Once you make a great North Country catch, why not jazz up your fish dish with this unique Indian yogurt topping?

Next up, we make a pit stop in the kitchen to make a versatile onion, tomato, and yogurt sauce called raita.

(light music) ♪ We are we are we are ♪ ♪ On top of the world ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ We are we are we are ♪ ♪ On top of the world ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ We are we are we are ♪ - So, here's the thing about Indian food.

I want you to start thinking about it not only being a part of an Indian meal, but also as a part of everyday dishes.

So, think about a great roast pork or grilled fish or even a barbecue chicken with my next dish peas pulau.

It's a rice pilaf with peas and it's so yummy.

(light music) Now watch how easy this is.

(light music) I'm gonna warm up some ghee and some spices and all that ghee is clarified butter.

You can also use oil if you'd like, but I like clarified butter because butter means flavor.

(light music) Some earthy cumin seeds to toast.

Oh, you can hear them crackling.

I can hear you cumin.

A few pods of cardamom and some clove and some nice bay leaf.

A little cinnamon to add to the aromatics.

Cardamom, clove, and cinnamon, if you've had chai before then you must be familiar with their flavors.

They're sweet and fragrant and aromatic and they're gonna scent my rice beautifully.

They're looking good.

And some onions for some nice oniony flavor.

And I'm gonna stir these until they get nice and golden brown.

My onions are nice and golden brown.

And this is the rice that I rinsed a bit earlier.

It just helps get a bit of the starch off of it which means fluffy rice at the end of the day.

My rice is now nice and toasty, time for water.

And I have something called the one inch rule, an inch of water over any quantity of rice and you'll have perfect, fluffy rice every single time.

Pinch of salt, 10 minutes, sweet magic.

(light music) Lid on and the warmth from this pot will heat those peas through.

Now it's time for raita.

It's one of my favorite dips of all time.

And it's so great because if you have any leftover vegetables in your fridge that you're trying to get rid of, or trying to use up, this is the way to do it.

It's perfect with tortilla chips for dipping, or rice, or even when you're eating a really spicy curry and you need to cool things down a little bit.

Raita is great for that.

So, I have some beautiful juicy tomatoes.

They're gonna add great flavor to this raita.

(upbeat music) Some crunchy sweet onion that I chopped up earlier.

Some green chili for heat.

I love mint.

Mint is so fragrant and yogurt's cooling, but mint is too.

We're gonna tear a few of those leaves up.

Keep it nice and rustic.

Yogurt, you can use any type of yogurt.

Whole yogurt, 2%, 1%, 0%.

As long as you have yogurt in this dish, you're good.

In addition to being cooling, the yogurt's gonna add a little bit of tang Black salt.

This is also known as kala namak and you smell, it kinda smells like hard boiled eggs, kinda strong, but the little pinch goes a long way and it'll brighten and lift all the flavors in the bowl.

Cumin, cumin's one of my favorite spices and there's one word to describe it and that's earthy.

Big old pinch of that.

And all that's left to do is stir.

Now, for the taste.

Tangy and cool from the yogurt.

Mm, that kala namak.

Hm, you're doing some interesting things to this raita.

So good.

I could just eat this on its own, really.

Now, the rice.

(upbeat music) Look at how green those peas are.

Looks like I just picked them outta my garden, but really they were frozen.

Don't tell anyone.

And now for the taste.

Super light, fresh, fragrant, easy to do, and wait until you see my appetizer recipe, it's gonna knock your socks off.

(light music) - For those of you on the hunt for new employment, how's the search going?

We've been sharing tips for job seekers this new year from Canadian executive coach, Michelle Nadon.

Tonight she shares mistakes to avoid as you venture into the world of job seeking.

(people chattering) (upbeat music) - Making mistakes in your career is a given and it's going to happen.

So first of all, don't be too hard on yourself.

Everybody is out there making mistakes and the professionals on the team will always help a younger individual or a less qualified individual save face through the process.

Saving face is a critical core skill or core soft skill.

So, understand that you will make mistakes, but if you do, really, it's not hard to go back and apologize.

It's not hard to go back and say to an employer, "You know, I really didn't like the way that that went down and I'm sorry for my part in it.

And next time you know what I've learned from this?

Next time I will handle this better by" and then fill in the blank.

But you know, mistakes are a natural part of the process.

So, don't drive yourself crazy with them.

Understand that they're going to happen and then just make restitution.

And there's another mistake that people make too in terms of leaving jobs, okay?

Very often individuals will leave their former employ and start somewhere new and they will have left a bad situation in the old job.

Something went down that didn't go right and they just walk away and they never repair that damage.

I've made it a practice all throughout my career, anytime I leave a job, a year later, two years later, I make sure I reach out to the management.

I make sure that I reconnect with them.

I make sure that I address what happened in times past.

And I'll say something to the effect of, you know, I'm really not feeling great about how this transpired.

I learned a lot from the process and I hope that it's not being held against me going forward because I have learned from it and I do know now how to handle myself more appropriately.

So, mistakes are natural.

You're going to make them just make sure that you fix the damage.

That's the critical piece.

(upbeat music) There is a big picture attached to careers that most people are not aware of.

Careers take frankly, a lifetime.

They're not just what's happening today, this month, or this year.

And typically careers happen in five year increments.

When you think of it, entry level individuals are individuals who are years one to five in any industry.

They're just getting their feet wet, learning the ropes, and learning about the larger industry around them.

So, they're considered emerging talent.

Five to 10 years is considered mid-management.

That's a transition to a new level of your career where your expertise and your knowledge are building and growing and you're being taken more seriously and being paid accordingly.

10 to 15 years is considered senior management and 15 and up years is considered executive management.

So, it is really good to know the big picture on your career and have an idea of where you stand on the career continuum so that not only you can represent your own status in the industry appropriately, but so that you know what level you're shooting for next and you can start messaging in your career accordingly.

Now, early in your career individuals are usually extremely eager and they should be.

That is what's expected and they should be doing an awful lot of experimentation, trying on different roles.

And there's no surprise that there's a little bit of job hopping happening in the first kind of few years of your career.

But there is a difference between being eager and being over-eager.

And one has to really be careful that you don't fall into the over-eager category because that can be seen as insecurity or competitiveness.

So yes, you want to grow and develop in your career, but you don't wanna go so over the top that you actually alienate the decision makers or the team around you because it can be held against you if you're working too hard to get somewhere too quickly.

There's a natural ebb and flow to your career and build your strengths, build your knowledge, get professional development on the side, but also keep it in line with what employers expect which is consistency, reliability, and growth throughout time.

- Wrapping up the evening, we introduce you to a talented fiddler hailing from Canton, New York.

Gretchen Koehler made the decision during Covid to keep her creative juices flowing by composing music to the work of other North Country artisans.

She calls her project Fiddling with Traditions.

Here she is composing to the work of North Country quilter, Rebecca Muir MacKellar.

(upbeat music) - My name is Gretchen Koehler and I'm a traditional fiddle player.

(fiddle music) Fiddling with Traditions is a new suite of handcrafted fiddle tunes that were inspired by Northern New York folk artists.

The core of it is the interviews I had with these different artists and I actually wrote articles about them so you could meet them, see what their studio looks like, see how they create, see a bit about our conversation.

I also made music videos so that you could really see exactly what I was thinking when I was composing.

I interviewed a quilter named Rebecca Muir MacKellar.

She's from Canton, New York.

And her quilting, it's a fine art and I was just so inspired with how she pushes boundaries.

We had a nice discussion about traditions, and quilt squares, and fiddling tradition, and how we both feel like we're part of this living tradition that's happening right now.

When I look at her work, those stitches, I just I wanna run my finger along every single one of them.

I just couldn't, I couldn't keep my eyes off of.

I was about six inches from all of her quilts when we were speaking.

And so, I wanted the tune to feel like an adventure.

Have a lot of intricate details.

So anyway, this tune was really a game changer for me as far as being a composer.

So it is called, "The Bobbin."

(light music) (fiddle music) - That does it for us this Tuesday evening.

Join us next week for a fresh look inside the stories.

A wildlife center in Napanee, Ontario takes care of sick or injured wildlife.

We'll take you inside this much needed nonprofit.

And meet the youngest news team in the North Country.

Copenhagen Central School offers a broadcast program for students.

Also, the Fort Drum Museum showcases more than military history.

Relics date back hundreds of thousands of years.

Meantime, we wanna tell your story.

If you or someone in your community has something meaningful, historic, inspirational, or educational to share, please email us at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org and let's share it with the region.

That's it for now, everyone.

We'll see you again next week.

Good night.

(light music) - [Narrator] "WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories" is brought to you by, the Watertown Oswego Small Business Development Center, a free resource offering confidential business advice for those interested in starting or expanding their small business, serving Jefferson, Lewis, and Oswego counties since 1986.

Online at watertown.nysbdc.org.

Carthage Savings has been here for generations, donated time and resources to this community.

They're proud to support WPBS TV online at carthagesavings.com.

Carthage Savings, mortgage solutions since 1888.

The J.M.

McDonald Foundation.

And the Badenhausen Legacy Fund at the Northern New York Community Foundation.

(fiddle music)