Fishing Rhino

Norm Crosby is famous for using the wrong word or phrase that sounds very similar to what he should have used, but has an entirely different meaning. It's much funnier when it is done unintentionally. I have a friend who does it all the time. Two examples. On time I asked him where his wife was working. She was running the kitchen at a mental health care facility. He could not think of the name (Corrigan) nor could he say where they help those with mental and emotional problems. He kept saying, "You know the place." Well I didn't because he said nothing about mental or emotional problems. He kept saying, "You know. You know the place. It's where they keep the depressed mannequins." The second, which is priceless: He was telling me about this girl he went out with in his youth, and bragging about his conquest. He said, referring to the girl, "I've never seen anything like her. She had one organism after another."

OK, the smartass (me) has been outsmarted.

There is a section on this forum titled, "fishing resumes". I wasn't aware it had been stopped.

It must be rigged with the back straight, and a convex, downward bow at the belly section. I've found it you accentuate the downward bow, so that the back has a hollow in it, it will skim the surface at a slower retrieve. It can be skipped across the surface, or run just below it, leaving a wake on the surface. The hook must be dead nuts center through the nose and the body (entrance and exit) for it to run properly.

Welcome. Our younger daughter lives in Temple, GA, about 15 miles east of the 'Bama border just north of I-20.

Welcome. You can pm me anytime you'd like someone to fish with. I go fishing most days Mon - Fri and sometime for a few hours on a weekend day.

Welcome. There's always room for another crew member on this vessel.

As long as she does look hot in one that's OK. If she doesn't, she'll know right off you're BSing her and could nix the deal at any moment. LOL. We've been married 44 years. Think she'll believe me if I tell her that? The question is not, will she like hearing that, it's will she believe it. I do say something similar quite often however. She'll ask if something looks good on her. I tell her yes, but it will look better off you. Her standard reply is to call me a pig.

I was like that regarding jigs until this year. Determined to give them a real shot, and voila after some trial and error with retrieving, I started catching bass. Plenty of them and good average size. I don't know why they work. To me they resemble a hook that has snagged a bunch of weed. But work they do. I've got to do the same with crank baits, jerk baits, slash baits. Did well with the Storm Wild Eye soft swimbaits last year, but nada with hard bait like Rattletraps, Rapalas, Mann's minus, etc. I know the problem is with me, not the baits. Just gotta get 'em figured out.

Hey F.R. I think I can kelp you get rid of some of that guilt that is nagging you. Send whatever you don't want to me and I will make sure it gets put to good use. ;D Maybe Contact Low Budget Hooker and make a donation to the Cast for Kids he is is involved in. That's a very kind offer. Let me think about it. Uhhhhmmmmm, uhhhhhh, hmmmmm. I'll pass on it for now, but don't think I don't appreciate it.

When I started fishing jigs in the middle of March, the pond had a couple of large flocks of seagulls floating on the surface. I'd never fished that early in the year on freshwater, and was somewhat surprised to see them. They were there every day without fail. When the snapping turtles started to stir, the number of gulls dwindled rapidly. Within a week they had vanished. No way the turtles got them all. Somehow the gulls instinctively know, or one gets taken from their midst, and the rest beat it. Momma and Poppa duck must have been frantic with they young being attacked like that.

Bass aren't quiet when chasing food in cover such as cattails. Splish, splash. In the summer, when the aquatic vegetation is in bloom, they attract hordes of insects, which in turn attract huge flocks of birds, mostly swallows and other insect eaters. I've heard stories of bass eating these birds, but had never witnessed such a thing, until this year. The bass missed, but it leaped a foot out of the water, just missing the bird. I happened to be looking in the right place at the right time to witness it. The thing is, it's not only bass that feed on the insects. Perch, bluegills and their cousins (sunfish) as well as other fish will feed in the shallows and dense cover. Unless it's an exceptionally loud splash, I'm conditioned to ignore them. Even a dink can make a fairly loud splash when it does a side flop. Fish version of a belly flop.

Doesn't sound very otter-like to me. Are these muskrats? I initially thought muskrats, until I saw a couple of otter eating them while floating on the surface. If it's muskrats, they are the worlds largest. Could be a combination of the two, but I haven't seen a muskrat since March. That doesn't mean they aren't around. But I've seen plenty of otters. Is that forge pond? I know sawdy on 177 too hasn't looked like it has in the past years It's still an amazing fishery. Have you contacted DEM/DEP/ Fish and Game about this situation? I have access to the pond only because I know folks who have property on it. It is a private pond since there is no public access. For that reason, I'm reluctant to get any governmental agency involved. There is one landowner who would have the influence and clout to get something done. But, he's not around very often. His property is across the street from ours. The caretaker of his property lives four houses south of us, and I could probably get his ear when he is around.\ He owns this company. http://www.coleman.com

Doesn't sound very otter-like to me. Are these muskrats? I initially thought muskrats, until I saw a couple of otter eating them while floating on the surface. If it's muskrats, they are the worlds largest. Could be a combination of the two, but I haven't seen a muskrat since March. That doesn't mean they aren't around. But I've seen plenty of otters. Is that forge pond? I know sawdy on 177 too hasn't looked like it has in the past years It's Devol Pond. Just a few hundred yards east of Sawdy. and about 1/4 the size. Back in the '60s, other than size, and the density of homes around Sawdy, they were quite similar. Both had crystal clear water. Both had smallmouth, but Sawdy also had largemouth. Sawdy was deeper, but still a relatively shallow pond. Both have rocky shorelines with Sawdy having more and larger rocks, plus a few rocky islands. Devol, on average had larger fish than Sawdy, particularly when it came to pickerel. Very little fishing pressure on Devol. I'm hoping against hope that last week was slow for other than the reasons I suspect.

Welcome. Jump right in, get your feet wet, and thrash around with the rest of us.

You know what they say. "If you never go away you can't come back." Welcome home. Sounds like you've got everything under control.

Australia, the Land Down Under. Thank goodness for gravity. Welcome. Settle in and enjoy.

Eh, what's that you say? You're from Montreal? I automatically like people whose fishing season in unfrozen water is shorter than mine. Good to have you here.

Greetings. The bass with the quarter size brain didn't outsmart you, it just ignored you. Come to think of it, ignoring things can be the wisest course of action. I and a couple like me could make change for that quarter.

Howdy, and remember this. When you don't like an answer it's because you asked the wrong question.

Welcome. You'll learn a lot here. Not all of it pertains to fishing. With anomaly for a screen name, you should fit right in.

Greetings. Come on in, the water's fine.

Somebody's been into the JJ's Magic ruby red.

I recall seeing documentaries about otter, that included scenes of them sliding down grooves they made in snow banks. It appeared they did it strictly for amusement. I was concerned the first time I spotted an otter, and that concern grew as I saw them around different areas of the pond. Sounds like a major rabies epidemic is needed in the wild kingdom around the pond.

When I was a kid, we had a small swamp in our back yard with muskrats. For wintering over or hibernation, whichever, they built mounds of mud, straw, thatch and whatever was available. Never opened one up to examine it. There are the same type of mounds, but three or four times the size around the shoreline of the pond, built on the dormant clumps of the Purple Loosestrife. I had assumed these were muskrat dens or whatever the appropriate term is. But, and this is what threw me a curveball, around all of these mounds are piles of empty mussel/clam shells. I never knew muskrats to be carnivores, but I thought that otter were strictly carnivores, eating fish, shellfish, crawfish, etc. Could these large mounds be the winter homes of otters? If so, it would explain the shells. I've got a lot of questions, and a lot of searching for answers. As for PETA, what they are not aware of, they cannot protest. This land is surrounded by private property, with no public access. Never seen the "clam cops" as the environmental police are called in these hereabouts, or any other law enforcement agency at the pond, except in response to emergencies.