Fishing Rhino

It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.

A new groom sweeps clean. Oh, wait. That should be a new broom. Never mind, just trying to change the subject.

I do not have the slightest idea of just where the truth lies, but I'm a cynic, and by nature am suspicious of any "study" or article that is in fact an advertisement. Can you say Kevin Trudeau? Get a Bowflex this or that and in two months you will look like an Olympian gymnast. What I have no doubt about, is that there is no one size fits all, when it comes to anything related to our bodies. We have different allergies. We respond to medications differently. (See the list of contraindications on any "medicine" be it prescription, or over the counter. The trick is to find something that works for you, and something that you can stick with. Eat less, exercise more. As long as you are taking in fewer calories than you are burning, you will lose weight. But will that loss be fat, or muscle? Walk or cycle, do not run, or better yet, swim. Running is tough on the joints. Avoid high impact exercises. Work out in a pool. Resistance with next to no impact. Good for those with arthritis, etc. I wish you all success in the worthwhile endeavor to lose weight and/or get in shape. And if something works for you, that's great.

That contradicts the theory that it's better to eat several small meals than to gorge yourself at a few. Supposedly the constant eating raises metabolism while fasting tends to slow down metabolism since the body thinks it is starving. Diets come, and diets go. Eat no carbohydrates. Eat complex carbohydrates. Grapefruit diet. Dr. (fill in the blank) diet. There is something for everyone. Weight watchers, Nutri System. And the beat goes on.

I've had the same thing happen with my boat, regarding the trim. It only happened once and that was during a deluge. What concerned me most was that it might happen when towing the boat. To eliminate that possibility I installed a switch so I could turn off all power from the cranking battery. Not a bad thing since it prevents children or other mischievous individuals from playing with the switches.

Hey, where's Richard Simmons when you need him? For the longest time, he was coming out with some form of move, groove and lose weight reduction every other year. Remember the license plate he used to have on his car, YRU FAT? Actually, if you recall, most of his programs were crying fests and since most of the body is water, they lost weight in the form of tears.

I doubt the NFL will adopt it. A team could get a 25 yard penalty for taunting, or it might be considered excessive celebration.

And why not? It's going to end up as that.

Yogi hit more bad pitches for home runs than any other player. He was not afraid to swing at a pitch that was way above the strike zone. He played with Joe DiMaggio and his successor, Mickey Mantle. Yogi had a great life, and he brought enjoyment to all who watched him play. Yogi, forever a child at heart.

What was it Al Davis said? "Just lose baby."? That doesn't sound correct. But that was a long, long, long................time ago.

And, it depends upon the weight and where it is (weight distribution) that a boat is carrying. A boat can be run bare bones, or, it can be loaded down with gear. Before changing props, since it currently gets up on plane in a flash, try moving weight back. It may not get up on plane as quickly, but it may increase top end speed. To reiterate, the motor should run at the recommended revolutions per minute at wide open throttle. Boats are complicated creatures, and as such, are at best, compromises. It's why bass boats have power trim and power jack plates to find the ideal combination for hull design and load. Generally speaking, bass boats sacrifice ride and comfort for speed. It's easy to make a fast boat that rides like a buckboard, think hydroplanes, or a comfortable boat that is a turtle when it comes to speed, but can mush through rough water.

They play by their own rules. http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/report-raiders-refusing-nfl-orders-to-paint-50-yard-line-numbers-in-gold/ar-AAeFfI9?li=AAa0dzB

The bait monkey is bad enough, but his cousin the bike monkey is outrageous. By the way Raider didn't you mean perusing rather than pontificating? Pontificating is getting up on a soapbox and orating. " pon·tif·i·cate VERB (in the Roman Catholic Church) officiate as bishop, especially at Mass. express one's opinions in a way considered annoyingly pompous and dogmatic: "he was pontificating about art and history" synonyms: hold forth · expound · declaim · preach · lay down the law ·

A thick fog was over the pond when I got there. Had to pick my way to the canal leading to the pond. Got disoriented, but guessed right and made it to the canal. Might have had fifty yards of visibility. Note to self, get a small cheapo compass and put it in the canoe's storage compartment. Caught a couple of largemouth right off the bat in a trench that is five to six feet deep, surrounded by three to four foot deep rocky bottom. Picked my way around in the fog which blanketed the pond for a couple of hours before it finally lifted. A nice calm day with just enough breeze to ripple the surface. Caught four smallmouth. Two had just swallowed some crawfish. The claws were visible, protruding from their gullets. Caught three or four small pickerel about a foot long. Caught some decent largemouth, and several dinks, which is a good thing. Today's dinks are tomorrow's photo material. Not as good as Thursday's outing, but still an okay day.

In a word, ugh.

I've been using six and eight pound test InvisX fluorocarbon on my spinning reels for three or four years with zero problems, except for a couple of times when I over filled the reel. Lesson learned in a hurry. I might use my baitcasters once or twice a year and they are filled with braid. I do have a couple of spinning rigs with braid, but rarely use them. If fluoro was the nightmare some have said it is, they'd soon be out of business.

The Rage Tail Menace should be included in your must have list of grubs. I'm not sure it's technically called a grub, but the body definitely is. On most days, it will hammer the curly tail grub, but there are other days when the fish will prefer the Fat Albert type. At least that has been my experience. Color, Green pumpkin with purple and gold flakes. It will only cost you a few bucks to toss a bag of Menace baits in with your grub assortment. I'm a watermelon with black and red flakes guy, but I find myself leaning toward the "Mardi Gras" coloration. Another bait that I'm particularly fond of is the 2 3/4" Lunker City Grubster, in the clear water color. I rig it the same as the curly tail grub in an earlier post.

Short notice. I'm going fishing tomorrow morning and have an empty seat in the bow of my canoe. The boat departs at six a.m. plus or minus, and returns about one in the afternoon. (Westport, MA) Anyone interested send me a p.m. First come, first served.

Interesting. The "best answer" is one that cannot be read, except for the recipient of the PM.

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/blue-sea-systems--285-series-thermal-circuit-breakers-surface-mount--P011975596

There will be times when you will have to "delay" your hook set. On days when the fish pick up the bait and swim with it they do not necessarily have the hook in their mouth. On those days you have to taunt them by slowing the retrieve and wiggling the rod tip which may make the fish think their prize is trying to escape, so they'll take it deeper into their mouth. If it drops it during that process, let the bait sit there. Many times they will pick up the bait or maybe other fish that are interested will pick it up. There is nothing like a little competition for your bait. The fish are much more aggressive if they think someone is trying to steal their snack. The downside is that you better know how to remove the hook from a gullet hooked fish without doing any harm to the fish. I fish a lot of grassy bottom, and the bait will scratch around on the stems. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between a strike and a grass snag. When that happens, I'll keep a light tension in the line and wait to feel movement. If I don't, I'll just pull the bait slowly allowing the bait to ride up the step and off the top of the plant. (This does not work on all plants, but it does on those with long stems or tendrils with few "branches" on the stem.

Here's how I rig them. Most of the time it's with a 1/8th ounce weight. A drop of super glue at the nose keeps the bait buttoned up to the weight. The bait is upside down in the photo. A good jig head is the Keitech Super Round Tungsten jig head. I use the 1/8th ounce with a 2/0 hook. But I also have 1/16th ounce, 3/16th ounce and 1/4 ounce hooks for experimentation. The bait in the image is a Rage Tail Craw. But Zoom craws and the grand daddy Mister Twister also work well. You can catch several fish on a single bait, unless the pickerel or other toothy critters are after them. There is no right or wrong way to fish 'em. Vary your retrieve, and let the fish tell you what they want. Our most common practice is to wait five to ten seconds after splash down depending on the depth we are fishing. From there you can twitch and jerk and let it settle after each "jump". You can also swim it.

The best way to get rid of the water in the soaked carpet is a wet or dry shop vacuum. Use the crevice tool. A bit of trial and error will show you the best angle to use for best results. It should take only a few minutes to get rid of the bulk of the water. When done, it should feel nearly dry to the touch. The carpet on a bass boat can hold a lot of water. Depending on the size of the boat, you could get well over a gallon of water from the carpet in the cockpit and on the decks. If you put the boat in the sun, it should be completely dry in less than an hour after vacuuming. On a dry, breezy, sunny day, the carpet could be completely dry in a few minutes after it has been vacuumed. It a sure way to prevent mold and mildew from forming on the carpet. I'll second what was said about not drilling any holes without knowing what is underneath. I find it hard to believe that there is not some type of drain(s) in the cockpit.

Some times, bad things happen at the best possible time. I was docking my lobster boat. The bow was headed into the slip, cut the wheel to starboard to kick the stern toward the dock, then put the boat in reverse. The boat had just about come to a stop, as my first mate slipped the spring line over the forward port cleat. A loud clunk from beneath the boat, and then the boat lost all propulsion. The prop had fallen off, right at the dock just as the boat had been secured. My first mate was also a diver, so he drove home, got his diving gear and retrieved the prop. A short drive to the boat yard for a couple of prop nuts, and a half hour later, the boat was back in business. Had it happened anywhere else I would have had to foot the bill for a new 2400 dollar prop, not to mention the potential for the wind or current to put the boat on the rocks.