Lund Explorer

Rather than hang the kid, a good lesson might be for all of us to mail him a "sponsorship" check. Misspell his name, invert the dollar amount, and mail it to the wrong address.

Now you're talking! Do I smell brats?

I can see it now. Two guys in the boat on a day when its 50* outside. The Yankee is dressed in shorts, t-shirt, and his favorite flip-flops. At the other end of the boat, the poor thin blooded Hillbilly wearing every stitch of clothing he owns! Please send pics!

The only possible reason that weights would improve would be because the fishermen enjoyed the warm up, it certainly won't help the fish. Cloudy skies and a projected high temp in the 40's isn't going to warm up the water enough to turn them on. As a matter of fact, tonight's low temps before Saturday's blast off will probably make the fish even more lethargic. I find it amazing that most of these "pros" hadn't planned ahead. Have a few reels on hand that were stripped of grease and lubricated with a little graphite instead would have cured reels freezing up as any winter steelhead fisherman could have told them. What about the old trick of using vegetable oil in a spray can (Think PAM) to reduce icing on rod guides. More problems this morning with ice cold temps almost assures us that future classics are heading further south. The only people who enjoy outdoor sports on ice have a hockey stick in their hands.

So if he wins the classic, will BPS have a special sale on the lures he used, or just on bundles of tree branches? I've got to agree. So if he wins, do you think BPS will be running a sale on the lures he used, or just on bundles of tree branches?

Sorry to tell you, but the only times I've ever been to Lake St Helen has been to fish for bluegills through the ice. If you are interested in other options, I could suggest going back to Cadillac/Mitchell and then traveling west for another hour to the Village of Onekama, MI. Portage lake has fantastic LM fishing, good SM bass, some HUGE northern pike and walleye, and there are even decent bluegills in certain spots. Plan enough in advance and you will be in the right spot and the exact right time to hire a charter boat for King Salmon and Cohos. Not sure want you were thinking about as far as where you are going to stay overnight, but there is a very nice state campground 15 minutes from the lake, and several motels/lodges in the Village itself. The link below is a nice spot which you might like. http://www.travelers-motel.com/attractions.htm How good is the LM fishing in Portage Lake? How about catching a 18lb limit in the first 30 minutes. The 20" fish in my picture came from there this last summer.

You might as well head out for the road trip now.

Without a doubt, heat loss is usually most severe through the roof. I would still highly suggest looking into adding more insulation in the attic, and as far as I'm concerned, the blown in cellulous is the way to do it. Rolled or bat insulation just doesn't give you a solid seal. Check out the local big box building suppliers in your area. Ours will rent out a blower at a very reasonable price if you buy the material from them. Before you change fuel source, look into this chart to see what each will cost on a per/btu basis. Prices of fuel keeps changing, but I've always found that fuel oil costs much less than propane when you consider the amount of heat in each gallon used. Might not be that way today, but it was back in the day. I always wonder about that when I see the propane truck pull into one of the neighbor's once every three weeks or so. A 300 gallon tank of that stuff doesn't seem to last very long. http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/energy-content-d_868.html

On topic - There have been several good posts on exactly what you need to do to establish a record catch in your name. The only thing I can add is that nobody said that the steps required were going to be easy. It's up to each person to decide if they want to go through all of that hassle if you are ever faced with that lucky(?) day. Off topic - For those of you who are so tied up with the subject of genetics, please consider the fact that each big old lady you catch was created by combining the genetics of both another female and a male bass. It's the combination of the two that created the creature you are holding. Letting her go isn't going to guarantee that she is going to pass on those perfect traits if she spawns with inferior males. Once she has completed a few spawning seasons, her genes are swimming around in a whole lot of other fish. Whether any of them will live up to the potential she gave them has already been decided by fate and not by what you decide to do with her.

After a year or so of putting off this task, I decided to follow the same organization scheme. Everything is sorted by year and then by date or event. The print photos haven't been too bad other than the sheer volume. My Mother got her first camera in 1937, and Dad started this shutter bug thing in 1940. The biggest problem came about in 1950 when he bought a 35mm camera and decided to shift over to slides. There's THOUSANDS of them! Not sure that I found the best way, but I purchased a little thing called a "Pics2SD" scanner that accepts slides, negatives, and actual printed photos. I've been going through slide file boxes slowly but surely. Five slides scanned at a time, 20 to fill up the SD Card, and then transferred to the hard drive to be labeled and saved. Once a year is completed, I burn them onto multiple CD's for all the kids to have copies of their own. I've also made copies for cousins when I come across old pictures including their families. On a good day I can complete about 100 slides, if for no other reason than I spend so much time looking at the new additions to this collection rather than keeping to the task at hand. Right now I'm working on 1956 which was a pretty busy year. That's the year a grumpy old poster on here showed up with his twin brother, and it seems he was born to parents with a film fetish!

It's not the fuel, the problem you have is the space you are trying to heat. Back when we bought our home oil wasn't very expensive and for twenty some years I just kept watching the delivery truck drop off a tank full twice a year. When it came time to put on new shingles, I spent an extra $500 and had 12" of insulation blown on top of the 6" of the rolled insulation we already had. First year - We saved almost 100 gallons of fuel needed to heat our home. I was so happy that I spent a few thousand the next spring to replace windows, doors, and siding. We also added an inch of foam insulation, and put on new house wrap under the new siding. Results? We went from using approximately 700 gallons of fuel in an average winter down to where we barely use 300 a year now. In a mild winter, I can have the tank filled up in September and I don't see that darn truck until the next fall. I kick myself every winter now that I waiting so long before to upgrade our home. Four hundred gallons of fuel oil @ $3+ per/gallon is a lot of extra cash in my pocket. If you girlfriend's father is willing to spend cash to remodel this house, I'd suggest you talk him into spending a lot of that on upgrading what you already have before any money is spent trying to increase the amount of area you need to keep warm.

I feel your pain. I've been slowly digitizing all of the family albums and the task is overwhelming. Who knew there could be so many different types of film spread across the decades.

How true. Of course the odds got all fouled up when I decided that I would never run for political office in Chicago. Does that matter?

More than likely just the case of another poor soul south of the Mason-Dixon line spotting their first snow flake of the year.

Probably a good thing. I've never heard of making booze with bread and milk! Rookies!

Yeah, and three minutes later the national debt will be right back where it was!

Can I suggest that if you are that worried about being injured that you try pinching down the barbs on those hooks before you have them banned for everyone else?

This link might give you a few ideas. http://wildlife.utah.gov/fes/pdf/fish_habitat_improvement.pdf

That reminds me of another oldie but goodie. "When I die I want to go in my sleep like my grandpa.... And not screaming like his three passengers did!"

One of the Discovery Channels had a show quite a while ago about the development of the rocket pack (think James Bond) that was going to be used in the military. The gist of the story was how hard it was for people to balance themselves using one of these things. At least this version would give you the chance to crash into much softer water. That being said, I'd love to have one so I could take it north of here and buzz fishermen. Say around the 45th parallel!

Agreed! I can't imagine me winning because I don't play. Of course if I did win, I guess I could take care of all the shirt-tail relatives that crawled out of the woodwork, and then the rest I could use to sponsor tons of high school kids in their dreams of fishing so they don't have to work!

Just watched Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce this morning. After seeing this movie several times, I still can't figure out if Momma Mildred or Daughter Veda (Ann Blyth) was the bigger villain.

I sure am happy I watched that whole video, because for a minute there all I could think of was; "J's Uncle is Rachel Spotts?" Back to reality, we had more snow in November (which all melted by early December) than we've had the rest of this winter. All in all, not a bad winter in this neck of the woods.

Have you ever heard of Jim Nabors (aka Gomer Pyle)? Ever heard him sing? He did a darn good job belting out the tune "The Impossible Dream". My advice would be to lower your sights or learn to repeat the name of that song over and over again. Let's be honest here. Not even the best liar in the world can actually catch a limit every day or on every lake. Spend your time learning different lakes, different tactics/baits, keep good records, and set goals for improvement based on your experience. If you ever get to the point that you think you can always get that limit, give me a call and I can take you to a few lakes to ruin that record! By the way, welcome to Bass Resource.

Okay, its called preventable. As far as the idiocy part. Any guesses at how many of these parents that don't vaccinate their children would scream bloody murder if Little Johnny brought a peanut butter sandwich to the school their brats where in? And then I have to wonder how many of these people own a dog, and if they've gotten a rabies shot lately. When people rely on the medical advice of a playmate, its time to stop the world, so I can get off!