Jolly Green

Interesting test, thanks for posting!

What's wrong with setting the hook with the clicker on?

Sorry for your loss.

So sorry. Condolences to you and yours.

On a 4600 I thumb the left edge of the spool along with the line. I can thumb the line in the middle of the spool on a 5000 but my thumb grabs both sides of a 4600 spool if I try to thumb the middle.

Congratulations!

Just today I walked out of DSG with $75 worth of Monkey Chow for $35. Three weeks after Xmas like clockwork around here.

Northland Buck-A-Roo.

Not sure why that would be; I just check to make sure all my active brake blocks are retracted toward center as much as possible so they aren't being mashed by the brake race when I put the side plate back on, and away I go.

That was awesome. The banjo player makes it look every bit as hard as it really is to keep that up.

Sometimes, but I do often cast myself to sleep. Beats counting sheep.

Congratulations! Too early to start organizing biology field trips? "OK, class, I know the sun isn't up yet and you're all freezing but this is what is known as the pre-spawn period and let me tell you..."

1/4 oz. SK Bitsy Bug, blue/black with a 3" Powerbait grub. The fish was roughly the same size and weight. Lost it later that same trip. But I do have my boys' first-bass lures tucked away.

My favorite is an Abu Cardinal c802, freshwater cousin of the 800i series (later the Soron, I believe.) The aluminum alloy body makes it on the heavy side but it's tough as nails and with 9+1 bearings and a sealed carbon drag it's about the best $80 I've ever spent.

If you like bass fishing and crime novels that also have some wit, "Double Whammy" by Carl Hiaasen is a good read. I just finished "Cork Boat" by John Pollack, who among other things was a speech writer on Capitol Hill in the late 90's and one day decided to hang that gig up and fulfill his childhood dream of building a boat out of wine corks and sailing it down a river, which, with a lot of help, luck, providence, etc. he finally did. For those of you with kids in the 6-10 range that still like stories, the Timmy Failure series of books by "Pearls Before Swine" comic strip creator Stephan Pastis is pretty funny. Almost makes up for all the times I had to read "Zombie Butts From Uranus" to them.

Another vote for the Mustad short shank hooks mentioned above. My own theory on red hooks is that they haven't hurt me any. Some folks use red trebles for belly hooks because it may mimic the red flash of gills or otherwise present an inviting target; I use red hooks because my local Walmart cleared out all of their Gamakatsu 5-packs for fifty cents each last year and I basically took that entire bin straight to the checkout. I've caught just a stupid amount of fish with a white fluke on a red hook.

Cutler can do whatever he wants in Wisconsin, except win.

Congratulations to her! Condolences to you and everyone with daughters.

Idle hands are what the Monkey uses to reach for your wallet. Practice pitching, start tying your own jigs or bending your own spinnerbaits, deep clean and/or tune your reels, etc. Because nobody can hold off the Monkey indefinitely you're still going to buy stuff, but at least you can look back and know that that's not all you did all winter.

Guess I'm the oddball. I mostly do use a small EWG hook, and just make sure they're on dead straight. I don't find it to be all that difficult.

Saw this at a strip mall January of last year. Timeless indeed.

Wow. And I thought I was going overboard saving and processing a couple of tails from deer my buddy shot this year. Interesting stuff! While I'm inclined to let Uncle Josh do all that for me, if this winter is anything like last winter, who knows... Out of curiosity, why do you do it, Tom? Quality control? Shapes unavailable commercially? Or do you just plain like doing it yourself?

Packers did get roughed up by a legit D but they still could have won that game. Now I have to have dinner later with my father-in-law bristling from a bad beat and being in the sorry position of having to root for the Vikings. Think I feel the 24-hour walking ebola coming on...

Nice game, Packers. Happy Sunday to DarrenM and cue deaknh03's favorite scene from "Copland."