Jar11591

The old quarry I use to fish back in 2015-2016. Several deep, crystal clear ponds that were loaded with big largemouth, smallmouth, pike, and panfish. The fishing was incredible, but people also used it as a party spot, and eventually it was overrun with partiers that swamped the place, left insane amounts of trash, got hurt, and everything else. They closed off access to it eventually. People couldn’t respect the beautiful resource we had. I wish I could fish it again as it was.

Thanks for the well wishes, all. It’s truly appreciated. Hopefully that morning will be my worst for some time. I can go without another situation like that. @fin I don’t really know. I remember my foot giving out and realizing it was broken, then the stings started. It all happened so fast. But if I had to guess, I’m assuming I stepped on the hive and caved it in.

Short version: Ground wasps. Don’t mow over their hive. Storytime: So looks like I’m done fishing for the year. Remote chance I’ll be able to get out in late November, but I’m not banking on it. Saturday morning started innocently enough. Was gonna mow the lawn and then relax the rest of the day. Made the first pass with the lawn mower, and my left foot gave out on some wet grass and I went down hard. I look at my foot, and it’s facing the wrong way. Totally busted. I yelled some profanities, and started to crawl to get to my girlfriend inside so she can call the ambulance. And then I felt it. I looked down at my body, and I’m covered in wasps. Stinging me on my face and neck, legs, arms, in my shirt, pants, there are hundreds. I start to fade in and out of consciousness as my busted ankle and million wasp stings start to get to me. I’m swatting them the best I can, but with a totally shattered ankle I can’t do much. I ended up losing consciousness on my drive way as I tried to crawl across it. My girlfriend thankfully had heard my yells, and comes out as I regain some level of consciousness. I tell her not to come near me as I’m covered in ticked off wasps, and just call 911. She sobbing of course, and calls ambulance that would end up showing up very fast, in under 10 minutes. So they show up to a guy with a foot that is facing the wrong way, covered in wasp stings, huge hives, and wheezing so much I can barely breathe. They load me into the ambulance and give me epinephrine and some other stuff to stop the anaphylaxis, and some pain meds for the leg. At this point I’m completely delirious, and immediately admitted upon arrival to the hospital. They scheduled me for surgery that was completed yesterday morning to fix 2 broken bones in the tibia and fibula, as well as 2 in the foot. In the meantime they had me on a Benadryl drip to help curb the anaphylaxis, which had thankfully started to fade by this time. Surgery was successful, and the reaction to the wasps is gone besides hundreds of itchy welts. No more hives or labored breathing. I’ll be on crutches for 10-12 weeks, then a boot for some time after that. So that was my weekend. A bad situation that almost turned really bad because of wasps. If you see any wasp/bee activity along the ground, inspect for a hive before mowing. If I was highly allergic to wasp venom, I probably would have died as they stung me dozens and dozens of times as I could barely stay conscious. So that’s my story and PSA. Ground wasps, they suck.

They are picked and shipped before ripe so they are harder and don’t bruise. Then sprayed with a gas that turns them red but doesn’t really ripen them before they hit store shelves. At least that’s what I’ve heard.

Just made a tomato sandwich for lunch with the Roma tomatoes from our garden. Baguette, mayonnaise, thick sliced Romas, salt and pepper. Delicious.

This beat up, scarred, almost-22 incher comes to mind. You can tell shes lived a life. Shes in the top 5 longest bass I’ve ever taken from NY as well. At one point she was probably well over 6 pounds judging by her head size, but life’s rigors rendered her frail and weathered.

Awesome report, beautiful fish, and what a trip! A trip just like this is on my bucket list. Congrats on the nice pike and successful adventure. Glad the wildfire didn’t screw with it much!

I’m usually bringing 5-8 rods with me while bass fishing. Sometimes up to 10. If I have 8 with me, they are probably: 7’ MF spinning with a wacky senko 6’10” MLXF spinning with a Ned or drop shot 6’6” MF baitcasting with a popper 7’ MHF baitcasting with a spinnerbait 7’3” XHXF baitcasting with a weedless frog 7’ MHF baitcasting with a jig and craw 6’8” MXF baitcasting with a jerkbait 7’ MHF with a lipless crankbait

I use these from Harbor Freight. The 45° make it so much easier to get a hook out. I modify them by super-gluing a little spring to each side of the handle right where rubber meets the metal.

Yes. In the summer I’m targeting 8-15’ of water, and looking for milfoil or hydrilla. Then I try to locate the outer edge of that hydrilla or milfoil. I throw a 3/4oz all summer to make sure I’m fishing it deep enough.

Always great when your parent company has “equity” and “capital” in its name. Shows a dedication to the outdoors.

From the last 2 days of harvesting. We’re completely inundated with cucumbers, can’t give enough away.

Rage Swimmer!

I never feel more confident then when I’m throwing a 3/4oz spinnerbait in 12-15’ of water on the outside edge of a milfoil forest.

If money isn’t a factor, why would price be a factor?

If you’re gut hooking fish consistently, the only logical conclusion is you’re waiting too long to set the hook. If you set it as soon as you feel the strike, then that means you’re bite detection is late. With bass you need to be quick on the draw. Bass not only can swallow baits fast, but can also reject a bait instantaneously. Gotta feel the strike and set the hook as fast as you can, no hesitation ever. And yes that means frogs too. Bass don’t mouth their baits. Feel the strike, drop the rod, reel the slack, and lean back on em as fast as you can. Waiting on a strike in bass fishing as a technique is counter productive, and just leads to missed fish or gut hooks.

@gimruis it likes to play it self off as a bass, but it’s no micropterus. Rock bass are Ambloplites, and they share that genus with a couple of somewhat rare centrarchids. They all compete to be the weakest fighting fish, a title known as the rock bass cup.

Wow! And my girlfriend laughed at me when I brought up the possibility of this exact scenario before our whale watching tour in Iceland…

@king fisher you may be mistaking species with genus. Wolves and dogs are not the same species, but they share the canis genus. Just like all black bass share the micropterus genus. Largemouth, smallmouth, spotted, shoal, redeye, and now the Florida bass which was previously listed as a subspecies of largemouth are all seperate species under the same genus. Some if not all can produce non-sterile hybrid offspring, ie. the meanmouth.

@Woody B what this is establishing is that Florida strain and northern strain are no longer a thing, because the Florida strain is now recognized as a separate species and not a largemouth at all. Meaning taxonomically, the Florida bass is as different from a northern strain as it is a smallmouth bass. btw, some consider the Denisovans to be a (obviously extinct) subspecies of H. sapiens.

Saw this! So the Florida bass is no longer associated with largemouth except for sharing the micropterus genus. That should also mean a new record for largemouth bass should be established. And correct me if I’m wrong, but that should also mean there is now no recognized subspecies of largemouth. What previously was the northern strain is now simply the largemouth.

My favorite part is that anticipation at the boat launch at sunrise. Calm, foggy lake with so many possibilities. Then that first blowup on the popper.

Thanks for all the advice. My gardening space is a couple hundred square feet. Even if rainwater collection want enough to irrigate the hole garden, being able to capture some of it to use and not let it just go to waste is appealing. For those that use the collection barrels, any problems with the stagnant water breeding mosquitos or water-borne pathogens? Guess it wouldn’t be too hard to give it some aeration to prevent stagnation.

As our garden gets bigger and bigger each year, my girlfriend and I are striving to get more efficient and sustainable as it grows. We’ve reached the point where watering is becoming very time consuming. Our rain the last few years has been coming all at once, followed by a 2 week drought. So the logical conclusion we’ve reached is to start collecting the rain water to use during the droughts, and provide drip irrigation to the garden. Does anyone collect rainwater to use in their garden? If so, please share your set up!

Pet peeve of mine with tv or YouTube chefs is some will be making recipes that require mixing something by hands, meanwhile they have a $3,000 watch on their wrist as they’re doing it. Nothing like some raw ground beef in the nooks and crannies of your expensive watch. It’s insane to me. And I see it frequently.