gim

Phase 1 (yesterday): remove old board, replace, and power wash the deck Phase 2 (early this morning): re-stain all horizontal boards Phase 3 (after the stain): dry time I started the staining around 7am this morning and finished around 9am before it got too hot. Most of the deck was also in the shade so I wasn't out there in the blazing hot sun.

I've got a fun one that I remember. In 2016, I went on a foreign trip to Peru. After work one evening, the diplomats in Peru I was working with took me to an outfit that had buggies to cruise the sand dunes. Something I'll never forget.

I went for 4 hours this morning locally. Caught 17 largemouth ranging between 13-18 inches. Some of the fish have definitely started to move deeper with the increasing water temperature. Caught all of them in 6-12 feet on plastics. I got pretty warm out there even early this morning. I couldn't tolerate it much past 10am. I will not be fishing again until we get cooler weather. Water temp was 80 degrees.

Making enemies with neighbors goes nowhere. It's like making enemies with co-workers. All it does is compound the problem. Not saying anyone needs to be best friends or go out to weekly dinners with their neighbors, but it behooves you to get along and show some respect. Fighting fire with more fire is not the solution here because the problem is just going to be there again the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. You get the point.

Rock bass are imposters

Not worth fighting in court or getting a lawyer involved. As others have already stated, pay the ticket and learn from it. Also, just because you aren't in a HOA doesn't mean there isn't city code. I've lived in suburbs most of my adult life (no HOA) and there are city codes about parking that are enforced. They generally give you a warning the first time though.

I tinkered with props of various pitches, material, and number of blades a few years ago. I was hell bent on getting a higher top speed out of my boat. It was a fruitless waste of time and money. Turns out the one that worked the best was the one I was already using.

Not a walleye. They have a white spot on the tail. I believe it's a sauger or a saugeye. Looks like @JonB2 beat me to it above I'm sure she's retired. There are a lot of regular posters here that are. I'm not lol

I can respect your opinion on much of this. Clearly you've fished many of these water bodies so there's some leverage there. I don't see any other annual country-wide rankings of bass fisheries out there though, so this is what we use. I like data, and this has at least some element of that used. Tournament bags are raw data, and the data doesn't have an opinion. That's all I'm saying. I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of places to bass fish that aren't mentioned. Perhaps that's by design too. Once a lake is on this list, it often gets highly pressured. I remember when Mille Lacs first entered the foray here. It was a blitzkrieg. So maybe not getting mentioned may be a blessing in disguise in that respect.

Did you even read the headings below each lake listed? They're based on scientific polling, population data, and tournament bags. Not like they pluck these out of thin air. There's real information being used to do this. Certainly some lakes might be over rated or not listed. But to call it misinformed is inaccurate.

Mille Lacs and LaCrosse are still on the there in the Central Zone in the top 10. Both are better options than Minnetonka these days. BassmasterBest Bass Lakes 2026: Central - BassmasterCentral division: Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin.

You guys are missing the point. Garmin wants you to upgrade every year to the latest and greatest. It's a technology arms race and you cannot compete if you fall behind. 🙄

I'm using these too. I bought them in Nov 2024 so they are still plenty good. I expect to get at least 5 seasons out of them. My cranking/starting battery is a year newer but that one is a standard lead acid version.