Long Mike

I have. That's why I carry it.

I was at the post office today and had to go to the counter. While I was standing there I was able to watch the USPS at its very best. Through an open door I watched a gal take packages out of one cart, scan them, and then transfer them to another cart. By "transfer them" I mean that she tossed the packages to the other cart, which was about ten feet away. I watched her miss the other cart twice. I'm sure the same thing probably happens with the other major carriers, but at least they keep it out of the public view.

Bad Luck? I posted this several years ago and it is a true story. I’ve had more than a few screw-ups in my time, but this is, by far, my biggest. I learned several valuable lessons from that little outing; not the least of which is to always keep a key for the truck in my boat, and to grease the hitch ball. Anyway, here goes. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed. It all started last week when I backed my Suburban up to the boat trailer and tried to hitch it up. The receiver on the trailer would drop onto the ball OK but there was no way I could get it to latch down. I tried raising and lowering it, shaking it, jerking it, banging it with a hammer and every thing else I could think of, but it would not latch down. Finally, in desperation, I sprayed everything with WD-40. I again lowered the receiver onto the ball and it latched with ease. Go figure. Finally on the road, I drove from Tulsa to Lake Skiatook (about 30 miles). The moment I got to the boat ramp it started raining heavily, accompanied by a considerable amount of lightning. I sat around for about thirty minutes and the rain didn't let up. So, I called my daughter and asked her to have a look at the National Weather Service radar. She told me there was large cell in the vicinity, and that it would probably be at least a couple of hours before it passed. Thoroughly disgusted, I drove back to Tulsa, and into sunshine. When I got home, I checked the radar myself and discovered that the cell my daughter was referring to was due South of a place called Ponca City - nowhere near the lake I was wanting to fish. The radar did show a couple of Popcorn showers that popped up over the lake and then fell apart right after I left. Needless to say, I was somewhat perturbed to learn that my daughter was Geographically Challenged. Back to the lake I went and was graced with a partly cloudy sky. I was boating alone so I kicked off my new sneakers, put on my flip-flops and backed the boat into the water. Because I drive a Suburban, I can't see the boat on the ramp without opening the cargo doors. No problem, I opened the doors, backed the boat in, and got out of the truck to get the boat free of the trailer. Without realizing it at the time, I kicked one of new my sneakers into the water as I got out of the truck. Luckily it landed right side up. I waded around to the back of the truck and checked its cargo area before I launched the boat. Sure enough, I had neglected to place my tackle box in the boat. There is a door lock button in the cargo area on the rear post. I must have hit it when I reached for the tackle box. It has a fifteen second delay on it, so I didn't hear the clunk of all the door locks until after I had closed the cargo doors. OK, so now I have a locked truck with the keys in the ignition, sitting in water up to the running boards on a busy boat ramp, and a new sneaker that is slowly floating away. First things first. I fired up the boat, chased down the sneaker, and then tied the boat at the dock. I went back to the truck and found that there was no way I could get into it without breaking out a window. I found a boulder about the size of my head and decided to break in through the window on the right-side rear seat door. I swear, that glass must be bullet proof! I literally ended up throwing that boulder at the glass and it would bounce off without a scratch. Best I can figure is that it was the window tinting that was giving the glass so much strength. After eight or nine attempts, I gave up and decided to try the un-tinted front seat passenger side. I hurled the boulder and it went through the glass like a knife through butter, scattering glass as if I had thrown a hand grenade into the truck. The first thing the boulder hit inside was the console and it knocked the lid off its hinges. The boulder, console lid and a lot of glass, ended up in the driver’s seat. I do not want to discuss what those objects did to the leather in the seat. I'll cry later. OK, so my truck is still in the water. Twenty minutes and several lacerations later I had removed the boulder and enough glass out of the driver's seat to allow me to get the truck out of the water. That was a big relief! I then reminded myself that despite the fact that it was now 3:00 PM, my intent since 6:00 AM had been to try to catch a few bass. So, I hopped in the boat and went tooling off across the water. I was so angry with myself that all I wanted to do was haul butt across the water. I did this for about an hour and then cooled off enough to try fishing. I found a point and half-heartedly fished it for about twenty minutes, all the while thinking about all that glass and blood in my truck. Needless to say, I gave up and headed back to the landing. In my absence, a Park Ranger had come by, noticed the shattered window, glass, and blood, and left me a note advising that he had notified the police of the break-in. Luckily he also left his phone number, so I was able to cancel the Red Alert. And then the kicker. I had pulled the boat out of the water and was getting it ready to tow when a Game Warden drove up. He was the first Oklahoma Game Warden I had ever seen, and I haven’t seen one since. He had the audacity to ask "Had any luck today?" What I said to that poor guy is not fit to print. Let's just say I was VERY vocal about the luck I had had. He never did ask to see my fishing license.

I'm so proud of my PB that it is in my Avatar, 7lbs 11oz. On the same day I caught a 5+ and a 6+, and I have pictures of all three I was fishing a Skeeter Owners tournament on Lake Fork, TX, with Fishfordollars (rest in peace Jack.) Unfortunately, Lake Fork is a slot lake and all three of the fish were in the slot, so couldn't be weighed in.

I am an advocate of StarTron. I started using it about six years ago when I bought a used boat that had a 90hp Mercury on it. The motor ran terribly and was very difficult to start. I started adding the StarTron with every tank-up. The motor started running better and better with each outing, until, after about five outings, it purred like a kitten. I have since sold the boat to my brother-in-law and he uses StarTron also. There's never been another problem with that motor. I now have another boat with a 150 Merc on it. You guessed it, I add StarTron with every fill-up. Another advantage is that StarTron is a fuel preservative. My boat has sat for months with fuel in it during the winters, but has never failed to fire up.

Please read the Forum Rules and FAQs. There is a ton of information there.

Creamed chipped beef on toast.

X2 on Bob Luellen.

If money was not an issue, I would speculate that 99% of the anglers on this forum would be eliminated from the discussion, as very few of us could afford things like $500 reels and $1000 rods. Besides, a dream combo in one man's hands is a piece of trash in another's. I've said it time and again, regardless of the price, find a rod and reel that feels good in your hands, and go fishing. Remember, all we want to do is catch bass. A $150 combo, in the right hands, will catch as many bass as the dude with the $1,500 rig.

I'm sick of gas grills also. In any sort of wind, ya just can't control the heat. I've heard good things about the Egg, but know of no one who owns one. I've reverted back to my trusty Weber. Anyone want to buy a five-burner propane grill? It's all yours, but you pay shipping.

Happy Birthday!

There is no BEST reel. Find one that you are comfortable with, that fits within your budget, and buy it. Only then should you look at the name on the reel. I love the Patriarchs, but that is only personal preference. There are other reels out there in that price range that are just as good, but very few are better.

I love my Boat Buckles. They are the greatest thing since the invention of sliced bread.

I like the BC reels just as much. I have four Patriarchs.

I did it. I pulled the trigger. I bought a new Patriarch 30 series off eBay for $149.99, shipping included. I can't wait to get that baby in my hands.

Almost all of my rods are spooled with braid, and almost all of them have a flouro leader. All of the leaders are tied on with a Stren Knot. http://angling-adventures.net/knots/knots.htm

Cabella's has the Supreme XTs on sale for $119.99. I almost jumped on it, but the Bait Monkey is screaming in my ear to buy a Patriarch. I found one on eBay for $160, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet. TackleTour reviewed the Patriarch a year or so ago and said the reel is comparable to reels costing twice as much.

I'm not familiar with the Purist, but Pflueger is renowned for producing excellent reels at very reasonable prices. That's why almost all of my reels are Pfluegers.

Want to be an architect? Plan on taking every math class there is. Algebra, trig, calculus, thermodynamics, electrical, etc. The difficult thing about becoming an architect is that you have to be familiar with the engineering processes related to creating any structure. The unfortunate thing about most architects and many engineers is that they create a design, but have no idea as to how Joe the Technician is supposed to implement it.

Thanks gripnrip, but the only potentially hazardous trees were in my neighbor's yard. I say were, because the one in his front yard fell on my truck during the ice storm we had about five years ago. The one in his back yard fell on my boat during a small tornado we had a couple of years ago. That tornado was probably no more than an F-0.05 but it was enough to demolish a 50 year-old tree and throw it all over my back yard.

That was the officially recorded wind speed of the storm that hit Tulsa last night around midnight. It's the highest ever recorded at our airport. Other areas in town recorded speeds as high as 90. It certainly wasn't a tornado, but as of 8:00 A.M. this morning, over 100,000 households were without power; mine included. Trees are down all over the place. I finally got power back this evening about 6:00. Luckily, I have a generator, so I was able to keep the fridges and freezer going, plus a couple of fans. The fans were sorely needed because it reached 80 in the house this afternoon. The only good thing is that we received about a half inch of rain, another thing that was sorely needed. And guess what, our weather gurus are predicting the same type of weather for tomorrow night. Never a dull moment in Oklahoma.

I once had an '86 Tracker. To get to the fuse panel I had to lay on my back and squirm myself under the console. Mind you, I'm six/three and tip the scales at about 225. By the time I got under the console my feet were sticking up in the air like a loose woman in a bawdy house. To make matters worse, I could work with only one hand. . It didn't take me but a couple of visits under there to convince me to assemble my own fuse panel. So I built a fuse panel I could reach without having to go inverted. About a month later I sold the boat.

I have this mounted to the stern of my boat. It's a Tracker TV-18. I've never had to use it, and hope I never will. http://www.basspro.com/Folding-Ladder-Universal-Mount/product/803/

Try using a Shell Cracker rigged flat on a Rage Rig. It falls is a spiral. The bass just destroy it.

Read the Owner's Manual for your TM. Install the breaker that it recommends. That said, if your TM is running fine with only a 15 Amp breaker, I wouldn't bother to change it.