TnRiver46

I’m going with @MGF’s tube jig suggestion. Those things are awesome! I’ve caught more smallmouth on tubes than anything (except maybe plastic worm or live fish). I use them in rip rap. Anything will get stuck in rip rap but you should learn to fish all lures around it anyway. Because fish LOVE rip rap. You can fish tubes weightless if they get stuck too much. I like weightless worms and tubes around rip rap, but my favorite lure for it is a rattle trap followed closely by a curly tail or paddle tail on a jig head . When waves slam rip rap it dislodges stuff that draws in shad and bream, and subsequently bass. also, which part of the country are you fishing? That always helps a little......... pop R works awesome next to rip rap on a summer morning

I’ve got a snow dog myself. Rachel puts a jacket on her like she’s cold. She tries (successfully) to shake it off all day

Good girl kya! I bet she can hear a mouse fart at the bottom of that snowpile with those ears

Well that depends on your definition of baby. I can get any size Hahahah. We will call the live bait adolescent possum the “220” model . The baby ones stay in the pouch for a while, bout like the size of a pinky finger. Then they cling to moms back for a while, by that stage they would be the size of a Zara super spook

same here where im at in Ohio Had many a meal on the camp stove when the power is out. And I’ve got a grill. My power goes out a lot in TN (trees falling)

You’re the silly one if you keep believing them year after year!

Sorry about that topic widening! I studied wildlife science in college and always tend to go “big picture” on habitat discussions Hands off period for bat exclusion here is June and July, but if they are flying around inside your house they will make an exception. Also they hibernate in winter, rarely in a building

I can help with bats! Those are our best paying jobs

Most of the customers are also no strangers to the fields and woods, it’s just very tricky. Sometimes I can’t figure how the raccoon got on the roof, and a field is far more vast than a yard. carrying capacity can indeed be diminished by development and typically is. I’ve also seen development increase carrying capacity, especially houses. There are 100x more skunks in neighborhoods here than in the smoky mountain national park. Why? Food. Humans come with food. Bird feeders, cat food, dog food, garbage, and constantly irrigated lawns full of worms. the species of wildlife that large scale agriculture such as corn and beans in the Midwest effect are mostly amphibians, songbirds, and some game birds . Almost all mammalian species are doing quite well with it.

I’m saying the critters are still there whether you see tracks or not. That’s not a personal attack, I’m always shocked myself at just how many animals live where I wouldn’t think they do. It’s amazing. Snow covers up tracks, are you hiking at night? Also critters can hunker down in the snow. I guarantee a trapper or just a night camera would see/catch tons of wildlife where you think it’s barren. I’ve caught many many many many animals where I saw no tracks. I would estimate one of your cornfields that you say doesn’t support a mouse supports at least two dozen mice. Just ask the guy that owns the land and stores the grain our customers always say they’ve never seen coon tracks or coons in their yard and the raccoons quite literally live in their attic . Usually 5-6 of them im not going to walk into a bank and tell an accountant there’s no money in the bank just because I’m not looking right at it uniform habitat like cornfield is not great for diversity but there’s still a group of species that make a fine living in the flat corn and beans of the Midwest.

I say we get you supplied with some waders and 330 conibears and a lot of steel cable. If you got a problem, that’s how to solve it. Granted you’ll never get rid of them like they used to unless grocery stores and places to work all shut down and fur becomes currency again

I know this well, it’s how I put food on the table. The critters are nocturnal and you won’t find their tracks on a casual walk. They sneak the edges and swim the drainage tiles . Trapping ain’t for the faint of heart. Last I heard there’s coyotes all over Chicago and monster bucks in Illinois corn critters have to survive and showing themselves to humans is not going to help with that

Funny you would say that, they had a huge sale on them yearly out toward Memphis, can’t remember where. You could bring a whole pickup truck full and get like $2-3 a piece. They have to be alive though

Otter fur was quite literally currency which is why they were extirpated. People killing them to protect their ponds won’t make a dent

ive been in northwest Ohio all week and drove to Elkhart Indiana Monday. I’m no stranger to the corn. My fiancé grew up here. The critters are in the drainage ditches on the side of the road, even monster bucks. Lots o muskrat . We had an intern from Indiana work with us once, He’s a helluva trapper. A customer had a possum in her crawl space and said “why do I have possum, there’s no tree near my house.” Danny replies “ma’am I’m from Indiana where you can’t see a tree for miles and there’s possum everywhere” Danny still traps in Indiana all season and lots of people call for his services. The “barren” Midwest corn is full of fur and trappers

Urban development doesn’t make them go elsewhere. We trap them in backyard koi ponds urban wildlife is how I’ve made a living for 13 years now and my boss has been doing it since 1989. People think building houses makes animals run across a map, they actually just adapt and live in your yard . The only mammals capable of running across a map are coyotes and mountain lions. Coyotes are the most successful range expansion of the last 50 years and mountain lions aren’t far behind. We have big cats in Tennessee now, they came all the way down the Missouri River valley. There’s a coyote in every single county in the US and they weren’t on this side of the Mississippi River before 1980. “habitat“ doesn’t have to be miles of wilderness, animals just need food and A place to raise babies @MGF, otters lived in Indiana before white people moved in and dug ponds. Even if someone hadn’t reintroduced, they would have done it on their own . otters were gone from Tennessee around 1990 (so were raccoons and deer and turkey). This had absolutely nothing to do with “habitat loss” contrary to popular belief and here’s why. They reintroduced deer, Turkey, and otters in the 90s and populations have absolutely exploded. That means the habitat was already here. The reason the animals were gone is because people killed them all

Same teams every year, somebody wake me up when it’s over . And For the love of god someone please beat Alabama

1. Too many to choose from, Dayton boat dock probably be the best down that way 2. too many to choose from , bunch marine has a great reputation, Madisonville marine also good 3. most all boat ramps on chickamauga are free, there’s well over 20 of them I can think of. Just be careful during winter, some of them end abruptly. I’ve also heard of a minimum of 7 boats stuck on dry land down there this winter already (it’s very shallow everywhere ) 4. Chickamauga is busy on every single particular day, literally all 365. Watts bar and nickajack are the next obvious choices. There’s some more obscure lakes in GA and NC close by

How much do you pay for A baby possum? (I could be your new supplier, I’d probably take $1/apiece for em)

Seems like it would depend on which size jig and where you are throwing it

Ecology is ever changing but if otters were indeed capable of killing all the fish, the fish would be long gone by now. There are lots of concerns among fish populations and otters are at the bottom of that list. I guide trout trips on a 3/4 mile section of private trout stream. There have been otters there forever and they can’t kill all the trout. And that’s an artificial trout setting, not a chance they could wipe out a wild population. Louisiana is loaded with otters and fish this is an age old debate, not just otters. Hawks eat all the quail, snakes eat all the rats, bats eat all the mosquitos, coyotes eat all the rabbits, etc etc etc. it’s never actually true, predators would starve if they ate up all their food source. Mother Nature balances herself

lead bullet sinkers should be cheaper than all of it

Those are NOT cheap. I just rebuilt a transom and had to buy several, probably 10x more expensive than lead bullet weights of the same size

Wow!!!!

They catch plenty of bass but they have coexisted for a long long long time. The only time they might be able to “clean out” any body of water is a tiny pond. We will come trap them for ya in exchange for a guaranteed 10 lb bass on the line.........