TOXIC

Let’s not forget a job is what you make it. You can either be miserable or you can find the good. Was a career in the government closing banks around the country my “dream job” hell no….but I found that making sure peoples hard earned money was safe, provided me with some assurance I was providing for the greater good. I had absolutely fantastic benefits, was able to rise to the SES level of government, was able to save and invest a lot of my income with a 10% match from my agency, got to see all corners of these United States and Puerto Rico, met some amazing people, and retired very comfortably after 34 years. Were there downsides? Of course but that is life and if you can’t deal with the downsides, there won’t be many upsides. If I had been like many of the young people I see nowadays and lived in a van blogging about my travel experiences and living “the perfect life”, I don’t think I would be where I am today. And I am in a very nice place by my standards. I worry about all of the younger generations chasing the perfect job.

I had a good friend in my neighbor who originally lived next to me here in Virginia. He unfortunately has passed away. I stayed with him after he moved to Florida and I got detailed there for 2 years until I found my own place. We were really close here. He had 2 dogs and his mother lived with him and his wife. She would get up at 3am to get ready for work and let the dogs out in their fenced backyard. One of them barked non stop every morning and woke us up. I can’t believe it didn’t wake them up but evidently it didn’t. So how do you tell a good friend his dog is a royal PITA??. Here’s what I did……I went out and bought a crow call and every morning his dog woke us up, before I would go to work, I would go over to his house right under his bedroom window and for 15 minutes blow on that crow call as loud as I could. ???. I spent most every weekend drinking beers with him in his garage and after a couple of weeks he said to me that he was gonna have to get his shotgun out and take care of a nasty crow that was waking him up every d**n day. It just so happened I had the call in my pocket so I pulled it out and said….you mean like this……and blew on it. The look on his face was priceless. When I got done I said as long as Rusty (his dog) keeps barking at 3am, this crow is gonna perch right outside your bedroom window. We both broke into uncontrolled laughter. Problem solved.

When I go to Michigan for smallmouth, I never leave without at least 2 bricks (20 bags) of Yamamoto DShads in pink. Weightless on a 4.0 ewg offset shank gamakatsu hook can be fished like a Shad, or like a tube, shallow or deep. It is a favorite of mine. Actually saved a weeklong trip one year.

There is no right answer to this question. Me personally, I feel that the consideration should be on a career that affords you the lifestyle you want to live. Benefits, family, free time, job security, advancement opportunities, company size, and on and on. Realistically, how many do you feel are working in their “dream jobs”? I’d bet not many or at least a majority are not. I’m sure someone’s dream job is to be, for example, an accountant but I’d bet most accountants are in the field for the money. Now that’s not to overlook those that have “a calling” like teachers, military, law enforcement, etc. I think people who have a calling don’t do it for the money. Good luck in whatever path you choose.

In getting that second opinion from the sports doctor, I would inquire if there is any consequence to postponing it. Loss of motion, etc., a lifetime of problems isn’t worth putting it off even if it would be a strain on the finances. Good luck on whatever you decide.

Unless your income is derived from fishing either tournaments or guiding, it should not be a factor. I’m not a doctor but it doesn’t seem right to put off repairing damage to your rotator cuff. Scar tissue etc., should be a consideration. I would also get an opinion from a sports doctor who sees and repairs these type of injuries on a regular basis for people who’s careers depend on it.

This topic comes up a lot and you have been given lots of advice….. and opinion. I’ll give you my take as well. First, it matters whether or not your trailer is dual or single axle. Also matters what’s sitting on that trailer as far as weight. Since dual axle trailers spread out the weight more, there is no need to put the most expensive trailer tire on them. As has been said, a nail doesn’t know how much you spent on your tires. As for the car vs trailer tires, I opt for trailer tires. Why? Because I tow a lot and I want the added sidewall strength in case I curb a tire. Car tires have been used by some manufacturers straight from the factory (BassCat) so it’s not a sin to use them. They are much more common now that boat trailers are using 17 inch rims. I’ll relay what my independent trailer shop owner told me. His shop specializes in high dollar horse trailers that pull much more weight, many more miles than we do with our boats. He said trailer tires get replaced by age not tread. Any longer than 5 years and you are living on borrowed time. The key is to match your trailer tire to the number of miles you will drive in that timeframe. So, if you put an expensive tire on your trailer that has fantastic tread life and you don’t trailer enough to wear that tread out in 5 years, you have wasted your $$. He asked me my average mileage per year and the fact that I have a dual axle he recommended Power King Towmax. He doesn’t stock them or have any dealership status with them but he said he has put them on a bunch of trailers and none came back with problems. I bought them and had them drop shipped to him. I have gone through 2 sets of 5 in the time I have owned my boat without a single problem. As for the spare, defiantly change it. When the tire shop took my spare off the rim (it was never on the ground) it totally disintegrated. Direct from Goodyear although they give a 10 year lifespan, the fact that we dunk our tires in water is the reason for the shorter lifespan: While checking the condition of your trailer, be sure to take some time to inspect the tires. The condition of your trailer tires is important to safety and is often neglected. Take the time to look beyond a visual check of the tires' tread depth. Trailer tires commonly "age out" before they wear out since many drivers don't put enough miles on them to cause significant tread wear. Therefore, be sure to check them for weather cracking, severe discoloration and other signs of aging before you use your trailer this year. Regardless of the condition of your trailer tires, most tire manufacturer associations recommend replacing tires that are over ten years old.

Sounds like you will be fine and are set to go. If I were in your shoes I would have done the 2 full birds differently. 1 would have been a traditional smoked bird like you mentioned and 1 would have been done in the turkey fryer. One of the moistest birds I have ever had came out of the fryer. Side note, with all this talk about how expensive thanksgiving is going to be this year, my wife went into the local store and found a week long sale on whole turkeys. She ended up getting 2. I don’t remember the exact weights but one was around 19lbs and the other was 12-14lbs and she paid $9 for one and $5 for the other. That sure offset any other price increases!

If, I had a favorite color for every situation, I would have 10,000 baits in my boat. What my 40 years on the water has taught me is to find the colors that work in ALL water types, seasons, and clarity. There will always be some oddball colors for specific situations but for the most part I have around 10 colors for everything, cranks, plastics, etc. IMHO we have a tendency to waaaaaay overthink colors but the bait manufacturers certainly like it. That being said, you better have confidence in whatever color you are throwing or I can guarantee it won’t work.?

I may be a little biased both from the standpoint we have been going for 20 years straight and the fact that we now know the lake pretty well which allows us to consistently find fish but my vote will be for Lake St Clair in May. “If” and that’s a big “if” you time it right, it can be the trip of a lifetime. No matter what, you are pretty much guaranteed a fantastic time. Last May we hit it perfect and had 100+ fish days EACH! 3 to 5lb smallmouth with the occasional bigger fish. For comparison, we also go to Florida in February and have been to Kissimmee and Okeechobee. While both were fun and we caught fish, St Clair is my favorite.

Both are nice fish. Your excitement makes it even better. Congrats!

Oh, I forgot to mention the catfish. Lots and lots of catfish. ?? I even managed to get horned and it hurts like the devil still. It’s always a good time no matter what. We’ve been fishing together for over 20 years.

My regular fishing partner is a retired marine and we decided that veteran’s day would be an appropriate day to get out. We normally use his boat since he buys Elite Series angler David Walker’s Ranger every couple of years so he has the latest and greatest in electronics, trolling motor, etc., it’s his boat we take to Lake St Clair and Florida every year. My old battleship, a 2005 Ranger Z21 that I bought from a touring FLW pro back in the day usually pulls backup duty. I’m one of the few out there still running a Fortrex trolling motor and still have my lowrance graphs (Gen 1 hds 8 and Gen 2 hds 9) still on Ram mounts front and back!? I do have down scan and side scan though. Anyway, his boat is out of commission since he had to pull some parts off before pulling it to the dealer to pick up his new boat. We will be doing that in the next couple of weeks. So the last couple of trips, my boat had to pull fishing duty. Forecast was good, pre frontal with a rainstorm moving in that night, temps in the mid 60’s great for November and we have access to 4,000 acres of private water that is the discharge for a nuclear power plant. Banner day with multiple species and multiple techniques. He even got a double on a blade bait. We caught largemouth, white bass, wipers, and we did it different ways. We fished docks, shorelines and points with Ned rigs and when we got into deep water with bait balls we used blade baits. The acreage of the hot side is divided into 3 pools where the water cools as it moves from pool to pool before re-entering the public side of the lakes which is 13,000 acres. You can see on my graph the bait balls and water temperature in the warmest pool. We will fish this side of the lake all winter. It’s really a great resource. Together we had a 75 fish day and even though there were a lot of dinks, it was great to get out and even better to get our string pulled all day long.

It’s always nice to be able to ask questions and kick around topics in a non-judgmental way. No question is too simple or too complicated. When you bring together a group that has a lot of lengthy and varied backgrounds, you get good informed answers. That’s what makes a site one I will go back to.

You are going to be looking at smaller bodies of water. All of the big water will pretty much be off limits. I can’t help that much but you won’t be getting on Okeechobee, Stick Marsh, etc., also you will be limited to the canals by how far you can travel with your boat. Hopefully some will have small water suggestions. Good luck.

I know the guys around me make a trip to Hershey Pennsylvania to buy huge hunks of waste chocolate that they put out in 55 gallon drums. They also put as many thrown out doughnuts and pastries as they can find from the big box stores and bakeries. They do very well.

My absolute favorite color of crankbait is the SPRO color “Cell Mate” they make every bait they offer in that color and I have it. It has worked everywhere I have thrown it, rivers, lakes, ponds from Florida to Wisconsin and everywhere in between. It is a crappie imitator.

So I assume you will be shore fishing? My normal setup is a spinning setup with light line (6lb test) on a quantum smoke 7 ft fast action rod and a 1/16 oz jig head and a 2 inch tube bait. You can add a casting float if there is room to throw it. I like the line through floats. Otherwise you can just cast the jig head and slow retrieve it. Crappie normally like structure dock posts, downed trees, etc., but we catch a lot of open water fish on drops and ledges. Good luck!

Nice vid. A lot of people don’t understand how much work it is to capture and edit video. Even a tough trip is a good trip.

We stay off the hot side until it gets too cold for our regular water. When I was guiding on the public/cold side (I only guided homeowners that lived on the private/hot side) I would have the marina break the skim ice in a path so I could get to the main lake. ??

Thank heavens we have the hot side of lake Anna to take us through the winter. As long as we can get there we can fish it. There’s just something magical about throwing a top water in a snowstorm. ?

It used to be that the big box retailers invested some time into bringing local anglers and guides in to do seminars and demonstrations. I have worked many, many of them. I also would go to the smaller mom n pop stores and do the same thing and hand out a few samples. The big retailers are now just focused on bringing the big names to special events like the spring and fall classic sales, etc. It’s a shame that they no longer see the value of the folks that actually fish the local waters on a regular basis.

Good luck on your decision. My wife and I were having a conversation about staffing and work ethic just the other day. Since I’m now retired, I spend a little more time on the internet and I get to see a lot of what the younger generation(s) do and how they think. You are over the age of most of these “kids” that I am talking about. I find it amazing that the attitudes towards working have gone so opposite of what I did. I see all of the young people choosing to live in modified vans, school buses, tiny houses, etc. Some have IT jobs or other types of work that they can do remotely but some live off their blogging income documenting their travels and lifestyle. While I don’t align politically with comedian Bill Maher on much, I like how he shoots straight most of the time. He said basically that the trend of living like nomads is supposed to be for old retired people who have been longtime contributors to society, not those just getting started.? My big concern with this trend is what are they going to do when they are my age (64) with no retirement, no savings and no way to support themselves because they “lived for life’s experiences” when they were young?

Never have seen a descaler but when I fished lake Powell, at the ramp they had fish cleaning stations that were big stainless steel bowls that were at least 20 feet across and had a ledge that went around the inside top of the bowl and water sprayers that hung from the top. In the center of the bowel was a huge grinder that you washed all of your fish parts into. It ground them up and stored them in a big tank where I was told, they were pumped out and used for fertilizer. Pretty nifty since the DNR wanted you to keep every striper you caught and we had over 200.

Oh, I forgot one……tide……I have never in my life seen fish turn off like they do in tidal bodies of water on the wrong tide.