TOXIC

I used to wade fish the headwaters of the Rappahonock river and there was a stretch of rapids that took some skill to get through. I outfitted an entire campsite with items I foraged from dumped canoes and kayaks. Started out as just picking up trash and became a trip to the gear store every time I went out there. 😆

I haven’t had a cigar in 5 years. I promised the wife I would give them up when I retired. Everyone has a pallet that is different for taste. I enjoyed different sizes for different situations. A lot depended on how much time I had to devote. Ring size didn’t matter as much. For a sit down quick smoke I really enjoyed a Punch Robusto. If I had more time I like a lot of different sticks in the Corona size. For fishing, I smoked a Hoyo De Monterrey in a cigarillo size. Easy to handle, not a long smoke and good taste. I used them to keep the bugs at bay for the most part but for me an enjoyable smoke was being able to relax and slow smoke for enjoyment.

The Boaters Safety requirement got phased in here in Virginia. Boat US offered a free class that met the certification requirements and provided a plasticized carry card for verification.

A very high percentage of boating accidents are oncoming vessels. After multiple corrections they end up hitting head on. If they read the USCG navigation rules, they would know the proper way to meet another vessel. What I would always do is choose a direction and make an exaggerated turn showing the full side of my boat and which way I was going. It always worked. Sometimes it was the proper way per the regs but many times it was not due to boat positioning and where I was situated.

Words of wisdom^^^^…..and experience. When I was guiding and on the water all the time my attitude was always to expect the unexpected and to treat every other boat operator as if they knew nothing about the USCG Rules of the Road. More often than not I was right. I had some tricks to help and thankfully never had an incident but I did have some close calls.

@A-Jay actually, I’m somewhat glad the truck is white because I could see every last speck of tar and likewise know that I got it off. I can’t imagine if it was black the feeling of not knowing whether I got it all. OCD on full display. 😆

They don’t call em “Panfish” for nuthin. I’ve had most every type of freshwater fish except gar and bowfin. As far as panfish, my ranking goes crappie, perch, bluegill, white bass, and my preferred way to prepare is filleted and cooked on the grill in a fish basket. Breaded is good but grilling really lets you taste the difference. Bluegill is definitely different tasting than crappie. It’s a bit stronger. If you want to include all freshwater including Bass, I like walleye , northern snakehead, catfish, spoonbill, even carp. Grew up on carp sandwiches from Joe Tess’ in Omaha, Nebraska.

@BigAngus752 exactly! A simple sign at the side street would have let me know there was a pilot vehicle and I could have fallen in line with them. @gim It didn’t just bother me, it triggered my OCD to the point there was no resting until I got it all off. There’s still some on the felt wheel well liners and a good amount on the bottom of my chrome exhaust tip but that will never be seen so I can live with it. Every time I thought I was done with an area the longer I looked, the more tiny, tiny black spots I would see and would turn the rag brown again. I never want to go through that process again. 😝

And just to add, my stomach turns over every time I smell Slo Gin. 😂

Yep. Because I entered from a side road and midway through the construction, I had no idea they had a pilot vehicle escorting traffic in a single lane. Which it just so happened it wasn’t the lane I was using. It’s not uncommon to drive on a freshly milled road here in Virginia before they get ready to finish it. This one was milled and they put down the liquid tar. Then they come back and use the tar mix which is thick and you see the big machines laying down asphalt. The construction company should have had signage that there was a pilot vehicle at the side streets. In the dark, it looked like just another construction zone.

I can’t even think of mentioning Jack as a high school drunk fest. 😆 Go look at the price of the better Jack varieties and get back to me. 😉 It is our drink of choice fishing in Michigan. We have Gentleman Jack, Single Barrel, Sinatra and once we even had a bottle of Sinatra Century. I tried to get some of the McLaren F1 Jack this year but ran out of time. Some we sip and some is mixer. It’s not the stuff of cheap drunks. I’m not being argumentative just letting you know there’s a whole other level of Jack out there. No different than your bottom line sake compared to top shelf.

In my group of friends, everyone knows how particular I am about my truck and how it looks. I’m a little obsessive to say the least. So sit back and I’ll tell you about my trip to my dark place. 😆 When I left the farm to go pick up my daughter from National airport, waze ran me through the back country, which is fine, but it put me out on a road in Upperville, Virginia that was under construction. I was on an intersecting side road halfway through the construction. I pulled out into my lane, it was dark but I could tell it had been milled. As I drove down the road I was met by a guide truck with a line of vehicles behind it coming the opposite direction. Then I came up behind a stopped tar sprayer truck and I knew I was screwed. I had just ran up freshly sprayed liquid tar so to say my truck was messed up is an understatement. It was everywhere and it was thick. I bought 2 over the counter products to see if I could even begin to get it off. I was going to buy 2 of the meguires (due to recommendations) but they only had 1 can so I picked up another made by turtle wax. I was impressed with their wax so I thought I would give it a shot. Result...both failed to even make a dent in the tar. I guess I was expecting it to magically dissolve the tar but even applying it multiple times, neither one so much as made the tar run. Tried gasoline and it was better but not by much. I ended up using good ol turpentine. Upon closer inspection, I found the tar on the hood, roof, tailgate, running boards, pretty much thick in the obvious areas but misted over the entire truck. Since it had been a few years since I stripped all the wax and sealer off the paint, and the fact that there was tar everywhere, I went ahead and scrubbed the whole truck with turpentine. Next I wiped the entire truck down with the turtle wax tar remover to make sure all the turpentine was off plus any wax. Next I went old school and claybared the entire truck. I finished it up with a meguires cleaner wax. Oh, and as well I decided to get out the Nevr-Dull and polish all the chrome and rims. Started at 9am and finished at 6pm.

Long story but I ran through a freshly tarred road with my iridescent white truck in the dead of night and spent the day with turpentine cleaning it up. End of story…..a 32oz Jack & Coke. 😆

Yamamoto’s got so many additions to their line, I’m gonna be busy all year trying them out. Fuzzy nuts and the whole fuzzy line to name just a few.

Also look at the Susquehanna and New rivers. Roland Martin did a musky tv show on the New river, try to look it up. Also, there’s an abundance of Northern Snakeheads in the Potomac and they are pretty close to musky in size and fight.

Having been a guide for 15+ years, all that has been said is true. I’ve written many a long article on the guide business and its ups and downs. Aside from the negatives posted above (and all are valid) there’s something magical about putting a novice on fish or putting the more experienced angler on their biggest bass ever. That almost makes up for the bad fish days, bad client days, bad weather days and on and on…

I grew up in Nebraska. There’s no wrong way to fix sweet corn. A lot of people don’t know that for about 2-3 weeks, field corn is delicious as well. To early and it’s milky, to late and it’s tough but catch it just right and the kernels are bigger and almost as good as sweet corn. 😉

Horses and farms have been in my family for decades, I guess that’s where she gets the desire. My wife had a horse growing up in Kansas City, I trained thoroughbreds for a few years, my mother grew up on a farm in Iowa and had Tennessee Walker horses, my grandparents, great grandparents and all of their families had farms. It’s in our DNA.

A “must have” bait when we go to Florida.

You can rest assured I am going to order some and will report back on how they perform. Unfortunately they are not really in my style even though I finesse a lot. I never use an exposed small hook. Even my dropshot rigs are ewg and Texas rigged.

Reminds me of when my partner in the guide service picked up his brand new boat from the dealer and as he pulled into the ramp, his rear starboard hub was on fire. Flames shooting all out from behind the tire. He just backed it into the lake and we listened to it sizzling. 😆

She’s got round bales for the fields but she uses square bales for the barn. I was unlucky enough to be here when the flatbed came loaded with square bales. Had to throw them off the truck to the loft and then stack them in the loft. I forgot, she also competes western style with team penning and shooting from horseback.

So my daughter owns a horse boarding facility on a couple hundred acres. She is 28 and has really worked hard to get where she is. The equestrian life is not easy. She’s been riding since she was 4 and competing since she was in high school. She competes in eventing, dressage, cross country and jumping. She ran the equestrian program at her high school. She worked at a barn when she was in college that bred and was devoted to saving the Turkmen Akhal-Teke breed. In her current situation, she boards and cares for 26 horses, most of which are retired thoroughbreds. A few are still ridden. She currently has 6 of her own that she buys, trains and sells. Long story short, she needs a break every so often and I guess that’s what parents are for. She has barn employees but she does a lot on her own. She had the opportunity to go to Spain with some friends for a couple of weeks so my wife and I stepped up to help. To say I am exhausted is an understatement. I decided to tackle some of the things she never has time for. I limbed up some trees that had branches laying on one of the barn roofs, trimmed back all of the landscaping (trees, bushes, plantings) away from the house, cleared a stone patio and walkway that had become overgrown and sprayed it with ground clear hopefully to keep it cleared, hours on the line trimmer and finally taking care of all the animals, horses that have to be turned out and fed with a few of the older ones brought in during the day to escape the heat, 3 dogs that have to be fed and exercised, outdoor water troughs that have to be filled in 6 pastures and finally her barn cats and indoor cats need to be fed and cleaned up after. This in addition to fixing a long laundry list of “to-do’s” both in the house and in the barns. The wife and I are trading off staying out on the farm and coming home to take care of our cats. At least we get to do some old style charcoal grilling of beef that was raised right there. It’s been 4 days and I can say with authority, farm life ain’t easy. I come from a long line of farmers and it feels like I have touched some of my ancestral roots but man am I torched.

I went ahead and ordered one off their 4th sale. My massive tarp didn’t take the elements well. It’s currently covering the boat in the barn to keep the pigeon poop off it.

In some respects a bass is in fact a bass but put them in different environments and they will act in concert with their environment. There are also differences between Northern Strain, Southern Strain, spots and now hybrids that are being introduced.