TOXIC

I’ll go one better and say that my year up to this point has been pretty good. It’s gotten a little tougher here locally due to the heat and drought but our trip to St Clair would rank in the top 5 of the 21 years we’ve been going. Weather was outstanding allowing us to pretty much go anywhere on the lake we wanted and the 1 blow day allowed me to bring home some good walleye fillets. Early season trip to Florida (February) was productive. I will say I have fished somewhat less than normal this year so far due to some trips and schedules as well as working on bringing my boat back into seaworthy service.

Interesting timing. We were out on the river yesterday and were having a tough time. Few dinks off fishing our established pattern for the tides. I went deep with a dropshot and could only get catfish. We decided to run to a bank that had been successful in the past and as we started fishing it we started talking about it. No electronics give any clues, no bank structure gives any clues, it’s a mud flat bank with a couple of chutes that funnel water out of a marshy area at low tide (we fish a lot of these type of spots so its not unique) and it’s on an outside bend of the river. We started hooking up almost immediately and just couldn’t pinpoint why they were there on a somewhat consistent basis. 🤷

As I have said, my brother in law is part owner of a brewery in St Augustine, Florida, Old Coast Ales. I have been immersed in the brewing process more than I ever thought I would be. We visit breweries most everywhere we go and he has described the process in detail. I am taking a selection of brews from a local brewery (Silver Branch) with me to Wisconsin. There’s sooooo many craft brewers out there doing IPA’s and every other variation that Spotted Cow being a “Farm Ale” has a different profile. Me personally, I had a couple top shelf Old Fashioneds last night and enjoyed it immensely.

I used to say $150 for each (rod/reel) but as time has gone on, prices have gone up. It is also subject to your individual skill level. What may be acceptable to me may not be for you.

I’m heading to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks and the orders are rolling in.😂 and for cheese from Union Star cheese factory in Fremont Wisconsin. We always drop down there for curds, string cheese and bricks to bring home.

It’s funny how you mesh with a certain breed and it’s intuitive when you get a new one. We have had 2 Weimaraner's and both were trained using the methods espoused by The Monks of New Skeet in their books. While it can be difficult to adhere to them, the more you can, the better results you will get. They breed/train GSD’s for income and publish their methods in a line of books. Our first Weim was strict to the methods and our second was generally trained with them. Both were outstanding dogs.

Lost out Weimaraner a little over 2 years ago and we still say “I’ll let the dog out” every time we pull into the driveway. Thanks to our daughter we have 3 cats and I told the wife no more dogs until we finish with the cats.

I’ve learned the line method to remove hooks very well. Even solo. While I do everything possible to avoid getting stuck, if you fish long enough and hard enough, it’s going to happen. As a guide it happened a lot. I am impervious to “hook pain” now. I’ve just gotten used to it.

My saying has always been….. if you are going to show me where you are, I’m gonna fire a cast at you.

Being a Senko fisherman, you learn to line watch. I watch 2 areas of my line. First where the bait entered the water and where the line come out of the water closest to the tip of my rod. I either lift the rod with the bail open to have enough line out where it falls without resistance or I leave the bail open. Depends on depth I am getting down to.

Yamamoto has introduced the 4” Fat Senko. Funny they show it on a Ned head. I’ve been throwing the 4” regular Senko on that head for a long, long, time. Actually, that could be a shakeyhead.

There’s a reason 99% of the guides on Headwaters use live bait. Take a look at a lot of their clients, they are not seasoned fisherpeople and yet they are landing trophy fish. The skill is throwing the live bait where the fish are, not necessarily in the anglers skill. I say that not as a jab to live bait fishermen but just to point out a fact. I used live minnows in my guide service for crappie because most of my clients didn’t know which end of the rod to hold. When I personally fish for crappie, it’s all artificial. There is a definite difference.

I do know that belly landing Smallmouth stops them from thrashing. And they will thrash crazy when lip landed. Landing a peanut smallmouth on a jerkbait is a dangerous proposition. 😜

I don’t care what bait you throw, at some point a bass is going to throw it. I’d give it a try for a while and if it continues, change them out. Or…..if it will increase your confidence, it’s a cheap way to keep it to just change them out.

All I know is that the cover of the national anthem yesterday will go down as one of the worst. 😂🇺🇸

Clouser Minnow.

I’m gonna let @Glenn post the new Yamamoto baits that are being released at ICAST but leading up to it, they have released a couple bigger sizes of the Scope Shad and some new colors. When fishing pressure is at it's toughest and the fish have seen everything twice, we wanted to bring you something they have never seen before... Bringing you the Stealth Color series—engineered to catch even the most pressured fish! Our advanced formula delivers a stealthy transparent look but enough color to draw interest. Offered in 5 different Stealth colors: Ice Out, Blue Glimmer, Chartreuse Purple, and Pinkasagi.

Kind of along the same line, I like to watch the cooking shows and competitions on the Food Channel as a break from all the negative crap and a long time ago I gave up salt for the most part. A little on popcorn or melons is fine. All these “Chefs” dump handfuls of salt in most all of their cooks. I am one of those who likes to toast the food, not the seasonings. There’s enough salt in our diets without adding more, especially handfuls. I’m not big on herbs either. A little garlic, onion, etc. but I shy away from huge clumps of basil, rosemary, parsley, etc. I make my wife mad when she cooks and I complain I can taste the weeds. 😂

@slonezp yep, in 2016 I traded my 2004, 3/4 ton 6.0, 6 speed cat eye with 175k for my High Country 5.3, 8 speed, and was told it would perform as well as my 2500 and get better gas mileage doing it. I agree that it has and that the 3/4 ton is pretty much overkill for just towing my 21 foot Ranger. Both Toyota and GM have had plenty of time to flush out the problems and they have not.

Not disagreeing but trade it in on what?😂 New 5.3, 6.0 both have AFM and suspect torque converters, Toyota is recalling most all of their current models due to engine failure, Ram and Ford are having their problems as well. I’m just about convinced that with all of the maintenance and parts I have replaced on my current truck, I’m better off driving it until the lifters let loose (if they let loose) and getting it fixed. For sure I’m going to keep an eye on the market because so many are saying inventory is going up and prices will be coming down. To replace my truck with the same motor and trim package is now $80,000 or close to it. That’s crazy.

Thankfully not my boat or rod. I read the story about a guy who got hit and the strike ran through his arm and down his leg and finally out his toes blowing the ends of his shoes off. If I remember correctly, he lost some toes but survived.

This is what was left of a graphite rod/reel after a lightening strike. Rain-yes, Lightening-no, no, no.

I was sponsored by SPRO for a number of years. I knew their product lines inside and out. I let it go when I cut back on the in store events and grand openings I participated in. Since then they have exploded their product line. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing but I do know their hard baits were top quality when I used them. They did a line of rods some 15-20 years ago and they were…….prone to breaking……and they got discontinued. I sure hope they are not over growing the product line with cheap rebranded items. It would be a shame.

I can’t believe this one hasn’t been mentioned yet. Not necessarily “better” but one of the most moving covers ever made was Ann & Nancy Wilson of Heart performing Stairway to Heaven in front of and in honor of Led Zepplin receiving their Kennedy Center honors.

So sorry. I have progressed through the increasing layers of sun protection. Older and wiser.