TOXIC

I have a great dentist. Because of a genetic disease, I now have a great oral surgeon. ? I have had 4 major oral surgeries in the last year. When the surgeon and I discussed the procedures in the beginning I asked him if he was going to anesthetize me for the procedures, his reply was no. He initially thought I was going to need a plastic surgeon to rebuild my sinus cavities but thankfully we caught it early enough. Was it torture? No. Would I ever want to go through it again? Absolutely not. Glad it’s over.

Just a note from a users perspective. If you can swing it, buy the separate trolling motor mount that doesn’t attach the transducer to the trolling motor shaft itself. If attached to the tm shaft, it renders the unit less effective with spot lock engaged or if you are casting in a direction the tm is not pointed to. The stand alone turret with smash buttons for directional control is worth the $$.

This last weekend out on the lake, I was fishing the back of the boat and experienced first hand (again) the worth of FFS. First, my partner caught the biggest of the day in the middle of nowhere while watching the unit. Second was when we started blade bait fishing and he would say “your coming up to a school….one is following your blade….get ready you are about to get bit…..he’s on” and it was either a caught fish or he would say that the fish peeled off at the last second. Happened multiple times all day, if he could see my blade, he could call the bite.

Good on you for putting in the time and effort to get him prepared for his forever home. I was cruising through my Facebook posts and one of my old fishing friends in Florida put up a post with pictures of a surrendered litter of Weimaraner/Doberman cross puppies. Just happen to be 2 of my favorite breeds. It took all my strength to not have him go get one for me while I drove down.

Well, a LOT of lure makers jumped on the lipless bandwagon over the years. If you like a specific manufacturer then it gives you another option in their lineup and you are more apt to try it. Remember, it’s all about sales. There are subtle differences in brands and actions and colors. I have a very large collection of SPRO Aruku Shads that I like because of their nose down attitude which makes them less shaggy, their color options and the over all quality of the bait. That being said, there’s an original Bill Lewis Rattletrap that just shines on the Potomac river and I have quite a few of those in my rotation.

I did it a few years ago just to see what it was like and to write an article for Yamamoto’s Inside Line. This was before you had all of the current responsibilities of tracking, reporting and weighing fish in addition to rules enforcement. I marshaled for Zell Rowland and Dave Wolak. It was not a bad experience but I have not had the desire to do it again. IMHO with the new rules they should be paying the Marshals if they aren’t already. I’ve got plenty of stories both good and not so good from that experience.

Seems the most used hound hunts here around me are pack hunts for rabbits and fox. The fox hunting thing isn’t really a hunt in my estimation. My daughter “competed” in fox hunts where they are graded on performance and per position, first flight, second flight, hill topper, etc. If they do flush a fox it’s a bonus, the hounds and Huntsman are also part of the festivities. She is still a member of some of the local hunt clubs (they usually group by county) but she uses it to market and sell horses more than competition.

A lot of information contained in these posts that a person in the position of “management” should pay attention to. It highlights what motivates different people….perks, pay, fairness, recognition, etc. A good management person knows how to motivate and all of those factors can be on the same team and as a matter of fact usually is. It is surprising to realize that a pay increase for a team may not motivate all of the members but I’ve seen it happen more than once. When I took over a group of employees on one of my assignments, I had a BBQ at my house for everyone. It gave me the opportunity to stand back and assess how the “team” functioned and what it took to motivate them. Not to toot my own horn but I took a dysfunctional group of employees and turned them into a well oiled machine that was pumping out 1,200 contracts a month.

And I sit here frozen in anticipation of an upcoming end of January trip to Fellsmere/Headwaters/Stick Marsh in Florida. Paid the neighbor kid $50 to blow all the leaves off the cliff my house is built on, took all of my reels to my buddy for cleaning and inspection and made reservations for 2 cabins.

It’s a tradition here in Virginia. Per a VDGIF study: The Virginia Deer Management Plan directs VDGIF to preserve the heritage and tradition of hunting deer (including with dogs), for both management and recreational benefits, while ensuring that hunting methods are consistent with and respect the rights of private property owners and other citizens (VDGIF 2015). Deer hunting with dogs is an important tradition and deer population management tool in eastern Virginia, but it can generate concerns from other hunters and landowners regarding “trespassing” dogs, trespassing hunters, and hunting from or near roads (VDGIF 2015). I do know it’s controversial and so is fox hunting even though the fox isn’t killed. I’ve been on hunts in Kansas for pheasant and quail where we set up and had dogs and other hunters drive the birds out. I knew they did the same here for deer.

So is there as much controversy in Canada about driving deer as here in the lower states? Do you use 4 wheelers or dogs?

Here’s an update from our last trip out to the hot side. We got into better bass and even caught a walleye which is really rare for this lake, it’s not as reare in the upper Potomac or some of the other rivers but a hot water cooling lake? Not so much. But….last trip we caught a lot of catfish and a few bass. This trip we got on the bass more than the cats. I caught them mainly on a dropshot whereas my partner was catching them on a blade. He finally switched to dropshot and a Yamamoto Shad Shape Worm. Great day.

The only downside I have ever had was in freezing temps. A little ice buildup in microguides and braid is not good. Made casting almost impossible.

They are used as live bait in the Potomac and it’s not uncommon to see them when the water is clear enough. I would imagine they fall easy prey to osprey and snakeheads as well as blue cats.

Here’s a little bit of advice coming from an “old” person. Find a way to document your family history for your descendants. I was lucky enough to know my great grandparents and have a lot of history from both my parents sides of the family but…..there’s a lot of gaps I can’t fill in and I wish I had asked my mother and grandmother while they were still alive.

Science has proven bed fishing does not damage fish populations. All the other arguments have been beat to death and there never will be total agreement. For those that feel catch and weigh tournaments are so damaging, even though I don’t fish them anymore, why are you not as enraged at meat fishermen who bag a limit every time they fish and take them home to lake crisco? Maybe because science also says the population has to be controlled? I dunno, I do know tough lakes/rivers will always be tough and bodies of water go through phases that make them productive or tough depending on the age, but I feel fishing/tournament pressure isn’t a factor unless it’s pond size.

As I said, I bought my lifetime this year and I ordered a hard card to carry. I know I can always pull it up on my phone if asked and Virginia does not have a display law where you have to show it while fishing but I’m a little old school and paid the $10 for the hard card. That was in September. Still no card so I email them with all the pertinent information, name, order #, DNR customer #, date purchased, etc. Today I get an email asking for my name so they can research it? Way to go fellas.?

At this lake it seems to be catfish that school up and you can catch 20-30 in a row. Weird thing is, there’s never any big bruisers. There’s big stripers, some good sized bass, a lot of white perch but you would think with the longer growing season and constant water temps there’d be some monsters.

Marriage tip # 455……Learn how to fight fair. What has been said cannot be unsaid.

We can get a few big girls every year but it’s not common. A lot of the fish we caught were on a dropshot or blade bait in 40ft of water in pool 1. We have a set pattern we run to try and get an idea where they are holding. Lately they have been in the deeper holes.

I am lucky enough to have access to a 3,000 acre series of lakes connected by canals with feeder creeks that are large and serve as a cooling system for a nuclear power plant. The whole system was put together back in the 70’s where there is a 13,000 acre public lake (cold side) that serves as the intake for the power plant and the 3,000 acre private side (hot side) that serves as the cooling side for the reactor water. The 2 sides are separated by 3 dikes and has one return point blocked by a low bridge. The hot side offers up good fishing in our cold weather months even though it seems the average size of the fish stays relatively small. I have fished this lake for years and some of the older fishermen I know talked about how is used to have very good sized largemouth in the 5-8lb range. They are now very scarce and believe me, we have fished it every way imaginable. It’s just nice to be able to get out on cold winter days and catch 50-60 fish apiece on a good selection of baits. Saturday was one of those days where we caught them on Ned’s, dropshot, cranks, blades and Senkos. Water was in the mid 60’s depending how far up in the creek arms we went.

If drugs and alcohol are involved, you’re not talking to a rational person in either case. Get clean and then see if you have a basis for staying together. I had a practice marriage that lasted 5 years when I was very young. I learned a lot that has helped me in my current 35 year partnership/marriage.

Good PSA. I’ve lit my fair share after letting them get too deep before mulching and blowing them off the side of the cliff my house is on. I usually blow the front yard onto a tarp and drag it to the cliff but the side yard, I just mow in the same direction until it’s mulched or blower over the side.

While I don’t begrudge anyone from taking their canine friends on the boat, it just never clicked with me. I have 8-10 rigged rods on the front deck all with the possibility of skewering a paw. I also fish sunup to sundown and now have to deal with bathroom breaks, blazing sun, rough water and a myriad of other not dog friendly situations. I did take my first Weimaraner every time I wade fished and he loved it. He could scale the steepest cliffs and swim the strongest currents but I would never have dreampt to take him on the boat.

I’ve told this story before, I worked a show with Gary Klein and I made the comment I wish he would come fish the highly pressured lake I guided on. He commented those were the lakes he likes to fish. He said that skill was finding the fish. Once he found them there were at least 5 baits he could catch them on.