CountryboyinDC

Canned chili tastes good cooked outside when you're camping. My dad was a campfire Dutch oven chef beyond compare. When I am camping these days, there are likely young 'uns about. I make a one pot spaghetti that is a crowd pleaser. It uses venison or very lean ground beef. If you want the recipe I'll be glad to post or PM you.

I've been out a few places around here and I've seen one member of Brood X after another fall into the water, do the terminal backstroke, and generate no interest from fish of any species. It's a huge letdown. I had high hopes. Especially since you can't walk down a sidewalk without hearing a crunch, crunch underfoot.

I definitely have gotten into wearing a buff when I fish, it's easier than reapplying sunscreen 3 times. Gloves the jury is still out. Certainly they keep sun off, but I take them off pretty often to do things, and I don't know that they don't cut down on my bite detection (I let the line run over my forefinger). As for being cooler, it depends on what they're being compared to. Compared to something cotton? Of course they're cooler. Compared to uncovered skin, I'm not sure, I think that direct sunlight would be a factor in how you perceive that. I can't remember being cool or comfortable in Iraq in summer as long as I was outside of A/C no matter what I was wearing (I was mostly around Baghad and Yusufiyah), but we always wore at least plate carriers.

That is fast. On the GPS on my graph, if I hit 6 mph it's all I can do to keep it there for 30 seconds. I've got a Predator PDL, which certainly isn't the fastest pedal drive, but it isn't the slowest either. Even at 5 mph, mine starts feeling like it's 'pushing back'.

That is pretty hard wind to buck a 16' Revo. You probably have the wind-slickest fishing kayak ever made. Just glad I wasn't out there with my Coosa, no telling where I'd end up.

That is some light braid for a jig, or anything on a baitcaster imho. I've used 20 lb braid, and it still gets dug in more than 30 lb on a baitcast reel. I use 10 or 15 lb braid on spinning reels.

I do a lot of the same things - not a very successful with a chatterbait, but I work frogs and swim jigs where there are gaps. The spatterdock really holds a kayak in place if you find the right hole. Some of the crew I tend to go with like Mattawoman better than the Virginia side, but from where I live it's so much easier to get to Mason Neck or Leesylvania that I tend to fish the creeks there when I go by myself. One day I'll get more time to figure it out, right now I'll have to be happy with the few fish I catch from there.

I always seem to manage a couple of snakeheads in the spatterdock at Mattawoman, but no bass. I see it's not the fishery, it's the fisherman.

I appreciate, but I'd guess it was closer to a foot. Big crappy though, I don't come across many of them where I fish, and I totally wasn't expecting it. Small bass, though, that day?

I've tried the zappers and traps, seems to make no difference in my yard. I thought about not bathing for about a month to see if the crust that builds up will keep them away, but the wife says those days are behind me.

Remedies already given seem to cover anything I could offer as advice. As for prevention, if you're going somewhere you know you're going to be around mosquitos, chiggers, and even ticks to a point, there is something that works better than anything I've seen. It's a permethrin clothes wash. I've never seen them sold in stores (probably not FDA-approved and has some side effects they'll never let you know about), but if you have any buddies in the military ask them for some of it. I've crawled around Ft. Benning and other places in the hot summer. Except for a couple of ticks on uncovered skin, it's worked for me. Gnats, though, I have no idea what to do about. Just eat them and consider it protein?

I still haven't figured out fishing even one creek of the tidal Potomac, and fishing from a kayak, it's rare to fish more than one creek an outing. I do want learn more, but I still prefer to fish the upper Potomac and Shenandoah when I have the option. I am thankful that we have this fishery up here. Makes living in this traffic jam a lot more palatable.

Me too. Can't imagine how pimped out that boat will be considering what you did to your canoe.

I don't know if this was all for a video, but I sort of wanted to say "he's got oars on that drift boat, let's see him go back upriver and put it back on the trailer". I'll admit, I'm a little impressed - these days I don't use as many improvised launch sites, and I've never done as much rigging to launch. I like the way he secures his bowline knot too - I've use an overhand, and his way has the running end and standing end parallel which makes it neater. Makes me wonder why I was taught to tie it the other way.

No, I would guess that I might know a little something about what increases your likelihood of being shot when you're part of an assault force. Broad daylight would make it marginally easier to shoot someone on one of those contraptions, but it would be reasonably easy either way.

Okay. So you've eliminated the threat, I think something like a ladder might work. Even those fail, just ask the Rangers that had to scale the cliff at Point du Hoc with knives and bayonets. I'm not trying to say this isn't neat, just doesn't have a practical application. It's like those waterjet boards or something. Surely you jest. This will be quiet like when they turn on the helicopter's "whisper mode".

Looks like a good opportunity to get shot to me. If any belligerents on that boat have any type of situational awareness, the jet packers are done. Boarding an underway ship is probably a tough proposition I'm sure, but I'm pretty sure this technique about as useful as the gun that shoots around corners. Neat, but not practical.

I have one that I put on my pedal drive, and I'm definitely an amateur in its use. Mine is a Lowrance HDS with sidescan capability. Without it, I doubt I could do much structure fishing at all. I would say the ability to leave waypoints is the most valuable. It was a significant outlay, at least relative to a kayak (mine cost more than my first kayak). But I take it pretty much every time I take out the pedal drive. If nothing else, you can pedal around and put waypoints everywhere.

Today I caught a crappie bigger than any bass I caught on a chatterbait. I didn't measure it, but that's a Zako trailer for reference. She almost ended up in some hot oil tonight, but I couldn't convince any others to bite.

It might. I use these. https://www.seasucker.com/collections/board/products/monkey-bars-2020-edition I have a set, got the idea from someone that I saw that had a Tesla. I don't have a great picture, but they are on my truck in this picture. I also use them on our Honda Accord.

Lance Corporal Roy M. Wheat, 7th Regiment, 1st Marine Division, August 11, 1967, Quang Nam Province, ROV, 2nd cousin (and my namesake) https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/roy-m-wheat

My brother has a 10' Tarpon. I will say it beats staying home. I've only had it on the James once, and I opted for his (also not my favorite) Ram-X canoe the next time the situation arose. OP, of those boats, the Native Slayer is the only one with which I'm familiar. It's fine, nothing special, along the lines of a Jackson Cruise. Good all around kayak. No hatch cover for the bow, if that matters to you (I keep a bunch of stuff in the bow hatches).

What do you call a tiny fortune teller that's on the lam? A small medium at-large. Why couldn't the marsupial get a mortgage refinanced? It wasn't Koala-fide.

If you want less weight with good stability, sit-in kayaks (SINKs) are a good way to go. You sit closer to the waterline, and so the boat doesn't have to be as wide to be as stable as a sit-on-top (SOT) kayak. The Loon series has a good reputation, but I'd probably look at the Pungo. People rave about the seat, and it is a good one. Personally, I'd stick with 12' kayaks if you want 'fast'. There are also some SINKs that are very angler-biased. The old Jackson Kilroys (not the new HD, I know nothing about that one) and the Bonafide SINK both allow you to take along a crate, etc. but are really stable without being so heavy. I'm going to try out my cousin's Bonafide this summer - I know he has been very happy since he bought it. I have no experience with Brooklyn kayaks, but what I've heard about them isn't good.

I know that most of what I buy are, except Keitechs. Zoom (except for one toad/frog that ain't worth buying), Yum, Missile, Big Bites, Berkley, Netbait, the Strike Kings I use (Rage craws), Yamamoto, Z-man, and Case all have Made In the USA labels from what I've seen. It seems to me the sentiment is the potential for losing favorite baits. I'll admit I searched to see if there was anything official, but I hope we're all worrying for no reason.