CountryboyinDC

You young little whipper snapper! I was only 2. The Chokies (my alma mater, so I can say that) put a butt-stomping on Duke (couldn't have happened to a more-deserving team) to win the ACC. I see they got paired up against Texas in the first round yesterday. I'm hoping they can keep this streak going.

The best 'running board' I ever saw was on a truck in Grundy, VA. The truck had 40+" tires. In Grundy, they put 35 inch tires on Ford Escorts. The guy took a piece of logging chain, welded about 6 links together for a "step", and then just welded a length of 2' or so of freely-swinging chain on either side to the frame of his truck. I guess it could still get hung, but to rip it off would take some doing.

I've nothing against wool socks, but if you see me wearing Birkenstocks with them, you'll know the Russians have captured me and are making me wear Birkenstocks with wool stocks as their means of torture through humiliation.

Don't you have to wear Birkenstocks with wool socks to drive a Subaru? 10,000 rural letter carriers can't be wrong, I guess though.

I hope you work hard all week to deserve all this galavanting all weekend!

I like them, wish they were on my pedal kayak. They do a great job of deadening sound. If slime worries you, wash it when you get through.

I have a bunch of PFDs, not all for fishing. I have an older Chinook (I know they changed a couple of years ago), and it's fine. It's made of Ripstop rather than Cordura, like rescue vests, so it got a hole in the pocket rather quickly, and I'd say the remainder may be due for a refresh this year or next. I feel the Stohlquist PiSeas is a really good deal for the money. Someone loaned me one a few years ago and I think that's the route I'd go if I needed one today. @Choporoz 's point about the color is well taken - I don't get the angler vests wet so often as I do the whitewater ones, so high visibility is a good thing. The whitewater ones I get in brown or black because that's the color they'll end up anyway. But I personally don't want an inflatable. I'm liable to jump in to cool off or decide to wade below some tempting ledges while I'm fishing, and I want the PFD on the entire time.

$280 for a barrel, dies, and 400 bullets probably is a good deal these days. I didn't do a ton of predator hunting, but used to love to shoot hogs at long distances. I have used everything from a .22 LR to a 8 mm Rem Mag messing around, but mostly used 6 mm stuff. I thought about .17, but everyone said I'd spend most of my time cleaning the bore. Add to the fact that powder was relatively cheap, and recoil isn't bad if your rifle weighs 14 pounds, even with a pretty hot 6 mm, so I never got into the .17 thing. I hope you turn her into a sweet shooter.

I've owned a few through the years, although most have become standard cartridges now. My experience is that rifles in wildcat rounds, even the Ackley Improved ones, tend to sell for a lot less when you get bored with them and want to get something new. So you should be able to get that rifle much cheaper than if it was a .223 Rem if it's truly a wildcat (the .17 Rem is based on the .222/.223/.222 Rem Mag case, so the seller might be referring to a .17 Rem as such even though it's not truly a wildcat). As for what it will do that the .20 Practical won't, I don't know. I know that the .17 Rem rifles have a reputation for fouling the bores badly, although I expect that holds true for the .20 too. For me, when I was really shooting a lot, part of the joy was in the tinkering with loads and making rifles more accurate. So from that perspective, wildcats are fun. There's so many standard cartridges now, it's hard to say that you will do better with a wildcat. Even so, in my safe is a Model 700 short action, waiting to be turned into a 6 mm/.284 AI. With the amount I shoot these days, the barrel would last me a lifetime, but I can always hope that I'll have time in retirement.

I don't have a problem with that at all. I do a lot of line washing (I call it fishing).

If you've been eating ramps, don't stand upwind from me!

A lot of neat homemade crates on here, which are my preference. Reminds me of how things were 10-15 years ago. I think @schplurg has the tidiest. When you go to the trouble of making a fixture to notch your rod holders, you're concerned about the details. I don't know about the wine bottle for the flare on the rod holders - I'm sticking with Modelo bottles. I always forget where I kept the ones I used last time, so I have to go get another 6 pack. By comparison, mine's nowhere near as clean, but it does exactly what I want it to do and is easily carried. It's made from a cube storage component, but if anyone's interested in cut list, parts source, etc., happy to share.

Good deal. If it isn't a new Kokatat, you might want to test it (they test for leaks). Actually, regardless, test it, and not in the Hudson tomorrow, but make sure the suit and especially none of the gaskets leak. If you paddle your kayak, some good pogies are also in order. You can't fish with them, but the ones from Immersion Research and NRS both keep your hands from freezing while you're paddling. Stay safe!

I'm a fan of a variety of soups. If there's leftover smoked turkey, turkey noodle is going to be made from the carcass and it (or Brunswick stew). If there's venison roast about, I'll make that into a venison and barley soup. And if I'm just in the mood to make some soup, lentil and Italian sausage soup is a family favorite. The wife makes some soups that are faster - my favorite is a fish ball and mung bean noodle she whips up on occasion.

Dry suit with the appropriate layering is the only way you can be safe with what the water temperatures must be up that way, and a swim would be unpleasant to say the least. Most people use neoprene booties because they help insulate a little. Could be an expensive itch to scratch, especially if you're just planning to go out a few times and that's your only use for the equipment. NY has a whitewater community up there, just don't know about your region. Maybe some surfers or someone would part with some used kit.

Sometimes I miss those days in bat. Sure was a place you could be more plainspoken and honest about things and the things that come back to you were the fun times....mostly.

When I bought my pedal kayak (Old Town Predator PDL), back in the olden days, I could have gotten a Hobie Outback with the 180 drive for the same price. Of course Hobies have gotten more expensive, and somehow Old Towns cost less than they did 4 years ago, but I digress. The reason I chose the Predator was watching people shift the Hobie 180 drive back and forth. Kind of like watching people try to get a column shift manual transmission with a lot of play in the linkage in reverse. For me, the 360 drive would be totally worth it were I going to get the Pro Angler anyway. If you're mainly going to use the drive to propel or assist the propulsion of a boat with a spot-lock trolling motor, then the 360 drive wouldn't be useful for anything but stunts. Besides being pretty speedy, the big kayaks are heavy, especially when you rig, and I don't think you realize how hard it will be to move them until you try. My Predator destroyed the PVC cart I made that worked fine for years with my Wilderness Systems Ride 135 and later Jackson Coosa HD. Rigged, I have a system to get it to the water, but it isn't something that I want to go 1/2 mile on an incline with, much less off hard surfaces. Make sure you don't make assumptions on how you'll manage getting all that weight where you want to fish.

I think it's a little more nuanced that what others are stating here. If you have a transaction that exceeds $600 for goods or services, you are going to get a 1099-K, and will have to prove the transaction did not represent a taxable event. I will just say that in my experience, convincing the IRS of reducing what they have decided is a tax liability is darn near impossible, regardless of the facts of the matter. You pretty much have to hire a lawyer to get them to reconsider at all. So your used graph that you paid $3k for, and get a grand for it paid by Venmo, you're getting a 1099-K (as is the IRS), and you're going to have to prove it wasn't a taxable transaction. Supposedly they're not going to tax 'friends and family' transactions, but I'm not volunteering to collect for retirement gifts etc. until I see how the administration of this new law takes shape.

I don't have one for fishing, but I have a bent shaft Werner Powerhouse that I got last year. I was hoping it would help with the wrist pain (one of the geezer things that's cropped up recently). I like many things about it, but it does force you to hold your hands a certain place on the paddle shaft, which is not exactly where I'd have made it. It's a little heavier, although the paddle woukd be considered pretty heavy by touring/fishing standards anyway. None of the cool (read sub-30 y/o) kids use one. Probably not a big deal in most cases, but I don't think they break down, do they (almost no whitewater paddle does, unless it's going to be carried as a spare)? Definitely don't think he needs a full on CF paddle for what he's likely to use it for. If you're going a long ways under paddle power, sure.

I think that most people would be better off with a paddle with the normal shaft than hand paddles. I'm making the assumption that you're speaking of the paddles that have relatively normally shaped blades with short handles attached to each blade (whitewater paddlers use pieces of kayak hull with handhold made out of tubular webbing). If you're using your paddle on a pedal drive, most likely you're 1) in water too shallow for your pedal drive to work 2) needing to maneuver in a way the pedal drive/rudder can't, or 3) are paddling back because your pedal drive failed. None of these warrants a great deal of consideration or really expensive paddle, IMHO. I would say a aluminum- shafted, molded plastic-bladed paddle should do the job. It will be heavier than the more expensive paddles, but it will last forever, and considering the use is the appropriate implement. You probably don't need to sweat sizing too much, just go to one of the paddle manufactures' sites on sizing and get the size that fits within their parameters.

Had a family vacation in Orlando to see the usual theme parks and other things that people usually come to Orlando for, but got to negotiate (read demand) for a couple of days of guided fishing. I had lined up both days with a guy who ended up getting out of the business, and so I had to schedule much later than expected. On the advice @.ghoti., I contacted Lee Harrelson, but also booked another day with a guide that does live shiner fishing. Radically different approaches and experiences, and I guess I got a good experience of central Florida bass fishing. Day 1 (29-Dec-2021) was with a guide who's name I won't mention that does live shiner fishing as a specialty. I would imagine he's well known in the area, he's been doing it for decades. We went and bought 4 dozen shiners and went off to a field of nearby grass. You just put a live shiner on a hook with a partially inflated balloon a ways up the line. The bass (or mudfish in one case) takes the bait, you wind up your slack after a 4-5 count and then set the hook. All the fish in the pictures came in that way. The other technique used was to look for birds diving on bait, and then to race toward them, casting where as close as possible to where you saw them dive with a flutter spoon or a trap of some sort. Both techniques were surprisingly effective, the shiners around grass decidedly more so. I probably caught 15-20 fish, all the bigger ones on shiners. It was a good experience, but I don't know that I'll do it again unless I'm with someone else that hasn't had the experience. As for the guide, he delivered everything he should have, but he was obviously worn out from guiding, and was looking to retiring. I don't have any other experiences to compare it to, but thinking of what he must go through day in and day out, I can see how a person gets to be that way. The other day with Lee was very different. Great communication before and great conversation during the entire trip. You can just tell the guy loves to fish and does his best to put you on fish. He did put me on what would have likely been my PB bass - I just didn't get it to the boat, but I did get to look at her. Anyway, it was a tough day to get bit. The day started off with fog that was too thick to run in. We started on Lake Hatchineha and fished a little around the place he picked me up. The fog didn't burn off for almost 3 hours, so we couldn't run up to Lake Kissimmee until later in the morning. Very soon after we got to Kissimmee we started fishing a huge grass field and that's where I got to see the big girl. She got off probably 10' from the gunwale, made me sick, but I'll get over it. Lee had actually seen her in the area a couple of days back and had left her alone for me to have a chance at her. Anyway we fished the same area and I caught a couple of bass within a few minutes, neither would have been much over a foot. He hasn't sent me the picture yet of the one I did pose for or I'd have posted it. The rest of the day, we fished what looked like prime bass territory, but no more boated fish, not even movement. We both got a few bites pitching or fishing a swimming worm through the grass, and Lee got a good bite on what looked like a trick worm. I left a happy customer, and I can't say enough good about Lee. He answered all of my questions, did his best to give me first opportunity at all the prime spots (and pointed them out), and gave me pointers without being overbearing. I brought my own rods, but Lee's were really nice custom rods he makes himself (I used my own flipping stick) and his boat is definitely fully-loaded.

Congratulations to a kindred spirit.

None on my fishing kayaks. On my whitewater kayak, I'm considering putting a 'please be patient, student driver' sticker. I've been beatering pretty bad as I transition from the canoe.

Same for my grandfather. I wonder if the people felt the same way back then as I (and I know many others) felt after 9/11. There sure were a bunch of us in the recruiter lines then too.

I just like the way Lews feel better than Shimano or Daiwa. I agree with @Catt about the good Lews reels - Tournament MB and MP are favorites, although the BB1 is good if you need a really slow reel. I did like a Curado 70 enough to buy 2, but the regular Curado 200k just wasn't my thing, and the Chronarch MGL I have was a pretty big disappointment for what it cost. Maybe it's the smaller size issue, but I don't think so. For example, I don't find the Daiwa Tatula SVs to be as comfortable as the Lews reels, and they're about the same size.