BrianMDTX

Good ol’ Channel 20! Saw many a “good” horror movie hosted by Count Gore de Vol lol. Yeah, you could literally spend all day making a list. Movies back then relied on dialogue a lot more than today. CGI is a wonder, but it gets stale quick. Just watch Cagney (as Cody Jarrett) melt down and go ballistically nuts at the prison mess hall table in White Heat. No CGI needed lol. And don’t get me started on “You just put your lips together and…blow”

Oh my. The list is long lol. Casablanca (Humphrey Bogart/Ingrid Bergman) High Sierra (Humphrey Bogart/Ida Lupino) Key Largo (Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall/Edward G. Robinson) To Have And Have Not (Humphrey Bogart/Lauren Bacall/Walter Brennan) Public Enemy (James Cagney/Jean Harlow) White Heat (James Cagney/Virginia Mayo/Edmund O’Brien) Angels With Dirty Faces (James Cagney/Pat O’Brien/Ann Sheridan/Humphrey Bogart/The Dead End Kids aka The Bowery Boys) All About Eve (Bette Davis/Anne Baxter) The Letter (Bette Davis) The Philadelphia Story (Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant/Jimmy Stewart) Charade (Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant) Roman Holiday (Audrey Hepburn/Gregory Peck) Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn/Humphrey Bogart/William Holden) Stalag 17 (William Holden/Peter Graves/Otto Preminger/Neville Brand) Sunset Boulevard (William Holden/Gloria Swanson) Anatomy Of A Murder (Jimmy Stewart/Ben Gazarra/Lee Remick/Eve Arden) Robin Hood (Errol Flynn/Basil Rathbone/Claude Rains) My all-time actresses for both beauty (and grace no pun intended) were Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn. They could have kept me enthralled watching them read the Yellow Pages. Speaking of Hedy Lamarr, not only was she beautiful and an outstanding actress, she was highly intelligent. She designed a frequency-hopping system to prevent a radio-guided torpedo from being jammed.

Oh man, how big is the bucket? I’d love to see the aurora borealis. Dive the wrecks in Truk lagoon. See the volcanoes and the USS Arizona memorial in Hawaii. Catch a big musky. Fish Great Slave Lake in the NWT Hunt interior grizzly and Alaska-Yukon moose in Alaska (see Denali, too) See the Baltimore Orioles reach the World Series again

Your grandfather’s name isn’t Job by any chance, is it? ?

Like I said, I’ve days aplenty where I caught zero fish, but at least had a soft bite or two. This was the first time I can recall where I got nothing at all. Not even one tap. This baitfish thing has me wondering. There’s always been bluegill and bass (and likely catfish) fry in this pond. Not a ton, and normally close to shore in the weeds. But in the past month I’ve seen numerous large schools of some small baitfish (look like typical minnows to me) that are slashing across the surface from against the bank to out in the middle of the pond. I don’t know why I’ve never seen this until this summer (been fishing here since 2020). I talked to a park ranger a month or so ago (before I noticed these baitfish) and asked about stocking, and he said the ponds were stocked when the ponds were created but they do not restock. But I think someone has stocked these fish. Regardless, it adds something to see them break the surface. And hopefully the bass eat them and get bigger!

I mean, a total 100% skunk. Not just no catches, not even one nibble. I’ve been skunked a couple of times but had soft bites or missed a few blow-ups on topwaters, but I can’t recall fishing 4+ hours and not getting one strike. And as we’ve gotten rain and the pond is refilled, and baitfish were being chased like crazy, it was baffling. Still had a good time, though. Nice to get back on the water without walking across mud flats to get the boat in the water!

My wacky rig rod is a Fenwick HMX 6’6” MF paired with a Daiwa Revros LT2500. I used to use 8 lb. mono, but switched to 20 lb. braid to 8 lb. mono leader. I fish relatively shallow waters and don’t have a ton of slack in my line. But straight mono works well. I just prefer braid as it does not coil like mono.

I think there are many, many suitable MF, MXF, MLF, MLXF rods available for wacky rigs. I don’t really see the need for superior sensitivity with a WR rod when the majority of the time I “sense” bites on a WR by line movement vs. feel. For me, a 6’6” to 7’0”” MF rod is perfect for wacky rig fishing.

I think I can cast more accurately with a baitcaster, but with 20 lb. braid to 8 lb. leader, I can cast a weightless Senko TR pretty darned far. Or a Ned rig. I think both rigs have their applications.

I got a crick in my neck while fishing a creek. What a crock. I stepped in a crack.

That’s my Texas rig rod. Great for that application.

Crayfish in MD. Crawfish in TX. Hard for me to change. No matter. I know my jimmies from sooks! ?

“Life is too short to drink cheap beer”.

I said ROOK! Not HOOK!!!

When it comes to fishing: When I’m good, I’m very, very good. But when I’m bad, I am horrid!

Agreed. Weedless is not slopless. Ned rigs in ponds are frustrating most of the time. Whether a standard or a weedless Ned picks up algae, dead leaves, etc. A weightless T-rigged Senko or Zoom Trick stays a lot cleaner, but still picks up slop at times.

I have a lot of fun catching not-so-giant bass on a St. Croix Bass-X ML/XF with weightless soft plastics. Although…I have caught a few in the 4-5 lb. range with it and setting the hook with a Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG was not an issue. I think the XF action helps with that. Paired with a Daiwa Revros LT2000, it’s a pleasure to fish with all day long.

While I drink a lot (well, not a LOT lol) of IPA’s, I had some good Beefeater G&T’s tonight. Great summer cocktail. My IPA’s of late (here in the Houston area) have been St. Arnold Juicy IPA’s. But when I get back home to Maryland, my favorite is Independent’s Carpe Diem double IPA. If you’re ever around Bel Air, MD, don’t hesitate to stop at Independent Brewery for a Carpe Diem. It’s outstanding!

I’d say 12 lb. Big Game, but I won’t split hairs lol.

Easy. Fish. I go to the market, select a fish, and tell the merchant to wrap it and toss it to me. Guess what? I caught a fish! For dinner! ? Man, I love me a good meal. But I don’t think I have something so specific as a “I Got Skunked” dish that I crave. It can run the gamut from a simple ham and Swiss on rye to a NY strip Pittsburgh medium-rare. Which I had for lunch and dinner yesterday. But I didn’t get skunked, so…?

It rained! Sweet Mother of God, it actually rained yesterday! Heavy downpours (rained again this afternoon, too!). Which meant I had to check out the pond this morning. It is still lower than normal, but yesterday’s gullywasher filled up 3/4 of what it was down (filled up now lol), and that’s a good thing. Caught 6. I dropped one as I was grabbing the phone and he fell in and swam off. First one on a black/silver floating Rapala, three on a Zoom Trick and two on a black Senko. All caught as baits were worked through or near submerged vegetation. None were big but they were scrappers!

lol. I have a M/F and a MH/F Aird-X and both have Black Max’s on them. And truth be told, I like fishing with them. They cast great They make a great combo.

Get it smokin’ hot (I mean smokin’!) and plop a nice NY strip brought to room temperature seasoned with generous salt and pepper and a sprinkling of cumin, turn on the fan and sear it until medium-rare and with a great crust. I love my cast iron skillet. Kosher salt and hot water to clean. Lasts forever. What’s not to love?

Shuck it and boiled. Husk on and grilled. Either way is great. Butter a piece of white bread and roll the cob in it to coat it evenly. Salt and a little pepper. Sometimes a little Old Bay. I’ll also steam ears while steaming crabs.

I’d change to an 8 lb. leader and rig a Fat IKA or a Neko Macho with a 3/0 EWG, texposed. They have enough weight to cast a good distance, have a good (unweighted) sink rate and rarely get snagged. They catch bass, too!