jbmaine

Good job. May that be the first of many.

Thanks everyone, Really appreciate the great information. Jim

Last year I discovered Ned rigs and how well they worked on deep water smallies 20+ feet or more. I was using a Shimano Compri MF spinning rod with 6# yo zuri hybrid ultra soft line for this. I did well but never really felt exactly when the fish hit. It was more of a "feeling the line get heavy" kind of thing. I suspect there were a lot of hits I never felt. Fast forward to today and I have a Avid AS69MLXF spinning rod coming my way, and think this would be a step up as a mostly Ned rig rod. So, confession time. I am a total braid newby, have never used it. So my question is-- in the above situation-- would braid ( straight braid, no leader) give me a noticeably better feel for when a fish hits my Ned rig at depth? if so what kind, dia., etc. do you recommend? And if using braid, any downside to look out for? Thanks Jim

Thanks everyone, You've given me a lot to think about. Jim

Hi all, We are in the market for a new house. We've always had oil heat, but some of the houses we are looking at have gas heat. We've always been Leary of gas ( never saw a house explode from heating oil), but lots of houses have it, so I guess my question is, why have gas over oil, what's the advantage? Thanks Jim

Senko, tight to shore as soon as the shallow water temp starts to climb.

Lived close by the KTP all my life. It's starting to show hints of " big store" attitude , but still a cool place.

It was on this day in 1963 that the submarine Thresher was lost. She had sailed out of Portsmouth naval ship yard ( which is actually in Kittery ME ) for tests, and during a dive was lost with all hands, both navy and civilian. I was only in third grade when it happened but one of my class mates I knew lost his father. To this day I remember his mom coming to take him out of school. Funny what your mind remembers. It seems every year tragedies like this are more and more forgotten so I was hoping we could take a moment and remember all the brave souls we lost that day. Thanks

All spinning for me, no complaints, no birds nests either.

The KTP has the buy 3 get the forth sale a couple times a year. We always stock up during the sale ( we only live 6 miles away) This weekend they have all Shimano rods, reels ( inhouse only) 10% off. Just got back with a new Stradic. Would have got two, but they only had the one left.

This morning my wife was at our back door watching me snow blow yet more snow. After I was done she looked at me and said " I'm sick of winter, I want Spring!, Spring! Being a good hubby I scrounged around and gave her this. She's a good wife, even after giving her Spring, she's still making me lunch.

Here's what things look like in southern Maine this morning.?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Our little girl kitty left us two mornings ago, at 5:30 A.M. We knew she was going and stayed up all night holding her. It was heart breaking. Some say a cardinal is a sign from heaven. The last two days we saw cardinals in a bush by our back sliding door. This afternoon we had three cardinals sitting in the bush just looking at us for over two hours. We've never seen this before and somehow it made us feel a little better.

Could be some of all of the things you mentioned. Sometimes the smallest things can make a big difference. This last year we fished large areas of submerged weeds in 4-8 ft. of water. When it was overcast we nailed them. as soon as the sun came out they shut right off. First time it happened I thought it was a fluke, but it was like that all summer. If I hadn't started fishing those areas on a overcast day I never would have thought there was fish there.

Not thru the wall. Up the wall and hanging from the ceiling on hooks.

hi all, I'm sure this is going to sound strange, but here goes. My wife and I got together going on 17 years now. Soon after we decided we'd like a couple of pets. I've always been a dog person, but due to circumstances we decided on getting cats. We found a couple of kittens, brother and sister, litter mates, at a rescue center. I had always thought of cats as pretty much distant and aloof. I guess we just got lucky, but these were the most people friendly cats I've ever seen. They were always in our laps, want to play, just followed us around everywhere in the house. If I was outside doing yard work our boy kitty would go from window to window, watching me the whole time ( they were indoor cats). And smart!, when we went to bed we shut the bedroom door ( otherwise they'd keep us up) and they did not like it. We always said good night to them before going to bed, so to keep us up they took turns hiding at bed time. I could go on , but safe to say, they stole our hearts. Two years ago we lost our boy to cancer, it tore us apart, our little girl kitty kept looking for him for the longest time. As of today we are soon to lose our little girl. She is old, has medical issues and has been fading fast. She has pretty much stopped eating and is shutting down. we expect to lose her any time. Thankfully she doesn't seem to be in pain, but we are heart broken. They are/ were like our children. This will sound strange, but over the last couple of weeks my wife and I have caught glimpses of our boy kitty out of the corner of our eye. We've also felt his presences and heard noises only he made. This part is even stranger. I have an old wall clock that belonged to my grand parents. Its 100 years old but still ran and chimed. Our boy was fascinated by it. He would insist on being picked up to watch as I wound it. About the time we lost our boy kitty it stopped, would not run, sounded like something was broken. As I thought repairs would be expensive I just left it on the wall. Some time ago we had a few extra$ and decided to get it fixed. As I started to take it off the wall it just started running. Later we realized it started running on the one year anniversary of his passing. Now ever since it started running Our little girl kitty became fascinated with it, and would insist on being picked up to watch me wind it. Even yesterday, as weak as she is, she begged to be picked up to watch me, purring the whole time. Call us crazy but we are convinced that our clock running is a sign our boy kitty's spirit is still with us and his stronger presence is a sign he's here , waiting for his sister to join him. Jim

you told on me? Actually it's a cord that goes from a ceiling fan to an outlet. I like Haggard's idea though.

Hi all, For many years I've had a hobby wood shop where I spend a lot of time in the non fishing season. Last few years my medical issues have limited my time woodworking but I still manage to get a few things done. I've been working on an armoire to complete a set of bedroom furniture for me and the Mrs., and I finally got it done. The bottom part with two drawers I finished last winter and the top half just a couple of days ago. Major shoutout and big thanks to good friend and fellow member haggard for helping me get it out of my shop and shifted into place. Here's a few pics Thanks for looking Jim

Hi all, I've used slick mist for a while now and love how it makes everything slick and shiny, however, I discovered something about it today I thought I'd pass on. As we're forecast for more snow, I was out in the shed making sure everything was ready to go on the snowblower. I usually spray it down with silicone to keep snow from sticking, but I was out and thought slick mist would work. I grabbed a bottle from the basement and sprayed the whole snowblower. However, when I tried to rotate the chute it wouldn't move. I gave it a few more tries and finally it broke free with a shower of fine ice. Turns out if you spray it on anything that's been sitting out in below freezing temps it will penetrate for a few seconds then flash freeze, sticking any moving parts. I would assume if you left the bottle outside the whole thing would freeze. I thought it was just a petroleum based spray wax, but I guess not. Guess you learn something new every day Jim

All my stuff is middle to lower middle of the gear spectrum. I honestly don't think I'm good enough to get the most out of high end gear. But the thing is, I really don't care. My stuff doesn't break the bank, I catch plenty of fish, but most importantly I have a ton of fun. That being said, I do appreciate a higher end fly rod. With fly fishing, I think it's worth it.

One hundred years ago today. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/great-boston-molasses-flood-1919-killed-21-after-2-million-n958326

I'm a firm believer in Strike Kings caffeine scented plastics. Coffee tubes and the like.

Hi all, As the winter doldrums continue and I watch the snow come down, I thought I'd post the story of our ( my wife and I's ) favorite lake. This is a lake I have a long history with. I learned to fish, swim, water ski on this lake, and have fished it off and on for 60 some years. In 2002 when I met my wife ( second wife) and she wanted to learn to fish, this lake is where I took her, and it didn't disappoint. It was full of bass, pickerel, perch, sunfish, minnows, and we caught fish everywhere. 10-15 bass a trip was common, from dinks to 4-5 lber's. For years this was the only lake we fished. Then in the late winter, early spring of 2009 we had heavy rains and snow melt. The water levels were up to 5 ft. above normal and many low lying camps were flooded. By early summer we saw massive weed growth and bad water visibility. By early fall the lake was full of floating weed rafts 10-15ft. in dia., and the fish started to disappear. In 2010 we fished it six times and only caught one bass, and it was sickly looking. The lake association survey reported high phosphorus levels and bad water quality. Over the next few years we would fish it from time to time, just to see, and it was bad. No fish, no turtles, and awful visibility. All the locals I talked to said the same thing, the fishing was dead. However in the fall of 2017 we actually caught a couple of small bass. In this last year ( 2018) we really saw the lake start to come back. The water was clearer, less odd looking weeds and we saw perch and bait fish again. More importantly we started catching decent bass. This last fall we caught multiple *** lb. LM with a 5+ lb. bass the best. From reading the lake association most recent report it looks like the lake is finally back to pre 2009 water quality standards It is so nice to see a lake get turned around and come back to life. We can't wait for Spring and to get back on it. Thanks for listening Jim

Due to medical issues I have to sit to fish 95% of the time, regular chair. It works well for me.