bulldog1935

Look at it this way, Thursday, I'm going to be driving 140 mi to fish the 3 best afternoon tides of the month, light S wind You're welcome to it. btw, after socking down for a week, the fish are going to be hungry we're also hitting 3-degrees here for one low, and 18 for a high on that day (Monday)- have never before seen those conditions here in S. Texas.

yeah, there's a reason I moved from Austin but if you haven't been that deep in 2 years, the backlash can be there indefinitely.

unfortunately, late last year, postal crunch caused Mako (Ukraine) to quit selling to USA, but their 8- and 13-lb titanium micro bite traces are invisible enough for bass and tough enough for toothy mackerel and snook gill plates. They also have a built-in micro swivel.

you forgot the tamales

try running or bicycling when you're breathing steam Every May 1 here, runners and cyclists on the greenways are stopping, panting, looking at their watches, and trying to figure out when they got so far out of shape. It's kinda like God's joke on the healthy.

It's true, there's no cold more penetrating than freezing rain conditions (except my example below) - layers don't help because the wet cold cuts right through. It's not about the thermometer, it's about what goes with it. I've been on the North Slope in December at 40 below, and you can walk between buildings in your shirt sleeves, because your body carries a film of warm air (the Inuit bus drivers wear short sleeves). But 10 below is dangerous, because there's a 50-kt wind with it. It's actually a desert up there, with less than 4" new snow every year - it's just the old snow there blows back and forth as it slowly evaporates. It the white blindness, our driver drove off the berm into the soft blowing snow. We had to don our survival gear and walk 120' to the next vehicle. The wind pushes you back a step for every 3 you get out. After that short walk wearing survival gear, and back in the warm dorms with chefs waiting to feed us anything we wanted, my feet were cold and numb for 4 hours.

The best breakfast deep-fried fish is camping out - cooked over a campfire in a dutch oven. Get up early and run the trotline. The hot crisco in the dutch oven is just right when it lights a floating wooden match.

I think there's a very high probability you didn't completely remove your last backlash, and wound over it. Looking at it, the reel looks fine, but it's still backlashed at the point the spool stops. The logical thing to do here is peel off some more line and wind it back up.

We fish a lot of cypress overhang to find the best hill country endemic river bass. I can think of several spots where an underhand cast on a short glass fly rod will let you sight-fish 5-lb bass that have never been presented to before. When cypress branches eat your fly, there is absolutely no way to extricate it without first cutting the branch. The very best shirt pocket folder for this work is the CRKT M-16 Compact - at 2.2 ounces, it's right at home clipped in your shirt pocket. One-hand open with Carson flipper. _______________________________________________________ The most ergonomic knife ever is Spyderco Native. When Spyderco made their first 440C prototype run of the Native, they sold out the result at $25/ - I bought 5, gave 3 as Christmas gifts, spread the remaining 2 in fishing bags, and went back later to add a 3rd (higher-grade Cr-Mo-V). A dozen years later, my BIL was still fishing with his. ______________________________________ The most useful pocket tool ever is the Swiss Tech 19-in-1 - it folds up onto your key ring You fold it into whatever tool you need. I've used the pliers before to remove a (chemically) dead battery on my truck.

Al Mar Havana Clipper for cutting cigar caps and a useful tanto tip. The Wenger Swiss Army offers the best cigar scissors ever.

Jun at JapanTackle has the best English and is very helpful. Asian Portal has the best prices+ free shipping, and toughest website to navigate. I'll add Plat to the list - very pretty website, and a great place to follow for rods, though again, part of the trick is identifying what they have in stock. They're very good about checking and ordering stock from manufacturers, and won't send you a purchase invoice until your order is squared away. Plat also provides reel repair parts and schematics. Hedgehog Studio is the place to find every reel tuning part, and always the fastest to ship out. I've shopped in Japan for as long as the internet has been around. Japan websites aiming to the US market is something relatively new, and because of Japan banking laws combined with the language barrier, at one time, you could only buy through brokers. Noppin.com and ZenMarket are two good brokers if you want something from a Japan website that doesn't cater to USA shopping. When I bought XUL and UL rockfish rods a dozen years ago, even though they came from a Rakuten store, Noppin shipping made it better and cheaper to order through them.

Here's a very good line capacity calculator for stacking different diameters on a spool - it works very well, and I use it all the time. https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/

We've fished storm tides and seen tailing sharks after crabs on the flats, that traveled 3 miles into the flats from the Gulf passes. The same day, we caught jacks on the flats. But the sharks are nothing compared to a rattlesnake coming off the bay. No idea what possesses a rattlesnake to swim 5 miles across the bay, but they want out of the water, and you'll do just fine (same with your boat). It's about the same as mama bear coming down the beach after your salmon in Alaska - nothing to do but jump in the boat and go somewhere else.

salmon omelette - the paper-thin Nova salmon flakes, salsa on top my buddies line up for these on every fishing trip only on a fishing trip, don't take the time to cook bacon - instead, buy the Banquet fully-cooked brown-and-serve sausage links - they're remarkably good. @TnRiver46 - my mom still cans pear preserves from my dad's orchard (and everything from his remarkable garden) - she also makes the best blackberry cobbler ever dreamed (and makes me a key lime pie every year for my August birthday). If I really get up early and have time to make papas, it's breakfast tacos - these decorated with smoked venison backstrap, sauteed to warm it. Aluminum foil is an essential ingredient for good breakfast tacos - they need to steam and blend all the oils.

Had a good work and weather window to bicycle 25 miles today. Only way I know to burn 1000 calories and have fun doing it. A couple of years made 100 mi/wk for the year. And when I can't get on the road or greenways, I'm on the stationary for a half-hour 3 times/wk. My '57 Raleigh Lenton is the same age as me (it's not alone, have a few others, and all steel frames). Have a neck injury that was supposed to need surgery decades ago - I attribute not having neck surgery to having good circulation. Most of my fishing and kayaking buddies are also cycling buddies. If you're doing them right, both pedaling and paddling begin in your core muscles (though they use a slightly different mix). Always fun to win a Sunday morning sprint on this old club racer against younger guys on alloy and carbon - between us, we're 126-y-o.

I put longer-pitch handles on fast reels to give me both.

The bronze millionaires closed out in 1978 - bought mine at Oshman's - I had a 6H for inshore and freshwater bass. Mine lasted much more than a season, but surf fishing finally killed the worm gear. When I needed parts in the mid 80s, Daiwa no longer supported them. Replaced it with my first Lew's, which still has a good 440 worm gear, though it got a new handle and a few A/R dogs. Overall still functional after a long hard life in the salt.

it's very typical for river drainages to have their own strains of fish species that vary in pattern and color from the strain across the next divide. None are more dramatically different than long-eared sunfish, which are on their spawning redds year-round here. These are also the species that will readily hybridize with any Lepomis sp. female. Here are a few examples all within the Texas hill country. Especially west, they're used to being the baddest boys on the block, and hooked up, will flare their gills and shake their bodies to scare you. West - Nueces River West - Seco creek (isolated by aquifer recharge - the creek disappears into the ground) West - Frio River central - Guadalupe river east - San Gabriel river

ain't like Seaguar is new to the market. I was banking on Seaguar fluoro 20 years ago. All about knot strength - especially 20 years ago, when all other fluoro had such bad knot strength. (yes, disposable Film camera)

He was kind of soliciting advice, maybe polling, or wondering why people like what, but the way you can tell the difference between choice and unsolicited advice is I like v. You Should. Long counter-balanced handle on high-geared C2000SHG (equivalent to Stradic FL1000). This is the UL I take out on a kayak (salt trip late next week). The thing is, you'll probably not work out your own personal preference until you get some miles on it.

On spinning reels, I prefer the same round knobs I do on baitcasters. Tee-handles are the worst for grabbing every line in a kayak, then not letting go. To me, what really gives subtle feel on light spinning tackle is counter-balanced or double handles. This low-geared JDM C1000S can get away with the short 72 mm handle (36 mm pitch). Seatrout are the worst for pushing the lure toward you, sampling and rejecting, and on my last nite-lite dock fishing trip, the rig just above delivered the most fish on long UL.

There was an Egypt rush in the 1920s - driven by King Tut mania - many warm states stocked tilapia - the lower San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers are inundated with them (also plecostomus sucker catfish) from initial stocking at the San Antonio zoo. Florida also has widespread feral tropical imports from aquarium-supply breeding ponds. Texas has a native cichlid, which is a beauty, but has become a stunted plague where introduced in most Gulf coast states.

If we want beans, in the serving bowl, we layer black beans, tortilla chips, chili, and cheese - frito pie. Another reason not to add beans to the chili pot - here, the last of the chili usually gets spread over eggs for breakfast.

boy, we could get into a regional brawl over chili. Cubed venison (nothing less than Cubed round) and throw in some bacon for fat.

I would never do this - I'm in with the lift by the line and terminal rig group (and net big fish) - but if you watch this high-grade Yamaga Blanks vid - after 7 min, he's lifting even fish with shoulders on this long UL rod. Of course he has a high-$ rod to sell, and is trying to demonstrate its toughness. I chided a buddy last fishing trip for lifting fish on a long UL I loaned him. Instead, showed him where to grab the terminal rig to lift the fish - and we had a great net there.