Functional

Glad it helps Bob! I'm with TN on this one, I think what you put in the pond may have be pregnant? If I recall the pond isnt directly attached to the stream/river for another to swim in.

I use paddle tails as well when I want more bulk. Other than that I just use a zoom split tail trailer. Never had much luck with the spunk shad type trailers.

So sorry to read that Bob. She sounds like an incredible woman. I had a bunch written out to express how sorry I am but really no words can express it. I think Glenn and others said it best.

I put one up like 2 years ago and have really enjoyed it. We get a bit of everything, crows, cardinals, blue jays, morning doves, eastern blue birds and a whole host of smaller birds. It's interesting to see who likes to eat from the ground and those who like the feeder. Its usually the medium sized birds that make a mess of the feeder and then your larger and smallest birds are clean up crew, along with 3 VERY fat squirrels. I suppose one of them finally got to the feeder and broke it so now I'm in the market for a new one this year. I miss seeing my doves and cardinals. The kids, my wife and my cat have come to love having it. My wife now wants to add a bird bath nearby.

I did that as well. I also cut and epoxied one to a flat base and now its an arrow holder/stand when I target practice.

I've missed these. Thank you for taking the time to give random strangers a little shared time with what many wish we had.

Sorry to hear it. No worries at all, you dont owe any explanation. Hope things are as best as they can be!

How's this been going Bob? I miss the updates.

Yes. It's tasty and I enjoy providing cleaner food for my family when I can. I have my limits though. I only keep spots (lakes I fish have no limit on them to try and curb their invasion) and any fish I hook bad enough it doesn't look like they will make it. It's rare...but it's fishing and it happens. It's funny to me a lot of people say don't take the fish because you want them to grow to giants yet there is plenty of evidence you need a good balance between food and bass #s to get them. If there is too much competition and not enough food you are going to get stunted growth potential. Thin the heard a bit. Side note: I tried eating crappie for the first time last year and I felt like the effort wasn't worth it. They just have zero taste of any kind. Really don't know what the hype is about.

Lived here over 5 years and never seen ice on my lake/river. The coves are "solid" with no water peeking through. Very pretty and zero traffic for my commute in though. In NC fashion this will semi melt and freeze solid on and off for at least a few more days.

this is me with my socks... I started inching up the price bracket when I was building my lineup but the more I fished, the more I realized the $120 rod felt nearly the same $300 rod. My lews SS LFS worked great for everything but skipping so I bought a Tatula SV, aside from skipping I prefer the lews. Why bother spending more? I think one of the things WRB hammer home for me and something I brough over from my pure finesse fishing spinning reels was to always have a finger tip on the line in some way. At that point just about all of the sensitivity only depends on your finger. My exception is jerkbaits, I have a nice ALX for that, cant really keep a finger tip on a jerk/pause action and the rod comes into play more. Just my opinion/experience though. I'd like to use more expensive stuff but i'm not sure I am capable of squeezing any benefit out of them with my skill level and fishing styles.

we got 1/2" of solid ice here. Locked in the house for 2.5 days, saw my neighbor try and make it out to work yesterday and he made it about 20 feet from his driveway then slid back down past his driveway. Parked it on the side of the road and went back inside 😂. The "hill" is a really gentle slope, it was just like an ice skating rink. Now were expecting a snow storm this coming weekend. I'll take snow any day of the week over ice.

I'll have to pull it out, been sitting folded up since I moved into my house 5 years ago. If I recall its just ripped but the straps that loop the trailer are rotted. Trailing is not a requirement, was hoping advancements over the years I could get something in the 500+/- range that wouldnt fly off. Main goal is to keep it dry if it ends up outside for a year or less and worst case a few months while a detached garage is being build and then used just as a protectant in the garage over winter. I'd been reading the sealskin is kind of junk @TOXIC , how long have you had your sealskin?

If I recall Dowco is Trackers OEM for covers. They are on my list as my original was still good for many years, it just finally gave up just outside a seam all the way across. Was seeing if there are any others I should look at before making a purchase later this year.

Talk to me about boat covers. What brands are regarded well? I'm looking for waterproof but breathable and ideally can be left on when trailered. My OEM one ripped and is quite a bit old to be worth repairing and I may need to store my boat outside for a few months this year. I have a 2013 Tracker 175txw pro team, single console with TM on the port side.

Depends on which Buffalo Bill you a referring to 😂 (silence of the lambs)

Sounds like a tip Buffalo Bill might give to someone....

Minus the sling shot, this is the method my IT department uses in our buildings. Tie something heavy to fishing line and wing it in the direction you need it. Do that enough times though and you'll end up like me...receiving a 5% charge for cable management fees on my HVAC renovation project. Looks like a kid threw up unchewed blue spaghetti.

@casts_by_fly It should do perfectly fine. I used to use one of those in a garage to fix dirtbikes and cut rifle barrels in half to full day stretches up in middle NY during the winter. As you said, sometimes what you are working on takes a while to thaw out but you can get it very comfortable with one of those quickly. Every so often I did crack a door though to get some fresh air in.

Went with AJs recommendation as well. Picked up a Mustang HIT life jacket. didn't do the elite but the MD3183 model. I think it's the Pilot?

No pics but my largest came off a Scum trophy frog in chartreuse. Estimated upper 6lb range. Was as long as my PB but was leaner.

As someone who did the same, I completely agree. I went my entire first year in the south and could count the total amount of ANY fish caught on two hands. That's actually what led me to look for this forum. I went from the north doing more finesse and topwater to the south where its all spinnerbaits, jerkbaits and power fishing. I think my flip would be going specifically to smallmouth. I've caught them accidentally up north but anytime I targeted them I zeroed out. Now with some more years of knowledge and this forum I think I could come around to at least getting fish in the boat but it would take me quite a while to pull A-Jay's class of fish. Any saltwater fishing I've done was more like live bait fishing fresh waters...not really my thing but it's nice to switch it up every so often and experience different fish.

This is how a journalist should be, most that have any notable platform today seem more accustomed to shocking headlines and skewing information one way or another. 9/10 a quick google search can discredit most of what I read and if not give it a few weeks and it will be discredited. It's nearly impossible to get truthful and unbiased news and reports anymore. I had about 3 paragraphs written out that I just deleted...I'm going to pull a page from @Pat Brown book on this and keep it simple. While we gained a lot of rubbish with social media and the rise of youtube we have also gained a lot of valuable information from it. World news, influences, the latest Kardashian information is almost always a waste of time, especially in the age of AI. On the same side, how to perform car maintenance on your specific vehicle, bass fishing techniques, shooting skill information, gardening information, home improvement, etc. has gained us infinitely easy access to skills that would take hours, weeks, months to learn when you either had to scour books or find the right person to talk with. That, is also the downfall and what I believe contributes to the slums we see throughout social media and how people behave towards one another. With how easy it is to look up stuff we no longer rely on our neighbors, communities, etc. for learning and help. It's filled a hole while creating another. Erode the human part of it and we get what we have been seeing. I'm relatively young, but still plenty old enough to see what its been doing.

Fulks Custom Cranks is advertising they have a bunch of 1 Minus cranks, pre rapala wiggle warts / speed traps and some other stuff at the Raleigh Expo here this weekend. Not sure if you can call them up and order any or not.