Functional

I appreciate the feedback. I looked everything up last night and saw the same as you both. Called him this morning at around 9am and they were already there buying it so there goes the effort. I may be on it this weekend, i'll be sure to wear some swim wear and bring a cheap combo ?

My fathers birthday is coming up this weekend and he finally expressed to the family hed really like a small light boat him and my mom can get in and toss in the back of his 2500HD truck and take camping with him. He is mid 60s and in decent shape and my mom would help whos similar. He brought up the Quest Sportsman 12 since its only 110lbs. Any experience with the boat, good or bad? Any alternatives in about the same price point ($600ish) ? My mom has the only one in their area on hold for 24 hours (next closes one is 50 miles from me) so I dont have much time to tell everyone we are pulling the trigger on it or not.

I'll 2nd or 3rd the swim jig. Just caught this thread today but that was my immediate gut along with a beaver style bait with 1/8oz. I've had success in similar ponds/bogs working the near weightless beaver bait in the upper portion of the weeds coming up.

Nothing negative to say about them. Like many here I've spent an embarrassing amount of money on their gun items well before they started getting into fishing. One thing to keep in mind is double check the items you buy. Some are great prices, others you can easily find for a better price elsewhere.

Sdj with 7 wraps and not a single knot issue since. Mono, copoly or floro. Palomar knot for braid.

? I never thought I'd get such polar opposites on this. I admit 99% of the time the correct place I feel for them is the trash. I was hoping I'd find something I'd like here but I might have a new test. Steam them soft Cut in half and place in pan (face up or down idk yet) Sprinkle salt/pepper/garlic Drizzle with honey I will also try @A-Jay way. I've always roasted them in some way and the outer leaves always get so crusty its like eating dead leaves. Never tried steaming and the times I have liked them they were tender.

Has she been browsing pinterest? I feel like youll have a home project she brings up not long after your birthday! Joking aside thats a really great wife you have. Congrats and happy birthday. Thats one excellent gift.

Anyone have any good ways to cook brussel sprouts? My wife loves them and I like them when they are cooked tender but can never replicate it. Most times they come out either too dry or almost bitter tasting.

This is honestly a great thread. I've read about the wind but some of the posts in here are simple but packed with information. I've got no less than 3-4 things to try and see which works better for me.

I had a Bonafide RS117 and a Recon 120 and occasionaly (now) use my wifes 10' sit on top (not a fishing kayak). The Recon 120 was the most stable but she was a PIG. Very heavy and you felt it paddling. While I could get it up to 3mph paddling it took more effort than the RS117. My wifes 10' is easiest but its not stable enough to really stand and fish and doesnt track well at all. The RS117 was the best of the 3 as it was stable enough to stand and fish but wasnt horrible to paddle. I bought the Recon 120 for the stability, storage and ability to drop a peddle drive in later on if I wanted. I never did and sold everything but my wifes kayak, personal choice but for me I dont think I'd be happy until I'm in a 10' peddle kayak like an Old Town. You really need to fish out of your kayak you have for the rest of the season and see what you really want. To me from what I'm reading I think you would almost be better off with an older small jon boat. Also in the spring around my parts there are a lot of kayak dealers that hold demo days or offer the chance to demo kayaks. I'd finish the season and go to a demo day.

I think I missed something but I think you're good @Mobasser Something not really discussed here is retaining employees, especially the newer generations. It's a bit painful for me to sit here doing my job for a 2.5% raise a year knowing if I changed jobs right now (which you can easily do in this market) and get 10-20% more. I enjoy the security I have with the jobs I choose but there is a limit to being able to provide a better life for my family and it gets really tempting. While the newer gens can be seen as less loyal I cant entirely fault them when typical annual raises dont even meet inflation...you are really taking a pay cut every time that happens. As far as work ethic of the younger generation I'd chalk it up to the same as every other generation. Given my job I work all up and down the company structure and deal with all generations and there are great people and duds in all of them. I have a guy whos 21 and started with us in highschool and we hired him on full time. Always wants the extra hours or days and never complains about the work hes given. You can give him a list of tasks and can count by the end of the week hes done them plus others he found on the way to do those. Also have a guy currently in college who just turned 21 and hes one of the hardest workers with a smile I've encountered. Hes dedicated enough I extended the opportunity to interview (cant outright offer a job at my company) him for our open tech position and he still has a year of college left. Expressed his school is more important and we will completely open up hours for him to do what he needs to finish college. Just waiting to hear back if he can make it work. Its out there, just need to find those people.

Hefty Fish Heifer Fatty Is that a log

Personally I'd take it as part of the risk of owning a lake front property. However, the mess left behind by fisherman is getting out of hand. When I was a kid I'd rarely have to pull up someone elses line, now I'm pulling up line out of the water/trees/etc. just about every trip. I never had a dock owner give me a problem but usually when I get snagged on a dock I'll get close and get myself out of it instead of breaking the line if I can help it. When I'm up there I'll pull off any broken line or lures I find. Had an owner sitting at the edge of his property I hadnt realized was there and when I was done cleaning up other peoples mess he thanked me quite a bit for doing that and said I was welcome back anytime. I was ready for him to start yelling when he called over to me but it was a nice surprise.

@DitchPanda thats a question I ask myself a lot. Where are all these people and who pays for the ones not working. I cant decide if its "boomers" leaving a huge gap that there just arent enough later gen people to fill. The biggest gap has been since covid and a lot of boomers retired around that time so timeline makes sense. A lot of boomers had multiple kids though so youd think wed have the workforce to backfill positions, maybe not. I had to recently fight for an increase in my Co-Op/Intern roles because like you said they could go to the grocery store and make $5-8/hr more than I could pay. They allowed me $13/hr which has helped considering they learn a skill here too besides stocking shelves, but still no where near market pay. A problem I see here is people making a career out of entry level jobs like supermarkets and fast food joints. They demand more pay and get it somehow but it keeps the college/highschool kids out of the work force and those who SHOULD be in a more meaningful job sitting in the mcdonalds drive through screwing up my order. Its really a hell of a pickle were in.

I manage the facilities management and projects department at my company. I've had a Facilities Tech position opened for a year now this month. We've only had a few dozen candidates qualified and of that we interviewed 12-15, had a few no shows and made 4 offers. All 4 turned the job down because their companies or others paid more. We were paying 24-25 an hour with full state retirement and benefits that rivaled state quality. I even restructured our department to get a higher pay scale for this position and still cant attract anyone. Its been my job for the past few months to study what its going to take to fill this position. What were thinking at this point is: 1) trades (HVAC, electrical, etc.) can provide a much higher wage given the amount of work they have for those who survived COVID and they are now supplying benefits that used to be our selling point. The trade off is crazy hours and travel 2) We have 4/10 schedule and our buildings are no more than 15 minutes from eachother so we talked up that selling point. With the new work force being younger, most dont have families and care about the traveling requirements as long as they are paid more. Those that are older are more experience and dont want to be paid what a more entry level position pays. 3) Similar to what AJ said above, people just arent going into the trades. Creates a huge demand for them so they get paid a lot for those that go into the trades and it keeps trades companies super busy (and expensive) since theres less game in town All services and construction I am responsible for have on average been 12-15% more expensive, which was driven home when we reviewed our end of fiscal year just recently when I had to explain why I was 15% over my budget. The bulk of those who do apply for us are typically those required to job search while receiving wellfare benefits and either dont show up, dont respond or have zero relateable skills. Its the same for most of the crews (were a utility company) trying to recruit for their open spots. They used to get 40-50 applications for every position. Now they are lucky to get a dozen and have 2-3 worth an interview. Its all going to hit a headway soon, big contributing factor to why everything is so expensive.

https://magguts.com/product/smith-wesson-shield-plus-3-conversion-for-10-round-magazine/ Excellent little pistol. Still have an itch for a glock, but know I'll be replacing the trigger. Edited to give the correct link.

Congrats to her! Definitely an achievement to catch a bass that size, let alone on 10/12lb test. What I contemplate a lot is if in sports like fishing where gender and physical attributes mean absolutely nothing, does gender specific records hurt women more than help them?

Been experimenting this year. I have floro(had), mono (2 types) and braid all on a bottom contact rod. After nearly launching a $400 combo as far as my arms would allow me I stripped the floro (tried inviz-x, sniper and red label) and put on Yo-Zuri hybrid. Braid: With tension and regardless of leader or no leader, the braid is more sensitive, but only with tension. Bit detection on any slack line is less for me than mono or hybrid. I have braid on 2 rods, one frogging and one mostly for swim jigs but doubles as a "do all" if I need it to. Mono: I run Armilo on one and Big Game on another. I tend to prefer the Armilo over the BG but both are sensitive enough for me and I have yet to miss a hook set because of any potential stretch. BG can feel a bit more stiff/coily compared to Armilo being more supple on the spool but not enough with KVD to give me the issues Floro did. To me I didnt notice a big enough difference when compared to the floro pre removing it. Its possible floro had a bit more sensitivity but not enough to put up with floros issues for me. Fish count didnt differ and I dont feel like I missed bits I would have had on floro. I also dont fish very clear water, at best 3-4 ft visibility is all I'll get at my lakes. Hybrid: Similar to the floro vs mono on sensitivity. Potentially a bit more I can feel when dragging a bait but I dont believe I'm detecting any more bits over mono. It does however handle much better than floro. Going to finish out the season setup this way but as of now I'm undecided between Armilo, BG and Hybrid. When the Armilo runs low I'll likely spool up with Hybrid to do a comparison on the same rod/reel combo and decide from there. Just my .02.

@Catt's recommendation for the Diawa Procyon is great for under $100. I really enjoy my 7'4 Heavy. If you opt to splurge a little for $130 the ARK Tharp rod line (hammer or money maker) are a LOT of rod for the money. Between my St. Croix Victory and my ARK Tharp Hammer I'd have an impossible job of distinguishing the 2 while dragging the same bait.

So the more I look into the Susky the more tempted I am to give it a go. I'll likely only be using my wifes 10.5' SOT kayak. Thinking I'd put in in the Pittson area and float on down to a ramp in Lynnwood. No idea how long that would take, is the current not safe enough for a kayak that size, if its even reasonable or not and any insight on that stretch for smallies I'd be up for hearing.

Careful thinking overcast protects you. I've still gotten sunburn without the sun on the water. Only made that mistake a handful of times.

For numerous health issues I was born with a few months ago I decided to make some changes. Started following a mostly Mediterranean diet and will sprinkle in a favorite meal (regardless of diet) maybe once every other week. Only have a glass of wiskey once a week at most (more like once every 2 weeks now) and have tea with real honey every night. Also started in the gym 4 days a week, nothing nuts but treadmill for 30 minutes at a really fast walk and just keep increasing my incline week after week to keep my heart rate in the 130-150 range. With heart issues I was told no exercise that you bear down with. So light weights and high reps was all they really "allowed" me to do. Havent started with weights yet, trying to become a cardio machine first. Between both I'm overall in much better condition and have tons of energy. I also savor the meals I used to take for granted when I do let myself have them. I think a key (or at least mine) to having a diet is sticking to it but dont completely deny yourself of stuff you loved and enjoy or it becomes infinitely more unpleasant.

You would probably make a good following on YouTube. "Tuxedoed Fishing, the gentlemans sport" You could carry a set of rods in a golf bag to each water "hole" and speak in old english. At noon you could set up a folding camp chair and sip on sweet tea in little cups and discuss the other wild life in the area (the golfers).

-work -Gym -Pick up daughter -play/cook with daughter -play/bed time with daughter -Caulked accent wall I put up for my wife as one of her bday gifts. -Got in bed to try and watch an episode on TV for the 5th time in a row...made it 5 minutes past the previous night and passed out.

why not spool up your spare reel with 12 or 15lb big game and put it on one of your MH-F rods? I'd bet getting a bit of stretch in your line would help and I've used MH-F rods on chatterbaits just fine with mono. This would give you a better indication if you needed a slower rod or if just a line change would help and narrow down your rod selection. Very cheap to try. Out of your price range but my dedicated chatterbait/spinnerbait rod (and occasional crank) is a Dobyns Sierra Micro 704C. Slower action than a typical fast and works well for the application. I do wish it was a bit more sensitive though.