Olebiker

I signed up as a non-boater for our club tournament and drew a guy who is not very popular within the club. I now know why. He called me a couple of days before the tournament and asked that I pick him up and, "oh by the way, I don't have a vehicle to pull my boat so we will need to use your truck." OK, I knew he was kinda down on his luck, so I cut him some slack. He then informed me that his G3 boat had a couple of holes in the hull and that the automatic bilge pump would come on from time to time. From time to time meant every five minutes or so. It didn't pump out the side either. It shot a fountain up in the air off the port side of the transom. I had to remember not to stand there to pee off the back of the boat. I will give him credit that, when he started catching fish on a Chug Bug, he gave me one to use. It would have been nice to be able to cast to where the fish were, but he was not very generous with boat positioning. I did catch a keeper on a shakey head with a Trick Worm in the area where he had just thrown the Chug Bug. We then left to fish docks the rest of the day since that is about all he does. He kept getting strikes and missing fish. (I am convinced that he was not not getting bass bites, but bluegills.) Every time he would miss one he would have a tantrum and scream obscenities at the top of his lungs. I pointed out to him that we were within about fifty yards of people's homes and that he needed to behave. It didn't do much good. He continued with his tantrums all day long. He kept positioning the boat where I could not get a cast into the good areas under the docks or in the boat slips so I just started fishing wherever I could get a cast in. I ended up with five bass and he never caught a fish from the docks. At one point, after missing a fish, he said, "You get up here on the trolling motor. I'm not fishing any more. I'm tired of this ****." He sat down in the driver's seat and sulked. I promptly caught a fish on the first cast. He jumped back up and started fishing again. At least I won't have to fish with him again until next year at the earliest.

That's pretty good for the Ohio.

I have a rubber net in the boat, but I have only used it for tournaments. Even then I feel a little bit sissy for doing it. :

I am 58 years old, so I am no whippersnapper. By far the rudest people I have to deal with are 60 years old and older. I never have to deal with any young folks as unthoughtful (is that a word) as the old folks who insist on carrying on conversations in the middle of church or meetings.

I'm too old and too happily married to go chasing after those sweet young things any more. I'm kind of like a dog chasing a car: I don't know what I would do with one if I caught her anyway.

I was manning a booth at the state capitol yesterday for Earth Day. A very attractive lady in her mid-thirties was at a table close to mine and, when things slowed down, she came over to visit. She pulled out her cell phone and showed me a picture of herself all dressed in camo holding up the head of a wild hog. She was quite proud of it. I asked her what she shot it with and she responded, "The dogs caught it and held it down and I stuck it." She had jumped on the hog and stabbed it with her knife while the catch dogs held it down. I just love these cracker women.

You can never have too many clamps. . . or bricks.

You ought to hear Arlo Guthrie tell the story about Steve Goodman accosting him in a bar in Chicago and trying to get him to listen to a song he wrote. Arlo finally gave in and told Goodman, "Buy me a beer and as long as it takes me to drink the beer I'll listen to your song. It was the best beer I ever had." As you may imagine, the song was "City of New Orleans."

I was talking about coal mining with a 40 year old coworker yesterday and, when I sang a little bit of "Muhlenberg County", she gave me a blank look. She had never heard the song and had never heard of Prine.

If I were to choose a pro that I would like to spend the day in a boat with it would be Jimmy Houston. He has always been a joy to talk to and he and I could spend the day fishing and comparing grandchildren stories. If I were to choose the one that I would like to watch for a day and learn from it would be KVD. He is just so smart.

Looks like Lowrance started selling those units before they were really ready. From what I have seen in the catalogues and on Lowrance's web site, I am not impressed. There appears to be an awful lot of clutter on the screen shots they show in the advertising.

1984 Bass Tracker Tournament TX 2006 Mercury 50hp 2 stroke with a four blade Trophy Sport 10 5/8" 12p prop Minn Kota Edge 40# trolling motor soon to be upgraded to a 55# Maxxum with variable speed. Runs about 33 mph (GPS) with me and all my gear.

I never get tired of watching that.

I have never played golf and don't have any desire to do so, but I thoroughly enjoy watching The Masters. I spent most of the afternoon at my daughter's house sitting in the recliner, watching the big screen HD TV and rocking my five month old granddaughter while the rest of the family cooked Easter dinner. When Tiger hit that shot into the woods and then hit a pine tree trying to get out, I figured that maybe he was mortal after all. But then the sucker saved par after all that. . .

As my daughters would say, "TMI!"

That is exactly what I carry. Clif Bars actually taste pretty good, are filling, and give you some long lasting energy. They are a holdover from my old bicycle racing days.

I cut and pasted it from another site.

Do I take it that someone found the picture of the LSU cheerleaders to be offensive? :

1984 Bass Tracker Tournament TX with a 2006 50 hp Mercury 2 stroke. It fishes better than I do.

I am getting totally frustrated trying to work with people in the Miami area. No one seems to come to work until the middle of the day. They seldom answer their telephone, and when they do they act irritated that you want them to do their job. They promise they will call you back with an answer, but they don't call. When you call them back they give you an attitude like, "What do you want? I told you last week I would call you back." This whole mañana thing is so frustrating when you are trying to get things done. OK, I'm done ranting now.

There is a small lake, Lake Munson, on the southern edge of Tallahassee. It is a beautiful little lake surrounded by cypress trees. It has a history of water quality problems so there are few people that fish it. A guy was putting his equipment away one day last year and was telling me about all the big bass he had caught at Munson. I guess he could perceive my doubt so he went to his truck and brought out a photo album full of big honkin' bass. I won't doubt him again. Funny thing was that he had a Ranger boat full of Berkley Cherrywood rods.

Have you actually had a rod with Batson Aluminum Oxide guides and had them fail? If so, was it with braid or mono? Yep, a St. Croix Premier. I was using monofilament. I love the rod except for the guides. Thanks for the reply. When I reread my question I realized I shouldn't have used the word "actually" since it "actually" might have made my question sound rude. I hope you didn't take it that way. I was just trying to find out if it was something you heard, or something you experienced. I knew what you meant. I had been warned about those Batson guides, but I liked the rod so much that I bought it anyway and, sure enough, the insert fell out of the rod tip very quickly. I replaced it with a Fuji.

That's one of those "green trout."

Have you actually had a rod with Batson Aluminum Oxide guides and had them fail? If so, was it with braid or mono? Yep, a St. Croix Premier. I was using monofilament. I love the rod except for the guides.

What is the Navionics 3000? I find no reference to it on the Navionics website.