1 hour ago, ol'crickety said:

I kid you not. I wear the same clothes for months.

 

8 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

 

I fully expect you come screeching into my driveway, lights flashing and siren sounding, and say through your megaphone, "This is the fashion police. Come out of the house with your hands in the air."

 

Wanna know who else don't change their clothes? Artists. I used to hang with artists in Boston and everyday, they'd report to the studio and don the same paint-splattered clothes that they'd been wearing for months. 

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fully expect you come screeching into my driveway, lights flashing and siren sounding, and say through your megaphone, "This is the fashion police. Come out of the house with your hands in the air."

He's gotta be lazy - he lives about 3 suburbs from me...maybe 20-30 minutes away...and he won't even sic his 'Hair Police' on me. You're safe, Katie. 🙃

15 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I fully expect you come screeching into my driveway, lights flashing and siren sounding, and say through your megaphone, "This is the fashion police. Come out of the house with your hands in the air."

 

Lymes is no joke though.  Better safe than sorry.  If I had to walk through the woods to get to a canoe, I'd treat my clothes with repellent too.

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

Lymes is no joke though.  Better safe than sorry.  If I had to walk through the woods to get to a canoe, I'd treat my clothes with repellent too.

 

Thanks, my cyber-friend.

11 minutes ago, gimruis said:

 

Lymes is no joke though.  Better safe than sorry.  If I had to walk through the woods to get to a canoe, I'd treat my clothes with repellent too.

Agree. I'm not a fan of chemicals, but I always coat my pants, especially around my ankles and waist, with the same stuff @ol'crickety mentioned. Lyme's seems to be having an uptick lately and I'm not interested in having a run with it. 

I wash my fishing pants weekly I think. But I don't get out as much as you all, so if I have a few trips I'll wash after those are done. 

I’m no entomologist but it seems like I heard a tick has to be imbedded for like 24 hrs to transmit disease. I can feel them walking on me before they bite, and the ones I have had imbedded itched like fire immediately . Granted I’ve had the bullseye reaction once or twice so I may not be the guy to give tick advice 

@FryDog62 has kids with lymes and he's told the story here before.  Its bad news.  Needs to be treated with a specific medication quickly or you're essentially stuck with it for life, and the symptoms it has.

2 hours ago, MN Fisher said:

He's gotta be lazy - he lives about 3 suburbs from me...maybe 20-30 minutes away...and he won't even sic his 'Hair Police' on me. You're safe, Katie. 🙃

 

Whew! I was afraid, knowing how ornery I can be, that when he ordered me out of the house with my hands in the air, I'd reply: "You're not taking me alive, fashion copper!"

 

And he'd likely reply, "I was hoping you'd say that!"

@MN Fisher gets a free pass because he literally built a bass boat from scratch (well, almost).  @ol'crickety I'm not sure if you were here when he did that but he documented it in his own thread with videos, photos, and description.  Its been a number of years now.

 

I still don't like his haircut lol

Just now, gimruis said:

I still don't like his haircut lol

What haircut - every so often I trim the ponytail, but that's the extent of it...I don't think I've been to a barber since before the Millennium change.

Water temps heating up right along with the air temps and are now into the low 70s during the day here. Still some crappie hanging around spawning areas, so spent most of the afternoon checking them out, but did slide out on to the main lake with a Ned to score one bass. Only got one decent crappie at 1.96 lbs.

 

 

32 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Only got one decent crappie at 1.96 lbs.

ONLY, he says. 

 

Me and Jake caught a bunch tonight but the majority were tiny.  Caught them all around wood on Texas rigs.  These were the biggest ones.  Every fish is showing signs of spawning activity but there are very few fish visibly on bed right now.  Might be that fish are spawning a little deeper this year with slightly clearer water I've been seeing.

I was on the water shortly after 5 today. Wind 10-15, mostly cloudy, temp around 80.  Decided to fish the east channel of our island , starting out with a june bug baby brush hog. Got 5 there off brush piles and laydowns. Got to the south end of the island and switched to the speed worm. Hooked a good fish that probably jumped 3 feet out of the water and shook off. I got a dink on the speedworm and moved south. I decided to do a drift across part of the lake.

This is when I suddenly thought of a bait I hadn’t used much in 10 years, the Zoom horny toad in watermelon red, and put one on. Immediately got a tap on the retrieve but swung and missed. The wind took me west around a point, so I fired a cast parallel to the point down the bank . Boom! Missed again. Boom ! missed again. Next cast a 1 pounder. 

By then I was back near the island. I went slightly up into the west channel, and missed another fish. The next cast the rod loaded up on the drop. Pegged him and got the biggest of the day. Ended up going on to the far southeast corner where I like to end the day. Got a couple more one pounders on the toad.

Threw near a dock, and the rod loaded up again before I could even get the reel engaged. She had nearly pulled the line all the way tight and I hit her hard…

but it came loose. BIG fish. I didn’t turn her at all as she  went on under the dock.  As the sun went down , I got another fish skipping the toad under a dock. I had forgotten how well they skip!!
I am excited to start using the HT again.  I ended up with 11, and 5 of them on the toad !

 

Got the slump buster out (Creme Maxi Tail + 1/16oz tube jig), caught this tiny spotted bass, 13 black crappies, and 2 bluegill. Had a couple nice size black crappies, nice little barn doors. Bite ended around 2am. Night fishing is good and cool. Have had a tough time finding black bass but that little tube setup at night is basically a cheat code for getting bit. I'll take it.

@N Florida Mike: You've got your own big bass streak going now too, Mike, like @AlabamaSpothunter, @Pat Brown, @Team9nine, @hokiehunter373, @Fried Lemons, @deep, etc.

 

I'm going to my first biggish bass pond tomorrow, so here's hoping I land one or two over four pounds. 

 

My three big bass bogs don't have solid shorelines, so I've been avoiding them until the water warms a little more, for if I were to tip, there'd be no place solid to swim. My pond and tomorrow's pond give me solid shorelines to hug. I keep hearing @T-Billy's wisely admonishing me to put safety first and I try to do just that.

 

Correction: I'm going fishing today. The wind forecast just shifted. So, fingers crossed a big gal wants to dance with me this afternoon. 

Here’s what I caught yesterday after work and today after work. Yesterday fish all came on a shad fry z and a micro finesse shad jig head. Today was a 4” double ringer in black with red flake on a 3/32 all terrain Hail Mary football ned head. Black and red flake is going to be my new color of the year and I also got 2 largemouth and my bigger smallmouth today on that color combo. They were feeding very shallow around 9:15 am today. The fish are small but there still a fish and that’s good enough in my book lol, definitely beats a skunk 🦨 

It was a quantity day, Murph. Those are fun too! I'm just grateful you're posting again. You could post an old can you'd hooked and I'd still be happy to see it.

 

And I note your beard getting bigger and bigger. Watch your back, @thediscochef, there's a bigger and bigger beard on your rear bumper! 

First Haircut Police, and now Beard Wars!

 

 

 

17 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

 Black and red flake is going to be my new color of the year ...

 

Don't tell anyone, but that's a good color on the Grand River up here too.

Word on the street is that Disco “The Wild Card” Chef is catching em.

#spoiler

4 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Word on the street is that Disco “The Wild Card” Chef is catching em.

#spoiler

 

Oooh, I'm genuinely excited! I'm off to fish now too, so I'm excited times two.

8 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

I keep hearing @T-Billy's wisely admonishing me to put safety first and I try to do just that.

Can't fish that bog tomorrow if you drown in it today. 😉

 

So... I had a pretty solid bite on a spinnerbait today... 😂

Given the location, and time of year, I'd wager it was a big pike. Didn't get to see it. It came off immediately after very nearly ripping my rod out of my hands. It bent the handle so far it locked up the reel when it came around and hit the spool tension knob. My goodness what a ferocious hit!!!

 I then proceeded to take a skunking. Caught 9 LM and lost two more there yesterday. No bigs. All 1 - 2.5#. Front rolled through last night and into the morning, and THEY GONE!!! 

Edit to add: Hat's off to Lew's. That old Tournament MB has been through the ringer and it's still smooth and going strong. Just needs a new handle, and it'll be ready to get back to haulin 'em.

I took off work and hit lake Norman with a buddy this morning. I'm not used to water that clear or fishing for spots, so it was fun to have a new experience. They were on beds everywhere and pretty aggressive. It was cool to be able to see the beds in 5-8' of water in some places. This whole year I've fished under a foot of visibility so really really cool. Even saw 2 schools of large catfish, one circled our boat like sharks lol. 

 

We caught a lot, but all they'd eat was senko, any way you gave it to them. They fight much harder than lmb in my experience, which is fun. Mostly small ones, a few in the 2-3 lb range. Only picture I took is below. 

 

My buddy got there super early and caught numerous over 4lb ones in the dark on top water. I couldn't make it that early because I live too far away and like to sleep at least some. 

Had less than 3.5 hrs to fish this afternoon, but wanted to take advantage of the clouds and cooler temps (only 80 deg.). Changed lakes and decided to chase bass today. Ended up with half a dozen fish, all shallow, on a mix of Ned and trick worms. Water really clear, but even with the cloud cover, I was able to spot a couple nesters - first I’ve seen this year. Need to go back on a sunny day when they’re easier to see.