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And...here's why people are selfish, willfully ignorant morons if they don't take this virus extremely seriously. Mary and I live out in a rural area, more than an hour from St. Louis, and we have been very cautious and prudent ever since this thing started, since we are both old enough to fit into the higher risk groups. We have been feeling reasonably confident that we can avoid getting this thing for quite a while because of our location and our precautions...after all, the nearest place to us that has any cases is the St. Louis area. This morning we went into Farmington to the Schnucks at 6:15 AM, because they announced that the hour from 6 to 7 would be reserved for people over 60 years old, and we figured that there wouldn't be very many people, even old farts like us, who were going to get up that early to go grocery shopping. We were met at the door by an employee who disinfected the handles of our shopping cart, along with our hands. There weren't many people in the store. The shelves weren't as full as they usually are, a few items were completely gone (toilet paper was, of course, one of them but we're good for now on TP), but we got what we needed to get, and got out of the store. Used disinfectant wipes on our hands again when we got into the truck, and wiped down all the packaged groceries when we got home, along with washing our hands carefully. So we were feeling good about the whole thing... Until we got the news that last weekend there was a wedding in Bonne Terre, 10 miles away from Farmington and 20 something miles away from our house. 200 people in attendance. And two of the guests came up from Arkansas, and two days later tested positive for the virus. The Health Department stated that they were symptomatic when they came to the wedding. A member of the family of the newlyweds disputes that. But there were a LOT of high school and college age kids at the wedding, and they all went to school on Monday. So you can pretty well expect that there will be a hotspot around Desloge and Bonne Terre, and that's hitting pretty close to home. And several of those kids went out later to a bar in Farmington, so it will probably show up in the hotspot, too. This is why I am completely pissed off at ANYBODY who plays down the dangers of this virus. I don't care what you believe, I don't care why you think it's no big deal or it's a conspiracy or whatever the heck you think. This is not a game and it's not politics. It's a very serious matter, and YOUR ACTIONS CAN HAVE DANGEROUS AND EVEN DEADLY EFFECTS ON OTHERS. If it was just you that was going to suffer from acting like a moron, then I'd be fine with that, but it isn't. I and the people I care about can suffer from your stupidity, too. Even if we don't suffer by getting the disease, everybody is going to suffer from the sacrifices we'll have to make for a longer period of time. All the government restrictions that are now mostly requests and advisories are going to become mandatory, and it won't be because the government is stupid or out to get you, it will be because of selfish, willfully ignorant people who did whatever the heck they pleased and ignored those restrictions when they were requests and advisories.

6 pounds of thinly sliced meat out of the cure and into the smoker. After a couple hours it will be put in the dehydrator to finish. Shut in snacking material.

I fished this afternoon for a few hrs and had the best trip of the year so far. I found a school of fish just inside a gravel cove that was feeding on a big school of shad. The shad were thick from 7 to 15ft then they thinned out between 15 and 25ft. This was an area protected from the wind and that allowed me to see shad flickering when idling into the cove. I used two different underspins to catch them. I positioned my boat in 30ft and threw a 3/8 oz to 10 ft and slowed rolled the bait. After catching a bunch, I put the boat in 22ft and threw a 1/4 oz to 6ft and found out the LM were shallower. It helped to have the bait real close to the bottom under most of the shad. If the bait hit the bottom it would get just enough slim to make the cast useless, so I messed up a lot casts. I had 28 keepers with a good mix of all species and some really nice LM (one was 5.10# and some 3s and 4s). I caught all the fish on a 30yd stretch and never moved the boat except to give them a rest. A few guys came in the cove so I stopped fishing and went to scout other gravel coves hoping to find the same stacked shad scenario. Yesterday morning I had 15 keepers on a 3" SB around trees with shad. Yesterday they would not pay the underspin much attention.

I went to the store to buy food but when I got there I noticed they were out of most of things I went there for. I remembered my cat needed food at home, which they had so I picked up a bag of it and headed to the checkout lanes. When I got there a the lady behind me, who had her daughter with her and cart full of toilet paper, made a snide remark about how I made a trip to the grocery store JUST to pick up cat food and that I shouldn't be out unless it was absolutely necessary. I told her I needed to get cat food to fatten up my cat so I have something decent to eat when there is no human food left in the stores due to all the hoarders such as herself. Her daughter broke out crying her head off at the news I was going to eat my cat. I didn't feel bad. Nor will I. Keep your snide remarks to yourself next time. Not a real story. Read it on Facebook. But it's funny. 😁

Might be dead next week, but first I’m gonna make these pork chops!

Look at the MS crappie and then what they are pulling out of Truman and you may not want to drive that far. Truman is on fire and most of these guides on Truman are throwing back lots of big females at 1.5 pound and up. It is a slaughter right now up there if you know the W-W-W-H. One of the guides last week had a day with two 3 person trips. Cleaned 90 crappie for his clients with the biggest at 1.75 and the smallest at 1.25 I believe he said they had 125 pounds of crappie not counting the small and huge ones they threw back. Said he had fished Truman since it flooded and never seen the quantity or quality that is coming out this year.

Parking lot waa packed when we got to SK ramp today. Splashed at 9 a.m (I know, Bill. The day's over by then. 😊) Skunk buster at 9:40 on a blade. Not another bite on blade, jig, Senko, little swimbait, crankbait or Ned until this purdy thang. Honestly, I wasn't sure it WAS a bite. Just some suspiciously slack line. Headed home to play golf. LOL

One more....

Mo pizza. Last weeks dough frozen and thawed. Fresh mozzarella this time.

I believe I have mentioned Nueskes before. If not, I should have. The wife and I buy our bacon, our brats, and our dogs from them. https://www.nueskes.com/?sc=PPCBRANDED&gclid=Cj0KCQjwmdzzBRC7ARIsANdqRRkzA3kVbEbi59pOWfK68JHhXlIsczYKTlcISA_Nfiv4lizL5ZxfeX4aAiSAEALw_wcB Tonight I will make a fried potatoes, bacon, and cabbage dish. Similar to colcannon but with fried potatoes instead of mashed potatoes. I mentioned Nueskes because I wanted you to see what their applewood smoked slab bacon look like.

Doing our part! Staying in place. Eating well and watching Twelve monkeys! 😲

My cousin posted on Facebook about some guy at the Walgreens with a cart running over with TP, hand soap, wipes, hand sanitizer and all kinds of stuff people are hoarding, She gave him a piece of her mind, told him he ought to be ashamed of himself and how he shouldn't be so uncaring and selfish. When she was getting ready to calm down the guy asked her if she was finished would she mind if he got back to stocking the shelves.

Todays activities.. Picked up a bunch of pallets the other day and made some canning shelves still have a ton of pallets to go through for other projects.. Plan on making shelves for the brewery equipment and some stuff for my son who just got back from Spring Break.... He was not prepared for the law that was laid down as my Basement Dweller!! .....He's adjusting though. Plan on making a bar from the Pallets for the Mancave in AR. and take down as soon as I feel its doable and I'm still kickin

A wealthy blonde woman walks into a New York city bank and asked for a $5000 short term loan. When asked what she wanted the loan for she replied that she was going to be travelling for two weeks and needed the money. The banker asked her how she would secure the loan. She said that she would use her $120K Mercedes as collateral. The banker agreed and said that they would need to impound the car until she repaid the loan and its interest. They completed the transaction. Two weeks later the woman returned to the bank and repaid the loan plus the $120 of interest. The banker laughed and said that she is a blonde and how dumb it was for her to pay $120 to borrow $5K for two weeks. Nonplussed the woman stated where else could she park her car in NY city for two weeks and only pay $120!

A DEA officer showed up at a ranch that they suspected that there might be some illegal crops being grown. The rancher met the officer and said that the could look over the entire ranch if he wanted. The rancher pointed to a fenced off field a stated that the officer could not go into that field. The officer shoved his badge into the ranchers faced and shouted "You see this badge! I can and will go where ever I want with this badge and you or no one else can stop me!" The rancher said that he could search wherever he needed to and that he had nothing to hide. Then he went back to work as the officer began his inspection. About a half hour later the rancher saw the officer in the fenced off field running and screaming. He was being chased by a very large and very angry bull. The rancher went to the fence and shouted "Show him your badge! Show him your badge!"

more humor..........

Put in at Big Indian at first light today, caught 2 solid keepers on a jerkbait at 8:15 in consecutive casts. Should have went home after that. Ended w 5 bites all day! Tried to force feed em a big blade in the colored water but that didn't happen. My boy did catch his first jerkbait fish today. I know Fisherman caught a good bag mixing it up today. Good luck everyone. Stay safe. Wt: 49-54.

You ASKED for advice, then you want to argue....I'm done...Pellets flies and glo balls are da bomb. Make it harder for yourself by matching an imaginary hatch if you want too. Moving on!

If you need any help disposing of bodies with that chainsaw, I might know a guy.

BTW BTW... those are not my Depends and Pads... Those are Moms!!!! I Love My Mom!...Trying to keep her safe!

Lot of people with their heads in the sand im not sure about more firewood but I’m definitely planning a bigger garden

Fishing was tough on Friday. We went out to Rourke creek and did okay. Caught a few right at the mouth. Saturday a group of our guys were fishing the same area and a older couple was using the trail. They striked up a conversation and they suggested they group go up into Rourke creek and fish right above the bridge. I guess this was a total hot spot and very nice of that couple to share their knowledge. They said the water was clear and the fish were just everywhere, of course they group did not share that information with me until last night. 😥 I fished Saturday from the college of the Ozarks to the power lines. I did okay, but my uncle got skunked with this 6lb crappie high visibility line and minnows. We usually have fun fishing from the docks for suckers, but dock fishing was non existent. Great time as always and a nice escape from everything going on in the world. Thanks for all of the tips and be safe.

Scribed.com has a free month of reading if anyone still reads. Been downloading some fly tying books this morning. Good stuff, for free.

Wait and see if the lower Mississippi starts flooding and if it's accompanied by incoming flood waters from the Ohio you'll see the Corps' "mission" change to concerns about flooding...especially if the AG interests on either side of the White in the Grand Prairie area of Arkansas start complaining. Those Cotton and Rice growers have a lot to say about what volume of water gets released from Bull since their land is so flat and the White spreads out for miles once it floods down there. Meanwhile, more rain events are forecast for later this week and look out if they develop into the "training" events we saw last week.

3/23 to 3/25 … Is this the fishing version of Back to the Future? 😁

Nice cold rain falling out there this morning. We needed it, the water level in the roadside ditches was getting a little low.

This has been beat to death hundreds of times but flood control does NOT correlate to a lake level. The corps and dam were designed to reduce DOWNSTREAM impacts not upstream lake levels. From a factual basis the dams work and continue to work as intended. The amount of water passed through the dam is considerably less than peak inflows. The problem is the user base of the upstream lakes all think "their" use is important and forgets what the actual mission was. If flood control was ever the primary or only mission then the lake would be lowered the maximum amount to accept the maximum amount of water. Meaning a constant draw down to 896(the bottom of the gates). Then constant generation to reduce it further until they reached the intake gates. Then you guys would be complaining of low water all the time(because at those levels a lot of the infrastructure becomes un-usable and we would see even larger fluctuations in water level.

Congratulations to those who went out and enjoyed the lake on Saturday. Water is high, a little color to it and some floating debris. Be careful. Nice pictures of some healthy fish. Mike

Really nice day on Stockton Lake! Lake is high (8.5 ft.) but not muddy on the main lake around Mutton Creek, muddy in the coves of larger streams. Seems as though the fish have taken the idea of social distancing (from people) to heart! Stay safe and healthy friends!

Saw a Buddy Hackett video with a few old farmer jokes he did on the tonight show. Here's my favorite. A hunter was duck hunting near a farm. Some ducks come flying over and he shoots one. The bird crumples and falls onto the barn and onto the ground. He runs over to get the duck. The farmer stops him and says that the duck is on his property and it's his duck. The hunter argues that he shot the duck and it's his. The farmer tells the hinter that they will settle this by the farm code. The hunter asks what that is and the farmer says that they will take turns kicking each other in the groin. Then the last man standing gets to keep the duck. The hunter reluctantly agreed to the contest. Since the duck was on his property the farmer says that he would go first. The farmer was a large strong man. He kicked tbe hunter with all that he could muster. The hunter crumpled to the ground and rolled around in significant pain. After a bit he was able to gain his composure and weakly get to his feet. As he stood up he said my turn and got ready to kick the farmer. Before he could go the farmer says "you win! You can keep the duck!" 😂 The video is hilarious and a must see.

Sounds like another smear campaign to me. I have found that a spray bottle mixture of Dawn dish soap with water and a very small squeegee work well. So I hear...

He wanted to bring his catfishing pole, then he found a bunch of night crawlers after an afternoon rainstorm and we just had to go. Fished from the dock with no luck, but he had a blast chumming up the fish with the remaining worms.

This is one of my favorite flies for fishing lakes!

Well said. This isn’t a “me” thing. This is about others and the community as a whole.

It was tough for sure. Tried jerk bait and they didn't want it today. Tried a lot of different stuff but just couldn't make it work. My son caught a good one in the back of a creek on a blade late morning. Thought ok maybe is going to happen. Nope, tried several other areas. Went to cranking a RK, caught 5 more all keepers. Best 5 probably around 15.5. Only caught 6 all day.

This from the guy who was sooo mean to @fishinwrench! 😄

The courtesy docks are pulled out of the water. COE left them close by. DNR has them a long ways out. The pontoon dock ar Hartley is the only close one that I saw.

Forgot to mention my guide, Champ188, put me on this fish. He's my hero.😘

You know I used to get in the middle of these Corps arguments all the time but since I've been retired for seven years now (wow - that's hard to believe) I've been staying out of 'em for quite a while as what I know/knew might not be all that pertinent anymore. That being said, one thing that I DO know to still be accurate is that the Corps does not create policy. That's done and dictated totally by congress and the Corps just does what its told.

I had the opportunity to make a day trip yesterday. The lake was in beautiful condition, and the fish cooperated for me most of the day. WT: 49-51 Areas: Main lake points with mix of gravel and rock (4-18 feet), boat in 20-30 feet. Baits: 3/16 Dirty Jig Guppyhead and 2.8 Keitech (Electric Shad and Pro Blue Red Shad) This was the only bait that played all day. Tried a jerkbait when the wind came up, but the fish preferred the swimbait. Overall, the fishing was good for my first time on the water this year. I was simply casting, letting it fall 2-4 seconds, and a slow constant retrieve. The bait would "tick" or simply "load" the rod up. Fish were all really healthy and they are feeding up preparing to spawn in the next few weeks. However, I think the cold front will pull them back over the next few days. I ended up with the trifecta (Spotted, Largemouth, and Smallmouth). Of the 20 fish I caught, about half were solid keepers. On another note, stay safe and be smart. All this will pass soon, and I look forward to fishing with you all again.

There needs to be a better way to score that doesn't involve relocating the fish from the cove/area they were caught in....OR there needs to be WAY fewer tournaments. That's the only smart options.

Those muffler guys are used to welding and repairing thin stuff. Good call.

Creeper??

Yeah, I've fixed worse. I'd lay a piece of angle along the break for reinforcement. From what I've seen, the problem is not as much from rust as it is from metal fatigue around the weld. If it gets to be a recurring problem, a new deck assembly is probably $700 or so. Not cheap but mowers aren't either, and all the other wear parts add up fast.

That was a long time ago.

Pellet fly😁 Pellet fly😁 Pellet fly😁 Shocker!!! That's the first time it's happened here...😂