kjackson

The closest I came to fishing the North Fork was cruising timber for a sale on one of the tribs. Beautiful water but too far from home.

I read a lot of sci-fi. Scalzi's books are excellent; he's a great writer. Another good, current author is Connie Willis-- start with the Doomsday Book to tune in to her time-travel series. Her Blackout and All Clear are a nice blend of science fiction and WWII history. On the mystery side, I lost interest in Joe Pickett when the wife character started romanticizing about the outlaw guy who kept raptors. I picked up a lot of Christie paperbacks in the free pile at a thrift store and have been reading them on occasion. I also like Tony Hillerman's series for some reason.

They will colonize big time. There are islands on Pickwick that are huge rookeries of cormorants with so many that you can smell 'em from quite a ways. As I recall, there are places in other states ( I think New York is one and Washington another) where the feds have gone in to oil eggs to stop them from hatching. Canada opened a season on cormorants that had a limit of 50, which has now been reduced to 15 because of complaints from animal-rights groups or something like that. While our batch may not be a problem, the pair that are fishing under our dock need to be discouraged...

I've started seeing quite a few cormorants up Cole Camp Creek arm--- somewhere near a dozen. This is the first time I've noticed these buggers in the four years we've owned our cabin. Having seen what these birds do on the Tennessee River, I'm beginning to wonder if we will have a problem in the near future. It would be different if we could shoot the fish-swilling critters, but they are protected. I'm not saying that a few might turn up floating down lake after running afoul of a piece of lead, but... Have cormorants been long-time residents of LOZ? Are they something that will

Morning glory is incredibly invasive. I'd go nuclear on it...a landscaper once told me the best treatment was to dig up one of the primary roots and dip the cut end in pure Roundup for at least 15 seconds.

My experience with Daiwa reels has been good--always. I still use a pair of SS 1300 spinning reels I bought when they first came out in the...'80s(?). The revised BG series should be rock solid.

I was on a media trip to Venice in March--just in time o catch the coronavirus stuff-- and fished with Lew's new inshore rods. My fave was a 7-foot medium spooled with 30-pound braid. That rod would be a great medium crankbait rod-- so take that as a guide. We were fishing ¾-ounce Red Eye Shads (you really need to have some of those if you're going to be fishing artificials at all) and Strike King's Thunder Cricket. I caught my two biggest reds--a 48 and a 45-- on that rod. On previous trips, I've done well fishing with a 6 ½-foot MH rod and 20-pound braid. IMO bass tackle will deal

Liberal use of duct tape to streamline the fishing wire/transducer fitting junction will help--as long as the wad o' tape isn't too large. Good luck.

Travis-- They're both right-handed reels according to the box. I've not opened either, so I'm trusting Quantum to be correct. I'm looking for $60 each.

The Citrix is an eight-bearing reel and lefthand crank. It's great for topwater baits.

Got it and responding now. We just returned from the lake...

If you find mealworms and like to use 'em, you can grow your own. Dump a bunch of oatmeal in a tall container that has slick sides-- like a five-gallon plastic bucket and add mealworms. Keep them from freezing (and probably overheating), and add some mealworms. They will breed and grow in that without escaping. I've not thought of using them in quite a while; I may have to do it again.

Finally getting around to one of my New Year's resolutions-- organizing and thinning the fishing stash. I have three NIB reels-- Quantum EXO PT: EX100HPT, 7.3:1 $120 TYD in US 2 Quantum Energy 860PT-XM, 6.18:1 $60 TYD in US And three used but still in good shape reels: Okuma Citrix, 8 bearing reel. It's small and was cast a few times-- $15, you pay shipping Quantum, EX 5016X left-hand, a bit dirty but still in good condition-- $10, you pay shipping Pfleuger Solara-- a bit of boat rash and needs a bit of cleaning, spooled with what looks to be 30-pound GSP bra

If you're interested, I have a similar boat that I'll be selling fairly soon. No astroturf, though. It has the Yammie 50 tiller with tilt and trim, SS prop, wide open floor, casting deck.

This is an intriguing topic, Randy. Thanks. Of the boats I miss-- I had an 8-foot pram that would be perfect for some of the areas around here, and I'm seriously considering building one this fall. A pram, IMO, is better for fishing than a kayak for a lot of reasons. Then, when I got bored with hardcore salmon fishing, I sold my fiberglass tiller mooching boat and bought a Sears Gamefisher 14'. I put a 15-hp Suzuki on it, and it was a great boat. If I could convince my bank account that I could have a second motor boat, I'd find another. It was fiberglass tri-hull design that was s