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Figured since the big day has come and gone, I would post my trip to Capps on Christmas Eve. I had the whole the day off (which rarely happens this time of year), so since it was a nasty rainy day with cloudy skies, I figured it might be a good day to fish down there. I must say, those are always the better days down there if you can make it. And this time I remembered my jig box! Actually, that was all I took down there this time around. Got down there around 9ish and changed into my waders and started walking. First hole didn't produce so I didn't hang around too long before I was headed somewhere else on the stream. Then the day got much better! Caught the first bow and things started looking up. Second fish of the day in the pic. Nice brown that went 19" to the tape. Made my day for sure and the year down there since those are hard to come by. I ended up catching 4 trout and 3 google eye in about 2 hours and then headed back home. It was a good start to Christmas and a nice present for me! 🙂 Was fishing my own tied jigs again in an olive and brown color.

The weather finally warmed up a bit, so I was able to get out and do some fishing. SWPA schedule showed 1 unit all day. Fishing was good with lots of rainbows on a size 16 Y2K under an indicator. I also had good luck on bigger fish using a 1/32 oz olive and brown jig. Got this pretty brown on the jig.

I won't be fishing today to end out the year. I hope to get out tomorrow to start the 2025 year with some caught fish. Figured now would be a good time to post an end of the year round up for myself and my family. Most will be bullet points to keep it short but will mix in photos for those that like that kind of thing (like I do😉). If you don't know me and my family very well, we fish a lot, travel a lot to fish, and try to catch as many different species as possible. The other thing to know about me is that I track a lot of fishing information, e.g., type of fish caught, number caught, date caught, locations, and baits used. Makes it pretty easy to write up a post like this one. One other point is when I talk about fishing outings, I do treat moving to a different watershed as separate outings. This year I made 71 fishing outings and caught 712 fish which is not a lot compared to other OAF members. Fished in and caught fish in 13 states, including MD, FL, UT (new state), PA, NJ, DE, NC, KS, MO, IN (on a KY recipricating license for the OH river), WV, CO (new state) and TX. I caught 105 different species this year and 26 were new species. My daughter Livie made 44 fishing outings and caught 430 fish (when she agreed to fish with Dad). Fished in and caught fish in 8 states, including MD, FL, PA, NJ, DE, NC, IN (new state), and WV. She caught 82 different species this year and 33 were new species. Back in Feb she caught her 171st species and end the year at a total species list of 203 species. Her 200th fish species was a eyetail bowfin from NJ that she had to pull out of this little spot. Livie's 201st species was an oriental weatherfish caught later that night also in NJ (I also caught one as well) Photos of some of the more memorable trips. Midas cichlid in the canal and Livie and I both caught them. Parrots in the park overhead. Key deer buck from No-name Key Livie cured here needlefish curse with a redfin needlefish from Key West. I could not catch one, and only caught Atlantic needlefish from that pier in Key West. Also in the keys Livie and I caught mangrove gambusia, a species that I did not know about until we had help with its id. Livie's male. Fished one of our favorite reef fish spots in South Pointe park Miami. It's literally a fish bowl as you can see by the number of Sgt majors in this photo. Livie's puddingwife wrasse was remarkable and one of the targets for this trip. Sue caught a possible princess parrotfish, but have not fully confirmed its species. We fished the intercoastal and Dania pier and had targets of a couple filefish species, bandtail puffers and a variety of snapper and grunts. We all caught crested gobies in the IC waterway. We all caught bandtail puffers from the pier. Sue with a planehead filefish. I lost a nice scrawled filefish, but I'm not bitter 😒. I was in Utah for business in March which was a big change over the FL trip. My first UT fish was a white bass that I caught with a 1/16 oz chartreuse head and 2.5 inch pearl grub. Back in Maryland and after a couple of breakoffs, Livie and I figured out how to hook and land cownose rays. We made a couple of trips to PA. We love sculpin and did the three hours one way drive to catch a bunch of slimy sculpin (new lifers for both of us). We also were both successful catching Chesapeake logperch on a night fishing trip just over the PA border. One of the big targets for me this year was finally catching a ribbonfish. We have tried to catch them in VA and even in DE this year. Finally I made the decision after seeing lots of online reports to go to NC for them. I even booked a charter for them. The night before our charter we ended up catching a bunch on 1/4 oz swimbaits from the Jeannette's pier in Nagshead. We caught a lot more (40 between us) the next day n the charter. A swell from a tropical storm out by Bermuda created a swell that shut down other fishing opportunities for us on that trip. We did a family reunion trip to Kansas City to spend time with grandkids and our kids at Great Wolf Lodge. I fished a little but only caught species that I have caught before. I could not find a Johnny darter though I fished several targeted locations. One the way home we stopped in WV to small creek that I fished a few years ago. Well the creek was a vanishing creek due to the drought but when microfishing you never know what will be in a small drainage. Livie caught her first western blacknose dace from that pool. We also caught green sunfish, creek chub and southern redbelly dace there as well. We went back a few times to NJ to try for freshwater and saltwater lifers. In the pinelands of NJ we both caught lifer banded sunfish. In the fall I piggy backed some fishing onto two business conferences, one in Denver CO and the other in Austin TX. In CO I fished the mountains and warmwater creeks. Did catch a lifer brook stickleback on this trip! In TX if fished the hill country around Austin and also the saltwater off Galveston. In Galveston I fished this jetty and caught a lifer Molly Miller blenny - one of my targets for that trip. In Austin I had hopes for Guadalupe bass. I thought that I saw a few but only caught small largemouth bass. I didn't expect bluff holes in TX like those in MD and AR but there they were. Also the creek had Texas Cichlids which were another target for me. Unfortunately I can't post it all in one post, but I figured that this would be a good round-up of our year in 2024. I can't wait to see what we OAF'ers all can catch in 2025. Don't forget to post photos 😉😁

I was able to fish my local pond and got 4 crappie. I believe they are white crappie, although the bars are not extremely evident. They were all on a fly/jig given to me by @JUNGLE JIM 1 Good start to 2025. Interesting topic, Y2K was 25 years ago. This is the fly/jig, im honestly not sure what it would fall under. It's an ultra light weight jighead but tied in a fly fashion. He does good work.

My daughter and her family are here for New Years, and she wanted to go fishing, so we headed to Ranchette this morning. SWPA forecast showed 1 unit all day and the weather was pretty nice for a change. We had a good morning with around 3 dozen rainbows between us and a few browns. Best flies today were olive and brown woolly boogers and also caught a few on egg patterns under an indicator. Only saw 1 other boat all morning. Here's a couple of the better browns.

If you fish enough, particularly on the same waters, you sort of develop a sense for when the fishing probably isn't going to be much good. This is heightened in the winter; there is just a sort of stillness to everything some days. You can still see some fish, because it's a crystal clear, spring-fed river, but they aren't doing much. You might easily show up the next day, in seemingly the exact same conditions, but it's not the same. There is a sort of sense that everything is just a bit more alive, and if you don't trip over your own feet, you'll probably catch a whole bunch of fish. Wednesday, the first day of this year, was the former. I met my Dad on the river late in the morning; it had been September the last time we fished together, far too long. There had been good reasons in both of our lives for that, but nonetheless it was a problem that needed to be solved. The place we met at is about the furthest it could be from a secret, but it's also just enough under the radar that you can pretty much have it to yourself on a winter holiday. The fishing, as I hinted at, was on the slow side. That's a relative matter. This river is absolutely loaded with trout, so even on the slow days you are bound to catch a few. My dad caught a few little browns on an olive woolly bugger; I caught two 9 inch browns and two rainbows a few inches larger than that on a little olive jig. The strikes were tentative, and the fights sluggish at first, before heating up. It really was one of those days where I didn't mind the fishing being a little bit slow. I found myself looking a little more at my surroundings, which are quite impressive here. When I looked up at the steep, cedar dotted slope above the river, it occurred to me that this was almost certainly the first place I ever fished for trout in Missouri. I was about 8 years old. My grandfather was a passionate fly fisherman. It had been his birthday, and he had driven over, set up his RV at a campground down the road, and called up my dad and informed, not asked that we would be going down there and going fishing with him. I had totally forgotten where it had been, and it bugged me, but on this day, looking up at at that hillside, and thinking back on that day 25 years ago, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that was the spot. He spent that whole trip patiently trying to teach me how to fly cast, with what you'd have to call limited success. I don't think he fished at all. I'm absolutely certain no one came remotely close to catching a single fish in two full days of fishing. And it's one of my fonder childhood memories. He passed from cancer a few years after that. He was one of those tough, stoic men who died, almost literally on his horse. Once there was nothing much more to be done, he spent his last few months on a horse ranch in the southwest. He went straight from a trail ride to the hospital, and was gone within a few days. This surprised no one. If he saw me casting an ultra-light spinning rod instead of a 5-weight, he'd have pretended to be offended to his core, but he'd mostly have just been happy that I spent my holiday on the river with my Dad. When we breaked for lunch back at the truck, I mentioned this to my Dad. He agreed it looked like the same spot, and we both got a good laugh reminiscing about how disastrous my fly casting had been on this river 25 years ago. Apparently I hooked pretty much everyone in our party at some point with a fly, a detail my brain conveniently has omitted from memory. We both agreed that if we ended up living lives where the sight of a pretty hillside on a trout stream was the sort of thing that inspired people to remember us, we'd have done OK. Then we finished our lunch, and went back to the river. I asked my dad if we could switch set-ups for the last couple hours so I could fish with my grandpa's old 5 weight for awhile. Fittingly, it had gotten windy, and I was pretty rusty with my fly casting. It did not go particularly well, and I caught no more fish, and did not come particularly close. I could just envision grandpa sitting on the bank a safe distance behind me, and chuckling after a failed cast, and saying "If that's what you call 10 and 2, son, I'd hate to see you drive."

I haven't posted a report in a while, but fishing has been pretty good. The White River has been good with lots of rainbows a few decent browns. The Norfork has been slow with increased flows from the flood gate releases and dirty water. I fished Rim Shoals this morning and had the equivalent of 1-unit flows. Best flies were a small 1/64 oz olive and brown jig. Fished from 8 to 11 and ended with a couple dozen rainbows and a few decent browns. Here's a couple of the better browns from this morning.

A great day to be out, a bit brisk however. I caught a few of your fishes' brethren on Beaver lake.

This is a huge work in progress but it's the beginning of what I expect to be a great adventure. There is more info at our website www.neoshobass.com. I have been given permission to add a 5 part series on the Neosho Bass that was done by The Ozark Podcast. I would recommend that everyone listen to at least the first two episodes. Lots of good information in that. I should have it all added to our website by the end of the weekend. We begin filming at the end of March on what we consider a premier Neosho stream, and have many other trips planned for the remainder of the year.

I fished this morning and was fortunate to find a steady swimbait bite. Caught mostly K's but there were LM and SM mixed in. The first area had plenty of shad in 35-50 FOW and the bass were stacked underneath. The swimbait would trigger bites better than other baits like Damiki, spoon, and ice jig. This area held up until 9AM. The second area probably had shad at daylight but I was able to continue the swimbait bite without any visible shad. I fished this area until 10AM and called it a day. The swimbait setup was a 5/8 jig head and a 3" basspro speed shad swimbait. The 5/8 jig allows you to get the bait down quick, then swim it straight or swim & drop it. You can also jig it up/down under the boat, then slowly swim it straight up (like an ice jig). The 5/8 jig allows you to take advantage of its drop speed to trigger bites. A Keitech would work great but the speed shad is much tougher. The speed shad allows you to spend more time fishing. You can find fish without shad in a lot of area's but they are mainly singles roaming about 30ft down in much deeper water. WT 48.3

The deep bite was really good in December and January is starting on a good note. The weather is about to go into an extreme cold spell so I got this morning while the weather permits. I had several nice LM (about 10) but it was mainly a Kentucky bite. Fast vertical presentations have been key for triggering bites. Too many fish will ignore the bait if they get a good look at it. Some days a swimbait will work for fish postured high in the water column (1-15 ft below surface). The shad are less than 2" so a small bite has worked best. A 1/2 and 7/8 oz spoon, 5/8 and 7/8 oz ice jig, and Damiki style baits. I have been keeping the boat in 35 to 70 FOW. The fish closer to the bottom are easier to catch and the majority of bites come from closely grouped up fish. The deep water fish are moving at a steady pace. You do not need a ton of shad to hold fish in an area. Most mornings the shad are in numerous small pods. Trees are a plus but most fish will be caught in the general area because they are normally moving vs setting up in trees.

I call this one nopocolypse here. Called for 1 1/2 to 2 inches. 5 1/2 when I measured still snowing. 6 about now and snow about done. I cleared the hive entrances that needed it. Pat cleaned off the bird feeders. Bummer I won't be wearing my crocks to the woodshop today.. lol Glad the ice pretty well went off the trees yesterday snow was sticking if it was added to the ice it could of added to the ice storm mess.

Dutch and I launched at 0700 into the fog. It was one of those days where we got a bite or two here and there, we were never on a bunch of them. Ned rigs were our best baits, a couple of swim bait fish and at the end of the day we fished cranks on about 1/2 mile of bank and caught a couple of smallmouth. We ended up with 18 bass and a walleye that was just short of being kept. 3 keeper bass and Dutch had big fish honors with one of those tank spots that was in the 2.5 to 3 lb. range. We got blown off the lake about noon, it was really windy. Quite a few other boats out today. WT 50-51

A duck here a duck or two there until this morning. Permission to hunt a really old pond. Its just a puddle now surrounded by trees compared to what it used to be. There is a small lake half mile away. Big enough it can roost many birds. You can't see what is hanging around there but in your mind you know they are there. Ducks fly out of the lake to surrounding ponds every year. We have tried to hunt this pond last three days. Up at 4:30 each day. Rain or foggy as heck. We are don't have to be miserable so passed until this morning. Actually the sun was supposed to shine early. It did and mallards trickled in for an hour. Four each met their maker and our table. It was the outing we both needed. Comfortable too. We hunker under a pin oak in chairs. View from the pond towards our sitting place, Deepest place in the pond is crotch deep. Loaded up and ready for the ride back to the truck. Way too easy,

Big family Christmas party got canceled today due to several being sick. So I headed to the river around 1:30. WT was 48 and slightly murky. Cloudy but pleasant around 55 degrees. Ramp was a sloppy mess and there was a big pile of sand I had to back over to get the boat off the trailer. My truck, trailer and boat are a mess. I’ll go to the car wash tomorrow. I caught 5 in about an hour and half then they quit. All on Crank baits and @Mitch fs fugitive swim bait. Broke off a bigger one at the boat on the fugitive. Looked to be about 17-18 inches. I think in the winter the bite is better mid day and not so much early and late like summer time. I think I got there right at the end of the bite because they were “on” when I started but turned off quickly. The dark black line on the board is 15”s.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas! Temps around here are forecast to be in the 60's next weekend, so if you get some fishing gifts it will be a good time to get out and fish.

I think these are gonna be my new favorite Crappie fly. I don't like his hook of choice though.....So I went with a standard Clouser hook.

1) Catch Fish! Lots and Lots of fish on all forms of hook and line fishing. 2) Fish more with friends and family. That’s it. I’ll keep up with numbers and species and stuff for sure. I’ll make trips hoping for this or that. I’ll still want “Benjamins” and “50 Burgers”, but I’m not going to get consumed by any one quest or goal.

It's pretty, but I will be happy to see it gone.

I have a weird goal. While traveling around Beaver Lake, where I'm blessed to have a slip, I've seen huge carp. Yep, carp. Where I came from near Chicago we fished for carp on purpose. Other than maybe stripers, I don't know of a freshwater fish that fights harder. No one targets them on Beaver at all. That is my weird goal for 2025. To establish a pattern and target these hard pullin' things. My PB carp is 25# but I've seen bigger here. They are here, why not catch em'. I know, weird.

When our Christmas lights came on last night the snow gave them a pretty cool effect.

A good new years day indeed. I was successful in connecting the fuel lines. I was able to pull start 'ol Frankenstein. HE'S ALIVE!! I did not connect the steering linkage, adn as seen in the video attached, i did not fill a barrel with water. I do have muffs, kinda forgot about buying them. It's been a journey, and I am satisfied so far. I caught fish today, and won a rechargeable aerator from Hydro Charge Fishing via Bassquatch90 YouTube/Facebook channel.

Got a new battery, it helped but still hard to cycle. The compression builds up and it is tough to turn. I took out the spark plugs and sprayed with fogging oil. Pulling a few times with the oil and no plugs it's really easy. I decided it was time to connect fuel over the weekend. I had problems with the fuel leaking from the pump, although I just rebuilt it. I could hear air leaking as I pumped my fuel siphon, as well as fuel leaking from the pump. I ordered one on Amazon, as it was significantly cheaper than the marine parts I've been ordering from. I still may get the OEM, but for now, I just want to get proof of it running before dumping alot more money. I decided to remove the pump from the block and try to pressurize it to see where the fuel was leaking. Then the next problem happened. My fuel tank internal fuel hose disconnected. It's an awfully old tank, so a new one was in the plans. I got a new tank this evening. I installed the new fuel pump, and pressurized the system. Before I installed the fuel lines I had a sneaky suspicion that I originally installed them backwards. Sure enough. I did, and i believe that may be why the internal fuel tank hose came off. I have a leak at the carburetor where the fuel line connects, I need to get some hose clamps instead of the zip ties I tried to use. I decided to try pulling the rope (as it is raining outside and I don't want to possibly short my battery), and it wasn't so hard. I went ahead and pulled a few more times and got a "pop" of ignition. Frankenstein started to moan..... I need to clamp the fuel lines, and fill up my trash can with water, before I try to start it all the way. But, I'm pretty excited.

Well, its been almost 2 months since my trailer messed up and took that long to get one. I finally got it and the drop on the spindle was wrong so my wheels and tires were to big and sat on the fenders. I had my old wheels and tires and with some fender adjustment I made it work. Took the downtime to Wire in a new Lithium Battery for my graphs, network them all, and ad a 12" up front. So today I went today with intentions of fishing deep and playing with the new graph, but it just didn't feel right, Every boat I saw was out in the abyss casting into open water. So I went to the bank and cranked and had it all to myself. If your a bank beater you have plenty of free water since no ones uses it anymore. I did catch the biggest 3.41 on a float-n-fly. And all the rest on Cranks. Fished mainly in Flat Creek, water was dirty at the mouth but very clear once you got in there with 48 degree water. Ended up with 12 smallmouth with only one being a keeper and all the rest were 10-12 inches, but they were flat eating it. One Keep Largemouth and some short spots. Felt good to get out again, even though it was only for 4 hours. Everything I caught was under 6ft of water

Cloudy, misty day with no wind early and a bit of wind later. Took this pic of the mist on the mountain: Caught some fish on the Ned rig and some on a 3.3 swimbait. I caught 17 bass with 3 keepers, which is OK, but I felt I should've had a better day. I was around fish but had a tough time getting them to bite and to top it off lost several fish with a couple feeling like they were good fish. There were quite a few fish chasing shad on top, but they were scattered. If I was close enough to get to them before they moved away I could get them to bite the swimbait. Ned fish were on the rocky banks with a few on a rocky ledge coming off a point. The spots are eating good, getting real fat. WT 51

Merry Christmas to my foodie friends, This might tire you but I could eat this weekly if not more. We were blessed once again with some mallards. Time to eat fresh so Christmas meal. The best two drake breasts were seasoned and the skin was crosshatched. Then into the sous vide @130 while we watched the chiefs victory. I started the charcoal as Pat started the sides. Charcoal ready I added some crabapple wood. On went the duck. There is something magical about smoke and fire. A primitive thing. We had the new of the sous vide and that smoke and fire. The transformation to nourishment, Then the neighbor showed up with something sweet she had made, neighbors can be a good thing even though a half mile away. I'm full 😁.

What do ya think Wrench got a good deal on this ol girl....brand new 1973. I don't know much about it but it does start and run. The guy used it at idle trolling for spoonbill most of its life. Im just going to rebuild the carb, fuel pump, and water pump and see what happens from there

Here are a couple pics to show the difference between the Snake River variety and the Bonneville variety. First one is a Bonneville, second one a Snake River. I haven't caught a Bonneville since 2023, so they are getting pretty rare.

We cannot risk Cody's gumbo with a poll. I will make a pot of chili....so we don't all starve. And it saves more gumbo for me!

A Nebo Hill lanceolate and a generic dart point. I warming up 😆.

I’ve accomplished nearly all of my personal goals regarding big fish and tourneys over the past few years so my goals are changing. The only two goals I really have are to fish with dad as much as possible and try to take more youth out fishing.

It’s idiotic that Bowfishing is allowed for any non invasive fish.

Scud pattern I've had some luck with.

Looks like we got around 10-11" here in the Cotter area.

We got about an inch or two on top of what's left of the 11 inches + ice we got last weekend. It was handled easily with the leaf blower. My poor MIL lives in a senior living facility near here that is dealing with a major water infiltration. According to her there's three inches of water inside her apartment, water into the electrical that has the fire alarms going off, and the fire department in there. Sounds like an absolute disaster. Luckily we'll be able to have her here until this is figured out.

Which chaps my rear. Catch and drop back in water immediately is one thing but setting the hook and crossing their eyes then hauling around in a live well all day looking for a bigger one then dumped who know where on the lake is ok but no one else is that fishes. Just shows you money talks in conservation making rules. You started it @snagged in outlet 3 with the tourney guys. I can't let you be alone in this.

Just got back in the house from clearing the walkway and driveway with the lift and throw manual snowblower. I'm guessing 6-8 inches here. A few days ago they were saying maybe 2 inches at the most. HA!

It is sickening. Practically every boat that comes in for repairs is equipped with FFS. Even little old tin boats with 15-30hp motors, on trailers that I wouldn't trust to go 2 miles down the road with. The only positive side for me is that it lets me know that I can give myself another healthy raise this year without hurting anyone's bank account too bad.

Power still out tonite, 3 poles snapped off at ground over the hill. 10k with my coop without power at 3. Generator failed me, had to bring in house to thaw out. Been purring since 10 am charging electronics and running fridge and freezer. Neighbor had 2 ranks of dry wood, been packing it over for fireplace. Still have propane. Cut my way thru a Bradford pear and went to dollar store for few things. Life pretty normal in town. Made a nice chicken stir fry tonite on camp stove and have cold beers.

12:15 and we have thunder snow. I mean it’s really coming down. Headed out to try and stay ahead of it.

The madness and hoarding started here on Thursday. Ran into town after leaving farm last nite, called wife to see if she needed anything. Of course, we needed bread and milk... Nothing. Shelves were bare. Propane tanks all gone along with heaters and kerosene. Picked up a pork roast, taters, and carrots, a 12 pack, and a can of crescent rolls.

Well I got to the ramp about 10 again and had it all to myself. Saw 1 other guide boat running around chasing walleye I believe. Almost staying in bed with the high winds and cold but knew I'd be mad if I didnt go. So I figured why not. Worst case scenario I went for a 45 min drive for fun.....Glad I went!!! Took 2 hours but got my 2nd limit of the week. Smallest crappie was 11.75. Biggest was 15.25 and weighed 1.98. All caught on a 6th sense Tinsle jig in either Pink & Black or Blue & Silver. Then I went hunting for walleye. Struck out everywhere. They are kicking my butt. Did catch a bunch of bass with 3 keepers. All on jerkbaits, Arig. And 2.8 kietech. Could not even find a walleye. Great way to end the year!! And for all you "Blaukets" out there.......Yes, I used FFS to catch my crappie. I got to crappie fish these 2 times this week for the first time since spring. I enjoy being able to find them alot faster that way in the few times I get to go between work and kids sports. Hope everybody has a Safe New Year and great 2025!!

Waited for it to warm up a bit and launched around 0930. Found one good bank that was holding some fish and found a lot of banks that were not holding fish. Best bait was the Ned rig, fished on steep timbered banks or rocky banks. Ned fish were in the 10-20 FOW range Caught a couple on the 3.3 swimbait. And one crankbait fish, but that was my best fish of the day a 3 1/4 Lb. largemouth. 14 total bass, all smallies except for the one LM and a meanmouth. 3 were keepers. WT 52

Good day on the river today, not that I have a whole lot of bad ones. Trout fishing was about as slow as ever I've seen it here (only a couple 11 inch rainbows caught all day, a few more hooked and lost) but the smallmouth fishing was positively decent and filled in the gaps nicely. Overall, very nice day on the river with slightly slow fishing for most of it. No complaints here. The smallies fought hard and really were a good deal of fun on the ultra-light trout setup.

In middle of November 2019, up by the cable eddy, bluff blank, caught Whites, Crappie, Kentucky, and Smallmouth on this trip in the same place, spill gates where open, believe they where all coming over the top and hanging around the eddy. All caught stripping a streamer with a fly rod, caught trout too, incredibly fun, never new what you where going to get next.

I've worked retail of some kind most all of my life. The management during orientation sternly explains to new employees not to interfere with people who are stealing. Doesn't matter how obvious it is that people are stealing, you don't approach. The common reason is it is cheaper than a lawsuit from the thief, and or workers comp for the employee. The "solution" to help prevent potential thieves is to "give them great customer service ". That was in the hopes of someone not being bold enough to want to steal in front of the associates. Meanwhile I made Kings Hawaiian Roll sliders. They were great as appetizers. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/216756/baked-ham-and-cheese-party-sandwiches/

Got out for a few hours, didn't start until 1030 as I waited for the temp to get above freezing. Fished until 3 PM. It was slow, caught a half dozen smallies on the Ned rig and a 3.3 swimbait. Fish were deep, out in 15-25 FOW. No one out there on a beautiful but cold Saturday, only saw 2 other boats. Saw more eagles than boats, great time to get out for the eagle watchers. WT 53-54