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The C&R area opened up Wednesday, so I made a trip up there Thursday afternoon after the water went down. Lots of boats drifting from the dam downstream and then running back up. Most of them looked to be tossing big streamers. Ran into a friend and we were the only waders. Fishing was good with some nice size rainbows, 1 pretty cutthroat and a decent brown. Best fly for me was a white egg pattern under an indicator. Also caught one and missed another on a Bennett Blue crackleback. Here's a few pics...

Not any more or less than I was yesterday.

There won't be an increase in accidents "due to pot smoking". People have been driving high forever, and actually you tend to be more cautious with a buzz than you are when you're straight. The last thing anybody wants, when they are high, is any kind of unpleasant drama. You'll typically go out of your way, and take extra measures, just to avoid any. Marijuana is the most peaceful "drug" known to man. The world would be a much friendlier place if EVERYONE just did a bong hit every few hours 😂

I bet I have some food in the fridge older than Seth. Which reminds me, time to do an expiration date check on that stuff.

Southern Dent and Northern Shannon county roads were bad today but should be much better tomorrow. The good thing is I was the only one in The OZARK-NSR.

Ask me again the day after I retire. I will purchase a brownie. Have a very large Flora Farm operation a couple miles from me. Actually I would fully trust their quality as it is a HUGE facility and they take have I think 2 or 3 large grow houses. I just have to be careful because I like brownies but am pretty sure I am not supposed to eat a whole one. Had a class put on by MSHP a few days ago they talked about how possession is now civil and not criminal so you could have bales of it in your card and he wouldn't even look twice. However driving impaired regardless of why is still a crime and they could arrest and prosecute on that basis. I am thinking nibbling on a brownie while fishing from the bank will either make me not care about whether I catch fish or not or I will be curled up on the ground asleep for a while.

Diamond High School

Nobody has paid attention to the law in this area for years, and I’ve seen no enforcement. All the old timers walking their dogs just think we have had an invasion of skunks in the last few years. Mike

7/11 will be busy tonight😆

I'll let you know at 4:20. 😵 LOL

I thought that before I ate the package of "Creme cheese & Chive" crackers that were in my boat 🤢 Eeww! Never again!

Had some back pain a week or so ago, pulled the Tylenol out, it had been in the cabinet for a while so I checked the expiration date and it was sometime in 2019. I went and got a new bottle.

Just did the expiry check when I was stuck at home Tuesday. When I was done, the canned cabinet was down to a lone can of chicken noodle... and it looked like I wasn't going to be able to get to the store for maybe a couple more days. Fixed a can of chunky sirloin that was 2 months past due. I'm still here, so I guess it was OK.

Heck I have shirts older than Seth😆. By the way what happened to the bright yellow shirts?

I got a photo upgrade on Creek Chub too.

I used to date a Cuban black woman from Columbia for a couple of years. But my German wife found out and made us stop. And then we had popcorn.

One of the best fly fishermen I know often bought BPS White River gear and whined if he had to pay more than about $89 for a rod.

Well heck I thought you were talking about at some point at least in this century lol. I was born in 86 I wasn't thinking about Oktoberfest much back in those days. 😄

Just a reminder for any who would like to attend the 2023 Reel Recovery retreat. We need Participants to apply. If you are a man that has or had cancer you will enjoy this. If you know of anyone that could use this retreat, please encourage them to attend. Here is a news clip that aired today. https://fox2now.com/am-show/fishing-for-healing-reel-recovery-uses-fly-fishing-to-fight-cancers-effects/ Some other information. April 24, 2023 – April 26, 2023 Retreat 3 Days REEL RECOVERY is a national non-profit organization that conducts fly-fishing retreats for men recovering from cancer. Our mission is to help men in the recovery process by sharing with them the healing powers of the sport of fly-fishing, while providing a safe, supportive environment to explore their personal experiences with cancer, with others who share their stories. Retreats are offered at no cost to the participants and are led by professional facilitators and expert fly-fishing instructors. Reel Recovery provides all meals, lodging and fly-fishing equipment, and no previous fishing experience is required. A maximum of 14 men are invited to participate. The Retreat Starts: 4:00 PM Monday, April 24 The Retreat Ends: 2:00 PM Wednesday, April 26 Primary Service Area: Missouri Eligibility: Men living with cancer To apply for this event, please fill out and submit: Retreat Application Form http://reelrecovery.org/programs/application/ Medical Release Form Medical Release For more information, contact Reel Recovery at info@reelrecovery.org or call 800-699-4490 Also, if you are so inclined you can volunteer or even better you can donate and even earmark the donation to the Missouri retreat. As river buddies Pat and I know what this does for some of these men that attend. If I can get @jdmidwest to put his two cents in I would appreciate it. Be Well Fish On!

https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/derelict-balloon-air-traffic-control-recordings-capture-pilots-spotting-chinese-spy-balloon

I will have known that I was trained by a legend(in his own mind)

get me a name and address. I am a retired government engineer and it sounds like it it right up my ally. My wife is retired also so if we had to be mobile we could. Thanks.

If you holler loud enough will the neighbors hear you down farther down the holler? By JIM CORNETT Recently, a woman from up north said on Facebook: “My mother was from Letcher County, and I want to know what a ‘holler’ is.” There were many answers, but a lot of things about a holler were left out. Some said it is called a ‘hollow” but I disagree. It’s always been called a holler. The most common answer was that it is a valley between two mountains. I say that it’s too narrow to be a valley. I lived in Graveyard Holler for six years in the 1940s. It had a dirt road, and there were 18 coalminers’ houses in there. The school bus wouldn’t even come up the holler to pick us up. A holler has a head and a mouth. The head is as far as you can go, and the mouth is where the creek runs into a larger stream of water. A holler can have houses spaced out on both sides of the road. You can ‘holler’ from one house to the other to tell the latest news. It may have several branches of forks. A holler may have a small grocery store at its mouth, and if you see someone walking to the store, give them some money and your list and they will bring your groceries back with them. Or, let them check your mail. I can remember my great uncle, Sam Lucas, making the trip to the post office twice a week, his horse pulling a wooden sled down the creek in Dry Fork Holler. He would pick up groceries and mail for his neighbors and kinfolks living in the holler. You knew everyone living in the holler. It may be a few hundred yards long, or more than a mile from the mouth to the head. If your girlfriend lived up in the holler, everyone knew what time you went in and what time you went out, because their dogs would bark at you as you passed their house. A holler is a place where you can sit on your front porch in the cool of a spring day and hear a whip-poorwill symphony. Then Old Uncle John would get out his fiddle (not to be confused with a violin) and play until he got tired, his music echoing all over the holler. A holler is a place where the sun comes up late and sets early. After the sun sets, it’s still a couple of hours before it gets dark. It’s a place where you can let your young’uns, dog, cat and chickens run loose in the yard. A holler is a place where the kids can build a dam in the creek and have a good place to cool off and play. A holler is a good place to live, raise your young’uns, and have fun. It’s a place where the mountains are your playground.

Here are a few of those- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfZWE7mqrZo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeU3Ivm_M1A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_On9RFqjFI

If flyfishing is good for those healing from cancer, then why are those of us, that have been doing it all of our lives, getting it ? 😅 Is it because Buffs and SPF clothing wasn't invented soon enough? Noooo, I think I get it..... It's because once you realize that peace of mind still exists in your life, the quality of life improves noticably, regardless of whatever you might be dealing with. 👍 Nothing gives me peace of mind to the degree of being on a beautiful stream with a flyrod and a box of flys that I tyed myself does. All those troubling cares and worry's just seem to dissolve. ✌️

EPIC post!

Mine are done. I'll make the trip to the posty tomorrow.

Hey you do know it is 4:20 somewhere twice a day. oneshot

The most fun thing to do while you are here : 1. Flip over some rocks and look at some scuds / sowbugs. Which are there more of shown below ? 2. Look at the color of the bug each and every day - because the colors change with the life style... or life cycle. Ha Ha!

You should still be good Jeff, those dates are more just guidelines than rules😆! In all seriousness, I knew a woman in college that had a part time job testing viability of stored food stuffs. Often those tests included eating some of the products, like 5 or 10 year old mayonaise 🤢. This show was on the history channel. I think for only one season. I think that Livie and I watched all the episodes.

One of those shirts was made to commemorate our graduating class from HS. It was 1984 the year of the keg (a standard keg holds 15.5 gallons or 1984 oz). We confirmed that a lot during that school year😉

The Grass Pickerel is cool - caught them - but not on fly gear.

11) Smallmouth Bass

Dang your still wet behind the ears. oneshot

X=5 Just in case anyone is wondering😉

We had 3 rounds of nothing but sleet. If I measured it I'd say 3.5 inches, may be 4. Freeze and refreeze makes it ice. Finally seeing some melting today. Going to take a while for this to melt, even with 40's and 50's ahead. We're tired of moving it. 4 days worth. I should have let it come down on Monday. That work was wasted. I took all the pre-salt off Monday. I'll take snow any day!

Our driveway has melted a lot. It probably won’t be clear until tomorrow sometime. The warm gale winds should finish it off Saturday. I have to go to the farm Saturday so I’ll probably drive on over to Cape and see if it is clear because I want to go on Sunday if possible.

Same thing here this morning, 2 inches of sleet that has turned to ice. Walking the pooch, I got on the downhill side of a ditch and did a slow slide down to the bottom. But it is melting now, top layer is soft and no problem walking on it. Of course it will freeze again tonight. Might be able to get to a ramp this weekend and do some fishing I am thinking.

Nothing on the ground here, but the whole yard is a muddy quagmire. It was just barely warm enough to work today (Thanks, Groundhog) so luckily I'll be able to keep the lights on until our tax return hits the bank. The rest of the work that I have lined up I'm sure I won't get paid for until probably mid-March.....so needless to say I'm not gonna break my neck getting it done. Y'all are stuck with me for at least another month. 😁

HMM! My wife has to pull me away from the floor. It reaches up and grabs me and won't let loose. I have a two car garage all of a sudden my car is sitting in the driveway. oneshot

I have been watching a small lake for the last few days. Lots and lots of geese using it. The bulk of those geese were specks. I have only shot three before today and they are still Pat's holy grail. She has only got one shot and missed. She cried that time. These birds are pretty much only around in our area the first part of the season and then they are zooming through and again the last couple weeks of season heading north lingering a bit longer. The specks and canada geese were flying out from the pond headed West into a close winter wheat field. They have it trampled to bare dirt in places. Well last three days the flock was getting smaller and smaller. I was hoping for Pat to get one, but it was time this morning to try. She said you better go. Yesterday the lake was 80 percent frozen over. I had a plan. Nowhere to hide in bare field, no way to water hunt. I was going to ambush and pass shoot as they flew to the field. All I have to say it was cold this morning. Truck said 10 degrees driving over. Burrrr. I did dress warm even trying my heated vest. That thing is the bomb! My chest gets really cold. My feet actually do pretty good. Have pockets for hands. Got to where I park, and first mistake was not taking Pat's shotgun. Mine has not been cleaned after dove season and I had left it in the truck all night. It was cold and when I loaded it the bolt shut really slow. Uh oh I knew I might be dealing with a single shot. :(. So, I made the long walk in the dark back to the west part of the lake. There is a little burm and a depression with grass and briars mixed with brush. I had to stay low to not bee seen and even crawl in places. I guessed the middle point and stretched out to wait. I could hear them and as it got lighter peeked over the burm to see the place had frozen over all the way and geese on the ice. Then I decided I should go a bit farther. Made another ten yards and laid back down for the wait. Got to worrying about the gun so I decided to open the zippers on leg from the top and slip the gun through the insulated bibs and put the action across my body to warm up. That was cold and all I did was make my junk between my legs cold! The birds began to get noisy and I got excited. A group of twenty got up and passed plenty low but too far away. They circled the field, turned around and lit back on the ice. then another bunch did exactly the same. Crap I needed to go a bit farther so again I slithered like a snake my cover was getting thinner. then found a place to wait again. Soon a bigger bunch got up in range. I picked one and pulled the trigger and it dropped. Picked another and nothing. DANG I jacked the shells out and put one in and slammed the bolt shut as birds really started boiling off the ice over me. Then in a mass here came the canada bunch I let them go and more specks I picked one and let gave it a load of tripple Bs. It crashed close to me but in the frozen field with a thump. I had my two and was very happy. Best eating geese out there boys. Grabbed my birds and walked back to the truck and home to clean. they both plucked well but one had so many baby feathers just emerging from a blood quill. Impossible to get perfect I skinned it. Even kept the legs and thighs. I will try to sous vide those and hope the break down into submission. I seasoned some flour and seared the outside of the tenders just browning a bit. They melted in my mouth tender except for the leader that runs through the middle of it. So, the term tenders is not really true but worth the effort. These two birds are the best marked bellies I have ever shot! Happy day. Got a few days left of goose and we may get out once more. Thanks for letting me share this hunt.

Can imagine the table talk at the local diner..."I was driving in here this morning and I saw some guy in camo laying on the ground in 10 degree weather. Must be that guy named Marty goose hunting"😀

So it is time for an update, I guess. I was able to remove my walking boot last Thursday. I am now limping a little less some times and a little more other times. I am also able to slowly and carefully get up and down my stairs into the basement where my office is. It is nice getting back to somewhat normal. PT is showing the rewards and benefits. I do try to always do my exercises but there are just those days where the pain from over doing it the previous day really makes it impossible. I still have a long road, but I can definitely see the progress made. I haven't been using my wheelchair much unless it will be a really long day of walking. I am really grateful for the stores having the electric carts. Those really make a difference. I'm not able to walk up and down the bank to the creek, but have a local pond I can visit. I have been tying a few flies for bluegill, can't wait for spring. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers, positive vibes and just plain responding on here. It really makes my journey much easier. I really do appreciate it, alot more than I ever considered.

On a smaller scale try Cole camp MO and the "German Table" restaurant. Best German food in MO. Nice town.

10) Dusky Striped Shiners small fly + aggressive fish = Boom

9) Striped Shiners another aggressive predator. I saw an occasional rise and stripped my fly down and across. I got a lights out bite pretty close to me.