Ham

I looks about the right size and shape for a lamprey wound, but it isn't the right time of year really. I usually see a lot more of them attached late summer/early fall (if memory serves). I wonder how many other fish you have caught multiple times, but they don't have any marks to help you to remember them by. I bet it is more than a couple. Catch and release works and we should all be glad that you don't like to eat smallies. I remember saying that you don't like to eat fish at all.

How many times did you fish that area and NOT catch him?

Happy the Blues took care of business. I don't usually criticize the choices coaches make, but the Blues taking their timeout when they did was a mistake. I'm glad they got past it, but still. Hawks got a lucky fluke goal to tie the game and I thought the Blues had some bad puck luck, but no matter at this point. Let's Go Blues! Beat Dallas!

Getting line twist out is important, BUT I still think loose line is as BIG or BIGGER problem than line twist.

I've got my fingers crossed that the Blues show up to play all three periods and can get it done. The Blackhawks are a great team and they've been really good a long time. Chicago types will be insufferable if the Cubs continue to run roughshod over MLB and the Blackhawks play for another cup. Bulls and Bears should keep them grounded, but Nooooooooo

I can't buy one.

Another excellent Spring fishing trip with CajunAngler is in the books. Great food, Great weather, and great fishing. We limited the trip to four days this year. When you fish from just after daylight to dark everyday, four days is enough. Got to bed a little after 11 PM each night and up at 0530 the next day. The water was cloudy just like Beaver, Bull, Table Rock, and Norfork. Not muddy, but much more stained then last year. It did not hurt the fish a bit. We caught all three bass species. White and Black crappie. White Bass. Drum. channel cats. Green Sunfish, a Pumpkinseed and Bluegill. We had water temps from 63 degrees and as warm as 69 degrees on Friday. good numbers and great size. I'll spare y'all the gaudy numbers, but it was crazy good. Once again, we stayed at the Cookson Cabins and Store. Clean and comfortable. Centrally located. Nothing fancy at all, but plenty adequate. fish were particular at times. We had to stay alert to them going deeper or shallower and times when they got picky about lure choices. We caught fish in 100 foot of water and fish in 2 foot of water. The smallies seemed to be mid spawn. largemouth seemed to not have come in yet. Why would this be? Only a couple of top water fish which was disappointing. A shakey head was by and large a better option than the Ned for size and numbers. There,I said it. I didn't like it, but it was the way it was. Very few spinnerbait fish even when we had some wind blowing. Not as many jerk bait fish as we would have liked. The little guy was better on Friday. We threw it off and on every day, but not near as much as I expected to. I had a really good afternoon with the grub on Day One. We used some Strike King Rage Tail grubs. The work great, but are fragile. I'd love to buy them with someone else's money. I got these in my BassCat OI swag bag. I love this lake. Really nice scenery. And I love the high quality of the multi species fishery. We did have more company this trip. It was cooler last time and it rained everyday last time we were there which might have held down the crowds. We had some rain, but never really BAD weather. I don't think the extra boats hurt us much. I had Big Smallie of the trip with a 19 3/4 inch 4 lb 13 oz fish on a shakey head. I don't want to think about the two smallmouth larger than that one that I lost. CajunAngler had a smallmouth almost as large as mine. We both caught some toads. The fact that it takes me about 4 hours to get there is the only reason I don't get an annual NR Oklahoma fishing license. I wish it was 2 hours away. I love fishing 10K.

Seriously

Hey Joe, twist on spinning reel is a fact of life. braid or nanofil reduces the impact of the twist, but those lines still get twisted. Keeping the impact of twist down to a minimum with mono, Fluor, or copolymers is an achievable goal. Start by putting the line on properly. Play with either side of the spool up, crank 10 or 15 times and stop and look at your line. If it seems to be twisting up, flip the spool and try another 10-15 times. Decide which side was worse. Use the better side. when you get to the lake, before you tie a bait on, trail your spinning line behind the boat without anything tied on. I let almost all the line off taking great care to make sure the line is coming off evenly. I'm just idling along at like 3 mph hour. Keep your rod tip low. After a 1/4 mile or so, start slowly winding the line in. Again, rod tip low to the water. Your want the water pressure to get all the twist out of your line. Your drag should be set that you can pick up line without any drag coming off. I wind about 1/3 in and then drag another 400 yards before winding in another 1/3. everybody has different preferences for how they like their drag settings BUT never wind against the drag. Never ever. As Bill Babbler said, close the bail by hand. I will add to that and say every few casts AFTER you close the bail by hand, pull a few inches of line off the reel. This keeps the line tight on the spool. I have more problems as a result of loose loops coming off in a wad or from underneath the line on the top of the spool. Those floobies have a ton of twist and are usually a deal breaker for that spool of line. Proper spinning reel hygiene will keep floobies to a minimum. Good Luck and Good Fishing.

Wow just wow.

pretty rare pic. Super Dave with a green fish.

My Pens took care of the Rangers. Now they'll wait on their next opponent. Lets Go Blues!

Nah

That's so great!

See, I learned stuff here.

IF and I stress "IF" the selection process was determined by the competition committee which is made up of professional fisherman, than they made it like they wanted it. It seems like a win on the Elite level should get you in before a win on the Opens does, but its not my party.

I've never had a walleye bite me off that way, but I did have whatever is happening to Dave happen to me at TR. I know CajunAngler lost like 4 Neds in one day to gar on BSL. It was funny (to me anyway). I never got a look from a gar that day.

The struggle is real.

It suddenly occurred to me that I need to get Dave to spill his secrets on how he keeps his hands in shape to fish extended stretches of time. My hands take a beatdown on a single fishing trip. They are borderline non functional sometimes after four day fishing trip. The constant wet/dry cycle. Sun exposure. The seemingly unavoidable pokes, cuts, scrapes from fish, fishing line, baits, and other environmental factors add up. I cant imagine how he keeps going day after day catching fish after fish. I've seen in his fishing photos that he paints cuts with a topical betadine, but I wonder what else he does. here's what I try to do right now. Many if not most of my troubles could be avoided if I was more diligent. I try to remember to use a hand lotion after I am off the water. At times, I will use a hot Epsom salt soak to remove inflammation and kill some of the bacterial growth. One the first day after a wound, I will bubble out the wound with Hydrogen Peroxide. After a good hand washing, a thin layer of triple antibiotic ointment covered by a good band aid. Doing this stuff before bedtime gives your body a few hours to heal while you are inactive. That seems to really work for me.

You would have to be a huge DA to be releasing hogs for them to go feral these days. I'm sure MDC would be interested in that information if you knew anyone that had released hogs.

I'm not good enough at the wheel to run my boat at 70 MPH thru that slop. I was struggling to push it to 63 MPH and taking a pounding doing that. I was basically crossing wakes at WOT for 20 solid minutes. The waves were braided together coming from all directions rebounding of the bluffs. It got better by the time you got past Music Creek. It was still pretty crappy for us well after the left turn at Oakland. I have a few years at the helm and I only got passed by one boat. It was tough sledding. I passed at least 5 other boats, but again that's largely a function of the number of ponies. I wasn't pulling my boat, I was just trying to hang on.

I just wasn't willing to drop a couple hundred bucks on fuel/oil at a chance to do well. I had a real strong fishing day up that way and think I could have caught a limit up there, but you have to get it done in 4 hours of fishing time. I had another area in Big Creek that I had confidence in. For whatever reason we were only able to get two keepers out of it. I don't know if we would have been better off staying there and grinding on them until a few more bit. I still believe a real decent bag of fish was swimming around ignoring me in my area.

Same old Blues right? Blues regain home ice advantage even though at time Blackhawks looked like the better team on the ice.

NO way that is an ounce over 5 lb (jk).

I just love to fish. Glad that you're doing the deal. Putting in the work and being rewarded for your efforts.