Devan S.

Pretty cool to be #1. I signed up for the drawing. Never hunted elk but thought what the heck toss my name into the ring and hope to be one of the first. If nothing else and I won would be an opportunity for meat in the freezer at a discount vs. travelling. Alas I didn't win. Any one else notice the picture is on the side of the dirt road?

Funny story....because I think it fits here. The guy I fish with the most....when we started running to Taney and doing the night deal in September we decided we needed a simple way to get ball park measurements of fish to compare to each other(in the dark within a reasonable time). We have the same net and we marked from the end down the handle 18", 20" 22", 24", and 26". We told each other what we were doing and did it separately but would meet down at outlet 2 and fish in the dark. After several fish and comparing "Size" we had come to the conclusion that something on our nets didn't add up. We laid them side by side and sure enough one was longer than the other. Immediately I was accused of stretching mine to cheat and add length. We're both engineers so the assumption was that someone was cheating. There was zero chance we made a mistake in measuring....After a bunch of checks from multiple tapes mine was certified as "good" and his well.....he screwed up and was 1" short on every fish he had measured for the last month.

Quick question...... Is the game wardens tape the golden rule?

Well in the name of quality control.....

Milli is as far as I go......when we start talking in Microns I get that nervous feeling someone will call bs.

Why did you choose metric vs. imperial? What is your measurement uncertainty? Do you have results of a GR&R?

Got news today they kicked water on....looks like its an open spillway, maybe. Not sure how "wade-able" things would be but hopefully it stays this way for a couple days. I'm off work Friday for over a week so I'd like to catch it right after it drops out and hope the higher water level makes the bigguns a bit more eager to bite.

I honestly didn't need the waders...although they were nice to have as cold as it was. Interestingly enough the water has been off for 4 or so days. I do know I've been down twice to explore with water on and could see how 1 unit can easily make it too deep for wading.

I wish I would have felt more comfortable with the drive from there to Cassville in the snow. Would have liked to kept fishing until about noon and explored more. I had a bunch of nice little browns chase all the way back to me......just needed time to figure out how to make them commit.

Photo 1- in a line of canoes during the MR340. Sunset on day 1 somewhere about 70 or 80 miles in. Hot miserable and thankful the sun was going down. Somewhere between Waverly and Miami. 2/3- Ice fishing this Jan. at Leech lake. Maybe a mile offshore. 4- Taney boat to the dam. I feel like I always have to take a picture when I boat to the cable. 5- Below Powersite fishing from the bank. 6/7-Are fishing Lilley pads on Lake Fork this May. 8- Big Thompson River in CO. Between Drake and Loveland below a water diversion dam. Private water fishing and I managed to catch a 24" rainbow right below this. We actually fished for a couple hours on the rocky outcrop between the 2 falls on the left. Caught a lot of fish here. This was over labor day and the Cameron Peak Fire exploded why we were there. Spent most of the day with ash falling like snow. Fire ended up getting perilously close to this area but I believe it was ultimately spared. 9- Sunrise at Indian Creek boat ramp at Beaver lake. I have probably 12-15 photos almost identical to this all from different days. I don't know what it is about that location but it may be the best place I have found to watch the sun come up. I only carry cell phone. I really need to buy a good camera but in 99% of my photos I likely wouldn't have it with me. Most of these are spur of the moment memories.

couple more added.

I figured I will join in mine aren't high quality(most are from a phone) but they have some good memories attached.

Fished from daylight until the snow really started coming down. Threw jerk baits exclusively had probably 10 follows from browns, 4 hookups that pulled loose and one to the net. No big browns but maybe 17-18" was the biggest follow. No generation. Fished from the end of the big exposed gravel bar upstream to around the bend downstream. Only one other vehicle in the lot.

From your previous stories....sounds like you needed someone extra bony.....just to keep you home.

My employer requires us to wear a masks.....not a single person has quit yet because the corporate world is infringing on their rights. Half a dozen+ of them piss and moan nonstop because "They have to wear a mask" but NOT A SINGLE ONE has the guts to say forget this I quit. $$$ talks.....BS walks. I hope their "personal freedom" seeking propaganda isn't this weak when it comes to the 2A.

I am the idiot driving around with my mask on in my car. Its nothing more than just forgetting it for me.

I use Pline CXX on most of my stuff. As far as the jerk baits I think it does fine. I'm sure Flouro might be better but Pline for me is tough enough. My biggest problem is just fishing all day or days without a retie(until I throw one off of course).

99% of the time when I lose a jerker I break it off on the cast. They sure are hard to find way up in the woods. I need to retie more often.

I've got a single mcstik 110 that I have used for several years and I would bet its caught several walleye over 5lbs and countless others smaller. paint is darn near gone on it....its old trusty and when I'm in a spot where I know they are....its what I throw when nothing else is working. I'm sure its dumb luck and 100% confidence but its gone through heck and back a dozen times. Megabass....just based on price alone I end up losing them before I can tear them up.

Fished out of Cricket Creek Saturday morning. Fished between the shortcut in the bluff and the Yocum/Long split. Spent most of the day throwing A-rigs looking for bass but didn't find much of anything. Picked up 3 bass, all between the no wake buoys by the marina. They all came on the transitions between the bluff and some chunkier rock.

https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/data-summary/index.html#:~:text=In 2018%2C state and local,Reported Tickborne Diseases%2C U.S.&text=Reported Tickborne Diseases%2C U.S.,-Lyme Disease (confirmed The CDC reports confirmed tick borne illness just like COVID, flu, heart disease, heart attacks, basically anything. And no most people don't get a tick bite and run to the hospital they generally have to actually fall ill from it. The same can be said about a lot of things COVID included. Believe it or not you were likely a statistic whatever year you were tested. Again my point being tick bites would be a significant issue IF we were seeing 200k+ new cases of tick born illnesses everyday but were not.

Your missing my point. There is not 200k+ new cases of tick borne illness everyday. I'm not making the claim that tick borne diseases are more or less deadly. Only making the claim that the frequency with which they happen is magnitudes less (on average there is only 50k cases a year).

2-3,000 people a day are dying. 200k+ new infections daily. EVEN if those numbers are wrong and its actually half then its multiple magnitudes larger than tick bite deaths.

I know a probably 20 people that "duck hunt" about 5 actually like eating them. None of those guys that say I love duck hunting but not eating duck have any desire to go out and shoot some crows with me. Frankly I cant believe crow hunting is not way more popular.

I'm gonna need to bust out the kayaks a few times too. I think the best chance at good trout exists farther up than I can get in my boat. (the island below spider creek is my functional limit in my Xpress) Rumor has it paddlefish in the spring can also be found below the dam and there is regulations that allow snagging. May have to add another opportunity if things play out well.