vernon

Good news is if you don't like 'em you can send them back. I can't remember if it's 30, 60 or 90 days but whatever it is they'll refund your money no questions asked no matter how much you've worn them. And it's for real cause a friend of mine has flat feet or some similar sort of affliction and needs orthotics so he had to remove the insole. Well, removing the insoles kinda defeats the whole idea so he ended up sending them back and was credited in full and pronto. He had worn them quite a bit before deciding that it just wasn't gonna work and they didn't blink when he requested a return authorization. Tuff to beat that but I can't hardly imagine you not liking them unless the "look" just ain't for you. Regardless, they'll give you your money back no matter what the reason. But, heck, with all YOUR money why would you even care? If I had your cash I'd throw mine away! 😂

You know, personally, I think the canvas are even more comfortable than the 2.0 as crazy as that might sound. The canvas material is kind of like denim in that it will fade and become softer with time or after a washing or two. It's splitting hairs but I'd compare the difference to wearing an old pair of jeans and a favorite pair of khaki's - they're both pretty dang comfortable but one's just a smidge better than the other. Plus, the canvas are cheaper!

Condolences. Might be the saddest thing I ever heard. Not.

Careful with that crappie advice! I'd run from Indian Point to Beaver Dam to actually be able to catch crappie on Table Rock other than by accident! And the Kings ain't even close to that far..... Now officially stalking this post for critical intel.

Pitiful ain't it? And probably only needed one or else should have had a Ned on all five! Guess I'm REALLY getting old. At least there were a couple hundred more UNDER the deck......

Thanks Bill! Coming from you I take that as pretty high praise. I also noticed that my post was promoted to an article? I'm proud and humbled at the same time. I have tremendous respect and admiration for the many great Americans on this forum and appreciate beyond words what is offered up here and always to my benefit. If I was actually able to contribute a little something in return then I'm beyond thrilled. Looking towards next week, as much as Kathy loves boat rides I'm sure we'll be heading back upstream most everyday again so thank you for the tips relative to those areas. Again, I absolutely need to get out there with you sometime so I can disengage my self-destructive "creativity" meter! We're fortunate to get on them pretty good from time to time but I've never been very good at developing a plan B much less a C or D and that is always my downfall. Knowing just enough to be dangerous can be.....well, dangerous. Guess that's probably why I took up golf in the first place - was looking for something to do besides drink beer when plan A tanked! I completely agree on the Buffalo Ridge/Johnny Morris golf venture deal but sure wish it wasn't the case. Guys like me live to play courses like he's going to have up on that hill even if it's just a couple of times per year but it's just become out of our reach money wise. Heck, we don't pay anywhere near that kind jack when we go to Palm Springs in February or we wouldn't be doing that either. It just seems like a shame to have facilities like that sitting virtually empty just about everyday of the year. And it's been like that pretty much ever since he took them over even when the rates were "cheaper". Just about every time we go over there the maintenance guys outnumber the golfers about 5 - 1 but he obviously prefers it that way. Has to make it easier to keep them in tip top shape though. Heck, in that regard, I guess I actually have something in common with him in that I don't like folks messing up my grass either! Plus, like I mentioned earlier, it's good to only have First World problems to gripe about - "Gee hon, what should we do today? Golf or fish?" Woe is me. Anyways, thanks again for making me feel good about myself and I'll keep an eye out for you next week. If I can't get close enough to say hello maybe I'll at least be able to triangulate those GPS coordinates! Go get 'em everybody!

Thanks C! And, yes, we'll be at the Branson "Yacht" Club again this year. Typically, only the rich and famous are welcome at the "Yacht" club but I'll see what I can do and maybe we can sneak you past security. Have to be discreet though as this palatial facility runs around ten thousand per night. At least I think that's accurate but with all the money I've got I never really bother to ask! Agent and manager handle all that petty financial stuff...... Should be in mid to late afternoon on Saturday so I'll let you know.

Soft Science and they are the most comfortable shoes I've ever worn and there isn't even a second place. My wife makes fun of me and says they look like clown shoes but as a lifelong clown I find no shame in that at all. I actually have four pair of them now as does my brother and just about everybody else that's tried mine on. The ones in the photo are canvas and I wear them for everything you can imagine including yard work. If they get dirty I spray 'em with some Simple Green and throw 'em in the washing machine. I also really like the Fin 2.0 and it's the same deal with them - toss 'em in the wash when they get a little dirty. Plus, they dry in like a nanosecond. The insoles are flat out amazing. They both breathe pretty well but the 2.0 are incredible in hot weather. I sent the company an email and said that if they ever start making golf shoes there'll be nothing else in my closet! They run between 50 and 80 bucks and their website runs 20% off deals pretty often. I'm sure they'll have something for Father's Day if not Memorial Day. There's a couple vendors on Amazon as well. As for your washing machine analogy I completely agree but we actually settled on "blender"!

Uh-oh. Didn't think of that...... Might be time to reconsider that witness protection program deal!

I hear ya. At this rate, I might have to consider the meth making business if I want to keep up both hobbies! And I'll about bet you the price of a round of golf that by this time next year that $175 fee will be at least $225. The guy tried to "explain" to me that the average green fee on a course designed by the two guys that did Ozark National (Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw) is $275, hence, the $175 introductory price was "an absolute steal." I kindly suggested that that was probably at least one of the reasons that I'd never played a Coore/Crenshaw property before and likely never will. Heck, the only reason that it's "only" $175 is because it's gonna be pretty rough around the edges until it's had a year to grow in. Once that happens the price will escalate proportionately. It'll look awful pretty on TV though!

A little late getting this posted but I'm old and lazy and equally undependable these days so it's to be expected I guess. Anyways, little brother and I ventured down for what we think was our 34th consecutive spring fishing trip. Man, that's hard to believe....... We only got in about an hour and a half of fishing Saturday evening but caught a couple dozen 12" -14" smallies fishing Ned in pockets around the Kimberling bridge that was a great warm up for the week. Sunday we ran up to the area around Big Creek and had a blast catching smallies and K's again on the ridiculous Ned - Dirt and Watermelon/Red were pretty effective but, for the week, PBJ was clearly superior). We spent most of our time in the buck brush in pockets and coves and it was downright silly how many fish we caught. We fished from 100 to around 600 before we headed back to the Kimberling area to finish the evening. It's just a guess but I'd say we caught at least 70 - 80 fish that day with about 12 - 15 keepers. Not the kind of performance that would win many tournaments I guess but it's what we live for. Monday was a golf day and we drove up to Rivercut in Springfield and had a great time ruining each others lives with what barely passed as golf. We really like that little muni and the price is right for a couple old guys on "fixed incomes". Tuesday and Wednesday we decided to try to put Bill's posted pattern of fishing swim baits out from spawning coves (extremely generous of him to provide so much intel but I guess we're used to it here) to use but had limited success. We must have idled around the front and sides of at least 25 of what we thought were pretty good spawning coves and only saw a few fish scattered here and there on the Lowrance. We did catch several smallmouth (all keepers) just blindly flinging swimmers in open water that we thought fit his description but just never could really find any bunches of fish. No big surprise there though as my proficiency with electronics parallels Stevie Wonder's talents in heavy traffic on a bicycle! I swear SOMEDAY I'm actually going to follow through on my promise to myself to hire Bill and quit trying to pretend that I can figure any of this out on my own. Note to self: get it out of the thinking stage stupid. While not quite as many as Sunday, we did continue to catch impressive numbers of fish on the Ned, Keitechs and grubs mostly in ten feet of water and less. Nothing over three pounds but at least a dozen obvious keepers. I guess we're just destined to be Kansas bank beaters even when we're deep sea fishing....... I should probably add that although we didn't throw it quite as much as we usually do we did pickup a couple dozen fish on our beloved spinnerbaits (double willows in white and white/chartreuse) during the week although the places that we caught them on the blade a swimbait probably would have been equally if not more effective. But, man, when they hit that spinnerbait like a freight train hitting a bum! Awesome. No offense to over sensitive bums intended and none were harmed in the composition of this metaphor....... Thursday we played golf again and headed over to Buffalo Ridge although us poor people had to wait until 400 for the twilight rate to kick in. We've kind of expected it for a couple of years now and Johnny has finally just about priced us out of his golf market. This spring it's $135 plus tax to play before 400 and $90 plus afterwards. The guy in the shop said that we were the twelfth group of the day so we're obviously not the only golfing paupers in the area. He also said the the new Ozarks National course that's opening 1 September is going to be $175 (which is an "opening special" price so obviously increasing soon) so I can only imagine what Tiger's new track will cost. That's OK though, it ain't like Johnny's gonna miss us and we're fine with driving up to Rivercut or playing over at the old Payne Stewart course which is every bit as good anyways and is $79 after noon. Worst case scenario is we just don't play golf at all on these trips anymore and spend all of our time fishing instead. I love First World problems! Nonetheless, it is incredible and visually stunning what he's doing over that way. If you haven't been over there it's well worth the time and effort to just check out the new clubhouse and the amazing views from that hill. You can't see the lake like at Top of the Rock but it's still extremely cool. Friday wasn't quite as good as earlier in the week and we attributed that at least somewhat to the falling water level and the wind. Lots of fish still very shallow though but the wind was pretty crazy. If it wasn't for the modern marvel called "Ultrex" it would have been near impossible in the areas we were wanting to fish. Probably caught 30 - 35 total and we did catch the biggest fish of the week which was a four pound on the nose largemouth and a gorgeous 19" walleye both on PBJ Ned. By the end of the day we were worn slick from fighting the wind and practically blinded by the dust and pollen in the air. Nasty stuff. All in all it was another great week for us although I saw no reason to tone down my incessant anti-tournament and overcrowding rhetoric. It felt like we were in the middle of of the runway at LaGuardia the day before Thanksgiving out there sometimes. I mentioned in an earlier post that I had specifically targeted this week as it had the least amount of tournament activity during the late April/May time period. "Least" translated is 950 boats worth of events from Saturday to Saturday. Oh well. Lots of happy people I guess. And, with the exception of the Oklahoma dust bowl conditions on Friday the weather for the week was embarrassingly good. Kathy and I are headed back down this Saturday for another go around and if it's half as good as last week we'll be plenty happy. I was hoping to post a few more photos but seein's how it's taken me over an hour to get these two loaded I guess they'll have serve as representative of the rest! Good luck out there! This post has been promoted to an article

Yup. That and lighting are everything. I've found that bad camera angle and poor lighting can add up to fifty pounds in many of my personal photographs! Disturbing to say the least.

As one fat guy to another I was thinking it but NEVER would have said it!

Thanks - if only my overworked/underutilized brain could process information a little bit quicker........ I will definitely keep that in mind for next year. Lord knows it'll take me most if not all of the rest of the year to move the whole thing through the thinking stage but I'll be sure and let you know. We used to go over there quite a bit years ago and I've always loved that lake. Accommodations and amenities are certainly lacking compared to Table Rock but I think that's what we're actually looking for these days. A little back to the future might be just what we need. We always stayed down near the dam area and had great success fishing the Jimmy and Howard creek arms. As for a long boat ride, I can't think of a better place to go. I've broken in probably a half dozen new motors on that lake and you can do it in a single day if you've got the stamina! It's like driving cross country on the interstate - just set the cruise control and enjoy the scenery and solitude.

Hey Hunter, it didn't occur to me that it was you until a few minutes afterwards but that was my brother and me that spoke briefly to you and your wife Monday or Tuesday evening by the Kimberling Inn boat dock. We were in the silver and blue Ranger with the silver G2. About the time we got just past the boat dock I said to my brother, "I've seen that boat somewhere before." However, it took a couple more minutes for my feeble mind to process the data and realize that "somewhere" was actually the photos that you had posted on OA a couple months ago. I'm a little partial to blue myself but that's one beautiful boat you guys have there and it's even prettier in person! I had hoped we might see you again during the week but we ended up spending most of the remainder of our time up between Baxter and Big Creek in order to escape the slime monster around Kimberling. We might very well see you again next spring at Bull too. If our remaining three trips to Table Rock this year prove to be as overrun with tournaments and pleasure boats as last week (and there's certainly no reason to believe otherwise) I'm pretty sure that we're gonna reluctantly finally make the move to the southeast too. Accommodations and nostalgia have kept us coming back long after we first started talking about maybe being better off over that way but the amount of traffic is really beginning to effect our attitudes and that's just too counterproductive to continue to ignore. I hope you're able to keep ol' blue sufficiently wet the rest of this year up Nebraska way - she's definitely gonna stand out in Husker land that's for sure!

And therein lies the rub. A few tips: You will immediately discover that bragging about what a "great time" you had today is the ultimate no-no. Misery is the motto. You must convince her that every day presents a monumental challenge to you both physically and mentally and that this retirement deal "just ain't what it's cracked up to be." At times you will deceive to the point of stating that you actually wish you were still working - that's just how disappointing this post employment life really is. (A significant side benefit of this technique is that it can subliminally create doubt in her own mind regarding her own retirement - potentially buying you even more priceless days of fun in the sun.) THE FOLLOWING IS ESSENTIAL TO YOUR VERY SURVIVAL! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! You MUST acquire Oscar level theatrical skills so that before she leaves in the morning you can convincingly mope around about all the hard work that awaits you on this most challenging of days. Maybe even worse than yesterday as if that's even possible. Then, upon her return home, you must be capable of limping around equally effectively so as to convince her that the days work almost killed you (even though all you did was ride around on the lawn tractor for an hour before you went fishing for the rest of the day). In other words, you must become a total and complete fraud in every aspect of your daily life - and the sooner the better. Enjoy!

Well, enough to keep Kathy motivated to remain gainfully employed while I bask in the life of leisure! Although I think the real reason is she'd rather work than have to witness the on course carnage any more often than she already does. Seeing that money spent on balls and clubs just go totally to waste is more than she can bear on a personal level........

As of March 3st I've been retired for five years. Depending upon one's perspective, I was lucky or unlucky enough to retire on my 60th birthday. I don't know if we'll relocate but haven't done anything yet as Kathy is still working and has a couple more years to go. After all, somebody has to finance my golf and fishing habits while providing me with the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed! After five years on the lam, the only two things that I can tell you for sure is that the pay sucks but the hours are terrific. Enjoy the spoils of all those years of hard work and, if you're like me, you'll never take a moment of it for granted. You're gonna have a blast! Congratulations.

That looks like a blast! Great photos - thanks for sharing.

This it? Regardless, sad and bad deal that's for sure. Dragging operation retrieves body of fisherman at Truman Lake Wes Johnson, WJOHNSON@NEWS-LEADER.COMPublished 1:36 p.m. CT April 30, 2018 (Photo: MSHP) CONNECTTWEETLINKEDINCOMMENTEMAILMORE A Warsaw fisherman died at Truman Lake on Sunday after his bass boat was discovered floating on the lake with no one aboard. The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports that the body of Sherman W. Wright, 67, was located through dragging operations near a tree where his fishing line was entangled. Wright was not wearing a personal flotation device, according to the patrol.

"got to Bridgeport around 1 pm" What the heck time did you have that alarm set for anyways? Noon? Just kidding - very nice bunch of fish!

Wow. I'm sorry but now I have to hate you too! 😳

Well, you'd think the least a guy could do is provide GPS coordinates with the photos. Geez, what a homer. 😜

I guess if there weren't tournaments to fish none of these guys would go fishing or spend money anymore? That would be a shame......