vernon

You're way right in one way. There ain't no hiding stuff you're not supposed to have that's for sure! I can't tell you how many times I'll be working down a long stretch of bank when I look to the back of the boat and both rear compartments have been emptied and the contents are scattered all over the place. If she's not catching fish, she'll get bored and decide to do a "total makeover" of the storage compartments! It's actually kind of nice. I sure don't miss doing it and things can get kind of out of whack in those boxes after a few days so what the heck? Occasionally I have to ask her what happened to the extra trailers or worm hooks or whatever but that's no big deal. Her slogan is, "A clean boat is a happy boat." Drives my brother nuts. Whenever he and I go he has to throw crap all over the bottom of the boat so he can take a picture of the mess to send to her!

Me too. In fact, that water color is the thing that blew me away the first time I ever traveled to Table Rock way back in 1975. After fishing nothing but big farm ponds up to that point in my life that green/blue tinge just looked so dang fishy! Still love it as much today as I did then.

OMG! You must not be from around here! Actually, I have a couple of very good friends that are like that and they drive me nuts. Each could buy and sell me a hundred times over but they won't part with an old rusty nickel. One of them even wears my old golf shirts that my wife gave him - she felt sorry for him he dressed so bad! Now I fully realize that that's the main reasons that they do have so much more money than me but I still can't make it compute. The only reason that I ever worked for it was to spend it and, so far, I'm WAY ahead of schedule!! Good for you though. Whatever keeps you happy!

That's pretty spot on but you don't look that old! You sure you're not repeating stories you heard your daddy tell? When I "upgraded" from my 520VX to my new Z521c one of the first things I thought was, Wow! Look at ALL that extra storage! Took about two weeks and I was already back to trying to decide what to take and what to leave home cause it was packed to the gills! I guess boats are kind of like houses in that regard. The bigger they are, the more stuff we'll accumulate to eventually fill 'em up. My wife is an absolute organizational freak. OCD times infinity squared. Everything has to be in a box, a basket or a drawer. However, try as she might, not even she can figure out a great way to pack a boat! And as for the Keitechs? After about an hour of Rubik's cube work she declared that those things were my problem! And you're doubly right about the "journey".

We're kind of similar in that regard I guess. There is one big difference though. I take it one step further in that I'd rather look for 'em than find 'em. Talk about building up a supply of "areas"! We're literally talking infinity here. And it also takes all of the suspense out of deciding whether or not to go fetch that dang stuck lure.

That's really similar to how I've got most of my compartments too. But it just always strikes me as an awful lot of "wasted" space - I always feel kinda like I'm keeping six bullets in a shoe box. BUT, dem bullets is always dang well organized though! I really like all the new stuff these days but it always makes me think back to when I just carried one tackle "box" and seemed to have everything I ever needed. And caught more fish to boot. (I know, there I go again with the stroll down memory lane). Danged if I know of a better way though! Thanks for the pic.

Good for you - them babies ain't cheap.

Ahhhh. Now that's completely different. I didn't realize two of them would be kids. In that case, it's more like TEN in the boat! Don't pay any attention to me. I'm just the classic grumpy old dude that never had any kids but only because I didn't want any! On the other hand, however, I think you're missing a perfect opportunity to build a great case for the bigger boat! It's not for you - you'd never ever even dream about spending that kind of money on yourself! But it would be sooooo nice for the children - building family memories for a lifetime (honey). Good luck. You're gonna need it!

CF? Combs Ferry? Just kidding Champ! Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo............ Great to hear about the top water action!

Man, that's well done! Great report and story all wrapped up in one. Good for dad too. Gotta take care of us old guys every now and then! I gotta say, though, if that Powercat stuff is the secret then I'm gonna have to keep buying my fish at the store!

Pretty nice recovery!

One of the main reasons I decided not to play pro sports or go into movies. Taxes, agents, travel, media, community obligations, chicks - just not worth all the hassle. I prefer to be my own man! Nobody telling me what to do, where to be, what to spend my millions on................. And I can go to bed every single night knowing that I made the right call too. Nobody tells me what to do.............

Again, for 60 - 70K you can virtually render that "extra" manual bilge pump useless and unnecessary. Just think of what you could do with the money you'd SAVE! Stay thrifty my friends!

Man, I've got a bunch of those little crappie Sliders but I hardly ever use em' cause I just can't convince myself that it's possible to get a hookset on a crappie with the hook buried in the grub like that. In my nimrod brain, if I pulled hard enough to penetrate the plastic, I'd rip their entire mouth off. Obviously, that's about as accurate as most other things I believe so I guess I need to get out there and just trust it. Great bunch of fish!

I'm a big believer in idiots but that's neither here nor there I guess..........

I was thinking neighborhood. GET OFF MY LAWN!

Yep, me too. Rock Chalk!

I decided to just wait that one out - glad I did!

Ahhh. No big deal then. I'm sure he's just as glad to have won the ACABT! Man, that would at least make most guys stop and wonder "what if" for at least a second or two......... Dang nice fish though!

I can relate to Idle's comment regarding loose lug nuts. Seems stupid simple but I had it happen one time after having new tires put on a trailer. Easy to check and eliminate if nothing else.

You know - that game that has a "NED" in charge of one of the local teams? He's also kind of like the LocTite of the whole operation (in blue nonetheless)..............

I guess I need to learn how to use those goofy little yellow faces to "express" myself better! The number of minutes that I'm serious per day have dwindled to precious few - you really have to try hard (and usually more than once) to pizz me off these days! However, and just for all you Cardinal fans, I'll use up one of those rare moments right now. The call was one of the worst and most ridiculous in the history of sports. At the time we all jumped up and screamed that we couldn't believe it and figured there was no way we could lose after that. Good news is that we didn't! Oops. Wrong one? Still some learning to do I guess!

For a mere 60 - 70K you could eliminate most of those problems! Well, at least for a year or two anyway. Good luck getting back in the water.

I don't follow this deal hardly at all but am curious what that fish might have been worth? Catchers remorse!

One man, one call, one game a hundred years ago. We got over it a long time ago yet some just can't seem to let it go and move on with life........... As for the call itself, I'm still not so sure. Awfully close!