fishinwrench

7lbs. vs. 5.2lbs for the Fortitude. That right there would make the decision easy.....for ME. The Marauder is a whopin' 8.4lbs.....which is why I have never owned one. I guess if all you do is bench-rest shoot, or punch paper, then it doesn't matter.

It isn't that they don't fish it....... it's that they seldom do very well, and would rather forget the time/effort they wasted. That's a lake that should never have been impounded. The rivers it ruined were way better fisheries than the lake will ever be. And the land it flooded was prime farm land, and hunting grounds.

@Al Agnew Why don't ya fish a fluke or wacky worm dropper off your Smallie baits ? 😅

Not a wooden stock..... but this would be my choice in .22 https://www.pyramydair.com/product/benjamin-fortitude-gen-2-pcp-air-rifle-regulated?m=4569

Well, the first step to rectifying your issue is to hop out of that blue oval while it's in neutral and facing down hill. Just get out, turn your back to it, and text your insurance dude. The second step is to head directly to your nearest Dodge, Chevy, or better yet... TOYOTA dealer. And sign on the dotted line. 👍

My understanding is that the absence of the natural oils prevents the CDC from drying out on a simple false cast. So using a product like Frogs Fanny after the fly has been dunked is necessary. I never use CDC as a dry fly material though.....so to me it doesn't matter.

I don't think it was meant to be, but here in Missouri I believe it is. I'm not too sure that we have "honest-to-god Caddis hatches" here. Not fishable ones anyway. Maybe I've just never been on a MO river at the right time. Seen it in Arkansas, and in Wisconsin, but the caddis hatches I've seen here in MO are nothing comparable to those.

Shiii..... Surely you didn't think I was always on here for the sole purpose of trying to impress you bowlegged ball scratchers. 🙄 Bro, this place is a literal dating site! You should see my PM folder! 😂

I don't know but I've been told......CDC needs to be used NATURAL. Once it has been bleached or dyed it looses most of the properties that it is famous for.

My parents did too......and left me at my aunt's for almost a month. I thought I'd been orphaned 😥 And yeah, the ol'man (who was apparently a lightweight at the time) wore that pistol on his hip the whole time. Reckon you could get away with THAT at a big concert today ? 😅 What was the dudes name that peeks over the wall ? (Painted on the side of the old peanut truck). Used to see that image painted on nearly everything back in the '60's. Wasn't it "Kilroy"? What's the story on that, anybody know?

Hans Wilenmann's CDC & Elk gained a permanent spot in my box......as soon as I figured out to stop trying to fish it as a dry fly. Fish that sucker sub-surface on the swing. 👍

If I'm focusing on the fly below then I don't want anything else on the leader except maybe a split shot. Unless the water I'm fishing is dead slow, in which case I might use a bobber/indicator to suspend a midge or something......if they won't eat a stripped bugger, streamer, or leech. I've never been a fan of the whole dry/dropper technique. I prefer to fish ONE FLY well, rather than to fish TWO FLYS half-assed.

Occasional spats are part of getting along. I have friends that I've had since grade school, and in that period of time we have "fell out" numerous times.....and a couple times it has been quite ugly. You don't piss away years of good times over a piddy argument that only last a day or two. 👍

Eew! I don't like the looks of that last pic! 😳 Glad it was shallow enough to get your hand on the bottom.

As loud as a dry-fired rimfire maybe. Some break-barrel guns are as loud as dropping a wrench in a toolbox, but pumpers and PCP guns are quieter than cracking open a canned soda. Matter of fact, the sound of a pellet hitting a squirrel head is louder than the sound the gun makes. "Whop!" 😁 I Just love that sound. 👍

I dare you to post a pic modeling them. 😅 I was gifted a pair of those once, but I felt like a fairy wearing them, so I let them go for 5.00 in a yard sale.

If you're buying a compressor then you still need a portable tank also. To my knowledge nobody fires up the compressor just to top the rifle off. The air from the compressor is kinda hot I think. And probably not what you want to directly fill the rifle. Because as it cools there's going to be condensation....and you don't want that in your gun. Right Billethead ?

Trico's swarming, and "dead drifting a wooly"..... Likely this one... Called a "Train wreck", or "Traffic jam". Imitates a cluster of Trico's, it can be a killer below TanVat. Size 14-16 Pieces of cream colored Ultra-chenille singed on the ends, and grizzly hackle. Nothing else.

My #1 consideration on a wet wading shoe is......Can a piece of glass go through it? I've never found a shoe that keeps gravel out 100% and also protects my tender piggies. Stopping occasionally to rinse them out is just part of the game.

Noooo!!! The only way to control this affliction, and to have a happy life, is to find/build a gun that suits your needs.....and then STOP LOOKING !!!! I married my beloved PRod. She's good to me, and I'm not fooling around on her. 😅

Calf tail will probably sink like a rock after one fish. CDC works ok if you have one of those mushroom pad things to refresh it. With deer hair all you have to do is mash it with your shirt sleeve a couple times, blow on it, and it's ready to go again. I can't SEE IT past 20-25 feet...... but I know generally where it is, and I just set the hook if a fish rises anywhere in that vicinity.

I finally reached a plateau in my airgun collection. I got tired of exploding expensive scopes with otherwise fine shooting break barrels, but I didn't want to fall into the compressor/air tank rabbit hole. I settled on the PRod platform (Marauder pistol... converted to a carbine). Light as a feather, quiet, and a joy to pack around. With it I am insanely accurate out to 50-55 yards with enough .22 power to quickly dispatch critters up to the size of a fox. And I get 19-21 unregulated shots with the hotrod Prod before I have to MANUALLY pump her back up to 2850 psi......Which is good excersize, and doesn't take but 3-4 minutes. Being somewhat of an experienced gunsmith, and a mechanic to boot, makes altering and tuning them a breeze. I haven't had to touch the scope turrets in 3 years......they are dead-on-balls everytime I pick them up. I have two of them. One is tuned HOT with a silencer and Hawke 3-9, and the other is tuned MILD with stock barrel and a Hawke 2-7. I get 28-30 shots between pump-ups with the mild PRod, but it is only deadly out to 40 yards....and range estimation has to be pretty precise. The JSB Hades pellets really woke all of my airguns up. Those projectiles are FREAKIN' WICKED ! and they group superb through all of my guns. The Benjamin Fortitude is another that IS regulated, and wouldn't be too bad to manually pump up....... but it is long, and a bit heavy and cumbersome in comparison to my Prod's. They are stupid accurate though, with plenty of punch for squirrels/rabbits. Coons, huge feral cats, and armadillos might be pushing it a bit. You can't effectively do a "power tune" on a regulated PCP gun. .25 cal. is great IF you have the power to push heavier pellets at a flat trajectory. From my experience it takes a rifle like Billetheads FX to do that......and that means owning a compressor and tank(s). Bigger/heavier projectiles are worthless if you're just lobbing them through the air. Misjudge your range by 3-4 yards and you'll miss or wound your target. I don't like that.

These easy little drys do Celery fly duty just fine. The sucky part is that you're fishing with 7x......and I hate 7x because I refuse to own a 2 or 3wt. outfit. A 5wt. is as light as I go. These are on #22. The actual insect is even smaller.....like a 26 ! 😳 But a sparsely tied 22 will get bit most times IF YOU PRESENT IT RIGHT. The little ice-dub/deer hair number on the right is a dead ringer. That's the one I always try first. And just about anyone can tie 20 of them in 30 minutes.

And yet they still wanna divert flows to lake Mead, hu? Nice! 🙄

I believe it's called "Eurasian water milfoil'......so I'm gonna make the assumption that it's native to Eurasia...... wherever that is. 🤔 Whatever it is, the fish LOVE IT ! And I miss it.