fishinwrench

Sounds to me like you've psyched yourself into thinking that your inborn fight or flight instincts are gonna let you down when you need them most. Stop playing those pre-concieved dramatizations out in your head and relax. Training for the unexpected....Never understood that. Of all that stuff you listed so enthusiasticly you never listed "Safety". Who's gonna protect your loved ones from YOU? Sorry. Rambo types bring out the worst in me. I'm done.

Just tell us who the enemy is, that's all we need to know

Sometimes I think that a big (if not bigger) problem is the number of unnecessary procedures performed by surgeons in order to either milk a patients insurance co. or to CTA when they just aren't sure which route is the safest. In my extended family we have a 320+lb. female soon to have a kidney transplant, and nobody is truly sure that she really needs it. She was supposed to loose 70lbs. before it would even be considered .... and instead she gained another 8. But she is employed by Mutual of Omaha and has superior benefits so bygod it's gonna happen regardless. Stupid !!!! Stupid stupid stupid.

How did I know that a comment like that from Me was gonna summon up some s#it from you? LOL When my lungs, heart, ect. go then I'll call it a life well lived. Is there a law that says I have to fight to live far after I'm too broke down to enjoy myself, or spend 10 years trying to hang on to something that isn't ever gonna come back? When I'm done I'm done, so don't go selling my stuff to pay a funeral home bill or waste a good beer over it either for that matter. Have a party on me, and feed the buzzards.

Well you won't be helping to support me, Justin....cuz I don't do doctors unless it's for stitches or a broken bone....neither are caused by smoking and I pay outa pocket. No HI

If I die an early death I want it blamed on all the clouds of hairspray I've been forced to walk through, and the fumes from nail polish and hair color because of these women in my house that can't be satisfied with the way they look. NOT on Marlboro lights.

Not to mention that right around the same time tobacco became a no-no "they" started announcing that everything else your gonna come in contact with today could potentially kill you. Almost overnight we went from "have this, do that, you need it all", to "OMG everything you see and touch is harmful". Is it really any surprise that so many failed to listen? BTW, have you heard that 911 was an inside job ?

One thing that I notice is missing from this discussion is the acknowledgment that this whole "smoking is WRONG" thing is newer than you're giving it credit for. You act like everyone was just born knowing that smoking was a lethal killer. Anyone remember what year it was that smoking and tobacco ads were pulled from the general publics eyes and ears? Hell, Ward cleaver, Captain Kangaroo, and even Santa Claus all had a pipe sticking out of their face the whole time I was growing up. S#!t fire man, Smoking was just something you we're supposed to do as soon as you were slick enough to steal one from the ol'man without getting caught. So if you gotta blame someone then blame the freaking media.

I have heard tales from as far up as Moon valley, and have caught several stray rainbows myself as far up as Fort Niangua, but it's not anything you'd consider dependable by any means. A few of the small spring creeks waaaay upstream are home to a few "wild" rainbows. Kinda fun to explore if you're into that sorta thing and par marked dinks excite you.

When wrapping the hackle do a full turn at the back, palmer forward, then do a full turn at the head.... kinda offsets the corkscrew effect (in theory). Heavier tippet might help also. Or a heftier hook (like a Mustad 9671). Or you might be false casting too much.

Awesome! But tell us more about Frank.

You kinda have to take into consideration (regarding jerkbaits) that most ponds and small lakes don't have shad so the jerkbait bite is going to be dependent on fish that are "out sunning" on calm sunny days rather than fish keying on sickly shad, per a reservoir jerkbait bite. Back in my strip pit days (before polarized glasses and suspending jerkbaits) we would climb the banks and look for suspending fish in the late Winter and all the times that we were able to spot them they would be about 20-30 feet off the steep rocky banks and ALWAYS facing the shoreline. We could never catch them by casting from the banks and it drove us crazy being able to see those fish but not get a single bite. When I finally broke down and went to the trouble of dragging (literally) a boat in there it was game on! Charlie Brewer Slider worms always caught us our first nice bass of the year, but they had to be worked from the bank out. Countdown to about 7-10' then slow and steady.

I see that Evan is visiting. Tell him I said High

If the water gets fairly clear....Jerkbaits along the face of the dam. You'll need a boat or something to float on though so you can retrieve from the bank out. If stuck on land you're pretty much limited to stiching a jig-n-pig or 4-5" chomper along the steeper Northside banks. Who else here is old enough to know what "stiching a jig" is?

Feeder creek: a constantly flowing or intermittant trickling stream or ditch that has not yet been given a proper name. The first person to catch a HAWG in it gets to name it whatever they want

Nice!

Maybe those church basket gobbling poor bastages who are such a drain on society should just KEEP smoking, eating chips and playing x-box so they'll hurry up and die. Between malnutrition, cancer, stress and lack of exercise they should start dropping like flys any day now. You think that stopping smoking is gonna suddenly make them to seem noticeably more respectable to you? If any banning gets done it should be parking lots near Bars. Aren't drunk drivers still the #1 scourge of the nation? Hitchin'posts only I say..... and no giving alcohol to horses, mules or goats!

LOL yep. Imagine that.....thankfully for us fish are stupid. What do you see on the water in Winter that looks like a Royal Wulff? Those big cream cahills are gone after August too.

If all else fails in the late Fall just "match the hatch".... Throw a duck!

Absolutely. Coachman trude, X-caddis, Cracklebacks, foam beetles, and my most recent favorite; Mercer's missing link are all really good on the Ni. I'll leave sizes and colors out so as not to take all the fun out of it for ya, and to avoid assuming that the ones I like are the "best choice" there is. The presence of any kind of "hatch" is irrelevant, and it does seem like the days when you can't keep the chubs off your drys is the perfect time to cut the dry off and throw a tan and brown muddler.

Anything Med. action (standard worm rod) that you'd normally rig with 12-15lb. line is what I like. Gotta remember that regardless of how heavy the bag of salt is you still have to be able to drive that hook into his face. St. Croix AVC66MF or AVC60MF

Hang in there. How close to frostbitten fingers will Musky stay shallow ? As long as there's still food there?

Right on OS ! Is it even possible to get a cool sunrise/sunset pic these days without jet trails in it? The dang skies are like I-44 in all directions. WTH is everybody going anyway?

Shouldn't need much cleaning then, hu? LOL

This is what In-Fisherman says... It appears that the term "Meanmouth" is just a nick-name since the MM's have never been given an actual scientific (latin) name of their own. Kinda like the pole-cat of the fish world.