fishinwrench

I'd love to. We gotta go in my boat though until I've determined that I can't offend you and get kicked out to swim home. 😀

It can't be any worse than all these Carp pics being shoved into our eye sockets. 😎

I'll throw on a speedo and some sexy netting if you'll buy me a beer.

Almost every fisherman I know has gone through little phases of chasing carp, especially the fly fishermen, and even though it's fun for awhile the infatuation just doesn't last very long. I maintain that guys whose actual preferred species to fish for are Carp (and has been for 20 years).... probably have a screw loose. When I was 7-8 years old I bought my dad a cheap blue Zippo knockoff lighter that had a gold carp print on it for Father's day. Yeah that was back when a 7-8 year old could walk into a dime store and buy a lighter. About 10 years later I ran across it in a drawer and said "Hey you never even used your Father's day present!" The old man said, Yeah I was a little worried about you for awhile after that. 🤔

Why if they are so freaking delicate are you paying a premium price for them? Are y'all listening to yourselves? You're paying 250.00 extra for some miracle coating that will wipe right off, and the lense will easily scratch with a paper towel....gotta use some special cloth to wipe them off? You are all crazy.

I was given 2 pair of SolarBat back when a local pro had them as a sponsor. To me they seemed about in the same class as the cheap 15.00 stuff, they just came with a cool case to put them in. I gave them to a friend that thought they were the bomb because the style just wasn't me. IMO if you want good polarization then they are going to be a bit cloudy (less clear) that's just the nature of the beast. The expensive pairs that I've had (still have them, just don't wear them... actually my daughter has stolen them) might be a bit clearer but they offer less scanning ability. What I mean by that is that if I focus on one object underwater I can see it fine, but if I am scanning the water for fish, shad schools, or for beds in 4-6ft then it's harder to find them. With my cheapies I feel like I can spot them right away from a greater distance. Plus the cheapies are lighter and available in more styles that appeal to me.

Highly possible, that dude has more points than my wife's 1/4 acre cactus plant. I can't keep track of them all. The fact that a fish fights hard just isn't enough to drag it to Sport Fish status. They have to 1st be good to eat (and by that I mean TRULY good, not one of those things where "if you cook it right...." it's ok). 2ndly it has to predominantly chase and eat other living things. And 3rdly it has to be somewhat easy on the eyes AND be more interesting than a snail in a goldfish bowl. I mean if you put a snail and a goldfish (pretty baby carp) in the same bowl.....the snail is still the most interesting thing in there. Hatchery Trout only make sportfish status by default.

I totally agree with BH. You'll never see Carp fishing become a "real thing" because they are bottom feeders, ugly as sin, and regardless of what a bunch of people keep saying....they ain't fit to eat! I'd rather eat a road kill gopher. I've only seen a carp on a stringer once in my life, and that dude was poor, hungry, and two bricks short of a pallet.

Thank dog! I have come to hate the term "Biologist" way worse than OTF hates the term "Rough fish".

We had, what I considered, a Buffalo problem I'm the upper Gravois area of LO up until the bowfishers showed up. They were so thick that all of the shallow flats stayed stirred up and murky, you couldn't go 50 feet in any direction without seeing their wakes shooting off everywhere. I'm not too sure that the bowfishers didn't go a little overkill (literally) though, because now you seldom see a single one anywhere on the flats. In 3 years we went from way too many.....to None. And that's not good I don't think.

I've had several "quality" pairs, and I guess it's just my eyes but I can't tell a difference between the expensive ones and the middle of the road (more affordable) ones. Anything under 20.00 is obviously junk though..... except for this pair of Ozark Trails I have on the dash of my truck that seem to be just as good as my most expensive pair of Smith's.

I think I have a 25, but it'll be a few days before I'm gonna be in a mood to dig for it.

Are mailboxes BIG in Texas ?

Back in the commercial fishing (trammel net) days on the Mississippi drum were a targeted species, so somebody must have liked them. I'm pretty sure I was served some when I was a kid because there was a 4 month period when we literally lived on the Big Muddy (slept in a boat or on a barge) and everything we ate was aquired within walking distance of the banks.

R.S.Mo 306.130 authorizes regattas, motorboat and other watercraft races, marine parades, tournaments, parasail operations and exhibitions on waters of this State after determining that an event will not create conditions of excessive danger for the participants, observers and operators of other watercraft nor unduly disrupt navigation. An application for permission to hold an event must be filed with the MSHP prior to the event. Was this properly done?

How about the Mo. State Water Patrol, since they issue the regatta permit knowing full well how it's going to work out. Do you think they'd issue one for a bass tournament if everytime one was held it left a path of destruction? Isn't their mission statement to protect the public interest and concerns?

The Lake Expo News was proud to announce on their FB page that the Shootout raised 200k. Several repliers were quick to point out that the amount of property damage grossly dwarfed their piddly 200k. Seriously! They caused 10,000,000.00 (light-side guess) in property damage and then openly brag to the public that they raised 200k in the process. What in the Sam Hell ? Honestly, the dock companies whose boats I service have all stopped answering their phones and/or returning messages. There's just no sense in it because as of now they are completely booked into the Winter of 2019. Yep, if you call for dock repair today you either buy a brand new dock or you go on a list for 3 years. "Yay, American Ethanol ran 204 mph!" Big frikken deal ! 😒 This lake is so out of control it boggles my mind. It just has to stop. It HAS to.

Late October is black buzzbait/Whopper Plopper, square bill and lipless cranks, and jig pitchin' time. Have those baits on deck and you can be assured that you are properly armed.

My first memorable big Smallie was one my Papaw caught one June day after church. I was just out of 4th grade so I guess I was 9, soon to be 10. He had limb lines set with big goldfish and had caught several big flatheads during the week prior, so we would "run the lines" twice a day and bass fish as we moved up and down Middle Fork of the Salt (this was pre-Cannon dam). He had a custom glass flyrod, brown and wrapped in dark red, an aluminum UMCO box half full of his top-secret yellow poppers in various sizes, and an assortment of other fuzzy patterns that I don't think he ever fished at all. We were 4 goldfish short of being able to bait all the lines so he had me flailing a little black McGinty looking wetfly and my job was to catch 4 bluegill or sunfish that were just about the size of my half-grown hands....and once I had that done he'd give me a popper to throw. We had baited up 6-7 lines and were drifting towards the next one which was about 100 yards downstream. He sat in the front of the Jon boat sculling us along with one hand and taking shots along the bank with the other, and I stood in the back flinging my crap around... like a 10 year old.... and I probably could have caught my 4 sunfish in no time at all if my fly would have ever stayed in the water for more than 2 seconds. Papaw wasn't one to coach you while you were fishing, instead he'd wait until you were on the ride home and THEN he would point out everything you did wrong that day. And if you did it again the next time....again you'd hear about it on the way home. "Remember that ---- you were doing the time before? Well you're still doing it." So we are headed to the next limb line, had just worked over the mouth of a little slough without a bite and were coming to a steep rocky bank with a line of scattered clumps of weeds. He dropped his popper along the downstream edge of the first weed clump, leaving the near edge for me....even though he knew darn well I wasn't gonna hit it, and I'll never forget what happened next. The weeds parted like someone had just drug a log slowly through them, he gave the popper a healthy BLOOP and then without even the slightest ripple the popper just disappeared. He dropped the paddle (in the river), grabbed his line and the old brown rod went up... then went down HARD. The fish ran him down to the next clump of weeds and when that hog came out of the water was the very first time that I ever got away with saying a cuss word out loud...especially on a Sunday. He got her landed after another good jump and several hard runs. She was probably 19", maybe 20+, it's hard to say since I had been accustomed to wrestling big flatheads and there's a possibility that my eye was just off, but man she was FAT. The size of her body made her head look small, but that tail was, as my mind recalls now, damnear as wide as the paddle. And speaking of the paddle...it was now about 50 feet in front of us floating downstream and was our only means of propulsion, but neither of us cared. My Papaw was a fun happy guy but he was also what you'd call "rough around the edges" and just wasn't a person that did alot of smiling. When I recall the grin across his face while he was holding that fat smallmouth it chokes me up everytime. I'm almost 100% positive that he lived his whole entire life with nobody but ME ever seeing him smile like that. So the legend lives on

3 weeks and hasn't even found an axle ? Welcome to the Lake. 😀 If they don't come thru gimme a call.

That is a nice looking little rig. Where's Bill Butts ? He needs to buy this.

The lower stretches, yes. The upper trout holding portion, no.

Oh! A SPONGE! Thank you, Patrick, I feel so much better now.

OMG he bought a 4S 😔 Buy him books and what's he do?.....Eats 1/2 the pages and wipes his butt with the rest of 'em. 😜

I've noticed for years that you'll seldom if ever see a bona-fide bass guy in a canoe. My bassin' buddies and my river fishing buddies are 2 separate groups that never come together. I actually have like a split/multiple personality thing going on, with 4 different sets of friends.