1farmer

I have had braid tangle in the hooks when throwing a spook, have also had it happen with mono also but not as often as with braid. I was one that would use a short piece of mono to minimize this happening, but as Bill Babler stated the knot gets some wear passing through the guides. I have found a better mouse trap that all should be excited about. Here it is: Tie straight to the braid ( makes Bill Babler smile) now use a magic marker and run it down the braid from the lure 6 to 12 inches and it will stiffen the braid to keep the hooks from tangling ( Seth Clarkson will be happy now). There I've solved all your braid to topwater issues. One last thing my spook setup is : falcon low rider lcd 5-167 weightless worm 6' 7", 6.4 preferred to 7.1 ratio reel, 30 preferred to 40 lb. power pro super slick, depending on the lure use either a snap or loop knot to tie lure to braid, instead of using a magic marker I usually use a spike-it pen in light blue to stiffen the braid

Teresa has had some dwarf dahlias in the years past, this plant with it being so much taller I never even considered it to be a dahlia. Just shows I know very little about flowers.

I'm sure not going to disagree with her.

Here are a couple of close up photos.

Thanks MoCarp, it is unlike any of the peonies I have seen around here. All the others that I have seen have more oval shaped petals on the flower so therefore I didn't even consider that it could be a peony. The characteristics of the plant are the same as the peonies around here. This plant happens to be a (product of Mexico) it was given to Teresa 10 years ago.

Anyone know what this is?

Second round of rose blooms are starting.

Lily update 6/4/2019. The last photo is of my lilies, I'll admit they don't look as good as hers.

Lily update 5/26/2019.

Lily update 5/23/2019.

Lily update 5/20/2019.

Asiatic lilies are starting to bloom.

Knockout roses May 14, 2019.

Knockout roses May 5, 2019.

Some more of her roses.

I have no idea how long they can live. This rose spent 25 years next to the fence being trimmed by the moo cows. One day someone decided it needed to be moved to it's current location.

A rose from a 41 year old rose.

And it could be called a stick worm.

Dad and I would catch crawdads out of the creek and he would always pull the pinchers off the bigger ones. He always said, don"t be afraid of them they won't hurt you. I thought this was why he pulled the pinchers, but I guess he new the fish liked them better that way. I'm no longer afraid of crawdads, but don't show me a hellgrammite.

That's not necessary, it's time for you two to think about fishing.

Bill were you using the long rod?

Are you trying to say that you don't think those fish don't know that winter is not over?

Ham, congratulations on possibly a smallmouth of a lifetime. 22 inches or not due to the thickness at the top of the fishes back it had to be pushing 6lb. In 2011 I caught one of three that we caught that day that were between 21 1/4 and 22 inches. The weights were 4.92, 5.76 and 6.05 and basically the only difference in them was how far up on the back the thickness started.I'm proud to say mine was the smallest, so therefore I can still hunt for a 5lb. smallmouth the other two can't. Another thing to be proud of, you caught a 5lb. plus stream smallmouth, which doesn't happen very often.

Prayers from down this way.

With today's hooks, lines, rods, and reels this is all you need to do in most instances. I try to do this fishing a jig and at times have excellent results. My problem is I started fishing over 50 years ago. Back then we had broomsticks for worm rods made of fiberglass, we rigged our worms to be weedless by putting the hook inside the worm, not skin hooking it. When we felt a bite it went like this: drop the rod, watch the line to see if he still had it, when line moved rare back on that broomstick like you were trying to move a mountain and hoist the fish into boat. Old habits are hard to break and I sometimes forget to do it like it should be done.