Johnsfolly

Maybe after you pull them out of the freezer. Not a problem when they are alive.

I never fished the hey day that you guys are talking about. I have lost a few large browns over the years. I fished two years using Fusion line. It would get brittle and often fray at the knot when I was fishing those floating raps and bounce them off rocks. Fusion was worse than mono. I made the perfect cast into a sweeping bend of the river. I lost contact with my bait. A large brown jumped about 25 feet upstream from me with my bait in its mouth. It broke me off without me even feeling the strike. It jumped three times getting closer every jump. The last one was 6 to 8 feet in front of me. I was hoping that I could have caught it in my net. Never saw it again. I was fishing another spot well upstream of the access point in my favorite trout river. I came to an "S" bend in the river with a large wood pile on one side. The largest brown trout that I have seen in that river swam upstream. It was at least 26 to 28 inches in length. I didn't make any casts and tried to stay out of view. I headed upstream and planned to get back to that hole later. A couple of hours later I headed back down to that hole. I came in from a different angle and crept up to that hole. I had on rapala countdown. I cast upstream of that log pile. I made two slight jerks and got pounded. The brown porpoised and its tail was twice the size of my hand. The fish turned and ran towards me and threw the bait with a big head shake.

When I went offshore to fish on Cristmas eve saw an eagle flying with a duck in its talons. It was hounded by gulls until it dropped the duck and the gulls got after it.

They hit the deer carcasses pretty hard here in Maryland. Back in Missouri I had a run in with an eagle heading home from Barren Fork Creek. I turned a sharp corner. The eagle was feeding on a groundhog. When it saw me it tried to fly off with its prize. It couldn't fly quickly and all I saw was a windshield filled with eagle body and wings. It let go of the groundhog and gained enough elevation for me to miss hitting it.

Pretty much sums up the majority of hunting and fishing success. Never killed a duck, but killed more turkeys being between where they are and where they want to go than pulling them away. And that was not because of my calling ability😌.

1588 over 20 inches! My hat is off to you sir for the number of big trout that you have caught and landed. Were the majority of those fish from Taney or other tailwater systems? I just don't see as many scuds in river like the 11 point, North Fork of the White, or Current rivers like I have in Taney.

I am only 1577 fish behind @laker67 in terms of trout over 20 inches😌. So far all mine came from a river and not a tailwater and all were caught with aggressive style baits, jerkbaits , countdowns, streamer, etc. All were caught off of structure where they could ambush prey. Those fish were not slurping scuds they mostly eating fish or crayfish. When I used to keep legal brown trout they usually had guts packed with crayfish parts or fish. One 18" brown was well over 3.5 lbs had two 6 inch hog suckers in its belly. When I caught that fish I had cast upstream of a bluff hole. I was fishing a floating F11 rapala. I let it drift under an overhang then started twitching and pausing the bait. An 18+" brown was following that bait but was not committed. Then the other brown that I hadn't even seen yet torpedoed that bait. So it was full of those suckers and still went after a 4 to 5 inch bait😁!

Mitch fish for more solitary fish like big brown trout would be my suggestion. Don't often see a big brown surrounded by any other fish.

Very Nice! Great stringer of crappie! Like @BilletHead I need to get out fishing and find some good populations of Maryland Crappie. I was hoping that the western mountain lakes would be iced over for ice fishing. Not yet. I suspect that the crappie are too deep to reach effectively from the bank. Without a boat, ice would be a way to reach to deeper fish. Like yourself, four layers of clothes would help greatly! Keep up the great crappie fishing!

Those maps are for active birders and not the birds. These are folks that will travel to see birds or want to confirm a sighting by referencing those maps. So the map is actually more about the time of year when you will find birds in that area than the activity noted. So breeding will refer to the typical time of year when the bird breeds and fledges its young (e.g., Feb to Sep). You should expect to encounter that species during those months in that location. For example you would not go to northern Canada to see bald eagles in Dec or Jan. You would go and expect to see them during spring to fall in that area during the breeding season. If there is an adequate year round food source like fish from unfrozen or only partially frozen lakes or rivers like LOZ, Missouri and Mississippi rivers then you can expect to find eagles anytime of year which is why you see the year round designations in those areas on the map. That will mean that there are likely to be breeding populations of eagles in those areas. It does not mean that there is no migration going on. Many of the eagles seen in MO in the winter are migrants from Canada. Some of the birds that Wrench sees in his area in the spring and summer may migrate to TX or LA in the winter. There may also be resident birds like some resident Canada geese that will no longer migrate very far or at all since they have adequate winter feeding and suitable locations to nest and fledge their young.

Wrench - when they state that a species is there year round that does imply that there is also breeding in those areas as well.

I haven't seen a golden eagle. Apparently there was a golden eagle that wintered in a town southeast of us here in Maryland last winter. I never thought that they would be this far east but seems like they can be. Pretty cool that they are being seen in MO.

If I had the money that would make a decent boat to striper fish the Chesapeake here in Maryland.

Great video. Good luck if you get out!

Nothing like the smell of your hands after using them, especially if they were old ones left on the shelf for a while !

Will keep this in mind. So far it has been raining at least one or two days a week and rarely been below freezing. The birds have been fine so far. My creek fishing has been a bust due to the rain !

Had one of those when I was a grad student. We lived in an old house converted to have two apartments upstairs. The owners lived below us. They were in their late 70's so we never had to heat our apartment. I had the bird feeder on the window and one day the wife of the owner was walking in the garden below the window when the feeder came off and crashed right next to her. Just missed hitting her on the head and nearly scaring her to death. Needless to say we were no longer allowed to have a window feeder .

That's a great way to spend Christmas eve! Congrats to you and your son! I got out Xmas eve as well, but fished the brine on a boat out of Ocean City.

I should have taken you up on this invite Chief or found out if @trythisonemv was available. Could have used a guide! I drove up to the upper wire road access that Sat with Ham to try for rainbows and see if there were any pickerel or chubs in the creek. Only fished for a couple of hours. One of the spots where I have used a large tree right on a deeper "S" curve in the creek had been modified a bit, since the tree had fallen into the creek. Still there were trout there and while kneeling I threw a olive green microjig to a 12+" rainbow. It turned and took the bait and I missed the hook set. Had a couple others swim at my baits in a pool or two below that one, but never hooked a fish. Also never saw any pickerel. We ended up fishing the Spring river above Stott's City and caught a few micros that were new to Ham making it worth the drive.

If that becomes a problem, my ground blind is just behind it. Baiting deer is legal in Maryland and I have permission to hunt there if needed .

We have had issues with feral cats. About 6 years ago someone dumped a whole litter of kittens in our neighborhood. I bought a live trap and began catching them when they would end up in my yard crapping everywhere and killing the rabbits and squirrels in the neighborhood. The first couple that I caught all had the same coloration, white with gray and black patches (I believe that I caught all 8 of that litter). Initially I would cart them to the animal shelter. They told me that if they were not adopted within a week that they would put them down. I had no issue with that policy, but I would only bring over ones that would meow when I went to the cage. If they hissed they would take a short one way trip in the car. It got that I had to go to different public land spots to feed the coyotes. Raccoons and opossums would get dropped off alive. In a period of 18 months I caught over 24 cats, 9 opossums and 8 raccoons. Only three of the cats were neighbor cats. I only brought four to the shelter and by the last one they were telling me that they could only give it 24 hours to be adopted due to too many cats being abandoned. I would love to start a program to catch feral cats all over Columbia, but although necessary to control that population that would be a political firestorm. I strongly oppose those groups that want to catch, sterilize, and release them near where they caught them. Ok so they will no longer increase the population, but they are still out there killing songbirds and spreading diseases. I would also advocate popping off English sparrows, starlings, cowbirds, etc. from my feeders for the same reason, overpopulation! Ok down off the soapbox !

Dan - there were a couple of winters several years ago in Columbia that we would end up feeding a coopers hawk. As you can see our feeder was on our porch railing just outside of our sliding glass door. If the hawk would fly parallel to the house, it was a clear flight path from the big oaks on the right side of our house, past the house, over the side yard and over the neighbor's yard on the left. So it would just fly by and pick one off. We could tell when the hawk was around by the birds, especially cardinals would hit the door trying to get away. had a couple of cardinals die, but not the hawk. When we got our chickens I was really worried about that hawk since our bantams would have been small enough to get its attention. But we hadn't seen that hawk(s) in a long time and never had an issue with the chickens and hawks.

my wife has been pretty understanding so far with the amount that i spend on grain and seed in a year.

If I get a bunch coming in, then I will get into making my own mix, which is pretty similar to what you provided.

Oh and since this was the only keeper fish landed, I won the big fish pool and took home $60 ! That didn't suck either.