Johnsfolly

Very nice fish RPS!

Mitch - The rubber band did keep it somewhat weedless. The action was best in open water or along structure or weedlines and not for busting through heavy weeds. The plastic in the nose could have been a little tougher to keep the baits attached to the screw. Once the bass tore the bait off of the nose a couple of times it didn't stay in place much further. The bait also lost its effectiveness if you trimmed the front of the bait. As I mentioned, the price was a lot more than flukes that I have since replaced the banjo minnow.

Will have to check out the museum the next time we stay in Branson.

For me personally it seems to come down to water depth. The deeper the water I would imagine that a slower retrieve would be the ticket. My largest LMB came out of a small lake in 6-8' of clear water and a slow twitch and drop with a sluggo (remember them). That fish took its time to inhale that bait. Whereas my largest trout and smallmouth have come out of rivers with clear water less than 5' deep and on active fast retrieve baits. In shallow water they just don't want to let that bait get away, especially if there is a depth change like a ledge going from deeper to shallow water. I don't fish rivers that are that deep to be able to say if slowing down the bait would get bigger fish. One thing is certain that whether you are fishing or hunting you are likely to get a strike for a shot opportunity when you least expect it, like taking a bite out of a sandwich, or answering the phone, or nature's calling. Also I used to love the Banjo minnow, except for its price.

Let's hope she waits until you are deceased.

BH - I would have thought that you would request to be composted and spread through your gardens.

The Horrors!! We had a Thai trout dish. We made a mixture of cooked/softened shallots, garlic, and jalapeno peppers that we made into somewhat of a paste then mixed with lime juice, fish sauce, minced lemongrass and kafir lime leaves. Spread that all over the fish and broiled them until done. Served with rice. Still feel a little bit healthy.

Billethead - Here's the scoop on borage from Wikipedia Borage (/ˈbʌrᵻdʒ/,[1]Borago officinalis), also known as a starflower, is an annual herb in the flowering plant family Boraginaceae. It is native to the Mediterranean region and has naturalized in many other locales.[2] It grows satisfactorily in gardens in the UK climate, remaining in the garden from year to year by self-seeding. The leaves are edible and the plant is grown in gardens for that purpose in some parts of Europe. The plant is also commercially cultivated for borage seed oil extracted from its seeds Traditionally borage was cultivated for culinary and medicinal uses, although today commercial cultivation is mainly as an oilseed. Borage is used as either a fresh vegetable or a dried herb. As a fresh vegetable, borage, with a cucumber-like taste, is often used in salads or as a garnish.[4] The flower has a sweet honey-like taste and is often used to decorate desserts and cocktails.[4] Vegetable use of borage is common in Germany, in the Spanish regions of Aragón and Navarra, in the Greek island of Crete and in the northern Italian region of Liguria. Although often used in soups, one of the better known German borage recipes is the Green Sauce (Grüne Soße) made in Frankfurt. In Italian Liguria, borage is commonly used as a filling of the traditional pasta ravioli and pansoti. It is used to flavour pickled gherkins in Poland.[citation needed] Borage is traditionally used as a garnish in the Pimms Cup cocktail,[4] but is nowadays often replaced by a long sliver of cucumber peel or by mint. It is also one of the key "Botanical" flavourings in Gilpin's Westmorland Extra Dry Gin. As I mentioned the hairs don't have a great mouth feel, but do seem to be less noticeable or absent once you cook the leaves.

BH Well we ate Rocky now just need to get my hands on Bullwinkle. Or as Natasha would say "Muuse ant skwirrel". RPS -would love to try the curry if you scribble down the recipe.

The plan was to make the Aurora squirrel dish that Billethead posted previously with the squirrels that I shot on Saturday. Knowing that we only had two squirrels, I picked up Swiss chard at the farmer's market to add some greens to the dinner. I also looked in the freezer and found a packet of squirrel pieces in the freezer from last Oct, which I took out to thaw. If there were some nicer looking pieces, I could put them into the stew with the fresh squirrels. Dinner got derailed last night due to a late lunch. So the squirrel dish got put off until tonight. I told my wife where to find the meat and where the other ingredients were. My wife started dinner well before I came home from work. We also wanted to try the borage that has been growing in her herb garden. Never had borage. It has hairs that are supposed to cook off. The flavor is somewhat like cucumber. We picked a bunch and I cooked a couple of leaves just to test the hair removal claims. They weren't as noticeable, but still tasted decent. We got the chard out from the fridge and my wife found the bag of fresh squirrels still in the fridge. So apparently she has been cooking last year's critters. Tell you what I picked olives that were a little too briny and they had good flavor but just a little salty. The squirrel tasted good and was not too tough. I cooked the chard and borage with a little olive oil and garlic. All in all a decent meal. Now what to do with the fresh squirrel.

Ollie - Still sounds like a pretty cool spectacle. I came upon a few shiner spawns this spring and none of them have been in water deep enough to hold a bass worthy of eating any of the minnows. Would have loved to have seen it. Sounds like the fishing was pretty good as well.

Dan Loved the video. How do you not get torn up by the nettles? I have to get back down that way and have you show me how-to properly fish the Spring River. You have it figured out!

Dan Congrats on the win! I am glad to hear that they raised $4k for the event. Looks like you will be the favorite in next year's event.

I love the fishin dude photo with him his glasses and his fish! Looks like he had a good time!

Ai - thanks for a great post. I have not tried to change the direction while I am retrieving the bait. Since I do most wade fishing I usually target a straight retrieve downstream along a piece of strucure like a log or a boulder gravel seam or along cover like water willows. The other retrieve may be cross current where there is a drastic change in water depth from deeper water to the shallow. They can't help but blast the bait before it escapes.to the shallow water. I love seeing multiple wakes chasing down my baits. My favorite walking bait is the Excaliber Spit'n image that I hand paint. I don't think that ths bait is still produced. I haven't used too many others.

Wrench What's the limit on shiners? I may have to catch 200 to 300 to reach a 12 lb limit. In a lot of rough fish tournaments in Britain they keep all of the fish that they catch in a giant net and weigh the entire days catch. They often have hundreds of fish over a single day.

BilletHead We are about a qurter mile south of I-70 and about two miles east of the Rt 63/I-70 interchange. Storm has swirled over us. Started by going east and now is coming towards us from the SE. We were sitting out front watching the storm. Not very strong and no heavy rain. There was some cool lightening. When it shifted from the SE we started getting wet and moved back inside. Now the slight rain is dissipating. I am hoping that it will continue through the night.

I bought some cultured oyster mushrooms yesterday. With the dry weather haven't even thought about hunting for any mushrooms in the woods. We have been somewhat successful in fending off the chickens from our raspberry canes. Able to pick a few every day. No great numbers but nice to eat some fresh fruit without having to pay for it elsewhere. Today we did pick that Cherokee purple tomato from the little mater that could. Also a few cherry tomatoes as well. This is about as ripe as we let cherries get in our yard. Looks like we are about to get some more rain today. Definitely need it.

I love fresh crawdads. Looks fantastic!

Great fish photos! Also a great question! My only answer is that it depends. As you know I have to run a fair distance from home to fish some of my favorite waters. In most cases they could be numbers waters or possible big fish waters. I will go to one or two spots on the Current where I am likely to catch a 18+" brown and go home with that memory if I do hook up and land one. I also love to fish places like Little Dixie lake just to catch 30 to 40 7" crappie just because you can catch that many in an hour right at dark during the spawn. Also with my microfishing for new species I am satisfied after researching a likely stream to actually catch that species even if I had to drive 400+ miles round trip. As Ham said we all love to fish. There is nothing better than fooling a fish and feeling that tug on the line. Of course then there are the pictures.

Actually grilled Vienna sausage with grilled pearl onions matched with sauted baby patty pan squash with baby carrots followed with a microgreen salad sounds pretty good. Must be lunch time.

Chief if you read any of my posts you will know that I would have to start grill training with something small like Vienna Sausage and grilled pearl onions.

Love to see your daughter holding those fish. Keep them fishing if you can. Congrats!

You got to love grilled pork! Ness - here is what I used on my pork chops. I can't take credit for the glazes since they were store bought. I started by sprinkling with the veggie grill mix and then the Chinese five spice on both sides of the chops. I cooked the chops and glazed once I flipped them on the grill. The glaze was a 1:1 mix of the apricot/ginger and the Maggi sweet chilli sauces. Chief once that grill goes on the market, I would like to sign up for the training to get one for our house as well. Keep grilling.

BH - are you saying that its a magical grill or it sucks? I have got to eat those light carbs and steaks. I have to find where Chief picked them up.