rps

Old fashioned beef stew.

homemade ramen

Pizza Puttanesca

Nancy made biscuits for Sunday brunch. We had a couple leftover, so I made a deconstructed chicken pot pie with them.

I am loving this thread!

Fishingwrench will see this and will have advice

Yes. I had a number of tire kickers, but no one was willing to pay what it was worth. I attribute that to two things. 1. A very large misinformed percentage of boat owners think anything other than a Mercury or Yamaha is no good. 2. My boat was only 16'8". Therefore it was too small. QB has fished with me in that boat. Plenty of room for two. Other than guides, crappie fishermen, and the sainted man with kids, who fishes with more than two in the boat? In any event, I held out until now. Retired Army guy from Manhattan Kansas wanted his first real boat and evidently researched a bunch. When he got here he looked at and touched everything. Then we went out on the lake in 25 mph gusts for a boat ride. I think that is what sold him. My Lund might have been too small for most, but it is a safe boat in ugly waters. Putting the boat on the trailer was a hoot. The wind was blowing across the trailer and I had to do an into the wind approach and time the turn and thrust to even get it between the guideons. Nailed it first time (dumb luck) and then pretended it was nothing.

You guys have turned this into a great thread. I am 73 now, and do not have the stamina I once had. While there are three lakes within 45 minutes of here, none are really good fishing lakes. Tablerock spoiled me. Between the drive, slip rental, poor fishing and boat upkeep, I was beginning not to enjoy going to the lake. For the first time since I was 18, I have neither boat nor outboard. I cashed out. That money is going into a separate account to be used only for guides and travel to good lakes.

I have heard a saying more than once. It goes, "the two best days with a boat are the day you buy and the day you sell it." Sold the Lund today. Now I can spend the money on guided trips.

Dang! Better than my second head!

Gamakatsu G Finesse trebles are the best substitute I have found for Daichi Death Traps. Size of trebles depends on what size WTD bait you are working.

Nancy made bread. I made mussels with a side of sauteed spinach.

smoked brats braise over polenta

Linguine with white clam sauce.

Stay at Phil Lilley's. See if you can book Buster Loving or Phil Stone. If they are already booked, ask Phil who you should use.

That's a lot of peas. But Ness said nothing.

Valentine day butter poached lobster with craison accented curry rice.

Tuna steak, coconut rice with pickled radish, and a bit of sauteed spinach.

Hand rubbed rare flank steak with mushroom pearl cous cous. I served a small salad with this.

For heaven's sake, make them stop!

Gary Loomis' newer company, Northfork, makes three 5'6" blanks. Go to the bottom of this link. https://northforkcomposites.com/bass2/ Janns Netcraft sells several brands, each of which carries a selection of 6' blanks. You can take 3 to 6 inches off the butt of the blank without an appreciable change of action. Building your own is not difficult, merely tedious. Nor do you need all the fancy tools the makers would have you believe. My first rod build, I used a coffee cup, a large phone book, and a cardboard box. Their are a gazzillion videos on the internet showing how to wrap the guides. Every reputable rod blank maker publishes a suggested guide placement sheet or web page. If you make the decision to build your own, pick the blank power and action you want, then email me for my suggestions for the other components or for any other questions you have. There are rod builder message boards that contain a wealth of information. Rodbuilding.org is one. After all these years, I would laugh at my first several rods. By my present standards, they were ugly. But they threw lures and caught fish just fine. With all my equipment today, I still have not caught a larger bass than one I caught bubbling a spinner bait in the early 70"s on a fiberglass rod I built. Have fun.

One of my favorite boat foods!

By now the walleye are up river - Long Creek, Kings, James, below Powersite, below Beaver Dam, above Theodosia. Fish at night with a large jerk bait near where a flat drops to a hole.

Buster proves what I said. He is flat good, and lucky.

Walleyes this size in Arkansas and Missouri, are decade fish. More than once a decade means you are lucky and a good fisherman.