Quillback

Vernon does not understand the concept of moderation, when he brings rain, you can count on tornadoes, hail, and flooding. Be careful what you wish for.

Very nice!

Come on over to Indian Creek on Beaver 1/1 to mess with the smallmouth.

Buddy of mine sent me a pic. Front end is up with the plastic dock floaters out of the water, they pulled up the metal part of the walkway and put red tape around the whole thing. With the holidays it might be a while before it is fixed. You can still launch there, but you will have to beach your boat to get in/out.

Used one to anchor my depthfinder screen. Solid as a rock.

Very nice, and it sure is good to get out on these nice days!

Hit the water at first light, lake was flat calm until 1130 or so. I like that flat calm for fishing a ned rig this time of year. Caught some bass, mostly spots, on steep banks with trees. Had a little over 20 with a half-dozen keeper sized. All on the ned except 2 caught on a 1/16 oz marabou jig. When I had loaded the boat, I threw the jig out behind it hoping to catch a bluegill or two to keep for cut bait for a future catfish trip. The jig got whacked by a close to two lb. LM. Heck of a fight on that buggy whip I use for those light jigs. It was fun, I'll have to throw those jigs a little more often. WT 51

So sorry to hear of this. I've known Michael for a long time but can't say I knew him well. Years ago, he asked me about eagle watching on upper Table Rock he planned on taking his kids to see them. Like all of you, I wish I could've seen some sign of what was to come. We will miss you my friend!

When I lived in Washington, the PETA types broke into a mink farm and let them out, (link below). It was close to where I used to steelhead fish. Never saw one myself, but 10,000 minks is a lot. Mink rescue under way after Sultan ecoterror break-in

Ornamental Rhododendrons are pretty common in the PAC NW. Pretty when they bloom. I knew they grew wild in that area, but never have seen wild ones. Hey you caught some fish, which is cool. One thing about wild trout is that you usually have to work to get them, if it's easy they get fished out.

The blues I catch in Grand Lake are excellent eating.

Something similar I was reading about as far as all the stuff that was manufactured during WWII, was carrier airplanes for the Navy. By the last year of the war they were manufacturing more planes than the Navy could use. They had a supply chain established where they would ship them out on small carriers or cargo ships and then fly them onto the fleet carriers. Even though the Japanese were clearly defeated at the time, the Navy were worried some disaster might happen where they'd lose a bunch of planes, so they kept that pipeline going just in case. So, with so many planes coming in, instead of maintaining or repairing existing planes, they'd either dump the older planes into the ocean off the carriers or fly them off to an island where they were eventually crushed by bulldozers and then buried. Same thing with pilot training, we were training so many pilots that they had to start dragging out the training cycle to slow down the pilot pipeline.

Did they get their fingers back?

I did not think of it at the time, but I wish I would've checked some of those Army jeeps out to see how old they were. Front windshield folded down across the hood, I believe, if I remember correctly, that the started was a button on the floor that you stomped on. I wasn't in a combat arms unit, but at the time, those folks had jeeps with recoilless rifles mounted on them.

Man, you're killing me, heck I was too young for Vietnam (thankfully), let alone WWI.

The Army was still running jeeps when I was in. Bare boned things, no heater, lousy tires, but they could crawl up anything. We were in the field once when I was stationed at Fort Carson CO, the battalion was camped in a ravine that had a dirt road than ran sort of a circular track through the area, they used to harass us at night, driving a jeep down that road and throwing tear gas cannisters around, you'd have to put your gas mask on because that stuff is nasty, and all of that is annoying when you're trying to sleep. There was a little bit of a jump on that road where those guys throwing the gas around would grab some air in the jeep. A few people got fed up with the gas throwers and rolled a couple of boulders onto the road where the jeep was going to land next time around. Wrecked that jeep when they hit those boulders. The powers that be were not amused; we had to stand in formation in the middle of the night and get yelled at while they tried to get the perps to come forward. Of course, no one admitted to it.

Dang, super day, congrats!

I meant to say check 2 boxes in luggage, not carryon. Old brain misfiring. 😀

Look like they'd be a killer panfish fly.

Forecast is calling for a high in the low 70's all 3 days. No chance for a white Christmas here. Forecast is still a week out, so who knows, but if true, man that is warm for this time of year.

When I went up to Sitka 20 years ago, when you came back to the dock they'd take your fish, fillet them, vacuum seal them, and then freeze them solid. When you left they'd meet you at the airport with your fish packed in a waxed cardboard box, one box could hold 70lbs. of fish. No insulation in the box. Load up the boxes in the luggage compartment of the plane and fly to your home airport. In my case that was Seattle which was a couple of hours by air. However one of the guys with us flew to Phoenix. When I got back to the house, the fish were still frozen solid. The guy from Phoenix says his made it fine too. Talking to Marty @BilletHead at jigfest, that is the same way they got their fish home from Alaska, he says they had a little thawing around the edges. He didn't mention if they got charged for it by the airline. When I fished up there you were allowed two carryon's and a box counted as one carryon. I brought back a full 70 lb. box and one that had 50 lbs. Halibut and salmon. I guess they would charge for that today. On the flight out of Sitka, which I remember as being an MD-80, there were stacks of boxes being loaded on board. Plane was full of recreational fishermen. The airlines flying out of Alaska are used to dealing with the fish situation.

Of all the outdoorsmen including family that I have known, I have yet to meet anyone that has been chomped on by a snapping turtle. Never have read any outdoor stories about it either. It has to have happened to someone.