jdmidwest

Nice fish. I have a ton of beads left over from Alaska trips, but have never tried them here. Hard to find a nest of salmon eggs to mimic here in MO. But they sure worked charms on Dollies and Rainbows in Alaska.

All the fresh smallmouth and goggle eyes you can eat?

Looks like the fault is shaking, 3.6 yesterday in Manila AR.

Drought is over. Whoppin 2 tenths of an inch today. All of that blew away with the wind after the clouds left. Still waiting to plant fall garden.

I always thought that was because they had bad aim backing up into the trailer.

All of the toilets flushing near the dam skews the reading, then the turds start clogging up down below.

Plenty of rain up north. Wing dikes at Chester were under water today, sticking out a few weeks ago when I crossed.

I love grilling on a gas grill. But I always hated the cleanup. Double that if you sauced anything or used a marinade. Lots of scrubbing and checking that you did not leave any brush "whiskers" behind on the grill surface. I would go thru a few brushes each year on my small Weber Q grill. I always used the charcoal grill to cook anything that I wanted to sauce. No matter what you sprayed it with, the grates always get gunked up. Then I saw the Infomercial. Copper Grill Mat, made it look like a charm, easy cleanup and cooking like a normal grill. I bought a couple of them back in the summer at Menard's for 9 bucks and some change. I love it. Trimmed it to fit with scissors. Toss it on after the grill heats up and put food on. Keeps juices in better. Works wonders for veggies. NO Stick on anything. Nice grill marks. Easy cleanup between when cooking different food, just push old char or juices off with a spatula. Same great taste. Does not change the way the grill cooks or flavor. When done cooking, pick it up with tongs, drain grease or juice off, then toss in dishwasher or hand wash. My first one looks like it will last the rest of this year and keep going into the next. Wonderful. Two thumbs up.

I have not mowed since July. That was about the time of the last rains. Just traveling around, the dry parts are west of St Gen to Cuba, down to the Arkansas border, back across the bootheel, and up thru southern Illinois. Lakes and ponds are low. Hurricanes missed the area, going east and west of the area. Most rain has been from a few fronts that brought it in, not hurricanes. I was on 3 lakes today in Illinois, all were several feet low. But the Mississippi River was running full at Chester. No fracking around here. They dig the sand out of the ground and haul it off to the Fracking areas.

Its been dry because of no rain in Se Mo. Farmers are pumping groundwater out in irrigation. But nothing to do with fault. Hurricanes missed us. Last good rains in August. 2" in Sept. Less than inch so far in Oct.

I have a few fly vises I may part with. They make great lure duplicators.

Tube jigs work fairly well in coontail. They tend to shed weeds.

We debated going there on Sunday. We fished a lake on Terre Du Lac on Sat. evening after rain passed for a few hours and did alright. But decided on Lake of the Ozarks and went elsewhere. Something passed thru that made fishing tough on Sunday, probably lingered into today. Clear water did not help. I have never caught any huge bass on Council Bluff. But there are a good number of average ones there. The Enough end has always been my favorite and the rock ledge along the arm where the outflow thing is.

I drove up with a friend on Sunday and fished it for the first time for fun. We put in at State Park ramp at daylight and fished that arm down to where you could see Osage Beach. It was a brutal lesson for me, first time on the lake. 2 small bass and a drum. But I did better than my buddy that has fished it before on several tourneys, he caught a white bass and nothing else. We pulled out by 2. It looks like it has potential, and not too far away for me. Shad were everywhere, but not much feeding on them. Lots of cover and deep rock banks like I normally fish. Boats were spaced out about every 100 feet everywhere we went. I am sure the tourney had many participants. We took my buddies boat and we were the smallest boat on the lake. 17' Alumacraft with a 25 Merc. I think the jet skis had us outgunned. Somebody had set up a boat blind that morning not far down the lake with a dozen geese out in front. He had boats fishing on both sides of him when we went by. I am sure he had not planned on all of the activity.

I hope it is when I get to old to remember to go..... But one really never knows. They buried a guy today that made plans with me on the 4th of July this year to fish out of a new jet boat he was looking to buy this year. He never got the boat and I never got to fish with him. I met him thru a friend, it was his cousin. We had talked fishing over the years at the annual party on the 4th at my friends house. When my buddy called the other day to tell me of his passing I was shocked to hear. You just never know really how short your time is.

Enlighten me on PB2. I am considering a first time trip to LOZ this weekend and may have a down day on Sat due to weather. Sounds like a trade or tackle show. Dam Hurricane coming thru TN and washed out plans for that one.

My 50 runs all day on a few gallons. I am going to buy smaller tank and make room for extra battery for 24 v system. I have been siphoning tank each spring for mowers and put fresh in first time out when I see a no ethanol place. Stabil goes in too.

I seldom run it wide open for that sound. Good advice. I usually settle for less speed and a smoother running engine.

I have an 08 Crappie Pro 175 with a 4 stroke 50 Merc and it is slow to come out of the hole. They put a 21 gallon fuel tank all the way back, very tail heavy. When it gets up it runs around 32 mph at 6000 rpm. I have no idea the pitch on the prop, half of the numbers did not stamp well and are filled in with paint to make a blur. Crappie Pro has a more pronounced V in the front than the Pro Team Hull with a step in the back. My older Pro 17 with a 35 Merc 2 stroke used to pop right up.

And there are fish somewhere in TN tonite with sore lips. Not many, just a few nice ones.

Well life is short. He will be missed. I liked his contributions on here and we shared a fly pattern or two. Wish I had met him in person.

I saw one at a yard sale last month that had thermal paper for the graph, complete. Been around for a while. I think the one off my last tracker used a cathode TV tube and required 110v, it was a hoss of a unit that was DOA when I bought the boat.

Looks like it is a done deal. This helps explain how they will handle rewards, purchases, and branding. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/together-announcement?cm_sp=CblAqSep2017_EMAIL&om_rid=NtmKHh&om_mid=_BZyXVaB9gegzhE http://basspronews.com/a/hBZyXVaASgjEJB9gegzNtmKHh.ASgjEJ3I/bps2 Maybe not so bad after all.

I ran across Brad Pitt this weekend on the Spring River. I came over the waterfall above the Bayou and noticed only a hat and a spin rod sticking out of the water and the rod was fighting something. Come to find out it was just a fat guy that overloaded his life jacket trying to get his powerbait off a rock he hung it on. He had fell out of the inner tube that was floating around the hole with him. He was about 350 lbs. and the life jacket looked like a little halter top on him. But a River Runs Thru it came thru my mind right off the bat.

I catch alot of trout wherever I go on Shad Raps and Flicker Shads. I like them better than Rapalas.