jdmidwest

Finally broke the ice. After two days of no luck, I found a mess. Nice assortment, grays, yellows, blacks, and half frees. A grand slam from the same spot. Passed on some inkies, never ate those before.

Water snakes are shy and retreat. A cottonmouth will stand ground or advance. I have seen it too many times to count.

Cottonmouths are not comfortable around people either. That is why they chase you away.

I have been wanting to hit that upper part, just have not made it there yet. The lower part that we fish has produced some nice smallies.

I got a text last Monday morning from my long time fishing buddy in TN, Lets Go Fishing This Weekend on Pickwick. I was all in. Was all fired up all week. We made it to the lake with about 30 minutes of daylight to fish on Friday nite and headed to the spillway to make a few casts before dark. I caught a nice skipjack, he landed a 14" largemouth just casting from the bank. Sat. morning, we launched the boat for the first time of the new season. We had talked about the boat the night before as we were prepping it to fish. He was worried because he saw some water in the boat from our last trip out last season. I reminded him that we fished heavy swells that day and were tucked in under the windshield trying to stay dry, the boat was not leaking. I parked the truck and trailer and made my way back to the ramp. I hopped on board at the dock and he stated that he had found the leak. I raised the lid on the inboard 4.3 Chevy V6 to see water spouting from the starboard impellor housing. There was a nice busted seam gushing water and antifreeze into the hull. We puttered around for an hour in the cove on trolling motor and picked up a couple of largemouth each. I was not getting any action at first, so I put on a Ned and nailed mine. Put the boat back on trailer and headed back to boat doctor. First question out of the boat doctor mouth was "did you winterize it?" . "Yes You did" my buddy replied. Come to find out, both sides were cracked. We still have not found out the full extent of damage, but it looks like winterize failure. Went back to lake house and packed. Stopped at Shiloh Battleground and paid our respects to the fine Confederate Soldiers that fought in that battle. We headed back to his house to get the other boat ready for a backup trip to Reelfoot on Sunday morning. The jonboat has sit idle for a year under cover. One battery was dead and seats were moldy. We sprayed the seats down with bleach gel and got the mildew off. My buddy had to turn the water on to the pool house so I could spray the bleach off the seats, which I did. About a half a beer later, he made a dash for the shutoff again. Seems like there is a relief valve in the poolhouse that sticks open sometimes, that is why he keeps it shutoff. It was definately stuck open and water was pouring out the front doors and around the baseplate of the building. Started out fairly early this morning after a good nite sleep. We were at the gas station filling up when he got a call. It was a reminder that he was supposed to be at work an hour earlier. He makes his own schedule, but forgot what he had scheduled. We parted ways at that point, him off to work, me towards MO. I called another friend and was going to meet him halfway to St. Louis with my boat and fish a lake. An hour later, he called back and was worried that the radar was showing an incoming rain storm. We changed that to meeting up and heading out to St. Francois county to look for mushrooms. After a nice drive thru what used to be Forest Service land that is all now marked "NO TRESPASSING" courtesy of a few "Hunting Clubs" we found some nice public land. A few hours later and only 3 thumbnail grays and 1- 2 inch gray, we called it a day. What a weird weekend with some good friends. A campfire story we will tell for years.

It really needs to cool down some, too warm too quick. Average between day and night should be around 50 degrees.

I wear an inflatable when duck hunting sometimes, but mostly wear a regular PFD. I am always worried that I may not be able to pull the cord.

Nope, last year, early June. They are about 4" high right now. I use wood stakes and burn them year after year to keep from spreading diseases. I tend to rotate my Tomatoes around some, but if it is in the soil, it would really spread no matter what. My garden plot is about 30' x 40'. Now that I have raised beds, I could rotate plots. Or I can scoop out the soil and add fresh if needed.

Is there such a thing as a douche bag anymore? Another phrase lost to history. Massengill has gone like a nice summers eve.

Went out this afternoon to a proven spot, nothing yet. Maybe next week. We had an 80 degree day today, that may be a killer for this year. Past experience is that 80 degrees and it is all over. I hope not.

Mine are pretty simple. I pick up scrap stakes from a local pallet mill and create a wire trellis with some light wire that I found on surplus. You could do the same with twine or rope. Here is a pic of the trellis with sugar snap peas climbing it. I use the same for pole beans and cucumbers.

So the forum started in 2005. Is anyone planning a big 10 year party? What is the magic day the forum was started?

Where exactly is the "shoulder" of a fish? Is it above the elbows?

I have the decal on a boat that I don't own anylonger, I guess. Phil has sent those out from time to time for promo. T-shirts to all original members would be great, lol.

I did not mean to toot my own horn, just reminisce about why I even found this site in the first place. I may have been a lifetime member for years, but I noticed it tonight. Which led to looking at my profile, which I have not done in a long time. Weird that I happened to do it on a 9 year anniversary and a day I have been searching the net to try to find what to target on Pickwick this weekend. The main point of the post is that there is alot of info on here that does not exist in other areas.

How about a "For Sale Sign" and park it by a road. That is how I found the last 2 boats I bought.

I just posted a response and noticed my Avatar has been upgraded to OAF Lifetime Member. I remember the days when it read "speckled frog" or "crusty chum", some silly little moniker. I looked at my profile and realized I have been online here and a member for 9 years this week, 4,883 posts, almost 19k views to my profile. Time sure rolls on. I was searching the net this morning prepping for a trip to Pickwick Lake this weekend and found one fishing report that was 2 weeks old. Funny, there is not a website in that area that gives up free fishing info like we do on here. I think that was how I stumbled on here 9 years ago, I was planning a weekend trip to Taneycomo and Phil's site popped up. I was able to prep and plan based on info from this site. And was able to catch fish in a strange location without finding a guide. It would really be nice to see more of this on the net. Maybe there is on Facebook, never even tried to look there. Thanks again for all you do Phil.

I don't know if it is "ageing out", but it does not seem like it is going away. Everytime I get time to go do something, I seem to run into more and more "afield" in places that I always considered remote and quiet. I used to be able to wade a small stream and not see a soul, but now I see more doing the same. Rivers are swelled to the brim with floaters on the weekends that I used to be able to float and catch fish. Camping areas have no vacancy signs where you used to be able to pull in any time and get a spot. What I have noticed is certain agencies promoting the "hugger" side of conservation, instead making better hunting and fishing opportunities. No new lakes, no added ramps, fewer land acquisitions, less access to areas. More natural areas, blocked access, closed camping areas.

I bought an old ranger and a nice trailer a few months back. The old boat had a rotted transom and severe sunburn, so I junked it. When I stripped all of the stuff out of the boat, I noticed what a mess the livewells were. My Tracker is so much simpler. Intake pipe to the aerator, pipe to the spray head. Nice little flex hose to keep water level. Pop it out to drain. Livewell stays full on plane. Both boats were 1986, my Tracker is in better shape because of the aluminum hull. The trailer I got with the boat was worth alot more than the whole deal, it was a nice Ramlin C channel steel trailer with fiberglass fenders. Just put the finishing touches on it tonight.

I have little grays like that come up in the yard each spring, they never get much bigger or different than what you have there. I have watched them for a few days and they just seem to dry out. In other parts of the yard, they grow and turn in to yellow mushrooms which are larger. The only difference is the first is an open hillside exposed to sun almost all day, the other is shady and near the branch. The later has more moisture along with the shade.

I was looking for a mint Model 61.

It is still pretty early for maters in the wild. Our last frost date averages mid April here in SEMO. I think I saw 34 on Sat morning coming up here. I have tried maters early in mid to late April here, they usually just sit there and not grow until it warms up and we get more sunlight. They are a warm weather plant.

Winchester Pump 22?

Nice.

Stranded? You are only a few miles from Nowhere in MO.