ness

Good for you Phil!

LOL Eric & KC

Looks like a lot of fun. Cool to see your boy knocking 'em dead with the big boys. Could someone ID the folks in the pictures? Always nice to put a face on a forum persona.

Yeah, I ran into Idaho Rainbow Trout at a fancy restaurant one time. I questioned a chef there, just to see what he said. He wanted to argue, I wanted to eat. If I remember correctly, I had scallops and lobster bisque. Good restaurant, but I don't expect them to get the names right. I love marketing hype.

Hey Eric, Welcome to the forum. As to the value of your opinion -- I'd place it pretty high as you're a guide, and have some real facts and figures to add to the discussion. $225 x 120 = $27,000 gross. Some folks get it in their head that $225 for a day is a lot of dough, maybe more than they make in a day, and stop thinking there. But I know it's not gonna make anybody rich, and it's hard work. The way I look at whole thing is this: I work my tail off 49 weeks a year, and most of the other three weeks are spent doing non-fun stuff, so my time off is precious. Hiring a guide can be a great investment, even though at the end of the day I don't own anything new. The experience, the memories and the knowledge are what I get out of the deal, and I've never regretted it at all. If a guide busts his hump for me and/or my kids I'm gonna show my appreciation for it with a tip. And there's a lot more than how many fish are caught in my equation. As an example -- last summer we spent a couple days in Smoky Mountains on our way to SC. I hired a guide for my two boys and I for a day, hoping to make the most of the one (freakin) day we were going to get to fish there. It rained big the night before, and a good part of the day we fished. But he busted his hump driving us around the park trying to dodge the storms and find places that weren't blown out. He worked well with the boys, and taught me a thing or two also. During the long periods when we weren't fishing, he kept us entertained with stories about the locals, and the history of the area. I ended the day with 2 or 3 fish. Not only did I feel like I got my money's worth, but I felt he had done the very best he could have under crappy conditions. Ca-ching: he earned a nice tip. And we got a lot ourselves.

Well, I figured you didn't just make that up. I suspect they were describing something different. No doubt there are tax laws that benefit the oil companies though. They were supposedly put into place to encourage them to make capital investments with the intent of getting us to use less oil from the bad guys. But we all know how that stuff works.

I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about that picture, especially without knowing the circumstances. I really don't worry about size and limits, since I always put them back. A couple people have mentioned private ponds -- still subject to limits or not? Also, could be a group of fishermen, not just one. Don't assume I like seeing it, I really don't.

I'm not surprised he had an extra wading staff -- he's a real Boy Scout when it comes to being prepared. How did the other two do? Are they hooked now? I'm packing my stuff tonight -- we'll be there (Estes) Saturday afternoon.

Whatever Captain D's is serving up.

LOL

Very nice, Al. Great description of the moment.

You talking to me?

So, in all the hoopla, I've almost forgotten. What should we do when we find worm containers on Crane Creek? 1) Call the Game Thief hotline at 1-800-392-1111 2) Pick them up and put them in the trash 3) Flog Ozark Anglers ad nauseum with how you see things 4) 1 & 2

Tom, If you owned a gas station and the guy across the street was a nickle higher or a nickle lower, wouldn't that enter into the equation when you set your price? The gas stations are typically not owned by the oil companies, but rather small & medium-sized businesses.

Al, I'm looking at their financials. ExxonMobile (XOM) is US-based and paid $15 billion in taxes in 2009. Net income of $19 billion. That's a lot of money, but they're a huge company. 9% after-tax profit margin.

Charlie, A little bird told me you guys fished the Thompson. So, how did it go?

I work in MO and pay taxes there, for whatever that's worth. It's a personal choice to buy the stamp.

Here Eric -- for your convenience I've clipped your comments. Yeah -- I'd say that's confrontational. All he said was he doesn't eat trout so he doesn't buy a stamp. Now he's short-sighted and selfish in addition? Come on man, there are better ways to get your point across. Sometimes less is more. For the record, I don't buy the stamp either. I can afford it, but I don't keep trout. It's just that by the time I've coughed up the dough for an out-of-state license I'm not really in a giving mood.

If he'd have left off the first three sentences his point would have been made and he would have sounded much less confrontational.

Sportin' fer a fight there Eric?

Naw -- it was a low-occurrence problem to start, Toyota worked out a fix, and no smoking gun. It also helped that BP blew a gasket requiring 60-days of 24-hour-a-day news coverage.

Me too. Loved the waterfowl stamps -- I've still got them all in my special stuff drawer.

I did edit -- edited all the way down to nothing Wish I could have made it -- would have been nice to put some names and faces to the handles and avatars. But, you know how it goes when you've got kids sucking up every minute of your free time.

darn, I almost posted something.

If you get a chance, tell Buzz in the number 4 that ness says hi. I taught him the Immelman.