eric1978

Good morning, Woody!

Ignosticism is a very nuanced and sophisticated perspective on theology. I go back and forth between calling myself an atheist or an ignostic, but too few people know what ignostic means and I always have to explain the difference from agnostic, so I gave it up and just went back to 'ol reliable atheist as a sweeping generalization for my opinions. It's very close, but is not the same. And I'm always amazed at the amount of people who think "atheist" means "one who worships the devil." Still, you're going straight to Hell when it's over cricket, and I'll see you there. Now what the heck was this thread about?

Here's a cheaper alternative. Promise the old man that after he passes you'll send his body into outer space. Once he's gone, carry his ashes to the top of Taum Sauk and shoot them straight up out of a potato gun. He won't know the difference. That'll run you about 12 bucks in PVC and whatever it is for gas. You'll need a little Aqua Net, too.

Sometimes for me the science is the fun part. But I always have fun fishing, whether I'm doing it casually or intensely.

Ouch. Unfortunately, some of us have to work and live more than five minutes from the river. Don't worry, Joe. I'm planning a trip for next week...think I'll pay a little visit to your favorite stretch...maybe I'll bring my stringer this time...

We all know it was this guy in wrench's house. Why he was there, I have no idea. Care to explain yourself wrench?

The magic marker will work, but will wear off eventually if you don't lose the jig first. I don't think it's that necessary to have a jig that's the identical color to your home water's crayfish. I mean look at the wacky colored jigs a lot of guys catch fish on. When have you seen blue on a crayfish? Besides, like Wayne said, they're not really out during the winter anyway, so if a fish knew the difference he'd probably be on to you already. I bought a natural bucktail the other day for the white hair, but it also has some (duh) natural brown on it as well. If you got a stacker you could mix some of the brown, natural and olive hairs and maybe get closer to the color of your 'dad. At the very least you'd confuse the hell out of a fish and he might eat it out of pure curiosity. If you really wanted to go nuts matching colors you could try to dye your own bucktail. I wouldn't, but it's an option. You might also play around with the silicone and flash stuff. I think if you tied a plain ol' brown and black bucktail it would work fine, but I know what it's like to obsess over a stupid jig.

What the hell are you talking about?

Consider yourself lucky. I don't even have the opportunity to forget my rod. Wouldn't do me much good at work anyway. I say go back tomorrow morning and get that bastard.

That's a perfect example of one of those things that you can't explain but has an explanation. There has to be a logical answer, you just don't know what it is. That would freak me out though.

Good to have you back Chief.

Some are our imaginations, the rest are real. But they all have an explanation, whether we know what it is or not. Sorry.

I know you're joking, but the sad reality is that they do it in the dark to make it more entertaining for those people out there whose brains function so poorly that they actually think ghosts exist and that people are communicating with them. As John Fogerty said, "I know it's true, 'cause I saw it on TV."

True. Very true, sir. 14 year old girls are much less predictable animals than fish, that's for sure. I thought they figured out that fish could see colors, though....albeit a little differently since it's underwater and colors' visibilities change down there. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, but I figure if they couldn't see colors, some scientist would have figured it out and we'd all just be throwing lures from white to black and shades of gray in between. I just always assumed they could. Your point about projecting human qualities is well taken, though, and I agree with you completely. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to think like an animal that has a brain the size of a pea.

I always wondered why ghosts needed a place to live. Do they get cold or something? And why do they always hang out in the same place forever? Wouldn't you be out traveling to more interesting places than your attic? I don't know...guess I'll be a more active ghost. And I'll tell you another thing, I'm gonna be scaring the HELL out of people. None of this flickering candle or shadowy figure BS....I'm talking real horror show.

I think "reacts" is the key word there, Joe. I agree that when you're using faster moving baits in warmer water that the "natural appearance" of that bait is not as critical as action and profile. I think the chartreuse works well in clear water because, as Al's theory goes, it is actually less clearly visible to a fish under a canopy of foliage. Chartreuse doesn't look like an appealing color in clear water to me, because I'm looking down at it against a darker brownish background instead of looking up at it against a brighter greenish background, and it just looks like it doesn't fit. I've never seen any chartreuse baitfish, except maybe some streaks of it on a sunfish, but I've had tremendous success with a chartreuse/pearl fluke on clear streams, and I never had a reason why that color was so productive until I read Al's rationale behind it. Of course, if that theory is true, you have to wonder why more guys aren't using sky blue-colored baits on open water. However, I think that when you are using a bait that moves slowly on the bottom, and you are targeting more sluggish fish in crystal clear colder water, colors are somewhat more important. When fish are reluctant to spend energy on eating, you usually have to slow down your presentation, which inherently gives a fish more time to consider your lure. At this point I think a natural looking bait is at least important, if not critical.

wader...this is the best I could do with my caveman tying skills. It's too dark and orangish to match the 'dad in your picture, but it's also got brown and black. The only silicone I have right now is that orange/black color. I imagine a stupid fish wouldn't know the difference. Anyway, it might be a decent color for stained water. I don't know how you could replicate that striped pattern on your crayfish. Again, I don't think it really matters. If it looks like food and a fish can see it and he feels like eating, he'll eat it.

I'll try tying a black and brown one later on. I know I won't be able to replicate the horizontal stripes on that crayfish....unless.....

Yes, the second one (peyote isn't a fungus, actually it's a cactus). But how do you explain 5 people having the same hallucination? Kinda like women that spend a lot of time together who's cycles eventually end up in synch? Don't think so. It was definitely real. wrench, I know that lightning bug larvae also glows and I've seen that before, too. But their color is more of a yellow-green. This stuff was more blue-green and really closer to blue. I think my initial guess that it was fungus was correct, and maybe it was what Buck found on the internet. Most likely it was alien poo.

I'm the opposite. I, too, like both solo trips and those with partners. But when I go alone I get so focused on fishing I have trouble paying attention to anything else. When I'm with a buddy or two, the brewskies come out, I can relax and I enjoy helping them catch fish. And since you brought up befitting lyrics: Go to the country take the dog Look at the sky without the smog See the world laugh At the farmers feeding hogs Eat hot dogs What a pity That the people from the city Can't relate to the slower things That the country brings --Neil Young

One time at night on a friend's wooded property in Cherryville, MO, we stumbled across this strange pile of bluish-green glowing stuff, kinda scattered around in about a 2 foot circle. It kind of looked like little fragments of a glow-stick in the dark, but when we put the flashlight on it, it just looked like rotten wood chips from an old stump or something. We spent about an hour looking at it trying to figure out what it was. I figured it was some kind of fungus and tried to research it on the net when we got back, but never did find out what it was. Ironically, we had all eaten another type of fungus that night that could have explained the curious nature of the sighting, but would we all have seen the same thing that wasn't there (5 of us)? ...and no, I'm not joking about any part of that story.

Yes. In fact I just had some very questionable leftover pizza. For some reason when it's cold out I only seem to look on the top shelf of the fridge. Wonder what's down below? Guess I won't know 'til spring.

Fishcat caught he of lots stinkbait on.

Just make sure your two best fishing buddies don't wind up both having babies in the same year. I'm glad I found you guys to talk to, because I've just about run out of friends.

That would be my guess. Maybe some minerals were being scoured out from some freshly exposed underground cavity. Possibly calcium?