Beans

Can't seem to contact him by phone or e-mail. I know he has not been well the past year or so and I'm hoping all is well...

Saw a few swarms of skeeters as I drove down the road on my electric scooter to get the mail...didn't get any bites but that is coming I'm afraid...

They were thick as thieves yesterday and I didn't bring my OFC bug jacket...fortunately they wern't biting yet...just swarming around our heads and getting in mouths, ears and eyes...A good wind came up and they took off...

Keep looking...They're there...CPH and I got a bunch last Tuesday besides some slab crappie... Yesterday my bro-in-law and I got bluegills but no crappie... A twister tail a foot and a half under a slip float...

You're right Ernie...haven't been there for a while...We were kinda regulars when they first opened...

St Dave's Diner burnt to the ground around 11:30 pm last night...no cause reported yet...strange seeing as how they close around 03:00pm in the afternoon... Big Cliff introduced the diner to Maribeth and me shortly after we moved up this way...we will miss their great food...

The one memory I recall is when she wanted me to take her ice fishing around the middle of January but she was 8 1/2 months pregnant so No Way ! My first grandson was born the 29th of January...LOL Another is when she caught a 5 lb. bass on the white rubber mouse I gave her to fish in the swampy part of the park...She went all around the park showing it off to everyone... Nobody had the heart to tell her that bass season didn't open until the next day...LOL

My daughter Cheryl, who loved fishing, died nineteen years ago and we spread some of her ashes at her favorite shore fishing spot at Rice Lake... I blew some of her ashes into my tackle bag so she is with me every trip...

Eeewwww !...chopping up dew worms...not my cup of tea... my great grandson thinks that is great fun...but gotta admit it does produce lots of bluegills...

You are right CLiff... I defy you to find a bone after CPH cleans them...

My bro-in-law Dave would say "Bluegills are just the right size for a hamburger bun"... Crappie grow bigger than bluegills and most fishermen like to catch big fish... I don't get to eat either very often...It looks like a chainsaw massacre after I try to clean them...LOL

Like most carp fishermen we like to sit around and tell lies to each other rather than stare at a rod tip for hours...With the reel on "free spool" the alarm goes off when the carp makes that first long run giving time to put the reel on regular drag before lifting the rod (no need to "set" the hook as most times the carp hooks itself (it took me five trys to not pick up the rod before shuttin off the "free spool") My friends stopped me on the fifth try and reminded me to do it right... This was the result ... After casting out I reel up any slack line then set the "free spool"...I use maize or boilies on a hair rig together with a spring feeder full of ground bait...I use 17 lb. mono as my main line and tie my hair rigs with 12 lb. fluorocarbon... I've come a long way since using a hand line with a bell sinker on the end and a couple of cornmeal balls on drop lines above the sinker ...LOL

Fairly soon after we moved up this way I was crappie fishing near an OFC'Rs father and noticed all he caught was slabs...we were using 1 1/2 inch grubs and tubes but his were about 3 inches...I guess he knew sumpin' we didn't...LOL

Before I was given a decent 11' carp rod and an Okuma baitrunner reel I used a regular 7' spinning rod and reel with the drag set very loose...I got very good at tightening down the drag when I got a carp on... I thought about using my bait casting reel with the reel on "free spool"... I used alarms and bank stix with all of the above...very handy to not lose your outfit if a carp takes and you are not paying attention...

We used to catch tons of perch in the spring off the docks at the marina in Jackson's Point but they closed off the docks and the main dock because of too much damage...lots of minnows to be had with a small scoop (kid's butterfly net)...

There was before they opened the lake for ice-fishing...First spring afterwards the crappie dropped right off...They are still around but nowhere near the numbers we used to catch... I don't get around much nowadays except down to the shoreline at our park and haven't had a bite in two outings...water is too cold yet...Normally, in years past this weekend would have been the opening week of fishing on the lake and that is when we did well for crappie until the pickerel season opened then the crappie fishing died off...

Sounds OK to me Cliff but I'm afraid Sue and Maribeth might have sumpin' to say about it...LOL

Many years ago they could charge you with vagrancy if you didn't have two? or three? dollars in your possession...

Who'd of known that the Blue Jays were "Morning Glorys"

LICENSE ?...You need a license to fish ?...I ain't got no steenkin' license...Oh Yeh...Us old folks don't need no license (yet) !!!

I too like Windows 10 and have been using it for quite a while...this is the first time it has changed my pc by adding apps I didn't ask for...???

It tied up my computer for about an hour at start-up and 3 hours for Maribeth's laptop... It added a few apps that I don't need (I think) and has slowed down the speed @ start-up and when calling up a program... When closing it reads update and close...

You got me chompin' at the bit with your carp pictures...LOL

Congrats on your first !!!...It is still too early up this way for carp...got to try for crappie/bluegills soon...my earliest carp came in May...Some pull on your string eh?

Great news me brudder...I'm still amazed how well I see now after wearing glasses for over 65 years (except when I forget where I left my reading glasses) Maribeth goes to have one of her cataracts removed near the end of the month or in May...