Norm M

More younger ones to be sure . The rest of y'all stay off my river without advance written permission .

How many went fishing before or afterwards ?

Depending on what kind of smoking material Terry is providing, there most likely would be volunteers to make the , uh, sacrifice .

what are you providing to smoke with those jackets ?

I no longer have the motivation to keep track of how many twenty inch or better smallmouth in a given year. At this point in my life if it happens fine, if it doesn't fine. I just don't get all hung up on it any more

Terry Pm coming, hopefully with a picture of me. I had to get one of the kids to help .

Terry I'm not even that good looking

A horse shoe might bring luck as well as weight . Sinking tip, weighted fly and some split shot or use some spinning gear and a jig to fish slack areas .

Seven years later for high, muddy water, cold or warm , I believe even more in lures that thump, vibrate and push water . Over sized lures be they cranks, bladed baits, plastics , minnow baits etc all push a lot of water and get the fishes attention. Obviously you need to use lures suitable to the current and cover . In regular sized lures , I prefer plastics with action tails of some sort although in colder water cigar types and erie darters have done me well. Tubes are always a good choice even though I don't use them any more. I tend to go a bit more oversize with hard baits but with regular sized ones lures like wiggle warts or square bill cranks get the call more often. Chatterbaits have come back into the rotation , especially tipped with a thumper tail. . Replacing skirts or tipping spinnerbaits with 5 or 6 inch twisters or thumper tails[aka swimbaits] is another thing I like. In shoreline related slack areas pounding the bottom with heavier jig/pigs has worked at times. In low, clear water, clear or translucent lures are a good choice . After experiencing a few drought years , I like areas with faster and more oxygenated flows even more . On the cricks I fish in low, clear water, I have gone back to smaller lures like wee rebel craws , size zero/ one spinners, crappie sized spinnerbaits and one to two inch plastics or small Charlie brewer slider stuff . I have come to the conclusion that at least on my local cricks that there just were not enough really large fish to warrant bigger lures. Well outside of the spawn and I don't fish the cricks for smallmouth then, any way . That and generally for me crick fishing is just about solitude and feeling a tug on the line , be it chub, sunfish, crappie, rock bass or smallmouth any more . As far as the bluebird day stuff, I still think the main effect is to bring shade or faster, choppier water into the mix more. At least I have more confidence going that route . Bridges can be a real blessing . Fishing the shady side of cover can be just as important as over head shade .

Bump this blast from the past . Anyone with any more thoughts or ideas after 7 years have passed .

you can't beat Legos

Santa doesn't stop at my place any more . All he left me were credit card bills , so I used some 12 gauge persuasion to cease and desist. Actually the kids are all grown, the wife and I have been together over thirty years. We decided to stop buying for each other. Instead we spend the money on making home made cookies for seniors living in assisted care facilities,, seeing the joy on their faces is all the return we need. In addition we buy goods to donate to shelters/food pantries[ people and animal] as we prefer to give directly to those who serve the needy . That eliminates anything going to administrative costs . Helping those in need is much better for the soul than trudging thru stores trying to find something that you haven't given your mate over yea those many years . We don't think it's the only way to celebrate the holidays, everyone should follow their own traditions, practices and beliefs .

i'll offer up prayers for him and his family

then picture the beautiful ladies that are dancing, definitely more enjoyable . picture smallmouth caught on a beetle spin as well .

A joyful Solstice was celebrated

I was out fishing today, yeah I know a complete shocker. As I was walking along the bank from one spot to another I came across a frog laying on a patch of muddy ground in the sun .I googled it to be sure, it was a pickerel frog . It wasn't so much that I saw a frog in December but that I saw a frog at all . They are getting to be quite scarce these days even in summer . I can remember the days when the fall frog migration was a very dependable pattern for big fish. I can't remember the last time I even bothered with it. Sad .

shoot, I've had boots and waders that were never completely dry after the first use . after a lifetime of wading I've found that trying to predict how long boots and waders will last is like trying to pick winning lotto numbers or how many fish I'll catch a week from today . your mileage may vary .

Ron had the 5 mm neos. With the heart meds I'm on I layered with them .

Mine live in the trunk year round , get worn year round. If I get more than a year or two , I'd be wondering if Rod Sterling was announcing the episode .

In my experience when the water temps are in the low thirties, layering is needed with neoprene. I quit buying waders that can't be used year round .

always buy mine bigger so I can layer up for cold water .

I tried straight fluro twice , it did not improve the catch rates. on slow moving lures like jigs it did increase snags as the line sunk into the rocks and hung up. if you really need the confidence kick that the fish can't see your line, break up the profile of your line, simply color splotches on your spool of line with permanent markers . I don't believe it matters whether the fish see the line, caught too many twenty inch or better smallmouth using 17 lb trilene xt . things like line diameter matter in lure performance but the fish don't care if they can see it . keep it simple, the fewer things that can fail the better. you never know when murphy decides to pay a visit to that extra knot .

Wednesdays and Sundays are the only times I do read that paper .

You do know that Dale gets 25% of the action .

we all live downstream .