BigAngus752

You know what using FFS sonar makes you look like?

Burton and Rabun are beautiful. Chatuge isn't far. Of course Hartwell is very well-known. Clayton/Toccoa/Hartwell were on our short list and we were shopping for property when I got a job offer I couldn't refuse.

I will be back when my beard makes me look like a member of ZZ Top.

^^^me^^^ Cool bonus, the left-handed baitcasters are on clearance a lot more often than the rightys. I hold my phone, reach for things, carry anything, etc. all with my left hand. The right stays free at all times. This is a lifelong habit. Gun hand stays open at all times. I agree 100% about the casting and then switching hands. It's highly inefficient, which is why I learned to use a lefty baitcaster.

Well, I may get my first kayak now.

Blessed to have a heated garage. This is a 1968 Mustang I have owned since 1988. I'm restoring it for the second time. Next time it's my son's problem.

Congratulations! That's fantastic! I've been on one of those and they are really well-built boats. It's about the same color as my RT188 so I'm all in. You got a great deal too. What a great day! If we get to vote on your initial upgrades, my very first priority would be a TM with GPS lock unless it already has one. I fish alone in a windy state and I would fish with no electronics on the boat before I gave up a TM with GPS anchor. My Ultrex has increased my catch rate more than anything else I've done.

This is what I got out of that post. Fishing on your honeymoon. LEGEND.

Absolutely not. What you are calling 'luck' is actually confirmation bias. You had success with that set-up once, twice, three times and then began to LOOK for success with that set-up. You then started excluding other lures and/or rods to use that one because it was "lucky" when it was actually just working in those circumstances. You may have other lures or rods that are statistically equal or even superior to that lure/rod, but your personal bias leads you back to that one combination. It's possible that during the majority of your success with that lure/rod you would have ALSO been successful with another (or many other) lures or rods just because the fish were active, but there's no opportunity for that because you have excluded other gear for that gear. All this scientific stuff and words like "bias" make this sound bad, right? But it's probably NOT a bad thing. You, through experience and outstanding application, found a set up that you have been able to repeat success with over and over. That success had caused you to favor that setup and now you get even more pleasure out of fishing when you use your "lucky" setup and catch fish. That's a awesome. The only time this becomes a problem is if you feel dejected or like a failure if your "lucky" setup doesn't catch fish AND you continue to exclude all other possibilities because you cling to your "lucky" gear. That's a failure to adapt to conditions. "If you love it so much, why don't you marry it?" Yeah, just don't feel like you're married to that lure and/or rod and you'll continue to have success with that lucky setup and still adapt when necessary.

Regardless of what you buy it could be the most reliable vehicle you've ever owned or it could be a lemon. You can read US News and Edmunds to get better odds, but the best advice I would give you: 1. Buy something you can afford 2. Buy something you (and/or your wife) like. 3. Buy from A DEALER CLOSE TO YOU. Whether the dealership is close to your home or your work, buy from someone near you. What you don't want is a car that needs repairs, even if covered under warranty, and try to get into a nearby Chevy dealer when you bought it from a different Chevy dealer 100 miles away. Huge difference in service taking a car under warranty to the dealer you bought it from, even when you just need an oil change.

Celebrating Xmas all day with my amazing wife and sharing a pour of an outstanding Smoke Wagon private barrel. Has the standard "buttery" flavor and oily legs of most Smoke Wagon bourbons with great cinnamon, cherry and vanilla taste.

Absolutely! Egg was the highest value protein until powdered whey isolate came along. I eat six egg whites for breakfast every single morning. I pray that I'm still in the gym at 82. The gym and fishing are things I cannot live without.

I used to regularly get eggs "fresh from the chicken's butt" from a good friend but he and his wife stopped raising chickens. It is astounding the difference in taste! Boy I miss those farm fresh eggs. Even the just the whites tasted better.

Hey @Scherbacj read @Zcokerreally well! He doesn't see "winter", but he sees a difference in how the fish act seasonally. His "winter" fish behavior is completely different than my winter fish behavior in central-Illinois and mine is completely different than @A-Jay's winter fish behavior in the where-the-heck-is-that north. The important thing is that all of our fish (and yours) behave differently because of season and water temp, just like @WRB said. What you do in July probably won't work in January, but it's the figuring it out that is the most fun. I envy you. You've got a lot more opportunity than I do this time of year, but at least I'm not @A-Jay up there helping Santa take care of the reindeer until the water thaws next August.

I've been supplementing my protein for more than 35 years. Long before there was powdered whey protein. The soy protein from the late 80's/early 90's was like drinking wet sand. Here are some important things to be aware of regarding protein supplementation. Whey protein is pretty far up there on the glycemic scale. Mixed in water and on an empty stomach it reaches the "high glycemic" mark and can spike your blood sugar. Mixing it with milk will mitigate that so you're fine but just FYI. Whey protein is a "fast" protein and is absorbed by your body very quickly. That's useful right after exercise. Before bed you want a "slow" protein (casein, egg, soy). Unless you are a highly trained athlete, your body can only use about 20 grams of "fast" protein at one time. If you take 40 grams of whey with milk on an empty stomach you are wasting a lot of it unless you are highly athletic and/or just did a considerable amount of exercise. All whey is not the same. Whey concentrate is cheaper and is not as bio-available to your body. Whey isolate is more expensive and is more bio-available. This math is just for example purposes and is not meant to be literal. If you ingest 10 grams of whey concentrate your body will only be able to use 8 grams of it. If you ingest 10 grams of whey isolate your body will be able to use 9 grams of it. Again, not meant to be taken literally, just given as an illustration as there are a huge number of variables involved. Congrats on your commitment to better health! I'm 55 years old and I still push myself well past what my front-brain says is my limit several days a week (I prefer to listen to my caveman brain). I'm not the strongest guy in the gym anymore, and I don't know if it's going to help me live longer. I do it because I love it. This was two years ago when I got down to 7% body fat before vacation. I'm back up to 10-11% now and I've put on a little bit of muscle. I feel much better and I'm a lot stronger! Staying below 10% long term requires some dietary adjustments that can make you feel pretty poorly and robs some strength. I'm not surprised at all that you are feeling better already! Good nutrition can make wholesale changes to your life. Even if you don't go to the gym.

MAN DOWN!!! Hang on...I have another. Code 4. Stand down.

That's funny, I never got the rods I ordered during this sale last year. I ordered two. They never made them, refused to substitute anything, and refused to refund my money. I had to submit a complaint to my credit card company and then they refunded my money. That was AUGUST of this year. Be thankful.

This is my nightcap tonite. I was a rye guy before I was a bourbon guy. I'm blessed to have a plethora of outstanding ryes right now ("Jefe, what is a plethora?") but I'm on a mission to find a Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye. I've tried it twice in bars and love it. This one is very good one in the meantime.

Well, your post caused me to start Googling. Beavers are highly protected furbearers in Illinois. No hunting and only trapping with permit. According to AI Google, however, you are pretty much free to blast them as you (a landowner) see fit...so...happy hunting! A shotgun requires close quarters. Beavers can get pretty chunky so I'd stick with a center-fire rifle rather than try a rimfire. Can you use something "quiet" in your state? A suppressed .300 Blackout would be just right. But I like @Scott F 's response. That's what we do here. Tons of help available to relocate them when they invade our space here.

Last year we paid a pro to paint our cedar-sided house. We couldn't afford to do the same for our 1800 sq ft garage, mostly because it needed a significant amount of cedar/carpentry repairs and I just can't pay thousands for what I can do myself...so...for two months I did the carpentry and my wife and I painted. Some of the lap cedar couldn't be salvaged so I replaced sections with board and batten. The walk-in door wasn't properly flashed and sealed originally so I had to replace sheathing, insulation, and the door as well as new board and batten on that side of the garage. My wife was a super-woman. I worked on it every evening after work and ten hour days on weekends. She was right there the entire time painting. I kept her on the ground and I did all the carpentry and the painting from the 32ft ladder.

All of those are good ones. Our favorites out of those are EC C924 and Knob creek 12. We are never without a Knob 12 in the cupboard. It's smooth, caramel-ly, and very consistent from bottle to bottle.

I just pulled them out for the winter. My two group 27 TM batteries are Diehards from a local auto store and the manufacture dates are 4/21 and 5/21. I absolutely abuse these. I fish two electric-only lakes and I drain these to 20% or lower at least 4 times a month. More when I can get out. They replaced two Interstate batteries that lasted 14 months before they stopped taking a charge. My cranking battery is the original cranking battery. It's an Interstate and my boat is a 2016 so it's a 15 or 16 manufacture date. I keep my batteries on the charger 24-7 when not fishing. From March to Thanksgiving they are in the boat (stored indoors) and on a Dual Pro Professional. From Thanksgiving to March they are in a heated garage and on individual Shumacher smart chargers (with maintenance mode). I check water levels twice a year.

There have been several times that I've read descriptions of the palate and finish on a bottle that costs $150 and was sure I wanted it, but then found a bar that would sell me a pour and was thankful that I didn't buy it. I wish I could take a rod on the water for a day before paying for it. I've got a couple hanging on the wall that could have been money better spent elsewhere.

We made a pact to not buy any more bourbon this weekend since we spent so much on our trip to Kentucky last month, but when you go to a bar/store where you can buy a pour and try it before you buy it...well...here we are. These are both fantastic. Caused us to break our oaths.