bulldog1935

We have power now, and I'm melting snow to fill toilet tanks. Got the power company call that the state has suspended rolling outages for power conservation. They predicted 1" of snow today, ending in the afternoon, but it's already over 4" and coming down harder. Been getting in a lot of reading - just finished the 1919 Aransas Hurricane in Aransas - Life of a Texas Coastal County. We got nothing compared to that.

I've used this example before - after 100 years, the box is worth more than the contents. The wooden box for a pre-Civil-War fishing plug sold in auction for $12,000.

I alter all my reels, tuning them to my likes. The reel boxes make a good filing system for keeping track of the parts.

howdy Neighbor

Last time this topic came up, I realized I've never experienced line twist - seen it on my friend's decades-old Penn loaded with heavy braid. Warning - line roller editorial: Shimano's line roller, the same from Stradic to Stella. Only this is after cleaning all the white lithium grease. Why does Shimano go to so much trouble to seal their line rollers? Because they're made from brass. Honestly, Tica uses a better line roller design than this. When I saw this thing thing I replaced them all with MTCW no-seals, 2-BB line rollers. IOS and Hedgehog offer their own version and full-bearing kits for Daiwa. The other thing I do is fish my spinning tackle with a micro-swivel bite trace, which keeps the line continuously relaxing any twist while you fish.

an oldie but a goodie - the girls and Joe Boxer on a school-break snow day.

We hit 3 degrees two nights in a row, a foot of snow, finally getting a thaw today, and also just got power back. Even 1899 didn't get this cold in s. Texas - there's no record to compare it. Still no water because of rural water company line breaks (probably saves busted pipes in my house) - but when I saw the water trickling, caught everything I could (still have water in my water heater if needed). I survived on my ancient Coleman single burner, set up a makeshift kitchen in the garage with aquarium stand and spare floor tiles breakfast burrito-size pulled-pork tamales in the steamer

If it makes you guys feel better, I have a foot of snow, blowing drifts, and hourly rolling power outages (state electric commission's way of controlling thermostats) - and tamales in the steamer. The adrenaline fish here are big hen speckled trout - for the same size, they're stronger and faster than reds, and their mouths are softer. This girl spent mot of the fight tailstanding and shaking her head. At the boat, when she decided I wasn't going to let her swim under, broached again and slammed her head against the hull 3 or 4 times.

you make leader knots at home, under a magnifier if necessary, and put a drop of super glue into them. Then when you're on the water, you're tying to fluoro or, even better, using quick-lure-swap terminals.

I'm surprised no one has made the suggestion of tying fluoro leader to braid for shock tippet. Braid will not stretch before it breaks, fluorocarbon is tough and invisible. Here, 22-lb braid tied to 15-lb Seaguar Blue for ML spinning. I add a loop on the end of my shock tippet. You can loop on more sacrificial fluorocarbon for tying on lures, or loop on a paper clip or micro swivel wire leader for swapping lures - the micro swivel is also good to let spinning line untwist continuously on its own. I tie improved-Allbright knot to my shock tippet, but I've also been tying Allbright knots for 40 years.

yeah, but the only time our vehicles are salted is when we drive them down the beach. And I'll be here next weekend.

the drag should be set at no higher than 1/4 of the rod's max line rating.

Blade Running Make the audience wait 40 years for a lame sequel to a monumental movie, and let an understudy direct it.

Asian Portal used to send e-mails for everything. My thought, the current AP e-mail dearth is a staffing skills issue - no one shows up for work who can handle the English. With a log-in, you can check your order status, and you can also rely on your paypal and Fed-Ex communication links for payment and shipping results.

Look at it this way, Thursday, I'm going to be driving 140 mi to fish the 3 best afternoon tides of the month, light S wind You're welcome to it. btw, after socking down for a week, the fish are going to be hungry we're also hitting 3-degrees here for one low, and 18 for a high on that day (Monday)- have never before seen those conditions here in S. Texas.

yeah, there's a reason I moved from Austin but if you haven't been that deep in 2 years, the backlash can be there indefinitely.

unfortunately, late last year, postal crunch caused Mako (Ukraine) to quit selling to USA, but their 8- and 13-lb titanium micro bite traces are invisible enough for bass and tough enough for toothy mackerel and snook gill plates. They also have a built-in micro swivel.

you forgot the tamales

try running or bicycling when you're breathing steam Every May 1 here, runners and cyclists on the greenways are stopping, panting, looking at their watches, and trying to figure out when they got so far out of shape. It's kinda like God's joke on the healthy.

It's true, there's no cold more penetrating than freezing rain conditions (except my example below) - layers don't help because the wet cold cuts right through. It's not about the thermometer, it's about what goes with it. I've been on the North Slope in December at 40 below, and you can walk between buildings in your shirt sleeves, because your body carries a film of warm air (the Inuit bus drivers wear short sleeves). But 10 below is dangerous, because there's a 50-kt wind with it. It's actually a desert up there, with less than 4" new snow every year - it's just the old snow there blows back and forth as it slowly evaporates. It the white blindness, our driver drove off the berm into the soft blowing snow. We had to don our survival gear and walk 120' to the next vehicle. The wind pushes you back a step for every 3 you get out. After that short walk wearing survival gear, and back in the warm dorms with chefs waiting to feed us anything we wanted, my feet were cold and numb for 4 hours.

The best breakfast deep-fried fish is camping out - cooked over a campfire in a dutch oven. Get up early and run the trotline. The hot crisco in the dutch oven is just right when it lights a floating wooden match.

I think there's a very high probability you didn't completely remove your last backlash, and wound over it. Looking at it, the reel looks fine, but it's still backlashed at the point the spool stops. The logical thing to do here is peel off some more line and wind it back up.

We fish a lot of cypress overhang to find the best hill country endemic river bass. I can think of several spots where an underhand cast on a short glass fly rod will let you sight-fish 5-lb bass that have never been presented to before. When cypress branches eat your fly, there is absolutely no way to extricate it without first cutting the branch. The very best shirt pocket folder for this work is the CRKT M-16 Compact - at 2.2 ounces, it's right at home clipped in your shirt pocket. One-hand open with Carson flipper. _______________________________________________________ The most ergonomic knife ever is Spyderco Native. When Spyderco made their first 440C prototype run of the Native, they sold out the result at $25/ - I bought 5, gave 3 as Christmas gifts, spread the remaining 2 in fishing bags, and went back later to add a 3rd (higher-grade Cr-Mo-V). A dozen years later, my BIL was still fishing with his. ______________________________________ The most useful pocket tool ever is the Swiss Tech 19-in-1 - it folds up onto your key ring You fold it into whatever tool you need. I've used the pliers before to remove a (chemically) dead battery on my truck.

Al Mar Havana Clipper for cutting cigar caps and a useful tanto tip. The Wenger Swiss Army offers the best cigar scissors ever.

Jun at JapanTackle has the best English and is very helpful. Asian Portal has the best prices+ free shipping, and toughest website to navigate. I'll add Plat to the list - very pretty website, and a great place to follow for rods, though again, part of the trick is identifying what they have in stock. They're very good about checking and ordering stock from manufacturers, and won't send you a purchase invoice until your order is squared away. Plat also provides reel repair parts and schematics. Hedgehog Studio is the place to find every reel tuning part, and always the fastest to ship out. I've shopped in Japan for as long as the internet has been around. Japan websites aiming to the US market is something relatively new, and because of Japan banking laws combined with the language barrier, at one time, you could only buy through brokers. Noppin.com and ZenMarket are two good brokers if you want something from a Japan website that doesn't cater to USA shopping. When I bought XUL and UL rockfish rods a dozen years ago, even though they came from a Rakuten store, Noppin shipping made it better and cheaper to order through them.