BobT

Sorry about the delayed reply. It is too late this year but there was a change since I first posted. For some reason our tomatoes, peppers, and green bean plants took a change for improvement. The tomatoes are lush and loaded with green fruit. I have been able to harvest beans three times and they are still flowering. Our peppers have left dormancy and are now growing and flowering, although maybe too late for this year. About the only change that I can think of is that the weather started drying out a bit. Maybe they were just getting too much rain for our soil, which is heavy.

What you are doing is even better than what they hope to achieve with the law. I do the same thing. My minnows never see lake water while in my possession except while riding on a hook. It is not possible to transfer invasives via my minnows or minnow container unless they came from the bait shop and the result would be same either way. This brings up a good question. Aren't minnows trapped in lakes and streams? They could contain microscopic versions of invasive species and therefore be responsible for transporting them to every lake where the minnows are used. Even those raised in rearing ponds are potential threats if the rearing ponds become infected. Unfortunately, it is impractical (not impossible) for a CO to know that my minnows have not been in the lake. He would have to take my word for it. As a result, unless they catch me taking my aerated minnow cooler from my boat to my truck, ....

The problem with fishing walleye below 35' is that whatever you catch you best be planning to keep. Bringing them out of that depth will kill them for sure no matter how slowly it is done.

I own two rods that I use for walleye jigging. When I want super sensitivity I go with my Fenwick Elite Tech 6'-6" medium power ultra fast tip. When I want a to present a little more subtly, I go with my St. Croix Premier 6'-6" Premier medium power fast tip. Both are excellent in my view. One thing that I learned through experience it to downsize on the reals. I originally outfitted my St. Croix with a Pflueger Trion spinning reel, which is a step down from the President. Later, I changed to the Pflueger Supreme reel in a smaller size and the lighter weight made a huge difference on how the rod felt in my hand, how much less tiring it was to use, and how much more sensitive the outfit became as a whole. It's not necessary to have mega line capacity when typically we only use maybe 50' - 75' at any given time. Just my $.02.

Thanks for the replies. Will be considering both.

For some reason we have not been able to get a decent tomato crop for a few years. We usually transplant started plants rather than starting them from seed. We've try placing them in different locations in our garden. My wife suspected some kind of blight and tried bleach treating the cages. Last year we didn't use cages. This year we bought new cages. We tested our soil last fall and the tests came back good. Our soil is rather heavy and this year we have been getting an abundance of rain. The soil may look dry and cracked but trust me, it is plenty moist under the top surface. When I took this photo it was about two days after receiving close to 2" of rain. The garden is located where it can receive full sun most of the day but not for the full day. As can be seen, the top leaves are shriveling up. In some ways it looks almost as if they were hit with 2-4,D herbicide but I know they have not. Any ideas? Do I need to add sand to help improve drainage perhaps? We're out of ideas. I've attached a few photos that hopefully are helpful. Thanks.

Yeah, you get back from vacation and the work just piled up while you were gone. Vacation only pauses it for a while but then you have to work that much harder upon return.

I agree with Surface Tension. Weight distribution should typically be leaning toward the rear and prop selection could also be part of the problem. I'm assuming with the 60hp you have power trim? Perhaps the motor is trimmed down too low forcing the bow down too much.

I guess they did. I wasn't paying attention to the date.

This makes sense. I suspect it might also depend on the insurance plan that was purchased. I'm sure there are policies that can be written to include replacing the whole side or entire siding to make sure it all matches when done but it would also come with a need to open the wallet a little more.

Humidor is a smoke saver. Using Propylene Glycol fluid keeps my cigars at a pretty constant 70%, which is ideal. Although, during the winter the house is at about 70 degrees which is a tad on the cool side for 76-80 degrees is ideal. As you said, summer is better.

Depends a lot on your tastes. I personally don't find where brand name means all that much for each brand has a wide variety of cigar sizes, lengths, strengths, flavors, and wraps to choose from. I personally prefer the aged maduro wrap for flavor, mild to medium strength, and 42 ring or larger diameter. Larger diameter cigars will burn cooler preserving the flavor much longer as heat kills the taste. That's why nubs can be popular. Smoking them slower so they don't heat up as much can also help. Here are a couple of my favorites. Ashton Aged Maduro Churchill - medium strength, maduro wrap, Churchill size (48 ring, 7" long). A little more spendy. Macanudo Maduro Gigante - mild to medium strength, maduro wrap, gigante shape (60 ring, 6" long). Moderately priced. Don Lugo Maduro Robusto - mild strength, maduro wrap, robusto size (42 ring, 5" long). For a low cost cigar I find these to be pretty good. Backwoods Sweet Aromatic - Very mild, aged wrap provides a sweet flavor but not sugary, cigarillo size (27 ring, 4" long). Cheep cigarillo you can find at most cigarette outlets. The Black & Sweet or Mild & Wild are also quite good. These can all be found on Thompson Cigars HSOforum.

I'm betting that after 25 shots, the last ones you tasted were better than the first.

I've used these too. Do you add any meat or whole minnow? Hooked through the back or lip?

Was up there a week ago. We stayed at the Walleye Retreat Lodge but did our own fishing rather than using their houses. First day we went out kind of N-NW of Morris Point into 27' of water. Didn't do too well. Just a couple saugers in the afternoon. My nephew was up there with another bunch and went out using Adrian's Resort access and did quite well that same day. They gave us waypoints to their location so on day 2 we tried that. It was about 15 miles north in 33' of water. We did much better this day although most were still saugers in the 12" - 13" range. Got a few walleye in the 15" - 19" range and one 21" by your's truly. Seemed our best success, especially for the walleyes, was dead sticking using a plain hook through the back of rainbows about a foot off the bottom. I talked to one of our neighboring fishermen and he had just landed a 27" walleye.