Beloved

We lost our Fletcher dog this weekend. I am heartbroken. I miss my boy.

Defeated

The match is over and the verdict is in - I came in deal last.  I also came in second I suppose.  That's not so bad, right?  No, it was bad.  Todd pulled in way more bass than I did.  He is officially the spinnerbaiter master.  That SOB was throwing SOB spinnerbaits into tiny holes and pockets (quite deftly I might add) and was whacking 'em.  I started out strong on the first day, using a Chatterbait and a Swim Jig, but lost my mojo by Friday night. 

If the pike counted in our little contest, I would have had the heaviest bag for sure.  Those dang bait robbers were following everything we were throwing.  We must have landed 5 or 6 of those carnivorous torpedoes. A northern pike’s brain is 1/1305 of its body weight, btw.  It feels hungry and it eats - whatever is close by and moving. One wrecked a prized Honeybuzz that had been rigged on the same rod for over 2 years.  It very well may be the single most fish-catching bait in my entire collection.  I was able to bend it back with the pliers, but it's not straight and will never run like it once did.  Same thing happened to one of Todd's SOBs.  Although, I will admit, there was one hit, on a Dahlberg Diving Frog (Thank you for that surprise Buddy!) that was so spectacular it left me pumped with adrenaline for the next 20 minutes. But Largemouth was what we were after dang it!  And the largemouth were doing a good job of not being caught.  Well, at least by me. 

All-in-all, it was another total great trip.  There's not much better than a few days of nothin' but fishing; except nothin' but fishing with a friend like Todd.  The SV-3 also made it's first voyage rigged up with electronics!  The Mrs. gave me an early birthday gift - a spankin' new Humminbird sonar. What an unbelievable fishing tool that is.  (Thank you, Thank you Baby! That sonar is awe-some.)  I already began scouting next year's destination lake.  It's been a few years now, so I think it's time to change things up a little.
  

So bask in the glory of this year's win, my friend.  It was hard earned, and won't happen again next year. Congrats!    

Fish On

Oh yeah.  The Badger State Bass Brawl is on.  I'm meeting up with TP next weekend.  It's pretty short notice, but that's the life of a jet-setting pilot.  I'm glad it's earlier not later though.  Actually, it's about the same time of year I kicked his ass last time.  The Midwest weather has been so crazy I'm expecting very different conditions though - and it should favor me!  I've already got a box of frogs, swimjigs and chatterbaits put together. Next to do is a jig box and then I'll sort through some plastics (NetBait, of course).  I think I have it covered.  I also installed a new 3-bank charger in the SV-3 today and the motor fired up, with earmuffs, on the first try.  I'm psyched.  I'm also thinking I'll order the steak Sat. night.  Because I KNOW TODD WILL BE PAYING.  Fish on!

der Ständer

Yes, I am happy to see you.

Even if you don't spreken zie Deutsch, you can appreciate this fine instructional video from German's Der Kindarkanal children's network. Germany strikes again; but it's about time someone produced a visual aid that teaches young men to manage the stressful circumstance of unanticipated penile erection though!

C'mon fellas, how many times have you been watching a shaggy haired ballerina on ice skates pull off the perfect piqué en arabesque and, without warning, pop a chubby? If I only had a nickel... Or how often have you knocked down a  display of stacked canned veggies in the Quicky Mart, with your wang, because you glanced at the cover of the SI swimsuit issue and suddenly found yourself harder than trigonometry? Plenty! Am I right? And it's always so embarrassing. 

Well now you'll learn how to look totally cool when it happens...

W.W.B.D.

Champagne Wishes and Meat Lover Dreams

3.14

Pi events across America!

TSOM flashmob: Belgium

TSOM flashmob: Korea

Watch "Korea flashmob sound of music" on YouTube

TSOM flashmob: England

1-1-11

Apocalypse, now?

What’s up with thousands of birds inexplicably falling from the sky on New Year’s Eve? Five Thousand!  It literally rained dead birds in a 1.5 square mile of Beebe, Arkansas. Cars,  roofs and roads were littered with bird carcasses and it all happened in a span of less than 60 minutes.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Scientists in Little Rock, and now the National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, WI,  are attempting to determine if firework noise, foul weather or something natural caused the carnage. That’s all the theory they have come up with so far; other than it was just a frenzied flock that fortuitously steered itself into the Earth. Either way, 3 to 5,000 red-winged blackbirds (and a few starlings) fell to the ground Friday night and all we know is that the birds of a feather died of blunt-force trauma.  But did the fatalities occur before or after they hit terra firma?  No one can say for certain. 

Take these broken wings

But we do know that, a day later and 120 miles west, 100,000 drum fish are found floating, defunct, along a 20 mile stretch of the Arkansas River. Two days after that, 500 more red-winged blackbirds scattered the ground, some 300 miles south of Beebe, in Labarre, LA.  in a  seemingly similar scenario to the NYE scene. 

WTH? Doesn’t this freak anybody else out? Even a little?

UPDATE: Sweden now too.