Timestepper

Depending upon how near in the future this is, I would definitely be interested. I've pretty much got the next six months or so guaranteed off thanks to an unfortunate meeting between a .357mag 158gr. JHP and my left ankle, but it's going to be another 5 weeks or so before I can even begin to put any weight on my left foot, so might be very limited in what I can do, see, teach or otherwise participate in.

Back on for a few minutes. Again, humbled to tears by the outpouring of support.   My wife wanted me to extend her gratitude for the collection that was taken up for us. It couldn't have come at a better time and not only allowed her to help defray fuel costs of the friends who so graciously and selflessly volunteered their vehicle and time (lost income for them), but also allowed her to eat at the cafeteria during my last stay at the hospital.   DaveS - Not sure what's wrong with her van - it quit on her a mile or so from home during my first hospital stay. She called a tow service and the tow driver actually got it started long enough to get it back home. This isn't the first time it's happened though and, rather than take a chance and rely upon the van, she's been driving my little Dakota. Needless to say, there isn't enough room for both of us in the cab, given the extra needs of my left hind leg.   Again, many thanks!   ...Don...

How about a personal update?   I am home again after having my sixth and hopefully final surgery on the 12th (a week ago today). Had a couple of very good days at home, followed by a couple of pretty rough ones as I de-tox from all the heavy duty pain killers, etc., I've been on for the past month and a week.   Today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be a little better yet. The biggest problem I'm having now (aside from the de-tox fiend) is just having to sit so damn still after a lifetime of physical activity. I can motorvate via both crutches and/or wheel chair, but it will be another five weeks before I can even think of putting weight on my left foot. And even the fact that I can now get around some is problematic given where we live (on the side of a heavily timbered ridge with the nearest sidewalk further away than I care to think about). So far, given that my wife's van is temporarily on the fritz, we have relied heavily upon my wife's honorary niece and her husband to get me to and from UT Hospital for surgery and various DR.s appointments.   DaveS mentioned elsewhere that I a stubborn and proud S.O.B. and I am here to verify it. That fact does not prevent me from being humble and I want to say again that mere words cannot begin to express the gratitude that both my lovely wife and myself feel for the outpouring of comradery, support, and just plain good thoughts and prayers from what I consider to be one of the finest forums on the net.   Perhaps, in a few more days, when I can sit at the computer longer, I'll tell everyone exactly (to the best of my ability, anyway) what happened. In the mean time, let me say again...   THANK YOU FRIENDS!   Don & Jackie McCrary (A.K.A. TimeStepper & his MUCH better half.)

I'll second this! My current ultralight rig is a Shimano and an Ugly Stick and they're tough - damn near impossible, actually - to beat - especially if you coat or wrap and coat the base of the top eyelet (where it connects to the rod) so that slack line won't get fouled or hung on it (happens quite frequently using 4X braided dacron - mono may not be as bad, but I fish for trout quite a bit and need the extra "lack of visibility" that dacron gives me). On the other hand, my "ultra" ultralight rig is a dandy little "backpackable" fly/spin combo from Crystal River that Santa brought me a few years back. I wouldn't trust it on anything more than a few pounds, but it's great for back country Brookies and farm pond bream and has the added benefit of taking down into a 16X8X21/2" padded case with belt loops. Good luck with whatever you choose! ...TS...

I think I can remember being 37, but 25? Naw, I was never 25! In fact, some days I'm pretty sure I was already 40 years old when I was born because memories before that are vague at best and non-existant at worse. Happy birthday, you young pup!

Heard a guy say the other day, "Fcuk man, nobody gives a cr*p about that stuff anymore, so why should I?!!" I just looked at him and said, "I dunno... Maybe just to let the rest of the world know that you're not nobody?" Bottom line, neither common courtesy, nor common sense are all that common anymore. Those of us who were raised up to have and display both are obviously in the minority in this day and age. But you know something? That's a minority I will proudly claim as my heritage and continue to work at until the day I die.

Had a wisdom tooth yanked out yesterday w/minimal anesthesia, so as to save funds for shtf as well as to bolster my already awesome pain threshold. (Ok, I'm lying - I paid an extra 25 bucks for the laughing gas and vegged on the couch today, knowing that tieing down a load of rebar and driving to the Coast tomorrow is really gonna' suck!) But at least that's one less tooth I have to worry about when the world ends and dentists, doctors and other city slickers become more or less extinct...

Well, where ever you get the replacement, it won't be any worse than the original. Grips or no, the mainspring shouldn't have busted that easily. Good luck!

Unless it's a shark on a "surfboarder lure." Had a seven pound drum nail a cricket once when I was fishing for bluegill and I actually felt a "whack" on the rod like when you're a kid and holding a baseball bat and another kid sneaks up and hits your bat with his. My hands kept tingling for another 10 minutes after I finally landed him.

Okay, help me out here since I'm obviously not terribly bright: You caught 4 what? Bonefish? Gar? Sorry, I'm just lost. When I was <much> younger we'd go down to Lake Eufala in Oklahoma where they have some absolute monster gar. While we generally went after cats or bass, the gar were always a thrill, especially when hooked on light tackle. I like bonefish, too, but I must've just caught some really lazy ones because, yeah, they fought better than the gar (which is why I said you won't find a better fight this side of the bonefish flats), but they weren't as spectacular as I'd been lead to believe. JMO (with humble apologies and deference to your superior knowledge and experience).

I live about 3 miles from Bull Run Steam Plant, and that is the Clinch River, but where I'm talking about is basically from East Clinton near the jail (think Eagle Bend Fish Hatchery) up to Norris Dam, and it's about a 20 - 30 minute drive from here.

7 fish. The Clinch, from Norris Dam down to highway 61 (which is where I usually fish) also has a 14 - 20 inch slot limit which basically means that anything between 14 and 20 inches must be released. You are allowed to keep one fish over 20 inches (if you're lucky enough to actually catch one that big).

It might. Especially if you add a little mineral oil, whale oil and castor oil like I did. (The orange oil additive was mostly an after thought to make it smell better.) Knew some old timers who wouldn't use anything but bear grease. Great thing about home-made patch lube: if it's slick and you can think of it, it'll probably work... unless it doesn't.

Sometimes over-simplified is good thing. (An old man in Southeast Kansas showed me that trick more than 25 years ago.) And if you use a medium weight fly rod with the above method, you won't find a better fight this side of the bonefish flats in Florida. On the other hand, if you're just after them for fertilizer (like me) or don't care about the fight, a good heavy action catfish rod with high strength terminal tackle works just fine.

There's a little difference in the taste, but that doesn't mean that one tastes better than the other - kinda' like sex: No such thing as "good sex" or "bad sex" it's all "best!" And yeah, my buddy Pat uses a medium action ugly stick with a Shimano spinning reel loaded with 8lb. test line and does alright. He doesn't have the casting distance with lighter lures that I do, but still, he caught 3 nice keeper fish to my 5 yesterday. If we'd taken things slower and fished harder, rather than just yucking it up and concentrating on having a good time, we no doubt could have limited out, and fairly easily. But for us it's more about having fun and cracking each other up than anything else and the trout are just a bonus. Heck, even when we stopped for lunch and were standing there in cold, knee deep water and using the canoe seats for a lunch table, we were joking about how we knew the fish were out there because we could hear them laughing at us - but the last laugh was ours because we were smart enough to know what lucky s.o.b.'s we were to just be there for a little while... and how lucky the trout were that it was us that was fishing for them instead a couple good fishermen!

Any place that sells traditional muzzleloading supplies will have different thicknesses of patches, most of which are pre-cut to fit a number of different calibers. In a pinch, you can invest in a caliper and "mic" your own, trying different types of cloth for different thicknessess/textures. Remember, with a front-stuffer, it's the patch which engages the rifling, rather than the <round ball> projectile. You can also experiment with different types of patch lube to help accuracy. I've personally become very fond of a beezwax/orange oil mixture that I <accidentally> whipped up one day while trying to come up with a good long-lasting wood polish. Of course when I'm hunting I usually just "spit patch." (That is to say that I use salive to moisten the patch before loading.) Tons of fun, these smoke poles and you can learn enough to be qualified as an expert and still not know as much as you want to. I've been shooting, studying and teaching (I was a 4-H Muzzleloading Instructor for several years in Kansas) since I was your age (or before) and still can't quite get over the addiction.

Pat and I got a great, if inadvertent, laugh yesterday when I was sending these pics to a long-lost but recently re-found friend up home in Kansas; All of them came through except the pic of Pat and the pic of the 'bow in my net... those two said "File too large." I told Pat, "Yep, you know you've caught a big fish when even the file is too large! ...On the other hand, you might wanna' lose a few so's your pic doesn't overload my phone!" Good times... goooood times! Oh, and Dave - Sorry I didn't call last night, we ended up going to the Anderson County Fair about two hours after I got off the river. Since my phone is nearly dead and the charger is in the truck, it'll probably be tomorrow evening before I can give you a holler, if that's okay? ,,,Don...

I've heard that high voltage and explosives will get rid of them, but that'll pretty much take care of everything else, too. OS - weird as it sounds, this works for catching gar: Take a piece of 1/4 - 3/8 braided nylon rope and "frazzle" about four to six inches of it then tie it your terminal gear and work it like an over-sized streamer. No hook needed - the gar will hit it and their teeth get tangled and caught in the frayed nylon and they simply can't get off. I've used this method for years when deliberately targeting gar to use as garden fertilizer and it works pretty darned good!

Caught rainbows yesterday. On small (1/8 oz.) inline spinners in various patterns using ultralight gear. There are also some nice browns in the Clinch as well as the occasional smallmouth.

Either that or just take two vehicles - when I'm fishing/floating with someone, that's invariably the easiest way to do it. Got some pics in the "Speaking of the Clinch..." thread - the most recent ones were taken yesterday.

Shinin' times!

Speaking of the Clinch... my buddy, Pat, and I had an abso-freakin'-lutely wonderful day on the Clinch yesterday. Even got a few more pics to share: Yep, just an absolutely fantastic and gloriously peaceful day!

Yep, unless of course you paddle against the current and actually fish where you want to.

Hmmm... I don't go to the lake much, but have been known to have an empty seat in the canoe sometimes when I'm floating the Clinch. (Best part is that there aren't many trees to get hung up on in the middle of the river!)