Was that a bowfin, a grinnel, or a mudfish, John? :rotf:

Them th'angs are the bane of my fishing in the river (oxbow) lakes, off the Savannah River. They are ferocious, and will tear a nice bass plug all to pieces. Right after I married "Queen", 49 years ago, I paddled her Dad to "reel" for bass in a river lake near here. He was using bait casting gear, and a topwater bait with three sets of treble hooks (a Jim Pfeffer Orlando Shiner). He hung a big (about 6 lb.) mudfish and "wrassled" him to the boat, then quickly swung him over the side and knelt beside him to unhook that plug from those jaws. That big sucker flipped himself up in the air about two feet and on the way down hung a set of those trebles in my F-I-L's leg, while thrashing about like a mudfish out of water will do. Pa-in-law just gritted his teeth and pulled the hooks out of his leg and pants.

He was the toughest man I ever knew closely. A well driller, he once had a water trailer to fall on his boot, cut through the leather, and lay open the instep of his foot in a bad gash. He went home, got in the bathtub, washed it off and called his wife to bring him needle and thread. He sewed his foot up by himself with no anesthetic.

Another time, he received a phone call on Christmas Eve from someone who supposedly needed a pressure switch for a home well. He agreed to meet the guy at the back door of his business late that evening. Two guys jumped him in the alley and hit him in the back of the head with a 2 X 4, knocking him to the ground. He got up on one knee, looked at them, and one of them pulled a knife to kill him. He grabbed the knife by the blade with one hand and grabbed the long hair, of the other creep, with the other hand. He took the knife and half the other guy's hair. They fled the scene. :shock:

Lord, I miss that man.

Something to be said for them well drillers.

tough man....good storey....charlie

Spring, what is that. Some mythical season. At our weekly 5-stand shoot last evening it was snowing so hard we had to quit for a while because we could not see the targets.

Sounds like Alaska the past few years. 3 seasons: getting ready for winter, winter, recovering from winter.

We had snow Tuesday night and a low of 29-32. Ground was white in the grassy areas and some plants and trees were covered. All this was gone by 10:00 AM Wednesday morning and we should have temps in the 70's by Friday and possible 80's on Sunday.

Yep.... its Spring in Southernmost Illinois.

Most of the country has been north of the jet stream for a week, so it's been snowing in places that are generally hard into spring at this point. I'm not sure you're quite done with the cool weather yet either.

Yep. Global warming is a B**ch

Today was nice at 68F so I took a 1.5 hour motorcycle ride to a town half way to my brother's place. He rode his bike up and we met for covid 19 compliant lunch. Which means with this third wave the restaurant capacity is capped at 50% occupancy and we had to sit at separate tables because we don't live in the same household. Still if was good to see him. Tomorrow the forecast is 32F for a high and snow flurries. The weather is having a hard time making up its mind this year. One day you're boating or riding, the next shovelling snow.

May 9 and it is 33 degrees and snowing hard. Spring, yea right!