What's Wrong with Me?
 

Wife is happy, but I keep thinking I should be in South Dakota, or chasing quail in Kansas

Nothing wrong with you buddy. That's exactly where you should be in late January. Wish I could join you.

Perfect, headed to warm and sunny end of February.

Ha!! What’s wrong with you is that you think there might be something wrong with you. :):):)

ARUBA

Boat, Harold....... what you need to learn to appreciate warm, sunny weather and beautiful weather is a BOAT!! :clap:

But, I will admit that even I don't start thinking seriously about my boats until hunting season is over (which for me is Wednesday coming).

I gotta admit until I started visiting the Philippines I’d never taken a vacation just for relaxing . Everytime I’d taken off from work for more than a day it was to go hunting or shooting somewhere . Just think of it as rejuvenation :whistle:

I’m okay with boats but I’ve gotten a decided preference for wooden boats that are generally fifty or so years old . Don’t own any just like wood boats and canoes .

Being in those climes is fine as long as you have a charter boat lined up for Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays and surf fish on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Keep the weekend for watching ball games.

Ball games no way I’d rather sit by the pool or on the beach observing things my wife most likely would frown on .

What are you doing out here in the hot sun, Stan?

Just enjoying the scenery, baby. :whistle:

And that's why you should wear the darkest sunglasses you can find and practice moving your eyeballs without moving your head. Ask me how I know.:cool:

Gotcha Rich er Uhm I mean Daryl :rotf::rotf::rotf:

I wouldnt be there, you can have the heat ! Take me away to pheasantvill :)

My wife points "the sights" out to me..... I am lucky for that. But I still wear the dark sunglasses.

My girlfriend at the time and I were on the beach in the Dominican Republic a few years back and suddenly a group of about 10-12 or so young college girls set up camp next to us on the beach. One by one they shed their tops. It was hell keeping my composure while my girlfriend thought it was disgraceful. We are no longer together. But the dark glasses provided the necessary cover for me to do my surveillance Tough job but someone had to do it.:nono:

And you think that's better than hunting ? Are you kidding?:whistle:

Well... Yeah. Much better. I can hunt anytime but that display on the beach was priceless. Once in a lifetime.

Maybe BVI in March. New England weather in winter sucks

Year before the Covid I was in the Philippines at a resort pool . Wife daughter and grandson were with me . The boy and I were in the pool and I was more worried about the child than looking around . Anyway he and I got out the pool and the wife was glaring at me . This place had four pools all close together and in one of them was a filipina in a string bikini of 24-30 years old doing an amateur photo shoot all nice and splayed open ! My wife referred to her as a shark and the little boy thought there were real sharks in the pool .

The sandbars on the river here attract some great scenery. And you thought I just liked the river because of our fast boats? Nah.

https://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/71725_1024x768.jpg

I once did this for my cousin. Back in the day of film, we made our yearly extended family trip (~20 people) to the beach. One of my cousin-in-laws left his camera laying around to grab pictures of the kids. Did I mention his wife was the jealous sort? I quietly over 2 or 3 days photographed some striking scenery on the beach. I was lucky enough to be in his furniture store when his wife returned from getting the film developed.

Priceless.

Actually, Aruba may be best place I have ever seen for this. We went on a shore excursion to a beach there while on a cruise. The entire dance troop from our Royal Caribbean ship came and sat at the beach bar opposite us. Amazing.

Nothing if that is what you enjoy but at 60 I'm still not willing to give up standing on a frozen lake during the winter months to pursue my love of ice fishing.

Better not be trying to stand on the ice in Michigan. You're gonna get wet

Frank, to appropriate the words of Gordon MacQuarrie, those are some pretty nice guppies you got there.:bowdown:

Now, get yourself some more Parkers and become a full fledged member. We'll see you at an upcoming event, I hope.

My friends that used to live in Doylestown PA always wanted me to come up and go ice fishing in the Poconos with them . I never could quite get wrapped around sitting on ice in the open and drinking beer while it was frigid outside . But they liked it lols !

ice
 

Craig, we used to call it Lake Wallensixpack!:rotf::rotf::rotf:

On the nice days I am outside lots. On the really cold days I leave the tent every 10-15 minutes to keep the holes open between shows on the underwater camera...and yes there is plenty of ice to drive a truck on. :corn:

https://youtube.com/shorts/CZ-2qKHAa...-RqB9ulbQv5s-o

https://youtube.com/shorts/FLvh79gI4...Y1fTgtSdMHy831

Those guys were big on the Tobyhanna and Goldsboro lakes . I’ve spring/summer ultralight fished them both for pickeral and perch but that’s about the extent of my fishing in NE PA .

Or this:

https://www.wptv.com/news/local-news...e-in-wisconsin

I never travel on the ice without getting out with my auger in one hand, 5' ice chisel and measuring stick in the other and test my entire intended path. I drove log truck for 10 winters crossing frozen rivers and lakes with loads weighing close to 250,000lbs and have a good understanding of what to look for in good ice vs poor ice and a consistent thickness of 12" of good clear black ice will support a pickup truck no problem but I still will not drive my truck to my fishing spots if there is less than 15". My truck does not see the ice until I see 15" along my entire path and though 4" will support a snowmobile or small ATV I wait for 8" for those.

Frank, is that a big Northern Pike you're holding, or a small Muskie?

We have neither down here, the closest kin being the Eastern Chain Pickerel, which rarely exceeds 4 or 5 pounds.

They are northern pike...my pb to date was a 40" that pulled the lip grip scale to 21lbs-7oz. I was alone, it was -29C and I did not want to freeze the fishes eyes etc. in order to set up my tripod and take pics so I grabbed one of it on my tailgate, a quickie of the scale and had a replica mount made. First two pics are my wife and I with a pair of 13.5 pounders caught about an hour apart. She caught hers jigging a Williams Whitefish 50/50 gold/silver spoon in 7.5ft of water and I caught mine in 19ft. of water on a quickstrike rig with a dead 10" herring under a polar tip-up...Same lake as the others in the pictures. It produces some nice fish though most seem to think there aren't any big ones in it to be had....:whistle:

Very nice! Thanks, Frank. Great pics.

You've got my blood all worked up. I'm going to target a big jackfish (ECP) this spring and summer, around here. The GA record is 9 lb. 6 oz.

Hope springs eternal!

Stan I have a neighbour down the road from me, single mother, she is deaf, mute and almost blind, raising two kids on her own. An 11 year old boy and 7 year old daughter. Two of the most polite and responsible kids I've ever met. As you can imagine their lives are a whole world different than most kids. The father lives about 90 minutes away and doesn't fish and the young boy is eager as can be to go and learn so I've been taking him fishing this past winter when he is available. His first day out for northern pike he already beat your state record! He caught this 35"/10lb-9oz beauty on an 8" dead herring on a quickstrike rig under a polar tip up set in 15 fow.

41" pike on a fly in Alaska. Guides wouldn't let the angler hold the fish. When one of the guides found this cove filled with pike, he told the camp owner, who said "Kill 'em all, they're going to eat our trout." Guide told him that the anglers would love the opportunity. It's true. Look at my smile

John, when I used to go on fly in fishing trips to Canada, they would tell me to "throw those slimy bastards on the bank"! I actually like eating pike, yes, they have a stronger flavor than walleye, and of course the Y-bones. I would beer batter/deep fry them or grill them. A 40" was my biggest and I brought it in using a Diawa mini-spin ultralight while fishing for walleye.

Here is a short video I put together of the young neighbour kid icing the 35"/10lb-9oz pike.

https://youtu.be/MynRczBV7bE?si=cNInd06q1ScRqZ5s

And here is a fairly lengthy video of our first fishing trip with the young fellow last August. It was his first time ever fishing.

https://youtu.be/Pxiu23Nn2qo?si=sdCVwlHT9CoazHYB