Sk8man

"leave the Vanish on the store shelf......" The point is well taken. I experimented with Vanish for awhile on both Seth Green rigs and downriggers etc. and no matter which knot I used it broke right at the knot (despite lubrication etc.). My hunch is that when looked at under a microscope the line itself may be irregular (not symetrically round) as well as being "brittle" and when these two things are combined at the knot it serves as a "cutting" force as the lines at the break appear more like a cut than a "break" to me. I know the better fluoro leader material is expensive but I think the quality control in its production appears to be much better than the cheap fluoro line. If you add up the loss of a fish and the five or six dollar lure (or worse yet attractor and lure) it seems worth the money to buy the "good stuff" OR stay with a brand of mono that you know works.

That too Nick....it is inconceivable that our government has become this incompetent not to properly safeguard ( at least encrypt) information of this nature and scope. We are talking extensive detailed service records of millions of our citizens. The real scarey part is that with that very specific information foreign governments can make very accurate calculations about specific aspects of our military as well as the potential military "preparedness" or "readiness" of our civilian population as well as many other important considerations I won't mention publicly. After WWII it was disclosed that the Japanese had discussed the potential invasion the US but they believed it would be impossible because they thought so many Americans had guns in their homes and would be prepared to use them against them.....so there is considerable value in keeping actual information out of the hands of our enemies and this applies to Russia and China in today's world.

This could be much scarier than credit related stuff. Those records are much more extensive and relate to much more than credit records and especially in the hands a of a foreign government....(security clearance related info etc.)

Sweet! They should be packing on the pounds by late Summer/early Fall...

They allow too much stretch of a good hookup.

I know this is not fishing related but I also know there are fellow veterans on this site. Apparently the VA records have been hacked into by various governments (Suspected China and Russia among others)....including SS numbers etc. we may be potentially screwed already. http://www.legion.org/security/216119/foreign-hackers-steal-va-data

I think Marty was just joking with Ed on that post above....I don't think he was messing with you.

Is that stud finder for the ladies?

Try going the the main home page and in the SEARCH block at the top type in Troutman87

In addition to the info I sent as PM.... Ed is right (as much as I hate to admit it ) Fran Barrett is good about Mercs and he and his wife Deb are honest as the day is long...great folks you can trust to give you an honest answer.

You have a PM

Haven't been out since last Saturday's report but hoping to go in next couple days or possibly Saturday if the weather report changes (T storms). Last time out there were quite a few weeds on surface in long narrow patches (or bands) spread out intermittently and some cotton.

Welcome aboard! Best of luck to you this season. Les

I used them on my 10A 's for quite a while without any problems....but I wouldn't go any heavier either...

12lb should work fine.....

And maybe it wasn't such a coincidence that I saw more than a little of myself in that movie "Grumpy Old Men" (especially when I'm ice fishing)

I guess you're right I was a bit grumpy I had just come from Wegman's and it seemed that every damned person in there was talking on the phone or looking at the Internet...then on the way home the woman in front of me was going off the road intermittently because she was texting....it got to me...I'm just getting up to here with the phone stuff, and thinking if the satellite ever gets knocked out somehow people will probably be unable to communicate directly with each other because we've become so dependent on the stuff... I apologize.

Suggestion: throw your phone away and spend your time actually fishing and figuring out the tactics.....all the time spent on gizmos and phone crap is wasted time Folks are getting too wrapped up in the electronics and forgetting (or worse yet not learning) HOW to fish....I know...I'm a dinosaur.....

An additional thing to add is to bleed the fish right after catching it and get rid of the dark lateral line when you filet it. If you freeze the filets do it in water in ziplocks with no visible air in the bag. I have had trout and perch filets three years later and they were delicious....(thaw them naturally in cold water not by microwave)