lol, your wife does what ya say? lol.

no way could i go without a truck! i tried for a week and i couldnt handle it. while im not a ford man by any means, its better than nothing. the guy that trades his truck for a minivan for his wife is a better man than i. i been trying to talk my wife into trading the minivan for an extended cab truck! lol, ill need something to drive when im putting a lift and roll bar on mine wont i?

well its that time again fellers. squirrle season is officialy open. only problem is the temps are still in the 80’s. i dont even think they have started to fatten up yet. normaly i wait till the first frost, but thats looking like a long waqy off.

It’s coming up on 3 yrs since I bought my 1950 from SBC and their success is no surprise. Same great service today as when I bought the boat and a pleasure to deal with guys that are serious and competitive fisherman as well. Congrats on well deserved success guys!!!!

BTW, Dean a collared shirt? Are we seeing the return of “man pretty”?

he is right handed. still working on teaching him how to aim. i bought a eye patch to put over his eye for now while practicing with a bb gun to help and so far its working. putting him through hunters safety this fall so he can see other kids and have fun with it.

Far as kids playing rough anymore i dont know. in des moines it seems like all the kids are a touch soft. youll see a few youngsters start to and their mom or who ever they are with is right there scolding them for it. i am proud though that other than with guns and anything requiring much patients my stepson is starting to toughen up. woulda been there a long time ago if not for his poor excuse of a father. but thats for another post!

in my state while open carry is legal by state, from what i read, local law enforcment still frowns upon it and can revoke your permit. this is something i will definatley be looking into for other states. where allowed i plan to carry in a holster at my side for easy reach worst case scenario. the chance of ever crossing paths with dangerous animals is remote i relize, but i would rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. i hate sounding paranoid but i wont take chances where my family is involved. thanks for all your help and advice.

I also want to add that I like the simplicity of a revolver like the colt peace maker also in 45. If anyone uses one of these for concealed carry I would like to hear from you. Again, likely hood is low that I would ever have to use it. I live in iowa, not new york or california lol. Only downside to the peace maker would be concealment I think.

for hunting the 45 may be a little strong i agree. i however am just wanting to buy one gun that fits most purposes. worst case cenario for me is while camping and hiking in the mountains in montana forf example and cross paths with a bear or mountain lion. of course im going to try every measure of prevention i can first, but should the situation go south i want to be able to protect my family. the likely hood of me having a shoot out with a bad guy is rather low, but want to be prepared for everything. the only thing im not sure on with the 1911 is the meathod of cocked and locked while carrying. anyone that owns one ever have the safety release?

just put the tapemeasure on it and the blade is only 4 inches so should be legal. i carried the knife on my side for 5 years or better in centerville, ia and never had a problem

thanks for the feed back guys. when im home i would definatly take the dog outside. i was just thinking about when im at school and work. i wouldnt want to leave him in a crate for 8 hours. my cousin says she would keep him until i get home but we all know how those stories usualy turn out. my back up plan was to put a baby gate on the kitchen door and shut him in there with the pee pads or newspaper. its a lanolium floor so if he had an accident it wouldnt be a big deal. ive always had a dog but i lived in the country where the dogs had a dog door going in an out of a barn when i wasnt home. an apartment setting is completely diffrent.

I’m sure we’ll see you out there Brad. Good luck tomorrow!

Holland is another one to look at. Very consistent cook temps and absolutely no flare ups. Has the smoking capability and the type of grill grate allows you to cook about anything on it. We routinely cook bacon on the grill great both for breakfast and along side the burgers. We have been known to cook pizzas on a pizza stone directly on the grate. Nothing better than grilled pizza.

Very versatile grill and my parents had their first one for 8 yrs.

thats nice one. was it bow or shotgun?

in my opinion, the good old pump is still a work korse and nobody makes them better than mossberg. I have never shot an auto so i really dont have an opinion there. Far as break down goes theres only 3 pieces that i can think of. the stock, the barrel, and the nut that goes on the end that holds the 2 together. ive been duck hunting with buddies in my home town though, and when it was really cold, the auto didnt seem to shoot any faster than my pump. The one i know for sure was a clean gun because the guy was religious about cleanin as i am. but really, its which ever they are comfortable with

also like bees. a little smoke calms em right down

I love the show! Has inspired me to grow my beard out, lol

From someone who had this same package my advice would be to think long and hard about the motor on that boat. I had that package. With only you in the boat you MIGHT see 40-41 mph and MIGHT have a reasonable hole shot. In my experience this took some prop work and a lot of balancing of gear to get that done only to lose it when I put on a kicker. Can’t imagine what it would have been like with 3 or 4 guys. Even if you like to cruise at 35 mph you’ll be much happier with a 150 and, as a plus, you still have the snort to get out of there in a hurry if you feel like it.

8. Pretty soon Devils Lake will be in our back yard and we can just fish for them there.

7. With all roadside ANS checks, boat washes, and removing Eurasian invasive aquatic rhubarb who has time to fish for them anyway.

6. If it ain’t Pool 4 in the spring and fall or Mille Lacs in the spring everybody is chasing them in Canada eh.

5. Two words…. smoked sheephead

4. Half of them will end up in gill nets washed up on shore anway….

Matt Schultz- C
Mitch Mitties

Congrats Brett! Nice job!

Looks like all that time picking out colors was worth it! Nice looking boat Wade. Congrats!

The pleasure was all ours my friend. Thanks for all you’re hard work and all you’ve done for us over the years. Good luck!

I’ll second Chester’s on the upscale side. Walleye cakes are awesome and the buffalo shrimp isn’t too bad either. Check out their web site for a full menu.

Strong votes for City Cafe and Newt’s too.

Wild card goes to Jenpachi. Not the most upscale, but a fun show at the grill and the owner does an awesome rendition of “Happy Birthday”.

Might as well try Dean’s test fleet since he’ll let you. I’m with the rest on 6’8 med XF for light jigs w/ mono and mono IS important. Blades is a job for superline and a 6’9″ ml xf Avid or Legend Extreme, get what you can afford. I have been really happy with my 6’8″ Legend Extreme for pitching light jigs/plastics. IMO,the added sensitivity has paid off. I also have the Avid in the MLXF and it is a great rod.

Either way, St. Croix makes a great product with good support and it will be hard to pick the wrong one.

It will most likely cost your 30-50k to get into a new tourney ready boat, equipment for somebody who wants to do it well will be 5-10k, a truck to pull all this 20-40k, and each tourney will probably cost 2-3k (minimum) for travel and other expenses. Don’t get me wrong we truly appreciate the sport’s and our sponsors, but even with their generous support it still requires a strong financial standing to compete. Now factor in that you probably have to make the top 10 to make back what you spent and it becomes hard to justify.

Yes all the other factors (regionality, obscurity, tourney management) play a part in why some circuits struggle, but I think bottom line it comes down to money. As I sit here typing this I still wonder what I will do next year because as wimwuen mentioned there are very few “starter” circuits that prepare you well and help you make the ever important connections needed to SUCCEED on a larger circuit.

I love to compete and I’ve enjoyed all the people I’ve met tourney fishing over the years, but financially it is extremely tough.

I will say I hope competitive walleye fishing never goes away. It makes us ALL better fisherman.

Hey Jerad! We didn’t run into each other over at AL Lake this summer and I don’t think we’ve talked since I got my Skeeter.

Cool to hear you’re looking at a new boat. I sent you a pm on the 1850. Feel free to give me a call if you’d like.

Speaking from someone that has never happened to I’m sorry you had to get the ol’ arm wet. It’s a long way down to that hole isn’t it? Wish they’d make that a closeable switch like the livewells…….

Was that you guys in the blue Lund? If so, it was us that kept trolling past you in the gray Skeeter. Great day to be on the water and glad to see you guys picked up a couple fish too!

See you guys out there again!

X3 on the test drive. Wouldn’t have my WX1950 if a certain ringleader hadn’t talked me into taking it out on the water. Sure glad he did.

The test drive is critical because everybody’s opinion of “handling chop” and “dry” seem to be a little different. Not saying they are wrong, just different. If you’d test drive a 25k car you might want to consider the same for an equally expensive boat.

When I walked in BK had out some dusty, secret map and was giving a group of guys the GPS waypoints off Dean’s and Randy’s GPS. He threatened to play back the “Hey Jeff” if I didn’t leave .