Fishing appears to be popular with this group

[PackRat]

Graduated to the Big Pole this week -



had to catch our bait today -

[VastOne]

^ that is really really awesome RatMan.. great kids doing a great thing resulting in great pix

Thanks for sharing!

[jedi]

@PackRat

Your daughters are very beautiful!  Better that you have them fishing than playing with computers or video games.  If only all parents were like you.  Most kids today are raised by a 'screen'.  Memories like the ones your making with them, priceless.  They'll always look back at these moments and really treasure their father!

[PackRat]

They do the video game thing too - but it's easy enough to get them out and about.

We'll be heading to Musgrove Mill State Park for our First Day hike. First Day hikes are a Park Service promotional to get people out and about - preferably at a State Park - after over eating on the holidays. We did Rivers Bridge last year.

[PackRat]

Spring break begins in about 2 hours .......

This year it happens to coincide with another popular event in the area .....

Going to be some serious mayhem; good time to be going fishing.

[VastOne]

I DVR every second of coverage of the Masters to watch when the sun goes down and then go fish and golf my ass off...

I have found a massive amount of new spots to fish very close to where I live .. had no idea they were even there and looking forward to really getting to know them

They are chutes .. do not know why they are called that, off the Mississippi River.. they are basically the boarder between Missouri and Kentucky.. and a lot like inter-coastal waters in Florida

I am looking for a kayak or small canoe to really get to know these waters

[PackRat]

On the Mississippi (and other prairie rivers) a chute is the old river channel - a bend in the river that is in the process of being cut off. Once it's completely cutoff it will be an oxbow lake.

On a  mountain river, chute is narrow canyon that drops in elevation so the water gains a lot of speed - too narrow to form rapids, not steep enough to be falls.

A kayak is fun on either.

[PackRat]

Getting settled in at the campground. One of my favorite parks to photograph - some awesome Spanish moss and creeping vines in the cypress. Now juat wait until dusk when the crappie and white perch come in close to feed.

   

[VastOne]

^ Very nice.. We have the same Cyprus around here in some lakes and the Crappie love to camp all along them

Finding the right depth and lure is the epic challenge

[PackRat]

That's for sure.

And just to mock me, an osprey dove in and caught a small bass about 50 feet past the limit of my cast.

[jedi]

Spectacular pics PackRat!  I lived in the swamps of Mississippi for a few years.  Some creepy kayak and canoe rides I can tell stories of no one believes...

Unfortunately up here in the frozen tundra, the ice is still 2 to 3 feet thick in most places... 

Edit: (39 seconds later) Heck, I still have at least 2 feet of snow blanketing my property. 
Edit 2: (maybe a minute later than the last edit)  ^$#(*46 4 feet still in places close up to the house...

[PackRat]

Catch of the day is pan fry sized white perch - but only if you were rigged with the orange fishing line; nothing on the traditional white line. Go figure.



would be eating pretty well if we had kept any.

Another tornado warning (second of the week) cut our day at the pier short. Even the osprey were heading back to the trees.

[jedi]

Still frozen in up here.  Snow everywhere, and the lake is still froze over.  MOF, I still have over 2 feet of snow in places in my own yard!   

There is an extended forecast that says 57F next week!  A sauna!!!

[VastOne]

57 will be the low here tonight and also the high for tomorrow.. ouch!  45 mile per hour winds though.. constant!

[lwfitz]

Fished lake Casistas in Ojai yesterday and got three. Biggest was just shy of 8lbs