That’s crazy! I had to go down to the basement and dig through my box o’ guitar parts and sure enough, I still have my old Kramer “V” body. Pretty sure I still have the Floyd Rose bridge for it somewhere. Here’s a pic of it on a pile of other oddities with a, yep, Warmoth neck!

The original neck was destroyed after a 100 watt Marshall head came crashing down from a stack of 4×12 cabs and landed on the guitar which was leaning up against the stack. The amp was totally unfazed thankfully, but the Kramer didn’t fare as well.

That guitar shape was born from the mind of Randy Rhoads and became the very first Jackson guitar ever made. I was a huge Rhoads freak so I had a soft spot for that shape. Owned an actual Rhoads Jackson before I sold it to help fund my relocation to LA and enrollment at GIT. Ended up getting a sweet San Dimas Charvel straight from the Jackson/Charvel custom shop that I still own.

I’ll say again you guys rocked! Unfortunately, I think we were all about 10 years too late when along came that gawd awful sludgy Nirvana sh*t.

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Dang man, nicely done! Even played it half step down like the original!

Do I see some Kramer guitars in that vid?

It would probably be wise to go along with whatever your mother in law thinks it is, no matter what! Nevertheless, I’ll have to agree with her. We actually have some garden phlox growing in one of our border plantings as well, which like yours, is also starting to bloom right now. Here’s a site from the UW Extension that has a good description of the difference between dame’s rocket and phlox, the former of which pops up near the border of our woods.

It’s actually phlox which has the opposing leaf arrangement. Also, in the picture with your hand, it does kind of look like the leaves have the distictive toothed edge look of dame’s. As the flower head emerges from the tops of phlox plants, they can get that crinkly jagged look to them which can resemble dame’s at times. To keep phlox from self sowing and crowding your rose bushes, take a shears to the tops of them after the flowers fade. One thing I find interesting is that the forest rats LOVE our garden phlox, but will not touch the wild phlox we had blooming in our woods earlier this spring.

I don’t bother with it any, but morning glory can be nice in a pot with a trellis, set on the deck where you can keep an eye on it. Never knew it was considered noxious at one time. IMO the only vine worth growing is clematis. Bee balm, which usually has opposing leaves like phlox, actually does have sawtooth edges. The flowers are radically different than phlox though. Plant bee balm, along with some turtlehead growing in front of it, and you have one of the best combinations for attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. Ours is just about ready to bloom.

Who doesn’t love a good plant mystery, although, I think you might have a little bit of everything growing in that bed. We should start a new user group for the IDO gardeners!

If I had to guess, I’d say you have some type of a later blooming garden phlox. I’d give it this summer yet to see if it blooms, and if it doesn’t, hack it.

Phlox
Phlox

Those are some awesome river shots Dave although I must say, not wetting a lure might take more self control than I could muster!

Cool bird! We don’t get them too often but the wife got a nice shot of one a couple years ago.

Found a couple of those hanging oriole nests back in Funk’s cut one year down on the river. Sunday there were orioles down at HokSiLa landing in Lake City. Any pelicans up there yet BK or is it probably too early yet?

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I am but a simple man, but Sturdiwheat buckwheat pancakes, with fresh picked blueberries and maple syrup, along with a hot cup of coffee on the shore of a BWCA lake in the early morning, is one of life’s absolutely finer moments!

Can’t remember the last time I used a round head jig for eyes other than maybe on a slip bobber setup. I use Hutch and Precision style jigs almost exclusively these days. My preference for them is based on their ability to displace a little more water on a casting and swimming retrieve. For casting and pitching in particular, they are the best by far IMO. Totally agree in that cutting current isn’t always what you want on the river, rather, finding a balance is more important.

That teardrop, or bullet shape, has a little more surface area behind the eye, putting the connection point with the line more towards the front of the jig which helps it swim better. The elongated shape also helps maintain control when sweeping your presentation along with the current while working specific holding areas. Like Wimwuen mentioned, the streamlined form really helps it maneuver through the current more efficiently, but not so much that it plummets to the bottom.

For strictly vertical jigging, the round head of course works great, although the teardrop shape does a fine job there as well. It’s just a much more versatile jig profile.

This weekend is also “Take a Mom Fishing Weekend”. MN resident mom’s can fish all weekend without a MN license.

Looks like a nice weekend coming up so why not get mom out on some spring crappies!

Just about to pull the trigger on a late model F-150 with the 5.0. Any trouble with that engine? Sounds like only the 5.4 is affected but still makes a guy nervous about Ford.

When I think of blue jigs, I think of using bait with it for some reason. I think what you have here, coupled with a fathead, would be a great combo for when the midday bite gets tough after the first quick wave of slightly colored, colder water in the early spring…sort of a variation on the patriot pattern.

That blue is kind of a nice middle ground between the darker black and brighter orange and firetiger colors.

For straight pitching I’d honestly just go with black on the hair. Maaaaybe with a dozen hairs of blue or purple added in for artistry sake!

Usually there will be a model number like 1000FH or 1000FJ printed on the reel body or spool somewhere. The letters will tell you what generation Shimano you have and also whether it’s front or rear drag.

Not sure, but I think they started using the clutch on the FH models.

Have you thought about trying to fix them yourself? Sounds like a dirty roller clutch. Common occurrence on Shimanos and probably other reels too.

Definitely worth fixing them as Symetres are decent reels.

What model number are they?

Welcome home Chris and I salute you.

Hope you and your Dad are nettin’ the hogs soon!

Hey Gabriel,

Make sure you grab a couple Jointed Shad Raps. Get the JSR-5, which is a 2″ size, model JSR05. Fleet Farm usually has them for a decent price.

Start with Firetiger and Red Crawdad for colors.

Can’t go wrong having these as the first two cranks you buy for the river.

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How bad is the wind coming up the channel?

Signs you’re getting old:
You didn’t go fishing because it was too windy.

There better be whitecaps in the cistern!

Do you guys have more confidence in these over those Grappler Shads that came out a few years ago? Haven’t gotten much on the Grapplers but maybe I haven’t given them enough of a chance.

Great idea, they’ve been Cecilized!

Where’s Nick Johnson? Is Pete Harsh still doing tournaments?

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So what I can figure is that you cannot put your plug in utill you are ready to back your boat in other wise what if I was staging my boat as soon as I turned into the boat landing to get everything ready and the game wardens never saw that i had done this.

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I’ve been wondering the same thing. Guessing this was at Roschen? I have a feeling that ramp along with Hok Si La will be the scene of many angry boaters this weekend and all summer. Sorry to hear about the ambush and ticket but thanks for sharing as I’m sure you saved some guys from the same fate, including me!

Hey Kari, maybe your keys are in my missing toolbox

Evert’s is definitely back!

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RRR was boat 30 originally…then he found out that he was signed up as a co angler….and that’s how he ended up as boat #110!

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I saw that on the FLW site?? They also have pictures on there of him wearing a hat…..weird.

Whoop, just saw the other post regarding availability. Sorry!

Thanks for the heads up!

I missed the opportunity to add some Pulse R’s to my last order so I’ll have to get another one in. Any estimate on when the other colors might be available?

Thanks!
Chris

Thanks for looking out for our country and hope you’re slaying the fish soon!

Chris

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One boat that launched there went in for minnows and were told not to waste their time or money because the fish weren’t biting anyway.

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Again, lack of communications. You guys were talking walleyes. He was talking White Bass.

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It will change the current patterns and the fishery…maybe you noticed most of the trees and logs along the bank have been cut down and /or removed…

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Can’t quite tell by the picture but it looks like the two big cottonwoods standing sentinel on the corner are gone?

Just don’t let your glass feeders freeze.