Tag Archives: GPS

Tractors, Turkey Shopping, and Construction

December 3, 2009
Well not much happening in the fish world lately, but there seems to be quite a bit happening in the real world! I have been building houses for my dad and brother most days and taking care of all our pond stuff and online shipments every spare moment. Also been working on lowering our 33 acre lake for the winter. 

We also did a great job at spending all of our extra summer money already and some. We are the very proud new owners of a 2002 caterpiller skid steer and a 2006 kubota kx 121 excavator. We are not only building our own hatchery ponds, but will be building several forage fish ponds for clients as well!



So then Thanksgiving comes around and I eat my usual whole pecan pie and leftover turkey and potatoes for the next few days! And also I do get up at 3 am on black friday and buy a ton of stuff. We buy gifts for my dad's company christmas party every year on this day. He has 26 employees that we buy apprx $200 gifts for each of them for their party. Since we dont provide alcohol, we have to have some incentive to get the guys to show up!! This year we got GPS's, Netbooks, Lithium Power Tools, TV's, Nintendo Wii's, Ice Fishing Shanty, and a few other miscellaneous items. My mom, Justin, and Katy camped out at Walmart all night, fought the hoards of people at the 5 am mad dash and got everything on their list! My dad and Dave waited in line at Sams Club and got served coffee and Breakfast and also got everything on their list.
Lee and I waited in our truck at Sears at 4 am and when they started letting the line of people go in running and grabbing, we just slip in at the end of the line and go straight to the computer on the left side of the store. While everyone is scooping up the doorbusters and waiting in a checkout line that wraps around the store after 3 minutes, We just have the sales associate ring up our item numbers from the catalog, pay $900, and let merchandise pick up fellas load up our loot. At 4:20 am we are done and headed to the breakfast diner- We have the system nailed down to a tee!!! After a hearty breakfast we meet up with my dad and dave for the made dash at Home Depot at 6 am! We got everything on our list at Home Depot and had $5000 spent by 6:30 am!

Noah decided to run out of our apartment the other day and by the time I looked out he was on top of the minivan! Instead of grab him right away I took my time grabbing the camera and took this pic. By the time I was done, he was so cold that I dont think he will head outside without much clothes on anymore. Sometimes I can be considered a tad bit cruel, but there really is no better way for a kid to learn stuff than on his own.


So the real cold weather is about to set in. Ice is starting to form just a tad bit. One more weekend of deer hunting and then hopefully we can be icefishing before Christmas.
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Deals on Reels

November 9, 2009
My Dad has started his annual pilgrimage to down south for fishing, before he left, he actually did a little sorting of fishing gear and realized he had way too many reels that were just sitting around. So I am selling a bunch of his Shimano reels on ebay for him and a handheld GPS. The first are listed now, more to come as I clean them up and look them over and get them ready for listing.

Take a look here - http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-1751-2978-71/1?AID=5463217&PID=1882460&mpre=http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/hellabass

Also, check back, I will list the rest soon and after that, probably start clearing out some more of my gear and tackle.
Bass Tackle Depot - Free Shipping $50 Orders - Great spot for hard to find Bass Fishing Gear!!
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News For Fishermen Who Think Chasing the Hatchery Truck Is Just Toooo Much Work

October 20, 2009

Plenty of fly fishermen believe the likes of GPS units, Google Earth, online mapping and tell-all fly fishing sites have let some of the adventurous air out of fly fishing, but for California meat hunters anglers for whom chasing the hatchery truck is just too much work, we offer up the California Fish & Game fish stocking Web site (found via Alert Underground Reader Tom):

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has unveiled a new feature on its Web site that allows anglers to better scout out prime trout fishing spots. The new “Map It” feature at www.dfg.ca.gov/fish/Hatcheries/FishPlanting links the weekly trout stocking schedule for bodies of water throughout the state to Google Maps, providing directions and other pertinent info to anglers who are planning fishing trips.

“The scheduled fish plant pages are now receiving more hits than any other section of our Web site,” said Walt Beer, DFG’s Statewide Hatchery Coordinator. “This is proving to be a wonderful one-stop planning tool for anglers who want to maximize their chances for a good day of fishing.”

Beer added that numerous anglers have emailed DFG to praise the addition of the “Map It” feature, such as one Visalia resident who wrote, “What a great idea!”

Basically, when you want a livery, pellet-fed trout dumb enough to eat the rocks in the stream – and you want it right now (and you want turn-by-turn directions, and maybe photographs, and maybe stocking times to the minute) – there’s a place on the Internet just for you.

This, we guess, signals the end of a hallowed bit of fishing heritage; the line of smoking, beat-up, duct-taped vehicles following the hatchery truck from hole to hole.

Internet pundit Nicholas Carr famously asked if Google was making us stupid, and while the question’s still out on that one, we suggest the Internet almost certainly is making us lazier (at least those of us looking to “maximize their chances for a good day of fishing”).

At first, this seemed proof of the coming fly fishing apocalypse, but then again, the sooner we get the rubber trout away from the wild ones, the happier everyone will be.

In that vein, we offer that Web address one more time: The California Fish & Game fish stocking page.

See you waiting for the truck, Tom Chandler.

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Home Thoughts from Abroad

April 30, 2009

April's a tricky month, full of decisions. Do I continue pike fishing? Do I try for a spawny bream or two? Do I go for early season tench fishing? I usually split it between all three but this year I decided to stick with the pike and take the opportunity to fish a couple of waters in different countries - and neither of them England!

The Welsh lake I like to fish is one I've introduced to you before. A beautiful tranquil place with crystal clear water and the hardest fighting pike I've ever found. The fishing there is usually very good and the pike respond to all methods. I usually use livebaits and lures but this year I decided to try trolled deads instead of the lives. It was a poor choice I'm afraid, the trolled deadbaits failed to raise a single fish but in fairness the lures did little better. A handfull of small pike and a solitary double figure fish of 15lb 10oz was all I could manage. The fifteen was a lovely fish mind, fighting fit and still quite fat for so late in the season. It took a replicant in deep water.


I had been using a new replicant in perch pattern, my old one having been in the wars a bit but I have to say I was disappointed with it. The newer replicants are stiffer in the rubber than the old ones and have to be retrieved much faster in order to get the tail to waggle as it should. This means they are impossible to fish deep effectively. I chucked it around for a while with no response but eventually took it off and put the old, ragged one back on. The response was immediate, the pike taking it on the first cast.


This was an opportunity for me to try out my new echo sounder as well. It's an Eagle 642c with GPS - doesn't it look good? If you follow the track you might even be able to work out which water I was fishing.


Moving On...

The other water was in Scotland. It's a place I've fished before, many years ago, and fancied trying again so I treated myself to a three day session. I have to say that I didn't catch a lot of fish but I didn't mind that. This was an exploratory trip, searching out the water and its depths and filing away the information gleaned for future use. I wouldn't have minded if I had caught nothing at all but as it happens, in amongst the jacks there was a rather nice fish.

Livebaiting is illegal in Scotland so it was a combination of lures, static deads and trolled deads this time. Once again the trolled deads failed to score and while I did manage to catch a fish or two on static deads, the pike would only take them if they were suspended off the bottom.

It was a different story on lures with a fair bit of action. Most of the fish I hooked were small and a good few of them fell off on the way in. I watched a couple of them hit the lures and noticed that they were just nipping them with the end of their beaks.

One fish didn't nip though, it totally engulfed a purple Fox Raider and wasn't I glad it did. Completely spawned out, it went 23lbs 8oz!








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Clearing out some gear!

July 2, 2008
Spent some time this past week, sorting out some extra stuff I have and decided to put it up for auction on my eBay seller page. Check out some very good stuff, most of it brand new! Sebile Magic Swimmer, Lucky Craft, Lowrance GPS, Garmin Sonar, Swimbaits & More!




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