reevesr1

Hiketofish, Fished with my dad lots when I was a kid. I can't tell you what it meant to me, and though I didn't know it at the time I know it now. You are a good man taking your kids up there, I promise they will remember it forever. Now, can you take me next!

OK, so you have given me something to shoot for next time I go home. We key on mullet as a visual indicator for the presence of predators, ie, trout and redfish. I've foul hooked many in my life, and they do pull pretty darn good. I've never thought of targeting them, as they are as you said plant eaters, mostly algae from what I understand, in Texas anyway. They don't get as big in Texas (could be the first time that statement has ever been made), but they do get into the mid teens, and you can find huge rafts of them that size sometimes. I will try to hook one on a fly rod, because it would be a hoot, because as you said, they pack a huge punch. I'm pretty sure Bonefish are in the same family. Thanks for the idea!

Hey LK, Be a long time before a better picture is posted. That bull shot is truly something. The cuttie shot ain't bad either.

Sorry BBB, (the Brown, not Brent variety) but I only fish with people who are better at it than I am. Wait a minute, that's everyone. OK, you're on! Twice a week? Uh, no thanks. At that frequency, by the end of the year you'll be hearing about my 6th grade talent contest. I think I was 3rd. Not quite as exciting as Flooding on a Nuclear Submarine!!

I couldn't be more envious! I can't imagine how fun that must have been. Great pictures too!

We used to have movies every night. Once we had seen it 10 times or so we would say it was "Qualified Birmingham". Das Boot was "Qualified Birmingham". I'm sure Hunt for Red October was as well, but it was out after I left the boat. After seening Das Boot a number of times we started to call everything on the boat das something, like das screwdriver, das wrench, das main engine, das torpedo, you get the point. Told people it meant "submarine screwdriver, submarine wrench, etc. We knew das meant "the", but you would be suprised the number of people who asked "das is German for Submarine?"

So ya'll may have noticed a gambling, fighting, fishing theme in my previous stories. After reading about some of my ancestors, you might think "that Rick must be one fightin', gamblin' and fishin' dude". Not so much. If you fish as often as I do, you are bound to luck into a few. I really have almost no fishing instincts at all. As for fighting, unless you count leading with your face a "style", I am pretty useless. My lack of ability to gamble led directly to my quitting university the first time. I gambled a lot, sucked at it, and ran out of money. No easy task as I had been saving for school for several years while working for my dad. (Now that I think about it, maybe MissinTheBow and I were switched at birth. He gambles, used to box and can catch a fish or two, or so I'm told. I haven't seen it yet, but I believe him. He could be my fathers son, if he were only taller, and better lookin'). Anyway, running out of money caused me to start looking for a job. Looking for a job led me to the Navy, and the Navy led me to this story (try to follow the logic, I know it's convoluted). I spent 8 yrs in the US Navy as a Nuclear Reactor Operator (save the Homer or radiation makes you bald jokes, odds are I've heard 'em all) and then Supervisor. The last three years were on the USS Birmingham, SSN-695 protecting the free world. While on the Birmingham, we were steaming towards a date with Thailand after a long operation in the North Pacific (which is another story in itself). After being cooped up in a sub for 70 days or so, Thailand certainly had it's attractions. Unfortunately, while running drills, we ran into a bit of a problem. The drill in question caused us to shut down the reactor. Without the reactor for propulsion, we need some method of running the ship. So we take the boat up to periscope depth, raise the mast which includes a 14" air line and crank up the diesel generator. 20 pistons of loud, hot power. My job during any emergency was to take over Reactor Ops. (Homers job would have been to run away) In this particular drill, I was sound asleep when the alarm went off. I jumped out of bed, into my coveralls and hauled ass back aft. When I hit the water tight door that separated the forward and aft section of the ship, I disturbingly find myself in a waterfall of very cold water. I stick out my tongue and was even more disturbed to discover it is saltwater. I start screaming FLOODING! at the top of my lungs. Words cannot describe the horror of being in a 300' tube with water coming in. Not a great feeling (my bet is much like the feeling of a grizzly bear breathing in your ear!). As I was standing next to the watertight door, I did what I had been trained to do, which is CLOSE IT!! Which I did, rapidly. Once the door was closed, another chilling realization hit me. I'm on the wrong side of the @#$@$@% door. So now, I can't go take over the reactor because I'm not supposed to reopen the door, and I'm on the side of the boat with water coming in. Just fantastic. But as I look around, I see that water is coming out of every single vent duct I can see, and I hear people yelling FLOODING! everywhere. Then I realize what has happened. Picture this, we are at 60' of depth with a mast sticking out of the water to supply air to the diesel. Now the mast is a radar target, and submarines don't like to be found so we don't raise the mast very often. Like almost never. So at the same time we use the air for the diesel, we take advantage of fresh air and let it ventilate the ship. A nuclear sub makes its own air, water, basically everything you need to live but food (or sex), and because it is a closed enviornment, can get a bit rancid. Not that we would notice, because we live in it. But any chance to ventilate the ship is very welcome. Now what happened was our helmsman lost control of depth and the boat went to 70' and the mast went under water. Shouldn't be a problem as there are two sensors on the mast to rapidly shut the flapper valve in the 14" air line if the mast goes under. Unfortunately, one must have been broken during our deployment and the other had just been fixed in a shipyard, but was installed backwards (and the shipyard signed off on a retest that was never done. A couple of people went to jail over that.) Now instead of a 14" air line, we have a 14" water line. Directly to a running diesel engine. And every ventillation duct in the ship. Anyway, we blow ballast tanks and are on surface in 30 seconds or so. But we have an unbeliveable mess with water everywhere and all the insulation on the ship soaking wet, along with some Reactor Control electronics. And one truly broken diesel engine. And worse yet, no Thailand. See, now we have no diesel (backup power) and a compromised control system for the reactor. So off we go for repairs. To Guam. Instead of Thailand. Did I mention that we haven't seen girls except for 2 days in Tokyo in 70 some odd days. And Guam is pretty much all guys because it was a big US military base at the time. Hoo freaking ray. Took us 2 months to repair the boat, then back to Hawaii (ok, living there didn't suck much). No Thailand, no Hong Kong, no Australia. Our deployments were called WestPacs (for Western Pacific). We called that one WastePac '85.

1, 2 and 3: To be SiverDoctor's apprentice.

Birchy, All kidding aside, the fish will be there next week, the week after that, and the week after that. Don't go if the doc says to rest. Get better, then catch all them little suckers!!

Still on as of Tuesday, and it was still hot and dry. Looks like a chance of rain tomorrow in Pincher Creek, but I heard that it will take an inch of rain for them to come off (second hand info).

Nice, but I think you have to actually die, not just be incomprehensibly stupid, to get a Darwin Award.

Wow. Never mess with Pipestoneflyguy!! Great read.

Nice. Now you wouldn't think I would have a story about the Hokey Pokey, but.... Sunday at the Folk Fest in Edmonton a band from LA was playing. Latino, black, white musicians, sorta political (it was a folk fest), mixture of reggae, hip hop, some rap, lots of rock. Very well played, massive energy. They had the normally placid folk fest crowd standing and dancing for most of their set. After the end, we noticed that people around the stage were still clapping. Then everyone started clapping in rythm, then we noticed the horn section from the band had come into the crowd after the show. First, they did the soccer ole,ole,ole,ole thing. Then they played the hokey pokey. The whole hill was singing, "You put your left leg in..." dancing, the whole bit. It was really awesome, though it sounds stupid now. Now I know it was in the honor of Mr. LePrise. Thanks Birchy.

OK, here's mine: A married couple had happily played golf together for many years. One day, the man hit a massive slice into a farmers field in front of a barn. He was getting ready to pick up the ball when his wife said: "Honey, I can see the green through the barn doors. I think you could hit a stinger through and maybe get it to the green." He saw and thought "I've got that shot" took out the 3 iron and stung it. But it hits one of the beams, screams back and hits his wife in the head killing her instantly. The next weekend, he is out on the same course. As luck would have it, he slices another into the same farmers field. As he is about to pick up his ball, the partner says: "Hey, I can see the green through the open barn doors. I think you could hit a stinger through and maybe get it on the green." The man looks at his partner and says: "Nah, I tried that last weekend and took an 8." Much welcome back Mr. Birchy!

Not to argue this too much, as I have argued for the Canadian Medical System to my countrymen many times over as I think it certainly has advantages, and my father died way too close to broke because of medical bills, but.... There is a reason virtually all the new prescription medicine comes from the states. We (Americans) pay for it! Here, much of the cost is subsidized which is fantastic for the consumer, and my parents certainly took advantage of cheap prescription drugs in Canada. But the stark reality is that someone has to pick up the tab for the research, particularly for all the drugs that fail (I think the failures outnumber successes like 10 to 1? I'm sure someone here can confirm that number) and that is us. And before someone tells me about massive profits, you are somewhat preaching to the choir. I agree that some things should not be for profit. But until a country with gov't subsidized medicine starts producing the new drugs, don't complain too much about what they cost in the states.

Now that is cool!

Birchy, Very glad to hear everything worked out! Don't try to rush back in the game, take it easy for awhile. Let's go catch some fish when your strength has returned.

Just wondering if anyone knew how Birchy's surgery went. Thought CDock might know? Hoping for the best...

Excellent use of detail. I've always been told when you are making something up, use lots of details, and/or make up specific statistics like: "Feminine creams have been shown to be effective in 96.5% of Ichthyophthirius multifiliis infections within 24 hrs" or "As Ichthyophthirius multifiliis have been shown to be able to live for up to 9 months out of the water, BC has implemented a no wader policy for it's classified waters"

My fav to date. I love the way the arms of the Tarantula stick out! Taken on the Livingstone. And this one, though a split second earlier would have been nice, but I really like the colors. Same trip on the 'stone.

I have a friend named Byron, lives in Houston. Really nice guy, great fisherman, very low key. But a practical joker extrodinaire, particularly since he really doesn't seem the type. What follows is the story of what I consider to be the best practical joke of all time: Every year, Byron and Mel arrange a fishing trip to the Breton Islands in Louisiana, which is mostly wade fishing shallow flats and the surf. One year they invite a coworker with very little fishing experience (they decided they had to play some sort of joke on him when he asks if his daughter Snoopy Pole would be good enough!). He asks all the usual questions about what he needs to buy for a rod and reel (they did tell him the Snoopy pole wouldn't cut it), what to get for lures, tackle, etc. So Byron forwards him a fishing report from a guide, but with a bit of editing. He puts a line in the report "and the vermiculites were particularly bad today. Make sure you bring your condoms!" So the friend calls and says "what the hell is a vermiculite and what's up with the condoms?" So Byron tells him "oh yeah, well they are little microorganisms that live in saltwater and when the water temperature is up, they get active and can irritate sensitive skin, if you know what I mean. So we wear condoms to protect the sensitive area." And from then on he is careful not to mention it again as he does not want to overplay his hand. As the trip gets closer, Byron starts to send fishing reports from the area to his friend and all the other guy coming on the trip (who are aware of the setup). In every report he edits in a vermiculite line (bad today, not bad today, etc.) Now this trip is based on a barge converted into a floating fishing base in the sound of an island in the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the guys arrive by float plane, some by boat. Everyone arrives late afternoon, has supper and starts planning the first day of fishing. They decide to hit the surf before daylight the next morning. They also take pains not to mention the vermiculite thing, again afraid someone will laugh and ruin the joke. Everyone gets up the next morning, Byron notices his friend behind him and says to Mel "hey man, I forgot my condoms. You got any?" At that point they see their buddy run back to his room and they know the hook has been set! So now, picture about 10-15 guys lined up in waist deep water fishing. Typically, when nature calls, we do what any wader fisherman does when in water over our waist. Just go, and never miss a cast. Well, after about 1 hr of fishing, they notice the friend wading back toward the shallow water to take care of business. They see him pulling down the wading pants, taking off the ole condom and having himself a pee. They are all dying laughing, without making any noise. Anyway, buddy finishes up and continues fishing. The joke continues for a couple of days, when they finally spill the beans. He takes it really well! You would think that was the end, but wait! This barge employs a couple of deckhands who are usually young college students. Since 99% of the fishermen are men, the deckhands are always males (for obvious reasons). The deckhands are almost always the kids of friends of the barge's owner. Well, the manager of the barge, who was also in on the joke, decides it would be funny to put a couple of the condoms in one of the deckhands bag as he is rotating back home thinking he would have a laugh when he unpacks. Unfortunately, the kid's mom unpacks the bag! She calls the owner and asks: "Aren't there just men on the barge?" "Yes" is the reply. "OMG, then why does my son need condoms?" The owner calls the manager, manager explains joke, owner calls mother and mother is VERY relieved. Just not overly amused. The end, not quite: The next year Byron and crew are back. While having dinner in the barge, they are recounting the story. One of the other guests, who worked for one of the fishing shows on Fox Sports Southwest says "wait a minute, that was you guys? That practical joke is famous." Seems the barge manager had told the crew of the fishing show the story earlier that year and they had repeated it all over the south! Now it's made it to Canada! The end??? Note: I can't really remember what he called the bugs. I think it was vermiculite, but I can't remember. I emailed Byron to find out, but he is fishing in Costa Rica!! Hope he has his condoms!

Dang Kev, Hope I don't outfish you in September, or talk politics for that matter! Gave me an idea for the story of the week however. See upcoming post. Best practical joke I ever heard.

I really had some good fishing in the mornings, particularly when the water was still high. And since it is the only time I can consistently get out without any interference from my significant other, I have to say mornings. But after my first couple of evening/night trips, I may have to reconsider. Though I may have to find my wife a boyfriend.....

Fishing since I was 6 or 7, so 40 yrs. Fly fishing for almost 1.

You've worked with regulations? I just thought you were a fisherman and an environmentalist on the side. I wouldn't be caught dead hanging with anyone whose worked with regulators. Imagine the scandal. Kidding. Drop me a PM when you are downtown one day and we'll find us some Guiness!