PowderBeard

Seriously. Meanwhile around the Belchertown State School...

Damn, wtf. The greatest of New England weenies and he was proud of it. Just loved weather with such passion. Glad he was able to get his novel finished. The Jan 2015 blizz and July 2019 Cape Cod tornados were so much fun to follow because of this his posts. I hope the first storm of the winter season puts 3' down in Harwich.

VIX calls and SPY puts for the win! lol

The Quabbin is like a damn aquarium right now. For a bit yesterday I just watched. Could see small packs of 4-5 lbs smallmouth just cruising around the 10-15' range waiting for males to build beds - which there are very few of. Going to be a wild next 2-3 weeks as the first waves are just moving up. Also saw lakers and some big salmon cruising around shallow as well. Ended up with 2 smallies over 5 lbs yesterday fishing some old stone walls in 15-20', and then lots of 2-4lbs fish up shallow. Clearly the biggest fish are still off-shore waiting.

Oh jeez then yes. At least that post helped me organize my thoughts for fishing larger lakes LOL

My theory is craws make up a small part of their diet, but it is when smallies are most active. <50* water smallies are more likely to be in deeper water focusing on smelt, perch, etc. Crawfish are not exactly dormant but not exactly active in water <50*. Once the water hits around 50* you have craws and smallies looking to reproduce. Smallies like building beds on harder bottoms around rock (compared to largemouth) which put them around areas with craws looking to do the same. Craws are also easy picking at this time because they are active and easy spot, early on craws either have a vitamin deficiency which creates an olive/blue pattern or they are molting and get that orange color. It's one extreme or the other. Since smallies are in these shallower rocky areas for a few weeks (this coincides when they are easiest to catch given their aggressiveness) they rely more on craws because it is all that is around them for a food source, along with the occasional bluegill looking for eggs to eat/a bedding area. Unlike largemouth, the gravel/rock areas where smallies spawn attract many other smallmouth. It's not uncommon to have 15-25+ smallmouth bed in one small area. This grouping sets them up for the next stage. Once they finish spawning, post-spawn smallies move to the first drop/grassbed off the area they spawned to recover. Whereas after reproducing, craws - specifically males, go into hiding and really only come out to feed during low light times. Once the smallies have recovered, these groups hunt in packs for perch which are in that 15-25' range late spring/early summer. They follow the perch off-shore, typically onto humps once the water gets into the mid/upper 60s. When the water gets >70*, smallies head out to off shore humps for the cooler water and are around more smelt which are also looking for cooler water. Once there are some cool mornings in August, smallies start to move from off-shore humps onto long points to have access to the shallower water in prep for their "fall feed." Perch do this as well so when on those longer points they feed up on perch. Once the water temp starts dropping and you get a full moon in September, the craws are looking to reproduce again and get very active, which coincides with smallies starting to feed up and moving shallower for anything they can eat. And round and round we go. This is my working theory and how I fish for smallies. You can always find some oddball smallmouth cruising the shallows for an easy meal, however bigger (and more successful) smallmouth typically hunt in packs or just massive schools. It's easier for a couple dozen smallies to corral perch or smelt than it is a single fish.

What a difference on the east and west sides of the Quabbin. Monday, gate 8 (west side) 48-50* water, lakers up shallow, smallies still in early pre-spawn mode. Wednesday Gate 43 (east side), 53-55 degree water and smallies in 2-8' on beds. Thursday gate 8, still 48-50* water but fish are transitioning from 15-20' and moving onto the edges of spawning flats. Gate 8 was a challenge all week but put out big fish, although numbers were not there. Wednesday at Gate 43 had over 40 fish, but none over 3 lbs. Only got about 20 fish from my two trips to Gate 8 but I don't think any were under 3 lbs. Fish are the fattest I've ever seen, typically you need a smallie to be over 20" to be 4 lbs, these were all 4+. Caught this one mid cheese stick. She is loving it out there again and listens better than at home. Definitely need to find some different snacks because I will be vacuuming Ritz crackers out of my new carpet until I decided to sell it or do it over again in 10 years. "

Enough vert for tree skiing come winter, snowfields like Sugarloaf? lol

VIX is climbing. My tin-foil hat says Hedge Funds are behind a lot of the crypto pumps. They need it. Edit: Borrow rate for AMC >70% LOL, godspeed to all those involved on that.

If it really went nuts (got >$1) and started to be supported by places like Coinbase then the ride would keep going. I'll be curious if those April peaks of .40-.48 act like support now from the bottom falling out.

Well, there could be a day or two this year Gamestop is the most valuable company on the planet and Ryan Cohen is the first trillionaire so...lol

Damn that is a great idea, will have to try it out. I'm truly amazed at how well it performs. First time since we bought the house 3 years ago we have been able to eat dinner on our deck.

Elon Musk hosting SNL, already making "Doge-father" jokes on Twitter, I wouldn't be surprised if it was >$1 come Sunday morning. I had fun from .08 - .35. Problem is so many people use Robinhood they will turn off buying again/say there are technical issues like they did April 15-16 when it peaked. That would be my primary concern. January 27th still haunts me.

So far just a couple moths along with the flys and mosquitos.

Not sure if it was the late snow but lawn is looking rough. Thin with lots of clover and chickweed. Still early, leaves just started to show a little. I'll start spoon-feeding some urea this week to push some top-growth to see if I can't block out the "un-wanteds." Still a ways away from milo type given the cold temps. l Edit: Ranted a few times earlier in the year about how bad the mosquitos and flys were. Did some homework and discovered "Dynatraps." HOLY ___ are they amazing. Have one about 30' off our deck and it has cleared them out. When from not being able to be outside past 330/4pm to outside all the time and haven't seen a mosquito in over a week. Would highly recommend.

Would love a "Downeast" type summer.

Dalton cleans up wherever he goes.

One way to tell is the taste/texture. The "old legend" I've heard from DCR folks is it takes about 12-18 months for the diet of the fish to change the meat. I can see some truth to it. The stockies are more soggy/mushy no matter how you cook them, thus why I make a version of "crabcakes" with the meat. Whereas native fish/long-term survivors the meat flakes and chips, so those are filleted and seared/baked.

Agreed, those natives are hard to come by. I'm always nauseous when I see people taking tons of smallies from the Quabbin to eat or "fertilize" their gardens. Damn things take a decade to get 4 lbs. Speaking of the shallow lake trout convo from earlier. Stumbled across one the other day while smallmouth fishing in about 12' of water. Went 28" and just over 7 lbs. I looked down and couldn't see the blade bait with its mouth closed and knew he would be moving on to the big pond in the sky. Us and our neighbors enjoyed him for dinner though. Did get a couple dozen bronzebacks between 3-4lbs.

Really got into finance a few months ago but I'd bet Archegos was the tip of the iceberg and I'd bet many funds have engaged in similar crazy leveraging practices. Seems like cryptos (e.g., Doge) and penny stocks being pumped and dumped to raise $ in ways only whales can (e.g., CXC was $0.01 mid February and hit $3200 earlier this week). Banks are claiming all is well, selling tons of bonds, and closing locations (e.g., BoA). Bread and circus like the Roman Empire to distract. Goalies - I'm all in on Swayman and he will probably have "sophomore slump" in the next year or two.

9.5" on 4/16 62.5" on the season. edit: forgot PMs

Just under 9" and no signs of slowing.

When I used to trout fish it was all I did, especially the old Mepps Comet Minnow - my old reliable trout lure. I catch more trout when bass fishing now than I ever did when fishing strictly for trout. The next few weeks there will be packs of lakers cruising the shallows eating newts and such in the Quabbin while people are trolling in 60' for them. Saw one about 15 lbs last year cruising around a beaver lodge in 4-6' and thought it was a pike at first.

Feel like we are living in one of your snow globe pictures lol