General Music Chat

Cool man, some jam would go a long way towards clearingupthat long running psychosis you got over there. I'm pulling for ya bud.

I'm not psychotic, unless you count those lil voices in the back of my mind what tell me to...well...I'd best not go into that.

I looked up that band. They have a great playlist, some good pix, but I couldn't find any recordings of them on their site.

Anyway, I e'd them & told 'em to contact me. We'll see how it pans out.

Sure would be nice to have something going on!

Thanks, sans, for the well-wishes.

Getting ready to go to practice tonight with that flat singer guy. He actually asked if I could sing some stuff, so this might turn out to be alright after all. We'll see soonly.

Called that band from the email that found me here in BM. Got a tentative practice date this Sun, will follow up as I can. They sound pretty dedicated, & claim to have no alcohol or drug issues. YAY! They use ear buds, too. I'm anxious to try them out. Won't even hafta take my amp, as they have a Carvin set up for practice. Guitarist says he doesn't use an amp. He uses one of those modelling thingies through the board. Sounds like they may want me to go that route, too. Never done it, but if I can get a decent module to run through at a reasonable price, I'll try it, too, what the hell. Oughta make recording live pretty easy, I would guess. I wonder if my Zoom pedal would do the trick in the meantime...hmmmm

Got a call from a guitarist I auditioned awhile back. He was just too jazzy for what I wanted at the time. Now he says he's working with another guitarist, & they're doing some classic rock, blues, & jazz, & they need a rhythm section. Called my drummer & he's up for it. Might check them out this Sat.

Got a call this morning from a bar that wants me to do a solo thing in a few weeks. I just dunno if I'll be able to do it with all the other stuff I'm soon to have going on. Haven't called them back yet. Sure could use the bucks, though. I may have to do it just to bring home enough dough to justify everything with the wife....LOL

Gee...all of a sudden I feel so popular. What the hell's going on in the universe? Is it the end of times?

I seem to be going from the wasteland to being too busy all at once. What's a guy to do? It'll sure be nice to actually have some options to pick & choose from, though.

I'm getting calls for my day work, too. Wow. I'd better get going if I'm gonna be on time...& you know how I am about that!

Stay wild, folks!

Hey Philby,

Man , I like hearin this kinda news nowdays..I bees happy for ya..Yeah , it is weird isnt it when hopelessness kinda does a 180 and things mysteriously start fallin into place. Seems it used to happen more THEN than NOW.. .(you DID get a nap after being up that roof and the margaritas, right?. )..Let us know how it goes...

John

philbymon, I made some phone calls.
I know a guy that knows a guy that knows some guys.
Put the word out that no one else better screw you around.

Ah, eureka!
The rant thread

No John. I got no nap. I did get to go to my STICKMASTER meeting & catch a good...time. Got home at 11. Chatted with the wife until about 1. Got up at 6 to go fishing. Just got home an hour ago & I'll be off in a 1/2 hour for another practice, this time with that jazzy guy. Probably won't get home until 12 or 1.

I'm a lil washed out, though. The sun was hot today, too. So was the creek, for that matter. Waded today instead of using the canoe.

I'll hafta get up early tomorrow to finish up that lil day job thing that I let slide today. The home owner will be there sometime in the morning, & I'd like to be done & outta there before he gets there. Ain't much - just putting in some GFI's & lights, & general cleanup.

Zip - thanks, man. I'll take you up on that if I need the help.

Andrew - welcome & bitch & moan as much as you like! I'm not shy about doing it, myself!

Hey philbymon I've got some fishing advice for you. Log on to the Mepps.com website and order their book The Master Angler. It's the best fishing book I ever read. The bottom line on fishing success is you have to use a lure the fish can SEE. That book explains color theory for lure fishing and IT WORKS. I tried fly fishing years ago and I didn't have the patience for it either. My philosophy on fishing (and I always catch fish) is simple. I use high quality lures the fish can see the easiest. I use the lightest line I can get away with (almost always 2-4 lb test Stren high visible gold line) and I reel in slow and steady, just keeping my lure off the bottom if possible. I NEVER use bait of any kind. If I'm jig fishing sometimes I use a slip bobber. My number one lure of choice is a Mepps spinner. Second choice is a genuine Eppinger Dardevle. Third choice is various jigs (Crappie Sliders, Roadrunners,various plastic bodied and hair bodied jigs). The fish seem to prefer bright colors (fluorescent chartreuse, orange, hot pink) and black is a VERY GOOD lure color for almost any light and water color. Anyway good luck with fishing and hope you get into a steady band with NO DRUNKS OR POT-HEADS. Later...

Hey FB,

A question for ya..WHY will crappie ONLY hit a gold blade Mepps.(I use #1).Ive fished side by side with people using both and the silver never gets hit??..
Always been a mystery???..Actually the trout here in WV are the same way.They're they will hit the silver BUT rarely...Now they like that black yellow poka dotted one too..

John

Just got in. It's 11, & I'm done in. The jazzy guy is still too jazzy, but his buddy is pretty good. Good singer, too. The drummer was pleased I set it up with him.

Took my son. Even he said the one guy is "too twiddly" on his axe. Damned shame, that. I was hoping he'd settled down to some tastier licks...eh...maybe he will as time goes by. I'm not gonna get too involved with anything yet, until I see what's what with all these things that are popping up around me. The band in Winchester looks like they could be good, but they're like an hour away - so they'll HAFTA be good to make my drive worthwhile.

Found out my drummer friend has a pond with some huge bass in it. Very deep pond, too - like 25 feet in places. I'll go over on Sun & try my hand at some bigger fish than I've been catching. He's a vegetarian & doesn't like bass anyway, so he said he'd be happy if I fished it out...LOL...like that'll happen!

Bob, my biggest problem with fishing has always been trying to get 'em in too fast, I think. I pull 'em in close & they break the line. I mean, I hear about how you hafta "play the fish" until they tire out, but how long should that take? Am I just an idjit that don't get it? When I'm playing them, they're slipping the hook, more often than not. That's happened nearly every time I've hooked one of the larger fish - either they slip the hook or they break the line. And then you pro guys talk about how you use the lightest test line possible, & it makes no sense to me. I think I need 25 lb test line to catch a 2 lb fish!

Guess I really need that book, eh?

Thanks for the useful tips, Bob. I'll order that book this weekend & study like hell until I can say I can do something...LOL

In the interim, I'll see what I can do on Sunday at that pond...he says it's like shooting fish in a barrel, so I should be able to HOOK 'em, anyway. I got a lil net to use, but never had reason to use it yet. Maybe that'll help. There's a lil john boat there, too, so I don't even need the canoe.

It'll be nice to be able to relax a bit this weekend, though. I've been pushing it kinda hard lately in this heat. After I do some minor work in the early morn, I'll be free until Monday - YAY!

Of course there's that damned "honey-do" list, that's gotten pretty long, so I can't honestly say I'll be off, can I?

Damn I like fishing!

Philby,

Man , I wanna see and HEAR what "twiddly" looks and sounds like..Thats a new one ...With that farm pond news , Id forget about music for a while (what am I sayin?) and take ya a barometer to that pond EVERYDAY and fish fish fish fish fish, and keep a log what thier bitin on and whether barometer is on the rise or fall...Getcha a chaurtreus bomber, a orange rapala, purple worm with pink tail, and green orange bellied rattle trap and YOUR SET..Does this guy allow campin on his property?... Use 8lb line..Dont horse em in ,especially over 3 lbs

John

Hey John there might be a number of reasons why the crappie will only hit the gold Mepps and not the silver. The water color you're fishing in is probably turbid (brown tinted) as opposed to green tinted (lots of algae and/or plants). If the water is very clear silver won't work very well either. A gold blade in turbid water is the most visible metallic color. Mepps uses actual gold plating which is the most reflective. Sometimes if it's really bright sunshine outside the increased refletion will actually momentarily blind a fish. Have you ever seen a fish swim up to hit a lure but veer off at the last second? At that point you need to tone down the lure color. The Mepps black furies come in real handy. If you can find the black furies with the bright green dots they should work really good along with the gold Mepps. If you're fishing in green-tinted water switch to silver or Mepps black furies with orange dots. I've had equal luck wih black furies with yellow dots in turbid or green water. Another factor that may tip the odds in your favor is using Mepps with the dressed treble (squirrel tails). They give a bigger profile and have added color. Crappie are also "up" feeders. They usually strike lures that are slightly above them. If they're looking up against the sky in turbid water they literally may not see the silver spinner. Again the black furies give a very visible profile against the sky. Don't be surprised when fishing with black furies to occasionally catch a BIG bass or even a BIG channel catfish. I used to do a lot of trout fishing. Without question the best color Mepps are red-and-white and anything with fluorescent orange or chartreuse. For some reason I never had much luck with dressed trebles on trout. No matter what you're fishing for use the lightest high quality line possible. The recent trend is to go with low visibilty line but I always have had the best luck with high visibility gold Stren. It's especially good for crappie as you can see almost every hit. Hope this helps...

Hey philby, the quality of the line might be a reason you're losing fish. Also if you're not tying a good knot it might be reducing the strength of the line considerably. I've use the improved clinch knot for many years and then tie an extra couple of knots on top of that. I've used all different brands of line. Some people think Trilene is the best, others like P line, others Stren, etc. I keep going back to Stren. I personally like the high visible gold but the Stren Magnathin is pretty tough to beat. If your line is good and your knots are good and the fish are still getting off you may have other problems. How is the drag set on your reel? Set it just loose enough that when you pull the line with your hand it won't break. When you're fighting the fish, you fight the fish with the rod, NOT the reel. Hold your rod up high so that when the fish fights the bend of the rod is putting pressure on the fish. This will tire the fish out quicker. Horsing the fish with the reel is not what you want to do. USe that rod to tire the fish. I personally like Pflueger rods. They're not too expensive and cast really nice. I've got Pflueger reels, Shimano, Quantum, etc. I don't think the reel is as important as the rod personally. The quality of the hooks you're using might also be a factor in losing fish. High quality lures have very good hooks. If you're bait fishing make sure you use Eagle Claw or some other good name. Anyway good luck...

Thanks, Bob! Yeah, I have a tendency to use the reel too much, from what you just said. I don't think the drag's working right on a couple of my cheapo rod-&-reel sets. I did get two open reels. One of them is huge, like it's for fishing in the bay or something. The other one is regular sized, though. The big one has this real thick line on it, so I'm assuming that it's high-test stuff. The other one has thinner line. I still don't get why it's better to go thin, though.

I'm gonna try my hand at getting some long skinny toothy fish that swims around where the creek meets the river - some ppl call 'em pike & others call 'em muskies. I dunno what they are, but I figger I'll hafta get some of those wire leaders, from what ppl tell me. Is that right? The water's getting pretty warm around here, too. Is that a problem when you're trying to catch stuff?

Knots were never my best subject, but I think I'm getting a bead on them lately. I can tell that they aren't pulling loose cuz when I break my line on trees & rocks & stuff there isn't any of that squiggly stuff on the end of the broken line like there would be if it came untied. Heck, I'm just using whatever line they sell on the reels. Guess I'm gonna hafta figger out how to restring the reel now, too, huh? Never did that before...when it runs out I used to just go buy a new one. Of course I only ever used the cheapo Zebco stuff until recently. My big open reel set is a Berkeley Fusion & the other one is a Shakespear Mantis, so you can prolly tell that I'm not spending big bucks on it all as of yet.n But I'm learning.

Hey, I pulled up a 8 inch snapping turtle the other day when I was wading. Didn't know that was possible!

I think I'm fishing in all the wrong places. I get hit after hit from all these teensy little bass & sunnies, & I think the water may be too shallow for the bigguns. I come to you, Bob, for all my fishing info these days...LOL...well...there's the old timers at the bar that I talk to once in awhile, too. It's funny, though. They don't give me half the info that you do. I don't really know if they ever fished that much, or if they're just keeping it all from me...LOL

Using light line has advantages and disadvantages of course. If you hook a really large fish (10 lb plus) on 2lb test you're going to have less chance to land it obviously. Also if you get snags you're going to lose a lot more lures. You can't really use light line if you're fishing around heavy cover. However for me the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I hook way more fish, therefore the odds favor me landing way more fish. I can cast smaller lures much farther on light line, therefore I can cover more water and reach more fish. The premium lines that are 2 or 4lb test WILL land fish much heavier than 2-4lbs IF you have your drag set properly AND you fight the fish with the rod. A couple of years ago I landed a 10lb + wiper (hybrid striper) on 2lb test. I fought it for about a half hour and gradually tired it out. I've also landed a walleye about 6 lbs and several catfish and carp over 10lbs. The long toothy fish you're talking about are not likely going to require steel leaders unless they're well over ten lbs. I've caught numerous pickerel and walleye with some nasty teeth and I can't remember any of them breaking my line. Freshwater fish in North America don't have razor sharp teeth like sharks or pirahna. Unless you're fishing for huge pike or muskies you don't have to worry about steel leaders. As far as rod and reels I've always preferred Pflueger. Cabela's or Bass Pro sells them for a reasonable price. I would get an ultra light or medium-ultra light combo outfit rated for 2-6lb line. Fill the reel with Stren gold or if you heed the advice of most pro fisherman get a low visible line. There's a lot of pros using Trilene and P-line is getting popular. I still prefer Stren. I can't vouch for the water you're fishing. If you're catching a bunch of small, stunted sunfish and bass you may need to explore some new bodies of water. Kansas has a fantastic website that describes numerous lakes and reservoirs all over the state. They divide Kansas into five regions and most of the larger state maintained lakes have fishing reports on all the species and current fishing conditions at each lake. Before I go fishing I check to see which lake is rated good to excellent for the particular fish I'm after. I'm sure your state has a similar website. You can learn a lot of valuable information from the fisheries and wildlife websites. And of course there's bunches of other websites that'll help as well. Oh by the way we did our gig today. Not too many people showed up, way too hot. The few that were there thought we never sounded so good. I guess we're aging like fine wine. Our new guitar player is quite excellent, really is very creative, especially with different tones and textures, plays really tastey. Hopefully he'll stick around with us for a while. Anyway good luck fishing. The more you fish the better you'll get, kind of like being a musician I guess. later...