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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. I know the feeling. My little honey hole on Onion Creek is low, low, low. What's usually a dammed up section of the creek that's 15' deep and about 1000 yds long is now a small pond that's maybe 4' deep at most and 200 yds long. Lots and lots of bass, catfish, bluegills and a few crappie are consolidated to that tiny little area. I really want to check it out, but I'm scared to see what I'll find which is why I've stayed away. We need rain in a bad way, and even with some rain, it may be years before that little fishery recovers.
  2. My guess on the life jackets is they know they're fucked and getting a full body cavity search by the coast guard, police or whoever has jurisdiction there. "Boys, I know the law says we just gotta have life jackets for enough souls onboard, but put those fuckers on. I'm in enough shit as is. Jim, you hold the whistle. Bill, you grab the horn. Frank, here's the flares. Hank, you dump all the beer and whiskey overboard. I'll hide the coke in the head. Craig, you know what to do. The usual. Dump the five dead hookers overboard."
  3. This brings back a horrible memory from last fall. We were doing our annual 3-day Devil's trip. I had kayak fished the previous weekend back home and still had my favorite frog top water tied to my 6' kayak rod. When we were putting in at the SNA, I noticed a little snag on my braid just above the leader. I was hungover and lazy and figured I wouldn't see anything but little smallies on that section above Dolan, so I didn't bother to cut back my braid or re-rig my leader / lure. There's a little pond just south of the SNA that I always thought would hold decent fish. I threw that frog topwater back into the corner amongst some lily pads and WHACK, it got slammed. I had a decent 3-4 lb largemouth on. She jumped out of the water and shook, then turned and ran left and SNAP. My braid broke. Lost what would've easily been my biggest largemouth on the Devils PLUS my favorite topwater lure. Since then, I check my braid before every trip.
  4. Palomar and FG are my go-to knots. I've always heard the saying though, "better to tie a decent knot great than to tie a great knot decently." Practice in the garage until it becomes second nature so you can do it on a rocking boat or in bad light.
  5. I endured their ineptitude for 9+ years at my previous house. Every summer, you could bank on going at least one day without water. We were down three days once with similar bullshit excuses. "Backup pump hasn't been maintenanced properly, so it went out" and "The part that went out never goes out, so we don't keep it in stock" were actual statements that I heard. When pressed about a discount for service interruption, they pretty much laughed because they knew they had us by the balls. That company is a clusterfuck of epic proportions.
  6. Thanks for the info! I like the way you have it set up. I appreciate your strategy about the timing and the food plot, and it makes sense that open protein feeding is not only expensive but also creates nocturnal behaviors. What type of protein are you feeding? Are you buying bags or in bulk? Feeding year-round protein or only during spring / summer? Our property is similar in size to yours and we're low fenced as well with larger properties surrounding us. The smallest adjacent property is 600 acres, and we don't think they get much hunting pressure. So, we're excited to see what we can develop in the coming years. Right now, we're seeing some decent whitetail and axis on the game cameras. We just bought the property earlier this year. This spring and summer, we cleared a ton of cedar ourselves and brought in a hydro-mulcher for a full day as well. We weren't overly thick as the property was grazing land primarily over the last several decades. There's a nice wet weather creek at the back of the property that seems to be the main traffic area for movement. The property is almost perfectly square, so it feels much larger than it is. We set up three spinning feeders and we're feeding 50/50 corn/protein twice per day at 2 second intervals. We don't have any tanks on the property, but we're putting in two cisterns in the coming weeks. Setting up float valves and hoping to keep the hogs from tearing those up. The goal is to draw more wildlife in from adjacent properties and keep them there. Right now, I think we're getting mostly deer passing through. We do have an old pasture (approx 2 acres) that was fenced and we're assuming was a small food plot at one time. The fence was in such disrepair that we took it down completely. I haven't pulled the trigger on a tractor yet, but hoping to do a food plot out there in the next few years. We've already spent way more than we wanted on fence, a new road and getting the cabin set up, so any additional improvements are probably going to take a few years for funds to recover, but I'm excited to start playing with the protein to see what we can develop.
  7. I can't thank you enough for this post. We just bought our place in Kimble Co earlier this year. Put out standard feeders this spring, but considering switching to straight protein next year. The food plot idea is most intriguing. I'll PM for more details if you don't mind.
  8. Soil Water Seeds In my opinion, that is the order of importance. Buy good soil. Water frequently. Buy good seeds (or seedlings). It's not rocket science, but it takes consistency. You need to be out there every other day at a minimum, making adjustments along the way.
  9. This was the first year I did them, and I learned a bunch. I waited too long to harvest them and didn't understand how deep they grow. I harvested at about 125 days instead of 75 and ended up with a bunch of huge, rock hard taters. Those were the keepers. Next year, I'll harvest at 75 days and we'll get a much better yield.
  10. Good call on breaking it up with different varieties. We did three different ones this year. Two types of sour and one type of sweet.
  11. Pound for pound, Jacks are the best fighting fish, IMO. So much fun to catch.
  12. After recently reading the article in Texas Monthly about Jeff Henry, this drawing looks to be about as sophisticated as their water slide plans.
  13. Got off the water a few hours ago in Key Largo. Great guide. Very knowledgeable. We caught a ton of fish, but they were all small. Hot, still and humid today. Nothing to site cast in the flats. Water temp was 90+. Green algae bloom had the water screwed up a bit, too. Caught a ton of rat reds and mangrove snapper along the back bay islands. Mixed in a few trout, and a couple of solid jack crevalle in some of the draws closer to the Everglades. One small snook too early in the morning. HUGE bull shark almost took a snapper just as my wife brought it to the boat. Guide estimated it to be 8 ft and I think it was every bit that big. No bonefish or permit to be had. Threw at a few small tarpon, but couldn't raise a bite. Great trip with a great guide. Would do it again.
  14. A buddy of mine owns a painting company. He has a group of Hondurans that are damn good painters. Basically, his whole crew is a bunch of brothers and cousins. They were repainting the exterior of a house in Pemberton Heights. Nice house. Big house. Lots of wood siding with tons of sanding. Homeowners are gone to work and his guys are working away outside. I guess one of them had to shit and couldn't hold it, so he bowed up in the corner of the backyard, then went back to work. The family dog proceeds to come out through the dog door while half the guys are in the front and the other half are up on ladders. The dog is nosing around in the backyard, then decides to take a nice roll in some fresh Honduran man-shit. The lead guy is up on a ladder and sees the events unfolding. He hurries down just as the dog re-enter the house through the dog door. Too late. Doors are locked. Dog door is too small to squeeze through. They watch through the window as the dog decides to continue his rolling escapade on the rug. And the furniture. And rub against the curtains. Shit everywhere. They call my buddy, he thinks it's a joke and soon realizes they aren't fucking around. There's a dog going hog-wild in the house rubbing human feces all over the furniture. He had no other choice than to bite the bullet and call the homeowner, have the entire house steam cleaned and knock half off the paint job and beg them not to trash him on social media. As a contractor, that's why I include "sanitation services" as a line item for every single project that lasts longer than a day. $120 for a month's rental on a shitter is good insurance for not cleaning party mud off of Suzie Q Homeowner's sofa.
  15. Crazy how my garden has continued to produce since I installed the shade covers. I'm still getting tomatoes daily. Just harvested all of my sweet potatoes. Eggplant, melons, bell pepper still producing pretty regularly, and okra is going crazy. I planted spaghetti squash and pumpkins two weeks ago, and they're starting to take off. Irrigation + shade cover have literally given me year-round gardening in Central Texas. This was one harvest last Friday.
  16. Great point! I know that's a whole different level of hunting. And one I really want to try... eventually. Same with fly fishing. But, I have too damn many hobbies and not enough time at this point to try either of them. I know I'd be hooked on both. All in due time, I suppose.
  17. THIS. I started hunting when I was about 8. Single shot .410 and a lever action .22 (same ones my boy shoots now). Had to learn to be patient and selective when shooting dove and quail with my dad. You can't throw the Hail Mary shot because you only get one chance. And i had to learn to aim small at squirrels and rabbits. Once I got to about 10, I'd deer hunt from the stand with my dad, go back and eat breakfast, then walk around the ranch for a few hours with my .22. So much fun to bring back dinner. My dad would make me clean them and he'd cook them. He wasn't fond of eating squirrels and rabbits, but he'd humor me and it taught me to respect what you kill. I'm not a marksman by any stretch of the imagination and I don't practice nearly enough, but I still prefer to shoot an over/under. My buddies will go through 3-4 boxes to get a limit of birds, but I can usually do it in less than a box. It's not that I'm all that good of a shot, I just don't spray lead unless I know I have a good shot at knocking the bird down. My son's learning the same principles with the .410 now and he's starting to get the concept of swinging through the bird, adjusting for distance and speed, etc. It was so nice to seem him comfortable behind his new 243 last winter when he took his first doe. He was calm, patient and waited for the right shot. We had talked so much beforehand that I didn't even have to reinforce it when he had the crosshairs on her. His shot was a bit far for him to be comfortable for a head / neck shot so he took aim behind the shoulder. He waited for the other smaller does and yearlings to clear before firing. I was watching through the binoculars and saw it hit and saw her run, but I couldn't tell exactly where he hit her. I was afraid I was going to have to track her forever, but he reassured me that it was a clean lung / heart shot. He was right. 30 yds from the sendero, she folded up. I attribute that not to time on the range but time shooting free-hand through iron sites on a 22. It's so easy to throw a scope on a 22 or buy a kid a semi-auto, but there's something to be said for forcing them to learn to take the right shot.
  18. I ran through a very strange change in Texas climate last week. Hot and humid in Austin Monday. Rockport Tuesday where we got hammered by a big thunderstorm that evening. Cool air that night. Not a breath of wind on Copano Bay Wednesday AM. Literally glass across the entire bay. Got hot in a hurry. Drove home that evening and awoke to 59 at my house in The Drip Thursday morning. I woke up and was out the door at 4:30 that morning, and thought I had slept through August and September. It was glorious. Drove to Junction Friday to check on some stuff at the ranch. Drier than a popcorn fart out there. Dust everywhere and all the vegetation is burnt to a crisp. Then, went to Houston and saw scattered thunderstorms and 1000% humidity Saturday. Went for a four mile run at 2 PM and looked like I just swam across a lake. But, dammit, that rain sure did have everything looking nice and green. It's amazing what 150 miles in any direction from Austin can do to the weather and landscape.
  19. That's a great list above. If he hasn't shot much before, bring him a BB gun too. My son had a blast shooting small targets while we waited for the birds. Bring snacks too. Also, don't underestimate the need for ear protection. Makes a huge difference if he is new to it or sensitive to loud noises.
  20. Headed to the Florida Keys later this week with my wife. Chasing bonefish and snook Friday. Snorkeling and diving for lobster Sunday. It's a chill / beach trip so didn't want to push the fishing envelope too much. Regardless... can't f'n wait.
  21. I second San Antonio over Austin. That time of year, I'd recommend Lost Maples, Enchanted Rock and Government Canyon.
  22. I remember it being pretty good. Nothing I'd go out of my way to eat again, but if in Mobile again, I'd order it. Kind of like "catan" or alligator gar in Laredo. Not bad, but wouldn't make a point to seek it out again. Kind of a "when in Rome" order for me on both of those fronts.
  23. The folks from Mobile to Pensacola would rather eat mullet than trout or redfish. I guess it has a lot to depend on what the mullet are eating.
  24. My company has 58 employees (including myself). We're in construction, but we pay very well when compared to our peers. We offer health/dental/life insurance, PTO, and a 401(k) with a 4% company match. Most of which is not common in our industry, especially for a company of our size. And I have a whopping five employees who take advantage (again, including myself) of 401(k). Less than 10%. Two hourly field employees, two office employees and me. 53 employees are essentially giving up free money. And we did a big company-wide retirement workshop with our 401(k) provider when we rolled this out in early 2017 and include several pages underscoring the need to save in our new-hire packet. The majority of people don't think about retirement. They are truly living paycheck to paycheck. And no amount of help can force them to change their habits.
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