NASCAR Starts With The Bud Shoot Out

The Bud Shootout is a preliminary race to let 25 of the car drivers get a feel of the track. Guess who won the race. Yes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. goes to the Hendricks Team and wins the first time he drives for Hendricks. This may not be an official Sprint Cup Race(It's going to take a while too get used to that name.) but it does show how Jr. is doing with Hendricks. I'm sure my oldest grandson is real happy today. Jr. hadn't won for two years. It won't take him very long for a Cup win this year. There were 3 Hendricks cars in the first 4 places.

Tony Stewart switches from Chevy to Toyota and comes in second in the race. It looked like he had a chance to win.

Blizzard Conditions Return After Warm Spell

The wind is howling outside. We have snow and blizzard conditions. The rains and clouds of the past week have passed and we have sun and wind. We went through a period of two weeks without sun. Now we have the sun but it is cold and getting colder. It is supposed to stay in the teens until Tuesday. What crazy weather in North East Ohio. You can see what the back yard looks like today.

Here is my truck today. This is a picture of the truck on Wednesday.

Two Fishing Questions.

There are two questions always asked about fishing and fishermen.


1: Is fishing luck or skill?

I feel that 80% of catching fish has to do with the skill of the fisherman and presentation of the bait. Do you have the best bait where it belongs to catch fish? Have you presented the bait correctly to excite a bite? How much skill did you use in placing the bait in the correct place in the water strata. That includes both depth and distance from fish attractants such as weeds, brush and underwater contour.

I also feel the 20% has to do with luck. If you go fishing on a lake you know then fishing is a matter of timing. If you are in the right place at the right time you can just be there for a bite by accident. This is where the luck is involved. I can't even tell you the amount of times I've come back into the dock to people who haven't caught fish and I had caught my share of fish on that day.

How do you learn where to fish so that you have the best opportunity to catch fish?
A: You can learn from an experienced fisherman and from books.
B: You can spend a lot of time on the water to increase your odds.
C: you can experiment with different baits and presentations to increase your odds.

2: Why do some fisherman always catch more fish?

I would think you can also answer this question with the 80/20 rule. The 80/20 rule works a little differently here. The reason it's different is 80% of the fish are caught by 20% of the fishermen. That leaves 20% of the fish to be caught by the other 80% of the fishermen. The 20% of the fishermen who are the skilled fishermen and have learned what the fish want to entice them to bite are the ones who catch fish.

There have been days when I knew from my fish finder that the fish where out deep and beyond the cast of the shore fishermen. There were other times that I could see a pocket in the weeds and if I drifted the bait into the pocket I would get a bite. I had an advantage of knowledge and boat position.

What Is It II Answer.

The What Is It II is a knot on the deck upright. You can see it on the forth upright from the left. Carletta had a good guess.

Some Buckeyes From the Ground.

I was noticing that there were still a few buckeyes on the ground near the tree. The snow completely melted with the rain and heat. The tree had an abundance of buckeye's this year and the squirrels didn't get these few. The small one was still in the shell which I split open for the photo. I put them on a window ledge for the photo.

What Is It II.

I'm still working with my new camera. Can you tell what this is?