http://goldendrake.com Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:36:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I had one of the best charters in a long time last night, a really nice father who wanted both of his really nice kids to catch some fish. You never know when kids are involved. I've had some who were a pleasure to have on board, and ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/07/17/up-to-their-armpits-in-bass/ It was a tough decision, and not a tough decision. After 50 years on Big Portage Lake in Washtenaw / Livingston county, I've decided to sell the lakefront home that has been in my family for over 70 years and leave the lake. When I was a kid, I spent ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/07/12/leaving-the-lake/ We did it!  Our automated testing device raised and lowered the Stinger Silent Precison Anchor 40,800 times.  We broke some stuff, fixed it, and that was the goal.  Pulleys failed after about 6,000 cycles, and were replaced them with ones of much better quality, and they passed testing.  The sliding ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/06/24/40800/ "Let's go fishing", a friend of mine said over the phone.  Instinctively, I looked out the window from my store at the lake: northwest wind at 20-30mph, clear skies, and a cold front had moved in dropping the temperature almost 25 degrees.  That ought to cause the fish to burry their heads ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/06/17/northwest-test/ "Alright, it' s six o'clock, time for a beer", my buddy said.  We'd been out on the water since four, caught a few largemouth and some really nice bluegills.  My friend let Drake lick them all after my stern caution about bad karma if we bypassed him.  Thus good fishing ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/06/12/pigs-and-bulls/ "No way", I said.  "Here we go with another first cast story".  But it was true.  My first cast with a new lure, a locally hand poured 4" purple plastic worm produced a wonderful 4+ pound largemouth.  The young man stopped by several times to introduce himself and his new ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/05/31/new-things/ Buy a Stinger Anchor! http://goldendrake.com/2008/05/14/test/ Why guide?  Why decide to take people fishing for money?  Well, it's simple.  To meet up with folks at the river, greet them, idly chit chat as you walk to the river, rig up, tell them where to cast, how to fish the lure just right....and not catch any fish and ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/05/10/why-guide-2/ http://goldendrake.com/2008/05/10/why-guide/ Yea!!!!  We started automated accelerated life testing on our Stinger anchor system.  We are raising and lowering the Stinger 39,000 times which corresponds to raising and lowering the anchor system 50 times per outing, 3 outings per week, 52 weeks per year, for 5 years.  We're going to inspect it for wear ... http://goldendrake.com/2008/05/03/stinger-anchor-testing/