Hey, gang. My registration here is squared away now, so I look forward to being an (at least occasionally) active participant rather than merely a lurker! Thought I'd tell folks a little bit about who I am to get started...

I was fish and fishing crazy when I was young, but then marriage, career and just life in general got in the way. I'm sure many of you know how it goes! I was shocked to realize when I retired a few years ago that I haven't gone fishing more than a small handful of times in the past 30 or so years! But now this spring I'm finally getting back to it, big time.

Indeed, I'm presently waiting on the build and delivery of my 1st ever boat, a 2020 Ranger 620FS Cup! Wasn't all that long ago I thought I'd never own a boat at all, let alone one so nice, but fortune has smiled on me in recent years. The icing on the cake is that I'm buying the boat through Cabela's and using my Cabela's CLUB Signature (black) credit card to do so - so I'm getting 5% of the entire purchase back in points I can use to buy things there or at Bass Pro Shops! Paid for about 2/3 of the boat so far (I'll pay the last 1/3 after the boat is ready and I've had a chance to look it over), so while we're all under the equivalent of house arrest I've been spending the points I've accumulated so far online like a drunken fisherman, buying stuff for the boat, new fishing rigs, tackle, etc., getting myself all geared up so when the boat arrives and we're all once again free to pursue outdoor interests I'll be ready to hit the water at full speed.

I mentioned that I was essentially away from fishing for all of that time, but I was never really away from fish. I spent my career as a wildlife biologist, and though I worked mostly on mammals I managed to sneak a fish study in here and there. I used to (and do again) keep aquariums, too. And a few years ago my wife and I bought our current place in upstate NY, just south of the Adirondacks, hopefully to finally(!) be our forever home. (We've been real rolling stones for most of our lives. She's a wildlife biologist, too, still working.) Why do I bring up our place? Because it has a couple of PONDS, one of which was dug by the fellow who built our house (the other is natural). The house isn't anything special, but that pond is 2 1/4 acres in size and 20 feet deep with amazingly clear water for our area (8-10 ft visibility) and a bedrock bottom! (Neighbors tell us he was blasting night and day with dynamite for an annoyingly long time while he was prepping the house's foundation and creating the pond.) He'd already stocked it with largemouth bass and bluegill - OK, fine - but one of the 1st things I did after we moved in was to get a stocking permit and then put in a couple more species, including one of my all-time favorites: black crappie! That was a few years ago, now; last spring was the first time the crappies spawned.

Anyway, I'm having the time of my life, and I look forward to teaching others here what little I know, to learning from others here about the great many things I DON'T know, and most of all to just sharing the joy with all of you! :^]

Gerry