# Anybody Got Any Tomato Juice?



## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

The smell of SKUNK just _*will not*_ wash off!

Sunday afternoon, my swimming pool exploded, dumping 23000 gallons of water into my yard. This after 3 solid weeks of rain is EXACTLY what I needed, more water on the lawn.  
Mon. I spent 4 hours mowing the jungle that was my yard and cleaning up the mess the pool explosion had made. Pool is a goner, hoping the metal is worth enough to pay for the gas to get it to the recycler. :evil: 
Tuesday morning, I get an email from Salt Lake County telling me that I don't meet the minimum requirements for a job I applied for. A job I had already interviewed TWICE for, and was qualified _then_. :? A job I had been doing 90% of for over 10 years? :?

_*Screw it I am getting out of town.*_

Wed. morning, we left for a camping/fishing trip with Rockport as our destination.
After arriving and setting up camp, we pumped up the float tubes and headed out into the nice warm water (69 degrees) for a session of casting.
Just about the time I got to water deep enough to kick, I realized that my car keys were not where they should be, and ransacked my memory for the last place I had seen them. :? 
YEP, the ignition when I rolled the windows up most of the way before heading out fishing. 

So, I headed back in, went up to the truck and sure enough, not only were they hanging in the ignition, but the key was still turned over to accessory, so I wasn't even going to be able to pull them out if I could find a wire or something long enough to hook them. :evil:

I thought and planned for about ten minutes, and finally came up with a plan that worked. Thank god I have power locks AND had left the windows down a couple of inches. Without them I would have had to pay a locksmith or break a window. I *am*, however, not nearly so confident in the security of my truck as I was prior. :roll:

ANYWAY, headed back down and out into the lake where my wife and kid had been fishing for nearly 30 mins by now. They hadn't caught anything, so I decided to kick down the shore to a rocky point that I could see about 300 yards up. WHEW am I old and fat. _(O)_ 
On the way, I tried every kind of spoon in my box, every kind of spinner in my box, most of the Rapala's and similar types including rattling raps and such. Not even a touch. :? 
Another lovely discovery on the way, is that my NEWLY REPAIRED float tube bladder was leaking again. So I am stopping every fifty yards or so and unscrewing the fitting and blowing it back up, while still out in the lake. :shock: I JUST fixed that and left it OVER filled for a full week with no losses, WITH a weight on it to encourage losses if there were pinholes I had missed. :roll:

Got within about 50 yards of my destination and looked back and saw my wife packing her tube up the hill towards the tent. :?: 
The kid was several hundred yards off shore and several hundred yards south of ME, and she leaves him alone? He is _ten_. Not cool. :evil:

So I head back towards the kid and keep trying different colors and sizes of the various lures in my possession. Nothing. period.  
On top? nope. 
On bottom? nope. 
Random depths in between? nope.
My fishing buddy is telling me there is NOTHING below me, bottom up to 40 feet deep and no fish. Sidefinder signal is beeping every so often, but nothing will hit when I cast that way. :|

By the time I get back to my son, I am wiped and starving and fishless, so we decided to go eat lunch.

Arriving back at camp, I discover that my air mattress, which is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to my well being when tent camping for the last 8-10 years, has ALSO gone flat. :evil:

After much soaping and searching I manage to find ONE hole in it, which I then find I have forgotten my patch kit to fix.  
SO I jump in the truck and cruise down to the store at the freeway junction and buy one.
I get back fix the hole, and finally eat lunch.
Afterwards we decide to WALK down the shore to the rocky point I was trying for earlier, and go fishing some more. 
TWO hours later, my wife claims to have missed three, my son and I are both NIL, and I am getting too tired to cling to the side of a sandstone cliff and fish anymore, so we head back to camp.
Air mattress is flat again.  
I check and sure enough, the tire patch kit is NOT sticking to that green plastic coleman uses to make it's air mattresses. sigh.
So I dig through my tool box and manage to find a can of rubber cement that goes with my tire plug kit. I use it, it sticks, I blow up the mattress AGAIN, the patch is holding, no bubbles. 
Two hours or so later, I am going to bed, the air mattress if flat AGAIN!
I give up. 
I woke up in horrible pain at least 10 times before 5 am, when I quit trying and went fishing.
three hours later, my wife gets up and walks down to the beach where I am STILL not catching fish.
Bait? nope
Lures? nope
Jigs? nope
Loud and complex swearing? nope.
I DID manage to get one fish to hit. He felt just exactly like I had hooked the side of a rock. The lure just stopped dead. I put tension on to see if it would just come free, and the line started out into the lake. YAY! I set the hook, not having done that prior, and he jumped out of the water and threw my spoon at me. Glad my reflexes aren't as old and fat as the rest of me. :shock: That thing missed my eye so close I felt it brush the lashes. -)O(-

I figured I had it licked now, I knew what was going to work. My 1.5" silver spoon with a little hot pink flapper on the split ring for the treble. :mrgreen: 
I examined my line to make sure there weren't any abrasions and in the process noticed the fish had managed to break the pink flapper off the treble. hmmmm
Never had another hit on that lure for the next thirty minutes and 50 yards of shoreline. :roll:

Went and ate breakfast.
After breakfast, wife and kid went back to the rocky point and I started breaking down camp. As I was in NO mood to pay another useage fee to stay there any longer.
Just about the time I had everything broken down and loaded up, my wife finally comes back. WITH TWO BASS!
sigh
To add injury to insult, I aparently bought crap sunscreen with the result that I am FRIED. 

SO, do the rest of you feel better about how YOUR day/week is going? :twisted:


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## Treehugnhuntr (Sep 7, 2007)

Just pee on it and walk away.


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## lunkerhunter2 (Nov 3, 2007)

Not really, i would have gladly traded your trip for my week lying in bed with WNV. I was in Emergency Care yesterday with IV fluids and several different shots. Stupid **** mosquitos! I still can barely walk around. -)O(-


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

WOW, LH2, now _I_ feel better about _my_ week. :shock: 
Sorry to hear that, I have been bitten by so many stinking mosquitoes this year already that I can't imagine how I am not right there with you. GOOD LUCK!

Tree
I hoped that by venting it like this, I will be able to walk away, so consider it peed on. :mrgreen:


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## NHS (Sep 7, 2007)

Well.....at least you still have your health.


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## tuffluckdriller (May 27, 2009)

Sounds about like my business right now... fortunately fishing has been good.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Boy that sounds like one of my weeks/months/trips.... Sorry to hear about the luck both fishing and with the inflatables eventually things have to turn around!


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

That was THE LONGEST report with no success, I have ever read. Sorry about that. Catching has been good for me... the drives have been LONG though.

LH2- That suck!! Get better.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

double


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

The sad thing is that was the SHORT version of the story. :shock:

I could have put at least twice that many details in, 90% of which were more bad things, but managed to control myself. *Just barely*. :wink:


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## flydaddy834 (Sep 11, 2007)

really good report though. sorry for the pain i hate days like that.


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## neverdrawn (Jan 3, 2009)

On a more positive note, it sounds like it can only get better from here. I hope karma shines on you and your next trip is fantastic.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Is Karma related to Murphy? Because Murphy is my god, and I can only hope that maybe Karma is his wife and will make him lay off me for awhile. _(O)_ 
I wouldn't even be upset about the not catching any fish thing is it weren't for all the rest, I have caught LOTS of fish already this year, but that combined with all the other negs, just crushed me.  

This is what I would like to get from Karma sometime SOON, at least partially and first being MOST important. 
A new job or other ADEQUATE source of income. (I don't want to lose my house, my truck, my dogs, and all the crap I have stored here that I have gotten used to having. -)O(- )
A new wife or other source for sex. (The one I have is so limited as to be practically nonexistant, never mind the NON sexual issues. :roll
A new attitude cause the one I have is getting a little old, but FITS my life so well, it is hard to change. :evil: 
A new motivation to work this GUT off me. :mrgreen: 
A new ability to hit birds, as that went away sometime the last few years.  
Did I mention the new wife thing? I will be perfectly happy to lose the wife entirely and switch over to a girlfriend. Say Cindy Garrison? :mrgreen: (as long as I am fantisizing I might as well go big! :mrgreen: :wink: :twisted: )
A new ability to draw a tag that I want at least once every few years. (Going on ten years since I drew a swan tag for example)

Any combination of the above would be fine, as long as the INCOME thing got handled first, even if it is the ONLY thing off that list I actually get.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Artoxx said:


> Is Karma related to Murphy? Because Murphy is my god, and I can only hope that maybe Karma is his wife and will make him lay off me for awhile. _(O)_
> I wouldn't even be upset about the not catching any fish thing is it weren't for all the rest, I have caught LOTS of fish already this year, but that combined with all the other negs, just crushed me.
> 
> This is what I would like to get from Karma sometime SOON, at least partially and first being MOST important.
> ...


I just don't know what else to say Artoxx.... :shock:






btw...in these scene's....I'm Archie...


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

Well all's I can say is the 'fate fairy' has another acquaintance besides us...are we neighbors or related some how 8) . Ohhhhh and how we can relate especially this season with the various 'issues' that have found us...at least we're not alone. Now on the positive side of things it wasn't a total fish'n bust as the wife came through with some >>O -O<-... :mrgreen: :mrgreen:


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Thanks .45 I needed that, I had forgotten most of those, but I have re-enacted the russian roulette scene on any number of occasions. :mrgreen: :roll: :wink:

K2, I feel for you, I have seen a lot of your posts with the problems that you have suffered through this year, and I understand even better than you might think.
But let me say, that while you have had AT LEAST as many problems as I have, I am just glad for you that you had the financial resources to get through them, unlike myself. wah!

hehe.

While I DO wish my problems on _any number _of people who are not ME, most of whom are liberals, democrats or both, I am truly happy that you are not in the same 
"boat" as I am financially. lol
I couldn't even afford to license your boat, much less repair it or run it when it DOES work. :wink:


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## k2muskie (Oct 6, 2007)

Well Artoxx life is way to short and whether one is better off financially than another doesn't really mean anything to me. 

Yea I'd be a liar if I said it doesn't hurt to pay oneself first and have a little savings if one can... but it's all in how you enjoy your life each and every day...and I'm here to tell you money isn't the end-all IMHO. Take each day as it comes and look for the positive things within that day...as my dear departed Grandmother used to say, 'God helps those who help themselves.' :wink: :wink:


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

Have you ever seen "The Secret?" Try that full heartedly, really apply it, find your higher power and continue to work and be positive. Do those things and Karma will definitely change your outcomes. Also, if you aren't working-and I know that you are looking very hard-but the best advice that I have heard is to volunteer. Not only will Karma shine on you, but you will be in a position to network, build relationships, and bless others. Good luck buddy. I hate to hear the bad things happening to you, and want to start hearing some positives coming from your end. I really wish the best for you and will be praying for you.

Oh and get better quickly LH2, that WNV can be brutal.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

REPETER said:


> Have you ever seen "The Secret?" Try that full heartedly, really apply it, find your higher power and continue to work and be positive. Do those things and Karma will definitely change your outcomes. Also, if you aren't working-and I know that you are looking very hard-but the best advice that I have heard is to volunteer. Not only will Karma shine on you, but you will be in a position to network, build relationships, and bless others. Good luck buddy. I hate to hear the bad things happening to you, and want to start hearing some positives coming from your end. I really wish the best for you and will be praying for you.
> 
> Oh and get better quickly LH2, that WNV can be brutal.


+1 on the secret....


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## REPETER (Oct 3, 2007)

It isn't the end all be all, the only answer to all of life's questions...in fact it is only about a half truth (the movie markets it as a very greedy lifestyle), but it has a very good way of explaining how we should be acting and planning our days and controlling our thinking. Good luck.


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

interesting stuff... and good advice from all. now for a bit of useful advice from me as well - tomato juice doesnt work, you just end up smelling like skunky tomatoes... use hydrogen peroxide, a bit of baking soda and a touch of dish soap. gets the smell out quick. so that is the serious advice if you ever really get a skunk. the other is tuff beans kid - we all get smoked sooner or later so git back in the saddle as quick as possible, preferably without the wife and kids, knock em dead and come back and brag ya shoulda been there today! see, without the wife and kids, doesnt matter it ya did or didnt... ya get your dignity and alpha status back.
now get r done.


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Well I did a little bit of that, I dragged the sorry family into the Uintahs today, up to Washington lake.
I heard they were catching grayling up there on worms, and figured that since I have never been skunked on a Uintahs lake trip, it was a good place to wash the skunk off. Not to mention that I have never caught a Grayling and figured if they were hitting worms, it might be my time. :roll: 
We got there about 8:00am and started blowing up tubes and such. Hiked out to the lake at around 830. Talked to a couple of people who were already there only to find out that no one had seen a grayling all week.  
One kid down on the shore was catching a fish every time he would throw his bait in, like two per minute or so. 6-7" dinks, but he was having fun.
Got into the tubes and headed out. I got swarmed by albinos two minutes in, there must have been 25-30 of them around me at one point, but they wouldn't hit what I had on. Some of them looked to be in the 15" range.
We got scared of the lightning and pulled out around 14:30.

Wife had three hits and caught one 6-7" dink albino.
Son caught squat but claimed multiple hits.
I caught ONE 11 inch trout. I flipped a spinner just past him as I saw him rise to a bug, and he smacked it as it came past. Had something else pull my bobber under, later, but it wasn't gone a full second and then came right back up. 

SAW several fish in the 20"+ range, feeding on the surface, that I would have liked to get a shot at, but was too far to get a cast on them.
Nothing would hit my spinners, spoons, rapalas, so I broke out the fly rod and lay about me with various dries and wetfly/beadhead droppers, with NO response. Switched to worms finally and had identical results. :roll: 

Once again, family was more trouble than they are worth. I am going to just go up the canyon without them one day (OR MORE) this week and catch some browns and brooks out of the river. Neither one of them can get the hang of streams, so I don't have to worry about them wanting to go. :| 
That should wash the last of the skunk off me AND get me some time AWAY from the family, which I am beginning to need more than a job. _(O)_

Oh, by the way, anyone heading up into the Uintahs, TAKE A BUG SUIT!
Deep Woods Off only makes them hungry. I literally lost track of how many mosquitoes I killed at 40 and that was before we even had waders on and headed out to the lake, it was even WORSE when we were packing up for the afternoon. 
This wet spring has really fired them up, I have never seen them so bad that I can remember, and I have been fishing up there for over 30 years.


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## kickingback (Jun 5, 2009)

> Not really, i would have gladly traded your trip for my week lying in bed with WNV.


LH2 where do you think you caught it?


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