Category Archives: weather

Two Young Fishermen Give Me Hope for the Future and Night Fishing Memories

This past Sunday I spent seven hours in a boat on West Point with Rob Boswell, his son Brent and Brent’s tournament teammate Dylan Thayer. They provided me with information for my September Map of the Month article.

Brent and Dylan won two high school tournaments at West Point during the past tournament year and both impressed me with their skill casting, knowledge of bass and use of electronics. Both just graduated and know more than I do after more than 60 years of bass fishing!

The thing that impressed me most was the maturity, courtesy and manners of the two young men. They worked hard trying to catch fish and never gave up. They never had a cross word for each other or me, even when I asked stupid questions. I told Rob he had trained them right!

Young men like those two give me hope for the future even on days when the news is full of the opposite kind of youth and adults.

The day was miserably hot, with bright sun, dead calm wind, water temperature 90 degrees and the air even hotter. It reminded me of why I prefer fishing at night this time of year.

One of my first night fishing memories is going to Raysville Bridge and fishing under it. I heard fishing under there was good and even back then I got fired up, just knowing I could catch catfish, bream, crappie and bass. I spent hours getting my rod and reel ready.

We got a bucket of minnows and walked the long causeway out to the bridge and got under it. I was tired from the walk and soon got sleepy – and irritable.

It seemed every cast got hung in the rocks and I had to break off and retie my line with sinker and hook. And we never got a bite.

Another memory is of daddy and how patient he usually was with me. We were camping at Elijah Clark State Park on Clarks Hill and could see the big Highway 378 Bridge a half mile across the water.

We had rented and old wooden jon boat and paddles. I talked daddy into paddling me to the bridge to fish one night. We loaded up the boat with rods, reels, ice chest with drinks, snacks and rope to tie up with and daddy and I, mostly daddy, paddled us to the bridge.

After tying up I got my rod and started to bait my hook, and there was no minnow bucket! I had forgotten to put it in the boat. Daddy patiently untied, paddled us back to the campground, got the minnows and paddled us back to the bridge!

I don’t remember getting a bite that night.

When I started teaching school in 1972 I had summers off so I often spent a week at a time at our camper at Raysville Boat Club. I would fish a lot at night, fishing from 6:00 PM to 9:00 AM and then sleep all day for a week at a time.

A few nights I tied up under Raysville Bridge in my bass boat and fished for whatever would bite. Two nights really stand out in my memory.

One trip I planned on fishing all night so I carried food and drinks with me. I tied up a few feet from a family in a big boat and we all sat there, catching a crappie or hybrid every once in a while.

About the time I started getting hungry the woman in the boat beside me pulled out a big box of fried chicken. The smell wafting across to me made my mouth water.

Although I ate my sardines and saltines, which I usually loved, they were just not that good that night. I kept hoping the family would offer me a piece of chicken. I even considered grabbing one of the bones they threw in the water and gnawing any tiny shred of meant left!

Another night worked out better. There were a dozen boats tied under the bridge but no one was catching anything. It was frustrating, we could see big hybrids holding about five feet down under our lights and sucking in tiny young of the year shad.

Drifting a shiner minnow in front of them did no good, they ignored it, the shad they were eating were no more than a half inch long. I remembered the adage “match the hatch” and got an idea.

I dug around in my tackle and found a black #6 long shank bream hook. I peeled some shiny foil off my pack of cigarettes and wrapped the shank the hook with it. When I dropped it down under a small split shot, the hybrids ate it!

I think they saw the tiny glint of my foil and mistook it for a little shad. Whatever happened, I caught more than a dozen big hybrids and no one else ever caught one. That laughed at me when I told them the “bait” I was using, I guess they thought I was lying, and they never tried it.

It’s a good idea to be flexible when fishing!!

Is It Too Hot To Fish and Two Summer Tournaments

I have never said “it’s too hot to go fishing!” But sometimes I wonder about my sanity.

When I was a teacher and school administrator I had the summers off. The days I was not in graduate school I went fishing. No matter how hot. But I had several ways to cool off.

My favorite was fishing at night. It’s much cooler, the fish bite better and there is less boat traffic. Back in the 70s and 80s I seldom saw or heard another boat on the lake. Now there is enough boat traffic, especially drunk boat drivers and others that do not know how to drive a boat, that it is dangerous out there in the dark.

The Sportsman Club and Flint River fished night tournaments for years. Nighttime is about the only time you can fish Jackson Lake and some others on weekend days. But we quit fishing them a few years ago due to concerns of some members.

One of my most memorial night trips happened on Labor Day weekend in the 1980s. Linda went out with me late in the afternoon and as it got dark we continued to cast.

That was one of the darkest nights I have even seen. Overcast clouds hid the stars and there was no moon. On Clarks Hill no boat docks or shoreline lights in Germany Creek offer any light. I literally could not see my hand a foot from my face. The boat running lights were off since we were about 40 feet off the bank and could have heard another boat coming a long way off.

We were fishing a deep rocky bank. We knew our dark Texas rigged plastic worms were in the water when a cast produced a splash. As she worked her worm Linda said “I think I got a bite!” When I said “set the hook” the boat rocked and she almost yelled “its big one!”

We heard the fish jump a couple of times making huge splashs but could see nothing. I felt around and got the net and stuck in over the side of the boat, wondering what I was going to do. I thought about getting the flashlight but knew a sudden light would make the fish fight even harder.

Suddenly the water exploded right beside the boat and the fish jumped into the net! No skill on my part needed. That seven-pound, ten-ounce bass hangs on the wall in my home office.

Another night at Clarks Hill Linda’s parents were visiting and they decided to go out with me while I fished after dark. After about an hour they started talking about going in. I said I wanted to fish one more place, some riprap not too far from the boat club.

The first hour fishing it I caught five bass. When I caught my sixth one my mother-in-law said “oh no he got another one, he will never take us in.” After that I decided I better go in even if the fish were biting!

I miss night fishing but will put up with the heat in tournaments since I don’t have a choice.

——

Two weeks ago the heat kept all but two of us home in the Flint River Club tournament at Sinclair. Zane and I started at 6:00. At 7:00 I had caught three small keepers, two on a frog and one on a Texas rigged worm.

I caught my fourth keeper before 8:00 on a small jig but did not catch my fifth keeper until 1:30! I did catch a seven-pound blue cat that gave me a thrill.

My five at 6.6 pounds won. Zane had three weighing 5.05 for second and his 2.87 pound largemouth was big fish.

Last Saturday 17 members of the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished West Point for our July tournament. After fishing from 5:45 until 2:00 we brought in 22 keeper bass weighing about 35 pounds. There was one five bass limit and eight people did not land a keeper.

Caleb Delay won with three bass weighing 6.63 pounds and his 3.35 pound largemouth was big fish. Glenn Anderson had the only limit and came in second with 6.30 pounds. Kenny Delay was third with four weighing 6.20 pounds and my three weighing 4.63 pounds rounded out the top four.

It was very slow fishing. I caught all three of my keeper bass in shallow water with no cover, places I call nothing places. I cast to them just to “keep my bait wet” when going between places I want to cast.

Sometimes I do get lucky.

Fishing Lake Oconee In A Club Tournament In Terrible, Dangerous Spring Weather

Mad dogs and Englishmen may go out in the mid-day sun, but 11 members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club went out in the thunderstorms at Oconee last Sunday. I wonder about my sanity fishing in weather like that.

Weather guessers “forecast” some thunderstorms but light rain most of the day. Wrong. It poured down rain and almost constant lightning all day was much worse than predicted. There was more than 6.5 inch of rain in my gauge in 24 hours.

We were supposed to start at 7:30 AM but a strong storm kept most of us on the bank in our trucks until about 7:45. We had a short break, then the lightning started flashing and the thunder crashing within a few minutes after we took off and continued until about an hour before weigh-in.

In the tournament, 11 of us brought 36 14-inch keeper largemouth weighing about 71 pounds to the scales. There were six five bass limits and three people didn’t catch a fish in the eight rainy hours.

Raymond English won with five weighing 12.79 pounds and Niles Murray was an incredibly close second with five at 12.78 pounds. My five weighing 11.26 pounds was third and I had a 4.55 pound largemouth for big fish. Jay Gerson came in fourth with five weighing 8.72 pounds and for about the third time this year Billy Roberts placed fifth with 5 at 7.92 pounds.

When we took off I made a short run to a rocky point where I caught a 3.5 pound fish in our March tournament two years ago. It was big fish in that tournament. On about my tenth cast with the same crankbait I landed the 4.55 pounder. That was a good start.

After catching a 13.5 inch non keeper out of some grass on that point on a swim jig, the lightning drove me to the back of the cove where I felt the overhanging trees gave me some protection. I ended up sitting against a seawall there trying to cast every few minutes for two hours! I had to run my bilge pumps to keep the boat from filling with water. I did catch three short fish in that time.

I kept looking at my phone and saw the next county south was under a tornado watch. The lightning seemed to be what some call “sheet” lightning, bolts that jump from cloud to cloud rather than cloud to ground. But every few minutes the lake would get bright and the air shake from a nearby ground strike.

It was so bad a very nice homeowner came down to his dock and asked if I was ok. When I said I was just trying to stay in a protected area, he said if it got too bad for me that I could tie up to his dock and come up to his basement, the door was open! There are some nice folks still in this world.

At about 10:00 the storm let up a little and I fished out of the cove. On the point where the big one hit I got my second keeper out of grass on the other side of it on a weightless trick worm.

I made another short run to another good cove and caught several short bass going into the cove, then found a ditch with water dumping into the lake. Back-to-back casts to that muddy inflow produced keepers on a jig and pig. Four in the live well a little before noon, one of them over four pounds, made me feel pretty good.

At 1:00 I cranked up for the third time and ran a half mile to another good series of coves, but they produced nothing but a few short fish. I was getting worried about filling my limit.

At 2:45 I went back to the muddy water inflow and caught a short fish from it. Working up the bank I cast my jig to a grassbed and my line started moving straight to the boat. I set the hook and a solid keeper came up and came off.

I hate to set the hook on a fish swimming toward me. I think they get the lead on a Texas rig, shaky head or jig in their mouth and are clamped down so hard the hook does not move on the hook set and they come off, just like this one that made me feel sick.

I got the boat closer to the bank and cast ahead of it. A few casts later my line moved out and I set the hook and landed my fifth keeper. Since it was 15 minutes to weigh-in I didn’t make another cast, just headed to the ramp.

I felt lucky to land a limit on such a messy dangerous day.

Getting On the Water When Its Too Cold To Go Fishing

Someone jokingly said “lets go fishing” last Saturday. With a low of 8 degrees and a high well below freezing at my house, not nearly enough degrees out there, I declined. But I have been out there fishing in weather about that bad.

In a January Sportsman Club tournament more than 20 years ago I drove by First National bank at 5:30 AM on the way to Sinclair. The bank thermometer read 11 degrees. About a dozen of us showed up at Little River landing just before sunrise but the lake was so low we could not use that ramp.

Rather than giving up we all headed to Sinclair Marina where the ramp is much steeper and goes out into deeper water. The first boat was launched with no problem, but when the trailer was pulled out the water running off it froze on the ramp.

The next person backing down the ramp warned it felt slippery and when he pulled out he had to spin his tires to get up the ramp.

By the time I backed down the ramp I started sliding before my trailer tires hit the water. Luckily I slide straight, and as soon as my van tires hit the water I stopped. The ice ended at water’s edge. Then I had to “burn rubber” all the way up the ramp, melting through the thin layer of ice all the way to the top. Everyone after the first two had the same experience.

It was miserably cold but I ran the few miles to the Highway 441 Bridge where I felt I had my best chance of getting a bite. Every cast I had to dip my rod in the water to melt the ice out of the guides. The water temperature was in the upper 30s, as low as I had ever seen it.

Since I knew the bass would be very sluggish I tried casting to the pilings and reeling my crankbait very slowly by it. I had to slow down to a crawl, just barely keeping the bait moving, but I caught seven keeper bass, enough to win the tournament!

Luckily the sun on the ramp melted the ice so we had no trouble pulling out. But when I went by the bank on the way home at 5:00 PM it showed the high for the day, 17 degrees!

A February Flint River tournament at Jackson gave me a thrill but not from catching fish. When we took off I headed up the lake on plane, running about 40 MPH just before sunrise.

Suddenly there was a horrible grinding sound. I stopped the boat, just knowing I had blown a power head. But then I saw the sheet of ice running from bank to bank. It was only a half inch thick, but when the boat hit it the sound was awful. That is one of the few times my bass boat was an ice breaker!

For some reason on my Christmas trips to Clarks Hill, every year the weather seemed to get much worse after Christmas Day. On year back in the 1990s I woke to howling wind and sleet. It was not comfortable, and everywhere I tried to fish the wind made it impossible.

I finally pulled in behind an island where a rock pile was protected from the wind and caught an 8.2-pound bass on a crankbait. It was the only bite I had in the four hours I forced myself to fish.

One year I took Linda to the Augusta Airport the day after Christmas to fly to Salisbury MD to visit her folks. My dog Merlin and I went back to the lake. We were staying in my small camping trailer and the only heat was a small electric heater.

During the night Merlin jumped up in bed with me. She always slept on the floor by the bed so that was strange. But when I got up the next morning I saw why, her water bowl on the floor was frozen solid.

The little heater kept it tolerable about three feet above the floor at bed level, but the uninsulated floor was below freezing.

That got me worried. Back then I heated my house on Rebecca Circle with a wood burning insert. There was no heat in the house while I was gone. I called my neighbor and ask her to check to see if she heard water running. She called back and said she did not hear water but my well pump was running steadily.

I knew what that meant and headed home. I learned how to solder copper pipe the next day, there were 11 split pipes under the house. The well pump had pumped the well dry and that is why it was still running.

I have been ice fishing one time in my life. One January a hard freeze got my upper pond hard on top. I went out to the end of my dock, knocked a small hole in the inch thick ice with a pipe, and dropped a piece of fish food on a small hook into the water.

After a few minutes a small bluegill hit it and I landed it through the ice. That remains and probably will always remain the only ice fishing fish I have caught.

I think I will hook the boat up and head to the lake!!

Late Fall Walleyes

Late Fall Walleyes – Quick Q&A with seasoned walleye professional and Whitewater Fishing pro staffer Jason Przekurat

By The Fishing Wire

Muskegon, MI – Walleyes are still on the brain. Sure, the ponds and potholes are filling with ducks and bucks are getting frisky, but it’s tough mothballing the rods when the biggest walleyes of the year are on the move.

With that in mind, to scratch that itch, we reached out to Whitewater Fishing pro staffer Jason Przekurat for some quick pointers on late fall walleyes. The two time National Walleye Tour Champion and two time FLW Walleye Tour Angler of the Year shared some time-honored intel on how to maximize your time on the water.

1) Given a wide range of water and cover types available, what do your ideal spots consist of for targeting big fall walleyes?

“Excluding the Great Lakes, the one thing I’ve learned over the years when looking for big walleyes in the fall is to focus on areas that have steeper breaklines adjacent to deep water access. This would include areas that have either weeds or rock, but if focusing on weeds, make sure they are still green. All of these areas must have one thing in common and that is bait. Without the food they will not come.”

2) Lures and bait…what are your favorite lures for late fall walleyes and what are the best applications?

“Here are the two main presentations I focus on during the fall bite: First, for negative or finicky fish, I focus on live bait primarily some type of chub, be it a creek chub or redtail chub. If the water is too clear and the fish are boat shy, I will cast to them with a jig/minnow combo. If the fish don’t mind the presence of your boat, it’s time to go vertical use the old standby live bait rig and slowly pull it over them with your bow mount trolling motor. The second option for me is to get aggressive with any type of glide bait. Many times, I’ve seen fish ignore a big minnow but will react to the glide baits fishing them both vertically or by casting”

3) What are the ideal conditions for fall walleyes in terms of water temp and any other climate conditions? What days jump out and you think, “I better go fishing!”

“I’m a big fan of waiting for your lake to “turnover” before heading out for the fall bite. In most places, turnover occurs with water temps in the upper 50’s, so when the temps hit the mid to low 50s is when I consider the fall bite to begin, and that is all the way until ice up. Wind is definitely your friend this time of year, too, so don’t head for the calm side. Put on your Whitewater Great Lakes Pro suit and head to the windy side, you won’t be disappointed. And if it’s cold, the new Whitewater Great Lakes Pro Insulated suit has made fishing in the fall so much more enjoyable. It’s super lightweight but keeps you toasty warm so you can stay out longer.”

4) Walleyes are found with other species that are also in fall feeding mode. Do you ever fish for other species at the same time and if so, do you adjust your presentation and lures to take advantage of other species such as bass?

“I’ve found bass quite often on my walleye spots and fall is the best time to take advantage of the situation. Always carry a dropshot in the boat as smallmouth really group up this time of year. I’ve seen 50 fish schools of smallies and who wouldn’t want to have some fun with those when looking for walleyes?”

5) Boat handling…how you approach a given spot, and how do you prefer to target them with a boat?

“With the use of forward-facing sonar, we can now see how the fish are reacting to our presence. I’m a believer in getting as close as possible to the fish before casting or dropping a bait, but if the fish are spooky, boat control becomes crucial. Trying to point the bow into the wind helps with boat control, but it also makes a lot of “noise” from boat slap. If the fish are wary of your boat, always fish downwind to avoid that.”

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About Whitewater

Whitewater performance fishing apparel gives anglers distinct advantages whenever Mother Nature’s unpredictability conspires to ruin angling adventures. Whether faced with wind, rain, snow, sun, or extreme temperatures, Whitewater apparel equips anglers with the ability and confidence to overcome the elements, so they apply their focus and energies on fighting fish, not the conditions. Whitewater is a brand by Nexus Outdoors, headquartered in Muskegon, Michigan, USA. Learn more and order at whitewaterfish.com.

Frog Tog Rainsuits Have Failed Me Three Times

If rainy days and Mondays always get you down like they do “The Carpenters,” last weekend and the first of this week was definitely a low time. Some folks let rain stop their outdoor activities, which means fewer people on the lakes while I am fishing!

I am not crazy about camping in the rain, even though I have a nice slide-in pickup camper now. But it is small and not really comfortable for sitting around inside. I carry a screen room with me to sit in outside and it is good until it really pours.

Grilling is a challenge in the rain but it’s possible, especially if you are fast and have a covered grill. The key is keeping your charcoal dry in the bag and keep the rain off it until you light it.

There are lots of little tricks to make camping in the rain better. From something as simple as keeping some rice in your saltshaker so it won’t clog to having a good rainsuit make a big difference.

Rainsuits come in a wide variety of costs and quality, from those that keep you nice and dry to those that are about as effective as a screen door.

Years ago, when they first came out, I got a set of “Frog Togs,” a new brand of rainsuit. I loved it – for about a year.

It was lightweight and kept me completely dry. Then on a trip to Clarks Hill I put it on, got in the boat in the rain and every bit of my clothing was soaked within minutes.

I figured the set was old so I got a new set, and got soaked the first time I wore it. That’s when I went and bought an expensive set of Columbia light-weight rain gear. I have a set of heavy Cabellas Guide Wear that is great in the winter but too hot to wear unless it’s cold.

A couple months ago I was at Eufaula to do an article and realized I left my rainsuit at home. Since rain was predicted, I went to Walmart to get something. The only thing they had that seemed reasonable was a set of Frog Togs, so I bought them.

I didn’t need them until last Saturday at Wedowee. I put the pants on before we took off since the boat was wet. When it started raining an hour or so later, I put the jacket on.

Almost as soon as I sat down I felt rain leaking around the crotch seams on the Frog Togs. Within an hour or so of light rain, there was not a dry thread anywhere on my body.

I will get a used laundry bag for a rainsuit before I ever buy Frog Togs again.

Lake Lanier Will Never Fill Up and Atlanta Will Run Out Of Water

Lake Lanier is several feet above full pool. Seems like just yesterday it was 20 feet low and the true believers were insisting climate change would keep if from ever filling again and Atlanta would run out of water soon.

An interesting post on “Fazebook” shows two Georgia maps. One, from last October, shows the whole state in a “severe, debilitating and dangerous drought” according to representative Terry England. The current map shows the whole state with a rain surplus and no dry areas at all.

Many times I have heard the six Georgia Aquifers, underground water reserves that provide drinking and crop irrigation water as well as keeping our rivers flowing, would never recover from recent drought conditions. But they have, every time. Other than a few lakes like West Point that is being pulled down to accept water coming down the Chattahoochee River from Lanier, our lakes are full to over full.

My back yard has been underwater for several weeks, with anywhere from one to four inches of standing water. I joked that I was checking the farmers Almanac to find the best rice planting dates for middle Georgia.

I moved into this house in 1981. The yard has flooded like this at least a half dozen times in the past 39 years. My garage floor is about six inches above ground level. This year water has gotten to the edge of it but not inside. A few years ago it actually flowed through the garage.

And other years it has been dry and dusty, to the point of flowers dying that I planted around the edge of the yard and having problems with my well running dry. No doubt many will say all this is a sign of the dreaded climate changie thingie. I call it weather.

Hot Hands Hand Warmers Can Be Worth Their Weight In Gold

When I first joined a bass club I had no idea bass would bite during the winter. But a January, 1975 tournament at Jackson taught me they would. Six bass weighing more than six pounds each were weighed in.

I thought I would freeze that cloudy, windy day with sleet all day long. I had worn my winter hunting clothes that were fine for deer hunting in the fall or walking winter fields and woods looking for squirrels, rabbits and quail, but they were not fine for sitting in a boat in 32-degree wind and sleet!

A catalog at home from a new mail order company, Bass Pro Shops, offered snowmobile suits and boots. I ordered both the next week. The thick insulated jumpsuit was water resistant and repelled sleet and snow, but I had to get a good rainsuit to go over it.

The boots were very heavy, with inch thick felt liners inside. I knew if I ever fell out of the boat they would take me to the bottom, so I never tightened up the string at the top, leaving them where they would easily slip off. Of course, with everything else I wore, getting out of the boots probably would not make much difference. This was way before the small auto inflatable life jackets I now wear at all times.

I had some of the old hand warmers, the ones you filled with lighter fluid, lit and put in a case in your pocket. When they came out I got the ones that used a charcoal stick and put it in a cloth lined case to put in a pocket to keep you warm. Both kinds were messy and hard to use, and inconsistent staying lit, but they helped.

A few years later I saw a product called “Hot Hands” at Berry’s Sporting Goods that did not make sense. It was a small cloth pouch with grit in it that, when taken out of a plastic bag, shook up and put in your pocket, it warmed up. Since I taught science at the time I was able to figure out the iron dust inside rusted really fast when exposed to air, producing heat.

Hot Hands make a huge difference when fishing this time of year. They are not messy or bulky and are easy to use. I can put them in my boots before leaving home and they are still warming my toes up nine hours later. One in each jacket pocket lets me put hands in them one at a time when driving the boat or even fishing a slow-moving bait to warm them up. A few scattered inside my heavy suit keep my body toasty.

I was a press observer at the 2015 Bassmasters Classic on Like Hartwell. On practice day I rode with David Kilgore, watching him figure out patterns for eight hours. I could not fish, just sit and talk and watch.

The air temperature was eight degrees that morning, but it warmed all the way up to 20 degrees during the day. And the wind blew. I was comfortable all day though, since I had hot hands in the toes of each boot, in each outside coat pocket for my hands, and four in inside pockets against my body. I even put one under my cap before putting on a stocking cap and pulling my hood over it.

Two-packs of both hand or toe warmers are about $1.75 at Berrys and bulk packs are cheaper. They really help and I don‘t leave home without them this time of year.

Loving Warm January Weather, And It Is NOT Unprecedented

I loved the warm January weather while fishing the Flint River club tournament last Sunday at Jackson.

Many folks are claiming this weather is unusual for January. I even heard one talking head using the most over used word in our vocabulary right now – “unprecedented.”

On Sunday. January 21, 1967, my senior year in high school, Harold and I talked at church about how warm it was and that we needed to go water skiing. We wanted to be the first ones to go skiing that year. As soon as church was over, we went home, changed clothes and grabbed some extra jeans and shirts.

On the way to the lake WBBQ radio station in Augusta said it was 71 degrees and it was sunny. We got to Raysville Boat Club where my family’s ski boat was tied under a boat shed. As we pulled up to the lake, we saw one of our friends that had skipped church that day out of the water skiing.

Harold and I both skied, but we were not the first that year. There have been many other very warm Januaries over the years, and many very cold ones. And there will be many more as the weather changes year to year.

Climate Change True Believers – You First

According to the Climate.gov web site and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, climate “models” show earth’s average temperature may be 2 to 9.7 degrees warmer in 100 years than it is now due to more carbon in the air.

According to climate alarmists, this means we must give up our way of life, including cars, warm houses, meat and many other staples of modern life to avoid this disaster that will wipe out life as we know it.

A week ago last Thursday the temperature at my house was 75 degrees at 2:00 PM, 45 degrees at 7:00 PM and 35 degrees at 2:00 AM Friday. By 2:00 PM Friday it was 55 degrees.

The temperature dropped 30 degrees in five hours and 40 degrees in 12 hours, then warmed 20 degrees in the next 12 hours. Yet noting died, all the trees, grass and wildlife survived. Even my temperature sensitive tomatoes and peppers are fine.

My house was warm and comfortable due to gas heat and a fire in my wood burning stove, two things climate true believers demand I give up.

In his October 10 Griffin Daily News editorial, Walter Williams documents six times since 1969 that the climate change fanatics claimed life would end as we know it in 20 years or so if we didn’t give up our lifestyles. Not a single one of those wild claims, nor the dozens other similar ones, ever happened.

Just like gun control, climate change laws have nothing to do with guns or climate but are all about controlling us. While normal folks have to give up comfort, happiness and personal protection, the ones that demand it continue to fly private jets to meetings where they come up with new schemes and go on trips on their private yachts, while being protected by armed security.

When those flakes lead by example, giving up the things they demand I do without, I may pay a tiny bit of attention to then.

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