Shimano CI4 Un-Boxing

Here is the video I made with the un-boxing of the new reel I got to replace my Exo that self destructed. I will be throwing it on a Powell Inferno 705 CB glass/comp rod. It is a medium action medium tip and has a parabolic bend to it. The fish seem to really get pinned with this combo and I do not lose too many. I feel that the gar I lost was due more to the low gear ratio of the reel I was using than anything else. I got a bit higher gear ratio on this one at 6.2-1 because I will be using it for shallow cranking and square bills. It has a great feel and is very light although the Exo's were lighter than most of the reels I have used. My Core is still the lightest reel I have ever used. Well here is the video on the lures and description of the features of this reel.

Mini Gator Attack!!

Here is a quick clip of my last one hour outing while I was sorting the boat engine out. I did get out and there were a lot of boats out there but I managed some nice fish.

Water was a bit cooler at 74 degrees so I was not thinking that they would be that active. The fish seemed to like the edge of the weed line in 8-12 fow. They liked reaction baits in chartreuse or white or combo of both. They were hitting hard and there was no doubt that a fish was on. Highlight of the day was not on camera when a 36-38" Gar attacked my square bill. The bass continued to be extremely lethargic and we did get a few but no good ones. The bass should also move out into summer patterns soon. Enjoy and don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Thanks for watching!!!!

Frog Strikes, Period!!!!!!

Quick follow up to my earlier setup vid!!! This is just what is says, frog strikes and videos of the release process. Just some good ole fish porn!!! I love underwater footage of fish on the line and being released. Don't quite know what it is that is so mesmerizing about it but here is the follow up vid!!! Enjoy and don't forget to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow the blog if you like what you see!! Thanks again and see you on the water. This week I will be on the water more in depth on how and when to use the frog to its potential!!!!

Frog fishing and frog setup video!!!

I have been having a great time with frogs this year so I figured what the heck, I will post my setup because of the increased hookup ratio this year. I have been experiencing 90% or better and this is probably due to several factors. I strongly feel one is the equipment I am using.

The rod I am using is a Powell Inferno 765c. It is 7'6" medium heavy action with an extra fast tip. The reel is a Shimano Chronarch E5 with a 6.4-1 gear ratio. It is spooled up with moss green power pro in 65lb test. I went with 65 because the 80lb seemed like steel cable and the lakes I fish the 65lb has never let me down.

The frogs I use are The KVD Frog, The Deps Slither K, and The Live Target Bluegill. This is a great combo and I let the fish tell me what they want. When I am fishing a clear lake such as Loon or Delly I have a tendency to go with more natural colors or anything with yellow or white especially on a sunny day. If the water is dirtier or it is over cast I tend to opt for the darker colors. Although, I must say, this year it has been exactly opposite. The cloudy days I have stayed with chartreuse or white.

I'm going to make another video to address how I use them out on the water but that is coming later because here is the video of some fish and my setup to be followed later tonight by a strictly frog strike video. Thanks for reading and don't forget to checkout the YouTube page and subscribe.

Frog on a Frog and some bass thrown in!!!!

Just a quick post on a recent outing I had. Finally found some bass in the shallows and aggressive. No real big ones but lots of action. All fish were relating to any structure that was protruding into the lake. Docks, points, weed clumps, and anything else that provided some shade. The water temps jumped up 10 degrees from Sunday so pretty quickly. The water temps were 74.5-76 and the best and most productive water was the warmest I could find. Great day and I was 100% hookup ratio on a frog for the first time ever. I think all the practice is paying off. I am not setting the hook too soon and that felt great. Here is a little video of the day. Please don't forget to like and subscribe to the youtube channel.

Rainy day bassin at Lake Opeka

I woke up and figured this would be a perfect day to go fishing!! Heavy rain, clouds, wind, and cold. It turned out to be the right decision because we had a great day on the water despite the conditions. It did take some time to find what they wanted to eat, but once we did, the action was steady and fast at times. At one point, I got three fish on three consecutive casts!!! Seemed like most of the fish were little males but we did get a couple big girls to cooperate and eat a crank.

Here is a little video that will give you an idea of how the day went. Please don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel since I am still recovering from my channel getting deleted a few months ago!!!

How to install an on board battery charger!

Here is a quick video on how I installed my on board battery charger. My old one just stopped working but it lasted for more than 5 years so no complaints there. Bass pro actually still had the same model and even though it was a bit expensive, it does a great job. It provides 100% of the available voltage for the three batteries I have installed and does a discharge, condition, and re-charge. So the installation was as easy as it gets however, you will get the idea if you have never done this type of repair.

Check out the video and don't forget to like and subscribe!!!! Thanks for reading and watching!!!!

Lake Calumet Open 4/23/2016

Saturday was my first tournament and what a day it turned out to be. I got the invite from the angler who was running the event and was glad to participate. The tournament was held in an urban area and this was new to me. The venue was to be Lake Calumet on the South Side of Chicago in Burnham IL. I had never been here before and once my entry was confirmed and I had a co-angler, we made plans to meet and do some pre-fishing since neither one of us had fished there before.

We got out only once but the fishing was great and the water quality was good as well. In some areas, the water had great visibility and seemed to be very clean for the area it was in. Although, the lake is connected via The Calumet River to Lake Michigan so it made sense that the water would be clear. I had heard bad things about Lake Calumet from other anglers and did not have high expectations however, I was pleasantly surprised at not only the launch but the fishing as well.

The tournament was leaving from the Waterfront Boat Ramp in Burham IL. This is a nice little place with friendly people who were willing to open up the bar area at 5:00am when all the anglers from the tournament arrived. We proceeded to splash the boats and get ready for the tournament meeting and last minute rules. We got ready to draw for our starting positions and my co-angler Rene drew boat number one. The was great seeing as though there were other anglers with much faster boats than mine. We launched on time and made our way down the river to the locks before Lake Calumet. We got through the lock and it was game on. It took a little while but we developed a pattern quickly that would turn out to be extremely productive.

We found fish in shallow water and they were hitting hard. I have heard that the largemouth in this lake were very small but I did not find this to be true. We got almost exclusively largies and the biggest was 4lbs on the nose. We had a limit by 8:30 or so and by 9:30 culled 3 times. In the end we took second place to two very good local anglers Tyler Uteg and Ryan Whitacre. We had a 15.71 pound sack of largemouth and they had an impressive 18.33 pound bag of brown bass.

Was great to compete in this environment against some very good anglers and it felt good to develop a pattern quickly that produced pretty much all day for us. Even though in the end we fell just short, it was still great to get out and cover the entry fee. It was also great to find such a nice body of water that had the quality of fish that this one did. Hope to compete again soon and will be looking to enter in something else in the near future. Was also nice to meet another fishing partner for these events. Rene Luis, thanks for coming along. Had a great time!!!!

Here's a pic of the sack we came in with.

Here's the winning sack!

How to add a trailer hook to a spinner bait!

Just wanted to put up a quick little post about trailer hooks for spinner baits. This is a good way to increase your hookup ratio because bass often will hit the back of the lure. If there is not trailer hook, you will feel the bite and the fish may even hang on for a while. In the end, with no trailer hook, you will probably lose the fish. Here is a video of how I did these two that I am using in a tournament this weekend. Enjoy and if you haven't, add them to your spinner baits, especially the ones with the longer skirts.

First Big Game Mount: White Tailed Deer

I have been interested in taxidermy for several years now and have completed only waterfowl. The mounts have come out pretty good and were surprisingly not that hard to do. Here are some of my mounts.

I also did a couple more but unfortunately do not have pics.

I decided when I got a pretty good buck this past year to try my hand a big game. This is a bit more intensive than the ducks due to the prep for the skin. These need to be tanned or they will be destroyed by bacteria. I will be updating as I go through the mounting process and for now, I have the antlers attached and the manikin prepped for the hide. I also did tan the skin but will not be documenting that process since I have never done that. I will see how it goes and if the tanning is good, next year I will document how to tan a skin.

For now, here is a quick video of how to attach the antlers to the manikin as well as how to finish them once installed.

Thanks for reading and watching!!! I will be putting more videos up as I finish the deer!

Finally found some headgear!!!!!

Well, I have been fishing a lot lately and not taking my two pointers out for late season pheasant hunting or shed hunting. I did notice on my deer cams that the deer on the property I hunt still had all of their headgear on well into late March. This would be the reason that I had been shed hunting several times with none to show. Here are some pics of the bucks with headgear in late March.

With the weather coming in I decided to take the dogs out for some shed hunting because the deer finally lost their racks and I thought maybe we will have some luck. As it turns out, we did. Both of my pointers found a single side of a rack which was pleasant because I was beginning to think they just had no interest in sheds. They both proved me wrong.

Was a cold morning and snowing at times quite heavily. We walked for about 4 miles and found these two antlers in the bushes. The amazing part was I never would have known they were there if the dogs had not found them.

Dogs did great finding them and bringing them back to me so I know have the pointers trained to find songbirds, squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, quail, and sheds. Great feeling when both dogs got a set. Here is one rub of note because I have not seen too many like this one. This was an extremely large deer note the diameter of the tree.

Great to be out in the woods with the dogs and have them working. They never cease to amaze me at their instincts when it comes to everything hunting.

How to install a pigtail on your trailer wiring

well here is a quick video on how to install a 4 way flat connector pigtail onto the trailer end of your boat wiring. I had a little mishap last week on the way home from Braidwood Lake and destroyed the plug. I purchased a pigtail end for under 5 dollars and had the water proof butt connectors so this was an easy and economical repair. Hope this helps somebody out there but I know most of you probably can do this type of repair already. I am planning on rewiring the whole trailer next year if I keep the boat. Thanks for reading and check out the video.

Braidwood Bass Fishing

Hey there guys! Just a quick little video I made fishing at Braidwood Lake. The fishing was good I would say but no big fish landed except the carp. All bass were 1-2.5lbs and came on a variety of presentations. We got them on deep diving crank baits, jigs, swim jigs, and chatterbaits. The colors were as varied as the presentations. The best colors seemed to be red, orange, brown, black on the chatterbait, and chartreuse. Fish were caught mostly on rock or wood that had access to deep water. Nothing was caught right up against the bank. Thanks for reading!!!

22 for 22 Shedding Light on Veteran Suicide

So, earlier this week I was nominated by my friend and fellow brother in arms Dan Roloff to do 22 push ups a day for 22 days to call attention the fact that 22 veteran brothers and sisters kill themselves every day. His message was simple, if you are hurting, please reach out to someone and do not leave the incredible void in the lives of your friends and loved ones that this action will cause. There are people like he and I who will listen if you reach out. I am starting mine right now and will be following through with my 22 of 22.

Unfortunately, I experienced one of my best friends and fishing partners following through with this act a little over a year ago and to this day, I am struggling to come to terms with his leaving. I miss him and have not felt like the grieving process has even begun. This small action will bring light to this issue and will hopefully catch on and many people will do the 22 for 22 so that maybe our veteran brothers and sisters will stay around a while. I also hope that this will give me a sense of doing something to honor my friends memory, and maybe in some way will help me process through this in my own life.

Thanks Dan, you are a true brother even though we do not see each other any more, I feel connected to you in a very special way! Well here it goes. Thanks and I am nominating every one of my friends that sees this to perform the 22 for 22 to honor our veteran brothers and sisters past, present, and especially, the ones who have passed on! Thanks for reading!!!!

Minn Kota Maxxum Control Box Repair

Ok, so I had a little mishap on the water several weeks ago and I leaned on my already cracked trolling motor control box and finished her off completely. The whole bottom cracked and one of the gears even fell out so I had no pointer disc for directional control. I temporarily fixed it until the parts arrived with some zip ties. You could probably tell I used to be a mechanic, we could fix anything with duct tape, zip ties, a hammer, and a prybar!!!!! I ordered the parts and was eagerly waiting for them.

In the mean time I could not help myself and went fishing anyway. I know it was cold but I went to Braidwood Lake. It is a cooling lake and the the water temps were anywhere from 55 to 70 degrees so no ice. After the last time I went out, I was tired of my boat looking like a hoopty, so when I got home, I made the repair.

This repair was not difficult at all. I made a little vid so you could check that out. It is a bit rough, but I will be putting more into these vids to increase the detail and better audio quality.



The only thing that was a bit difficult was the piece that held the cables for the pedal travel. Most people take the cables off of the black circle and then just mark one cable the lower or the upper so that they can remember which was which. I did not do it this way and just left the cables attached and scribed a line on the black piece and then another on the shaft so I could line the pedal up with no issue. I had no trouble and it seems to be working great. I will find out the next time I get her out on the water. If you have any questions you could put a comment on youtube or respond here and I will help out with whatever I can. Don't forget to check out my facebook page adventures midwest and if you like the vid don't forget to subscribe to my channel. Thanks for reading and watching if you check out the video!!!!!

How to clean your cork!

Well late winter is when I usually get my fishing gear cleaned because I have time now that hunting season is coming to an end. This secret is the magic erasure. It is an inexpensive way to make your fishing gear look and feel new.

All you do is take your magic erasure and wet just like you would to clean your sink and go over the cork or any other parts of the rod for that matter and voila, your rod looks and feels new. This only takes a couple of minutes per rod and it is worth it. I find that after I use my rods, the cork not only gets dirty but feels smooth and has no tack to it. After going over the cork with a magic erasure, that tack is present and the rod feels new.

Here they are before the cleaning.

And here they are after cleaning with the magic erasure.

So go ahead and give this a try to restore your fishing gear to new condition!

Feathers and Lack of Fins!

I had a few days off of work this week and took advantage of the warmer than usual temps by hunting for pheasants on Friday and getting the boat out for the first trip of the year on Saturday. The wind was high on Friday, but the fields were full of pheasants and we had a great hunt. Saturday started off a bit rocky when I finished cracking the head of my trolling motor within minutes of launching, but the boat ran great and The DesPlaines River is impressive south of my neck of the woods. Although we did not land any fish, we did see some promising waters for later in the season.

I made the decision to hunt on Friday and contacted the hunt club to see if any fields were available and they were. I made the reservation and called up a friend to accompany me on the possibly last hunt of the season. We had the field for the morning and the winds were forecast to be 35-40mph. The wind definitely made this a challenging day but the fields were loaded with birds and the dogs were ready to go. Within minutes of taking the field, pheasants started running and flying everywhere. The wind seemed to have them up and they were not holding at all. Thank god for the dogs! Tino and Roxy were in an almost constant state of stalk mode because of the amount of scent in the fields and the wind but they found quite a few birds. Tino as always was tremendous and worked hard all day. Roxy did well and made another leap forward in her hunting abilities. She used to follow Tino and almost never left his side. This caused Tino to get most if not all of the points. Today, she was going out on her own quite a bit. She was still working with Tino but seemed more confident in how she was hunting the field. Roxy has always had a difficult time with the retrieve. She points solid and finds the bird with no problem however, she would not pick the pheasants up let alone complete a retrieve. I was starting to think that I would have to bring her without Tino and specifically work on picking up the pheasant so that she could learn how to complete the retrieve. This was a bit perplexing because she obviously has the drive and and is highly competitive because she would always race Tino to the downed bird. Today, she pointed a bird while Tino was working the other side of the field, and I flushed the bird and made a good shot. Roxy immediately marked the bird and went after him. I noticed her pick up the pheasant and could not believe when she just picked the rooster up, and brought him towards me. I felt like a proud papa!!!! She was finally working on her own, and now began to find the bird and complete the retrieve. We hunted for 2.5 hours and the winds just got too bad and we decided to finish up with 8 birds harvested. What a great day to be out in the field even though it was a bit windy.

Here is the video from the day. The pics were limited due to the birds not holding and the wind noise is high but I did the best I could with the equipment that I have.



Now to the lack of fins! I began earlier in the week to plan out the first run of the boat because of the warm temps. Now this was a full month earlier than I had ever had the boat out or even thought of having the boat out. In fact, most of the lakes despite the warm temps were still covered in ice. I knew the best option was to check out the rivers within driving distance from me. I remember that Nick from Brookfield Angler and I had fished The Des Plaines River out of Big Basin Marina a few years back when I had a smaller john boat for gar. I do remember talking with him about the other fish present in that stretch of the river. Here we are several years later and I am an avid bass fishermen and thought this might be a good option for the first run of the season. I went online and could not find any info on Big Basin and was not sure they were open. I contacted Nick to do some reconnaissance and Big Basin was in fact, open. I know immediately that this was where we would go for our first run. We got to the marina and the launch is well-suited for any type of fishing vessel. I liked the fact that it was an automated launch meaning that you pay the fee which was 6.00 to launch, and 6.00 dollars to recover for a total of 12.00 because all of the launched where I normally fish are 20 dollars or more. It was a quality launch and made the task easy. The boat was in the water ready to go and I parked the truck. I returned to the boat and immediately broke my trolling motor head. A bit disappointing, but it was already cracked so I could not be too upset. The motor was still operable so no big deal. We headed out of the marina and there was a solid 2 foot chop on the water from the winds the were blowing right down the length of the river. We drove up river and saw some great starting points to fish. The water temps were anywhere between 44.5-47.7 and I had high hopes of getting a few bass. Well, we did not! We tried moving baits, jigs, worms, and jerkbaits to no avail. We did however, see some extremely promising water and spots for later in the year. The temperature was in the low 60's and what a beautiful day to hit the river. The boat ran great too!!! So although we did not land any fish, it was a successful outing. Hopefully, as the year rolls on, I will have some better vids and stories to write about.

Here is my not so exciting video! Just some pics and the boat running. I hope to have the youtube channel indexing soon seeing as though this is my third video. Thanks for reading and don't forget to subscribe to the channel.

New Season: High Anticipation and Reflection

Well did some more work on the boat today and got the batteries installed and checked out the cockpit lighting, electronics, and bilge pump. All was working good. It is this time of year that is bittersweet for me. I am full of anticipation for the season to begin in general and this year I have additional excitement because I am going to Ralph Stieger's and Bobby B's smallmouth bass seminar in Hammond on March 5, 2016. I am really looking forward to meeting these guys and gaining some knowledge about fishing The Southern Basin of Lake Michigan. I have always wanted to fish the big pond and never did, so this year it is my goal to get on some of those big Lake Michigan Smallies. Bittersweet because I am really feeling the loss of one of my friends. He sadly took his own life a little over a year ago and this season I am feeling a bit sad and missing the calls I used to get from him. See, he was not the most mechanically inclined, and this is the time of year that he would always take something apart on his boat, screw it up, and then call me. I used to be short with him and ask "Why don't you call me first?" He would usually say something like "I didn't want to bother you." Now this is the second spring since he is gone and I find myself missing that call and sad with the recognition that it will never come again.

To complicate things I bought my first and current bass boat from my friend so it stands to reason that every spring I think of him a bit more than usual. Today was no exception. I got her in the garage over the weekend and got the jump on the season and want the boat ready to fish when the lakes open up. I got the garage up to 57 degrees and it's amazing how stubborn the ice is. This is going on three days and there is still ice on the floor of the boat. No biggie though. Today I got the batteries out and installed. This allowed me to check all of the electrical gear on the boat. I turned on the electronics and they were good, the trolling motor, lights, cockpit lighting, and operated the jack plate and trim. I was happy that everything so far worked without a hitch. The bilge pump that my cousin and I fixed last year just needed a new butt connector other than that, everything was good.

I also took the cover off the motor and removed the plugs and sprayed a little fogging fluid into the cylinders just to give a bit of extra lubrication for when I start her tomorrow or the next day.

The ice in the boat was almost gone and I got everything out of the cockpit and turned on The Blue Water LED Lighting System that I installed last year and this was working perfectly. I do like these lights and the blue LED's look great with the colors on the boat. I finished off with operating all electronics on the boat again, and everything seemed to be working great. I added air to the tires and shot some grease into the bearing buddy's so that when we are ready to go, the trailer components were good. All that's left is to check the trailer lighting and I will probably do that later this week.

I decided to organize my tackle today as well. I had no idea how much gear I have. I took out all tackle and cleaned out the compartments where the boxes were stored. I realized that I need nothing to start the season. I had all my lipless crankbaits as well as a healthy supply of soft plastics ready to go. I put everything on the deck and then got some of the lures that I bought several weeks ago into their compartments. Looked great and my tackle should be ready to go.

After I had completed all of these tasks today I could not help but feel like I was missing something. I couldn't put my finger on it , but I realized that I was not getting the call from my friend to come and fix something on his boat that he took apart and could not get back together. I felt strangely sad. I remember I used to feel irked sometimes when he would call because I knew something was going to be apart and need to be fixed. Two years ago, he got a new ranger and the center seat was a bit loose. Nothing bad, but it had a little wiggle to it. He took that baby apart and could not get it back together. He called and we had to take the whole cockpit apart to get this one little rivet and fix it. We got it and sure enough it was tight. He also let me install an HDS 12 on it at the console and I felt privileged because we had to drill a hole that had to be 2 inches into the gunnel to fit the wiring back to the transducer. I laughed when he said just do it, I won't be mad even if I have to get the fiberglass redone. Well, needless to say, I drilled and installed it and the unit came out amazing. We had a great spring and fished a lot. We also made plans to begin doing the Wednesday night tournaments on the chain because I wanted to get into tournament fishing. Well, I had no way of knowing but this was the last spring he would be around. In September, he was gone and I am still coming to terms with this loss. I have dealt with a lot of loss in my time being a veteran and a recovering drug addict but this one was particularly rough for me to process. I am working to remember the good times we had and how much he taught me about fishing without feeling sad but this is still almost impossible.

I am hopeful that this year will bring new adventures and some good times. I have some great things on the horizon and will be getting a new video camera to document the adventures as they occur and I also purchased some new gear for the gopro's and contours and should be able to add a lot to my fishing and hunting videos. I am also still recovering from the loss of my youtube channel but I got my new one up and running with a welcome video up. I am full of anticipation for ice out but I am finding this year, at this time, that reflection about the last two years is happening more than usual. Tony thanks for being my friend and fishing, talking and hanging out with me. In the time we knew each other, I learned a lot about fishing and am a better angler today because we met.

New youtube channel Adventures Midwest is live!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that my new youtube channel is officially up and running. I do not think it will come up in any searches because I only have the one video up at this time. I did a short welcome video and was trying to advise some of my subscribers that my channel was back up.

I am going to do some new stuff on this channel such as providing a more educational experience. For example, not just showing me fishing but taking a deeper look into the equipment used, location, time of year, and water temps.

So hopefully you guys with sub and gain something positive from the channel or just maybe a laugh or two. I have been known to do some pretty funny things while out in the field or on the water. Thanks to all of the subscribers who watched the old channel and I am looking forward to providing some new videos.

MSI GT-72 6QD Dominator Review.

Several weeks ago my Mac Book Pro started experiencing some issues with speed and functionality and I knew the end was near. I started looking into another Mac Book because I really liked the way it performed however, I quickly found that the new Mac Book's were very overpriced for what you get in my opinion. The editing software for the Mac, Final Cut Pro was also an easy and comprehensive editing suite that was ideal for my productions. I went ahead and priced out a new Mac Book and just could not believe that it came in at 5400.00 dollars. That was the 15.6 Retina Display and I really wanted a 17 inch so I began looking into other options.

I did some research on my own and consulted with a friend that I trust and is knowledgeable with information technology and it was apparent that a PC would be the way to go. I gave him a list of specifications and the main use that I would be needing for this new machine and he got to work researching and I continued my search. We both agreed that MSI made some very good machines that would work for my applications. Most notably they came in around 1500-1700 for the models that I was going to be looking at. After some deliberation, I settled on the MSI brand and began to dig into the specifications of the Machine that would eventually be purchased.

When all was said and done I settled on the MSI GT-72 6QD Dominator. This was the low end of the Dominator line but had everything that I wanted and more. Even though this was a laptop, I feel strongly that it could keep up with any desk top out there.

Firstly, upon unboxing I noticed the size of the machine. The dimensions are: 428(W) x 294(D) x 48(H)mm. It is not a small package at all but size was not an issue and I wanted the larger display for a more satisfying editing experience. This finish is Matte Black and looks like the finish of a dragster. The only issue with the finish is that fingerprints collect easily and are plainly visible. Minor problem but if you like aesthetics, can be bothersome. The display is a 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080), G-SYNC ready with 75Hz, IPS level panel that is extremely vibrant. I have used it for several weeks and I can say the display is clear and editing video is satisfying. I can also connect to my Samsung 60 inch smart tv through the HDMI out but more on that later.

Enough of the eyecandy that this machine has; lets get into the hardware that makes this notebook really shine. The GT-72 6QD comes equipped with the new 6th generation Intel processor. This processor requires lower power consumption and delivers better performance than previous generations of Intel Chipsets. CPU performance of The Core i7-6700HQ is 20% faster than the i7-4720HQ under average usage. For GT series with the Core i7-6820HK model, CPU frequency can be stretched from 3.7GHz to over 4GHz and CPU performance increases 30% compared with that of i7-4720HQ. This is evident once the video is downloaded and editing has begun. Whereas my Mac Book was choppy, this machine is smooth when playing back video and inserting effects such as transitions and titles. Overclocking is easy as well with shift technology. Simply put this is a utility that allows overclocking with three different levels. This can be viewed in and managed by the MSI Gaming Center Utility. The three levels are: green, comfort, and sport. Green modifies power consumption of both CPU and GPU to the lowest while maintaining coolest constant system temperature for both. Comfort maximizes power consumption of both CPU and GPU to leverage full performance of both while maintaining system temperature. Finally, sport overclocks CPU core clock up to 30% (from 3.7GHz over 4GHz) to push the system to extreme.

As far as the video performance the 6QD comes with the Nvidia GeForce GTX970M with 3GB of GDDR5 Ram. One of the most notable features is G-Sync which is a revolutionary technology that eliminates screen tearing while also reducing input lag. The result is the smoothest, fastest, and most responsive video experience. I have found this video card handles my video editing without a hitch. Since this is a gaming notebook, my video productions are not a problem for it to handle and create smooth final products. I forgot to mention the fan boost and this is a nice tool to keep the box cool when overclocking and working on highly resource consuming projects. It can be accessed from the front left of the keyboard. A button press kicks both fans into overdrive and I have seen the temps of the GPU and CPU decrease 7-10 degrees. More of a gaming issue but I have kicked on the fans to cool the box several times and it seems to work well.

As far as Ram goes, she has 16GB of DDR 4 2133 and this seems to be very capable of handling my video needs. I have yet to see any glitches in my video editing and when watching video, this machine is as smooth as can be. Coupled with the 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive I have plenty of storage for my video projects. I did not get the optional SSD drive but the nice part is that it is set up for it and I can get one to install at a later date if I wish too.

One of the things I also like about this machine is how many USB ports are on the case. On the left side of the case there are four USB 3.0 inputs along with headphone I/O and line in and line out and an SD card reader. The right side of the case houses the optical drive which is a Blue ray burner/player as well as two more USB 3.0 inputs. For me, this was a positive because I have four cameras that I charge and with this machine, I can charge all four at once which cuts down on time. On the back of the case is the HDMI(V1.4) out, USB 3.1C input, the A/C charge input and finally, the lan connection.

The keyboard is a steel series and seems to be functional and solid. It has a back lit design and the color of the keyboard is fully customizable and adds to the cool look of this machine.

The machine comes pre-loaded with Windows 10. I do like the way the it runs but I did find out rather quickly that some of my editing software was not compatible with it such as Avid Studio and Pinnacle Studio. Minor issue and for now I did find a program the would work with Windows 10 and that was Filmora.

Overall, I do like the functions of the machine and I have not been disappointed since defecting back to the PC world from The Mac World. When I priced a compatible Mac the price was more than triple. I do have to say that I like the Mac OS compared to Windows, however, I could not justify the price for The Mac. As I said, I have used the machine for several weeks and do like it. So far it has been great for what I am using it for and it meets exactly what I wanted. A machine to edit video and remain smooth even when editing HD and now 4k video. I tried to list the features that stood out to me and why I like this machine. I would recommend this to someone looking to get a new computer if size was not a factor. If size is a factor, I think another machine would be appropriate.

Pro's

Aesthetically pleasing
Fast
Quiet
Great layout of case with many inputs for charging devices
Upgradable (video card, Ram)

Con's

Size (Large Dimensions)
Fingerprint magnet and if you don't like seeing them, you will be cleaning a lot
Heavy
Windows 10 is not compatible with some software although I suspect this will get better

Well, that is my overview of this notebook and I am impressed with the funtionality and features of this machine. I hope this helps if you are looking into a new notebook and if you have any questions just comment and I will do my best to answer anything I may have missed in the review.

Youtube channel was deleted!!!!!!

Well, I was really crushed tonight because I went to sign into my youtube channel tonight and it was not there. It said the account was closed by the user. I had been doing some work on syncing my accounts and inadvertently must have deleted my account. This did not seem to be a big deal because others have done this and gotten their channel back. I emailed google and they advised that my google + pages were all linked together. I had three pages and did not want them all because they were a pain to manage. So when I deleted the unwanted pages, somehow my default page was deleted as well. I was advised that because I manually deleted the pages there was no way to get any of the videos back.

I was going to change the format of the channel drastically in a month or so when I get my new camera but now I have lost over 90 videos!!!!!! I have some of the vids on my mac but that crashed just a few weeks ago. It has been a rough couple weeks. I guess in the grand scheme of things, worse could happen. I just feel bad that I lost all that footage of my older pointer because he is getting older and hopefully I will have more vids of him hunting. Thanks to all that supported my channel and subscribed. Hopefully you will all subscribe to my new channel. I have mad it and it will be titled the same as the blog: Adventures Midwest. I will keep you guys posted of when I am up and running and will put up a short vid this week to see how the channel is working out.

I can still be found on facebook, instagram, twitter (@czapiewskitom), and youtube all at adventures midwest.

Tom

Winter fishing and first bass of 2016!!!

Got up this morning and have to say, I did not feel like doing much. I began watching In-fishermen TV and was bored out of my mind but not feeling very motivated. I thought to myself, the dogs could probably use another run and maybe we could find some deer sheds so I begrudgingly got dressed and got out with the dogs seeking shed antler gold. Well, we did not get it!!!!! Hiked about 3.5 miles back into the woods and did not see a single antler. However, the dogs were very happy with me since I decided to get up off my rear and take them out again. They have not been too happy due to the lack of pheasant hunting over the past two weeks.

Got home and still not feeling very motivated I got a call from a buddy and he wanted to go fishing. Now, with it being 40 degrees out, I figured every other fishermen in the Chi Town area would have the same idea and areas to fish were limited due to there still being hard water over most places. I did know of one area that would be fishable for sure, that was the warm water discharge at Busse Lake. I was not too excited about this because again, with it being a weekend and 40 degrees, I thought the place would be a madhouse. Moreover, I had all of my fishing gear in my boat and I was not going to open the boat to get one or two little jigs out. He talked me into going. I knew of Lee's Bait and Tackle and gave them a call to ensure the place was open, and they were. We made our way over there and this was a very nice place. The lady was polite and helpful. I found all that I needed and saw some other things I may need for later in the year. I was hoping they would have a little ultra lite spinning combo for a reasonable price because I only have heavier gear. They had exactly what I was looking for. A nice little ultra lite spinning combo for 20 bucks. Wonderful!!!! We got some small ice fishing jigs and off to the warm water discharge ready for battle.


Getting there we saw about 8 cars in the lot and that is not too bad especially for a day like this. We proceeded to walk down the path and saw two other guys walking with fishing rods. Upon arrival, it did not look too bad!!! There were a few people fishing but we had plenty of room and area to fish. I put on an ice fishing spoon and got fishing immediately. First several casts, I got some little gills. It was awesome to be on the board for 2016 even if it was a few small gills. I did see some very nice bass cruising in the shallows but I have learned over the years, the ones you see are not the ones you catch. I kept fishing with the little spoon and caught about 10-15 gills. I then decided to change over to a little florescent yellow beetle spin type lure and first cast bam, a little large mouth. First bass of 2016!!!!!

Now, I saw some much bigger bass and figured I would keep fishing. I did have some people now noticing that I caught several gills and now a little bass. So, I moved out further onto the warm water discharge away from the inlet. This is where everybody was congregating. I continued to cast and got another hit. This time a little bit better of a bass. Number 2 for the year!!!!! BOOM!!! Now I can't help but feeling like a little kid here. I was so excited and caught 2 bass that might have weighed a pound. But hey, who cares I was out and catching fish.

We checked out more of the area and I showed my friend the Arlington Pool, but that was a madhouse. There was not a place to fish on the entire pool and there were guys casting over each other. I figure better to come here on another day. We walked back toward the main dam area and my buddy got to try out his new rig. He got an Abu Garcia Veritas Rod with a Revo SX purchased at the fishing show. He made a few casts and everything was working great. He could not believe the sensitivity of this outfit. I also got to try my new polarized glasses and a face shield. I never used a face shield, but man, what a difference that made. It was not terribly cold, however, the wind was blowing pretty good. I was very comfortable with that thing on. My new glasses were made by a company from Louisiana called Blue Fin. They were great! I could see very clearly into the water and the biggest thing that I noticed was how comfortable they were. I had Strike King S11's previously and they were good but after fishing for a couple hours, they would start to hurt the side of my head. These were extremely comfortable. I am very happy with them and you can check them out on the web at Bluefineyewear.com

Overall, a great day to be out. Started the day out hunting for deer shed antlers and ended up with my first fish of 2016!!!! Don't forget to check out my youtube channel www.youtube.com/user/1080tommy1 and instagram at adventuresmidwest. Have a great Superbowl Sunday!!!!!

IQ Bowsight

I have watched this sight for some time now and had interest in trying one. I thought the concept might be just a gimmick like so many of the other products in the outdoor arena. I kept thinking about all of the fishing gear that I purchase and do not use. I did some research on the web and tried to make an educated decision on whether to try one. The sight seemed to have good reviews from private users and not just the people who are sponsored and have television shows so I made the decision to give it a go.

When I took the sight out of the package, I immediately noticed that it felt great and seemed to be of good quality. The sight was metal but had a rubber coating that made for a sturdy feeling piece of equipment. There was a bag with all of the tools necessary to mount the sight and the directions. After my initial inspection of the sight, I read the directions because one of the issues with this sight was that people said that it was not the easiest sight to get installed and sighted in properly. I got my bow and took the old sight off and installed the IQ.

The installation was a snap and it took just a few minutes to install and I also installed the mounting for my Rage Cage Quiver. The quiver fit perfectly on the new sight using the mounting holes in the sight. I did mount the sight using the rearmost holes to ensure that the sight was mounted with the most similar configuration to my old sight. I got the bow ready for my first shot and this is an important part of the process because I did not want to shoot with a brand new sight and loose an arrow.

The process I use to make this go as smoothly as possible is:

1. I line up the pins on the new sight to the left of the bowstring and that will be close on my left and right measurement.
2. I move the sight all the way up not moving any of the pins themselves but rather the whole sight housing.

This should have me not perfect but for a first shot, I should be on the target. I then measure 10 yards. This is important because if you are too far away, you could loose an arrow unless you have a back stop. I was outside, so I needed to hit the target.

3. I measured out 10 yards.
4. I took my first shot.

I was pleasantly surprised that I was just a bit high on my first shot but needed no movement from left to right. I backed up to 15 yards and still a bit high, but again left right was perfect. Lastly, I moved back to 20 yards and was just a bit low. I moved the sight down to move the arrow up. A quick way to adjust for height is that you follow your arrow. So in this example, my arrow was low, so I moved the sight down. This made my arrow hit the target higher. After just this one adjustment I was on at 20 yards. Now it was time to adjust the Retina Lock.

This was the part that I was hearing was difficult. The retina lock is an apparatus on the sight to ensure your anchor position was the same with each shot. There was two adjustments on the sight for the retina lock. I drew the bow and put the pin on the target and noted the position of the green dot in relation to the black dot on the sight. I made three adjustments and was placing three arrows in a 3 inch circle. This was acceptable for any hunting situation. I then backed up to thirty yards and made a few small adjustments of the 30 yard pin and she was right on the money. Here is the last group I shot from 30 yards.

I went on to shoot several groups of arrows at 20 and 30 yards using the retina lock. I was pleased with the way it was grouping. I was starting to get tired so I will work on the 40 and 50 yard pins next week. I will keep this post updated on the progress.

Overall, I found this sight to be extremely easy to setup and get to shoot spot on. I did follow the directions to the letter and I think the most important part was that I adjusted the pin first and got the bow grouping where I wanted from 20 yards then adjusted the retina lock. This is important and I could see this being a difficult issue if you try without following these steps.

Shooting was a bit different then a normal sight without retina lock. I noticed that it was important that upon drawing that I got the anchor point with centering the dot first and then moved the pin onto the target where I wanted it to hit. If I tried the other way around, it felt uncomfortable and I could not center the dot. I tried to get some pics of the view through the sight but my phone did not capture them very good. I like the way this sight shoots and it is a quality piece of equipment. I did not get the micro adjust and looking back, if I was to purchase it again, I would pay the extra money for the micro adjust knobs. I do also like the larger pins on this site compared to my other site.

I am pleased with this sight for sure and it only took about a half hour to adjust the 20 and 30 yard pins to shoot 2-3 inch groups from those distances. I will continue to update on how the 40, 50, and 60 yard pins adjust. I did notice that I was shooting tighter groups with this sight. I do not think this is a gimmick at all and hope if you are in the market for a new sight, you give this one a try.

Last duck hunting trip of 2016! Arkansas

Here is just a quick post! I did not get to go on this trip but my cousin and uncle went down to Arkansas for the last trip of the year. Looked to be a really great trip. They only got 10 ducks the first day however, the last two days they had 5 man limits. This was in Carlyle AR and they were hunting in a variety of habitat. The first day they were in flooded beans, which I would have thought to be the best for puddling ducks but that's the day they only got 10. The second day they hunted over a minnow pond and I think that was the day they got their limit of bluebills in under 2 hours. The last day looked like the most interesting to me. They were set up in the corner of some tall trees and the ducks were buzzing over and spinning around while loosing altitude and coming into the spread. The ducks did look really far away and I think that was due to the POV cameras used because most of them were right in or outside the spread.

This will hopefully be the last video of this type for me. I should have my new camera in a few weeks and will be doing more educational pieces. I think that is the direction I would like to go now. I feel like I have sufficient knowledge from really hunting and fishing hard over the past few years and I would like to pass on some that knowledge. Of course there will still be vids and pics of the hunting and fishing experience, but I would like to help others catch more fish! After all, helping people is what I do now and a Psychologist.

Well the video is just a bunch of shooting and a few bad words slipped by my editing so if you are watching with the kids, there are a couple bad words. Not horrible but I like to have that stuff edited out. Well, thanks for reading and watching. Don't forget to subscribe to my youtube channel if you like what you see and please, if you don't like what you see, let me know so I can get better.

Chicagoland Fishing, Travel & Outdoor Expo - Schaumburg 1/30/2016

Went to the show out in Schaumburg today and was not expecting much to be honest after going to the show in Rosemont for the past few years. I did however, need a few things and wanted to meet some people that I have been acquainted with on the internet. My fishing partner also wanted to buy a new reel to match his Abu Garcia Veritas Rod for jig and frog fishing.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was plenty of parking and amazingly, it was free. That was nice not to have to unload 20 bucks right off the bat just to park. Also, the walk was not far from the parking lot to the event and we were not there that early so this was nice. Upon entering the convention center, there was plenty of room leading up to the ticket booths and I purchased my ticket in about 2 minutes from entering.

We walked the short distance to the show from the ticket booths and immediately noticed the size of the show. As we walked through there were plenty of booths with tackle and gear. From initial looks, reasonable prices as well. We made the decision to walk through the show and make notes of the booths we wanted to revisit to buy the stuff we came for.

My friend was in the market for a reel and we stopped by the Anglers Resource Booth and met Casey who was very friendly and knowledgeable about his products. They had a good deal but just did not have the brand my friend was looking for. If you purchased a reel 100 dollars or more, you would get an 80 rod for free. We talked for a while and moved on. We found another retailer The Anglers Outlet from Oak Forest and they had exactly what my friend was looking for. He was comparing the Abu Garcia Revo SX and STX. He ultimately decided on the Revo SX and the price was 25 dollars lower that that of Bass Pro. The guys at the booth were very nice and definitely helped in the decision.

I noticed while I was waiting in line with my friend to purchase his reel the guys from the Cast Crew just down a bit. I went down there to meet some of the guys. I talked a bit with them and they are cool for sure. I wanted to purchase a hat and shirt from them so I could represent this season. I talked with Jaypee and found out we had some of the same acquaintances and a common friend that we both used to fish with who is no longer with us. RIP Tony! We talked for a while and I did get the hat I wanted with the shirt. I also met Travis Crossman from Stankx Baits. I have been buying soft plastics from him for several years now so it was nice to put a face with the name. Ryan and Ray were also cool and we talked a bit about camera equipment and local lakes we have frequented. Great guys and check them out at Cast312.com. Their hats were very good quality as well as was the t-shirt. Was great to meet you guys and hope to see you out on the water this year.

Back to business. I needed some new sunglasses and was looking for Strike King S11's. I could not find them anywhere at the show although I have to believe someone had them there because of the amount of retailers at the show. I did find the guys from Blue Fin Eyewear and liked the glasses they had on display. I tried them on and these were extremely comfortable and looked great. They were on sale for 25 dollars a pair which was very reasonable for this quality of glasses. Since we bought three pair, Steve gave them to us for 20 dollars a pair and they came with a lifetime guarantee. Great price! As we talked they were all the way from Louisiana. Great guys for sure and glad to meet them.

On the way out near the guys at BlueFin Eyewear I noticed Nick from Brookfield Angler. He was working the booth for Quest Watersports and I got a chance to say hi to him. Great guy and he has a great blog. Check him out at Brookfieldangler.com

Overall this show had a lot to offer in a relatively small package. There was a lot of tackle and gear for good show special prices and much better than the Rosemont Show. I highly recommend getting out and checking out this show before it ends tomorrow.

Solo Pheasants Coon Creek January 23,2016

Well needed to take advantage of the nice January weather we are having and got out again with the dogs to Coon Creek. I was going to try and go solo because I had nobody available to come along. I have never hunted pheasants on my own with my two pointers, Tino and Roxy.

We got to the club at 12:30 and it was a beautiful day. The temps were upper 20's and the wind was not blowing. I got ready and got the green light to hit the field. I had no idea how difficult it would be to film, hunt, and run the dogs. The dogs went on point shortly after we stepped into the field and Tino was on a bird. Roxy was honoring him as she does and I was trying to take a pic, video, and move in for the flush. Well, that did not work too well and the bird was up and on his feet as you can see by Tino creeping in towards him. This is customary for Tino or Roxy to do. They instinctively know that if the bird holds, they hold and if the bird creeps, they creep too. The bird took flight while I was putting away my iphone and I did not take the safety off and I did hit the bird but he flew a couple hundred yards away. We would get this bird later.

The camera angle was off a bit on my head cam and I think it was pointed too far up because the view was too high most of the video. We continued to hunt and I saw many birds. I did harvest 4, which with all I was trying to do felt pretty good. The dogs did great and Roxy continues to get better at carrying birds and is picking them up now. Tino is an absolute beast! He continues to become better and better and he is definitely a once in a lifetime dog. Anyone who has hunted over him can see that he is a special dog.

Well I did put together some video and feel that I'm getting comfortable with my new computer and new editing software. So here is the video and hopefully, I will be getting better with the camera angles and when I get my new camcorder, will be putting together some better quality vids in the future. Thanks for watching and visit me on facebook and instagram at adventuresmidwest!!!

More Late Season Pheasants

Well this is typically the time of year the dogs and I and my friends really get on the pheasants. It is a great time of year to hunt pheasants because the colder weather affects them in that they hold better and the points are usually intense. It also makes it easier to harvest birds because they are not running and if you have ever seen a pheasant run, they can move out!!!

We hunt Coon Creek Hunt Club in Garden Prairie Illinois. They are great and treat my guests and I awesome every time we go out. They really go the extra mile to make hunters feel at home.

Today was not planned and my friend Bill and I talked Thursday night to determine that Saturday afternoon would be colder, but a good day overall to get out. I made the call and put out 6 birds for us. This is a little light on birds but every time we have gone out, we have seen many more than what we put out. This trip was no exception. It is also great to get out later in the season because the amount of birds running around on the property is staggering.

We hit the field at about 1:00 and by 1:20, we had three opportunities. It is amazing watching the dogs work and how they can pinpoint the birds. I am lucky to have two German Short haired Pointers and two good ones at that. My liver and white male is an absolute beast!
He is turning 7 on St. Patrick's Day this year but still hunts as if he is two or three. He is driven like I have never seen and just keeps going. In fact, I feel sorry for my young female because he finds the birds so fast, she does not get a chance to point a lot of birds. She is a two year old female and learns every time we go out. My big male ranges very far and covers a lot of ground whereas, she works in close and is always looking to see where the hunters are and also where Tino my male is. She then seems to make decisions on where to go on that. It is really amazing because it seems as though she is thinking about where she wants to go. We saw 10 birds and only put six out. This was actually a slow day because several weeks ago, we put out six and took home fourteen. No complaints though because the reason we only got six was we were practicing conservation and missed several. My friend Bill was having a bit of gun trouble, and I was jut not really shooting that well.

I have a video of the outing and am happy to be back at making videos due to my Macbook crashing. I now have a new machine with new software for editing. This is a story for another time and I will be putting up a review of the machine which is an MSI GE-72 Dominator. I am super happy with this machine so far and will be adding a new professional camcorder to enhance the videos that I will be producing.

Don't forget to check out the Youtube channel and subscribe if you like it. Send some feedback good or bad so I can continue to improve the quality of my videos. Thanks for reading and check out the video.

Late season pheasants!!!

I haven't been out in a while with the dogs because of so much time invested deer hunting this year and the weather being a bit out of the norm. The pheasant fields were flooded pretty heavily anyway and the last time out, we were having a difficult time with walking due to the deep water. We still did pretty good considering the dogs did most of the work.

This story begins with my birthday being on January 5 and I just did not want to go to work, so I called up the pheasant club, and they said the fields are more than huntable now and to come on out. I made a reservation and invited my cousin to come with so I had an extra gun. I had no idea what we would be in store for!

We got out to the club like many other times and said hi to the people working and putting the birds out and got ready to hunt. Jim, one of the gentlemen that works there said he saw a bunch of pheasants grouped up in the field we would be hunting and gave directions on where they were. I half listened and just kept getting ready to hunt. We were ready to go and proceeded to get the dogs out of the care and walk to the field.

We get into the field and my big male takes exactly one minute and thirty seconds to go on point! I flushed the bird and thought I made a good shot. Well the pheasant was running and as it turned out, he ran directly into a hawk that must have been doing a little pheasant hunting of his own. In the video you will see the rooster run across the road and then minutes later, we saw the hawk take off and the rooster was already being eaten. The hawk made quick work of that poor little pheasant. As we kept working down the field with the dogs we approached the end of the field and only saw that one bird. I was getting a bit disappointed because we were just told how many were bunched up in that field. We kept walking and working down the tree line on the far side of our field. Then about mid way down the fence line we could see the heads of about 25 pheasants running down the rows of sorghum. We followed close behind the dogs and they both went on point. We flushed the bird and got him, and then it happened. We turned as another bird took flight and there were about 50 pheasants in the air. I have never see a flock of pheasants like that in my life. This was really cool. The dogs of course went nuts tracking them and I could only imagine how much scent was out there for them to smell.


We continued working this field and the birds were going up four and five at a time. We were actually running out of shells as they would come up. This was a truly special day to be out in the woods with a good friend and my two dogs Tino and Roxy, who when I think about it are the real stars of the day. They consistently find birds in the field and sometimes it is amazing how they can find a downed bird so far from where we hit them. Without the dogs, we would not even have half the birds that we do. I am particulary luck with my two pointers because they can really get them going.

I am hoping I can get the video link up here because the file would not load to youtube like normal but I did get it into Facebook. So please check out my Facebook page Adventures Midwest and see the whole video!!!!!

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I will get the video thing sorted out!!!!

Got the bug!!!!!

Well I have not been writing all that much over the past several years and this past hunting season got me thinking that I have my blog page setup and why not get going again. I have had some cool things happen this hunting season and I am feeling bad for not documenting them because they are once in a lifetime events. For example, while out deer hunting I witnessed one of the most intense deer fights I have ever seen. Then I rattled one of the big boys in and he was a large deer. I did not get a shot at him because my release broke but what an experience. This is just a short notice that I will hopefully do better at documenting my outings in the future.

I will be buying a much better camera for videos of fishing, hunting, dog training, and anything else I manage to get myself into!! I am looking forward to starting to write again and will be bringing some educational videos as well. So keep an eye out for my new entries and hopefully I will not get into too much trouble!!!! Thanks for listening and I will be back soon with some new material.

For now, check out my Youtube page 1080tommy1 which does have some newer videos of hunting outings. For example, there is a cool video of when I got to fly an AT-6 Texan with Gauntlet Warbirds. I will hopefully have some new videos of Tino and Roxy my two German Shorthaired Pointers working out at Coon Creek Hunt Club soon too!!!!

See you out there. Tight lines and Shoot straight.