Get Back On The Gar!

Gar are living fossils, members of the Lepisosteiformes family of fish, which can be traced back through the fossil record to the Late Jurassic. They're also massively under fished and big fun to catch.

That's because these large predators typically put up a tremendous fight, running, thrashing, leaping and diving with your bait. Exciting, but there's a catch.

The Last Run

You see, the problem with these overlooked and abundant fish is that they're hard to catch. Sure, they'll take your bait, run with it and in a fit of enthusiasm you set the hook. Snap! but no, no snap, the contemptuous Gar drops it all and swims nonchalantly away. 

That's because your hook can't find purchase in the bony, Jurassic beak of the Gar, which cunningly plays with what's on offer before attempting to swallow the shad, worm, liver, minnow or whatever you're throwing in. This all translates into the fish being able to drop your bait during its first run.

Let's Zoom In

So don't try for a quick hookset, let the prehistoric beast make its run, then let it stop, meditate, play with the bait and run again. Be sure to let the drag play out to least resistance, you don't want to spook the fish, she'll drop everything and swim off. But keep with her; after a few minutes she'll start to swallow the bait and make an effort to head downstream.

Observe the fish through the technological marvel of your polarized glasses. Is the bait at the back of the Gar's beak, is it heading away from you, have you felt it trying to gulp the bait down, yes? Time to tighten the drag and set the hook. BANG, the fight's on.

Smallest of Three

And I tell you, it's well worth the patient opening act. Imagine the armored ambush predator, and they can be large, leaping furiously clear of the water on its charge to escape your line. Great excitement.

I brought three of these creatures up to the pier today but only landed one, the others were too large and broke the line (#12 test on a light rod). At this point it obviously makes sense to invest in a more substantial rig.

There's doubtless a moral in all of this but I won't draw it. That's up to you.

Fish on,

LSP

So Very Vulgar

Some smart, cultured, conservative people don't like President Trump and didn't vote for him. Not so much because of what he had to say, like strong borders (Build The Wall), and smaller less corrupt government (Drain The Swamp, Lock Her Up), but because he's "vulgar."

No, This is Not Saudi Arabia

President Trump, vulgar?!? You mean he puts ketchup on his steak and builds GOLDEN TOWERS with his name on them?!? How very vulgar, can't vote for him; so much better to have one of our inside-the-beltway, political class elites run the country. 

You know, the same crew who've been country club asset-stripping the country for a couple of decades.

A Typical Millionaire Socialist

Yes, these conservative intellectual aesthetes effectively preferred Hillary over Trump, even though she was their ideological nemesis. No matter, she wasn't as crude as the Diet Coke drinking, fast food eating, orange Donald.

Then there's the progressive left, they think Trump's vulgar too and unfit to be President. But hold on, Kathy Griffin's "headshot" wasn't vulgar? What about Samantha Bee and Robert De Niro? For that matter, consider the Hillary campaign funded P**gate dossier. Nothing vulgar about that, at all.

Vulgar

And guess what, when faced with the polished MillSoc, bi-coastal elite spectacle of someone like Hillary running the country, the people voted for Trump. Aesthetics bedamned and rightly so.

What, after all, is wrong with an American President promising to put America first by bringing back jobs, lowering taxes, securing the border and cutting parasitical government corruption? For that matter, what's wrong with an American President actually being a patriot?

Sorry, Mittens, You're Not Vulgar Enough

How very vulgar. But sorry, Ivory Tower conservatives and Progleft Elitocracy, the people of America want this country to be great again as opposed to being a subset of a tyrannous New World Order.

That's all and good luck with your "blue wave."

MAGA,

LSP

Texas Heat

Look here, you lot. Thanks to our old enemy, the Weather, it's like an oven outside which makes it too hot to think. So here's a few infographics to aid the thought process.

The Left loves Islam, even though Islam wants to chop 

their heads off.

Anthony Bourdain was a leftist but was he about to go MAGA and cross the Clintons? Good question. Now he's dead.

Madonna's not dead and hasn't crossed the Clintons. Some say she's getting ready to run on an Alec Baldwin ticket for Dem VP. Don't say Illuminati Witch.

Try not to melt,

LSP

Open The Gate

Sure, open the gate but to what, hog hunting? That was the plan but it fell apart because we went out to catch Bluegill for dinner and couldn't stop.

First Catch Of The Day

H.E. pulled out the first, big as a dinner plate, thank you very much, and they kept on coming, one enormous, piranhalike predator after another. Outstanding fishing, with more than enough and to spare.

Some Old Fool With A Fish

By the time the beasts were filleted, beer batter deep-fried and eaten, delicious, the pig hunting moment had passed. Not to worry, there's plenty of time to get on the porcuswine  in another evolution.

Keepers, The Rest Went Back

The next day, as the fierce Texan sun rose in the morning sky and the rest of the team slumbered, it seemed right to try the waters again. 

Typical

First off, a few familiar perch and that was fine, good fun, but you feel the need to change it up. So I went topwater with a torpedo in search of Bass and BANG!

Ho, Ho, Ho! A Bass!

After a few minutes of patient, twitching retrieve, Bass were exploding onto the lure with piscine fury. Big fun but word to the wise. It's tempting, in the initial crash of the predator onto your lure, to try and set the hook. 

Fighter

Don't, you'll probably lose the fish. Instead, let the beast take the lure, dive down and the fight's yours.

Ferox

And so it was, I lost a couple and caught a couple. Great sport and I left that compound uplifted in mind, body and spirit. Next time we'll address the hog issue.

The moral of this exciting story? If you miss the hog, get on the fish.

Tight lines,

LSP

Trump-Kim Summit Analysis

Here at  the Compound we often feel that a picture's worth a thousand words.

Peace out,

LSP

Catholic Restoration

Via Adrienne: Wake up and reclaim your culture.

Say Charles Martell.

Deus Vult,

LSP

Follow The Flag Catch The Fish

Orders are simple. RV (Rendezvous) with friendly forces at a 

secret location, deep in rural Texas. 

Then follow the flag.

And when you do, you catch fish.

There's a moral here, if you care to draw it. In other news, the Grand Commander's accused Canada's Suprema of being "weak" and "dishonest." Other's say there's a "special place in hell" for "backstabbers."

Don't say Little Potato,

LSP

Little Davey

Here in the newsroom we hope you're as delighted with this infographic as we are.

That is all,

LSP

Sin Against The Holy Spirit

Please don't wag your heads and laugh us to scorn, all you Latin Mass and BCP trads, but here in the Missions we use the newfangled 1979 Lectionary. 

This means that Sunday's Gospel is from Mark, in which Christ is accused by the Scribes of a diabolical plot, of casting out devils by the power of the Ekronite demon, Baalzebul.

After exposing their absurdity, Jesus blasts his accusers with the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit. Why unforgivable? Because believing that Christ is satanic and rejecting the salvation offered through the Holy Spirit precludes repentance and with it, forgiveness itself.

John Paul II puts it clearly, in his Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem:

Why is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit unforgivable? How should this blasphemy be understood? Saint Thomas Aquinas replies that it is a question of a sin that is 'unforgivable by its very nature, insofar as it excludes the elements through which the forgiveness of sin takes place' (ST 2b:14:3). According to such an exegesis, 'blasphemy' does not properly consist in offending against the Holy Spirit in words; it consists rather in the refusal to accept the salvation which God offers to man through the Holy Spirit, working through the power of the Cross. If man rejects the 'convincing concerning sin' which comes from the Holy Spirit and which has the power to save, he also rejects the 'coming' of the Counsellor...

If Jesus says that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven either in this life or in the next, it is because this 'non-forgiveness' is linked, as to its cause, to 'non-repentance', in other words to the radical refusal to be converted... Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a 'right' to persist in evil—in any sin at all...

[T]he Church constantly implores with the greatest fervor that there will be no increase in the world of the sin that the Gospel calls 'blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.' Rather, she prays that it will decrease in human souls" (Encyclical Letter Dominum et Vivificantem ["The Lord and Giver of Life"] 46-47).

Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a 'right' to persist in evil—in any sin at all. 

Well that's terrifyingly in the X Ring.

Ubi Petrus,

LSP

The Face Of The Anglican Communion

Thanks to Climate Change, it was cool and springlike this morning, a mere 23* and then BOOM, there it was, the Anglican Communion, parked outside of a Pick 'n Steal in asset stripped rural Texas.

No Driver

No one was driving this car, the driver's seat was empty, but the vehicle had a passenger. You could see it, grinning.

Look, I'm not saying the Worldwide Anglican Non Communion is a driverless yellow car carting about a crew of clowns to the nearest Pick 'n Steal, that's your call.

Turtle

After taking photos of the Anglican Communion, I went fishing. It was a bit slow, 6 catfish (one BIG), 1 large Bluegill, a bait Perch that nearly caught a Gar and a turtle. 

Little Fella

All went back to fight again another day.

God bless,

LSP

Black Lives Matter

No further comment except to say that Sharpton is a mountebank.

Well done, Kim.

MAGA,

LSP

The Grand Commander & Little Potato

The Chinese call President Trump "Grand Commander."

Chinese Women Laugh At Trudeau

They call Justin Peoplekind Trudeau "Little Potato."

A Little Potato Starter Pack

Perceptive lot, the Chinese.

God bless,

LSP