Does anyone else feel this way

[RedCapTrio]

Well, I don't mind handling these...

I used to have 6 of these in a matchbox when I was a kid and we hunt for them ourselves at night using torches.

Then we pit them off to fight! Please don't judge as it is one of our fave past times.

 

[kormath]

I've done the same in my youth. Putting various bugs in the same containers to see who would survive. Spiders vs ants or other spiders. Was entertaining at that age.

 

[Rockpython]

I've done the same in my youth. Putting various bugs in the same containers to see who would survive. Spiders vs ants or other spiders. Was entertaining at that age.

Ya know, I have to agree... it must be an instinctive desire, but only then, because now my motto is "respect all life" and I hate to see anything hurt. (Although I do enjoy feeding, i respect and take good care of my feeders)

 

[kormath]

Ya know, I have to agree... it must be an instinctive desire, but only then, because now my motto is "respect all life" and I hate to see anything hurt. (Although I do enjoy feeding, i respect and take good care of my feeders)

Exactly. I think we've matured from the bug wars as teens to enjoying watching our prized Ts take down that annoying cricket or pile drive that roach as it races by.

 

[swimbait]

Exactly. I think we've matured from the bug wars as teens to enjoying watching our prized Ts take down that annoying cricket or pile drive that roach as it races by.

Lol my bug wars ended before my teenage years forsure. I was keeping tarantulas by 13 I think

 

[kormath]

I don't think i knew they existed at 13, probably did but they weren't an interest. Back then my hobbies were nintendo, pc games, bug wars, and the local entomology club, and i was heavy into fishing. I'd go a few blocks away to the river that ran by town (back before all the rich people from the resort town i live in now and California came in and bought up the property and banned anyone from fishing) and spend the afternoon after school catching my limit so we could eat fish for dinner. I probably spent a good 20-30 hours a week on the river. When the fish weren't biting the bugs were fighting

Really burns me up they banned any fishing where i grew up. Makes my week to go a few blocks down the river to my friends parents place and then walk the tide lines to the good fishing holes. Then these summer people that live a few weeks a year there come out yelling at me to get off their property. I calmly tell them they own the property up to the high water mark, from there to the other other side is government land. I've had the police called on me a few times (who's a pretty good friend of mine) only to have him explain the maritime laws to the land owner.

Can't wait to do that again this spring, my dad says there's a new owner there now Maybe i should bring the police with me and go fishing lol.

Nothing against people from Cali mind you, just those few that give all the rest a bad name, the rich ones that think their money can allow them to do anything they feel like. We see them all the time up here in the resort.

 

[swimbait]

I grew up with exotics, was born into a house with a couple snakes that ended up handed down to me at a very young age. I don't know life without a reptile as a pet. Took me a while to get into Tarantulas, but my first T's were 2 hmacs and 2 obts lol. I definitely wasn't into tarantulas then the way I am now though. Fishing happens to be my biggest passion, hence my username, I fish 150+ days a year at least for a couple hours at a time. During my breaks when I take fishing trips, I will fish 14 hours a day easy. Not a big ice fisherman though, the winter is sorta when I begin to hoard tarantulas. My collection always grows immensely in the winters. I think I have gotten 50 or so new tarantulas since november

 

[kormath]

I love ice fishing. If you have the right supplies anway. We used a shack frame with the thickest visquine plastic we could find covering it. Couple lawn chairs and a cooler as a table and the ice auger. The door side was the only solid side of the shack. Kept it out on the ice long after it wasn't thick enough for the overkill people with their custom made sled cabins and stuff to come out on.

With just that plastic covering it'd be shirt sleeve temp in the shack, and the ice hole wouldn't need to be cleared as much as out in the open. Was a great way to spend a weekend. Setup the shack friday afternoon after work, go out in the morning with the cooler of food and drinks, fish till almost dark and go back home, repeat on Sunday, then Monday after work remove the shack until the next weekend we had free.

Fly fishing is my passion now. Much more of a challenge than bait and lure fishing. Get a 2 or 3 lb trout on a fly rod and it's a real fight

 

[swimbait]

Leave your hut overnight!? You definitely live somewhere with fisherman with better morals, that wouldn't last a night here in CO unfortunately. I think I'd be more into ice fishing if I had better opportunities near me. Sure I know guys catching fish around me but those fish are perch and trout. I'm not a big fish eater, in fact I hate fish for the most part, so fishing for tablefare doesn't really excite me. Stocker trout are as good as snagging the bottom to me so no point there either. If I wanted to drive a few hours I could have a shot at big lake trout, but I'd be surrounded by a bunch of other hooligans and I hate fishing by people...I could drive a couple more hours for some big pike and no crowds but then I'd be spending a ton of money on gas, and would need ice equipment. This year one of my spots didn't even freeze so I've been catching open water walleye all winter, no point for me to by ice stuff when at maximum I have to go 2 months out of the year without soft water. I'd rather save the money and spend it on lures at the beginning of spring

 

[kormath]

There's a trick. Being one of the biggest people to go through the school where i grew up helps (I was 6'4" and about 220, my older brother topped me by an inch and maybe 20 lbs, my younger brother is a couple inches shorter and a bit bigger than my older brother), and knowing everyone in the town (less than 500 people in town and maybe 100 in the surrounding farms) helped to keep the shack safe on the ice. My family there is well liked, my Dad just got votd in as the mayor this year, and mom was the public librarian for the last 25 years or so until she retired this past August. We didn't leave anything in it, we'd take the chairs and cooler and whatnot out with us each time.

Also having the local sheriff deputy (the town's not big enough for it's own police force) come out and fish with us helped too On average i'd say we knew 90% of the people on the ice, and the 10% or so we didn't know someone in the 90% we did know knew them.

Also the last time i went ice fishing there was 15 years ago give or take, so maybe things have changed now.

 

[N8tive556]

I am totally scared of house spiders but absolute love tarantulas people ask me how can that be!! Can't really answer why. Is any one else like that?

Honestly for me it depends on the situation, if I see the spider I'll try to catch it to relocate it (won't lie, species dependent) now if I'm in a location where I'm just seeing a lot of webbing I do in fact tend to get nervous, I don't know what kind of spider it may be and I really don't care for surprises... Lol

 

[swimbait]

There's a trick. Being one of the biggest people to go through the school where i grew up helps (I was 6'4" and about 220, my older brother topped me by an inch and maybe 20 lbs, my younger brother is a couple inches shorter and a bit bigger than my older brother), and knowing everyone in the town (less than 500 people in town and maybe 100 in the surrounding farms) helped to keep the shack safe on the ice. My family there is well liked, my Dad just got votd in as the mayor this year, and mom was the public librarian for the last 25 years or so until she retired this past August. We didn't leave anything in it, we'd take the chairs and cooler and whatnot out with us each time.

Also having the local sheriff deputy (the town's not big enough for it's own police force) come out and fish with us helped too On average i'd say we knew 90% of the people on the ice, and the 10% or so we didn't know someone in the 90% we did know knew them.

Also the last time i went ice fishing there was 15 years ago give or take, so maybe things have changed now.

Yeah small towns are nice, I happen to be by a city so you don't know anyone around you.

 

[Phil]

I love orb weavers just as much as tarantulas!View attachment 14018

I am sort of on the fence here.....can understand the house spiders freaking tarantula keepers. I always pick them up with a tissue and release rather than crawl on me....strange as I let Ts do it. Orb weavers however I adore for their industry. There was one that set up home right in the middle of my lounge window frame (on the ojtside). It was almost saying to me....feed me....so I started to give it crickets on the web. Excellent little hunters and was awesome to watch. Plus I think it was the fattest spider on the street....lol. went missing one day never to bE seen again. Probably a tasty treat for a bird. I was actuallt sad not to see it again. I do have a videology of it huntil and feeding to remind me. . Even the neighbourhood kids would watch it feed.....lol

 

[swimbait]

I also love orb weavers, have kept several in the past.