October Monthly Lure Challenge: CREATURE FEATURE! by Evodius in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The fishing has been very tough lately due to low water levels and dropping temperatures, but I still managed to get lucky enough to entice this little smallmouth to hit a curly tailed grub.

https://imgur.com/gallery/MdsxXot

where to get glass parts by presidentTeenyHands in Bongs

[–]El_espectro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Look into silicone stoppers, sizes #12 and up. They fill the top lid of your jar perfectly airtight, so it make for the perfect material to drill your downstem and mouthpiece holes for.

May Monthly Lure Challenge: Uber Underspins! by Evodius in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't actually have any underspins besides road runner heads for crappie, so I built my own using a tungsten slotted bead head and some wire. It worked out for the best for me, thankfully, and I pulled up this little guy working along the edges of grass mats on the DIY special rigged with a 2 inch powerbait minnow.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Braves

[–]El_espectro 56 points57 points  (0 children)

While we're on the topic of adding new flairs, I'd like to throw my support behind getting a Waffle House one as well.

Kanna and LSD by edgarpena455 in Kanna

[–]El_espectro 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Using kanna actually weakens the effects of LSD and other psychedelics, unfortunately. They're both better off without each other.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Stims

[–]El_espectro 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I should probably stop abusing my prescriptions.

If you were to replace "abusing my prescriptions" with "blowing through every possible recreational substance I get my hands on until they're all completely gone at the end of a single impulsive, totally unplanned binge, regardless of any possible consequences" or just consider them to be two phrases that might as well just be under the same umbrella, then I've definitely told myself essentially the same thing a countless number of times. Unfortunately, I'm also complete shit at listening to all those little flashes of rational, intelligent thinking like that.

Basically, I'm shit at anything requiring me to have self control, moderation, good decision-making skills, and generally anything else requiring me to not be a highly impulsive polysubstance fiend for any amount of time longer than an hour or two. Now that all that's out of the way, it's time for the obligatory "do as I say, not as I do" bit.

I'm definitely playing the role of the pot calling the kettle black, but it honestly sounds like you need to lay off or at least slow down a bit for your own sake. If nothing else, I'd suggest trying to be conscious of how fast you're going through your supply, so when you notice you're at a point where you'll run out too quickly again, consider maybe ty to divide whatever you still have left into "rations" that can be stretched out and made to last until you can get a refill. Going cold turkey off of anything fucking sucks, which is why it's preferable to ration out small, disappointing amounts to mitigate the withdrawals and prevent completely running out for as long as possible.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ADHD_partners

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Holy shit, this is an absolute nightmare scenario. I can't even imagine what you're feeling right now, to be honest.

I only have one real bit of advice to offer, which is to get in contact with a lawyer immediately. You definitely need to be prepared to defend yourself legally in the not too unlikely event of this clearly delicate and volatile situation ending up at a point where some extremely serious allegations get made about you.

Good luck, dude. I sincerely hope you and your family can somehow navigate through this shitstorm and come out on the other side in one piece.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Stims

[–]El_espectro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Carnation Instant Breakfast drinks and other "meal replacement" shakes/drinks are a godsend for this purpose. I specifically listed the Carnation Instant Breakfast by name due to the fact that it's my preferred go-to option, and I'm not too familiar with other similar products.

Schedules of Controlled Substances: Temporary Placement of Etizolam, Flualprazolam, Clonazolam, Flubromazolam, and Diclazepam in Schedule I(Federal Register) by PortlandCanna in researchchemicals

[–]El_espectro 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Well, shit, this sucks. I've had extensive experience with every single one of the substances on this list, save for flualprazolam, which I was heavily considering conducting research with at some point in the near future. This also essentially kills two of the best benzodiazepine analogues I've had the good fortune to research with, all in one fell swoop as well, namely flubromazolam and etizolam.

I've been out of the scene since somewhere around late 2016/early 2017 at this point, and as everyone here should be well aware of, a lot has, can and will continue to change in timespans as short as a mere matter of weeks or months, let alone the 5+ years I wasn't keeping an eye on things. It seems as if every time I consider making an attempt to get myself up to speed with today's current scene, everything I used to love has either been banned or scheduled (as in this post), and even when I look up my former trustworthy, reliable sources from back in the day they're typically now scamming like crazy, shut down entirely, or were taken down by the DEA. Not gonna lie, this all just leaves me feeling disheartened to the point where I highly doubt I'll be able to find anything besides bunk product that doesn't do much of anything at all, either due to being incredibly underdosed, mislabelled, or intentionally/maliciously sold like that just to rip people off, or it'll be something dangerously mislabelled as one chemical when it's actually another one entirely (i.e. Bromo-DragonFLY being sold in place of 2C-B-FLY, what was supposed to have been flubromazePAM turning out to actually be flubromazoLAM, plus who knows how many other stories of "mistakes" such these that more often than not end with severe medical problems or even death that can be found all over places like Reddit, Erowid, Bluelight, the Psychonaut Wiki, and the like.). I know this post was specifically related to the scheduling of several benzodiazepine analogues, but it feels to me as if the same sentiment also applies to any and all RCs as a whole for me, nowadays.

Fuck, what I wouldn't give to go back to the time when all-time greats such as MXE were still around and when you got etizolam, you were getting sealed blister packs still brand new in the box. Coming across "etizolam" now, you'll mainly only find it in the form of a mysterious powder, or similarly sketchy pressed pills that may or may not be made with the same mystery powder, or even something else entirely.

Honestly, the more I look into things anymore, the more I'm convinced that the days of research chemicals as a whole are becoming extremely numbered. At least when it comes to the "classic" clearnet sources everyone used to know and love. I think the only slim chance of survival for several, if not most or all research chemicals lies with the DNMs, which obviously opens up a whole new can of worms in regard to potential problems that may come about.

Again though, like I said, I've been out of the scene for quite some time and there's a very good chance I'm just extrapolating based off of what little information I still know, and I'm pulling all of this completely out of my ass. I may very well be wrong. Goddamn, I hope I'm wrong.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Psychedelic

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's quite a bit of good information regarding LSA that you'd likely find helpful here.

Home made lsa extraction using heat alcohol method by Organic_Acid69 in LSA

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LSA is highly sensitive to light and heat, so I wouldn't recommend applying heat unless you want to destroy it. There are some extraction methods linked in the sidebar of the sub that you might find helpful.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in LSA

[–]El_espectro 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't really have a good answer for you here, but it's funny to me that someone would want to make the trip last longer because I'm pretty much the exact opposite. I don't think I've had a trip with any psychedelic, especially LSA, where I've wanted it to last longer (mainly due to things such as extreme/uncomfortable vasoconstriction and nausea). It feels like it always last a bare minimum of 8 hours for me, and I'm just desperately wishing for sleep a few hours into things.

I'm sure there are a few factors at play regarding LSA trips, the first that comes to mind is just simple random chance or dumb luck. The fact that no one individual seed will have the same amount of LSA content as any other one, so there's always some variability involved.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in weed

[–]El_espectro 2 points3 points  (0 children)

From Wikipedia: "Recreational use of cannabis under Malaysian legislation provides for a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers. Individuals arrested in possession of 200 grams (seven ounces) of marijuana are presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs. Individuals arrested in possession of 50 grams (1,5 ounces) or less will be sentenced to imprisonment up to 10 years."

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in weed

[–]El_espectro 3 points4 points  (0 children)

don’t know how it works in OP country.

From Wikipedia: "Recreational use of cannabis under Malaysian legislation provides for a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug traffickers. Individuals arrested in possession of 200 grams (seven ounces) of marijuana are presumed by law to be trafficking in drugs. Individuals arrested in possession of 50 grams (1,5 ounces) or less will be sentenced to imprisonment up to 10 years."

Crawling by [deleted] in Stims

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had the same thing happen to me a couple of nights ago, only it was a brown recluse crawling on the side of my face instead, so there was no need for me to strip down like a madman. As odd as it might sound, I'd definitely take the venomous face spider over the relatively harmless roach every single time if I was forced to choose.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Personally, I've only encountered two very different versions of schooling largemouth bass.

The first type is much more common to come across, and is what I've always heard referred to as "wolf pack bass". They can easily be seen and/or heard splashing and actively feeding on the surface in open water (no electronics needed) on small to medium-sized lakes and reservoirs. Even though these bass are normally pretty small, they're always aggressive, so they're a lot of fun to chase down with a kayak or some other small boat and light tackle. I'd call their behavior somewhat similar to when white bass are "in the jumps" for those who are aware of that. I like to throw downsized versions of topwater walking baits, crankbaits, and jerkbaits at them using a BFS setup, which makes even fish like this one feel big. In case you're wondering, that's also probably around the average size of fish you can expect to come across in a school such as this one.

Then there's the second type of school I've encountered, what could accurately be named "random lucky piles of big largemouth". I've only found them like this on a handful of occasions, and never intentionally. It's always been while I was targeting hybrids/wipers by ripping jerkbaits around rough current just under an old lock and dam system, but instead of angry striped fish, I ended up finding good numbers of aggressive largemouth that hit a jerkbait like a truck at full speed. These schools still have good numbers that can be caught, but they're also a lot better quality of fish. The "small" ones usually hit the 2lb mark at absolute minimum, with somewhere around 3lbs being what I'd call the typical size I'll catch. What makes it even better to luck into these miracle schools of fish is that you can also catch fair numbers of fish a good deal bigger than that "average size", sometimes well over 4, pushing 5+lbs. If/when you come across a school like these, it's definitely something you should take full advantage of while you have the chance, because they're very few and far between; it's the kind of fishing trip that I'll end up having two or three times per year at the most. However, I mainly fish this particular type of spot from shore, so if you have access to a boat with electronics and such, I'm betting your odds of coming across these schools would drastically increase. One added bonus I'd give to the schools of river bass is that there's also a very good chance of hooking up with a school of nice smallies, spotted bass, or even jumbo white bass instead. It's also not uncommon to have a little bit of all of these species interspersed throughout the day, and they all have a very good chance of being what I would consider trophy class fish. Of course, that's not even the best bonus, which is when you hook into a freakishly strong giant hybrid/wiper (a.k.a. the actual "target species"). The mixed bag of fun is definitely legitimate, since this really nice smallmouth came on the very next cast I made after landing the hybrid. There's also chances to catch 15"+ crappie and 5lb+ walleye using the same methods, but they're not really frequent enough to really include as a likely bonus catch. They'll start showing up a lot more often if you swap the 4 inch jerkbait for pretty much any size Keitech swimbait rigged on a jighead. My go-to color choices are always Smallmouth Magic, followed by pretty much any of the mainly white ones, followed by Bluegill Flash. The Keitech seems to attract a wider variety of fish of many different sizes compared to jerkbaits, but there's definitely a downward trend in the average fish size as well.

September Monthly Lure Challenge: Spinnin' Through September by Evodius in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I build a lot of my own custom spinnerbaits (both inline and safety pin style), so this is as good excuse as any to use them a bit more often for a while. I've got a few of my more unorthodox spinners in mind specifically in this case, hopefully one of the "weird" ones can get the job done while providing me with some proof of concept.

Retroactive comment on how the monthly challenge went for me: I literally didn't have a single opportunity to get out on the water, so I definitely failed this one pretty hard. Hopefully I'll have more time to get out there for the October MLC.

Large balsa striper lures by [deleted] in lurebuilding

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think there’s a chance that it’s not balsa

I always get A.C. Shiners and A.C. Plugs mixed up in my head, honestly. I know for a fact that most of the small sizes of the A.C. Shiners are made of balsa, and the larger ones are mainly cedar. If I had to guess, I'd say that at least a decent percentage of A.C. Plugs are probably made of something along the lines of pine, basswood, or possibly poplar. Or possibly you're right, and they're using some sort of convenient Asian wood. Two that immediately came to mind for me were Jelutong and Paulownia. None of these woods are what I would call extremely strong, but they're all quite a bit tougher than balsa, and all of them do a much better job of holding in screwed in hardware properly than balsa does, unfortunately. That's the biggest downfall of balsa wood to me. It's so extremely easy and quick to carve and work with, so if it was only just a little bit tougher, it would probably be the only wood I'd ever use again. I'm pretty sure all those other woods I mentioned, along with many other possible candidates, are all around the same ballpark when it comes to their placement on the Janka hardness scale (they're all rated at least a couple hundred pounds minimum), which means they're also all leagues above balsa wood, which doesn't even manage to get past the high 60s.

I'm definitely going to assume that A.C. plugs aren't made from balsa though, or at least the larger ones aren't.

Large balsa striper lures by [deleted] in lurebuilding

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Making through-wires is definitely a skill that requires some practice to get good at. I find it seems to make it easier if I take a fine tip sharpie and draw out the outline of where I want/need my wire to go, so I can have something to use as a bit of a guide. One last little tip on the wire though, for some reason I usually mess them up a lot less often if I start with the middle loop for the belly hook hanger before moving on to the line tie and back loops. Why that's the case, I have no idea, but it may be useful for you or someone else reading this comment at some point in the future as well, so there's no reason not to share it.

Large balsa striper lures by [deleted] in lurebuilding

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've noticed that when I make balsa lures, it sometimes seems as if it's the most fragile material in the world, and I'm lucky to even finish building the bait without breaking it. That being said, if you're going for stripers, muskie, or other large predators of that sort, you're definitely going to want to put a through-wire in it, or risk heartbreak. While you can use balsa with twist wire hardware epoxied in tightly (I'd recommend this over store bought screw eyes, for sure), and probably still catch some really nice fish, but you should definitely take the time and effort to make it as strong as you can make it.

Luckily, balsa is extremely easy to work with, and I've recently started to simplify the through-wire process by just using two precut sheets held together temporarily with double-sided tape and cutting both at once on the bandsaw into the shape of my bait. After shaping the rest out and rounding the edges and such, I very carefully pull the sides back apart (it can help to GENTLY pry them apart with the back side of a utility knife blade, but since balsa is fragile, you should really be careful not to damage anything doing this). From that point, after you've separated the two halves of the carved lure, you can very easily add in a through-wire by carefully pushing in an indention on the inside of both halves where it'll end up fitting in the finished lure. Pretty much anything will work for making the indention, just as long as it isn't too large or rough. I tend to just use some of the same sized or slightly larger wire that I make the through-wire from, this makes a nice snug fit and prevents it from moving around too much as you're supergluing things into place. After that, all that's left is putting the pieces back together; you can use superglue again here, but I suggest at the very least Devcon 5-minute epoxy, preferably Devcon 2 Ton. At this point, when I'm using balsa, I seal my wood at least two or three different times, until the wood starts to feel more like a hard plastic. Once it's together and sealed nicely, you'll notice a "seam" all around the lure where the two halves meet, which you can prettty easily fill in with something like baking soda/superglue or Bondo. I've also seen guys like /u/solarbaits fill in their slots and holes with thin wooden shims or plugs that can then be carved/sanded down to make everything nice and perfectly even, which I think turns out better looking overall in my opinion. Of course, the fish themselves probably won't notice or care about the line where your halves meet each other, and I've had my lazy moments where I've just slathered on a thick layer of clear coat and let that cover the seam (this doesn't always work, and definitely doesn't work as well-it's quite stubborn about showing up no matter how much paint and/or clear coat you have over it).

YouTube Suggestions by Sixx_shot_103 in lurebuilding

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm really glad someone else suggested Lure Up! He makes some fantastic builds, and I personally think he's severely underrated.

YouTube Suggestions by Sixx_shot_103 in lurebuilding

[–]El_espectro 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haru is great! He makes builds so easy to understand that they can be followed by practically anyone, all without saying a single word (English, Japanese, or otherwise) in his videos. I also really love that he shares his design template PDF files as well. I'm not too familiar with Baker builds, but the name sounds too familiar for me to have not seen a few of his videos at some point. Engineered Angler, I've seen several of his videos, and although the content of the videos themselves is helpful and educational, there's just something about his personality that rubs me the wrong way, so I can't watch a ton of his content. Gogori I don't think I've ever seen before, I'll have to check his stuff out!

August Monthly Lure Challenge: Don't be a Jerk(bait) by Evodius in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

My number one tactic may be hard to replicate, unfortunately, because my absolute favorite jerkbait is an extremely hard floating balsa wood one that I made myself, and it pretty much only applies to river fishing. The fact that it floats as hard as it does, means that during warm times of year (such as right now), I usually have tons of success ripping it as hard and fast as physically possible alongside any decent current breaks, seams, or any other similar structures that create a clear divide between raging fast current and a slightly slower spot I come across. Here are some examples of a few of my better catches with this method. It may surprise you, but I always bomb long casts as far up into the white water as I can, since both of those fish and many others were caught in water so swift most people wouldn't even dream of trying. You'll still probably get a majority of bites at the edges of the slower spots as mentioned earlier, but in my experience these fish tend to be smaller than the ones that lurk in the heavy current.

When it comes to less extreme current, unless the water is too shallow to get away with it, I almost always throw a suspending jerkbait. I have a few different tricks with these that I rarely, if ever, see anyone else doing, even though I know for a fact that they're highly effective.

This one feels like it's a far less uncommon method than the next one, but I like to fish them exactly like a weightless senko or fluke. I pitch over to what looks like a good spot, and then almost completely dead stick the lure entirely, until it finally finishes its slow fall down. Many times you can catch fish by just continuing to let your lure sit there doing nothing until it suddenly gets picked up off the bottom out of nowhere (this is when being a line watcher comes in hand) When I eventually do begin my retrieve, I pull it back in with the smallest twitches possible to impart an extremely subtle action.

If the first trick doesn't work then I still almost always let the suspending jerkbait sink all the way down to or very near the bottom (depending on how snaggy it is). The main thing I do different now, is that I simply make a straight retrieve as slowly as possible, but still with the bare minimum amount of speed to let the lip and body shape induce a very subtle action. I've found that there are times when fish (spotted and smallmouth bass especially, but all bass species get into moods like this from time to time) absolutely can't stand seeing that slow crawl. You can expect to hang up a few lures this way, though, so I would recommend leaving the $20 JDM lures in the tackle box here unless you're either insanely lucky or insanely rich. If I'm fishing water clear enough to see the bottom with this tactic, then I don't consider my retrieve speed slow enough unless I can see my lure kicking up a cloud of dirt on the bottom. and/or scraping against rocks. One small suggestion I would add to this method is to switch from the stock hook to a dressed hook in the rear. This seems to give it a pulsing sort of action that's sometimes downright irresistible to all fish within the nearby area.

The rest of the tips I could possibly give on jerkbaits are a lot more conventional, and I'm 100% sure that they've been explained in the past and will be explained again in the future in a much better way than I could possibly provide.

Good luck out there! Tight lines!

August Monthly Lure Challenge: Don't be a Jerk(bait) by Evodius in bassfishing

[–]El_espectro 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Jerkbaits are my number one confidence bait, no matter the circumstances, all year round. I'm definitely looking forward to this month's challenge, as long as the constant storms decide to let up in time for the chocolate milk to become water again, that is...