Patrick and Monica's Wedding Song

Get In My Net!

New hit single: Get In My Net! You can't catch a fish without your line in the water. Reel talk. Keep your lines tight and your rhymes tight!

DITCH THOSE SPREADSHEETS AND GET UNDER MY BED SHEETS!

Happy New Year Everyone, check out my new video about leading a well balanced life in 2015! If you work hard make sure you make some time to play hard as well! #MacNeato

DRUNK ON THE GRASS

If you enjoy getting a little bit boozy on wine and than dancing around on the grass, you should love this live performance of my hit song DRUNK ON THE GRASS! 

Congratulations Joel & Elizabeth Bonilla! MacNeato wishes you both the best and reminds you to not be scared to get DRUNK ON THE GRASS every once and awhile!

HEALTHY IS THE NEW WEALTHY!

HEALTHY IS THE NEW WEALTHY, is a song I wrote about embracing a healthy lifestyle. With the help of my Dad on drums, I performed it live for the first time at my little sister's wedding 6/21/2014. Jessica and Fletcher namaste together forever! 

Performer: MacNeato

Drums: Tres Feltman

Camera: Storm Garner 

Editor: Skylar Feltman

KING OF THE SOUTHWEST

If you guys like salsa, I would recommend trying 505 Southwestern out of New Mexico. Stuff makes me sing and dance. Proof below:

Hike With Me, Show Me Your Boots.

I have written a series of songs and would like to post them here on my blog because, well that's what a blog is for. To share experiences and thoughts with an audience that cares to listen or read said experiences and thoughts.

So with out further a due, my first You Tube video entitled, "Hike With Me, Show Me Your Boots", a story of an outdoor romance.

Mahi, Mahi Mayhem!!!

The boys and our bounty.

"Move fish, get out the way, get out the way fish, get out the way!" I could not help but think of the lyrics from this famous Ludacris song (substitute fish for female dog) as fish came flying on deck during a family fishing trip on the Cutting Edge out of Key Biscayne, FL. When the fish were on, it was complete mayhem. We were casting over each others heads, literally throwing fish on the deck, yelling up to the captain for directions on where to cast, and running with hook in hand to load up with fresh bait. We are all lucky we made it back to shore without any hooks to the face or gaffs to the rib cage. It was wild! So wild in fact, that it made me feel like a wild animal. I caught myself grunting a few times, like Tim "The Tool Man", from Home Improvement.

Coryphaena hippurus, Mahi, mahi, (which means very strong in Hawaiian, and fish in Persian), also known as dolphin fish, or dorado, were the targeted species for the day. They are surface dwelling ray finned fish found in off-shore temperate, tropical, and subtropical waters worldwide. Once on the line they are incredibly flashy, iridescent and acrobatic, with beautiful blue, yellow, and green coloration. Out of the water, the fish changes color to several hues of gold (giving rise to their Spanish name, dorado, "golden") then fading to a muted yellow-grey upon death. Even after death their journey continues through the mouth and into the belly of a human being, where they can only be described as delicious.

Sabinki rig loaded with bait which were used to catch the dorado.

We alternated between two different techniques for catching our fish. One technique involved our Captain using high power binoculars on the top of our boat looking for diving frigit birds, which signaled bait fish and where there's bait fish there's dorado. We would then drive over to those schools of bait and the Captain could see the dorado and point them out so we could cast our fly lined bait fish in front of their faces. That's when the pandemonium would begin.

The other technique involved us trolling an artificial squid behind the boat as we cruised from one bait ball to another. Both techniques worked for us as we ended the day catching between 25-30, 22-30 inch size dolphinfish. When we finally docked the boat around 1 pm, the fish were filleted and we began brain storming cooking ideas on the drive back to Miami. It all sounded good and since we had plenty of fish we decided to cook it a number of different ways but all on the grill!

Fishing day collage!

It was so great to spend time with family and go through a little mayhem together, because even when you argue, fight or push each other out of the way to get a fish in the boat, at the end of the day you work it out, and by doing so grow closer. This ultimate hunter gather bonding experience was further exemplified that evening with a wonderful fish dinner that fed 9 of us! Fishing, as with family, you take the good with the bad, and a little mayhem is worth it as you grunt and bite, into a juicy fish taco followed up by a slurp of ice cold beer. This bud's for you "Tim the Tool Man", Grawwrrr, grawrr, grawrr!

Skyman out.

To Bowl or Fish on Your Birthday, That is the Question.

Everybody loves to go bowling  or fishing on their birthday followed by blowing out the candles on a big ole slice of cake. For my mother's birthday we decided on fishing, and although we did not have any cake, we made up for it in pounds of bass. It's funny how things just seem to work out on your birthday. I could not promise my mother she would catch a trophy bass all I could do was plan a nice outing on the lake with an opportunity to catch something.

The birthday girl and her 6 pound bass. 

Luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and that is no doubt what happened here. My Mom was prepared by knowing how to fish a drop shot rig, and by fishing in areas that had great potential to hold fish, if opportunity knocked she would be quick to answer. And answer she did! Her deafening screams from the back of the boat let everybody on the lake, including the jealous tournament anglers know that she'd just hooked in to a fatty!

"Get the net", she screamed.

"I think I caught a big one!

"Sky, take the reel I can't do it!"

Getting a lesson on how to hold a large bass.

No way was I going to rob her the feeling of reeling in her first 6 pound monster, bucket mouth, fatty bass hog of a fish.

"Don't stop breathing," I told her as she reeled herself to exhaustion. Luckily her drag setting was low enough that the fish could make runs and not snap off. When it got close to the boat I was able to net it and take a few photos of the happy angler and her catch before we released the fish back into the water.  

It was not my birthday. 

Bowling and fishing are similar in the fact that even a novice has an opportunity for the biggest moments in the sport. This might be why they are both great American past times and why so many people go bowling or fishing on their birthday. We all think that the odds might be a little bit better on our birthday for that 10 pound fish or a few strikes at the bowling alley, in reality practice is the real way to increase our odds. So if you really want to catch a trophy bass like my Mom or bowl a few strikes at the bowling alley, get in some practice and when your birthday rolls around pins will be falling and fish will be biting.

Skyman out.

Cut The Crap

When I was younger I would cut fishing line with my teeth, until i started to notice they were wearing down at an alarming rate. If I would have kept this up, by 25 I would be purchasing my first pair of dentures. Sure, it would have been a cool party trick to pop out my teeth and say things like, "get er done," or "pass me the yogurt," but I was not ready to go full hillbilly yet, so I switched to nail clippers. Which are great until you need to cut your nails and they are buried in your tackle box or boat.

That is why it is a good investment to have a set of line clippers whose sole duty is to cut fishing line. Boomberg Tool Company was kind enough to send me a sample of their product called, "The Snip," which is a retractable heavy duty line cutter with an LED light. The stainless steel jaws cut clean and smooth and have no problem cutting through braided line. The LED light allows you to do your cutting in the dark, which is very handy on early mornings.

The retractable cable is a key feature so you can attach the tool to your person or belt loop, that way during a tournament you won't waste time looking around the deck of your boat just so you can cut your line. This is the moment the thought pops in your head, "use your teeth, they aren't going anywhere." Well sure at that moment in time, but if you keep using them, you will lose them! 

Cut the crap, stop using your teeth, ditch the nail clippers and get the man-i-cure upgrade to "The Snip." Your teeth and nails will thank you for it.

Skyman out.

   

When Duty Calls, Sometimes You Gotta Let It Ring.

Looks beautiful, but man is it freezing!

This last month I fished a tournament at Piru Lake during extremely tough conditions. Lake water was down 50 feet, air temperatures dipped into the 30's and the water looked like chocolate milk. Cold water from the bottom of Pyramid Lake was being pumped into Piru, further confusing the fish. Yet I still made the enigmatic decision to leave a group of beautiful women at a bar the night before, to go fishing. Dummy.  

Fishing with my back to the wall.

When duty calls sometimes you don't answer, or if you do just say you are sick. I should have just let the phone ring off the hook that November evening and done a bunch of shots with the hot women. Seems ridiculous to me now, but staying at the bar is a slippery slope that I have fallen down a few times in the past, so I did what I thought was right.

Who knows what would have happened if I stayed at the bar with the girls, I could have ended up face down in the gutter, but I think it was worth the risk considering the day turned out being a complete bust. The seductive nature of the south bay didn't get me this time, but that's not to say it won't get me the next.

I don't think I am going to answer my phone for awhile so go ahead and leave a message after the beep.

Skyman out.  

Stop Slimming Me You Old Hag-fish.

"They call me a hagfish, don't mess with me! If you die around me I will eat you."

With Halloween right around the corner, what better time for a post on the the slimer of the sea, also known as a hagfish, class Myxini order Myxiniformes and family Myxinidae. The stem myxin means "slime" and this fish is the triple threat of the gooey stuff. If Dr. Venkman (Bill Murray) would have encountered a hagfish instead of a ghost in that swanky New York City Hotel in the opening scene of "Ghostbusters", he would have been choking on slime. That's the kind of slimming capabilities these creatures possess.

Hagfish are jawless, worm like creatures that live in temperate seas and have long fascinated biologists as the only living representatives of the ancient creatures that gave rise to fish and humans. Preying extensively on invertebrates, but are also important scavengers on the ocean floor. They can quickly congregate in large numbers on dead whales and fish with the ability to cover a carcass in a "writhing swarm" with enough action to stir up surrounding sediments and completely engulf the dead animal with slime. Being scavengers, they are not scared to enter a dead or dying fish through the gills, mouth, or anus, and consume their prey from the inside out! Like a miner entering a mountain to extract the gold.

It is not uncommon for marine commercial fisherman who use set lines or gill nets to find fish in their nets that are occupied by feeding hagfish. Once on deck the hagfish secrete incredible amounts of slime that sticks to both deck and fishermen.

Their main defense mechanism is their burrowing behavior and their slime, with which they can coat themselves in large quantities quite quickly. The slime is also used to coat dead fish, thereby making it unpalatable to other scavengers.  Talk about marking your territory. That reminds me of when we were children and you would lick every doughnut in a dozen so no one else would eat them. Apparently the hagfish does not like to share with others.

How do they get water into their gills when they are completely covered in slime? Good question, what they do is tie themselves in a knot, which passes down their body pushing the slime away. Kind of like natural Sudafed, clearing out those breathing passages. Very resourceful, inspiring creatures if you ask me.   

This Halloween when you are contemplating what to be, I hope this post inspires you to consider dressing as a hagfish, because it's cool and original. Sure, people might not know exactly what you are but when they ask, you can look them dead in the eye with a Clint Eastwood smirk and say, "I am a hagfish, and if you don't give me all of your candy, a bunch of my homies and I are going to cover you in slime until you can't breathe and then eat you from the inside out."

Be safe this Halloween, don't talk to strangers.

Skyman out.  

 

Reference:
Moyle, P.B., Cech, J.J. Jr. 2000.  Fishes: An Introduction to Ichthyology, Fourth Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, NJ.pg. 212-214. 

The Fluke is No Fluke.

The Fluke (3/0) and Fluke Jr (1/0). 

Fall for me equals pumpkin spice lattes, clean air, goofy sweaters, football, and shad. Bait fish really ball up in the fall and can create a bass feeding frenzy. If you can find these balls of bait, you will find the bass, and there is no better bait out there than a fluke for imitating a dying shad.

A little morning cruise. 

The fluke is an underestimated, underutilized bait in my opinion that often gets overlooked for the fancier more expensive hard baits on the market. There is not much to them, they are 3"-5" pieces of soft plastic that come in a small bag. They may be soft but they are hard to beat in the fall. It's subtle movements when paused remind me of a senko but it can also be fished as aggressively as a rip bait, or on top like a walk the dog type lure, you could even rig it on a lead head and bounce it off the bottom making it one of the most versatile baits in your tackle arsenal. It's main job is to imitate a dying shad and it has never seen an unemployment line.

Oh baby! Get ready.

So it's no surprise that it played a pivotal role in our teams first place finish at Pyramid Lake October 14th, 2012. We started off in the morning using top water to no prevail so we switched up to the fluke. The cove that we were fishing had lots of bait, so we knew the bass were feeding on shad, we just didn't know if the fish wanted an aggressive approach or a more subtle presentation. The fluke proved that subtlety was the key that opened the door to feeding bass but it was a door that kept closing on us through out the day. We only caught 3 keepers on the fluke, one coming on a hula grub, so it was not a wide open bite. But it was just enough to squeeze out a victory by 0.22 lbs over second place. Our total weight of 7.85 pounds just beat out the 7.63 brought in by Walt and Orin's son Andrew.

Orin T. and Angel A. holding our winning weight. 

In the Fall when the going gets tough, the tough tie on a fluke. So next time you're in line at your nearest tackle shop wearing a goofy sweater, drinking a pumpkin spice latte, don't Fall for the gimmicks and go with the original and best soft jerk bait on the market, you won't be disappointed.

Skyman out.
  

It's a Fluke party ya'll. 

Take me Back Tammi.

Tammi in all her glory.

The farm ponds that littered the landscape of San Luis Obispo like acorns from an oak tree, provided the soil for my interest in fishing to take root. My friends and I would buzz from one of these farm ponds to another, like villainous bees on the hunt for our next bass adventure.  

Bishop's Peak.

We would talk about girls, drink an occasional root "beer" and sneak a smoke or two all while pursuing whatever fish would take our bait. This grew into more of an obsession for me as I turned my baseball card collection into an expensive bass lure anthology. It started with bobbers, hooks and crimp weights, then escalated to a few Kastmasters, Roostertails and Rapalas, finally guiding me to the arsenal of bass destruction also known as the Bass Pro Shops mail order catalog, and I have been chasing the dragon ever since.

The view from Tammi's right arm.

Tammi and my arsenal of "dragon" baits mosied on down to a few farm ponds to see if she could be my "delorean" to those carefree days. Hoping each bass I caught would take me back closer to my youth, until finally I would hear Doc say, "Great Scott!", and turn around to see the amigos of my teenage years along the bank. This didn't happen of course, but fishing still gave me a jolt of youthful excitement with every new tug on my rod.

Farm pond. 

Even though my feet were planted in the present, these familiar images dispersed me back in time, like a strong wind does the seeds of a dandelion. Thanks Tammi, for blowing this little seed pod back to where it all began.

Skyman out. 

Riding the Pine.

Makes the 3:00 am wake up call worth it. 

Some of my fondest memories from playing baseball were not experienced on the field or up to bat, they were sitting on the bench joking around with my teammates. Maybe I did not contribute towards a victory in the traditional sense with an inside the park home run or a triple ripped down the line, but I loosened up the guy who did those things with a couple of fart jokes. A little silliness helped create a relaxed atmosphere and took some of the pressure off, indirectly leading to better results. These same feeling came back to me while my team bombed during our clubs annual Manny Nunez Memorial  Challenge event at Castaic Lake, September 16, 2012.  

The only keeper of the day. I may be smiling but I'm crying on the inside. 

In an event that showcased 9 different Southern California bass clubs and a total of 50 teams, the Castaic Bass Club came out on top with an impressive 28.21 pound three team limit produced by Mike M., Tony F., Lenden R., George R., Roger L., and Kevin J. Even though the two fish we caught did not contribute towards our clubs total weight, my teammate Mike I. and I helped out in other ways, by signing people in, recording weights at the weigh in, organizing the BBQ and just trying to have a good attitude, which can be difficult when sleep deprived.    

Castaic Bass Club 2012

My partner and I might have been riding the pine while our teammates won us the trophy, but it still felt good to get the win. Just because you are on the bench doesn't mean you have to pout, grab your rally cap and cheer on your peers or help warm up the closing pitcher.  These kind of contributions might not show up on the stat sheet, but they helped pave the way for victory. Not everybody gets to be Barry Bonds, but that doesn't mean the people at BALCO didn't get to enjoy his home runs.  

Skyman out. 

Our Clubs Trophy. 

Fish Out of Water or Little Fish in a Big Pond?

Lady Liberty is very welcoming ;) 

Apple's are not my favorite fruit but I eat them anyway because I know they are an important part of a well balanced diet. Since I have not traveled in awhile I decided to balance my travel diet and bite into the big apple that is New York City. Boarding a red eye flight I strapped on my neck pillow/ life jacket and drifted off into a river of dreams. Navigating the island of Manhattan, would I feel like a fish out of water or like a little fish in a big pond? After my trip was over I would be able to determine what corny phrase was most fitting.

Landing at 5:45 am had its advantages. You arrived with a full day ahead of you and plenty of time to tackle a few to do list items, that is of course you don't get sacked by the defensive lineman of sleep, and in New York City his name is Lawrence "Sandman" Taylor and he will #%&K you up! Getting past LT and the rest of the sleep-fense I was greeted by my fathers cousins. Having family in foreign territory is great, you get the inside scoop on all the best spots and in this case it was a triple scoop because I had three cousins to show me around.

Bass sighting in New York City?  

Some of the highlights of my trip were The Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District, as was the dive bar across the street called Hogs and Heifers. Complete opposites but accepting of one another, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in the movie Twins. One young tall and good looking, the other a short dirty old man with a collection of braziers.

NYC street art.

Other highlights included being treated to a Giants preseason football game at Metlife stadium as well as a Scooner Harbor cruise, where I got to see Lady Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge from a distance. Little Branch was a great little speak easy in the West Village. Eataly's rooftop beer garden was amazing and their Pistacio Gelato was amore mio. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge, have now become favorite spots.

Niners fan routing for the Giants? It's preseason who cares. 

Getting around to all these awe inspiring sites is made easy by the subway, which navigates like an elaborate river system, with riffle's and pools and even some rapids. The ACE flows up and down the west side running into the L which trickles east to west into the 4,5,6 that runs along the east side. Being a non-native species I observed the Native New Yorkers to see how they navigated this waterway and picked up on some of their habits. Don't pause too long on sidewalks, ignore the red hand above the crosswalk, just look for cars or should I say yellow cabs because those are the only cars on the island, and try not to look confused or you might be taken for a sucker fish.  

The cousins and I. 

Why had this little fish waited so long to experience the greatest city/big pond in the world? Expanding my fruit palate and eating some apple really enlightened me and I felt healthier for it! Don't just stick to your home waters people, get out there and try a new "hole". You'll find that if you respect the locals you might just experience the time of your life and end up with more than just an "I Love New York" t-shirt. 

Skyman out like a trout. 

Trout art at The Spotted Pig in the West Village.

Highway away from your comfort zone.

We have all heard the saying if it's not broke don't fix it or don't mess with a good thing. Any attempt to improve on a system that already works is pointless and may even hurt it. Sounds like loser talk to me. This is America, where you can compete to be the best at everything from video games, beer pong, grilled cheese sandwiches, surfing and yes of course fishing. There is a reason why The United States has metaled 2,296 times in the summer Olympics and Argentina has done it only 66 times. We strive for perfection. If we're not happy with our results, we are willing to take the highway to the danger zone by stepping out of our comfort zone. 

From top to bottom: 4" roboworm morning dawn, 5" senko and a topwater revo. My weapons of bass destruction. 

I was inspired to write this post after fishing a tournament at Castaic Lake in July. The bite was great, I must have caught 15 bass in the 1-1.5 pound class on the drop shot rig. What I was doing was working, but with time running out and 7 or 8 pounds in the live well, I knew it wasn't enough for a victory. Deciding to switch it up to entice a bigger bite I risked the sure thing for the unknown on the highway to the danger zone! It paid off when a 2.15 pound fish masticated my wacky rigged senko on a flick shake weighted hook. This improved our total weight, enabling us to cull one of our smaller fish but it was too late.  

My old friend, kong island.

We finished with a total weight of 7.74 pounds good enough for 6th place. I believe if we would have hair-pinned out of the comfort zone and into the danger zone a little sooner, we could have finished 4th.

Happy in my comfort zone. 

It's hard to try something new when what you are doing is already working. Change takes effort and risk. Most people aren't willing to gamble a comfortable existence for an opportunity at supremacy, but you'll find the ones that do are often reaped the biggest rewards.  America would not be the country it is today if it wasn't for people taking risks and I would not have enjoyed the movie Top Gun if it was all Goose and no Maverick. So put on your leather jacket and go grab your aviators, you know you want to be Maverick, Goose was the safe one and we all know what happened to him.   

In memory of Goose, we love you.

Skyman out

The Goose is loose.