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I just downloaded the fishbrain app. It's pretty cool, it's like social media for anglers. People post pics of their catches and you can leave comments and stuff. But the coolest part to me is the map feature that shows all the fishing spots in your area. I didn't realize all the places that were really close to me. Plus it has info for the bodies of water like what types of fish inhabit it etc. I'll probably be using it a lot. There's a paid version but the free version seems to have everything I need.
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Jul 5, 2023 17:57
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Charliegrs posted:I just downloaded the fishbrain app. It's pretty cool, it's like social media for anglers. People post pics of their catches and you can leave comments and stuff. But the coolest part to me is the map feature that shows all the fishing spots in your area. I didn't realize all the places that were really close to me. Plus it has info for the bodies of water like what types of fish inhabit it etc. I'll probably be using it a lot. There's a paid version but the free version seems to have everything I need. It’s handy for scouting just be mindful that the data isn’t validated at all, so if you’re hype to see a species caught in a particular water be aware it could be accidentally or on purpose mislabeled.
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Jul 5, 2023 19:08
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If you told me that the Wisconsin River didn’t have a single fish in it, I would believe you. Have been out with two other guys from around 4-5PM, 6:30-8:30PM, a little bit between 11-Midnight, and this morning from like 6:30-8AM. Spinners, crank baits, glow baits, soft plastic jigs, weightless senkos, Ned rigged senkos, live bait, no one has even seen a single drat fish lol
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Jul 8, 2023 17:09
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T-Square posted:If you told me that the Wisconsin River didn’t have a single fish in it, I would believe you. Have been out with two other guys from around 4-5PM, 6:30-8:30PM, a little bit between 11-Midnight, and this morning from like 6:30-8AM. Spinners, crank baits, glow baits, soft plastic jigs, weightless senkos, Ned rigged senkos, live bait, no one has even seen a single drat fish lol Are you always fishing the same general area of the river? Rivers (well any body of water really) can have stretches that are nearly devoid of fish. If there's nothing for them to eat in that area, or no cover then it might just be a bad spot. Try some different spots.
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Jul 8, 2023 19:46
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It also can be really silly things. Techniques. Wrong baits—especially with artificials.
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Jul 8, 2023 20:32
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Charliegrs posted:There are no gar in my area but I've heard they have incredibly hard mouths and it's hard to get a good hookset on them. I could be wrong though. wesleywillis posted:Lots of people use pieces of rope to get gar as their teeth get tangled up in the rope fibres. Pretty sure I've posted it before, but I once had a guy enthusiastically tell me that, before pausing thoughtfully and muttering "problem is, then you have a gar." I kind of hate gar because a lot of gar usually means whoops, low oxygen in this creek.
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Jul 8, 2023 21:55
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I've never caught one myself, but a few years back my nephew caught one that wasn't that big, but he said it fought like a fuckin motherfucker. Bowfins are the same way. I want to get both at least once
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Jul 9, 2023 00:56
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The one time I caught a gar on hook and line, it didn't fight at all. It was just hydrodynamic deadweight. But that's only one experience. Bowfins on the other hand will be two pounds and fight like ten.
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Jul 9, 2023 03:07
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Charliegrs posted:Are you always fishing the same general area of the river? Rivers (well any body of water really) can have stretches that are nearly devoid of fish. If there's nothing for them to eat in that area, or no cover then it might just be a bad spot. Try some different spots. Yeah, we were on a rental property so we only had access to about 100 yards of river front, and really only two access points, because the “river front” ended up being a nearly vertical 10 foot drop from the property to the river, with rocks and brambles, unless you went down two sketchy stairs with tiny concrete pads at the end with only enough room for one person each. I did manage to get to the very edge of the property and scale down to a small sand bar that broke the current with a pretty large downed tree off of it, but there wasn’t anything hiding out there either. It definitely looked like an area that just had nothing in it 
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Jul 10, 2023 13:44
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my brother and i have been bank/dock fishing fresh and brackish waters around here off and on the past few weeks and have gotten skunked every time except for this lil dude.  caught on a spoon. drowned some worms and have had a handful of nibbles, that's it otherwise. but anyway, we went fishing Saturday and didn't get a single drat bite, yet it was the best day I've had in a long time. I am not good at fishing but it still rules.
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Jul 10, 2023 15:55
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T-Square posted:Yeah, we were on a rental property so we only had access to about 100 yards of river front Bank beating a river with limited access can be pretty tough. There's usually only one or two really fishy spots within casting range, and your best chance of hookup is for the first few casts to land softly and accurately in those spots. I like to arrive with a moving bait rigged up (like a paddle tail swimbait), then try a slower presentation if that doesn't work. My local river is running at 90cfs right now, so your mileage may vary, but a tube or pool noodle + half a kayak paddle can greatly improve your access. Ghostnuke posted:lol maybe go camping or something to get used to nature sounds, and then fish Completely fair and probably would be my take if someone else told me those stories. That being said, I've done plenty of camping and fishing before and since. I know foxes and rabbits and raccoons can all make crazy noises, but this was on another level. COOKIE DELIGHT fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Jul 10, 2023 |
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Jul 10, 2023 16:17
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COOKIE DELIGHT posted:
For sure. I did have the yaks with us for a day of paddling and fishing at a state park lake, so we didn’t have plans/time to research put-in and take-out as much as I wanted to. This river’s cfs was much much higher, I don’t know if I would have been able to paddle back upstream lol. Definitely got a chance to get out on the yak on the lake though, and I’m excited to get more into that! Which reminds me, I also didn’t catch poo poo at the lake, but at one point I got snagged on a rock and some random dude snorkeling popped up nearby and was like “Hey let me get that for ya!” and dove under and retrieved my line for me 
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Jul 10, 2023 20:33
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:The one time I caught a gar on hook and line, it didn't fight at all. It was just hydrodynamic deadweight. But that's only one experience. Bowfins on the other hand will be two pounds and fight like ten. Their long rear end mouths make leverage a major factor. If they snag your bait at the end of their snout(?) you'll just pull them about with ease and they can't do poo poo.
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Jul 10, 2023 21:09
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:The one time I caught a gar on hook and line, it didn't fight at all. It was just hydrodynamic deadweight. But that's only one experience. Bowfins on the other hand will be two pounds and fight like ten. Bluefish are like this too. I was surf fishing a few weeks ago and hooked up on what I thought was a pretty big Bluefish but it turned out he was more like an average 4-5 pounder. But goddamn did he fight hard. I was using pretty light tackle just a light saltwater rod with 15lb mono. God I love catching Bluefish. If you live within range of them and like to fish you owe it yourself to go out and try to catch them. Just remember to use a wire leader as they have super sharp teeth.
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Jul 10, 2023 21:41
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Anyone have any experience repairing a broken rod tip? My friend closed his rod in his car door (heyooo) and it snapped a few inches from the tip. It's a cheap Lews combo, so he can always grab another im7 rod if we really botch it. The plan is to use a clipped sewing needle inserted into each end, add a bit of gorilla glue and then wrap some thread around the two pieces. Potentially a complete waste of time but hoping it works well enough to squeeze in a few river trips before he needs to replace it.
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Jul 11, 2023 18:43
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COOKIE DELIGHT posted:Anyone have any experience repairing a broken rod tip? My friend closed his rod in his car door (heyooo) and it snapped a few inches from the tip. It's a cheap Lews combo, so he can always grab another im7 rod if we really botch it. The answer to this is always “watch the 20+ YouTube videos covering this exact topic”. I have always preferred to take it somewhere to be fixed as I have only ran into a break in an expensive rod.
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Jul 11, 2023 19:06
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Right on, that makes sense. I'd read some varied opinions on whether it would be worthwhile, some suggesting it might just snap the next hard hook set. We knocked it out last night and it was a very easy repair. Seems to be holding up just fine from what little fishing we did.
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Jul 12, 2023 16:55
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COOKIE DELIGHT posted:Anyone have any experience repairing a broken rod tip? I'll as my urologist (again).
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Jul 12, 2023 20:15
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T-Square posted:That’s real pretty I want it That was my shop; I moved to a different state and haven’t yet decided if it’s worth starting up again. I still have a variety of dickspoons if you want to PM me about it. Just catching up with the thread; been a busy year and now I’m in the upper Midwest. I haven’t caught many fish yet, but god drat do I love Friday Fish Fry. @Hooplah, that’s a rad yak and you’re killing it out there! @Crab Dad, I will miss coming home with a cooler full of them and I hope and trust that you’ll be able to find purpose for my traps.
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Jul 14, 2023 13:40
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Woo! Caught me a new rig at the bottom of the lake.
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Jul 14, 2023 13:52
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Pitre posted:Woo! Caught me a new rig at the bottom of the lake. That's one of the best catches I've ever seen, what is that, a six footer from a kayak?
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Jul 14, 2023 15:47
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It will make up for all the times you drop one out of the yak.
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Jul 14, 2023 16:14
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A Pack of Kobolds posted:That was my shop; I moved to a different state and haven’t yet decided if it’s worth starting up again. I still have a variety of dickspoons if you want to PM me about it. Wait wuuut I go on orders and you move? When did this happen?
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Jul 14, 2023 16:41
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Crab Dad posted:Wait wuuut I go on orders and you move? When did this happen? Last fall. New, better job and maybe I’ll be able to buy a house here. It’s hilarious that everything is brand new to me here. Trees that aren’t pine or aspen? Fish that aren’t trout or salmon? My feeble mountainfolk brain cannot process these things.
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Jul 15, 2023 01:55
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Just got back from a family trip to Yellowstone, what a magical place! Already trying to plan a return trip to focus on fishing, but was able to wet a line a few times at least. My father in law and I hiked up to a backcountry lake and had the whole thing to ourselves and had a ball catching one cutthroat after another. Biggest was probably only 13” or so, but it was a divine experience. Also, I think my wife and I decided we are going to try to plan a trip to Great Slave Lake next year to do some lake trout and arctic grayling fishing. In more local news, every time I’ve been out on the river here all I can catch are sheepshead. Lots and lots of sheepshead.
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Jul 15, 2023 20:34
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Yet another evening fishing, yet another evening where I'm the only one that caught a drat thing. Everything was flooded and extra murky, so I went for hot pink and silver. Immediately started pulling in 1lb bass and bowfin, then I found some schools of white crappie and perch. There were four other people with me. It was wonderful.
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Jul 16, 2023 14:51
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Yesterday was opening day for salmon in the Salish Sea. Four of us went out on a boat for 6+ hours. I normally fish fingerlings in about 24" of water with a 3wt fly rod so this was something else. Hauling in almost 30" of salmon from 250' on a single action mooching reel was a real workout. Pretty amazing!
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Jul 16, 2023 18:58
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Knocked another species off my list today.. twice. Caught a small 24" muskie in a beautiful barred pattern, and then 30 minutes later caught a much larger clear one at 32". Both small muskies but felt pretty special to someone like me, who catches primarily walleye and smallies. Really surprised to see such a huge variation in their patterns in the same lake.
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Jul 16, 2023 22:01
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For crappie/bluegill and catfish not on the huge size does anyone have some fillet knife suggestions in the $20-50ish range? Maybe a little more if it is worth it. I have been using the havalon I've had for a while but I'm not too fond of changing the blades out that way. I think I would like to have a good sharp knife and maintain it's blade. Same subject has anyone used the electric bubba blades, are they worth it? This is on my upper end and more than I'd want to spend but this caught my eye https://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fillet-Straight-Flexible-Rosewood/dp/B000MF2ROU MoonCricket fucked around with this message at 03:17 on Jul 17, 2023 |
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Jul 17, 2023 02:59
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So apparently two muskies was just an appetizer for me today.. 42inches and we don't exactly have a bump board so it was curved while measuring. It could easily be a couple inches longer. Caught on 8lbs mono. Math You fucked around with this message at 03:05 on Jul 17, 2023 |
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Jul 17, 2023 03:02
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Math You posted:So apparently two muskies was just an appetizer for me today.. gently caress yeah that's a Fish
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Jul 17, 2023 03:09
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I spent the past few days driving and fishing my way through the Beartooth Highway, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton national park on my way to Jackson Hole. A+ Driving/Fishing 10/10 Would Recommend.  I'm on Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River here, and that's Pilot and Index Peaks in the background. This is somewhere near the border of Montana and Wyoming. Found a bunch of brown and cutthroat trout.
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Jul 17, 2023 03:24
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Math You posted:So apparently two muskies was just an appetizer for me today.. 8 pound mono? drat that must have been one hell of a fight. That would be considered ultralight for a 42" Musky. Does anyone remember the fishing shows that used to come on Saturday mornings in the 90s? I think it was on the TNN network. I remember there was this one guy who was always fishing for huge fish with super light tackle and one time he caught something like a 250lb Beluga Sturgeon in Russia on 8 pound mono. I wish I could remember the guys name, he was a madman.
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Jul 17, 2023 04:30
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Charliegrs posted:8 pound mono? drat that must have been one hell of a fight. That would be considered ultralight for a 42" Musky. This one's a pike which makes it even more insanely big, and yeah the fight was unlike anything I've experienced. I thought I was pulling up a log until the angle of my line changed, it shook its head and just about ran off my spool. Got to enjoy that like 5 times. Pulling it into the net I was convinced I'd snap my line but I wanted to bring it to a close. Picture and measuring was really rushed but it took off within about 5 seconds of being back in the water.
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Jul 17, 2023 11:38
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I've been using a 4000 series reel on an ugly stik dock runner for a while, but the size of the thing is rubbing the gently caress out of my line guides and introducing a lot of twist to the line. Does anyone have a recommendation under 50 bucks for a reasonably sized reel with a max drag around 15lbs?
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Jul 17, 2023 21:43
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:I've been using a 4000 series reel on an ugly stik dock runner for a while, but the size of the thing is rubbing the gently caress out of my line guides and introducing a lot of twist to the line. Does anyone have a recommendation under 50 bucks for a reasonably sized reel with a max drag around 15lbs? That rod appears to be rated for 4-8 lb line, why do you need 15 lbs of drag? Maybe your money would be better spent on a new rod instead?
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Jul 17, 2023 23:54
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:I've been using a 4000 series reel on an ugly stik dock runner for a while, but the size of the thing is rubbing the gently caress out of my line guides and introducing a lot of twist to the line. Does anyone have a recommendation under 50 bucks for a reasonably sized reel with a max drag around 15lbs? What type of fish are you catching? 15 pounds of drag is like so infrequently needed unless you are ocean fishing, so I wouldn’t get caught up on drag numbers too much. There’s a guy on YouTube who does like in depth reel reviews and tear downs, and he always says something like ‘20# of drag will turn a tuna around’, not sure if that’s true, but he always downplays the ‘max drag’ advertising and warns people against tightening your drag all the way. As for recommendations, I think Daiwa makes the best spinning reels under $100, I’ve had good luck with the Revros models, or if you can find them on sale, the Legalis is a great reel for the price.
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Jul 18, 2023 01:13
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Big Daiwa Regal LT and Revros fan. I've got 3 Regals and one Revros that have been doing great.
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Jul 18, 2023 01:50
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joem83 posted:That rod appears to be rated for 4-8 lb line, why do you need 15 lbs of drag? Maybe your money would be better spent on a new rod instead? There is nothing more thrilling on this planet than wrestling in a fish larger than your rod. I refuse to compromise on my 3 foot nothing indestructible stupid rod DoctaFun posted:What type of fish are you catching? 15 pounds of drag is like so infrequently needed unless you are ocean fishing, so I wouldn’t get caught up on drag numbers too much. There’s a guy on YouTube who does like in depth reel reviews and tear downs, and he always says something like ‘20# of drag will turn a tuna around’, not sure if that’s true, but he always downplays the ‘max drag’ advertising and warns people against tightening your drag all the way. Every fish possible. Largest I've seen on these tiny rods in person is a 12lb catfish and it looked absolutely wild. This fall I'm chartering a boat with some buddies and we will all be using dock runners in various configurations, with actually reasonable rods as backups if (when) we manage to snap one. I said 15lbs drag as a ballpark, most of the reasonable sized reels I can find for this thing top out at 6lbs of drag, which is a good recipe for binding the reel and snapping the 10lb mono I'm running if I actually try to crank it down to keep a fish from running back into cover. I'll check the smaller size daiwa reels, thanks for the recommendations.
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Jul 18, 2023 02:19
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:There is nothing more thrilling on this planet than wrestling in a fish larger than your rod. I refuse to compromise on my 3 foot nothing indestructible stupid rod Catching fish on underpowered gear is a blast, so definitely get that. I’ll also be ‘that guy’ and just hope you’re doing so within reason. Fighting large fish on super underpowered gear really extends the battle and can put them into dangerous levels of fatigue. Couple that with warm water temps and you definitely increase the risk of fish mortality. Of course some species are much more fragile than others(like trout). I’ve seen people kill sturgeon as a result of purposefully fishing with really underpowered gear, it was really sad to see 40/50 year old fish die just so someone can say ‘ I caught it on my walleye rod, it took an hour!’ I’m sure you know all that though, but in case others are reading through, we want those big ones to survive for another fight!
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Jul 19, 2023 22:04
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