Micros, poison oak and ticks, oh my!

Hiked along a short section of Little Pinnacles Creek yesterday...paying attention to the "I'm not gonna plow through all that crap just to get one cast into a dishpan sized hole" spots. Flicking the 3" bass assassin and a rooster tail where there was room.
Got 11 dink-to-micro bass, 2 green sunfish and a bluegill. Two ticks as well. At the bigger, more pressured spots I could see a lot of 12 inch bass but they weren't playing.
Put on a spinnerbait at the Koi Pond. This thumper put such a bend in the rod bulldogging, thought it was a two foot carp...

She had a lotta 'try' for a 13 inch fish.
And nice to get some use outta one of those terminator baits that turned out to be too light for the bay.
Been thinking about bringing a soft sided cooler and keeping a few 10 inchers for the pan. Yesterday would have been the day for that.....

 

I am in CA. Perfectly legal in creeks (edited out the sarcastic vibe from the original post...not usually THAT big of a troll. Low blood sugar...?)

 

Yeah I mostly c&r as well. And I've eaten a few bass and they were okay....and sometimes I wonder if the pan-sized ones might taste even better.

 

Huh. I've never found a tick in a crevice. Or a puma, either.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaqTuLQThsY

Most of the ticks I find during the hike are in two areas. 1. The ticks that crawl up outside my pants go under my shirt, and I feel 'em crawling around just above the beltline. And yeah, so 2. The ticks that start on my shirt eventually get to my neck, where I feel 'em crawling. And yeah, if I tucked in my shirt into my pants, and my pants into my socks, it would just make 'em all #2s.
Sometimes I find ticks on my legs when I get home while stripping down and putting my clothes right in the washer.