# Fish Kill-Pringle Lake??



## SaltwaterSlick

Hey gang,
This pic was posted on another forum and description said it was from a TPWD biologist who was responsible for picking up these fish in Pringle Lake... I have not been able to independently verify... I'm sure hoping it is NOT legit, but thought I'd post it here to get y'all's input... Bad deal IF it IS REAL!!









I don't do any of the social media sites... maybe some of you guys can gleen something from the text that would allow you to dig into it more?? I don't know.


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## Rockfish2

If this is real Iâ€™d hope these guys wouldnâ€™t be smiling like this.


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## POCplugger

so ive been hesitant to post anything about it but i was down there on last thursday morning duck hunting way south in Bombshell lake in my buddies airboat about 3 days after that first major freeze and on the ride back home we went back through Pringle again but at around 11am with full sun over head and what we saw was just sickening man....We probably counted north of 35 to 40 trout all between 25 to 30+inches...more big trout trout than ive ever seen in my life, much less caught...what was weird was that there were no noted small trout in the kill in Pringle that were all big females. We rann the south shoreline of the lake from contee all the way to the creek counting, and none of the fish were floating yet, so who knows how many more are laid up deeper...We also hunted hard all over POC for the next 4 days and covered a lot of water, but only found a few dead sea turtles and 1 small rat red on the east side of Grass island...Just an FYI, we never saw any dead fish in any of the the other back lakes and like I said our group was hunting way SW down that way almost to Panther but Pringle seemed to be the only one with any dead fish visible...I second the original posters sentiment about I dont know how anyone who loves fishing down there as much as I do can stand behind a pile of trophies like that with a grin on their face...felt like a gut punch to me when I saw the actual body count.sad2sm


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## Nero3662

I fish POC all the time and hope this is not true. Specifically noted above the guys smiling in the pic. To me the pic looks photo shopped. I have taken a lot of pics of fish and the photo does not look right.


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## Rockfish2

****, that sucks. It seems like Pringle is deep enough to fool the trout into a false sense of security when the water cools, but not deep enough to really protect them when it gets deadly cold, and thereâ€™s no real way out for them at that point. I think itâ€™s the deepest of the back lakes on Matagorda isnâ€™t it? Like maybe 6 feet at its absolute deepest? The other back lakes are so shallow maybe the trout know they have nowhere to hide when it gets cold so they go to really deep water right away and donâ€™t die in the lake. Some of them probably go to Pringle.


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## TrailChaser

That photo is from my instagram account, but I still don't know anything more about the pic than what I wrote in the description. The person who shared it with me doesn't want his name out there, but he hasn't heard anything else either. He's a really reliable source for what's going on around this area, so if he believes his source enough to text me that pic. I'll have to say I also believe it's true. As for the smiles.. I chalk that up to most of us being conditioned to smile for the camera.

I just did a reverse image search on google and it appears that fishcatchingtravel.com also has the pic posted. Similar story and same location, but their source says it's a local guide. http://fishcatchingtravel.com/2018/01/11/ice-age-11118/


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## 223AI

Man, that looks photoshopped to me.


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## jpayne

You can see how the trout are laying that it's photoshopped.


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## SSST

I saw this pic on Facebook about 3-4 days, like I posted on a similar thread in TTMB, this would be major news by now with all the duck hunters running around Pringle.


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## pocjetty

TrailChaser said:


> I just did a reverse image search on google and it appears that fishcatchingtravel.com also has the pic posted. Similar story and same location, but their source says it's a local guide. http://fishcatchingtravel.com/2018/01/11/ice-age-11118/


That site says that it is a picture of a local fishing guide. That's why I like information with a name attached, so that people can at least attempt to verify it.

I don't know for certain if that picture is real or not, so I'm not going to throw stones. What I do know is that is an awful lot of big fish. They had to come from somewhere. Either a fish kill, or from Photoshop.

Growing up, one of my best friend's dad was a TPWD biologist. They had a boat in the driveway that belonged to TPWD. But (back then at least) he wasn't supposed to take friends and family out on it while he was working. The kids always wanted to go, and the answer was always "No.". So if that's a marine biologist, I question the wisdom of having a kid out there while he's working. That doesn't make the story false, just makes me question.

If he's a guide, it would make the passengers make sense. But I'm pretty sure he has no business gathering up the dead fish after a freeze. Again, doesn't disprove the story, it just makes me question.

It would be nice if there was some way to corroborate the picture. But we already had someone here post enough to convince me that there was a fish kill in Pringle/Contee, and 60 or so big trout being in that area doesn't shock me. But I'd like to see the gigantic pile of smaller trout that surely would have been floating with them, just to give a picture of the extent.


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## txflats

Doesn't look right to me by the length they are saying just the front deck of the boat is over 10ft long.


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## BigJake

SaltwaterSlick said:


> Hey gang,
> This pic was posted on another forum and description said it was from a TPWD biologist who was responsible for picking up these fish in Pringle Lake... I have not been able to independently verify... I'm sure hoping it is NOT legit, but thought I'd post it here to get y'all's input... Bad deal IF it IS REAL!!
> 
> View attachment 4067810
> 
> 
> I don't do any of the social media sites... maybe some of you guys can gleen something from the text that would allow you to dig into it more?? I don't know.


#2017fishkill in the instagram post.

Old or fake news IMO.


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## Rockfish2

Trailchaser, why doesnâ€™t your source want his name out there? Doesnâ€™t seem like a big deal to me, if this photo is legit. If your source is gonna share stuff like this, which is pretty significant to those of us who fish down there, he should expect people might want to know more details. Maybe he didnâ€™t know you were going to share it? The fact your source wants to remain hidden doesnâ€™t make the story false, of course, but as POCjetty said in regards to other things that donâ€™t seem to add up, it makes me question it.


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## Rockfish2

POCplugger said:


> so ive been hesitant to post anything about it but i was down there on last thursday morning duck hunting way south in Bombshell lake in my buddies airboat about 3 days after that first major freeze and on the ride back home we went back through Pringle again but at around 11am with full sun over head and what we saw was just sickening man....We probably counted north of 35 to 40 trout all between 25 to 30+inches...more big trout trout than ive ever seen in my life, much less caught...what was weird was that there were no noted small trout in the kill in Pringle that were all big females. We rann the south shoreline of the lake from contee all the way to the creek counting, and none of the fish were floating yet, so who knows how many more are laid up deeper...We also hunted hard all over POC for the next 4 days and covered a lot of water, but only found a few dead sea turtles and 1 small rat red on the east side of Grass island...Just an FYI, we never saw any dead fish in any of the the other back lakes and like I said our group was hunting way SW down that way almost to Panther but Pringle seemed to be the only one with any dead fish visible...I second the original posters sentiment about I dont know how anyone who loves fishing down there as much as I do can stand behind a pile of trophies like that with a grin on their face...felt like a gut punch to me when I saw the actual body count.sad2sm


Wait, when were you there? The first major freeze was what, Jan 1st? Last weekâ€™s was Jan 16/17. When did you see the dead trout?


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## SaltwaterSlick

When I saw the pic, I questioned the validity of it and I could not get verification one way or the other, but like many of you who have posted, there's just a lot of things that doesn't look right in the pic... not the least of which are the apparently happy folks posing for the pic. Plugger, your story is as big a punch to the gut as this pic to me... Whether these fish pictured are from Pringle or not even Texas waters, you DID see some serious devastation of the upper end of the trout population... I sure hope and pray that this site is not repeated along the coast elsewhere!


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## pocjetty

POCplugger said:


> so ive been hesitant to post anything about it but i was down there on last thursday morning duck hunting way south in Bombshell lake in my buddies airboat about 3 days after that first major freeze and on the ride back home we went back through Pringle again but at around 11am with full sun over head and what we saw was just sickening man....We probably counted north of 35 to 40 trout all between 25 to 30+inches...more big trout trout than ive ever seen in my life, much less caught...what was weird was that there were no noted small trout in the kill in Pringle that were all big females. We rann the south shoreline of the lake from contee all the way to the creek counting, and none of the fish were floating yet, so who knows how many more are laid up deeper...We also hunted hard all over POC for the next 4 days and covered a lot of water, but only found a few dead sea turtles and 1 small rat red on the east side of Grass island...Just an FYI, we never saw any dead fish in any of the the other back lakes and like I said our group was hunting way SW down that way almost to Panther but Pringle seemed to be the only one with any dead fish visible...I second the original posters sentiment about I dont know how anyone who loves fishing down there as much as I do can stand behind a pile of trophies like that with a grin on their face...felt like a gut punch to me when I saw the actual body count.sad2sm


Even without pictures, it helps when we know who's telling us the story. I really didn't want to sound like I was questioning the OP, or bashing him for posting. We just see so many fake stories about giant trout and the like, and I think we all like to know something is real before getting excited about it. From the other, substantiated reports we've gotten, I have to admit that the picture COULD be legit.

Plugger, your observation about lots of big trout floating and no little ones is sort of eye-opening. That gives me something else to learn about, because it's not at all what I would have expected. Understanding that would probably help predict fish movements, and where to find them. But it could also help with management of the resource.


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## gater

*Name*



Rockfish2 said:


> Trailchaser, why doesnâ€™t your source want his name out there? Doesnâ€™t seem like a big deal to me, if this photo is legit. If your source is gonna share stuff like this, which is pretty significant to those of us who fish down there, he should expect people might want to know more details. Maybe he didnâ€™t know you were going to share it? The fact your source wants to remain hidden doesnâ€™t make the story false, of course, but as POCjetty said in regards to other things that donâ€™t seem to add up, it makes me question it.


He probably doesnâ€™t want his name out there because thatâ€™s illegal. Thatâ€™s if the picture is real which I donâ€™t think it is.


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## Rockfish2

gater said:


> He probably doesnâ€™t want his name out there because thatâ€™s illegal. Thatâ€™s if the picture is real which I donâ€™t think it is.


If this was done under the authority of TXPWD it wouldnâ€™t be illegal, so Iâ€™m not sure why the need for all the secrecy.


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## POCplugger

Rockfish2 said:


> Wait, when were you there? The first major freeze was what, Jan 1st? Last weekâ€™s was Jan 16/17. When did you see the dead trout?


I was there on January 11 Thursday am.


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## POCplugger

pocjetty said:


> Even without pictures, it helps when we know who's telling us the story. I really didn't want to sound like I was questioning the OP, or bashing him for posting. We just see so many fake stories about giant trout and the like, and I think we all like to know something is real before getting excited about it. From the other, substantiated reports we've gotten, I have to admit that the picture COULD be legit.
> 
> Plugger, your observation about lots of big trout floating and no little ones is sort of eye-opening. That gives me something else to learn about, because it's not at all what I would have expected. Understanding that would probably help predict fish movements, and where to find them. But it could also help with management of the resource.


So just so its out there my name is Curtis Leiker, and I spend a good deal of time down POC ways all over the place. And now that we are discussing It I sure wish I would have snapped a few pics but to be honest, its not somethign I really care to relive seeing again...guess we were a little too preoccupied slow rolling through the area everyone standing looking for silver logs laying on the bottom and getting mental body counts together. But again,I was hesitant to even bring this up as I dont do the drama or pics or prove BS that seems to come up constantly around here anymore...but I wouldnt doubt that pic for a second based off what I saw that morning out there..And myself and the other guys we were with debated the whole notion about why we hant seen any juvies whatsoever in the dead count, and the only thing we could come up with is man its just the locale...Pringle is the only deep back lake back there with depths in the middle approaching 6ft, and like others have said we thought it was probabaly appealing enough for them to stay with the deep black mud and water depths like that but it wasnt eneough for the extreme temps...That and the possibilty that these big girls had been doing some heavy feeding on larger baits prior to this freeze and they may have been a little less apt to be moving much more than absouluelty necessary such as my fat butt after after a Thanksgiving meal, and they just maybe got compalcient...who knows...lots of questions and no answers...


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## POCplugger

SSST said:


> I saw this pic on Facebook about 3-4 days, like I posted on a similar thread in TTMB, this would be major news by now with all the duck hunters running around Pringle.


well unfourtunatley it is true, some of us just arnt quite as quick to snap pics when we probably should have...


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## POCplugger

SaltwaterSlick said:


> When I saw the pic, I questioned the validity of it and I could not get verification one way or the other, but like many of you who have posted, there's just a lot of things that doesn't look right in the pic... not the least of which are the apparently happy folks posing for the pic. Plugger, your story is as big a punch to the gut as this pic to me... Whether these fish pictured are from Pringle or not even Texas waters, you DID see some serious devastation of the upper end of the trout population... I sure hope and pray that this site is not repeated along the coast elsewhere!


yes brother unfourtunatly I sure wish it was just a dream man...If you saw some of the looks on our guys faces that have been fishing that area 25+ years longer than Ive been around one of which was a guide, at the shear size of amount of the big girls man...it was sure not a good feeling.


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## Rack Ranch

Don't a majority of the smaller fish migrate out of the bays with the bait/shrimp when winter begins leaving the bigger fish and mullet behind?



pocjetty said:


> Even without pictures, it helps when we know who's telling us the story. I really didn't want to sound like I was questioning the OP, or bashing him for posting. We just see so many fake stories about giant trout and the like, and I think we all like to know something is real before getting excited about it. From the other, substantiated reports we've gotten, I have to admit that the picture COULD be legit.
> 
> *Plugger, your observation about lots of big trout floating and no little ones is sort of eye-opening. That gives me something else to learn about, because it's not at all what I would have expected. Understanding that would probably help predict fish movements, and where to find them. But it could also help with management of the resource.*


*

*


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## Rockfish2

POCplugger said:


> I was there on January 11 Thursday am.


Thanks


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## Rockfish2

POCplugger said:


> So just so its out there my name is Curtis Leiker, and I spend a good deal of time down POC ways all over the place. And now that we are discussing It I sure wish I would have snapped a few pics but to be honest, its not somethign I really care to relive seeing again...guess we were a little too preoccupied slow rolling through the area everyone standing looking for silver logs laying on the bottom and getting mental body counts together. But again,I was hesitant to even bring this up as I dont do the drama or pics or prove BS that seems to come up constantly around here anymore...but I wouldnt doubt that pic for a second based off what I saw that morning out there..And myself and the other guys we were with debated the whole notion about why we hant seen any juvies whatsoever in the dead count, and the only thing we could come up with is man its just the locale...Pringle is the only deep back lake back there with depths in the middle approaching 6ft, and like others have said we thought it was probabaly appealing enough for them to stay with the deep black mud and water depths like that but it wasnt eneough for the extreme temps...That and the possibilty that these big girls had been doing some heavy feeding on larger baits prior to this freeze and they may have been a little less apt to be moving much more than absouluelty necessary such as my fat butt after after a Thanksgiving meal, and they just maybe got compalcient...who knows...lots of questions and no answers...


Well, I certainly donâ€™t doubt there was a very significant kill of sow trout in Pringle after the first major freeze, and am not saying any of the posters are lying, etc., itâ€™s just there are still some questions about this one pic for the reasons already discussed.

Then again, even if the pic in question is photoshopped the kill still happened so I guess its really irrelevant. Just glad it was limited to Pringle and hopefully some of the big trout from other surrounding areas that managed to survive will find their way to Pringle. I think if thereâ€™s bait there theyâ€™ll find their way over there.


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## [email protected]

Why no small trout? Having witnessed two prior freeze events in Pringle - 2010 and 2011 - I saw small trout beginning to float while the bigger fish lay dead on bottom, and the pelicans gobbling them as soon as they came up. We were the first boat in there on a Sunday morning. Temp at my house on Lane Road fell into the middle-teens Friday night and middle-twenties Saturday night during that event. It was sad, lots of upper-20s and some 30s. I did not go during the New Year's freeze this year...seen enough prior and hope to never see it again. If I had to guess I'd say the photo is very likely legit, albeit unlawful to collect those dead trout.


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## pocjetty

POCplugger said:


> So just so its out there my name is Curtis Leiker, and I spend a good deal of time down POC ways all over the place. And now that we are discussing It I sure wish I would have snapped a few pics but to be honest, its not somethign I really care to relive seeing again...guess we were a little too preoccupied slow rolling through the area everyone standing looking for silver logs laying on the bottom and getting mental body counts together. But again,I was hesitant to even bring this up as I dont do the drama or pics or prove BS that seems to come up constantly around here anymore...but I wouldnt doubt that pic for a second based off what I saw that morning out there..And myself and the other guys we were with debated the whole notion about why we hant seen any juvies whatsoever in the dead count, and the only thing we could come up with is man its just the locale...Pringle is the only deep back lake back there with depths in the middle approaching 6ft, and like others have said we thought it was probabaly appealing enough for them to stay with the deep black mud and water depths like that but it wasnt eneough for the extreme temps...That and the possibilty that these big girls had been doing some heavy feeding on larger baits prior to this freeze and they may have been a little less apt to be moving much more than absouluelty necessary such as my fat butt after after a Thanksgiving meal, and they just maybe got compalcient...who knows...lots of questions and no answers...


When a guy says he saw something with his own eyes, it carries a lot of weight with me. I don't understand the lack of small fish - in past freezes, I've seen lots of them, with bigger trout mixed in. Something was different about this situation, and your theories are as good as any.

That's a big part of what makes this game so fun. You observe something, and you try to make sense of it, and hopefully you learn something that will make you better at chasing fish. With something like this, we might even learn something that will help us protect them in future freezes.



[email protected] said:


> If I had to guess I'd say the photo is very likely legit, albeit unlawful to collect those dead trout.


Yeah, that was sort of my point. One source said that it was a marine biologist, but it's pretty obvious that it isn't. If it really is a guide? He knows better. I'm not sure whether it really hurts anything to gather them up, but it's the law. Just leave it alone. I will say that those big smiles are hard for me to swallow. I've seen big fish kills, and I don't remember having any desire to smile. More to the point, I think it would have been really difficult to get a smile out of me. Those people really don't understand what they're looking at, I suppose.


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## POCplugger

yeah we were saying the same thing, wheres the schoolies? unless the gulls and pelicans already cleaned them up...the water was gin c;ear and the sows we saw all stuck out like a sore thumb agaisnt the bottom so it would have been ideal to see the smalls but no such luck


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## troutsupport

The second freeze hit some pockets in Mule Slough.. but I won't reveal my source. Those are the only 2 areas I've heard so far. Pringle gets hit just about every time... it's a death trap pretty much.. the fish like it, then the tide drops out and they are pretty much stuck after the deltas near the cuts get too shallow. If that's all we had, I'm happy with the results. I didn't see anything in matty on Sunday.


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## bigfishtx

Don't most of the small trout leave the bays this time of the year leaving the bigger ones?


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## huntfish2011

troutsupport said:


> I didn't see anything in matty on Sunday.


Fishing? How was it?


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## UndertheCushion

Do yall ever doubt the aim and/or goal of people's post? Well, you should. 

Just my 2 cents. 

I am a very credible person btw. So is my friend. And friends friend, who remains anonymous.


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## Spec-Rig.006

I'd like to see a reputable report on this ... there hasn't been a trout over 14" caught in POC/Seadrift in 22 years ... !

Looks terrible though.


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## austinag

I fished POC Sat & Sun. Arriving back at The Fishing Center Sunday there was Parks & Wildlife Survey guy there checking fish. Sunday we were one of only a few boats that brought in fish. I spoke to him a few minutes asking about the fish kill - particularly Pringle. He said he has seen this photo and it was true. Knew the biologist who were there.

I saw some rotted trout floating on the bottom in Big Pocket - I did not go into Pringle

Just passing along what the Parks & Wildlife guy told me.


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## SaltwaterSlick

austinag said:


> I fished POC Sat & Sun. Arriving back at The Fishing Center Sunday there was Parks & Wildlife Survey guy there checking fish. Sunday we were one of only a few boats that brought in fish. I spoke to him a few minutes asking about the fish kill - particularly Pringle. He said he has seen this photo and it was true. Knew the biologist who were there.
> 
> I saw some rotted trout floating on the bottom in Big Pocket - I did not go into Pringle
> 
> Just passing along what the Parks & Wildlife guy told me.


How exactly does a fish "float" on the "bottom"??


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## Trailer Rig

Maybe he meant suspended near the bottom, dead & rotting was the key adjectives here.
Let's hope the fish kill in these isolated areas was the only damage. Going to take a long time to replace all those big mamas that froze.


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## TrailChaser

austinag said:


> I fished POC Sat & Sun. Arriving back at The Fishing Center Sunday there was Parks & Wildlife Survey guy there checking fish. Sunday we were one of only a few boats that brought in fish. I spoke to him a few minutes asking about the fish kill - particularly Pringle. He said he has seen this photo and it was true. Knew the biologist who were there.
> 
> I saw some rotted trout floating on the bottom in Big Pocket - I did not go into Pringle
> 
> Just passing along what the Parks & Wildlife guy told me.


Thanks for posting this.

I wonder what happened to all the people who'd convinced themselves that I was posting up a photoshopped pic? One guy even called it "fake news".. sad3sm


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## Duckchasr

TrailChaser said:


> Thanks for posting this.
> 
> I wonder what happened to all the people who'd convinced themselves that I was posting up a photoshopped pic? One guy even called it "fake news".. sad3sm


I think until TP&W releases a public statement, it's just hearsay at point.
Just Saying.


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## Oyster Dog

TPWD has already said that isn't their staff:

http://2coolfishing.com/ttmbforum/showpost.php?p=22550034&postcount=6


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