Micro

Curado drag stars had some beef to them. The one on the Ardent looks as thin as a metal star. And Chromed plastic? CHROMED? Come on, man. Is it a reel or a model kit?

Now I'm convinced it's a bowfin - maybe Sorta looks like this. maybe not, though.

Page 10? Edit: ALRIGHT!!!

I photoshopped the serial number off the pic of my gun I posted. And I photoshopped FishChris' arm to make it look really, really, really, really, really, really L O N G . But that's about it. I would never photoshop a pic of place I fish. I always hope someone can tell me how to fish it.

BTW, the snakehead is the subject of a new Department of Game and Inland Fisheries video. http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/video/?video=9 It was also the subject of a Virginia Wildlife article a few months ago. Thankfully, many of the fears surrounding the snakehead have not materialized. Apparnetly, according to the article, the snakehead is not competing with bass and has found a niche that is really all its own - very shallow, poorly oxygenated water with lots of vegetation. Their main forage is kilifish. Most large snakeheads also bear the wounds of osprey attacks indicating they are being heavily preyed upon by those birds. And a recreational fishery is starting to develope around them since they are fiesty, will hit but about anything, and fight hard. Apparently, they are delicious.

I suspect it might be a bowfin. Once the soft tissue has rotted away, the teeth are going to look way more prominent. And that carcass isn't in very good shape and may ghave been deformed by handling, or whatever killed it. The eye placement, and shape of the mouth favor a bowfin. If you've never had the pleasure of sticking your thumb in a bowfin's mouth, take it from me, it's not a great idea...

Since this thread started, the 68lb Virginia record has been shattered. Now its 73.25lbs. Caught very nearly where that 50lb'er (the subject of this thread) was caught. http://www.mrc.state.va.us/vswft/State_Records/state-record-stripedbass_01-23-08.shtm

Whatever it is, its teeth look bigger because its gums have rotted away. Let a Pike rot for awhile and its teeth will look even bigger.

I don't see a major difference between today's kids and yesteryear's kids. I do see a major difference in the way they are handled and in the amount of media attention certain offenses get. Kids thought of harming their teacher? That isn't the first time its happened. It just didn't get trumpeted across every headline. Today's media would have you think it happens every day. But it doesn't. The reason it gets media attention is because its extraordinary. It hardly ever happens. In my day, kids could bring knives to school. A lock blade was perfectly acceptable as long as it was kept in a sheath on your belt. Kids in my high school had a smoking area. Bringing a shotgun in your car to dove-hunt with after school was OK. I remember kids doing school work with a dip-cup on their desks. I remember breaking the stock on my air rifle and my shop teacher said he would help me fix it if I brought it to school. The school culture has evolved dramatically in the last 20 years, but kids haven't evolved that quickly.

Well, it's spot on. I don't want to get on a political rant, but IMO schools ran more smoothly and produced higher quality students BEFORE "No Child Left behind." And educators, who are trained to educate, had some latitude with respect to teaching. And thanks. Unfortunately, I'm all too familiar with getting the IEP in place. It was a lengthy nightmare. In the meantime, a child with known disabilities or emotional problems is in the mainstream class setting subject to the zero-tolerance policies of the school disctrict. The case study on my son was huge - looking like a book when all parts from all observers and evaluators were compiled together. It concluded exactly what my son's therapist concluded in his report months before.

BTW, jrhennecke, if it sounds like I'm mad at you, I'm not. I get so frustrated over the whole thing. You wouldn't believe how much time I've spent on this and my son.

You and I are not going to agree. I do agree it's the parents jobs to teach morals. But to say a school has no responsibility to teach courtesy, compassion, fairness, and tolerance is (and I say this respectfully) absurd to me. But even if I were to agree that schools have no duty to teach those things, I swear I can't understand why anyone would think it's OK for a school to be destructive to those ends. And that's where is stands. Take Zero-Tolerance Policies. It's nothing more than a position taken by schools that takes common sense out of the approach to behavioral problems and replaces it with a one-size-fits-all policy that treats kids harshly and unfairly. As the American Bar Association says, Zero tolerance is theoretically directed at students who misbehave intentionally, yet it also applies to those who misbehave as a result of emotional problems, or other disabilities, or who merely forget what is in their pocket after legitimate non-school activities. It treats alike first graders and twelfth graders. Zero tolerance results in punishment, expulsion or suspension irrespective of any legitimate explanation. There is a difference between being treated FAIRLY and EQUITABLY. And kids are smart enough to know it. A kid today faces expulsion for forgetting a metal nail file in her purse, just the same as a kid that brings a switchblade to class to cut a classmate. That punishment is equitable, but it isn't fair. A kid today faces being label a "Sexual Offender" in his permanent school record if he hugs a fellow classmate, just as he would if he groped a classmate's butt. It's equitable, but it isn't fair. We are holding kids to standards deemed UNCONSTITUTIONAL for adults. There isn't an adult justice system anywhere that takes the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach with adult offenders that schools take towards our kids. I can see why some kids rebel in the face of this unfair system. No, I don't condone misbehavior. But some acts are excusable. There is no reason for "lowering the boom" on a kid who forgets about discretion and says something inappropriate. There is no reason to expell a kid who forgets he has a scout pocket knife in his pocket. With all due respect, the current system only works if our kids are dumb as rocks and exactly the same. They aren't. Our kids have brains and they are smarter than the average ape - even it would know its being treated unfairly. A sense of fairness is a MORAL VALUE. And as it stands, not only do our schools not teach it, they are destructive to it through their own examples. You can teach it all you want, but the schools tear it down. IMO, you cannot build children, you cannot make them ready for society, unless you develope their morals and character. They simply cannot work together in society unless they have a basic set of morals that are consistent with each others. Schools MUST reinforce that and right now they don't. I think our differences are relatively small. Our main agreement is we have to do something, our kids are too important.

No comment. :-X ;D

Thanks, that made me laugh. ;D

Yeah, you'd think that, wouldn't ya??? ;D Thanks for the review. RW is spot-on. Beware. BTW, what's this I hear about a PLASTIC drag star?

You can, however, catch sturgeon with a Revo with no worries.

I would never call a guy with a pink Glock gay. Especially if I was looking at it from the front end.

I think it has to due with the accessory rail bar on the frame ahead of the trigger guard.

I diagree 100%. It is the job of the schools, into whose hands everyday I commend my children, to teach morality. It is not the place of schools to work against the parent and send conflicting messages to these kids. If one child hugs another these days, he or she is not labelled "compassionate", they are labels as "Sexual Offenders." If my son strikes a kid who bullies him, he is not "defending himself," he is engaging in "violent activity." Moments of silence are banned. Religeous activities are banned. It goes on and on and on. I can teach what I think is right and moral, but my kinds can't practice it in school, or they risk punishment. Frankly, I don't see much difference between kids today and kids from my day. I do see a major difference in how they are dealt with. School administrators today are ridiculously crippled in their ability deal with children. Kids today are suspended for the most absurd offenses. In my son's school, boys and girls can't hug (suspendable offense), more the five in a group (punishable offense). Again, it goes on and on and on and on. I'm not saying kids don't do anything wrong, but some of the rules and expectations are laughable. The conflicting messages, and the inflexability of rules certainly affect kids attitudes. Teachers I've talked to agree. Their hands are bound, though. It's a black and white, zero-tolerance system. Most of the parents I know do step up. But even the best kids find it hard to navigate the mine-field of rules in schools these days. The day a kid can't seek the rationale behind a decision or a rule will be a sad day. Some of the rules in school are so silly they serve to confuse kids and put them at odds with the values taught by their parents. Do you have a "behaviorily challenged" kid? I do. And my wife is a special-ed teacher. Do you know what it is like to get services for a behaviorily challenged kid? I have a son with bi-polar. When his problem became symptomatic, it took over one year to get it diagnosed, and it it took another 7 months to convince the school system he needed an IEP (improvided educational plan) to get him the services in school he needed. In the mean time, he was dealt with in in the schools disiplinary system. I had to have 3 psychologists, a special-ed administrator, his doctor, his therapist, three of his teachers, his prinicpal, his school nurse and his guidance counselor all to agree that he needed services. It took forever and in the meantime he was in a normal class dealing with the school's discipinary system that has not ability to show flexability. In my day, if a teacher suspect a kid had a learning deficiency, or other problem, they told the parent. NOT TODAY. Today kids are disciplined for their disabilities and they will do nothing to accomodate a kid that has a legitimate problem. Sorry if it sounds like I'm on a crusade, but whenever I hear someone say "it's the parent's fault," it tells me they have no real experience with today's public school systems. I've had the opportunity to deal with kids' therapists, and mosthave told me today's schools are the source of many of kids' problems. The cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all, zero-tolerance culture in schools today is the major difference between schools of your (and mine) day, and schools of today. It doesn't work, and hasn't been working for a long time.

This is what bugs me about the few Ardent owners we have here > You guys make fleeting, non specific comments about the reel then never come back. > Infidel, since you now have the reel, please be alittle more specific about your likes and dislikes. I've been interested in this reel for sometime now but I've never even gotten to touch one. Please give us a rundown on this reel.

Yo-Zuri Hybrid 12 lb. I hated it at first now I loves it.

I have a TAS IM10 6'6" MH baitcasting rod (TAS 786C). It's their "Worm Rod" and that's what I use it for. I have a Revo SX-HS on it and use 12# Zo-Zuri Hybrid. It's my main plastics rod and it goes on every fishing trip I make. I probably use it more than any other baitcast setup I have. The rods is very sensitive and very tough. I recommend it highly. Great rod at a reasonable price.

I like them. But I've only fished them a couple of times. I got one strike, and some hungry looks from an osprey. They look like that have nice actions. I'm going to give them a better workout this year. For me, I'd get the gizzard shad or the tennessee shad. The tennessee shad looks like alewife, which is a major forage fish where I fish.

You dirty, dirty man. I agree. 8-)

What city in Virginia requires police approval? Virginia is an "instant background" state. You pass the instant background (and meet the basic qualifications), you can walk out with your gun. With respect to the concealed carry permit, Virginia is a "Shall Issue" state. You pass your background check, and take the course, you get the permit. There is no subjectivity to it anymore. The law says the state "shall" issue the permit. "Shall" means it doesn't have a choice.