tyrius.

I've yet to run into a hook that I bought new that I would say was dull. I'm sure that they would all puncture my skin if I set the hook on myself. Eagle Claws MAY not be as sharp as other hooks but they are far from dull. I've got a couple packs of eagle claw hooks and I compared their sharpness straight out of the pack against gammy hooks and I felt absolutely no difference. Most of my hooks are gammies (especially since my Wal-Mart regularly puts them on sale), but I think the dullness claims regarding Eagle Claw hooks are WAY overblown. But what do I know? :

I'd be willing to pay 23 bucks to catch an 8 pounder!!! I've spent WAY more than 23 bucks on other soft plastic baits and haven't caught anything NEAR an 8 pounder.

If the fish's heads get smaller then you're not getting bigger fish. You want their heads to get BIGGER and their bodies to be proportionate. You're better off keeping as many as the small legal fish as you can. The big ones should always go back as there won't be very many of them in a small body of water and they take YEARS to grow from 1.5 lbs to 5 lbs or larger.

Very interesting info. How do you square this with the laws stating that it is illegal to clean fish while on the water?

Then I would find out who is supposed to care and keep going up the chain until I found someone who did care. If your conservation officers are not doing their jobs then you should find out why. Also, are you sure the "park police" are the proper people to call? Are you calling your state DNR hotline? Illinois has one to report all poaching and they do respond.

The only thing that looks similar between these two lures is the fact that they are both segmented hard body lures.

For tournament anglers I could this having a slight impact, but for those of us who are just out there to enjoy all aspects of fishing I don't see that it will matter. I don't agree with this either. As I said in my original post prior to this year I had no confidence with jigs. That was relates solely to my lack of knowledge in the hows, whys and wheres of jig fishing. Once I rectified my knowledge problem I caught fish on jigs. Even though intially I still had little to no confidence with jigs. I still believe that confidence is basically meaningless. The most important aspect of fishing is most certainly not confidence, it is knowledge. Knowledge of the fish we seek, knowledge of the prey that the bass seek, knowledge of the structure that we fish, knowledge of the proper use of the significant types of lures to be able to properly choose the correct lure for the correct application, and the knowledge in how to fish that lure. One's confidence should be in one's knowledge of all of the above, but without that necessary knowledge then your confidence means diddly.

So call your DNR hotline and report them. Complaining about it here isn't going to do you any good. As was mentioned before 100% catch and release is NOT always a good fisheries management plan.

Swim for hours a day and then do weight training and you can eat whatever you want and still not gain weight. He spends more time excercising in a day than many of us do working.

Find some shade. If you're fishing lakes that could be boat docks, but I fish ponds so look for overhanging trees or my favorite floating vegetation. Toss a frog on top of the moss and be ready for some fun. Lily pads are good too. Even non emergent vegetation is going to provide the fish with shade. I like senkos for this as you don't really need a weight to get the worm out there and they are thin enough to be easily pulled through the weeds without too many issues. Spring is good, summer can be good, fall is the best.

I agree with your definition of the word. My question is why is the above considered critical in one's chances of catching fish?

I agree completely. But this brings me back to the reasoning for beginning this thread. I was reading the attractant thread and was struck by those saying to use whatever scent you have confidence in. I read that as it may or may not work, but if you think it will then it will help you. Logically this doesn't make sense. If it doesn't work then it isn't helping and you're just fooling yourself and doing yourself a disservice. I've also read other posts that roughly stated that confidence is everything in fishing. This is another thing that I disagree with. Being able to apply one's knowledge and experience to the given surroundings is the most important aspect of finding and catching fish. The true definition of confidence has little to do with it.

X2. We've got to wait until October too!! Which means I probably won't be able to fish them much at all until next year!! That leaves a lot of time for a lot of talk and no results. Sure wish they would have been available much closer to their "release" at iCast.

Learn the technique that Rondef posted and keep in mind that when you're hung up the line isn't going to move sideways. When the line moves any way outside of the norm then you've got a fish, so set the hook.

Hmm, you're "confidence" sounds eerily similar to my "experience". As another example, I've had days where the weather looked TERRIBLE for fishing, but I had some spare time to fish, so I fished. Contrary to what my "confidence" told me (that the weather sucks and I'm not going to catch much), I lit it up. My experience has taught me that the only time I am 100% sure that the fishing isn't going to be good is when I'm sitting on my couch NOT fishing.

I read this all the time here and I don't really understand why. I actually disagree with the statement that "confidence is everything in fishing" completely. One's confidence in a given technique/lure has nothing to do with how well it will catch fish. If I'm most confident fishing plastic worms, but the fish are schooled up and chasing baitfish then my most confident presentation isn't going to catch the most fish. If I'm most confident fishing topwater but the fish are post front and hugging the bottom then I'm not going to catch the most fish. Also, there are people who are confident in what they are doing, but really have no idea how to properly present the lure given all of the variables. This person won't really catch fish either. I know people that are "confident" fishermen that hate getting weeds on their lures or getting snags so they just fish open water. Confidence is good and all, but it isn't going to catch you fish. Fishing the right technique and location for the environmental conditions that you find yourself in will catch you the most fish. Knowledge is the key, not confidence. Just as an example from my fishing past. Up until this year I never really fished a jig. Most of my fishing was in weedy ponds and they just never worked. I hated them and didn't think I would ever catch a fish on one. Well, over the winter I read up on jig fishing and went out and bought some. I found a good place for jig fishing and made my first cast and caught a fish right there. At the time confidence level in jigs was basically negative. Now in particular situations jigs are something that I reach for first. The knowledge of how and where to fish jigs led to a lot of success for me. If I would have stuck with confidence I wouldn't have ever purchased one. Am I just reading those statements wrong? What does confidence have to do with anything?

Oil companies do not set the price. The price of oil is set by the market. Then the price of unleaded gasoline is also set on the NYMEX. So, competition between the gas stations typically results in the retail price of gas at 50-60 cents per gallon higher than the wholesale price (which is currently at like 2.90). Oh and this typically applies to the very high cost state of IL and even higher in the 'burbs. Other states and locations vary significantly.

snaps for cranks barrel swivels for c-rigs otherwise tie directly to the lure/hook

Wow, rough crowd.

But the other side of the coin is that these people will probably become frustrated in their beginning attempts and never become avid fishermen. If someone obviously doesn't know what they are doing I will offer advice without being asked. As a poster above said this doesn't necessarily mean that they are buying an odd variety of stuff, but that they truly have the deer in the headlights look. These people need help to have some success so that they can enjoy our sport and become proponents for it. We need all the support we can get. I run into this more at Wal-Mart than anything else and I think that it is worth 5 minutes of my time to try and increase someone else's love of the outdoors.

My point was more along the lines of phone companies and such using the SSN for identification purposes only. There is no need for that. Just make up some other character string for id purposes. I understand why it is required to use for banks. I think some of the new laws post 9/11 are ridiculous, but that's a different topic for a different forum. So, actually I agree with you. One thing to note though is that many of these companies that ask for the SSN can not require you to provide it. The problem is that most people don't realize that and give it freely when the shouldn't.

The issue that I have with this is that it shouldn't be my responsibility to pay for these services. This information should not be available for use by anyone other than the individual whose ssn it is. There needs to be a much more stringent method of identification for granting anyone credit. It also should be illegal for companies to use SSN's as identification numbers. This is just another aspect of our gov't looking out for business's interests over their constituent's.

Doesn't shimano have an over the counter warranty program?

And if you want to see how the above works, check out LBH's Ghetto Bassin' video where he fishes a slammer on a rod with the top sawed off and catches some BIG RI bass.

$80 is actually a reasonable price for some of those ultra detailed large hard baits. To answer you question though, a rod won't ever catch you a single fish if you don't have a lure tied onto it. I'd rather fish with mediocre rods/reels than cheap lures. The rod and reel will have little impact on my ability to catch fish. If I had my choice I'd go for the 4 3:16 baits than the loomis. The 3:16 baits will drastically increase my odds of catching bigger fish. The rod won't.