tyrius.

The gas station owner has to make enough on the gas in the tank to purchase enough gas to fill the tanks again. In times of rising prices the gas station owner must raise his prices on the gas that he currently has in order to be able to afford to fill the tanks again at the higher price. Gas is also a VERY low margin product (just a few cents a gallon) for the gas station owner. They typically make the most money in times of falling gas prices.

What alternatives would work in a country like the US where people drive on average over 30 miles roundtrip each day to work? Where a trip of 100 miles is considered not very far? How do setup up the infrastructure to deliver the fuel to the cars? How do you transport that fuel? The best options right now are the hybrids. Chevy's Volt concept seems pretty intriguing where the car will travel about 40 miles on it's batteries alone and can run an engine to recharge the batteries to significantly increase the distance able to be travelled.

Not this quarter. Exxon's net income was down 10% in the 3Q of '07 compared to the 3Q of '06. Year to date they are down 1%. This is mainly due to the decrease in margins on gas. Don't forget federal and local taxes!! The oil in ANWR is a pittance compared to our yearly demand.

Lots of interesting responses so far. Oil prices are driven by a WIDE variety of things. Production can be impacted by terrorists from the Middle East down to Nigeria, hurricanes can knock out production in the gulf, Venezuela taking over their oil production, etc. Demand is steadily rising. As China becomes more of a car nation and continues their rapid building spree they will continue to consume record amounts (for them) of oil per year. This will continue to drive world wide demand up each year. Currently, production is barely meeting demand and with all of the "easy" oil already tapped the oil companies are forced to go for the more expensive oil, this could be deep drilling in the gulf, oil sands in Canada, oil shale in the Rockies, even drilling in the arctic circle. This would naturally lead to higher oil prices. Now one must also take into consideration the impact of the oil commodity market. This market is where the buyers meet the sellers to buy oil contracts for future delivery. These contracts may be bought and sold many times during the contract's life. Any type of bad news in any of the major production areas will cause the price of oil to rise. If the threat turns out to be unfounded then the price will fall and those that bought the price up will lose money. In today's market there is a section of those participating who have no intention of ever receiving any of the oil that they are buying and selling. They are simply trying to make money on the rise and fall of the value of the contract. Now with the CDO (mortgage securities) being devalued and not traded as much there is another big amount of money that must be invested somewhere. Those traders have been moving that money into the oil market, creating more demand for the oil contracts which will naturally raise the price of oil. Adding in the impact of the falling dollar means that as the value of the dollar falls in comparison with the other world currencies that dollar buys less from the other country. Therefore the falling dollar actually causes the price of oil (in US$) to rise when the actual price isn't rising. All of this leads to the big time run up that we have seen in the cost of oil. If the investment money continues to stay in oil then we will continue to see record setting oil prices.

Some are on sale right now for $55. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_58975_100002006_100000000_100002000_100-2-6

Wish I would have purchased at least one more when I bought my first one on sale. > I can't compare it to any of the other rods listed but I really like it. You can definately feel the wobble of the cbait as it comes through the water. With that said I upgraded from a 5'6" pistol grip ugly stick to the 6'6" M crankin stick.

Here's the 1/4 oz Mini Trap http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_63_100005001_100000000_100005000_100-5-1 1/8 oz Tiny Trap http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_7603_100005001_100000000_100005000_100-5-1 color 46 is the natural craw

Well, a 1/2 oz bait on a M spinning rod is typically the upper limit for that rod. I'm currently replacing my old school fishing equipment with 3 setups. One baitcast reel 6'6" Medium Crankin Stick from BPS fishing cranks, spinnerbaits and such. I currently have this rod matched with a junky baitcast reel. Planning on switching it with a Revo S. One baitcast reel 6'6" MH Fast/Extra fast action rod for jigs and heavier soft plastics (I don't typically throw anything over 1/2 oz). I plan on getting the Citica Extreme combo from BPS for this setup. One spinning reel 6'6" (I like that length!) spinning rod for weightless plastics. No idea what I'm getting here. I currently have a spinning setup that is servicable so this is the lowest priority. A 6'6" medium spinning rod is rated up to around 1/2 oz whereas the same length and action in a trigger rod is 5/8 oz. At least that is the BPS brand rods. I don't have the funds available to fish the top of the line stuff.

Not yet, I'm still just now getting into crankbait fishing and have been having excellent results with the Rapala DT's. Over the winter, I'm planning on filling out my crankbait selection (colors, depths, profiles, etc). Then next year I'll see what types of crankbaits I like. After that I may try some of the more expensive baits in the types that work for me. What would work even better is convincing my brother in law that those baits are the bomb and he'll buy a bunch and I'll just fish his! ;D I grew up a soft plastics fisherman. People say that these are cheap, but if the bite is on you can run through more money in plastics than you would if you were using a harbait/wirebait. I've got an old J-7 jointed minnow that has probably caught me 100's of fish. The paint is all scratched up and the black back isn't so black anymore. From a dollar standpoint that lure has kicked ***, but I've also got hardbaits that have caught nothin.

You may be right! I just realized that the line ratings on the 200 DSV and the 200 D are not using the same test line. The 200D gives 8/180 and the 200DSV is 10/180. I didn't notice the difference before this. Thanks

Forgive the simple question, but I'm looking at purchasing a citica and the differences in the models are not making sense to me. You've got the: 200D which seems to be the basic model with the low mass drilled spool system? 201D leftie version of the 200 200DPV which is the low geared/slow retrieve version 100DSV light version of the 200dsv? 200DSV what's this one? I know I don't want the 201D or the 200DPV, but what's the difference in the other three. Tried asking at BPS and asked someone who didn't know anything about them so I thought I would try here. Thanks!

Yellow is bad? Chart is the best producing color for me on spinnerbaits. Parrot, hot mustard, firetiger, and many other Rapale crankbaits have lots of yellow and they catch lots of fish too. Would you be able to look up the book later and see if what you wrote is correct? Seems weird.

Using a net would just lead to other unfortunate habits like fishing with live bait, trolling, or using spinning tackle for all your fishing. Start using a landing net and the next thing you know you'll be headed for shore lunch. It's a slippery slope. Am I the only one that saw this as sarcastic? I thought it was funny stuff.

Probably depends on what you spent it on. If you bought $6,500 worth or lures, then YES you have a problem. If you bought electronics for your boat, maybe a motor, other boat equipment, reels, rods, and a small percentage of that $6,500 in lures then probably not so much. The main factor though is if you can afford it and want to spend your money on it then no you don't have a problem.

From the original post: I added the bold.

You're waiting too long then. The fish has already "sampled" your worm and found it lacking. If you wait until you feel the weight of the fish then you are going to be missing most of the strikes.

But most everyone said they CATCH fish. Where would you be if fishermen didn't use soft plastic baits because they "fall apart"?

I'm not talking about a snap swivel, just a snap. A steel leader would make a LARGE difference, so much so that it shouldn't even be compared. Something like this or And if you use a snap you should take off the split ring which should be nearly an equal tradeoff in weight.

Hmm, what size lure were you using, what size snap, did you remove the split ring? I'm still trying to figure this out so don't take my questions as being patronizing or anything.

I'd figure out how deep the weed tops are and fish a Rapala DT that dives down deep enough to hit the tops of the weeds. Colors would be bluegill, bass, perch if clear water and any of the chart colors (parrot, hot mustard, etc) if water is stained. You can also fish the brush/wood too, but you really want to get in there and have the bait knock around the wood. I'd use the same colors. Next figure out how deep those rocks are and get something that dives down deep enough to hit them. The DT's with the coffin bills are good in the rocks (better deflection with this bill than the rounded one). Colors would be similar but add in crawfish. I got nothing here. I've never fished in a river in my life. Learning to fish a crank is very important. You need a rod that will pick up the baits vibrations and let these vibrations tell you when your line is hitting rocks, wood, weeds, or a bass has engulfed your lure. As you've probably noticed I like the Rapala's, but just as an FYI I don't have lot of experience with the other crank makers so they could be better.

What this should all really boil down to is looking at what the LMB's main forage is in your area. Here in IL it is NOT snakes. Sure you'll see a snake swimming across the pond every once in a while, but in all of my years of fishing I have never seen a fish try to eat a snake. I actually don't know of any area of the country where snakes will make up a good portion of a bass's forage. That being said, I'm sure if I threw that lure for long enough I would catch a fish, particularly if I threw it over floating vegatation (when the bass don't even know what they are hitting). Sometimes bass will kill anything that comes near them. But if I'm going to spend $40 on a lure to catch big bass it is going to be 2 of Matt's Ultimate Bluegills or 3 of his Baby Bass. This is what the big ones feed on around here so those lures will give me the best odds of catching a lunker. And as for bass109 working for Natural Motion Lures? Seriously?!?! If I paid someone and they acted like he has been in "promoting" my product, he'd be out the door.

Compared to what? I started another thread about the use of snaps/clips/knots and haven't seen anything that shows that snaps would limit the action. Are you talking about using the snap directly to the lure or the snap to a split ring to the lure? Speaking in purely factual terms, how can a snap limit the side to side wobbling action of a jointed rapala?

The Rapala knot is not doing so well here. One question for you, why would I go through the extra effort of tieing a Rapala knot when I can use a simple Palomar knot to a snap and get the same effect plus the benefit of a faster time to change between different lures?

Should I be removing any split rings if I use a snap?

I think what RW is getting at is to just make a LARGE loop and you shouldn't have much of an issue. To me it seems much easier to use a palomar knot on a snap/clip and then connect that to the lure.