paparock

They gave you a wish list???? :-?Us grunts in the Army used to say the Air Force was the only branch of the armed services that had their priorities correct. They sent the officers off to war and the enlisted guys stayed in the rear. Just kidding, as I was an officer. There are some great Air Force bases in Texas and even greater bass fishing. I can't say about the other places because I have never fished there. Best of luck.

With donations you can get some of the items below plus a few others you can view at the site. Remember this money goes to our soldiers in actual combat. There are three videos here: http://americansnipers.org/index.html Donation is $15 each shipped within the USA. Donation is $20 each shipped within the USA. Up to four bracelets will be shipped via first class bubble envelopes. Double clutchback pewter pin measuring 2.5 inches One Pewter Rifle Pin for each $10 donation when choosing this option, shipped within the USA. Donation is $5 each shipped within the USA. Americansnipers.org Vinyl Sticker, 5.5 inches by 4.75 inches, actual sticker is white. If ordered with other items, sticker will ship separately. One Rubber Bracelet for each $7 donation, shipped within the USA.

The source was Ebay. I have been watching Ebay for over a year for a good price on a Stella or Certate. It just happened I was needing a reel for my drop shot spinning rod went this deal came along. It was the cheapest price I have seen a new one go for during that time so I was just at the right place at the ridgt time. There are several Certates on Ebay right now on the "Buy Now" feature at really low prices if anyone is looking for one right now.

Learn more about this national organization at the following links. http://americansnipers.org/pdfs/NY-Times-Article-Dec2104.pdf http://americansnipers.org/articles.html http://americansnipers.org/index.html These are but a few of the hundreds of letters you can read for yourself on their site so check them out. Letters from the field: My name is SGT John xxxxxx currently deployed to Mosul Iraq with the First Stryker Brigade as a company level Sniper. I have a three-man team. For some reason the Stryker brigade figured a three man team would be better than the traditional two-man team. It has been working well for us. We are able to maintain a better degree of security as well as sustain ourselves on longer missions. To tell you a little about myself i have been in the army for approximately 4 and 1/2 years. I have completed army sniper school and graduated honor grad. I have attended the Marine sniper school at Camp Pendleton and have done sniper training with the Seattle SWAT team. I am always trying to improve my knowledge as a sniper to improve my lethality and survivability. I have been here in Iraq for 6 months now. When I return to the states I have a SOTIC date slotted so I will attend that as well when I return. I have been in the Sniper community for about three years. I have found that there is no better job in the military. When I get out, I am planning to continue my work as a sniper hopefully in a SWAT team or as a private security. Like I said, I've been in country for about 6 months and we have faced allot of problems over here with employment that the schools do not teach so it's made my job pretty difficult. We have been able to adapt and overcome our challenges but unfortunately, it has been at our own cost because the unit does not see the reason we need different gear than the line platoons. We have had to purchase rappelling harnesses, rope, carabineers, and flack vest's that allow us to seat the rifles in our shoulders better, along with other comfort items. On April 9th all hell broke loose here in Mosul and we were up on an OP. My shooter spotted approximately 150 personnel with RPG's and AK's inter mixed with civilian personnel. He was able to fire three shots before the crowd dispersed. He killed two and wounded one at a 430 meters while under indirect fire. Now the shot does not seem that difficult but if you add the fact that he was firing from the 5th story out of a 12 degree loophole and the persons were running. I am proud of my shooter for making those shots. We were in heavy fire for about 5 hours that day and in all my company killed about 30 NCF and sustained no friendly injuries. I just thought I would tell you a little bit about us. SO anyways I heard about this program through Strykernews.com. They had an article and I was curious about this program, for we are always looking for newer equipment and better tactics. I have no idea how this program works but I am proud to be a sniper when I see fellow snipers in the community are back home looking out for us snipers over seas fighting this horrible war on terrorism. Myself and my team wanted to relay our thanks to those snipers back home for all the support. I am curious to hear more about this program and how we can get a "Sniper Care Package." Thank you very much for all your support, and in the words of the greatest man that ever shot "Keep your head down, and your powder dry," Carlos Hathcock. I've also attached a pic of myself and my team. I am in the middle. My shooter SPC Furman on the right and my RTO SPC Peters ako "Rabbit" Sincerely, SGT John xxxxxx Army Mosul Iraq Hello Adopt a Sniper!!! I'm currently deployed in Iraq with xxxxxx, a National Guard unit attached to xxxxx. I was a sniper for xxxxxxxx from 1999 through 2001. I graduated from the US Army Sniper School in July of 99, Class 5/99. My partner served with xxxxxxx, and was a sniper for a year on the Korean DMZ in the 1/506th. He is also currently a full time sniper for the xxxxxx Police Department. I have to say we didn't expect to read about anything like what you've done for us snipers. Until now it seems we were misunderstood and under utilized. Now we are in demand and are working hard to do our jobs with half the gear. My partner and I have shelled out thousands on gear and we are still in need. We are part of a section that they have created for the line companies to use during operations instead of having to use Battalions scout snipers for every company Op. They added one additional team made up of competent soldiers we hand picked and trained ourselves right before deploying overseas. We are a hard working section and we've had to pretty much fund ourselves as far as gear. Our biggest problem is always commo between team 1 and 2! And there have been plenty of times when we've had to resort to 100 feet of 550 cord to signal one another from our prospective hides. There have been times when we've had to basically play telephone to get in contact with one another. The 126 radios we have are in short supply and we end up with one SINGARS or a 126 that usually malfunctions. I'm sure you understand how this can be a huge problem, not being able to communicate. If you could spare us some radios that will add a little reliability to our operations it would be greatly appreciated. We also have a pretty solid M14 with us, but the optics they issued to us along with the rifle is a joke. The rings they gave us wouldn't hold a zero on a Ruger 10/22. It was an obvious rush job to field some M21 look-alikes. The scopes were given to the engineers to help them spot IEDs, and we were left with a spotter weapon with no optic. I had a Leopold VX2 sent to us from home but was damaged along with the rings. If it would be possible to send us a Leopold VX 3.5-10 mildot with picattinny rings for our M14 it will give us the capability of tandem and quick follow on shots, and the variable magnification will help greatly with field of view in urban environments, which could have come in handy a few times already. If you aren't able to get us this specific gear, any help of any kind will be greatly appreciated. I know these things are expensive because we've spent a bank already. Thank you so much for even offering this kind of help to the sniper community, especially the ones seeing combat overseas!! It made me feel good just reading the article in the paper. In addition, knowing someone hasn't forgotten about us, makes us do our duty that much better. Thanks again RR Army Operation Iraqi Freedom FOB xxxxxx You guys are the HEAT!!! Thank you, and my Marines thank you. Fellow Americans like you keep us on the path. It means more than you can imagine. Silent Souls and Semper Fidelis, SSgt XXXXXXXXXXXX and the rest of XX/XX Scout Snipers Please let all who donated and contributed how grateful we are for their support and efforts. It's because of folks like them and yourself that we continue to crawl outside the wire each night and "even the score". Thank you and God Bless. -SSG A

Raul, your experience mirrors mine. I have found that a lot of the time the dog's attitude towards strangers can be shaped by the owner to an extent either to the good or to bad. My old vet would treat any breed of dog but a Basenji. Which of course I had one. That was when I was down in Houston. He said they were fearless and so stinking fast', it seems the last one he treated opened a 5-inch gash across the palm of his hand before he even saw it move. I had to have my only male Akita that weighed close to 150lbs. put to sleep because he became so aggressive toward people especially children. While I was in Casper, Wyoming, I lived across from an elementary school. The snow would pile up next to my fence and I caught kids throwing snowballs at my Akita. Over time it made him HATE kids to the point if I had not grabbed my youngest daughter's shoulder and jerked her back he would have had her whole face in his jaws. It was the first and last time that happened as it made me realize that despite the amazing bond between the dog and me he could not be allowed around anyone else without them being in extreme danger. I took him to the vet and he died in my arms with me bawling like a baby but despite the love I had for him I could not put other people much less kids children in mortal danger. It was human life or his so I made the only choice I could. Since you are a vet Raul you know owning any animal is a responsibility to both the community and the animal and that included properly training them which many owners neglect. I have a male and female tow poodle now that my wife and I are order. They are like our children and my wife has gotten into dressing them up but as loving and friendly as they both are under some circumstances I know the potential is always there that they could bite. We can't help it we love dogs.

If anyone has any questions please PM me and I will answer as best I can. Even donating subscriptions to fishing magazines to be sent to units is a morale booster. As we approach this Christmas season I hope we especially remember our young men and women fighting and dieing for our safety back home during this season. No matter how you feel about the Iraq war these brave young people desperately need your support. As a Vietnam Era veteran I now how much the lack of support hurts. These young soldiers volunteered to defend you and this country not a political party so please show that you care and support them! A gift from family if wonderful but think what a gift that lightens their load, brightens their days, or helps then survive another day from a total stranger from back home would mean to these soldiers fighting for their lives daily. Put a close loved one of yours there, if you do not already have one there, and think of what unexpected support from back home would mean to them. Here is a link to the organization to which I belong and support. If you feel it is worthwhile remember our soldiers especially in Iraq this coming Christmas season. http://americansnipers.org/index.html Today young men are fighting and dieing around the globe for this country. I send my contributions to the AmericanSnipers.org , an organization structured to helping those that are on the front lines of safeguarding our freedoms. Most people do not understand the role of Snipers today but if you are a soldier in the field they are your best friend as they are often your eyes and your guardian angles that can keep you alive when the stuff hits the fan and it's your life on the line. Please help them help working snipers in combat zones around the world. These snipers are deployed in the theaters of combat, both in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as other locations overseas. Their job is to help keep their fellow soldiers your brother, sister, father, mother, aunt, uncle, or cousin alive to come home not to just hunt the enemy as so many think. They observe the enemy often preventing ambushes, stop enemy snipers before they can fire on our troops, and a host of other duties that often exposes them to great danger as they are often alone in pairs that are venerable to the enemy if discovered. Many snipers have sacrificed their lives for the sake of their brothers as shown in the movie Black Hawk Down fighting impossible odds to protect fallen brothers or to prevent ambushes from happening in the first place. We are coming into the Christmas season when these men are out there facing death that we might be safe here. Can we not find a way to offer them some kind of Christmas present that might make the difference between another soldier's funeral and a family reunion this season? Guys and gals, here is what one young sniper has on his mind, something to which many here may relate. "I am a Michigan resident myself and would love to get over to Wisconsin to do some fishing once we get back. From the magazines you sent it looks like the Musky fishing is just as good as the last time I was up there. If I make it up to Pulaski, I would love to take you out on the water to fish or range to do some shooting. Again, thanks for your support and please stay in touch. " Even fishing magazines are cherished to at least for a short time to be back home wetting a line and feeling that bass pulling to free itself. Anything but the life and death, they face each day.

Well I just received my first Daiwa Certate in the mail today and I can hardly wait to get it on the water. After turning its handle, all I can say is sweeeeeeet. Now it is not a Shimano Stella but it is my first ever close to high end spinning reel and man is it ever smooth. The fact that I got it new for $202 makes it that much sweeter. I have fishing a Daiwa Luvias and it is nice especially for the price but the Certate is a definite step up. Normally you have to give an extra $100 over a Luvias and it will take me some time to see is I would ever do that but since I got such a bargin it is going to be funny comparing.

60 feet with jigs like a Hopkins Shorty, and heavy metal baits like Silver Buddies and Tailspinners like Little Georges.

Smallies rule while all others drool but LBH is right own. If more people could catch smallmouth I think they would rule the survey as well. ;D

If anyone really wants to understand how criminals think and how sometimes it seems so out of touch with your understanding of common sense then there is a book that is must reading. A classic in most criminal justice programs this book truly gives you a glimpse into the criminal mind and their mode of rationale. http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Criminal-Mind-Revised-Updated/dp/140004619X/sr=1-1/qid=1161645479/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-0371630-4678418?ie=UTF8&s=books

I will hold you and your family in my prayers Gameover for God to turn this situation around into a positive by providing you with an even better job at much higher pay. I don't know your skills but if you are willing to relocate check out all the major oil company sites online. Skilled labor like wielder, machinists, etc. is always in demand and the pay and benefits cannot be beat. What ever is your choice or situation, may God bless you and your family more abundantly than you can imagine! P.S. Give us some idea of your skills so if we hear of any openings we can let you know.

During my summers, I worked for Amoco Oil Company, which allowed me to pay my bills during the school year. During those summers, one of the men I worked with was on the Bataan Death March during 1942 and he spent the rest of WW II in a prison camp in Japan at hard labor much of it under ground in a mine. The treatment he received was such I could not bring myself to relate a lot of it here but it is safe to say he was lucky to have survived it because most did not. He was in his forties but had to eat baby food because it was all his body could handle. His story and his struggle to maintain his dignity was an inspiration to me as a college student of what my father and those of their generation sacrificed for me. My father said very little about his experiences, he lost his entire company to Japanese torpedoes as they were going to attack some island in the Pacific. My father had been removed and put under quarantine with scarlet fever. After that his files were flagged and he was transferred to the medical service corps from the infantry. He became a male Psyc Nurse. When I was older he talked just a couple of times about some of the men he helped treat that came back from the Pacific Theater of War with their bodies whole but with their minds shattered. Those stories flooded me with so many emotions all at the same time heart rending, rage, pity, agony, and helplessness. Not all wounds at visible and those not visible can be some of the hardest to heal. We need to also remember our soldiers that are in war today as you read this, no matter how you feel about Iraq. Those brave soldiers have nothing to do with politics but they do suffer the consequences of political decisions no matter who is in the White House. Support our troops!

Thieves should beware for their own safety as well. Back some years when I was still married to my Ex-wife the Deputy Sheriff, I was coming home late from work one night south of Houston, Texas when to twenty something aged young men wanted to relieve me of my wallet. I was just exiting my vehicle when they approached me. Now I have never on my best day looked rich, by most any standard, and why some people think because there is two of them that makes it ok is beyond me. It was midnight and any of the good old boys in Texas can tell you back a few years about the After Dark Law in Texas. Being a former Army Drug Suppression Officer and not long out of the Army then I always traveled armed with a very short folding but legal 12 gauge loaded with buck shot. Lucky for them I am a peaceable type that truly carried for defense only. After the two young men recovered from that deer in the headlights (we are about to die look) they turned and ran. I was not about to stop them. Once they turned their backs and ran they were no longer fair game under the law. I figured I won because I was alive and unharmed as well as not having to terminate to young lives. Not that I would not have, if either one had reached for anything! The moral of my story is not that I am some bad dude but that if anyone is ever tempted to steal as described here and the owner sees you he might just not be as socialable as I was but just might fill you britches with buck shot. Believe me that even if it is just bird shot and you make a clean get away you will be repenting as each of those little pellets is pulled individually from your backside. On the hand, would anything you find in someone's truck, boat, or house be worth losing your life over. Don't think that stealing armed will take care of that because all that will do is speed your slide down that slippery slope toward that free government needle. It is a losing proposition once you start down that path. The result is not in doubt only the timetable.

Every cloud has a silver lining, is the way the saying goes and in my case with my neurological disease I feel like the girl in the movie Fifty First Dates at times. At least I keep getting a first chance to get it right when it comes to new fishing techniques. I can also forget about ingrained bad habits because after a short time I probably will not remember them. Rather than videotape like in the movie, I have a huge notebook that allows me to refer to subjects and techniques when I go blank. Anything that helps me remember and helps me stay organized is a big plus for me like my computer program for my lake with a built in log feature. I also take many notes. We all have weaknesses and I try to compensate for mine to make me a better fisherman.

Now that I have been forced to take early retirement (oh, the pain) I have been forced to make a new new plan for retirement. See below.

I have been practicing catch and release since I was a kid back right after dirt was invented. Sometimes despite our best intentions and efforts, the fish is just not going to make it. That is when you should consider an alternate form of release. I call it Fillet and Release. There are even support groups formed around the concept to help fellow anglers deal with the psychological trauma associated with this aspect of fishing. Their clothing can easily identify members. Members of these support groups are sitting by with forks in hand to help you deal with your problem so don't hesitate to ask a member for help today!

Thanks for the help. I try to not remove a fish from the water or handle it any more than needed to release it but sometimes you just have to bring them aboard for some TLC before release.

I am wanting to find a really good net for those times I need one that will give the bass the best chase of survival for catch & release. I can't always hand land them so which specific models have you found the least damaging to the fish to aid in their recovery after realease? I know I want knotless but any others specifics will be helpfull.

A&W

Join the club because if you ever figure them out totally please write a book and clue me in because they can really tie me in knots at times. I am on Bull Shoals reservoir in north central Arkansas with clear water and only rock for structure with zero vegetation. The Smallies rule here now as the largest component of the bass population, which is great when, you can find the bloody things! I have only been fishing the lake since January and I have hired a local guide that is also on the BASS circuit to teach the lake to me which has greatly helped but this lake is known for being hard to fish a lot of the time. Sometimes it seems like all the bass have been abducted by aliens because they have seemingly vanished from the face of the earth only to magically reappear days latter. I have learned the hard way that many things that work wonders other places do not work at all here and I confirmed that with several of the local guides. So my advise is to save you some frustration and money; if you can afford it hire a local guide that is willing to teach you smallmouth fishing in your local area and not just take you fishing. If you cannot do that, pump them and the better local smallmouth fishermen for information. You just might get lucky and one of them will take you under his wing and teach you the ropes. That is in addition to all the great information all the Smallie addicts here will help you with.

I have a smallmouth fishing reference book that I am making myself. First, I went to every smallmouth fishing article I could find on the Internet (I also periodically check for new ones) and now I transcribe every article I find as I did this one into my reference book. It is structured into topics and categories. At present, it is about six inches thick. It helps me to be able to refer back to articles and to compare different authors when their opinions oppose each other.

I vote with you, Avid!

I am sure you will receive as much from them as they will from you. Best wishes for your great success! I hope your scheduling works out, as I know working with kids is such a rewarding effort.

So your from the San Luis Valley area, fourbizzle; when I married my wife she was living in Buena Vista just up from Salida. There is a lot of beautiful country in that area including the Great Sand Dunes and the pulsating stream there. Now we are in north Arkansas on lake Bull Shoals that is dominated by ultra clear water and smallmouth bass. I have been away from freshwater many years but I have had the most success this summer in early morning on topwater Spit-N-Image lures. Sometimes they have preferred the threadfin shad pattern and sometimes they prefer the Tennessee Shad pattern more but the LC Sammy works good at times. Its just a try till I find what they want that day pattern here so far but then I am still learning. A local pro-angler has been helping me and listen to roadwarrior's advice as well there are many great anglers here. That sure is beautiful pic you posted. Keep in touch and show us how you do.