paul.

hey chris. thanks a lot man. that's a real interesting rig. i use live skipjacks. i have finally settled on hooking 'em through the nostrils, but i think i'm gonna try your way too. thanks for taking the trouble to put up a pic. and i totally agree on the live bait thing. we are just getting cranked up this year on striper fishing, but last year all the best ones came on the real thing. just like you said, more on artificials, bigger on live. yesterday, i fished a 10" skipjack for about an hour. no takers, but i have all the confidence in the world that if the one i wanted had been there, she woulda ate it. i can't really say the same thing with artificials. good stuff bud. thanks again.

hey chris were you using live bait again? if so, how were you hooking it?

well, that settles it. i think i'm going tomorrow. temps supposed to be in the low 30's with the wind blowing, but dadgumit chis you've pushed me over the edge. i wanna catch another big striper so bad i can taste it. great catch as always. were you using live bait again? if so, how are you hooking it? i go in one nostril and out the other with a little piece of soft plastic on the hook to keep it from rolling backward and re-hooking the bait. maybe you know a better way though. always down to learn some new tricks.

yep. carroll county.

just now read this. was gonna just let it go, but in the end i couldn't without saying something. i really appreciate being mentioned in the same thread as some of the great names on here. but the truth is, in many ways we are just not comparing apples to apples here when my name even enters the discussion. as i've said many, many times on here i have been blessed to fish some great small waters. one of the ponds i even manage myself. anyone on this site could look like a bassin' superstar fishing some i the spots i have. given the time and opportunity, any member of this forum could have done everything i've done, probably even more. i've always thought that a fisherman is only as good as his last trip anyway. that being the case, i suck. ;D so i don't think my name belongs anywhere near this list. truth be told, i go fishing to enjoy myself. that's it and that's all. how "good" i am matters not to me, and it certainly carries no clout with the fish. i have never seen a fish jump in the boat and surrender because of a fisherman's reputation. the fish still win most of the time. so since i'm taking my name off the list, i'm gonna add one - my friend CJ. he is the best deep water fisherman i have ever been in the boat with. period. his skills with his electronics are uncanny. he can consistently catch big sacks on huge expanses of highly pressured water. he is also versatile beyond belief. i totally agree with the rest of the names y'all have mentioned too.

now that's a good solid chunk right there. way to kick things off. hope there's plenty more.

great etb! looks like you're gettin' the year started off right.

great! that was cool. i'm sure that'll be the first of many. good job.

no, i'm not near a dam. but i fully intend to try that some this year. i have been told that the action below the dam at pickwick is fast and furious at times. gotta get me some of that.

jerkbaits, crankbaits, and swimbaits. a few on live bait a few weeks ago, but now catching the right bait is proving to be difficult and more trouble than it's worth.

they're getting to be respectable size now. if i could catch these bad boys all year long, i'm pretty sure i'd give up bass fishing (almost) entirely. ;D what fun! once you've caught a few, there's just nothing else that compares to the way a decent-sized striper hits and fights. addictive is an understatement.

didn't catch as many stripers today as i have been. only about 6 of 'em this outing, but the quality was a little better. not a giant by any means, but still enough of a fish to make the final outcome of the battle a little less than certain on light spinning tackle. fortunately, i won this time. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

great catchin' bud! looks like you're doing great. congrats big time.

hawgs as usual. great job randall.

great hybrid! wish there was more of those where i'm fishing! those things pull like trucks. way to smack 'em around.

great trip bud. y'all smoked 'em! glad you can fish all winter.

way to end with a bang. real nice.

you only catch one kind of bass - huge ones! great as always.

thanks guys. i live in carroll county, only 30 min. from the tn river. another great bite today. and yes, i do wear the same clothes over and over when i fish. ;D

man i have caught a pile of stripers so far this winter! plenty of whites too and even some hybrids for good measure. mostly small, but tons of fun on light spinning gear. in the ripping current, these things are a handful. anyway, i mostly just wanted to stop in and say happy new year to br. hope '11 brings all of y'all good health and prosperity along with plenty of rod bending and drag pulling.

so cool. and way to get him spoiled on the good equipment early. if you ever try to give him a zebco 33 now, he'll just laugh at ya.

fine fish bud. always happy to see those bigguns no matter how they're shaped.

just absolutely gorgeous. great fish. great pic. great trip. you got it goin' on for sure. 8-)

took my dad fishin' today on beautiful kentucky lake. banner day! over 40 bass. plenty of fat, healthy fish in the mix too. more 2 and 3 pounders than i could shake a stick at along with a few real good 'uns. here's the best of the bunch. first off my 6-0 spinnerbait fish. then dad got in on the action with this 5-12 skitter pop lunker. then i was able to close out the day with this long lean 5-6 spook bass. the best part of it all was getting to spend quality time with the man who patiently taught me to fish. the second best part was that the vast majority of the fish today came on topwater. 8-) don't get much better than that. here's the pics. please disregard any landmarks you might happen to see. :

thanks guys. complications from massive growth? well yeah, there are a few. broken lines, straightened hooks, and excessive wear and tear on equipment are the main ones that come to mind. ;D seriously, i don't think about it too much J. i just do the best i can with the limited resources i have, hope for the best, and let the chips fall where they may. i've been doing this for a while kinda as a hobby, but i'm starting to get real serious with it. perhaps if i knew exactly what type of complications you were talking about, i'd be able to answer better. actually i am very interested in your "complications" because i'd much rather avoid making mistakes than to have to try to fix them. that said, i am confident enough in what i am doing and what i have learned through trial and error that i honestly believe that i could start from scratch over and over and duplicate these results time and time again. i guess you could say i have a "system" in place now. you are exactly right though J. in my efforts to grow these fish i have made plenty of mistakes, but i have tried very hard to learn from those. success comes with a price sometimes, particlularly when you are trying to push the envelope beyond reasonable limits. basically what i am trying to do is to take very "normal" fish and turn them into abnormally large fish. i guess you could say i'm trying to overcome natural genetic limitations with management strategy (and a poor man's management strategy at that ;D). as you found out with your hatchery, that's not always an easy thing to do because mother nature tends to resist being tinkered with sometimes. you learn quickly that you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. no matter how you try to spin it, it's a blood sport and some fish are just not gonna make it. the way i see it, with my plan the fish that have what it takes to become special will become special. those that don't will fall by the wayside. i hate it when things don't work out, but i still accept it as part of the process. the fish of the future will benefit from the failures of the past. fortunately to this point, there have not been any major setbacks. maybe i'm just lucky. either way, i'm "all in" now and enjoying every minute of it.