paul.

very nice catch burley. that one's fat and sassy for sure. for some reason, they seem to fight better when they're built like that. bet it was fun. no matter what it weighs it's a good 'un.

good job dad. we'll be seing pics of them holding fish soon i'm sure. either way, it's the fun and togetherness that counts.

finally a nice day when me and little em could get out together. good sunshine, good smiles, good times, and good fish. all came on ultralight spinning gear and 4 pound test. all fought and caught by one of the best little anglers you ever saw. it don't get any better than this boys and girls.

thanks again guys. y'all are too kind. 5bl, you are so right buddy. i think i put a year's worth of wear on 2 reels. ;D to answer the question, i caught the whites and lm on a bandit flat maxx (rootbeer/chartreuse). stripers went for a shad colored super shad rap and a big gold x-rap jointed shad (both saltwater baits). i did catch one striper on a sexy shad colored dd22.

thanks very much everyone. i did keep a limit of stripers (2) and a few whites for the fryer. very tasty. but most were released to try to pull someone else out of the boat. ;D

caught fish today until i was just wore smack out! lm, whites, and the mules of the river - stripers! what a great day. these are not giants by any stretch of the imagination, but trust me it's all you want on bass tackle, especially when you're catchin' a bunch of 'em. ;D and these are just a FEW of what i caught. don't think i've ever caught so many big fish in one day. can't wait until next time. hope y'all are catchin' some too. 8-)

i wrote this for the ragetail forum a while back. maybe it will help. of course it was geared toward ragetails, but other baits will work as well. good luck. http://www.ragetail.com/ragetalk/index.php?topic=99.0

pm'd ya Simp.

after reading these reports i feel lucky. i fished the tn river on the 14th with a buddy and 15th with another buddy. 33-36 degree water temps. ice chunks floating down the river. 46 bass on thursday. 37 bass on friday. nothing big but fast action and lots of fun with several doubles. baby rage craws were money for me on both days.

my prediction? internationally acclaimed company prestige worldwide (from "stepbrothers") decides to add bass boats to their already successful product line. they launch their exciting line of boats with an incredibly catchy rap song and video, entitled "boats and hawgz". the lyrics are as follows. get out of the minors and into the bigs, you're gonna catch toads in one of our rigs. so def, so dope, so fresh, so clean, ready for bass both brown and green. crankin' or jiggin' or pitchin' and flippin', think you'll find better? you gotta be trippin'! try to catch us and ya just might slip, we're gonna debut at the '10 roadtrip. in the boat world we'll soon be a force, homeboys heard it first on bassresource. boats and hawgz, boats and hawgz. gotta have me my boats and hawgz. boats and hawgz. boats and hawgz. gotta have me my boats and hawgz. investors? possibly you...........

been a redskin fan since i was a kid myself and today is the best news i've heard in a long time about the skins. cerrato out. allen in. shanahan on the way. is snyder finally tired of losing and watching the other 3 teams from his division make the playoffs? looks that way, but i won't hold my breath. i think portis is probably done and his production won't be easy to replace. changes are needed at offensive line. there is no clear no.1 receiver. no dependable field goal kicker. they'll need a good o.c. they have a good but not great defense. so i don't look for much next year unless they hit a couple of home runs in the draft and free agency. but today was definitely a move in the right direction. things are looking up for sure.

very cool indeed. way to go man. you'll have a well-worn trail to that little lake before it's all over with. ;D

cool post. glad y'all had fun. those young 'uns won't forget that anytime soon.

excellent. way to stick 'em. hope you get another trip like that soon.

i'll readlily admit that in some situations, live bait is by far your best option. i'll also say that in other situations, if you're trying to fish live bait, you ain't even in the game. the trick is knowing when to use what. i've known plenty of situations where guys using live bait got outfished by guys using artificials. i've also seen the opposite. fishing as a sport has progressed so far that pretty much everything is "cheating" in the sense that we have a bigger advantage over these fish these days than we ever have in the history of the sport. and yet sometimes the fish still win. ;D if folks want to fish artificial baits out of some twisted and misguided sense of "fairness", so be it. i know better. maybe if these folks really wanted to be fair, they should struggle with a bucket of live minnows when their buddy standing right beside them is slaying them on artificials. but i guarantee that's a sight you will never see. you will never hear a guy say to his buddy who's setting the hook on every other cast, "hey, you are catching way too many fish on those senkos. that's cheating! so i'm gonna use live minnows just to be fair to the fish." truth be told, the majority of the time i use artificials myself. but whatever i'm fishing, i don't entertain any delusions that i am on a level playing field wth the fish. perhaps i've missed something, but when i put a bait in the water, be it live or artificial, my goal is to catch a fish - preferably a big one. that's it and that's all. and i'll do what it takes within the limits of the law to produce if i'm serious about it. i do not fish to be fair. i do not fish to give the fish a break or cut them some slack. i do not fish to even the odds. i fish to catch fish. but hey, that's just me. and i still get my butt kicked plenty of times. ;D fish however you wanna within legal limits. imo, regardless of how you fish, if it's for any other reason than personal satisfaction you've missed the boat anyway.

agree with most of this except the part about reeling it slow. that's the way i fish this bait most of the time b/c that's the way i've caught most of my fish on it. imo, the bait looks very unnatural at med. to high retrieve speeds. i do like an occasional pause or twitch with my retrieve. but i ain't saying that anyone else is wrong. just my personal preference. i do think that the castaic catch 22 and the mattlures bluegill are better bluegill swimbaits. but again, that's just me. here's a giron vid. here you can see how unnatural the bait looks at high speeds, wildly swinging from side to side. you can tone this way down by just slowing your retrieve though. good luck with whatever you decide. http://www.***.com/videos/JG.html?pcode=JG

that's a nice lookin' old warrior there. she might not have long left. healthy, that fish was probably well over 10. glad you were able to catch her before she left this world. congrats on a great fish.

thanks for posting this. i was thinking about trying some out and now i won't. especially at the price they're charging. seems like eagle claw/wright and mcgill is trying to improve their reputation a little. i saw some of those fancy yellow wright and mcgill skeet reese rods at gander mtn. look real nice cosmetically, but they seemed a bit heavy and not very sensitive at all. even at that i might have tried one if the price wasn't $99. you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. ;D

nice fish and great write-up. good luck on your next trip.

since when is a 3 pounder a baby? dude that's a very nice fish. to me it's even more rewarding to catch 'em shallow in the winter when you're not "supposed to". congrats big time.

hey y'all. i had a few minutes this afternoon and decided to get after 'em for a while. as i fished along during this special time of thanks, i couldn't help but consider the many wonderful things that have come my way, blessings of which i am totally undeserving. among these are the many great friends here on br, both old and new. i am thankful for y'all's kindness and all the many good times spent on the board here. i am thankful for glenn and the mods who selflessly dedicate themselves to this site to make it great source of learning and fun that it is. i am grateful to the trophy hunters and other expert anglers on here, guys who have taken the time to share their insight and experiences to help me catch more and bigger fish. i am thankful for mike and the others who help coordinate the roadtrip so that we can share good times in person rather than just on the board. in short, i am thankful to all of y'all for making br a place worth stopping in every week. my fond reflections were abruptly interrupted this afternoon as this big ol' brute of a she-bass made her presence known. after an epic battle, quick pic, and release, i was reminded of one more thing we should all be especially thankful for - these great fish that have given us so much joy and so many cherished memories. these bass, particularly the big ones we're all after, can be very hard to replace. hopefully we'll all be thankful for what we have and do our part to conserve and enhance this resource so that our children will have a chance to enjoy it as much as we have. this afternoon's lunker is dedicated to br. hope all of y'all have a wonderful thanksgiving.

thanks y'all. very kind as always. nothing special about my fishing other than some of the places i go. hope y'all have a good thanksgiving.

backwards on a jig head as a "hula craw".

yes i fished this one weightless due to time constraints. but one thing i usually like to do is insert a tiny split shot for weight and a jig rattle for noise. i seal them in the bait by plugging the hole with another piece of soft plastic from another bait.

homemade "paca tube". one of my favorite flippin' baits. even deadlier with a jig rattle inside.