paul.

yeah buddy! nice fish and cool pix as always.

congrats man. those are real nice rods. i just bought 3 of those beautiful orange rods myself so i can sympathize. bait monkey said he'd leave me alone for a while if i referred him to one of my friends. sorry, but i had no choice. i need grocery money. ;D

thanks y'all for the feedback. sorry, but i can't get any more at that price. i got 3 last night. one for my buddy and 2 for me. there were only 3 left i think and the guy at the store asked me not to say anything about where i got 'em b/c he figured they'd be out very quickly and he didn't want to disappoint customers by having to say they didn't have any more at that price. i'm pretty sure they'll be gone by the end of today anyway. but if i hear of any more deals like that around here, i'll try to post about it. seems like i have had a real good streak of luck here lately with great deals on fishing tackle. i had a guy at a store around here trying to get me to buy some g-loomis rods a few weeks ago. he offered me 15% off if i bought 1, 20% off if i bought 2. i almost did it, but in the end i just couldn't stand to spend that kinda money since i'm just a recreational basser. if anyone is interested in that deal, pm me. it may still be good and i don't mind checking. thanks again for y'all's help.

i got the mh 6-9 and the mh 7-3. i will be using the 6-9 for kind of an all purpose rod and the 7-3 more for plastics and jigs.

i got a deal on 2 carrot stix rods tonight - 89 bucks each. they were regular 119 bucks. i am so excited. i think these will be by far the best rods i have ever owned since i am a notorious cheapskate when it comes to rods and reels. i have pretty decent stuff now, but i hardly ever buy rods or reels except when on sale. i have heard great things on these rods but i would like y'all's honest opinions. was this a pretty good deal? and honestly, how are these rods in comparison to the other big names? i can take these back any time so let me know what y'all think. thanks a bunch in advance for your help.

i try to apply basic bassin' knowledge to my fishing, but only to a point. when my "trying to figure things out" becomes so tedious that it overshadows my enjoyment, it's time to simplify. yeah, i try to adhere to a system that works for me, but i am not going to analyze things to the point of stress and frustration. at one point in my fishing a couple of years ago i did that and i had to step back and realize why i fish. i fish to escape stress, not to cause it. i guess because i'm in the mental health field, i tend to analyze the mental aspect of things sometimes. fishing is no different. here's how it works with a lot of guys, and how i used to be as well. an angler goes out on the water and what he's doing is not working. so he attempts to "apply science" and he figures out what he's doing wrong, or so he thinks. he makes some changes, and then lo and behold, that don't work either. so he goes back to the drawing board. once again he blanks or comes up short. this happens again and again until he's exhausted all the "scientific explanations" for his lack of success. then he starts to question the "science" itself. so he reads and researches more and he becomes more confused than ever with all the conflicting and contradictory information that's out there. one "expert" says fish shallow. another says fish deep. one pro says that "x" is the right bait for a given situation. another says that you should be using "y". then comes the epiphany. he realizes that all the while he's been focused on science and what the so-called experts say, he's been ignoring the priceless information right under his nose - what his graph says, baitfish activity on a nearby grass flat, the brushpile that he somehow missed before, the swirl of a large bass beside a stump, a 4 degree difference in water temp from one part of the lake to another, and so much more. these things come sharply and vividly into focus in a mind unclouded by "how you're supposed to fish". and what comes next? you guessed it - success! all because the angler learns to pay attention to what is going on around him and blaze his own trail with a mind unencumbered by preconceived notions of what he "should be doing". i had to learn the hard way that the best "science" is paying attention to what is going on around me at that given time on the water instead of what i read or saw on tv the night before. once i did, my fishing became better and much more enjoyable.

really cool post. thanks for sharing that. i know you are a very proud dad.

congratulations on the pb's. that rocks! stay on 'em man.

great post and pix. what you did was great man.

great trip man. what a mule! i know you're stoked.

very nice fish man. nothing wrong with using live bait for a biggun - it works. congratulations.

thanks y'all. i want y'all to know that i read every one of y'all's responses to little em. it is so cool to watch her sweet face light up as she hears all the nice things y'all say. matt, i guess emilly has been fishing since she was old enough to walk around a lake or pond with me. as time goes on, she gets better and better and is learning to do more and more without my help. she's 6 now. lee, i'm in total agreement with you. so is emily. ;D it's just so funny that catchin' those 3 catfish hardly fazed her, it was catchin' that one tiny bluegill without any bait on the hook that she is still talking about. just goes to show you that they don't measure a trip's success like we do. sometimes it's the little things that make all the difference in the world. thanks again for the kind responses.

that's a lunker for sure. and wow, what a trip! cool deal man. 8-)

well catt, not sure if this is a scientific approach or not, but here's my .02 on one of the key elements in successful fishing. to me, success in bassin', especially success targeting big bass, comes from the the continual effort to try and master a key set of both internal and external variables. in my continual learning process as i try to target a larger than average class of fish, i have settled on a formula that has served me fairly well. (lunker locations + lunker times + lunker presentations + lunker attitude = lunker success). sounds simple enough, but a whole book could be written on any one of these variables. i certainly do not claim mastery of any of them and i continue to learn each trip. but one thing that has become readily apparent is that of all these variables, a change in angler attitude and mentality is arguably the most difficult, at least for me. you see all the other adjustments are external in nature. but a change in attitude requires an internal adjustment. comparatively speaking, it is relatively easy to change the spots you fish in, the times you go, and the baits and tackle you use. but changing the way you think, now there's a challenge! to me the key ingredients of "lunker attitude" are as follows. 1. open mindedness - in making the transition to lunker hunting, you have to be willing to throw away most, if not all of "the book" on bass fishing. the principles we grew up learning and mastering such as pattern fishing in many cases are useless when targeting bigger fish. the angler must be willing to re-think their style and preferences and abandon prejudices or pre-conceived notions about things such as live bait, deep water fishing, and big baits. 2. patience- when you seriously target big fish, you shouldn't be in a hurry to do anything. hopefully there's no tournament money on the line or clock to beat. if so, it is that much more difficult to be patient and achieve positive results. often trophy fishing is a waiting game. you simply must slow yourself down mentally. 3. confidence - i have found that for me success is not about being adequate with many techniques. rather, it's about being proficient with a few. in particular, fishing offshore structure and cover with plastics and jigs have produced the majority of my big fish, along with a select few other baits and tactics depending on the season. so i have a tremendous amount of confidence in those and that's how i fish. other folks may have had results with different things and therefore, confidence in those methods. regardless of your fishing preferences, i think confidence breeds success and success breeds confidence. i think it's impossible to be successful with big fish (or even small fish) if you are continually second guessing every fishing move you make. 4. tunnel vision - an angler has to be almost single-minded in their goal of producing big fish. he/she cannot be a "bite junkie" like i used to be. the ability to leave small to average-sized fish behind is difficult if not impossible for many anglers. this takes a lot of discipline, especially when you have gone all day without a bite and you know you could be whacking small fish left and right. i will admit that i have come up short on this single minded focus many times. i still become frustrated and willing to take what the lake will give me sometimes. but at the same time, i think this has helped me avoid becoming "burned out" on trophy hunting. nevertheless, over the long haul, you have to be focused on quality over quantity. you just have to realize that the lunkers are gonna win most of the time. this brings me to the last point. 5. perseverance - a trophy hunter has to be willing to accept failure, but only temporarily. you have to have a short memory for mistakes, miscues, poor choices, and less than successful outings. in the pursuit of big fish, there will be plenty of these bumps in the road and if an angler is not prepared mentally, their trophy hunting career will be short-lived. they simply will not be able to handle or adjust to the negative. you have to realize that you are after one fish - the fish of a lifetime - and that one fish, when you catch it, will be more than worth all the failure and heartache. sometimes you have to find motivation in even the smallest success and build on that. i realize that if i'm lucky, the bites i am after are only going to come a few times a year. but i also realize they are not going to come at all if cannot handle the times they don't and quit trying. well i just thought i'd throw that out there. maybe it'll help someone. hope it does. maybe other folks have thoughts on the changes in angler mentality necessary to target bigger fish. good luck out there. this was a a great topic you started catt. can't wait to see some of the other replies.

very good replies so far. my answer is twofold - genetics and environment. since these guys have done an excellent job of covering environment, i'll touch briefly on genetics. a bass cannot outgrow it's genetic ceiling any more than you or i, or any other living creature for that matter. in any body of water, i think the gene pool is an essential factor in bass growth. small bass tend to produce small bass with poor growth potential (low genetic ceilings). big bass tend to produce big bass with good growth potential (high genetic ceilings). to some degree environment (optimum water conditions and plentiful/accessible forage) can compensate for a low genetic ceiling. but there's no way environment can totally overcome poor genetics. that is why i think it is so essential to release big bass. hope this helps answer your question.

cool trip. multi species too. you guys should do an in-fisherman show. ;D man if those carp were on spinning tackle, y'all really had your hands full. ;D those grass carp are some hard-pullin' dudes.

she caught 'em mostly by herself i guess is the best way to say it. i just hand her the pole and she starts crankin' when we get a bite. but when they get close, she likes to hand me the pole and net the fish. that's her favorite part with the catfish. we didn't weigh any of 'em. i guess they were about 2-4 pounds. actually, her favorite part of this whole trip was once when she put her hook in the water without bait on it and caught a bluegill anyway (really). she is still talking about that this morning and she wanted me to make sure i told everybody that. 8-)

#3. i'm tellin' y'all she'll be giving dad a run for his money before long. she's quite a little fishergirl already.

#2

little em caught these nice catfish tonight. along with these she caught a bunch of bluegill. good times for sure.

man you are really on 'em dude! awesome. and that has got to be one of the best pix i've seen in a while. great job.

sounds like a real good time. it was a cool report too. and that looks like a killer place to fish.

that's a great picture man. sounds like you really had fun. everybody is getting carrot stix! those must be some great rods. a place around here got 'em and they were sold out in a couple of weeks. love the look on your face man. i looked about the same way when i saw the price on those carrot stix rods. ;D

that's real cool man. the grin says it all.

that's really cool man. nice post and pix. always great to get a bonus fish. 8-)