J Francho

I wish everybody in the world could meet my friend Jim. He's that special, not just as a fisherman, but as a friend, and a human being. Simply put, class. Product of great parents. Jim and his dad:

I know how to use a map, LOL. I just thought it had been settled that it would be james.

Can someone give me a destination link on Google maps for the James Creek Launch site? i see a small town named James Creek, near the lake, but.....

John that is the way it should work. Unfortunately it doesn't always. I hit a teen aged kid who was riding a bike. He jumped off a curb and came out from between two parked cars directly in front of me. I was only going about 25 MPH but there was nothing I could do. I left my car exactly were I stopped and told the investigating officer what happened, and that I had several witnesses who saw the whole thing. He told me he would issue a citation to the kid if he survived the wreck. He wasn't seriously hurt, but my insurance company paid all his medical/ambulance fees, bought him a brand new bike (much higher quality than I hit), a gave him $500 for his trouble. I was furious when I found out about it, and jumped all over my insurance guy. He told me it was cheaper to settle than to risk a suit and have it go to court and risk a jury giving him thousands. Well, that really isn't so bad. Someone has to pay the bills, and he was probably uninsured. Yeah, it chaps my bass too, when you realize that its coming from the pot you pay into, and doesn't contribute to lower rates, but at least it wasn't fraud. That burns me. Incidentally IIRC, New York State "no fault/uninsured" covered her medical bills, which were minor, my medical bills (I needed a very big chill pill afterward, LOL), and her parents' homeowners covered the damage to my car. no one was seriously hurt, as I was only going about 15 mph when she ran out in front of me in a snow storm. She apparently had done this three times before, liked the attention or something. Scared the bejeezez out of me. Anyway, rambling off topic here. Dude in the video was a dope, and doesn't deserve anymore attention.

Kelty Mesa 4 tent.

Thanks guys. My buddy Jim won another small club tourney that day, with three that went almost ten pounds. And he didn't start fishing until his partner had five in the well. He was a guest on this trail, and volunteered his boat when our friend Hank's broke down days before, so he wasn't fishing for points like Hank was, so he wanted to be sure he had a limit. This is Jim's home lake, and he fishes it two or three days a week, and even he said it was one of the toughest days in years. There was a Northeast ABA tournament there as well, with about 40 boats, and their winning weight was around 10 lbs. Two of Jim's better fish:

Nope, Raul. I hit a person that ran out in front of me. They got a citation for jay walking. No crosswalk, no pedestrian right of way signs or lights, and no green light for the direction he was heading. You cannot simply walk out into traffic here, and hold the drivers responsible.

I suppose they are going to seek out damages for Gary using his own name. Shimano management has flipped their lids.

I have my unit pretty well dialed in, most of the time. You have to not only be able to identify fish, but also identify areas that are holding willing to bite fish. They also have to be bass, if you're fishing for bass. None of these are bass. The only thing biting in this deep flat were yellow perch, on the bottom.

Upper left. Pretty sick reel. 8# Trilene XL.

Sorry this is a late report, but I was reminded that I forgot to post up here by one of my FCS brothers. Oneida Lake.... Rains had dropped water temps a bit, to 74-76°, and many of us didn't have a clue, myself included. I noticed most boats gathering at launch for the end had TONS of gear on their decks. Looked like we weren't the only ones having trouble scratching out five bites. If it was a pickerel tournament, I would have been the KVD of the club, LOL. OK, here's the results. Bill L. and "FNG" Felix had a nice limit for the day, coming in 3rd with a mixed bag weighing 11-1. Bill reports "black worms" as his bait. Nothing new there! Dan S. and rookie FCS'er George had a great looking bag weighing in at 12-4. They capitalized on an early topwater bite to have a limit by 8 AM. From there, George reported upgrading all day with plastics. Sounds like they had the plan, just not the bigger fish. Nguyen and Partner Ron W. mad another strong showing, boating 12-13 worth of fish, anchored by a 3-9 largemouth that took lunker. No word on techniques, but my guess is a Sammy was thrown most of the day, LOL. Final results: Some pics: 1st place: Ron and Nguyan with the lunker, and Ron's fish he claims to be a meanmouth. Two more from their winning bag. 2nd place: Bill and Felix enjoying their winnings. 3rd place: Dan receives gas money from TD Perry. Some more pics: Congrats guys. Nguyen is on a tear this year!

Its not a fly reel, but a centrepin. 8# Suffix Siege in Tangerine Orange, fluoro leader.

Wait a minute....there is no Xpediter service if you submit under their warranty program, yet a rep is willing to offer the Xpediter service now, for half off? I'd refuse, too. Clearly they know they did wrong, or they wouldn't be willing to offer a deal.

A bunch of jigs, whose brand name shall remain nameless.

Since most are already using cull tags and culling beams, why would there be any suspicion? They leave the same evidence as a stringered bass.

Depends on the cover. Mostly braid direct to bait.

Clunn's take on post-season 8/2/2010 (from another site.COM) Four-time Bassmaster Classic winner Rick Clunn recently gave another sites his take on the U.S. Open cheating incident, and today he called to offer his opinion on the Bassmaster Elite Series post-season. He wishes it'd never been dreamt up. "Really the thing that's a very sad travesty is what's been done to Skeet Reese the last couple of years," he said of the Californian who led the Angler of the Year (AOY) points list after each of the last 2 regular seasons, but lost the title to Kevin VanDam in the post-season on each occasion. "I'm not trying to pick on Kevin – I'm one of his biggest fans and all he does is goes out and fishes as hard as he can, and he's really a victim in this too with some people claiming it's his fault. But I can't imagine how anybody thinks this is a fair system. "Skeet had a lead of over a hundred points, and then through somebody's mathematical ignorance it gets reduced down to 15 points. Then (BASS) makes the (4 post-season days spread over two events) more important than the other 32 days the man has fished during the season. "They want to make it more like NASCAR," he continued, "but NASCAR has never been a fair sport, anyway. People in that sport have always tried to pull shenanigans and I don't think it's something we should be trying to copy. The people who run these tournaments don't understand how important the format is to the integrity, and what they've done is taken away the credibility of the Angler of the Year." Clunn called Reese's season – which included two wins, two runner-up finishes and two 5ths in eight outings – one of the best he can recall in his 37 years as a tour pro. "I understand that they want (the AOY race) to be competitive going down to the end, but they've really erased a historical year – they've basically put a lid on it and artificially gutted it. This is a farce and it's embarrassing and it's not fair to anybody. "Anytime you try to handicap or socialize a performance-based sport, the end result is that you end up diluting it. Maybe it didn't seem so bad last year when the points were closer going in, but this year it's really been exposed."

There are many small clubs where fishing, not money is the focus. In our club, the money is minimal, $40/boat. The cash just keeps it a competition. If you win, you get your gas money back.

Do you use hooks on your baits? :-?

MS Mini Slammer Senko Sweet Beaver Buzzbaits

A big jig, with a soft swimbait or a 10" black worm as a trailer, deadsticked right under its nose should do it, if its a northern. Standoffish northerns respond well to jigs.

You need to crop those dippers out of the picture, and never again mention them online, or within earshot of anyone. They don't work.

I just don't get it. Bass fishing is neither a game, nor is it a sport. The best angler of the year should be the one that fished better than the rest, for that year. That would be weight/points. In the current format, you don't need to be the best to win. You only need to be good enough to get in, and then do well when it counts. In other words, Angler of the Past Few Weeks. I don't mean to diminish Kevin's success, but this win is not as good as others, in the past. And BTW, with this format, I think Roland's record is in dire jeopardy.

Pay online, using your bank's online tools, not theirs.

Then I would be reminded about my stupid purchase. ;D