mac7373

I need an easy read that is still entertaining and Ike's book looked like a winner to me. Not the biggest fan of his on the water antics, but at the same time I think he is one of the best people I have heard at explaining techniques and strategies. He really seems to be a good teacher. I am in between books at the moment and I have just 29 days before I have to pick up my full time reading "job" again. To briefly explain...the new Harry Potter book comes out in 29 days. Almost 2 years ago, my four-year-old daughter saw the first Harry Potter movie and she got hooked. I watched them all to make sure they were on the up and up and I ended up liking them too. I made the suggestion to her one day that she should let me read a chapter a day of the Harry Potter books to her at night before bed...and since then we have been doing it every night. We are about half way through the 5th book "Order of the Phoenix" and the 6th book, when it comes out in 29 days, I will have to read it first and then re-read it to her. I called it my "job" cause the dang books are on average 550 pages each. One was 750 and the shortest was 340. Its a good thing I actually enjoyed them myself. Later guys.

Hey guys- For those of you who read any of my posts regarding cast to catch ratios...some of the stuff I said was foolish, and disrespectful. Roadwarrior really didn't do anything wrong and some of the stuff I said to him was not warranted and was out of line. I have apologized to him via a private message, but I thought it was important for me to withdraw my comments publicly...to show you guys that I am not a total butt and to save face. RW has a wealth of knowledge to share and is good at articulating his points to us and he deserved better than what I "threw" at him in that forum. Later. ;D

Has anyone picked up the new book by Iaconelli, "Fishing on the Edge"? I just ordered it and was wondering if its a good read or not.

ball_coach That sounds to me like one of the better planned trips I have seen. Hit all the great southern spots at or around their peak times. Awesome trip. I would ask if I could be your shadow while your on this trip but you are probably a buckeye...but likely we would just argue about OU and OSU...Woody Hayes and Barry Switzer the whole time. Just kiddin' Later.

Low_Budget_Hookers I totally agree with you. But you know how some people get when they start drinking...they like to stand around and run their lip, show off and make sure that everyone had the opportunity to see them act a fool. I was always told beer and stuff was "liquid courage"...but I think it has evolved to become "instant ego". You get guys up on the boat ramp with chicks in the boat with them and they've got their ego and their buzz going...they have to make sure everyone sees them. Then on the other hand...like you or someone said earlier, "some people just don't know any better". sykofish My wife and I both graduated from U of O, but we have no loyalty to the school as far as being a supporter of the Ducks. Its obvious where my loyalties lye by looking at my posts. I was born and raised to love OU, circumstances just didn't work in my favor to where I could go there instead. Had Duck's season tickets though and when I wasn't watching on TV or flying down here to Oklahoma to see a game I was at the Ducks games. Went to all the Civil War games from 99'-04', those are flat out crazy. People in other parts of the country don't realize what a heated and competitive rivalry it is. My wife has kind of a weird college background...she was a Pre-Veterinary Medicine Major at Oregon State for two years, then transferred to U of O and Majored in Human Physiology/Exercise and Movement Science. I didn't meet many while I was there who had attended both schools like that. But she is a die-hard Sooner fan. Just incase you might ask yourself how this okie ended up out there. My wife was born and raised in Roseburg. After we both got out of the Army, I got out in 97'and she got out in 99'. We decided to go out there so she could be close to her family for a while. Oh well...later.

http://www.forbes.com/home/free_forbes/2005/0411/127.html thats a link to an article in Forbes magazine about the cuba bass fishing. great suggestion though. that one never entered my mind. cuba sounds like someplace I would like to visit.

That's a good point about the Rick Clunn article. Allot of people just don't think of it that away. I also think its a good point to point out that a person can't have success on the tournament trail just targeting big bass like Nixon did and several other California anglers have tried as well. I was watching Loudmouth Bass a few weeks ago when they were talking about the world record being caught or not caught. They had on probably one of the best Big Bass fishing guys in the world...Mike Long, who says he believes he will catch the world record eventually. Zona asked Long how many bass over 15 pounds he had caught in his life and he said something like over 65 officially. That's incredible...but it is also a perfect illustration of what RW said about targeting big bass. You would think this guy could go out and win every tournament he entered having the experience of landing that many big fish...it doesn't work that away though. On Mike Longs home lake he might be able to win a tournament or two but send him to Alabama or something and I am sure he would have trouble. He could adapt over time possibly, because most good guides can, but it would take awhile. He would have to change everything about how he fishes...and come to think of it he probably wouldn't even fair well on his home lake due to the rules he would have to follow...i.e. no live bait. Excellent points RW.

Ahhh...the nasty looking Payara, I think some call them sabre-tooth payara. Are they a strong, hard fighting fish? You defineately need a Boga-Grip.

You know I made the comment earlier that I thought recreational boaters and jet skiers were more likely to be slow on the ramp than most of the bass fisherman I have seen or know and then I thought that was too of a generalized comment...but now that I think about it more, there might actually be some truth to that. I think it might have something to do with the fact that...I would assume that there is a huge alcohol consumption difference in your different types of boaters? I can't remember, if it's ever happened that I have ever drank alcohol while bass fishing on a public lake. But...I sure have drank my fair share of bear and whatnot while skiing or out on the jet ski though. You know it actually could play a part in the whole thing.

This might get moved to another Forum, but I was just curious about what some of you guys would fish for if you could have a free trip anywhere in the world? I put it in this forum cause I am sure that some of you will have bass in your top 2 or 3. I would like to go down on the Amazon River and fish for Peacock Bass. I think that would be a great trip. Have you seen those guys hands who do this for a day or two? From what I have seen it can just tear your hands all to heck? Saw pictures of this one guy whose hands were just solid blisters. I love watching those Peacocks slam top water baits. If I was to have a couple of contingency trips planned I think I would like to go to Guinea-Bissau, Africa and fish for the biggest Tarpon in the world. New world record just came from there...260lbs. 150' s-200 are common and those suckers fight like crazy. That would be fun. Next would have to be in Alaska on the Kenai River during the summer run of King Salmon and Halibut. During that time those waters are loaded with trophy Halibut, Lingcod, Rockfish, huge Trout and the biggest Salmon. This trip will likely happen next summer...although it won't be free. Want to do this one with my father-in-law and my dad, been planning it for a few years now. We are planning on going next June. If I had to come up with a fourth choice...just to stay loyal to my Largemotuh Bass...I think maybe one of the big bass lakes in Mexico would be fun to spend some time on...say a week or so. What would some of you guys do if you had the opportunity?

sykofish I have fished Haag Lake a few times when I lived in Forrest Grove for two years and when I lived in Beaverton for 8 months. Caught some nice smallmouth out of there. If I am not mistaken I think the state record smallmouth was caught there the year before I moved up there or the year I moved there...I think 2000 or 2001? I lived up there while my wife was a grad student at Pacific University from 2001-2004. Yep...It was a mad house most of the time. I was actually referring to Cooper Creek Reservoir down in Douglas County though. I used to live close enough to Cooper Creek that I could here the boats and jet skies like they were in my back yard sometimes. Fished the Columbia a couple times too but I was in way over my head fishing that river without someone who new it really well. Fished a tournament in the Columbia with a guy who grew up there, and we...or rather I did allot better that time. Great smallmouth water. Also fished Tenmile Lakes a few times...placed 2nd in the 2000 Bassin' for Bucks there and won big fish as well. Fished Siltcoos, Tahkenitch, Dorena (day and night tournaments), Loon Lake (another madhouse at the ramps), and fished a couple of tournaments at Shasta in north Cali. Being from Oklahoma, fishing up there was a lot different and a trial and error kinda deal for a while...but I made some good friends and learned some great lessons that helped diversify my fishing approach. I saw from your profile you live in Warren, that's Derek Anderson country (Scappoose), you must be a Beaver?...I don't know if you get down south much but if your ever down by Azalea in Douglas County give Galesville Reservoir a try if you haven't already. There are some monster largemouth in there...they have been predicting for the last five years that the next state record would come from there...nobody can seem to land her though. I watched some (several) fish on the beds there back in 2001 and again in 2003 that were easily heavy 11's or light 12's. I left them alone though...I won't mess with bedding fish unless there is money at stake. Anyway...nice talkin at ya. Later.

You know I am an insurance agent...never insured anything like that though. But, I will look into it and do a quote on the Bullet I mentioned. I will get back and let you know.

Yep... I like the quote too That gave me a laugh. Later

It's over as far as I am concerned. As far as the 1:1 claim I made its true, but still is not an accurate representation of what we were discussing so there for it does not count. They are all largemouths under 10 inches and are in a private pond me and my family own that we use to stock the other ponds on our property. You can take a rod and reel with one of those Manns in-line spinners and reel them in until your arm falls off. As far as what I wrote...prove me wrong. Roadwarrior to Nick_Barr Why...288:1 is a heck of allot closer to the truth and a more accurate representation than 5:1 or 10:1...he flat out told someone they don't know how to fish basically. No outcry that that was disrespectful? The next time I read something from someone who is clearly "out in left field"...I'll ignore it. No problem here. Lastly... If I have offended anybody...I really apologize. That wasn't the goal or intent I had in mind. I had no idea some were so sensitive. I used no profanity and said nothing derogatory, but if reading my posts some found themselves offended or however it may have effected you, I am sorry. It won't happen again.

Ben I hear what your saying about the average boater. Your probably right. The thing is though, that the boat they tested...is for sale as tested for $49,000. I don't think that there are too many average boaters out there who would have the cajones to take the boat to its limit, rather than the boat wouldn't do it unless it had an expert driver although I agree that Paul Nichols can drive the crap out of it and he will get every last mph out of it. 100mph on the water is a hell of allot different than 100 on land. For those who have done 85 mph on water and think that its not that much more to go 100-110mph...you would be in for a rude awaking around 95. I have been in a hot-rod race boat with a friend of mine out in Oregon doing 125mph.We had the guys from the County Marine Patrol radar us from two different locations, one on a bridge above us as we passed them and another in a boat facing us down the lake. One clocked us at 129 and the other at 125 so we just went with the lower of the two. The 125 reading was from a gun that been calibrated recently.

RW If you want to talk ratios including skipjack, drum, gar, buffalo, bream, crappie, catfish, sauger, white bass, Kentucky, stripers, chinook, silvers, brown trout, rainbow trout, steelhead, halibut, marlin, shark, whale and...blah, blah, blah...etc...etc, then you should move over to the board called---Other Fish Species---link follows... http://bassresource.com/cgi-bin/bass_fish/YaBB.pl?board=species_ID ...I mean, last time I checked this board was called--General Bass Fishing and not General Multi Species Fishing? Yep...this thread was started by Redtail. I found his topic intriguing and waited for him to elaborate on it but he didn't...so I did, that's, that. I asked the question in a different way with "my specific criteria" and you come back saying that you stand by your numbers. That being said, you either don't understand the question, or you are just trying to flame and get something started? I asked the question with those specific guidelines to basically see how many of you would give me a half-@$$<? answer like 5 or 10:1, which would show me who the real bass fisherman are and who's just pretending, and so far you are the only one who doesn't seem to play by the rules. Again, if its just any fish...I have a 1:1 ratio and I will prove that all day long. I bet if you didn't sit at home and watch the weather/news and say "well tomorrow looks good so I will go tomorrow" and if you were forced out of your comfort zone and didn't have a guide holding your hand and wiping your nose, your numbers wouldn't hold water. You go 30-40 days in a row, not skipping a single one because the weather doesn't suit you or whatever and you fish on your own expertise and not have a guide baiting your pole and setting the hook for you and you fish for keeper size BASS, hell you might just quit fishing when you realize its not as easy as you think. Ever read Bassmaster Magazine...ever check out the new series called "A Day on the Lake" where they take the top pro anglers on the circuit and put them on a lake they have never fished and never seen, with whatever conditions that are present the day that was scheduled rather than looking for optimal days, (like you) with no idea what the patterns are in this water, just see how they fair and how well they find fish over an 7 hour period. Edwin Evers...an Oklahoma boy I might add (Boomer Sooner) had about the best day I have seen so far and he only caught 5 fish for a total weight of 13lbs 11oz. Skeet Reese was the most recent victim; he caught 3 fish for 4lbs 6oz. I bet if you told Skeet that you could fish that lake and go 10:1 against his approximate 350:1 (being that he is a typical Cali power fisherman, he casts at least 2.5 per min.) he would probably laugh you out of the water. Oh....my fault, your not talkin about bass...right, I am so stupid sometimes. But...it does beg the question, "if your not talkin bass, what are you doing here then?" I don't remember anybody asking about how many Walleye or Redfish you catch and what guide you use. But if that question was asked I would welcome your numbers and bow down before them, but until that time or until you fess up to the fact that you can't catch bass at a rate of 10:1 and quit insulting the intelligence of me and anybody else who has fished for bass in any capacity...like I said earlier, "go sell crazy someplace else-we're all full here".

Still looking for a Bass club. Oh...and I wanted my 50th post as well. Later

As some of you may remember from some of my many posts asking questions that I am in the market for a new boat. I have had catalogs and brochures sent to me from every boat maker I know of. Today I got the last one that I had requested, and it was from Bullet. One of the flyers in the brochure was for a newly tested Bullet 20XD and holy crap it is fast. It is equipped with a Mercury Pro Max 300x motor with a Sport Master gearcase with a 1.62:1 gear ratio and a 14 1/2 x 28 inch Performance Pro round ear prop. It was rigged for bass fishing with all the regular electronics and trolling motor as well as all the storage of a normal Bullet boat. It ran 104 mph on GPS speed which registered as 103.9 mph on a Stalker radar gun like the cops use. Talk about getting to your fishing spot in a hurry. Your launch draw wouldn't matter with speeds like that...lol. Just incase you care I am still leaning towards a Skeeter with Ranger close behind and then maybe Champion and Gambler tied for third. Later.

KU_Bass... No those numbers do not count "short fish" for they do not fall into the "keeper" criteria set forth by most tournaments. The average slot that I have seen is normally 12" but I have seen in other states were it can fluctuate from 12"- 16". Regardless of what RW said, I specifically stated that it only included smallmouth and largemouth and that the limits as in a bass tournament should be the criteria applied. (makes sense seeing as this is a bass fishing thread) This ratio is not about stripers or hybrids or trout or catfish or perch or little dink bass from an overstocked pond or anything else other than bass of the smallmouth and largemouth variety. Like I said before...if it were just anything and any fish I could skew my own numbers to 1:1 ratio, but what's the point of that? It proves nothing and lends nothing to the debate/discussion.

Wabassin Your info much like Mudd's sounds a heck of allot more realistic to me.

Just for the heck of it here are some results from tournaments in that area plus various other areas. Pay special attention to the total number of anglers and limits caught. **BASSMASTER SERIES MISSISSIPPI 2: PICKWICK LAKE Tournament Winner: LEON TIDWELL Winning Weight: 19 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/06/2005 End Date: 03/06/2005 Number Of Anglers: 84 Fish Caught: 171 Total Weight: 429 lbs 6 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 13 **BASSMASTER SERIES NORTH ALABAMA: LAKE WHEELER Tournament Winner: JACK RAGSDALE Winning Weight: 6 lbs 5 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 04/24/2005 End Date: 04/24/2005 Number Of Anglers: 104 Fish Caught: 216 Total Weight: 353 lbs 12 ozs Bass Limit: 3 Limits Caught: 53 **BASSMASTER SERIES SOUTH ALABAMA 2: LAKE EUFALA Tournament Winner: BILL CHAMPION Winning Weight: 7 lbs 6 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/06/2005 End Date: 03/06/2005 Number Of Anglers: 132 Fish Caught: 106 Total Weight: 256 lbs 3 ozs Bass Limit: 3 Limits Caught: 11 **BASSMASTER SERIES MISSOURI 1: GRAND LAKE OKLA. Tournament Winner: GLEN YOUNG Winning Weight: 13 lbs 5 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 128 Fish Caught: 127 Total Weight: 330 lbs 13 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 2 **BASSMASTER SERIES TENNESSEE/KENTUCKY: PERCY PRIEST LAKE Tournament Winner: BILL EATHERLY Winning Weight: 12 lbs 0 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 63 Fish Caught: 43 Total Weight: 114 lbs 8 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 0 **BASSMASTER SERIES NORTH ALABAMA: GUNTERSVILLE LAKE Tournament Winner: DOUGLAS TRUE Winning Weight: 22 lbs 11 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/13/2005 End Date: 03/13/2005 Number Of Anglers: 143 Fish Caught: 178 Total Weight: 675 lbs 7 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 5 **BASSMASTER SERIES TEXAS: SAM RAYBURN Tournament Winner: LEONARD PRICE Winning Weight: 20 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 04/10/2005 End Date: 04/10/2005 Number Of Anglers: 163 Fish Caught: 526 Total Weight: 1,280 lbs 15 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 61 **BASSMASTER SERIES TEXAS: TOLEDO BEND RESERVOIR Tournament Winner: PHIL HENNIGAN Winning Weight: 17 lbs 8 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 05/08/2005 End Date: 05/08/2005 Number Of Anglers: 137 Fish Caught: 292 Total Weight: 656 lbs 13 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 16 **BASSMASTER SERIES OKLAHOMA/ARKANSAS: LAKE DEGRAY Tournament Winner: NATHAN STRATTON Winning Weight: 15 lbs 9 ozs Tournament Year: 2005 Start Date: 03/20/2005 End Date: 03/20/2005 Number Of Anglers: 83 Fish Caught: 184 Total Weight: 349 lbs 14 ozs Bass Limit: 5 Limits Caught: 11 These are all 1-day results from various lakes with various levels of pro anglers. They were picked at random concentrating on southern lakes and rivers. If you put together all the numbers... Total Anglers: 1,037 Total Fish: 1,843 Total Limits: 172 out of a possible 1,037 = 16.5% Total Casts: 1,244,400 (based on a avg. of 2.5 per min.) Fish to Angler Ratio: 1.78 to 1 Catch to Cast Ratio for ALL Anglers combined: 1 fish to every 675 casts or as we wrote it in previous posts 675:1. Even if you slow it way down and say 1 cast per minute... 497,760 casts total = 270:1. Hmmmm? I am telling you...some of you guys are in the wrong line of work.

MuddPuppy- I don't know if you thought I directed my comments to you but I didn't. I had only read as far down as Roadwarriors and I was so blown away by his claims that I didn't read any further before I posted. All of what I said was more or less directed to RW. I agree with you now that I read your comments. You have the most feasible argument here I think. I think your numbers are closer to the real deal. No explanation necessary as far as I am concerned. Later

roadwarrior You need to take that show on the road then. Why are you wasting your time here on this board when you could obviously be out there totally dominating the pro anglers of the world who evidentially don't know how to fish...they should all be able to muster a catch ratio like that. What was that that Jack Nicholson said in the movie "As Good as it Gets"...something to the effect of..."go sell crazy someplace else, we're all full here." I am not knocking you as a fisherman or anybody else here for that matter, but I have spent way too much time on the water fishing...at least 130+ days a year for the last 15-20 years and not in my backyard or in my private pond either- to know that a catch ratio like yours over that period of time is not possible. The numbers you are using are skewed to favor you...if you went out and fished unfamiliar waters, artificial bait, only largemouth and smallmouth counted and had a size restriction like 12"-15" for 150 days out of a year...not just the good weather days either but all days pre determined just like a tournament your numbers would fall apart in a hurry...its that simple. Now if we want to pick and choose the location, and bait and time of year and...etc then I have a 1:1 ratio, but I don't think that's what the original question was either. Granted, I have gone away from the original question as well, but not to favor me but rather to make it more equal and less biased as a whole.

On ponds I could understand having days like 10:1...but you should call the Guinness Records guys if you could go out and consistently every single day do 10:1 and they are legal size keeper bass and not little dinks. Not only that but if on bigger water your ratio only slightly goes down then you should be doin nothing but fishing the BASS and/or FLW tours and making some real money. I have some farm ponds that I can go to any day, anytime and catch bass 1:1 but never catch one over 1/2 pound or so? If you took an honest representation of your fishing "time" and remembered the bad days as well as you remember the good days I think you would be surprised with how much higher your ratio is than 10:1. I have had days and seen pros have days on some of the best lakes in the country where we or I have gone 3-4 trips for 8-10 hours a days and caught one bass a day!!! Ask the guys who make a living as guides on some of these major lakes if they just go out and hammer 'em everyday...nope, they don't. I have been given two free trips to re-book a guide trip before because we have turned up "goose-eggs" on the trip. 288:1 is pretty high though, but is not impossible...like I said earlier, any fisherman who is honest will tell you they have had days worse than that. Using the way it was calculated in the initial post I would say that the average fish caught would not be 5 but rather 8-10 and sometimes allot higher than that and sometimes lower. I would also say that the casting per minute ratio is going to range from 1.5 - 3 and sometimes 4 per minute. Based on 10 fish in a tournament day it looks like this...remember this is averaged over a long period of time and not just the one day or the best days but all of them... 1.5 casts per min. = 72:1 2 casts per min. = 96:1 2.5 casts per min. = 120:1 3 casts per min. = 144:1 Anybody who is boasting anything better than a 50:1 - 80:1 on a daily consistent basis over a long period of time and isn't willing to admit they too have 288:1 days is probably not being altogether honest. If we all started today and went for 5 years and log ever cast of every trip and every BASS caught with a minimum of say 30-50+ trips a year and the tournament guidelines for size limits where applied not counting dinks...I would bet everything I own that nobody on here would average out to higher than a 50:1 ratio, which would come out to a generous 20 or so keeper bass a day everyday...that's even too low a ratio in my opinion. Think about it...when we watch the tournament highlights on ESPN or whatever...we see the anglers make maybe 10 casts that they caught fish on...what about the other 1500 casts we don't see? Based on your numbers 10:1...pro anglers must cull like around 100-150 fish a day because if you have 10:1 everyday than I am sure these pros can do that...right? Wrong!!! If you pay attention you see tournaments where pro anglers outside of the top five don't even limit out (5 fish!!!) everday.

One of the lakes in Oregon that I fished almost daily during the spring and summer was also a really heavily skied and jet skied lake. I was most times alone since I lived only 2 minutes from the boat ramps...I would just come home from work and grab the boat and go rather than looking for someone to go with me. Anyway, this being the case I was always responsible for unloading and loading the boat by my self. This particular boat ramp had the dock down the middle with a ramp on both sides of the dock. It was rare for the boat on the other side of the ramp to load and be pulled out of the water before me. The lake was so busy that I always other boatswaiting on me and I was fast about it too, at the very slowest I was out of the water in 3-4 minutes, [this includes docking the boat- running up to get the trailer-backing it into the water-jumping out and back down the dock-getting the boat-trailering it-securing the boat with the trailer winch-climbing up the trailer tongue into the back of the pick-up (through the sliding back window) or the Yukon (through the back window)-pull out and then secure everything on the boat once out of the way]...and then these same people who were waiting on me and acting all impatient would spend 10-15...sometimes 20 minutes in the ramp slot doing pretty much nothing but seeing just how far it is humanly possible to have your head up you're a$$ while acting like they were pretty much the only people at the lake. Rude, inconsiderate and completely self-absorbed is the simplest way it can be described and it seems to be something that runs rampant among recreational boaters. (for the record I have seen lots of fisherman act the same way, just not anywhere near the numbers of the other boaters)