bigbill

I did like the Tommy gun or the Chicago type writer as its called over the full auto m14's. I would like a belt fed but the cost of feeding it.

Like I said before about my son's girlfriend riding dirtbikes and beating most guys takes a lot of work and dedication to get her there. I taught her she can be as good as you want to be but you must stay focused and motivated. My son showed her the rest. This is one tough gal. She rode hard, took her lumps and never gave up nor complained once. She taught me how tough gals can be too. I seen her tear her ACL and try to get back on the bike to ride it off. We took a trip to ride up north not expecting ice and snow. She fell numerous times like we all did and she never moaned or cried once. I seen her take shots in her crashes that would sent any guy home crying. When most guys heard a girl was going to ride with us there eyes would roll. Then when she beat them she earned there respect as a fellow rider or they would disappear never to ride again with us. These were our buddies we hung out with. Funny they never mentioned her name too. My point is anyone goes in a under dog being new to any sport. Being a woman your seen more as an under dog. Till you prove your worth and spot in the line up. You actually earn there respect by doing better than them. My congrats to any woman who does it. You have my deepest respect. But some guys can't accept losing to a woman. They don't show it on the outside but there hurting on the inside. I just laugh at them. There the ones who won't show up to compete again.

I was cleaning, lubing and polishing my reels up and removed the spool and noticed a few burrs on the front lip of my spool. You can't see them but I can feel them. lt seemed to be from under the plating. But I'm not sure if it's a manufacturing problem or it happened while handling it. The few areas of roughness on the spool lip could easily Nick the line. I polished the rough spots out till there really smooth. Do you check the lips on your spinning reel spools for rough spots or tiny burrs? My spinning reels were not cheap. I purchased good quality reels. I never expected to find burrs or rough areas on the spool lip.

There are some thinner ice fishing gloves.

This post is for the ones who are having problems with using spinnerbaits. I was very spinner bait ignorant till Glenn here told me to stay using it. I never gave up. After I had one of the best teachers here pushing me. Spinnerbaits?? I can understand this can be a sore subject with some fisherman. Heck the only time I witnessed them working is when I was using one. I see so many guys making cast after cast the whole time, even for hours for nothing. They show up with one lure only and hammer it to death. I'd like to know the mileage on some of these lures. Fishing from shore I been using the smaller spinnerbaits in white or chartreuse skirts with a Colorado or Indiana gold colored blade. The 1/4oz Mann's classic in white or chartreuse colored skirt, with the combination of the Colorado and a Indiana gold blade is one of the hottest spinnerbaits to me. The trailer setup is the key to me. I use the mister twister 4" split double tail grub trailer. This split double tail grub actually looks alive and it's swimming when it's moving. I make sure it's put on the spinnerbaits exactly straight so the spinner bait will run vertical and true. Once the trailer is on I add a 2/0 trailer hook. Add a shot of YUM shad scent and your good to go. My setups are; Mann's classic 1/4oz white skirt gold Colorado/Indiana blades spinner bait. Skirt- Blue Glimmer Trailer- mister twister 4" split double tail grub in white. Trailer hook- 2/0 Scent- YUM SHAD Mann's classic 1/4oz chartreuse skirt gold Colorado/Indiana blades spinner bait. Skirt-Hot Chartruese Trailer- mister twister 4" split double grub tail trailer in chartreuse. Trailer hook- 2/0 Scent-YUM SHAD The micro and mini spinnerbaits work when setup this way too. You may need to trim the length of the 4" grub trailer. I try to use the larger skirt giving the smaller spinner bait more bulk. These setups work awesome for me from shore. But the presentation is another key to the puzzle to success. I make very soft side casts so the spinner bait goes into the water like a pro diver with a little splash rather than slamming the water spooking the fish. Now depending on lure speed adjusts the depth where the spinner bait will run at. These is what we call the sight line. A faster lure speed we can see it running just below the surface. This is above the sight line. Remember if you can see your lure the bass can see you too. I find the bass will be shy at times to strike above the sight line. Now when we slow down our lure speed down just enough so we can't see it, it's below the sight line. It's more in the target and comfort zone of the bass. Most of my fish are caught below the sight line but all my first casts are above the sight line just to make sure my spinner bait is running vertical and to see what mood the bass are in too. If you hold your rod tip up and let the blade arm with the blade run up out of the water by adjusting your reel speed letting the blade slap the waters surface while reeling it were using the spinner bait as a topwater surface lure. Again it's awesome action. This works great over submerged weeds and over open weed pockets too. So far the gold colored Colorado and Indiana blades seem to have more thump whether there used single or double. You can try different trailers if you want too. You can take my suggestions as a starting point till you figure out what works in your area. All I can say is when there running vertical and set up right I catch fish. Like Glenn told me stay throwing it till it works. I'm a lure color freak so I purchased well over 100 different colors and sizes of spinnerbaits. I'm sure all the other colors work just like the crankbait colors work too. I wouldn't go crazy on different colors but the basic colors of Blue Glimmer or Hot Chartruese seem to be my hottest colors so far. It's not luck in fishing it's skill.

On my plastics rod on the main line I have a standard locking snap swivel. On my carolina rig I have a swivel at the top, the weight is between beads and captured with two carolina keepers. Then at the end of this 24" leader is another locking snap swivel. I have all my plastics pre-rigged with hooks so I can change them out much faster. I carry pre-made up carolina Riggs with different sized weights all on 24" leaders wrapped up neatly in zip loc bags in the bottom of my tackle box. I carry senkos, brushogs, creature baits, minnows, all pre-rigged. Due to my health my fishing time is limited so I fish as fast as I can. Till the pain gets so bad I need to go home. Someday s it's 30minutes while most of the time it's a few hours.

I been catching some pickerel between 29" to 32" at two of my hot spots. Inbetween catching bass. The pickerel just show up. A few weeks ago I went out and watched the minnows on there tails jumping out of the water all over in front of me. I put on a bomber citrus crankbait and went to work. As I reeled in my crank the minnows were jumping behind it so the predator was following my lure. He hit it and I landed a decent pickerel about 18"/20". He inhaled the whole bomber crank. Funny I just purchased a long surgical Pliers from eBay. I needed it really bad. I took the lure out without hurting him but he was biting at me the whole time. He was the most feisty pickerel I ever caught. This place is where I seen a monster pickerel or a Hugh northern pike attacking the stocked hatchery trout in the cattails. He was making 10' to 14' 180 degree turns and striking. I knew it's a large pickerel or pike. I threw all my monster lures for nothing. This place is stocked with trout but I hardly see any trout being caught there. Gee I wonder where there all going? We have great northern pike here someday I'll target them.

I just made up a quick fish box as I call it. So I can grab it quick to fish on the fly. I put my variety of lures in it. Plus some plastics. I put zip loc bags so I can use plastics and save them. It's a small Plano two shelf box. I'm out of room already. I have spinnerbaits and jigs in it too. I normally carry two Plano 9606 split roof boxes full of everything. Plus a smaller split roof box with all my weedless stuff. When I go fishing it's like I'm moving. When I purchased the larger tackle boxes I went from 5 tackle boxes down to three.

When I worked for the engineering group I took the female tech's out for lunch sometimes. Most of the time it would just be the two of us. I treated every gal like she was my sister with the up most respect. My wife had no problem with that but I'm sure at work the rumors were flying around behind my back. I would down play if I heard any stupid rumors anyway. I like to think about everyone being adults but they can be like little kids. Gossip and rumors makes them feel better I guess. I hit it off with some gals as a friend and were coworkers. We put up with each other 8 hours a day. Its like a second home and family. I treat everyone like I want to be treated. Wether it's working, fishing or having a coffee/lunch at a local eatery what's the diff? I go home to the love of my life my wife. I love some people like there family but I'm in love with my wife. That's the difference. Bill

Overall I believe a decent rod price wise starts at $99. The Lew's speed stick, the Garcia vengeance, even the Berkeley shock rod feels like a decent rod for the cost. I just took a shot and purchased them all even a quantum tour KVD rod too. There all 6'6" to 7'rods. I have a Berkley lighting rod HD i use for jigs. But it's your call.

I use the ball bearing locking snap swivels on all my topwater, crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, inline spinners and spinflys. The ball bearing swivel allows the lure to swing left and right much in a much smoother side to side action. It gives it more movement too at no extra cost. I do use different sizes of the ball bearing locking snap swivels too. I use the standard locking snap swivels on my plastics rod setup. This allows me to go from a split shot leader, to a Carolina rig in seconds without the hassle of tying. I use a locking snap swivel on the rod and on the end of my leader and rig. I have hooks already in my plastics ready to be put on by a snap. I have a hard time tying knots in the daylight and forget tying knots in the dark when fishing at night. Since using the snap swivels it increases the side to side movements of my crankbaits plus the free smoother action actually increases my catch. I use the spinnerbaits mainly with the closed loop eye too. Mann's classic and the smaller strike king mini and micro spinnerbaits have them. Wether you use them it's up to you.

Second and third wives like I said in the past we need to find partners who like similair things that were interested in too. Not all our interests but fishing and shooting is the two most important. If she can turn wrenches, weld and cook we have a winner. Just kidding if she can cook and hammer a nail to hang a picture I'm happy with that, I can do the rest and cook too if need be. I think most marriages don't last because some get love and lust mixed up. I love bass fishing. That's all I'm going to say about that. We must choose our partners for life very carefully as they do the same with us.

Looks like more of Mike's awesome quality jigs I have to get. Fishing lures is like ammo we can never have too much of it. I found out I can throw these jigs a country mile with my new 7' bait caster rod using braid and my $1.40 reel.

I received my first mattlure pumpkinseed and it looks great. I just may purchase more after this one gets a dunk.

I have a monster buck in vt. Wether I pull the trigger or not when the time ever comes I'm not sure yet. Your right about the gene pool. At home I had a monster buck come thru my land with 9 does following him. He's a happy, happy guy. One night I counted 13 does with little yearnings. All probably his. In the moonlit snow. This year I had a 350/400lb black bear eating my fruit trees. It was a monster bear. I hunt to get away but I love the hunt, the tracking and stalking. I was ten feet from a black bear in the seven foot tall grass. When a little bird sang a tune to the bear to get away there's danger here. That bear went back into the forest went around us till he ended up behind us at his favorite Apple eating tree. We stalked him for four days while he played and laughed at us. He was a small bear at that time by the size of his skat. The last time I was up there his skat could fill 3/4's of a 5 gallon bucket or more. Talk about the perfect gene pool. He's still breeding up there. He's smart too we educated him or did he teach us. One time he followed the four of us in the daylite hooting at us while we walked out. He stayed out of sight the whole time but we heard him walking with us. We figured he was special so we told no one about him nor do we bother him.

Yup I jig the rapala. The bass can't resist it. Thanks I stand corrected. We learn something new in fishing everyday. I thought deadsticking was kind of twitching it.

Doc your right too. We all hunt too. I look for that one trophy buck of a lifetime. That special big rack. That 250/275lb buck of a lifetime, that 400lb+ black bear of a lifetime. We let so many smaller bears go by and give a free pass to sows with cubs. It's again the time we spend with other hunters, family and friends that makes each hunting trip different and special too. It's listening to the coyotes running the valley at night howling. Or hearing the bears hoot to each other looking for a mate because they can't dial 1 800 collect. The bears have a distinctive hoot. I can mimic it and call bears near my camp at night or get an answer from a distance away. You don't get this watching tv. Hunting isn't about killing something. It's about being out enjoying nature. Like Doc says my uncle's we're hunters and made the trek to Vermont every November to hunt deer and bear. My cousin took me up there in 1973. I really liked it there. I hunted every year there till my cousin moved. My wife suggested that we purchase land there. We found our piece of heaven in 7 1/4 acres for $10k in 1989. That's the price of a new car I gave up buying to purchase the land. It's a hunting camp that turned into a great spot for vacations with the family too. The kids loved tubing on the spring that flowed out of the mountains. They fed the chipmunk captain crunch. They purchased a 10" tall ice cream they call a creme up there. They went for nature hikes. For just $10k the land had many uses. The bottom line is my kids learned about the wilds and nature. My land abutts the national forest on two sides. My road is a VAST trail too that's the Vermont association snow travellers. This trail system snakes thru Vermont up into Canada. My little investment turned out to be a big deal. I have the white river that's well known for 20"+ Brown trout too. We don't get much for $10k today. Plus the lifetime of fun and the family bonding we did there. Again the fishing and hunting. The area in 1973 hasn't changed even today. I love the town for that. Somethings shouldn't change. Today my kids still go up there and enjoy the place. There's no phone service, no power. Just the animals and piece and quiet. You have plenty of time to just sit and think. It's all about the outdoor sports in general. After I purchased my land my uncle told me that the land up there years ago went for $12 an acre treed and $15 an acre cleared in the late 50/60's. It's up in the mountains and as close to God as I'll ever get. Why do we fish? Why do we hunt? Why do we just sit at home and do nothing when it's all available to us? You have to be out there to experience it.

When I heard that bomber was discontinuing there model fat A's in the older colors that still work great today. I went out and purchased a big box of them. Any lure that's harder to find that I have success with I have a box of them. Like the Norman thin N's. Even when a certain color is hotter than the rest I buy more of those too. Fishing from shore it's easy to miss read the water conditions. I think most of the guy's and gals fishing from shore have this problem but don't realize they have a problem like I did recently. When some of my ritual of colors didn't work I went to a firetiger or a citrus shad and it saved me from trashing my confidence. The water looked clear to very slightly stained in some spots near the shoreline. But as it went farther out it got more stained. So the brighter colors needed to be added to my variety of lures. The Norman thin N in chartreuse killer is another color for muddy water conditions to low light conditions. I have many new ones in my box too. When BPS discontinued my hottest topwater lure I have ever seen the BPS/XPS Topnocker I was upset. I had a whole set of there colors plus some extra in the #25 chartreuse color. I have no clue why it still wasn't used. I contacted them and heard when the sales are down it gets discontinued. It will never happen to me again. I'm stocked up on every lure I use. Now I'm worried about my fishing rods that I like. It's very hard to a perfect rod for me. Now I found what action and power I like so I better buy one of each now. I ran the model number and it's already discontinued at the manufacturer. But the new replacement has the newer split handle that's the craze right now I guess. I'm thinking the blank/tube is the same action and power wise. It's a constant ongoing thing I guess.

I have a local shore fisherman who takes everything too even 2" sunfish to eat. Thank God he doesn't have a boat. Another guy says he boils the fish to make fish cakes. Did eyes ever hear of food stamps? In bad, hard times the pets and fish suffer.

I started fishing, well my older brother took me at 6yo in the pouring rain in my school yellow hooded rain coat. We walked to Bogarts pond in Westwood, Nj. I was hooked o fishing just watching him. As I grew up dropped what ever we were doing to fish every opening day for trout. We fished every weekend till the trout season calmed down. Then we fished at a lake that had boat rentals. We fished for trout at 7am and at 9am we moved the boat and went after bass. It was our excuse to spend and enjoy time together fishing like we did as younger kids. We always had that bond of a lifetime in fishing together. My brother, my mentor passed away 15 years ago and I still miss him. Now me and my two sons carry the family fishing torch now. As they became more aware how to fish for trout, we kind of went after bass more since we had some awesome local hot spots to fish at. Then my youngest son broke his leg with his dirtbike while practicing at the track. Rather than sit home board we got him a lounge chair and set him up on the shoreline fishing. We all had a blast together just fishing for anything to tug the line. But the bass bug bit us again. We bought live minnows and targeted bass and pickerel. We bonded even more while bass fishing. Everyone jumped at the chance to go fishing. Now as time went on the cost of live bait was $50+ per week. We were fishing just about every night. I started reading about bass fishing and using lures more and more. I found myself using two rod setups one with live bait and one throwing lures. Soon after the lure rod was out fishing the live bait rod. This meant my live bait money could be spent on lures. What really hooked us on lures. We were fishing one night with live bait when reeling it in I had a strike. I said to myself you want something moving? The fish told me they want the bait moving. At the sametime rain was due in two hours. Now we're fishing in a swamp with open water and stumps. This is an unfished place. I put on a mepps #3 Anglia and caught three bass back to back when my youngest son hollers over and asks if I had extra lures like the one I'm using. I threw him one and we had doubles after doubles till it got dark. We had a blast that night during this bass feeding frenzy. That was the end of using live bait for good. The more I purchased lures the more I found out they worked and the more fish we caught. I found myself broke most of the time with feeding my lure habit. I just had to purchase more New different lures just to try them. Then I found this internet sight here and Glenn who runs this sight gave me some pointers on using lures and spinnerbaits too. It's been totally bass fishing now for over a decade were fully into it. I been fishing since I was 6yo but not totally into bass fishing until I was 50yo and now I'm 63yo. I'm still exceited to go fishing even today. It's fun, it kept me out of trouble as a teenager up to my early twenties. Some of my buddies were doing drugs while most of us were fishing. I could of easily taken the wrong path if it wasn't for fishing back then. I owe a lot to fishing in a way. Ok today I fish because it's a challenge to figure out which lure will the bass strike today. This is why I fish today it's the challenge. Plus being out in nature too. Seeing freshwater otters splashing two fawns at the waters edge while they try to get a drink while the doe looks on. You can't see nature at its finest staying home. We have wild America in our own backyards if we take the time to see it. Fishing allows the time to watch wild America/nature's show too. If your not fishing your missing out on more than just fishing. Your missing out on what nature and this world has to offer us too. Just go out fishing at 4am and watch the sky light up as the sun rises. You will never see a more beautiful sight in your life. It's the story of the universe playing out before your eyes every morning. That's why I fish too. It's the life's experiences that are free if we take the time to stop and see them. Again there's more to fishing than just fishing. We can actually see and witness what our creator has done for us. God bless,bigbill Btw, Have you ever seen a bass strike your topwater lure? It's a real rush for you and the bass for sure. Once you see it you want to see it again and again. I'm not sure who gets more hooked on fishing, is it us or the fish?

I'm waiting for the first flurries then I'm going to pour it on with the fishing till the ice is on. I hooked my biggest fish at this time and lost it. This year I will get "bassfish hunter" I'll try anyway. I have a stronger rod, stronger line and I'm ready. I have the spot near the Lilly pads all picked out. It's a big bass, a big salmon or a big pickerel but it fought like a big fat bass. Very slow and not giving up. Time will tell. It's the biggest fish I ever had on my line so far. This was near thanksgiving. The season isn't over yet. Maybe we been calling it quits too early all these many years? Maybe they want one last meal? The season is just beginning I have those thinner warm ice fishing gloves too.

My problem is when I find something I like, wether it's a rod or a lure when I go to buy more it's discontinued. My reels I'm stocked up on. But the better quality rods I'm not. I know once I get use to the tad better ($99 on sale for $49) I'm not going in reverse. I'm hooked on them. I'd be spending $200 to shash them away. If something stupid happens to one of my four rods I can replace it that night. All four rods are different lengths and actions. When we were riding dirtbikes I had all the pistons, gaskets, sprockets, chains, tires and tubes in stock. When one bike broke we rebuilt it that night. I can also do boring cylinders too here. We had very little stoppage and down time during the season. I'd like to stay fishing once the season starts too. My problem is I had a black beauty 6' rod that I liked this rod a lot. From using it all the time with it constantly bending at the upper handle while fighting bass the handle had a vertical split in it. I couldn't replace it. I been looking to match that rod and action but I can't. Now I found that similair action and feel only it's better than my old faithful rod. I don't want to be caught in a place were I can't replace it. As I get older I like things to stay the same it's hard to change. I have a pile of new rods here again that I'm not crazy about. Looks like the family will be getting new rod setups this year for Xmas. Plus the kids my friend takes fishing too. The truth is I had a problem with breaking fishing rods when I was younger I was cursed. I broke two to three rods a year. This is why I stuck with cheap rods for so long. Now I'm very careful with my equipment and I put it away in its place the minute I return home from fishing. The last expensive fly rod I broke I rolled up the power window up on it. When I heard the crunch I cringed. I bought this new fly rod combo while on vacation in Maine at kittery trading post for 50% off and I paid $125 for it. I used it one night and that's the night the window bit it. I promised myself I would never do that again. I'm very careful with my fishing stuff now. My kids were still young at the time and wanted to replace it for me but it's a $200 rod. It was a nice gesture that my kids made. God bless them. There adults and still have good hearts. This is why I was into cheap rods. I hope my rod breaking curse is over.

Some good laughs.

At one of our local lakes we had an out of control population of white perch. They introduced the great northern pike to control it. Now most all our lakes have great northern pike in them. All these lakes are connected by streams. I wish we had Muskies too.

We have two of the hummingbird wireless portable fish finders you cast out. I have one rod setup with braided line for using it. It works awesome. One has the wristwatch screen and the other has a box reader. They are great for reading the bottom layout. I use it first at every new body of water. Then I know which depth lures I can use. This tool gives us shore fisherman more of an edge. It's just a pod we cast out then it sends the signal/info to the wristwatch screen. The fish also show up on the screen too. But once I learn the bottom layout, the depth and structure I'm ready to fish it. It takes the guess work out fishing, less lost lures by knowing the depth. We were poking holes when the ice was on to learn the bottom layout before the portable casted out fish finder was offered. My son's would drill thru 22"+ of ice so we could measure the depths and figure out where the holes and the flats were. When we got the portable fish finder we went back and tried it and found out all our info we took by drilling holes in the ice using a 2oz sinker and mason line marked at every foot was true.