Simp

I can't stand Charlie Ingram and his show! While I do enjoy Babes show for the most part and I actually like the cooking segment. I'm not a HUGE fish fan for eating but my niece and nephew LOVE FISH! My niece's favorite food is probably sushi. My dad caught a couple bluegill and a bass with my niece and nephew last summer on one of our camping trips. They then cleaned the fish (fillet style) and threw it on the camp site grill. We had made steak and hot dogs and the only thing they wanted to eat was more fish. They weren't even breaded nor had any other flavor added. So I like to see the different cooking segments and think about making a dish for my niece and nephew.

Ya 20ft is pretty close unless it's a crowded day or a very small pond. I have some exceptions to the giving people distance rule most of us try to use.First if you have a "certain spot" and the guy is near by but not on it don't go near your "honey spot"!!! My best big bass day ever happened because of patience with somebody. My nephew and I went to our favorite pond and when we got out there I could already tell somebody had hauled in 3 or 4 fish in one of my honey spots that day. I looked down the path and saw him on another but about 20yds away from another great spot. I walked down to high traffic spot that gets visited allot instead of rushing to the next honey hole on the path. The gentleman after not hooking up with any fish went back to the spot he had the ones earlier in the day. He stopped and we exchanged pleasantries. i then hit my spot and caught a 7lb and 6lb bass that day. There is also a time where I'm willing to P.O. somebody. The best example I can give is when I held off on hitting that spot I caught the 7lb and 6lb until the sun started to set or I saw some action. That day a couple of guys came out in waders and worked the entire bank and neither were quite about it. They had moved with in about 30yds of the spot I had waited to hit until the time was right. So I finally made the walk to "my spot". Well they saw me coming and almost started running in the water to beat me to it. They didn't and I told them I had been waiting for the right time to fish this spot and I wouldn't be leaving. I also told them they were welcomed to stay as long as they kept it down and didn't wade into productive waters (they had did this all day long). I caught several good fish,exchanged fish stories, and one of them broke his rod. I'm always polite and pleasant but I won't be run off a spot by somebody who thinks he's a tough guy. With that said if somebody is already on a "spot" I give him ample room to work that spot and then some.

I wonder if the fish know your not suppose to eat peanut butter right now? ;D

Ya it's season 3 I have season 2 on DVD and this is new. In fact all the fishing shows are basically back on new. I set my Tivo/DVD burner up to record the good ones like the Bass Pro's to archive.

You might want to try the swimming senko for a flutter.

Pulling big fish out of Pads can be very tough. I've broken some smaller fishes jaws (2-3lbers) with the hook set. I personally believe that this happens when the fish gets the frog and then wraps around some cover. I can tell you the one problem my real did have at times was it slipping on 5lb+ fish in the grass. In these conditions you just get some powerful equipment you can afford and do your best. I funnel my football days as a linebacker and fullback when I'm frog fishing. There are a couple of seconds where I take a couple deep breaths, widen my eyes, and ready my muscles otherwise known as loading up or breaking down. Then I set that hook like I'm laying a guy out and I reel fast to get him up. YOU MUST GET THAT FISH UP!! Otherwise be prepared to go swimming or get you boat into some thick stuff. Also if your fishing with braid. a 7ft rod, and giving the fish those 2 secs before setting the hook, yet still missing tons of fish. You can blame it on two things 100% of the time. First the fish never ate it maybe a color change would help but I usually just blame it on a small fish. This is something to seriously consider. You may be on a location with a crap storm of small guys who just can't get it in there mouth but there big enough to try. So you can either go to a smaller size frog and try to hook some up or a bigger frog to discourage the smaller fish and offer a bigger meal for momma.

Not that I doubt you. There are 2 review posted at BPS from last month alone stating that the bill does break off easily. So I don't know. Don't trust BPS reviews...lol When I have had a bad day and need to laugh some always get to me. Ya some are bad and some are good. Bad ones are ones that usually start out with "I took this new reel out the other day before a storm hit. The first cast with my spinnerbait into the wind and it backlashed. I expect more out of a $X new reel!" ;D

Ok just thinking out loud here guys so poke holes in any part of my plan if you see any. First I'll probably wait until tax refund time to reserve my room but I need to find out some details first. I have a fishing buddy who is on here but I'm not sure what he plans to do on the trip. I'm not sure if he can stay five days or even go so I'm might be looking for a lodging partner as well. Then as far as the boat situation goes. Well I'm just not sure yet. It's only about a 2 hour drive for more but the trailer we use for our john boat doesn't have the best tire set up. so if one of them went out on us on the drive we might in some trouble because they aren't your standard lug nut set up. I'm also worried about the boat itself out there. It's a 16ft non wide bodied john boat with a 9.9. I talked to a member of my bass club who thought it should be all right in the creek arms and that's where I'd want to be anyway with the pre spawn/spawn going on. Edit- OK I see t reservations need to be made by Feb 5. How are the Reservations being hangles by the lodge? Do we pay in full up front or a certain amount or what?

Ya it's the Southern IL Bass Busters club I'm in and it will be Egypt. I've found some websites and blogs with updated water temps on a pretty regular basis with some fishing type reports. About a week ago it said water temps at the north end where a little over 50 where the power plant is. I'll post my buddies results on his tournament thats Jan 30 and mine on Feb 9 but I'm sure March should offer around a 10 degree water temp increase compared to what we will be fishing. Right now I plan to focus on 1)Water temps, 2) Grassy wind blown points 3) Shad/Baitfish.

Ya when froging you have to have a 7ft MH with Braid! Like everybody also said wait on the fish. I want to give her time to eat that frog before setting that hook. My biggest fish hit right before dark and all I saw was a small swirl and my lure was gone. I waited 2-3 secs and still couldn't feel the fish or see my lure. I finished reeling down and went ahead and set the hook hard. I sure felt her after that! This type off hook set results in 90% of the time with the fish being hooked in the roof of it's mouth. I usually have one heck of a time getting them unhooked. So the step up on rod size should help you drive that hook home in big thick jawed bass. My dad used mono and a 6'6 rod and he missed 60-70% of his frog fish last year.

I just got the BBZ 4 inch shad in Natural shad and it looked so yummy!!! I'm about ready to fillet the sucker soI can't see how the bass won't want to eat it as well. ;D BTW does anybody know where some video of the $20 Bluegill that Matt makes?

No problem Roadwarrior your just doing your job. The only thing I don't understand is you went threw the trouble of moving it and then recreating it for me, but don't have any keys to victory for me ?? ;D ;D J/K!

My buddy called me today and told me while he was in Dicks they had Rapalas 20% off. There are also about a thousand coupons you can print out to save money there as well.

I was wondering where it went. I was in the General section and I knew when I posted it it might get moved to some other section. The problem was there is usually a "moved" tag for the thread but it was just gone. I was really wondering why you guys might have deleted it instead of moving it. BTW Fishfordollars thanks for the great info!

OMG ;D I have the same dog but all brown! I've debated taking my dog with me. He loves fish I mean LOVES FISH! He will flat tear into a fish on a stringer if I'm not careful LOL. I haven't taken him yet for two reasons. First he is a big scaredy cat in the car. I hate to think about what he might be like in the boat. Second I swear if he jumped or fell in he would sink faster then my anchor with those little legs. ;D I used to have a black lab that use to love going with me before she died. I think she would have just preferred to swim next to the boat all day then in it. Here's my little dog charlie here thinking he's got a big meal coming. PS these fish are being mounted and the pond I caught them at was going to be and has been drained.

We have had it in IL for a year now and I love it. Some people want to modify it to let bars have smoking and I'm just not sure how I fell about that. I don't visit bars but the main reason I didn't was because all the smoke. I just plain couldn't breath! So now I've actually thought about going once in a blue moon. Honestly the greatest thing this ban does for me is it forces my dad not to light up or request the smoking section. This was a big issue for my family and my pops is often the type of guy who would force everybody to hold there breath for an hour so he could have his cigs. I think if it would only affect him I wouldn't care but I don't want to breath that stuff. The last thing that find funny is the way the fast food employees took it upon themselves to fight for no smoking in the drive thru. This is still a gray area under our law but all of the fast food windows have hand written notes stating NO SMOKING IN THE DRIVE THRU!

I'm pretty stocked up on baitcasting rods with a new Avid coming and all. The only thing thing that I might end up buying is a decent spinning combo.

I hear ya there I had two handles where the cork broke on me. I could have easily broken rods in two if it wasn't for me supporting them half way up. These weren't 6 or 6'6 rods either but rather a 7ft MH set up with 40lb braid. Later in the year I also bought a Daiwa light and tough frog rod that I LOVE! It's also like you and many others have also said you must fish braid with a frog. I don't care what frog you have if your using mono you will lose three times the fish is not more. Seriously I'd take a 6'6 M spinning rod with braid over a 7'6 (name your brand here) with a baitcaster that had mono.

Great post but I just don't undestand how your having issues with bad hook ups on the spro. The number one reason why I went to the spro and continue to use it is GREAT hook ups. As long as I give the fish the proper time I'd say 90-95% of the time I've got the fish. Most of the time I'm also setting the hook at a extreme distance as well (thanks braid!).

Well I've also turned into a frog nut. Here is my small but very effective collection so far. The first is the Natural green version of the spro. From left to right the second is the spro in Barney, and then Green Tree. I also had the spro in Natural Red that did well for me but I lost it on a stump. After that we have the Japanese Cover Jack that IMHO will offer a great Gizzard shad look in the color I have. It also has a small blade that spins. Then we have the Furbit Popper frog. That thing is huge and I haven't hooked up on one yet but I bought it late in the season and haven't put much time on it. I did have one HUGE strike on it though. I was fishing with my buddy and it had been a slow day so I decided to tie on the Popper furbit. Well I popped that thing along and then turned to my buddy to ask him something and then I saw my partners eyes go and I felt a sudden hard pull on my rod and my instincts failed me. I set that hook as hard as I could and the bait came flying at us. Only then did I seem to hear the splash. I never even saw the strike because I was looking away. My buddy looked at me and said "that was a BIG FISH!". After that we have the buzz frogs the first is the floating Stanley and the last the new larger Stanley frog. Although I must say I'm going to be changing my buzz frog colors to white because white seems to produce more for me. I think the buzz frogs are great search baits and reaction baits but I greatly prefer the spro style frogs. It really doesn't matter because they are both completely different lures frankly. Personally I think this is what's most important about the frogs. Who cares about what we see, care about what the bass see. Can you guess my favorite? The natural green spro has a yellow outer ring and a inner white ring with black sports all around. I think this color matches the hatch in my area and bass go nuts on it. I fished it most of the summer landing many bass over 5lbs. I'm planing on retiring the one in the pics to use only on my club tourneys. There is just something special about that one frog. I've literally went swimming at least twice to save it this year while fishing in ponds. It didn't get hung or anything but rather my braid failed twice this year after backlashes. I can't tell you how nerve racking it is to be out swimming for a lure and looking at it preying a fish doesn't beat you to it. ;D Notice on the Natural Green and the Barney the length I've trimmed them. Most of you probably knows this REALLY helps them walk. The longer skirt IMHO helps to get a bite when you are resting a frog on the mat though. While at the same time i think it causes misses.Then the shorter skirt helps it walk and drives fish crazy in open water and along a grass line. Another key on the spro frogs is the tie on loop. Often times they can be a little stiff out of the box so brake them in some. I also had the lighter version of the frog you bought in chart and gave it to my dad. I didn't have good hook ups and I just plain didn't like it. Personally unless the cover jack sets the world on fire for me I plan on just buying the Spro frogs in more colors. I bought the Popper Furbit simply because the Spro Popper wasn't out yet and now I can't wait to throw that baby! I might also try a BRPS frog I saw that looked allot like the spro but had the single tail design that I think works better resting on a mat.

Well there will come a point early this year when you will say to yourself "I wonder if their ready for topwater?'. My first time last year was a resounding YES! So starting out in 09 if your fishing late in the day and the water has had a chance to warm throw a spook or super spook on some coves and then some points. Early in the year try to find out if they are prespawn, spawn, post spawn. I'd also advise if you live in a place with a large bluegill population like most of us in the US that you try to imitate them. Bluegill eat big mama's eggs! Sometimes a Frog walking on top will drive them nuts and if you work it fairy hard by grass they often think it is a bluegill. As ar as confidence goes you don't need any to walk spooks or frogs. Just learn to walk the dog, pause sometimes and you WILL get bit as soon as the water temps are high enough! After your first hit or two your heart will be racing enough that you will have confidence to throw that thing in mid November! ;D ;D

I was doing a google search and came across a old post of his and his profile said "ex member". :'(

You need some KVD!

My fishing buddy was able to put me in touch with a guy that has sold me a Croix Avid for 30$. The guy is on the up and up and seems to be sponsored or something so he's selling all his equipment for new models!!

You have to remember Balsa wood is pretty fragile compared to plastic. So if you need to have a lure that last a long time or just want that quality in a lure plastic is probably the way to go.