_Coelacanth_

I have tried most of the bourbons that have been listed so far. Never had Pappy Van Winkles, but would love to try it. Buffalo Trace is a perennial favorite, but it's really hard to find in my area. I have been surprised by what I am currently drinking as I type this...Old Grand Dad Bonded. It's 100 proof, but surprisingly smooth. I had a bottle given to me as a gag, and ended up really liking it. It's not expensive at all, and will definitely get the job done for a nightcap mixed with Coke.

Been meaning to post this, but just hadn't gotten around to it before now. On May 9th, my buddy and I took our Bass Raiders out to T-Bird to catch some Crappie. He was using a 2.5" chartreuse swim bait that he's had good luck with on Crappie down there before. Just before 10AM, he hooked into this girl on his ultra-light rod with 4lb test line... I was pretty impressed that he was able to land her. According to the digital scale I carry, she weighed 5lb 12oz. Up until a couple of years ago, he had never fished much, and had never even caught a Bass before. I was with him when he caught his first one (about 1/2 pound), and I'm glad I was there to see him break the 5lb mark. It was a pretty great day.

Those whiskey stones are very interesting. I'm going to have to get some of those. I like Buffalo Trace and Knob Creek the best, but hope to one day get to try some Pappy Van Winkle.

I have fished out at Eagle Lake a handful of times. I put my Bass Raider on out there once right after I got it. I only caught a few fish. One small Bass, and a few palm sized Crappie. I'm assuming the lake that Dr. Nip is talking about down on Sooner & 119th is Kitchen lake. I've never been there, but I read a couple of years ago that OKC was working on improving the area around it for recreation purposes. I'm interested in where you're talking about over by I-40 and Rockwell...I looked up this body of water on the map after reading the previous posts. I never even knew it was there. It looks to be a great size lake for taking my Bass Raider out on. Do you know who owns the land that it's on? Is there an access fee, or permission needed? Is it bank fishing only? More info would be greatly appreciated!

Mine happened just a few hours ago...I went fishing this evening with a buddy. We both have 10' Pelican Bass Raiders and we were on different sides of a point fishing in some flooded brush and weeds. I wasn't having any luck and then I remembered that a few weeks ago I had bought a KVD Sexy Frog. I have never fished with a frog before and figured I'd try it out. I took off the jig I had been pitching and tied on my new toy. I started casting and working the frog around the taller weeds sticking up by throwing into them and pop, pop, pausing it out. About twenty feet further down the bank, as my frog cleared the taller weeds sticking out of the water and passes over some shorter weeds with the tops a couple of feet below the surface, I watch the biggest bass I've ever seen in my life outside of the tanks at Bass Pro come up and swallow the frog. There was no big violent splash, just GULP, and the fish turned on its side and started back down for the weed bed. I immediately felt the weight on my line (I somehow had the presence of mind to remember to wait until I felt it before setting the hook) and holy smokes! The fight was on! The fish first tried running to the left, then reversed and ran to the right towards some thick brush. I managed to turn it again just before it got there and got it coming towards the boat. I get it next to the boat and get it at the surface. I dropped to my knees in the floor of my boat and start to reach to lip the fish out of the water. As its mouth is open, I remember thinking to myself that it looks about as big around as a plate. At that point it tail dances away from my reach and I have to turn it one more time. I get it back up to the boat again and am once more reaching to lip it out of the water. I then remember thinking that I am finally, EASILY, going to reach my goal of catching a bass bigger than five pounds. I'm sure this fish would have been in the 7 to 10lb range. Just when I almost have my hand on it...snap. My line breaks and I watch it swim away in what seemed like slow motion. As of right now, I cannot think of a time, outside of losing a loved one, that I've been more heartbroken about something. I don't know how the heck I'm going to sleep tonight.

I'm still waiting for something like this to happen to me...

No, I didn't have any trouble with navigating. The boat stayed where I pointed it. It was just a noticeable overall drift in the wind. As for what kind of rudder it was...I took an old drywall hawk and drilled the rivets out of the handle. I then made the frame for it out of PVC and painted it to match the boat. The rudder itself worked, because I didn't have any trouble with spin. Like I said, it was just overall drift. I think I'm going to give the plywood floor a try and see how it goes. I'm not too worried about the weight because I launched mine by backing my truck down to the water at the boat ramp. Once my back wheels were in the water, she slid right out. I had a rope tied to one of the handles and walked it over to the dock. To load back up, I just reversed the process and used the rope to pull it by the tailgate and then picked up the front end onto the bed.

I finally got to take my 10e out for its maiden voyage today! I didn't catch anything, but I had a great time and am overall very impressed with this little boat. The only complaints I have are minor. It wasn't very breezy out today, but it did seem that I got pushed around very easy, even with the rudder I made. I expect that this is just one of the trade-offs for having a lightweight, plastic boat. Not too big of a deal. I'll adjust my fishing accordingly and try to work with the drift and not against it. Although the 10e seems vey stable and I never worried about capsizing, when I would stand, I would get the sensation that the boat was going to "skate" out from under me to the side very quickly. I was trying hard each time to keep my weight centered, but it was still a little sketchy. I'm not sure if it was just me, and i need to get used to being on the water again (haven't fished out of a boat in a looong time, but always felt that I had a decent pair of sea-legs) or if it was just another characteristic of this type of boat. I was curious if anyone has made a carpeted, plywood floor for their Bass Raider, and if this might help with this issue.

For all of her married life, Stella's husband was a real tight-wad. He never wanted to spend money on anything unless it was absolutely necessary, and even then, he would do so grudgingly. When her husband became terminally ill, and was on his deathbed, he asked Stella to make him a promise. "Stella, I want you to promise me that when I'm gone, you will put all the money I worked so hard to save in the casket with me. I've set up a separate bank account for you with enough to provide for your basic necessities, but all the rest in our joint account, I want to take with me. I earned it, and I should be able to keep it!" Stella promised she would do as he asked. At peace, her husband passed away. At the funeral, the pastor had finished the ceremony and was getting ready to close the casket when Stella cried out, "Wait just a moment, please!". She approached the casket with a box, placed it inside, told the pastor he could proceed and then went and sat back down next to her best friend. Stella's friend, who had been told about the promise asked in disbelief, "Stella! Did you really just do what I think you did? Did you really put all of his money in the casket with him?" Stella replied, "I'm a good Christian woman. I've always done what he asked of me, and I'm not about to start breaking my promises now! So I took all the money out of our joint account like he asked. Then I put it in my account and wrote him a check. If he really wants that money, he'll cash it!"

At the bottom of the story, there is a link to a follow up story that says the school is not going to require him to change how he signs his name. Even if the school district is now reversing course on this, the fact that it was ever in question is a perfect example of just how messed up our society, in general, really is.

"Your" and "You're". It always drives me crazy when people use these wrong. My brother-in-law was arguing with someone on Facebook one time. The person he was arguing with said "Your an idiot." to him...it was all I could do not to reply to the post and say, "No, YOU'RE an idiot because you don't know the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE!" Another fun one for me is when I hear someone say, "I could care less.". I always want to reply with, "Oh? How much less could you care? Or did you mean, I COULDN'T care less? Because that is the correct way to say it."

I live in Choctaw. I'm still trying to decide where I'm going to go for my first trip in my new boat. I was thinking about Wes Watkins, but I'm not sure yet. It's still going to be a couple of weeks before I take her out on her maiden voyage. I promised the Mrs. that I would finish the renovations to our house that I'm in the middle of before I took it out. I wanted to go ahead and buy it though because I actually bought two. A close friend of mine, who is helping me with the work on the house is who I go fishing with. He doesn't have a boat either, so I bought him a 10e and the same trolling motor as a "thank you" for all the help he has given me. I figured if I went ahead and bought it and told him about it, he would be extra motivated to help me get the renovations done faster!

Ah, you're right. 60 amp is for the 50-55# thrust. 30-45# thrust uses the 50 amp. Thanks! The battery does say "starting" above the "Everstart" logo. I hadn't noticed that before. I will take it back and swap it.

Hello everyone. I am the proud owner of my first boat! I just bought a new Pelican Bass Raider 10e. I'm very excited to finally be able to get off the bank and do some fishing in areas I previously didn't have access to. I do have a few questions about the trolling motor setup though... I bought a Minn Kota Endura C2-40. For the battery, I was under the impression that I needed more cranking amps for longer use. I bought an Everstart 12V marine battery, which has 625 cranking amps. This seemed to be the best choice for the money I had left in my budget. My question is in concern to the wiring setup on the Bass Raider. Do I need to add a circuit breaker to the pre-installed wiring on the boat? I have read that Minn Kota recommends a 60 amp breaker. Is this something I can pick up at Walmart or Bass Pro shops? Also, is the wire gauge that comes in the boat adequate? Any tips/advise on finishing my setup would be appreciated, as I don't want to foul up either my new trolling motor or boat by making a dumb beginner mistake. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but does anyone on here work at the OKC Bass Pro store? If so, could you send me a PM? I have a question I would like to ask. Thanks!

Last Friday, I was fishing at a river here in central OK and caught a small hybrid (about 1.5 lb) on an ultralight setup. He put up a great fight. It's always fun on light gear when they start pulling line. I was really surprised though, as it was the last thing I was expecting to catch.

I'm pretty stoked for this game as well. Unfortunately, I have to play it on XBox, and won't be able to enjoy 64 players at a time. I've always been a "Call of Duty" guy, and aside from 1943 on XBox Live arcade, I've never played a Battlefield game. I can't wait.

Chuck Norris uses Tabasco sauce instead of Visene. Most people can blow bubbles with gum, Chuck Norris can blow bubbles with beef jerky.

The only part of the series that seemed to drag it down for me at all was the whole process of Egwene and the tower rebels getting organized and traveling to Tar Valon. I absolutely hated those chapters. I'm looking forward to finally finding out who killed Asmodean.

Fourbizz...How far along in the "Wheel of Time" series are you? I have to agree this series is the best fantasy epic ever. Shame about Robert Jordan...The final book is supposed to be published late this year.

...and hobo's! Don't forget about all the hobo's you'd have to fight off!

Just to add to what Matt stated about negative reinforcement Just because a fish hits a lure one time, it isn't enough to cause a lasting negative impression to that lure. It's not just because of the individual fish or the lure though. It's simply a matter of percentages. Take for instance a large lake that has a high population of Crappie. Bass are going to feed on the young, smaller crappie. If you present a lure that imitates a 2-3 Crappie, chances are the Bass is going to eat it. This is one of its main food sources. If it's a good enough imitation, etc., it's likely to get hit. When this happens, it creates a negative reinforcement to that particular food source. This particular Bass might feed on other things for a while afterwards. But after eating crawfish, worms, etc. it's going to eventually see another baby Crappie swim by. Hunger will drive it to prey on this food source again and since this time, it was a real Crappie, there is no negative feedback for its actions. Repeat this several times and the negative feedback it received previously is overridden by the positive reinforcement it has now been receiving (i.e. satisfying its hunger). Now if presented with another Crappie imitation, it will likely strike at the perceived prey again. To add to this scenario, now the Bass has been caught again but this time associates not only the Crappie as a negative reinforcement, but it also adds the sounds of a trolling motor, or other man-made sounds into its memory. It does this because the man-made sounds were present in both instances. Eventually the negative connotation to the Crappie imitation may be removed, (due to repeated feedings without the presence of man-made sounds) but combine the two again, both Crappie and human sounds, and the fish may avoid them. I think the fish in aquariums learn to avoid lures faster because of the always present influence of man. In the wild, there are more chances for them to have the positive feedback of a real meal when we as fisherman are not present. Just my thoughts to add to the debate.

I thought this was very interesting! Unfortunately, when I was downloading the items the video referenced, I came across a problem. The site that had the add-on for the topo maps doesn't appear to be working any longer. Video Transcript - "The Global Biodiversity Information Facility offers something called a KML file that overlays USGS topo charts on Google Earth. A KML file is basically just a data file that Google Earth can read. You need to download the one for the United States, it's the second link here." When I tried going to the link referenced for the U.S., it was broken.

What the heck is the deal with idiots and snowmobiles here lately?!?!

Because to the average PETA member, we're no better than these idiots. >