atx_newbie

Definitely amber lenses, they amplify light, so they work a lot better in low light. I discovered that playing paintball a long time ago. I always had a hard time playing at indoor fields because the light wasn't very good, then by mistake I picked up someone else's mask that had an amber lens. All of the sudden I could see gnats from 150 yards.

The real fall season of TV starts next week when Chuck, Pushing Daisies, and Dirty Sexy Money come back. Or a couple weeks ago when Entourage started back up

Largest by population, I think is what that was coming from. The good news about this: the real estate market is more cyclical than fashion. Like the OP mentioned, home sales have turned the corner. Prices can only fall for so long before people who still have money say "Hey, real estate is cheap right now! I could make a killing if I start buying." And when you start to have demand for something, sooner or later the price will start to go back up. The real estate market is about to surge back, and probably stronger than ever. The only thing that could hamper that recovery is if the bailout doesn't go through. Then no one will be able to get loans, because no one in the secondary mortgage market will be buying any mortgages.

Well, since you brought it up. Since 2002, heres the match ups between Pac 10 and Sec top teams. Alabama hasn't played. Arkansas 05 USC 70-17 06 USC 50-14 Auburn 02 USC 24-17 03 USC 23-0 06 beat Wash St. 40-14 Florida hasn't played Georgia hasn't played LSU 03 beat Arizona 59-13 04 beat Oregon St. 22-21 05 beat Arizona St 45-3 Tenn 06 beat Cal 35-18 07 Cal 45-31 08 UCLA beats Tenn. In 2003, USC won the AP vote. LSU BCS champ. USC has earned their bragging rights. They have earned the right to be in the top 10 regularly, but they are not as good this year as Florida, Georgia, and maybe even LSU depending on how their QB situation pans out. All their conference opponents are weak, so they don't get beat up as much as SEC teams. If they played 50% of their season against SEC teams, those wins you mentioned wouldn't be so convincing, because in at least a couple positions they would be down 2 or 3 spots on the depth chart due to injuries. When is the last time that an SEC team could say it was 100% healthy?

Yes, environmental terrorists are deranged and should be punished to the full extent of the law. But seriously, we should all start being more aware of the impact of our civilization. As a kid, I lost a great fishing pond because of clearcutting and construction upstream. With no trees left to hold soil in place, what was a decently clear pond filled up with muddy muck and turned brick red. Needless to say, the fishing there became nonexistant. Now, Lake Travis, the lake I fish regularly, is having two new deep water intakes added so that water can be pumped until the reservoir is bone dry, and the water companies are not required to have any consumption regulations. The same thing is happening to Lake Mead. Without Lake Mead, the Hoover dam can't generate electricity, and Las Vegas loses it's water supply.

I also watch MSNBC

I think you meant to say when Death Valley lights up Baton Rouge on Saturday nights, and the Tigers start their run at back-to-back national championship. But it's ok, I'll forgive the typo ;D

x2. I've even seen one blow up on a baby duck swimming behind his mom

Ok, so here in central Texas we just got our first cold front of the fall, and I'm not sure how it will affect the fishing. Average temps for about the past month have been highs about 95-100, and lows 75-80. Now, and for the next couple days, forecast has highs about 85, and overnight lows down as cool as 55. Ordinarily, I know cold fronts will put a halt to the fishing. But the fishing here has been slow because of an extremely hot summer, so will the front improve things?

I'm in Texas now but moving to Chicago in December

Ok, so I'm about to the breaking point of fishing with plastic worms. I've caught two fish on C-rigs over the course of about 15 fishing trips, and that's it. Then I almost blew my top Saturday night. My girlfriend and I were night fishing from a dock, and she broke her reel. She's a good sport, and didn't want me to feel bad and go home, so she took out some line, rigged up a cane pole type set up with a senko, and caught a 12" LM. This got me thinking: Exactly how slowly do I need to be fishing my soft plastics? I try to go as slowly as I can, but I'm worried that if I'm not pulling the bait towards me, I won't feel a strike. Someone help me out before I throw $100 worth of Senkos and Rattlesnakes into the lake.

You know it was kind of funny, I had never heard of snakeheads until I read another thread on here a couple weeks ago (we don't have snakeheads in Texas). Then that night, I was channel surfing and the SciFi channel had on a movie called "Snakehead Terror." Ordinarily I would just flip past the SciFi channel, but decided to watch it since I had just found out about snakeheads. It was a decent movie, full of snakeheads that had been given growth hormone and were all like 10 feet long and knocked people out of boats and ate them.

Wow, that's something that I've never thought about. There are some ponds that I don't fish alone in case of rattlesnakes, because they are pretty far from anyone who might happen across me if I were to be bitten. But as for PFD's from the bank, not here. I never wore a helmet or pads back when I was a kid skateboarding, I don't see why I would for fishing. Terrible story though. Anyone know the family?

I used to be like that, and the only cranks I used were shallow divers in deep open water so that I wouldn't lose them. Then I just decided to bite the bullet and lose the baits. I would just use a slow retrieve when you start, and when you hit something, just stop reeling and let it rise a foot or two. I personally wouldn't worry about feeling the strike and setting the hook. In my experience, bass normally hook themselves on cranks; so if you feel a bump, let it rise, and you'll know if it's a fish.

I agree with those that don't bend. I have a hard enough time just getting them to bite that I don't want to risk one getting off ;D But seriously, if you choose to go barbless, that's your choice, but don't make anyone else feel badly about their decision not to. Either way, it's going to hurt the fish. For instance, a couple days ago I got a really good hookset, and set the hook through his eye. Did I feel badly about it, yeah. Would that eye be any less blind had I been using a barbless hook? I doubt it. That kind of thing comes with the territory of fishing. Complaining about people catching fish using barbed hooks is like being the mom on the football sideline, complaining that the other team is tackling too hard.

My cousins took out my ski boat, it's an older chapparral I/O and used it all day without running the bilge pump. Needless to say, the engine compartment had about 2.5 feet of water in it, and the boat was riding pretty low by the time I saw it. Before I could get it drained out, the water level got up to the same level as the battery connections and shorted out the connections. So my question is, are batteries sealed waterproof or did water get into the battery? And if any water did get into it, is the battery ruined or can it be recharged and used?

Ok, I agree with falling in love with LSU and Louisiana, but what flowers? Granted, I'm from north LA, which is a completely different place, but we didn't have much in the way of flowers. Except for the magnolia trees, those are great. But we never had any others. As for the fishing, it's too bad you didn't post about six months ago. My sister lived in BR, and her boyfriend was an avid fisherman in the area. But they just moved to Houston. I can still ask him if he knows of anywhere though.

Ok, so in Texas, a boat is not required to be registered if it is under 16' and unmotorized. So my question is: Take a 14' Jon boat--with no motor it doesn't need to be registered. So if you add one of those clamp on, transom mount trolling motors, would that make it "motorized" and therefore need to be registered. That would seem silly to me. And if it does require registration, what are the penalties if not registered?

I picked up one in really shallow water (about 2.5 to 3 feet) Sunday morning at about 5:00 a.m. Caught him on a bomber shallow crank. He hit it like a freight train, I thought for sure I had a big bass on. Then I was disappointed to find about a 1.5 pound cat. Oh well. Here in Texas and my home area of NW Louisiana, the waters are filthy with cats. You can't spend a day of fishing, be it for perch, bluegill, bass, or whatever, without catching a fry-daddy's worth of catfish.

Ok, so I know that Caddo Lake is in Texas/Louisiana, which is another subdivision of this forum, but I don't think that there are really any other lakes in that region's forum that compare to this lake. It is a shallow (deepest water only 20 feet) and very heavily covered in vegetation, from weeds and grass, to lilypads, to cypress trees all over the place. My brother and I are heading out there Labor Day for a fishing/camping trip, and I'm hoping that you guys can give me some tips for it. I'm in central Texas, and have done all of my bass fishing as yet on clear, deep lakes with virtually no vegetation. I'm planning on getting a frog set up for some of the thick grass mats, but any tips you have on colors/presentations would be much appreciated.

I hadn't heard of this fish before until reading this thread, so I did some reading, and I was definitely For one thing, that fish is scary looking, and I grew up catching a lot of alligator gar in the cutoff lakes of the lower Mississippi River. Second, it can live out of the water for up to 3 days as long as it is kept damp?!? And even travel across land to move from one body of water to the next? We're doomed! Haha no I'm sure that the ecosystem will balance out, but man. That fish is scary

I'm glad you said that. I've just started c-rigging about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and have never had so many snags in my life. I'm losing weights and hooks like it's my job. The bottom that I'm fishing on is really rocky, so I think that I'm just dragging my weight and getting it wedged between the rocks. Would you use a braided line when using a c-rig? I think I need the extra sensitivity because I have a hard time feeling strikes (or I am just not getting any).

Second the motion. Haha what's up bro?

I haven't had any luck at all fishing at Red Bud. I mostly just catch rocks. But on the far eastern end of Town Lake, down by Longhorn Dam seems to be better. The north side has a little parking lot, and you can walk down the trail. There is a little cove that is crossed by a bridge, with good bank access all up the trail. Also try at festival beach, near I-35.

Hey guys, New to this site, it looks great so far. Anyway, I'm also pretty new to bass fishing. I used to do a lot of crappie fishing as a kid with my grandpa, but no real bass experience to speak of. And all the bass fishing that I did was on muddy, murky, weedy ponds and bayous that had a visibility of about six inches in the water. Now I'm in Austin, and have had no luck at all fishing around here. All the lakes have very clear water and seemingly no structure. So I'm trying to find some small ponds in the area where it will be a little easier to find the fish, so that I can practice jigging texas rigged worms and such. I'm not really interested in the size of the fish there, mainly just the quantity. I think one reason that I haven't caught anything on the bigger lakes is that I've never fished with worms or soft plastics and can't feel the strikes. Sorry for the long post. If you know of anything let me know!