Shad_Master

In no particular order: 1) changing too often or not changing enough 2) being intimidated (e.g., not throwing lures into the heart of the brush piles, etc.) 3) getting tied to the bank 4) not being precise or smoot with the presentation (splashing the water) 5) fishing history (I caught 'em here last year!!!) 6) not spending enough time studying bass behavior 7) not spending enough time learning new techniques 8) getting stubborn about a particular lure, color or techniqe 9) taking what other fishermen tell you a gospel (it's good to learn from others, but don't always count on them to tell you the whole truth) 10) leaving an area when fish are biting

Both of those movies are true stories - our local high school has the Titans as their mascot and there is an authgraphed picture of the actual team that the movie is about on display in the trophy case. Before every game, they play that speech that Denzel Washington made about the Titans being gods and it always sends chills down my back. Would really like to know where you're comming from there Tin.

Up until about three weeks ago I would have agreed with everything that has been said here. But that changed pretty dramatically for me. To set the stage, back in December I had made a post to ask a specific question - I debated about which area to post in and gave it my best effort. When I checked back later to see if there had been any replies - the post was gone - after looking all around I found it in an area that to me didn't make sense. To try to elicit some responses, I gave the post a bump and made what probably was an inappropriate statement about the way posts are moved without the poster knowing. In response I got a PM from the Moderator who had moved the post telling me how inappropriate my statement was. I apologized and pointed out that this action without any notification was confusing and frustrating. The reply was basically that I should have been posting long enough to know where to post. Issue ended, although I was still frustrated. Now fast forward to three weeks ago. In response to a post, I made what was an innocent response and the result was that the original poster attacked me personally and was very insulting. My first though was that this must be someone new who doesn't know the rules much less common decency. After thinking about it, I decided it would be good to point this out to one of the Moderators but found that they were mostly off-line at the time, so I contacted Glenn. His response was that this was not a new guy and he was sure that the reply was only intended as a joke. I then pointed out that I had been properly chastised for my inappropriate comment earlier and that this reply had been much more offensive and directed at me in particular and that something should be done. The result was that I was again chastised for having made the earlier comment and it became plain that nothing was going to be done about this person. So I offered to PM him myself and did so. Since that time, I have monitored and found that he has been on-line and has made other posts, but no reply to me. This makes it appear that the guidelines for posting are not applied equally. Now is BR Forum the best one on the net? Absolutely. Are there some sphincter muscles that lurk around? Probably. Can any of us be sure that the administrator and the moderator will try to keep the tone civil? Can't be sure based on this. I have no intention of leaving the forum and appreciate everything that I have learned and the contacts I have made here. But I will certainly be less inclined to let someone insult me now without comment, now that I know what the rules are.

I was probably in 1966 or 67 - it was a little two man fiberglass boat (I'm guessing, not more than 6' or 8' long) that my buddy's Dad owned - we would strap it to the roof of my Mom's 1962 Ford Galaxi 500 and she would drop us off at the lake while she went to work and then would come back and pick us up. No motor (big or little) we would paddle out and take turns holding the boat while the other one would work the lilly pads - threw a lot of Cream pre-rigged worms (had to be purple) and Johnson Silver Minnows with a pork trailer. Good memories! The local chamber of commerce got up a small "tournement" - they called it a fishing derby - maybe 8 or 10 boats - all had outboards except us - we didn't win, but we al least let 'em know we could catch fish.

My heart goes out to you on this one - I have been there several times over the years and it never gets easier - Glenn's post helps a little - I have one right now that will be heading that way before too long.

I don't know if this fits your specifications but Lake Fork Ring Fries work great on a shakey head

The Senko was originally intended to be a jerk-bait like the fluke or the Sluggo (how it got it's name?) - but over time, bass fishermen discovered it had a lot of different applications and the present day, pitch and sink, has taken over. Nothing says you can't use it as a jerk-bait. In fact, when I first started using 'em this is how I fished it and had some pretty good results. Haven't done it in a long time, though. Maybe tommorrow???

The amazing thing to me is - you think I need instructions on how to start a fight with the wife

I don't know if rattles would make that much of a difference, but I have heard of breaking off pieces of plastic worms and shoving them inside the frog to give it more weight on the cast, but still alloow it to ride on top of the water. Have always wanted to try this and just never got "a round tuit"

I think I inherited my love for fishing from my Dad, but unfortunately he never had a lot of time to take me. We lived on a farm and there was a creek where I spent most of my time when I was real little. We moved to "town" when I was about 13 and there was a pond virtually in our backyard that was owned by the local bait shop and I spent many nights eating supper standing up because I wouldn't stay away from there. Later on, our minister used to take me fishing whenever he could and I really learned a lot from him. I fished all the way through college, but it was mostly hit and miss. Then I was away from it for a long time (meaning I only got out 2 -3 times per year) until about 15 years ago when I started taking my son. He eventually lost interest, but I joined a local club and this has been the best experience of my life as far as learning to fish goes. Along the way, I watched all the fishing shows and began reading Bass Master when it first came out. I still read everything I can get my hands on, but experience is the best teacher and sharing that experience with friends through the club is priceless.

There is a lake that I fish on a lot and it has tons of blue gill - often, if you feel a tug or see your line move, it will be a blue gill - I discovered that if I'm fishing in a highly productive are, but letting the bg's run with the lure and waiting until they change directions that I would be more likely to stick a bass that was trying to take the lure away from the bg. This pattern held up all of last year on that lake, I haven't had a chance to try it out this year.

I don't think there are any muskies in this lake, but as I said, there are northerns. I was just surprised that so much of the leader, a full three feet, disapeared all at once. It could have been a nick in the line, but I was fishing old pad stems, not rocks. Just wierd.

Last week I was fishing using braided line with a 3' Flourocarbon leader. I felt a tug and my line immediately went slack. I reeled in and found that my leader know was still there and about 1/16" of leader. There are known to be Northerns in this lake. Is it likely that a Northern actually bit off 3' of leader line? Or is there some other possible explanation?

The hooks on a pre-rigged worm are pretty small for a fluke! Depends on the pre-rigged worm. How big does a hook have to be for a bass to get snagged?

A real easy way to do this is to pickup one of those pre-rigged worms (around here we call 'em Mort rigs) - throw away the worm and hook a fluke on each of the hooks - some even come with beads and a little propeller that can make it look like the flukes are chasing something.

Mowing grass was invented by somebody who doesn't fish!!!

These are probably the number one lure in this area - in addition to the rigging methods mentioned above - try using a nail weight stuck up the butt end and otherwise fished weightless - this gives 'em a different presentation and make finicky bass bite. BTW, you can also use 'em on C-rigs or shakey heads.

My advice is to look for a local club as a starting point - this will give you some tournament experience before you start going in head over heels. Don't know how you and your buddy line up as far as boater/non-boater, but I would suggest you fish a few club events as a non-boater just to see how things work. This is probably the best way to learn. Give Ike's book a quick read - this is how he got started.

Okay, I think I know what that is - not sure if I know if it is seated properly or not, but I will check it out and if I have more questions, I will let you know. Thanks!!!

Over the winter I got a Shimano Cruxis 200 at our club's banquet (it was a door prize so it didn't cost me anything) - got it out the other day, oiled it, spooled it up and put it on a rod. The first thing I noticed is that it won't free drop a 3/8 oz jig - took it out in the yard and tried pitching with it - the lure comes off about 3 feet and just dies. I tried backing off the drag, disengaged all of the brakes and loosened the tension know until it almost fell off - no change. Am I missing something or did I get a dud?

At the risk of being the one who puts the final nail in this coffin - if you read the actual report that was referenced in the ESPN article (you can find it on-line) it actually says that the purpose of this whole study is to study how best to preserve fishing along the ocean fronts and the in-land waterways for both commercial and recreational fishing. There is nothing in the report about restricting recreational fishing at all. The problem is politics evoke emotions - facts provide information. It is good to study these things in case they do take a wrong turn somewhere, but getting all jazzed up over something that hasn't happened only leads to misunderstanding and a break down of communication.

The one that gets the most attention around these parts is the Lake Fork Tackle Ringworm - it is a staple around here and probably more fish caught on it than any other soft plastic - but it never seems to get mentioned on this forum. Zoom makes a "double ringer" that is very similar and will occasionally almost lead to fist fights at the ramp as to whether or not they are interchangeable.

I applaud the moderators for taking the position to stay away from politics. We had this same discussion come up on our local club forum - unfortunately it was one of the moderators that first introduced the subject and did it in such a way that it was immediately a political debate rather than an investigation of the facts - once the facts were able to filter through we were able to head off what could have become a real ugly scenario.

I haven't kep up with this thread, so if this has been posted already I apologize: One of my favorite things to do when I can't go fishing is watch Mythbusters. They aren't doing any new episodes right now, but I can DVR old episodes on the upper cable channels. Night before last, they had one episode entitled "Son of a Gun" (not related to this topic, but really wild if you ever get a chance to watch it). One of the segments on the show had to with a "myth" about two guys taking their new boat out for a test run and they could only get it up to 5 mph even at full throttle - so they called the local mechanic from the marina - he checked out the motor and everything was okay - he kept inspecting and found that the boat was still attached to trailer - not knowing they had launched the boat and trailer at the same time. The Mythbusters checked this out and it was confirmed.

Well, I guess it sorta "depends"