senile1

The way our Blues choke in the playoffs is worth a thread in and of itself.

That is a thing of beauty!

The kids will be fine fishing from a 19 - 21 foot bass boat, but you will have to limit the number you carry at once. I also use my Stratos 295 Pro Elite to take the grandkids tubing on occasion. It does lug the 2 stroke motor more than I believe is good for it, but after 8 years of doing it I see no ill effects so far.

It goes without saying, but we should always be aware of our surroundings before making a turn including what is coming up behind us. Take a second to look behind you to be certain all is clear. As mentioned already, trim down in your turns. This will keep the boat from skating across the water in the turn and will also slow you down somewhat. The amount to trim down is something you have to learn with your boat and your conditions. Once you are familiar with your boat you will know how fast you can go in a turn without creating a dangerous situation. Until you are familiar with it, I suggest you go slower in turns to begin with; however, slow is relative. On a body of water without large waves wide turns can easily be taken in larger bassboats at 50 - 60 mph with the proper trim, but if unsure slow down into the 40s. Always play it safe if you don't know the capabilities of your rig.

Boulevard Beer, founded in 1989 in Kansas City and now in 25 states, is my favorite beer. Having said that, I rarely drink it anymore. Unfortunately, over the last few years craft beers have become anathema to my digestive system and I can't drink them without a level of discomfort that is beyond tolerable. I miss their Pale Ale, Bob's 47, Nutcracker Ale, 80 Acre, and Unfiltered Wheat beers the most. If you are a craft beer lover you should give Boulevard a try if it is available in your state. Sorry for the commercial, but so many craft beers makers are regional and the only way to learn about them is to share. http://www.boulevard.com/ Year-Round Beers: 80-Acre Hoppy Wheat Beer Bully! Porter KC Pils Pale Ale Pop-Up Session I.P.A. Single-Wide I.P.A. Unfiltered Wheat Beer Seasonal Beers: Bob’s ’47 Oktoberfest Boss Tom’s Golden Bock Irish Ale Nutcracker Ale ZŌN Belgian-Style Witbier Backroads Beers’ Entwined Ale Tasting Room Beers’ ESB Tasting Room Beers’ Ginger-Lemon Radler Smokestack Series: Bourbon Barrel Quad Chocolate Ale Dark Truth Stout Double-Wide I.P.A. Grainstorm Black Rye I.P.A. Harvest Dance Wheat Wine Imperial Stout Long Strange Tripel Love Child Rye-On-Rye Saison-Brett The Sixth Glass Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale Two Jokers Double-Wit

Wow! These northern smallies are just beautiful. Nice size to them as well.

Very, very nice. You were absolutely slaying the big ones!

Congratulations on your new PB! That's a very nice fish.

I've caught quite a few of these little rascals this year (between 3 and 4 lbs) but nothing bigger. I had one on last weekend that warrants a "one that got away" story. I cast a jig and craw to a lone stick-up by the dam at a new lake and felt the slightest of ticks. After setting the hook, I thought I had a catfish as they sometimes like the JJs on my craws. The fish just stayed deep and wouldn't come up, pulling my rod aggressively toward the water. My heart kind of leaped in my throat when I got a look at her as she surfaced about 15 - 20 feet from the boat. I immediately tried pulling to my left and down to keep her from leaping. Unfortunately, I pulled the hook free from her mouth. She might have been at least twice the weight of the one in the pic above, though I didn't have my remote digital weight estimator to fire at her and get a reading. Sometimes the ones you lose can make you feel like an amateur.

Yep. You have to wish it was earlier in the year. Very nice Fish.

In the OP's region, a 5 plus lb fish is an older and wiser fish. There is a reason she is that big. I find that when one of that size and age gets off after being hooked solidly I typically won't get another bite from them on that fishing day. I have had smaller fish bite the same lure or follow -up lures again, however.

Missouri allows open containers on boats as long as they aren't the huge multi-gallon containers used for beer bongs. Any reasonable person should be against boating while intoxicated or boating while under the influence. However, to state that anyone on a lake with beer is a loser, an idiot, etc indicates a lack of consideration for nuance. Here's a perfect example. My wife and I take lunch on the boat and we will park in the back of a deserted cove to eat said lunch. On occasion, though not often, we will each have one beer with our lunch. One 5 percent beer is .6 of an ounce of alcohol and the body disposes of that amount within an hour or so. We drink lighter beers on the water which are less than 5 percent, and thus, take less time to wear off. We spend more than an hour in that cove after we finish those beers. When we finish lunch we fish our way out of the cove with the trolling motor. Abide by the laws of your state. Be disciplined enough to drink responsibly and avoid driving your boat under the influence. If you do not have that discipline, then you shouldn't take alcohol on the water with you.

Hootie, it sounds like the bass in your area are really keeping an eye on your lures.

The point has been made and is understood that having the waypoints of a guide doesn't mean one will win the tournament. Fish won't necessarily be in the areas marked by those waypoints. However, intent ways heavily for me. They obviously were seeking an advantage or they wouldn't have taken the waypoints. Does that mean they cheated? By tournament definitions, no. Does it mean I respect their way of competing? No, I do not. It's like football players pretending to have been hit in the back or being tackled and then placing the ball a foot or two beyond their actual progress hoping to affect the official's spotting of the ball. No one calls it cheating but it is unethical in my book. Compete to the best of your ability and let the chips fall where they may.

Sweet! I take a trip to fish inshore saltwater every 3 or 4 years and the Reds are the reason. If I lived near a bay I would have to make it a common occurrence.

I want to reiterate that my main question to those of you who go through a lot of colors on a tough bite day is how do you fit in that many colors during a day of fishing, along with the number of baits you try? This is a bit hypothetical but here's some examples. Let's say that today you try a jig with trailer, a t-rigged worm, a deep running crankbait, a spinnerbait, and a drop shot. If you try 6 different colors for each of those baits at 4 different locations you have 6 colors times 5 baits times 4 locations or 120 combinations to try. If you try each of these for a minimum of 10 minutes to see if they work that adds up to 6 different combinations tried per hour. One hundred twenty combinations to try divided by 6 combinations per hour equals a 20 hour fishing trip. If you cut the number of colors to 3, then it becomes more reasonable. (3 colors times 5 baits times 4 locations equals 60 combinations. Sixty combinations at 6 per hour is a 10 hour day. I do realize that some colors and baits will be ruled out as you proceed through the day which would lead to a lower amount of time, but by the same token the different angles and different techniques you try with each bait will also add time to the equation. Maybe many of you use the baits for less than 10 minutes, but to me 10 minutes is a minimum. I guarantee I use most bait combinations longer than that to see if they are going to work. On a bad day I lean more toward trying more baits because I think the action of the bait, with emphasis on the speed and depth, is most important to catching fish. The more types of baits I try, and the more I try different techniques and angles with the same baits, the less time I have to try different colors in each bait. I'm not saying that those of you who use a lot of colors are wrong and I'm not saying it doesn't work for you. I just want to know how you manage your time to fit it all into a day of fishing.

SirSnook, you are quite correct on the manufacturing of the lenses. It is quite the monopoly and if I recall Luxottica is the biggest dog.

Daniel!!!! It's good to hear from you. How have you been? I'm the same as the rest of you on color and as Jon stated, if I am worrying about color very much I'm probably having a pretty bad day. I will tend toward using slower presentations such as jigs and soft plastics on a tough bite too and I use pretty much only three colors: green pumpkin or something akin to it, black/blue, and PBJ. Very well put. I agree.

This thread isn't about our opinions on the importance of colors. It is about time management with respect to lure usage on the water. I'm curious how everyone allots time to try different colors and baits. I know this isn't an exact science and is usually a mixture of logic and art for most of us. For example: Sometimes an angler will say that he threw the kitchen sink at bass in every color and bait type one can imagine and he didn't catch fish. I am curious how an angler finds the time to try a bunch of colors per bait when fishing and trying to locate fish on a day when the bite is tough. How does one try a bunch of colors and, yet, fish each individual bait long enough to see if it is going to work its magic? What are the parameters you use to make this determination? For me, it works like this. Again, this is when the bite is tough. I rig 10 - 12 rods with baits that are typically used under the conditions I am fishing. I also determine what locations would be logical to fish for the season and conditions. Then, upon arrival at the water I have to find the fish, typically by checking the locations that were previously chosen, or by finding other likely locations for the fish based on what I see on the water. Then I systematically fish the locations chosen. On a 7 to 10 hour day when the bite is tough, I never get through all of my setups with different colors. I will try 2 - 3 colors on some of of the rods on a really bad bite day, but mostly I just try a slightly different bait. Typically, colors aren't that big of a deal to me and I try to limit the choices to around 3 based on water clarity and light intensity. If I am giving each bait what I believe is enough time to see if it is going to work at each location, I don't have enough time in the day to go through a bunch of colors. I will spend time hitting different spots, returning to likely spots to see if fish have moved onto them, and presenting my lures again at those revisited locations which makes it even more difficult to try a bunch of different colors and baits. (If you carry 20 - 30 rods, or if you stay on one location all day, I can see how you might get through a few different colors and lures.)

The Ned rig is more subtle and more of a finesse technique than a grub. Every grub I have has some kind of tail on it. The Ned rig typically doesn't have a tail but is essentially half of a stick worm or senko (I'm probably not telling you anything new there). Also, it seems that the lighter you go with the jighead, the better. A 1/8th oz jighead is on the heavier side for the rig. Using a smaller jighead results in a "no-feel" presentation emphasized in many of the Ned rig writings. So why do the fish bite it? It glides and sinks very slowly when allowed to drop to the bottom. In my opinion it is this very subtle sinking, gliding action that is the best way to fish it for suspending bass. There are other ways to fish it and I have read that Ned Kehde will sometimes use a grub with a tail when the bass are aggressive and he is using a swimming presentation. Ned has 6 methods that he has outlined to fish the rig. It is not my favorite way to fish, but when the bite is tough it is a good technique to know.

Lucky 7. I've had some great days but I never kept such detail. Great stuff, Catt!! I want to hear a story about lucky 13s.

Thanks for the information. I've never had to deal with their customer service. Fortunately, I have not encountered any bad line with Seaguar . . . . yet.

I haven't tried all the different brands so I can't say if one brand is better than another, but I suspect all of the big names you hear about probably have high quality polarized lenses and frames. I have been wearing Maui Jims for a few years and they are awesome. However, as time passes and prices rise I can't help but wonder if I might be able to find a less expensive option. My eye doctor sells Maui Jims and Kaenon but no Costa Del Mar, Oakley, Wiley X, etc.

I like Sunline and have had good results with Seaguar Invisx as well. I can honestly say I have never had an issue with break-offs with Invisx or manageability over a number of years of use. It does have a bit more stretch than I would like. Like any line, you should check your line regularly for nicks and abrasion to avoid break-offs. There are a lot of guys on here who like the Seaguar Invisx line so I was curious about the details of your issues with it. Maybe I can learn something. It is not the best fluoro for rocky environments, by the way.

Genetic mutation can be a strange thing. Hootie's fish looks like a Pug.