Fishing Cowgirl

Welcome! I've learned very much from the helpful, informative group of anglers on this site. Still learning and this site is on my favorites page.

I'm seriously re-thinking how I handle any bass from now on!

Wow! Nice fish! I would nearly need a ventilator to get my breath back if I landed something that big! I can only dream and if I did, Hubby would have to re-tie my hook, my hands would be shaking too much!

I want to thank all off you for your posts, they are very informative about the types of lures dad fished with and I am very glad it stirred some memories of your own. Tokyo Tony, that big old gal had just the tail of the small bass sticking out of her mouth. She was hooked so good, deep down in her gullet, the small bass was removed only after they were fileting her. I wish I knew exactly how big she really was, but back then the men folks were just figuring out how many filiets she would have. If the wind dies down some this weekend, I'll probably head to north cove in Lake Kissimmee, cast a few times and see if I come across a unusual looking lily pad root floating around.

I have a couple Johnson Spoons I use on occasion. I caught some fish on it that day, but none were 14". We ended up with 0lbs to weigh in.

I had about 3 reels from Dad's tackle box. One I have on my spare flipping rod, which is an Ambassador. That thing will cast a very long distance, when I am pitching. The one above is a Shakespear with thick white line. This box was in there with no lure, but it had some paperwork in it, I found interesting.

Wow! Thank you guys, very much! I like the idea of using the picture frame with mesh to hang some. I had to let the camera batteries re-charge and have a few more to post. I put on my reading glasses and found writing on the fish shaped spoon: "pflueger" then "Last word". One spoon had Alligator by Nickle Lure Vero beach Fl. Another spoon said Krocodile by Luhr Jensen. The old Mirrolure that Catt id'd has this on the bottom. What I thought was a C could be a 0, but a toothmark is right on it: This one is very heavy, could not find any markings on it more coming

One memory of mine is that my Dad and Uncle would go jig fishing in an old john boat, with pork rinds cut up like a frog. I remember after one evening trip jig fishing watching all the men gather around the big green coleman cooler. I think it is 1969 or so. I looked inside and saw the biggest largemouth bass in my life. This fish nearly reached each end of the cooler. But the most interesting thing was the size of the bass inside it's mouth! The smaller 12" bass had taken the jig and then the bigger bass snatched up the smaller bass. The jig had hooked through the smaller bass's lip and was sunk deep enough into the bigger one, well enough for Dad to get it the boat. I don't think anyone weighed it or just being a kid, don't remember if they did or not. But that was a monster size gal they got out of Shingle Creek. Does anyone know what that little stick looking lure is?

A look inside Dad's tackle box: I inherited my father's tackle box when he passed away nearly 20 years ago and kept it stored away until recently. I remember going fishing with him and those are some of my most favorite memories. I've recently married and started my first year of Bass tournament competition. My Uncles and Dad's cousins who I call Uncle, all say I came by it natural. I started going through the tackle box and could tell it was a fairly even mix of salt water and fresh water tackle. My husband could tell me a little about some of them and said I should put the photos here on the forum. Some of you might remember using them, or bring back memories too. Some, I hope someone could tell me about them, what they are, how they were used and perhaps even how old or valuable they are. I plan on finding a large lily pad root, preserve it and display the fresh water lures on it. I plan on doing something similar with driftwood and the salt water lures. I know one is a Heddon Zara Spook, One has a prop on the rear and says:9M11 floater on the belly, another is missing the front treble hook and has 52m1c on the belly. One is tiny little jointed stick thing. The two lures that are still wrapped say : No Alibi and the price says .74 cents. More coming

In this case it wasn't rewards but literally a $10 off $50 purchase coupon, so they had nothing to go on but my word. There was nothing to look up. In that case, we would have been briefed that coupons had been sent out, and if you mentioned one, then you probably did have one. That was good customer service that guy provided. I just got one a month ago in the mail, so they still send them out..the bait monkey is calling me.

WOW!! Nice fish!

Did that for customer's many times. It is easy to look up a rewards member info, and credit them their discount amount. I enjoyed my Bass Pro employment and the only reason I left was to get my job with the county that paid a lot more. It's true that sale prices will be different, but that is the same any where, why else do we have "discount" stores, like outlet shops. Same company, but where the overstock goes to, and where discounted prices are. Shipping and handling always applies to internet sales.

I can only speak as "devil's advocate", from personal experience after having worked at Bass Pro many years back. I have witnessed people bringing in old rusted tree stands with a wrinkled receipt and demand a replacement (brand new) and get it. I have also witnessed people bringing in a torn piece from a 5 yr old catalog, on an item, wanting the old price, not the current retail price. I kept a notebook of all store sale flyers and catalogs, just to verify prices. Others wanting the display model, even after being told it was display only, get a manager (I was assistant manager in that dept), get the item "marked down", then a few days later see that same item in the return bin and find the person was credited for the full retail price. That was not much different than the person who found a $300.00 hunting jacket hung on a $9.00 T-shirt rack, and insist on getting the plainly marked jacket for $9.00, just because someone else changed their mind about the jacket and hung it on the nearest rack! To me thats just plain attempted retail theft, and no they didn't get the jacket for $9.00. : Store sales were for in store items only, internet sales was a different division, often carrying items that were overstock, no longer kept in the store and therefore those prices are quite often displayed on the web page as "internet item only". Again we would get the people bringing in the web page demanding that internet clearance price on a "similar" but much more expensive, not on sale item, and often get it if they raised a fuss. The same with catalog prices. There are items that are available only at the catalog warehouse and not carried in the stores. Lastly on the flyer's (not saying that is the case every time) often it will say, in store supply limited, no rain checks (since the item is being discontinued), and when the sale dates were for. Sorry, but the person who showed up on day 29 of a 30 day sale, with a limited supply disclaimer on an item, is not very likely to find that item in stock and I wouldn't feel sorry for them. What alot of people didn't realize, is that if you purchase an item within 30 days prior to a sale of that item, you can bring in the receipt and you will be credited the difference! I did that when I purchased a Lowrance fish finder that was going on sale. I knew from the flyer that supplies were limited and I would eventually save $50.00. I needed one for the front of the boat, paid full price for it and on sale day came in with my receipt and was credited the difference. I did that to avoid the chance of the item being sold out on sale day. I'm just saying it isn't always shady deals or bait and switch, but often miscommunication or assumptions. Some people knew that if they complained enough to a Manager, the Manager would often give it to them at a discounted or sale price just to keep customer satisfaction up there, even if the associate was correct in their original pricing. The associates do not have the authority to discount anything and if they did, would be accused of retail theft and fired. We also would put together combos of fishing rods/reels or rifles/scopes/slings and have the price listed as including what the items would bring seperately. It was just to illustrate how the piece would appear or operate with that combination and they were used as a display model, which were handled ALOT and many times by unattended children. Therefore the discounted price if a display item was sold.

LOL, it sure worked! My husband was sitting there fussing that No One would come close enough to see us, and we had a really good bag of fish to weigh in. I said "oh yeah?" Needless to say, he was laughing with me when we saw a boat make a U turn back our way, helped me load the fish and we came in about 8th out of 70 boats.

I am surprised as well, that no one at least slowed down to inquire about your status. We have towed no less than 3 boats to a ramp, one during a tournament and two while we were out practise fishing. We have been towed once, and twice I had to flag down other competitors to hitch a ride to weigh-in with our fish. I was able to flag down a boat from over 100 yds away by waving my white cap.. or was it my bathing suit top.. I forget.

Yeah, ditto! We had our Classic on the 18th, and were getting beat up by the waves. Thank goodness I had that powerpole put on, but it was still tough trying to flip in that wind! We finally took the long way around to get to Tiger creek. Caught some shorts, I caught a 26" mudfish which was fun for a few minutes. But finally got more bites fishing senkos wacky style, still too short of that 14" limit. I ended up getting my vertigo back and had to get everything re-balanced in my inner ears, after all that rough pounding on the lake. You can hook up to some really nice hogs out there and I too hope to run across Roger and the Mrs. out there one day

#4 unintentionally bopping one on the head with a 1 oz weighted sweet beaver while flipping thick grass!

Yep, happened to me in May. I was hauled to the Hospital with high blood pressure, tingling in the arms, so dizzy I was throwing up. They weren't sure if I was having a heart attack. I was even put through an MRI and all kinds of tests. I was diagnosed with vertigo and had to go through the tilt therapy to put the crystals in line. They gave me medicine for the nausea and you have zero energy and feel terrible after the vertigo hits you.

Zoom Super Flukes Lizard/ bush hogs I've had pretty good luck with them.

Update, we ended up not getting to take our Stratos and we borrowed his dad's little john boat once we got up there. The trailer lights on our boat went out completely the day we were leaving and we had to drop it off at the local dealer for service. We fished a pond many people said "aint no fish in there!" We figured the fish hadn't seen our lures, and caught about 15 lbs of bass in two hours. One was a nice 5 lber (weighed it) and the others ranged from 3 lbs to just keeper size. The smaller keeper size fried up nice, the others went back in the pond. We had fun with about 15 little bass that hit the lures so hard the line would make it's own wake sideways, or felt like the rod was coming out of your hands. You'd reel them in and wonder how on earth something that little could fight so hard! The next day caught another 7 fish in the 2-3 lb range with a bunch more that were fun practice and we told them to grow up and get bigger. The last morning we landed 2, both in the 2 lb range. Both were caught on toad that I hopped off the pads then swam slow with a twitch, pause the swam again, all underwater. Nothing was hitting much top water unless it was right in the pad. We used super flukes in watermelon seed, baby bass, ugly otters/ sweet beavers in watermelon and the toad was watermelon red. We are fishing Lake Kissimmee tomorrow, checking out Grassy Island. ( Got the Stratos back.. all under warranty.. whew..I like when I don't have to pay repairs!)

that's just wonderful!!! Thanks for sharing

snakes... overhead??...Thanks for the heads up Thank you basslovr and olfart for your replies..

Any one? We've never been to that lake and it's one that is closest to his Dad. Any tips or suggestions would be great.