Marty

The premise for me is saving money. If I have, say, a 300-yard spool and have enough backing so that the spool will fill with 50-60 yards, then I get 5-6 respools from that supply spool. I did the same in my pre-braid days, using just 50-60 yards of mono.

Obviously terrible defense, but as entertaining as it gets, at least for me. I think if someone was told that Baylor scored 67 points and that it wasn't one of Griffin's better games, they'd raise their eyebrows. I thought there was something wrong with the audio from the game announcers. Their voices seemed to lack clarity and volume. Did anyone else notice this or am I imagining things?

I also have a pair of the Texas Tackle. The size I have works very well with small and medium rings. You can't go wrong with them, although I'm not familiar with other brands that might also do the job very well.

Generally, bass fishing requires no more than 50-60 yards of line. If your reel holds significantly more than that amount, I see nothing wrong with using backing and see no need to fill the whole spool with your braid.

To paraphrase, I have no problem with a $50 reel on a $50 rod.

These days I fish almost exclusively with braid, but before that, Original Stren was one of my most-used lines.

Check this thread. Should be right up your alley.

I use spinning gear only and use backing on all reels. I leave it on forever. As I mentioned in my earlier post, I've never had enough line out while bass fishing to get down to the backing.

Nice outing. That's a helluva pike your dad's got.

I suspect you need to be licensed, but check with your DNR.

Glenn, what do you know that we don't? That deal has been reported as dead.

I do the exact same thing. It never mattered to me what the backing line was because in bass fishing my good line has never been out enough to get down to the backing.

Here in western NY I'm a long ways away from RNF, so things may be quite different. I have an ancient (five years old) flip phone that does nothing but make calls. I'm with Verizon and my fishing partner is with T-Mobile. I have service at every body of water where we fish and there are several where he has no service. At one lake in particular, which is a very popular lake and not that far, on more than one occasion after we have finished up and are driving home he has gotten a text alert about 10 minutes after we left the launch. That's how far away he was from service. That's unacceptable to me. He lives with it because his wife had T-Mobile before he did and his whole family is on one plan now and switching isn't practical, at least in the near term.

I agree with you too and I don't know if there's a way to do it that people won't complain about. In the meantime, if anyone watched some of the "minor" games this past weekend, like UL-Lafayette-San Diego or Ohio-Utah State, you couldn't find games with more drama and excitement at any level, BCS, NFL or anything else.

Those are excellent results on those scales, but I would warn against getting complacent. I have had both Rapalas and Berkleys which were very accurate until they went bad for no apparent reason. Whatever scales you have I would recommend testing them a few times each season by weighing stuff that's already been weighed on a certified scale. I own a couple of those grippers from Cabela's and they're great for weighing.

To some people this is what's RIGHT with the BCS. Yes, a lot of people don't like the rematch, including me, but the function of the BCS is to match the two best teams and there's an excellent case to be made for these being the two best teams in the country. Over the years it has given us a number of games that couldn't have happened under the old system.

Yes, he was convicted of cocaine trafficking and was supposed to serve at least 15 years. But his conviction was overturned based on some supposed errors at the trial. He then agreed to a plea bargain and ended up serving three years.

Can't answer your question. But hooking a goose, bringing it to the shore and pulling it through a bunch of brush in an attempt to unhook it is quite an adventure.

I guess that would be me. I'm wiping egg off my face.

Of course it's about putting people in the seats and getting them to watch on TV as well. Hockey has never gotten a foothold here in the U.S. It's a great game in person and not so great on TV. Hockey gets next to nothing from TV rights compared to the other sports; it's carried on Versus whereas the networks and major cable channels have the other sports. Until that changes, hockey players will always be lower paid.

When mousing over the topic title, it shows the start date and time for the topic, which is superfluous because that information is already under the topic title. A couple of forums I visit give you the first few sentences of the message when mousing over the topic and I'd like to see that here if possible.

Maybe it's just a matter of semantics, but the game is rough and violent, but has not been built on "unnecessary roughness." That penalty has been around for as long as I can remember. What seems to have happened is they have redefined "unnecessary", much to the chagrin of many fans, players and ex-players.

"Titans Vs The Aint's" You might want to put that capital "S" back into your subject line.

I've never been in a kayak, but I'm a canoe owner. In general, kayaks get blown around less because the center of gravity is lower. A recent Bassmaster had an article about small craft for rivers and one of the things they said was, in general, the canoe is the way to go if you like to carry a lot of stuff, but a kayak may be right for you if you're more of a minimalist. That canoe isn't very wide and might be on the unstable side. I suspect the kayak would be more stable. Whatever you get, it's great to get out on the water and go where you want if shore is your only option now. I do see more people fishing from kayaks than canoes.

I've twice had a best five that weighed over 20 but less than 21. All were weighed and both were from the same body of water. I generally weigh only if I think the fish could potentially be 4+, but I'll weigh 3s if I sense something good going on.