Lund Explorer

1978 - 22 years old and fresh out of a job with Uncle Sam.

I think you've already answered your own questions. You've talked about your heritage, mentioned your current grades, your father's work ethics, and you can't miss the fact that your parents have a future planned out for you at a university that will give you the chance to be even more successful than they obviously are. That's a parent's job. They very well could be concerned about safety, but my money is on the thought of you spending more time in the kayak than in the books. So how do you get your Yak? It's time to have a long serious talk with Mom & Dad. Don't discuss what you want first, but find out what they want. Maybe there is some middle ground between your work (both school and in the dish room) and the potential for rewards on a job well done. Might have to agree to limit the usage of the kayak, or have it restricted based on future performance. Your parents might be much more agreeable to something if they feel they still have control, and at 15 years of age, they honestly should. At the very worst, you'll still be without your boat, but you'll at least have a better understanding of your parents. Good Luck!

One of our kids uses these holders with their clamp on bases. Pretty good holders. http://www.driftmaster.com/Bases.html

It's doable, but the rod/reel combos you'll want to use probably depends on what you plan to troll with. As Dwight said, most guys end up using some kind of line counter reel with a trolling rod, and I would suggest that you start looking at them if you decide to get serious about this type of fishing. Michigan allows three rods per/person so I currently run Diawa AccuDepth reels (#17 size) on all of my rods. For bottom bouncers I spool up with 14# Trilene Big Game, and for spoons or plugs I top off the reels with 100' of 12# Flourocarbon. The rods are a combination of two 6'6" Medium action Berkley Cherrywoods for running straight back, and four 8'6" MH Berkley Air IM8 Rods that I use with side planers to spread everything out. Probably $75 to $125 per combo, but Cabelas has their Depthmaster on sale right now for $60 each. The biggest benefit to using a line counter is getting your baits back to the productive depth once you've caught a fish. Before you invest in line counters, you can cheat a little by putting bobber stops on you line spaced out in 10' increments. Not an exact science, but it will get you close to repeating the productive zone.

That IS the problem! You may say that you don't cast at boats, but the fact remains that there is a certain segment of the fishing fraternity that does so, and doesn't see it as a problem at all. As witnessed by other people's comments, it even seems that the wealthier the dock owner is, the less deserving they are of complaining about that damage. Imagine the uproar if a dock owner bounced a jig off of some fiberglass rocket that came floating past their dock. Do we have to accept the fact that the boat is on public water? Probably not! How about if it was just some leaky old tin boat, or a pontoon? Is there a difference if your truck is dinged when its parked and you are on the lake, or when you are sitting in it? The real truth is that just because you have your property sitting on public water or public asphalt, it doesn't give others the right to intentionally damage it. Yet that is exactly what happens on a lot of lakes, by a lot of fishermen who feel their right to fish overrides a property owner's right to keep that property sitting along the shoreline. When you see a dock owner that has put up barriers around or under his dock, you can rest assured that he has suffered the same kind of damage that the guy who parks sideways across two parking spots has.

Here we go again with the same old argument that anyone who parks their private property on a public body of water doesn't have the right to protect it against damage. Let's hope that the people professing this philosophy use the same logic when they discover that somebody ran into the side of their tow vehicle at the boat ramp! Oh wait, that's different. There ain't no bass enjoying the shade under your Chevy!

K&E Worms were some of the first soft plastics that I learned to fish with, and they do catch fish. I've fished them weightless when I need something with a slow fall, used them with a split shot in windy conditions, and as the working end of a Carolina Rig. I've stated before that this is one of those "secret" weapons that a lot of tournament fishermen up here won't talk about. Bad news is that those small hooks can pull free if you don't play the fish a little easier once they're hooked up. I always try to not horse the fish into the boat and the number of "long line releases" dropped quite a bit. My favorite colors include: Purple Firetail, Natural, Blue White Stripe, and Pumpkinseed.

In most of the clubs I've fished with, blast off rate was determined by when the boats, one or two at a time, got up on plane. It was more about making sure nobody got run over than a specific amount of time.

Weeds. Inside, Outside, On Top Of, Underneath, Transition Between Types, and don't forget those funny little holes that show up in the middle of a weed bed. Unless they're dead, bass will use one or more of each of these edges at some time in the year.

I must be doing something wrong. After looking over my records for the last six years, I can only find two days where I failed to put at least one keeper in the boat during a fishing trip even though I did catch a number of short fish. The first time was on a lake known for producing tons of dinks (see the What Its Name thread), and the second trip was to a lake I had never been on before. On both of those days, the person I was fishing with did catch keepers including one 5lb+ fish caught on the first trip. We were on fish, using the same baits, I just failed to put my bait on the nose of a quality bass. My take on the subject is that the Dog Days of Summer actually starts when the fish move away from a person's comfort zone. Unless you find their track on the shoreline, the fish are still in the lake. Unless the water is extremely warm with those inherent low oxygen levels, fish feed more during the summer. Even when those conditions do exist, they still have to feed and will take a lure that comes within their strike zone if it seems like an easy meal. The real challenge is to locate where those fish have moved to, and find the presentation or time of day when those fish will bite. Look at any tournament results held during these times and you'll find that there are always people who still figure out how to catch keeper sized fish. If they can figure it out, so can anyone else!

Here's another in what looks like a "Know Your" series. How many edges can you think of that bass might relate to? Please copy, paste, and add to this partial list of all the edges bass might use: 1. Surface - Water to Air 2. Shoreline - Water to Land 3. Shade Line - Sunlight to Shadow I can think of many others, what about you?

http://extension.psu.edu/courses/pond-management/lesson-3/a-field-guide-to-aquatic-plants-in-Pennsylvania Might not be the exact thing you're looking for, but its a start. From my experience, I would key in on the fact that many types of weeds or grass will hold fish at some time or another. It's just another part of trying to establish a pattern on any given day. If you can catch fish in a specific weed type, you may want to look for that weed in other places to see if that weed type is the key to where fish are holding. More importantly, I've used weed type to find another thing that bass key in on much more often. Edges.

The Martiny Chain. A group of small lakes connected by narrow channels and surrounded by hundreds of acres of shallow water lily pads and duck weed. The place holds some real quality fish, but the dink -to- keeper ratio is around 12-1, and that's only if you're on the fish. One of the few tournament lakes I've ever fished where a 14" keeper can barely weigh over a pound.

Did it taste like weeds?

Sorry, it was that "GA" in your location that threw me off! That's what I get for trying to be nice for a change.

A = One as in man or woman. E = Two or more as in men or women.

Sorry, all I had to offer was cash. Good luck, and here's to hoping that you'll make more than this one post!

My condolences, it only made my eyes bleed when I tried to read it!

The only saving grace is that this guy is closer to Team Pampers than Team Depends!

Not saying that an old dog like me couldn't tie on a Rico and get good results, but I have so much confidence in my slightly modified Pop-R that I can't see the need to change. FYI - My Pop-R is a Baby Bass with a slightly larger front hook (Excaliber Rotating Treble) and a hand tied tail hook sporting chicken feathers and a red slash. The chicken feather thing was learned from Zell Roland. Here's hoping you have just as much success with your Rico!

Congrats on the 3rd place finish! Now I just have to figure out if the tournament's sponsor is advertising their prices in Canadian or Yankee Dollars.

Choose your poison, but sooner or later almost everyone learns that it isn't the lure but the person fishing it that matters. If you have confidence is a specific brand name you'll work it better.

Good question, but you also have to wonder if that virus didn't hijack his entire address book to spread it even further.

There isn't any need for me to insinuate anything. But I will ask you one question, based on what you keep saying. If you have such refined tastes, why do you keep cleaning many, many summer bass that taste like weeds or fall bass that taste like shad?

As soon as you can sit down at a desk-top or lap-top computer, pull up the attached link. http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/how-write-business-plan With the help of a good lawyer and an accountant you should have an answer within six months or so.